Rainy Day Fun

Thankfully, Hurricane Ike has moved further south and is missing our area with the worst of the storm. However, we're still seeing plenty of rain from the outside bands. It has left the kids a little bored, especially Carter and Jonah who would prefer to be outside all day, everyday. We decided to work on some puzzles together. Carter is a pro at them now and gets super excited every time he puts a peice in. Jonah on the other hand, things they make wonderful chew toys and was pretty bored with it all. We then decided to get the rollercoaster down for them play with. It is a special treat to have out and Carter was SO excited to get to play with it (it's been awhile..). Jonah has never been on it, so I was excited to see his reaction. Surprisingly, Carter was quite scared of ride on it and had a much better time just the cart and watching it go. Jonah, on the other hand LOVED it and just couldn't stop laughing and smiling. It was great!
Carter and I also spent some time looking at his old baby pictures. He thought every one of them was Jonah and I had to keep telling them that it was actually him in the pictures. He loved watching little movies of himself from his baby days. It was great to look back at some old memories of my little man.

Random Ramblings

I am super excited for football season. I LOVE watching all sports, but I particulary LOVE just watching football all weekend long. From now until January, I am completely content spending weekends at home. :) I am also really excited for the new tv season. My poor Tivo hasn't seen much action the past few months (besides the regular Regis and Kelly, The View, Dr. Phil..and these are only recorded so I have something to watch if I get bored..).

Kyla and Jonah's birthday's are both in the next 3 weeks. I cannot believe Kyla will be FIVE and my little Jojo will be ONE!! I am trying to decide what/if were going to do for their birthdays. I'm leaning towards a joint birthday party at either my house or my dads pool area. I better get thinking though because it is quickly approaching.

I was a total housewife today. :) I did 7 loads of laundry (I despise laundry), baked cookies, played with the kids, and did a lot of other random cleaning. The random cleaning was mainly cleaning up after Carter and his lack of interest in potty training.

The other day I met my friend Nichole at Kohls (love that place) and got an amazing hammock with stand for 90% off. It was $200, marked down to $20. Yes, TWENTY dollars. It is heaven laying in that thing reading a good book. I have always wanted a hammock so I'm excited to just lay around in it while the kids play on the deck. :)

I am stoked that my boys soccer team ROCKS this year. Seriously, they are GOOD. After much complaining that I have not been given fair teams the past few years, it seems they have finally got my point. I am so excited for games to start!!

Time of My Life..

Thanks to the most wonderful entertainer ever...KENNY CHESNEY!! My dad, sister and I went to the West Palm Beach concert last night and had the most amazing time. I have seen Kenny in concert the past 4 summers and seriously, every year he just steps it up and his shows get better and better. If you ever go to one of his concerts, its easy to see why he always wins entertainer of the year. He puts on one HECK of a show!!!
Before the show, we met up for dinner at Carrabba's and some great food. We then drove to the concert, took our seat and just hung out for a little bit. We hadn't seen our dad for 2 weeks (a LONG time for us!) because he has been traveling for work and playing in a few golf tournaments, so it was really nice to catch up for a bit. Miranda Lambert opened up for Kenny and she is one crazy girl...I think every song talks about her drinking and guns, lol. She was great fun though. Then, it was time for Kenny. I can never get enough of him. Seriously, the man basically goes on a 4-5 month tour each year, plus puts out a new cd practically each year and his success just continues to grow. His ability to remain successful is really true to how great he really is. I have been to a decent amount of concerts and nothing even compares to the show he puts on. How he has the energy to put on a 2 hour set with as much energy as he does is just unbelieveable. Anyway, after the AMAZING show, we drove home...and oh man, was it a longgg drive. ugh. We got home at 2:30 and for practically the whole day today I felt like a walking zombie. It was totally worth it though. :) Anyway, here are some pictures from last night....

6th Grade Changes Everything

Ever since my kids started school, I have always checked their homework when they completed it. I'm the mom who makes sure every problem is right, every writing assignment is neat and quite frankly, I am picky and have high standards for their work. However, this has quickly come to a halt as the second week of middle school rolls around. Sean started 6th grade this year and everyday when I check his homework, I just look at it and and tell him, "good job!" and close it up. Ya know why?? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's because I have NO idea how to do those crazy math problems anymore. Math was always my weakest and I'm sure at this point, Sean (who is a math whiz) knows what he is doing much better than I do at this point. It's quite embarrassing. Surprisingly, he hasn't said anything to me yet about not checking it like I used to, and quite frankly I'm a little too prideful to tell him I have no idea what his work is about. :)

On that note...he has called me from school and/or his friends cell phones 3 times this week. He is now telling me that he needs a phone. Coicidence? I think not.
I can officially say middle school changes everything..but it's so exciting none the less!

Blue Paisleys News!

I am so excited about one of the new vendors we are now carrying- Sugarpie Bebe!! If you go to www.bluepaisleys.com and search "sugarpiebebe" in the search box on the bottom. You will find some awesome diaper changing totes, adorable blankets, bibs and burp clothes in some fantastic prints!!

It really makes me want to have another baby, especially a girl, just so I can buy all these super cute baby "supplies"!!! Perfect and justifiable reason to reproduce if ya ask me! :) Also, be on the look out, we will be having quite a few more new products and companies in the very near future. SO exciting!

On that note (and I don't even know if any of you read this), I want to thank any and all of the customers who have been so wonderful and accepting of my crazy little idea of my Blue Paisleys store, that has turned into a wonderful reality! THANK YOU!!!

In other exciting news, Jonah finally referred to me as his "mama" today on numerous occassions! Yay!!

AMAZING Weekend

After much debate and a great deal of mind changing, we decided to head down to our condo on the beach. We decided it was the only weekend that we had very little to do and very little scheduled, especially as soccer season begins this coming week. When soccer season begins, life gets crazy to say the least. Anyway, we left Friday night for the beach and basically just hung out eating dinner, playing the wii and watching TV. The rest of the weekend we basically just swam in the pool, swam in the ocean, layed out, played in the sand, got lots of sun and then woke up and did it all over again. :) It was so fun, so relaxing and just a great vacation away from home. I loved sitting out on the lanai, listening to the waves and reading a good book. It was absolutely wonderful.

On Saturday late afternoon, I left my wonderful husband with all the kids while I went to a super fun card party. I love love love those!! I love scrapbooking and card making, but with 5 kids, never sit down enough and open my craft armoire to work, so having a scheduled day/time to go and do this is great! We also went to Chili's afterwards and a great time was had by all. :) I am so glad I got to go!! Thanks again Nichole for being the most wonderful host for this parties! :)

Anyway, it was a fun weekend. The kids all had sooo much fun and got plenty of sun. So far, I think, besides myself, everyone else is sunburn free though. Yay!
I can say the best part was the fact that we woke up Sunday morning knowing that although our "vacation" was ending later that day, we only had a 20 minute drive to get back home. :) As always, it's good to be home and once I get some pictures uploaded I will be sure to post them.

It's Been a LONG 11 Months...

BUT Jonah is FINALLY SLEEPING!!!! You read that right- Jonah- my little baby who decided it was best to be awake all the time for the first 11 months of his life FINALLY LOVES SLEEP. Praise GOD!!! I am not joking when I say that he would nap for maybe 30 minutes a day (broken up between 2-3 naps) and then maybe sleep 2-3 hours at a time during the night until just recently.

Now, Jonah sleeps ALL night, from 7 or 8 (depending on if he has 1 or 2 naps) until 7 or 8 the next morning. That is TWELVE hours...TWELVE WONDERFUL hours!!! He also naps 1 or 2 times a day, and each nap is now between 2-3 HOURS!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how exciting that is. He is so much happier, I am so much happier and our household is much more pleasent now. :)

To make things even better, I have basically always nursed Jonah to sleep (nap and bedtime). He now eats, and then I lay him in his crib AWAKE and he falls asleep on his own. I'm impressed. My little baby boy is ready to turn into a toddler and I am more than ready for him to start acting like one. :)


PS. Hurricane Fay was a doozie- thankfully. We lot a lot of wind and rain, but no damage. We just have a few big, skinny trees that fell down on our fence in the back. We also lost power sometime in the middle of the night. Thankfully, it came back on around 1pm though today. Back to school for the kids tomorrow! Woohoo!