Birthday Celebrations!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!

Wednesday, March 11th was Lauren's 5th Birthday! It was the coldest day of March so far with a high of 11 (how appropriate) although it never felt that warm thanks to the wind.

We had a simple family celebration . . .

the boys helped me bake/decorate her cake (she picked white cake with pink frosting) It's tradition that the birthday girl gets to pick the meal . . . whatever she wants. With the sky the limit here is what we ate. Yum :)

A special card fit for a princess

Daddy helped her assemble the crown . . . :) she's daddy's little girl.

Lauren loves Fancy Nancy and for her birthday Jonathan picked out a Fancy Nancy trunk full of dress-up stuff. She loves it! Here she is getting ready for mom to light the candles on her cake; with five candles it's going to get pretty bright so she's wearing the sunglasses too.

"PINKALICIOUS" PLAYGROUP

I opted not to throw a kid party for Lauren this year, but I did host our playgroup here on Friday the 13th. In honor of her birthday we had a "Pinkalicious Playgroup" and baked/decorated pink cupcakes just like in the book. We also read the books Pinkalicious and Purplicious. It was a fun morning and Lauren really enjoyed celebrating with her friends.

I was so busy with the girls that I spaced taking pictures, still I snapped a few once I remembered (at the end!).

Here's my very own "Pinkalicious"

Here are all of the girls (and Landon) wearing their "pinkalicious" aprons! Aren't they cute?
And while I missed the girls decorating . . . the aftermath was still waiting for me when they were gone :) Good times!

February

Okay, so it's been over a month since I last posted, but February was the longest month EVER! It started with a fever (Landon), a dental appointment (mine), then vomiting (Jonathan) and a few days later (Lauren on Jon at church!), then colds (everyone but me), sore throats (everyone except Lauren), the Croup (Jonathan and Landon), an ear infection (Jonathan) and an appendectomy (Jon-the day before my birthday!). Seriously, everyday there was at least one sick person in my house and more often than not a couple. Like I said, February was a LOOOOOOOONG month. Still, we survived it and have a few pictures to show for it . . . but I'll warn you they are totally random.

Our first picture highlights one of Jayden's special talents :)

The big kids were so proud of her.

Painting helped us get through the long days/weeks of being stuck at home (because of our sick germs) and inside (it was soooo COLD!).

Next, we have some pictures of my NEW DO . . .

For my birthday I treated myself to a cut and color.

Thanks to a good friend volunteering to take on my four kiddos I was able to keep my hair appointment (scheduled on my birthday) despite Jon being laid up. As you can see it is a huge change, but I'm lovin' it. Lauren was so excited when she saw me . . . the first thing she said was "we're twins now!" The hair pictures taken below are courtesy of my sweet Lauren-good pics, Sweetie!

Oh and Happy Birthday to ME!

It was the BIG 3-0! And while it went nothing like I planned (ice-skating with the kids and dinner out with Jon) it was the best birthday ever!

Because of Jon's surgery I let the kids take care of the preparations for my birthday-they were so EXCITED!

A special thanks to Target for the cake (selected by Lauren and Landon), my kids for the cutest/funniest card (picked out ALL by themselves-I pointed them in the right direction and just hoped they ended up with a "birthday" card) my friend Amy for watching the kids last minute so I could keep my much anticipated hair appointment, Paula at CityLooks for doing my hair, and Green Mill for delivering a yummy dinner, and of course Jon for having his emergency appendectomy the day BEFORE my birthday so that he could be home with us to celebrate. :)

P.S. I LOVE YOU

FYI-This entry is more for me than it is for you.

I just finished watching this movie(P.S. I LOVE YOU) and toward the end Gerry writes about how he has "no regrets" and it got me pondering the question, "Do I have any regrets in my life?"

In my reflection I have very few regrets about things that I have done; like making Jonathan cry it out during the night when he was 6-9 months old, and the extra year (and $)to get my master's degree(seems like that was kind of a waste). No, I am pretty happy with the things I've done in my life. Rather I have found the most of my regrets lie in the moments that I've missed or forgotten because I didn't stop to savor the moment.

For me this new year has been a time for self-reflection to determine what areas of myself and my life need to change. I think this is an area that needs some work; I am going to live more in the moment . . . and while spontaneity is a part of it, mostly I am thinking in terms of not wanting to be so busy doing "stuff" that I don't recognize what is "SPECIAL" about my life.

All that we take with us when we die are the memories we've made during the experiences we've had. I don't think I'll remember which days the laundry, or dishes didn't get done, or what days Papa John's made us dinner, but I will remember how Jon always kisses me and tells me he loves me before leaving for work in the morning, and I will always treasure the beautiful smile on Landon's face today as he hugged Jayden and told her over and over, "I love you Jayden," or Jonathan's contagious laughter, or how Lauren is always the first one up and while she comes to my bed and snuggles with me she never falls back to sleep . . . but will just lay there with me until I'm ready to get up . . . there are so many little moments to treasure everyday if only I stop long enough to pay attention.

Positively Toasty!

It's funny what cold weather will do to a person. Today we topped out in the low 20's in this frozen tundra we call home, and yet it felt positively toasty. And it was compared to last week when we spent half of the week in the -20's (with our high's never reaching the +) and lower than that with the wind chill (Jonthan's school was cancelled Thursday and Friday because it was in the -40's and -50's with the wind chill). Seriously, it's hard to wrap your head around that isn't it? It is for me, but then I had never lived outside of FL until I moved here . . .

Honey, can you remind me again why we are here?

Actually, all joking aside, I love it here . . . winter is a bit long, not to mention cold, but you can do some fun things (like blow bubbles- do you know what happens to bubbles in sub-zero temperatures? and boil water- do you know what happens to boiling water when you throw it into the air when the temperature (with wind chill)is -47?) and the people here are amazing! If you have to freeze you might as well do it with some really awesome people.

Still, every now and then, I find I am laughing at myself . . . not too long ago I lived in FL and when it got in the 60's my kids were dressed the way that they are right now when it is 20 degrees outside (with an extra layer even). My friend Amber used to tease me about it and now I can see why. It's all just a matter of perspective.

Crawling.

I can hardly believe how quickly my baby girl is growing up; I have mixed emotions about it, but mostly I'm excited to watch her growing and learning everyday.

A few weeks ago Jayden began to crawl. Mostly she does the "army crawl," it's her fastest mode; but occasionally she'll do what we call the "inch worm" where she gets up on her knees, pushes herself forward, falls on her face and, well . . . inches along. Everyday she spends a little more time up on her knees, but her primary means of self propulsion is still the army crawl . . . nothing is safe from her now. Watch out world Jayden is on the move! Here's a little video if you want to watch her in action.

Jayden LOVES graham crackers

Jayden has been a new experience for me as far as starting her on baby food. She is 7 months old now and is just beginning to actually eat her baby food; my other 3 all started between 4-6 months and took to it with ease. Jayden did not. It has taken almost 2 months to get her to tolerate the cereals and pureed baby foods. It's frustrating, but funny to watch. I wish I had a video of her, but for a while every bite she took she would either gag and/or make this face that looked like she was sucking a lemon. It was so funny.

The past few days have shown marked improvement (no more gagging). Still, I've noticed that she seems to prefer table foods better, although I'm not quite ready to feed them to her on a regular basis (she's still toothless). Today she grabbed a handful of mac-n-cheese off my plate at lunch and stole a couple of french fries at dinner . . . she liked both very much.

Here's a video of her eating her graham cracker while I cleaned the kitchen this afternoon. I'm not sure what she's doing with her hands . . . trying to make sure the cracker is dead I guess . . . whatever the case it's cute to watch her.

She LOVES graham crackers.

I love this little cutie, dirty face and all.

GO GATORS!!!

We have anticipated watching the game for weeks and tonight was the night . . . the Florida Gators defeated Oklahoma in the 2008 National Championship Game! It's great to be a Florida Gator!

Update

I have finally caught up on some blogging (but have some more to do). Still, I finally posted the Sea World pictures and have a few from Jonathan's bday too; I kept them in the order of events so you'll have to go back to see them.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas vacation started a day early for Jonathan . . . the Friday before break began he had a snow day from school. He was excited, but a little sad too because they were supposed to have a party. Still, we spent the day making little gingerbread houses like this one that he made at school. It was a lot of fun!Then we made a "real" gingerbread house . . . well, daddy and the big kids did while Jayden and I watched and took pictures. Everyone had a fun time. Jonathan was so funny though because he wanted it to look just like the one on the box right down to what candy went where (colors too). It took constant reminding that it was okay if ours looked a little different and yes, Lauren and Landon could put their candy whereever they wanted to . . . bless them they tried to keep Jonathan happy.

Jayden's First Christmas!
We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Thanks to all of our family and friends for the cards, the gifts, the phone calls . . . they all helped to make the season special. We love you! And a special thanks to the Rice's for bringing us dinner Christmas Eve.