Grateful

I am grateful that this family of 5

will soon be a family of 6!

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving this year was small but so fun. It was very low key, which was nice. The kids have been talking about how excited they are to eat turkey for the past week. Of course when it's on their plate they didn't want anything to do with it. My mom had a pin the hat on the Turkey game, and then we went to the park to play flag football. Well I just watched, the boys played. This is Nicholas' new obsession. He talks about it non stop.



Here is Sammy with Penny(my sister's little baby). Sammy loves her and I had to laugh about her attire. Can you tell she is girl who has all brothers? She has a dress up dress on and then she HAD to have one of the flag football belts on too. Such a tomboy!

7 Years!

Today Luke and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. Has it really been 7 years? In some ways it has flown by and in some ways I feel like it has been a lot longer than that. I feel so lucky to have spent the last 7 years with this man. We have hit our rough spots but we always seem to move past them. He is definitely my better half and I can't wait to spend another 7 years with him. A couple months ago I was looking at some pictures from when we were dating and first married. It brought back great memories of our life with just the 2 of us. We had so much fun and hardly any worries at all. Now we have 3 kids and 1 more coming in 4 days. Our lives are crazy but I wouldn't want to share it with anyone else. Thanks for being my rock, I love you Luke!

Engagement Picture- Sept 2002

Our first Date

A couple weeks before the wedding

On our honeymoon- November 2002

Good and Bad

Okay so there is good news and bad news. I am assuming you want the bad first so we can end on a positive note. I debated if I should write this. I then realized this is like my journal and eventually I will get this made into a book. I want to remember the good and the bad. That's how life is, right? Not always perfect. So here it goes....

THE BAD- Luke was laid off from UPS on Tuesday. It was a total shocker. He didn't even see it coming. I pretty much cried for 2 straight days. Luke has been a rock and so positive about it all. I think if this would have happened at a different time, like when I wasn't 9 months pregnant I could have taken it a little better. You know you throw in the pregnancy hormones and things get a little crazy. I am so grateful for our wonderful families, and great friends who keep calling to make sure we are okay. I am so glad this has happened now when my kids are too young to understand that things will be tough for a while. I am doing better now and it's all because of these guys:

They are all I need. I don't need money to make me happy, just them. Sounds cheesy? Of course it is but it's true and after a long hard emotional week I need to let them know that. So enough of "poor me"....

THE GOOD- This little guy will be coming November 27Th. Unless he decides to come sooner, which I really don't want. I am so excited to meet him and even more excited for the kids to see him. This is the first time the kids really understand what is going on. With Parker they were still too little. We aren't set on a name yet but we are getting close. I can't believe in 6 days we will be a family of 6...crazy!

2 weeks and counting....

I would like to think that I look and feel like picture #1, but if I'm being honest here picture #2 best describes how I feel. EXHAUSTED!! I know I am almost done, really only 11 days left. It doesn't help that my sister in law who has the same due date as me had her baby this morning. I am so excited for her but a little jealous. I am excited and scared. I know there are going to be a lot of hard times. I just want to be able to:

-bend down to change the laundry, or pick something up, even just dry myself off when I get out of the shower. Seriously it's hilarious. I even laugh at myself because I look like a fool trying to dry off.
- paint my toenails again
-sleep on my tummy
- not snore at night
-go 3 hours without peeing
-breathe normal
-feel my right hand again(it has gone numb)
-start working out

I am very excited to have a newborn in the house again. People think I am crazy but I really do love the newborn stage. With Nicholas and Sammy I didn't enjoy it as much because I was so excited for them to learn to crawl and those fun milestones they have. With Parker I didn't want him to grow up. There is just something about a newborn. They need you, and love you no matter what. They can't yell at you, and disobey you. You don't have to put them in time outs and threaten their lives if they throw tantrums in the store. I know having a newborn is going to be hard. I'm ready....Bring it on!!!!

Cousins Galore!

This past weekend Luke's sister Katie came down to visit with her 3 boys. My kids were so excited for them to come. Sammy was a little skeptical because there were no girls, but she was quickly drawn to Blake. She followed him everywhere, hugged him, kissed him, and called him her boyfriend. If you know Sammy well enough she is not a big affectionate person, so this surprised me. Nicholas had a fun time talking Blake's hear off and trying to be a "cool" cousin. We didn't do too much because we had some sick kids, but the kids had fun anyways. We took the kids to the water show at the Bellagio and they loved it! It's so sad that we have lived here 5 years and never took our kids to see it. We will definitely be doing that again.

Nicholas and Blake- both 5 years old

Parker and Isaac- ages 2 and 1

Sammy and Blake- ages 3 and 5

The best picture I could get of all the cousins. we are missing Clark but he wasn't feeling well and we couldn't get him in the picture.

Sammy's turn

Today was a hard day. Physically, emotionally, and mentally. Let's just I wasn't a very nice mom. I am trying to clean up and Sammy comes into the kitchen holding up some of my lingerie. She says "oh mommy this is so pretty, it's like a pretty swimsuit." I laugh and say "Sure Sammy!" She does this 3 more times.

Now fast forward to when Luke comes home, which was about an hour later. He goes into our room and I hear this hoot and hollering. I'm thinking he is just excited that I cleaned our bathroom. He comes into the kitchen and says, "do I get to pick which one for tonight?" I go into our room and Sammy had lined up all the "swimsuits" on the floor. You should have seen the disappointment on his face. Poor boy! It was pretty funny though. Thanks Sammy for a good laugh, I needed it today.

I was going to post a picture of them all lined up and then I thought it might be a tad personal.