Mommy-in-Training

This picture was just too cute not to share!  Here is Rylee holding little Sullivan.  She is always asking to hold him and finds it very hard to wait through the feeding and spit-up times of his day. 

Rylee has gotten much better at holding her "little cousin."  When Sullivan first came home, Rylee would ask to hold him and less than three seconds later she was ready to hand him off and get back to playing.  Now she holds him for a good minute or so, knows how to hold her arms, and even talks to him a little while she is holding him.

When I showed Rylee this picture of her holding Sullivan, she asked, "Mommy, is that a picture of me being a mommy?"  Boy, I'm not ready to think of her being a mommy yet!

Mom: The Best Job in the World!

Yes, I am finally back!  I haven't posted in a while as life has been really crazy!  What a better day to get back to posting than Mother's Day! 

My days are long, busy, and never-ending.  I am not paid in financial rewards.  I will never have a retirement plan, get bonuses, or any days off.  I don't know what it means to have a lunch break, to go to the bathroom by myself, or even have an adult conversation that isn't interrupted with questions, complaining, or crying.  Most of my days are spent in the kitchen or on the living room floor.  I still have "staff meetings" though mine usually occur daily and are needed to talk about appropriate behavior to one another.  I am a teacher, a referee, chef, maid, chauffer, karate instructor, official "underdog giver," professional story teller . . . I am a mother.  I am a wife.  I am so very blessed! 

Thank you God for the blessing of a husband who loves his family more than himself and who isn't afraid to do whatever it takes to do the very best for his family.  Thank you God for the blessing of three children whose smiles light our days, whose hugs bring tears to our eyes, and whose kisses let us feel Your enduring love.

On this Mother's Day, I feel so loved, so appreciated, and so very blessed. 

A Vacation Is . . . Having Nothing to Do and All Day to Do It!

That about sums up our recent trip to Florida . . . we had absolutely nothing we had to do and all day to do it!  That is our kind of vacation!  We spent as much time as we could at the beach or in the pool.  It was so nice to have a break from the cold and dreariness of Michigan and spend some time in the warm Florida sun!

Every trip to the beach brought a new sand castle creation!  This one was created by Daddy and Rylee.  We called this our Camelot of Sand!  It was funny to see people stopping on the beach to take pictures!


Another favorite past time at the beach was collecting shells for Grama's big vase.  It turned out to be a great science lesson for us too as we learned about the different kinds of shells and the animals that once lived in them!

Aren't they so cute!  It was pretty funny, though, that neither of the boys would let us bury them any farther!  It was even funnier when they "busted out like karate ninjas!"

Ice cream always tastes better on the beach! :)



When it was "cold" in Florida (you know, maybe only 68 degrees or so :)), we headed down to the pool.  The pool water was never cooler than 88 degrees!  Bath water - now that's mommy's kind of pool!

The kids had an absolute blast at the pool!  Haydn and Rylee loved to be thrown as high as possible into the air, demonstrating their most "awesome" trick on their way down!  McKay wasn't quite ready for the water olympics yet, but he did learn how to hold his breath and go under water.  He loved to hang on the side of the pool and "walk" all the way around and get back rides from dad and mom.

Holey Moley! Look Who's Three!

Yeppers!  It's McKay!  Maybe it's because McKay is our youngest, but I think he is growing faster than the other two!  It just doesn't seem right that he is already three years old!

Nonetheless, it was a rip roaring afternoon!  McKay couldn't wait to "eat a wheel" from his Monster Truck birthday cake that Grama Babcia made!  He definitely celebrated in true boy fashion with gifts like a big Monster Truck, a remote controlled police car, Chuck the Truck construction set, and a Batman car. 

And, by some small chance, we actually got all three kids to pause for one brief second for a very quick birthday picture.  What this picture doesn't show is how quicky they all broke away from this cute little scene . . . McKay ran off to get his Raminator Monster Truck, Haydn booked it to finish playing guns with the boys, and Rylee ran off in search of her girl friend.  Well, it was cute while it lasted :)

Happy Birthday, little man.  We love you so much!



Hot Tubs and Snow Angels

This picture looks innocent enough . . . three cuties enjoying a sunny winter day in the hot tub, right?  Then this happens . . . .

and then this . . .



Hot tubs and snow angels!  What else can I say other than they definitely don't get that from my gene pool!

Snow Much Fun!

This was our first real snow this year!  For about three days, we had snow flurries for much of the day but nothing that would really stick.  The kids were going crazy!  They wanted real snow!

Well, they got it!  Our first winter storm left us with about 4-5 inches of snow, lots of ice, and even a snow day on Monday!

Rylee and McKay wasted no time making snow angels, rolling around, and, of course, eating the snow!

Even crazier is the fact that the temperatures have been very cold - well below zero when the wind chill is factored in.  These kids definitely take after their daddy - there is no way you'd get me out to play in the snow with temperatures that cold!  My favorite line is, "I'm NOT ready to come in yet!  I'm not even cold!" McKay says through rosy red cheeks, shivers, and quivering lips!

Haydn ventured out in the snow with his Razor scooter!  He loved sliding around everywhere and can't wait for some big snow piles to go scooting down!

Though I wouldn't play outside yet, I did get the hot cocoa all ready for my little ice cubes!  I'll venture out when the temperatures are above zero! :)

Hello Mr. Yellow Belt!

Last night, Haydn became an official yellow belt in karate!  Testing was about two weeks ago so this has been an eagerly awaited night for Haydn!  When they announced, "White belts, turn around and remove your belts" I thought Haydn was going to burst from all the anticipation!  He was all smiles as he was "belted" and that ribbon of yellow was wrapped around his waist!

As Haydn finally settled down for the night (after an ice cream brownie sundae celebration with some close friends), he thanked God that now he could line up with the yellow belts during class!  So cute!

Good bye white belt!

Hello yellow belt!

Haydn with Miss Tonya and Mr. Gary

Haydn and Mr. Vito

Haydn's best warrior face as he poses with Master Collins

Smiles and Laughter

Quick!  Grab the camera!  They all love each other right now!  :)

With three kids close in age, every moment of our day isn't filled with smiles, laughter, and goofiness.  A visit to our home would definitely reveal some bickering, fighting, and, yes, some screaming!  So, when there are moments like the ones shown in these pictures, I try to capture them as fast as I can!

What do you do when you're cold?  Hop in Dad's shirt with him, of course!

This picture doesn't do justice to what's happening.  This is Rylee wearing Momma's boots, eating a cookie, and saying, "Hmmm . . . these are great cookies!  Thanks for helping me guys!"  She just loves to play "mommy" these days!

Our Little Scholars

I get asked a lot what our school day looks like.  We always start our day with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a look at the calendar, followed by our Bible lesson and some songs.  Then the kids head into their own activities.  Some days you'd see all the kids working together in one area and sometimes they are each in a different part of the house, working on their own "stuff." 

During our Egyptian studies, I took Haydn to an archaeological museum on the U of M campus.  While there, he purchased a mummy excavation kit.  Boy, did he love that!  After two days of excavating, Haydn discovered a sarcophagus with a mummy hidden inside.  What a great learning activity to wrap up our Egyptian unit!

Miss Rylee's school year is centered around learning her letter sounds and how to (informally) write the letters.  We incorporate reading, science, math, and social studies into her letter sounds.  We do a lot of hands-on activities, but Rylee's favorite thing is definitely writing and doing activities in her "preschool book."  In this picture, she was learning to write the letter I.  She was most excited to figure out that she could now write the words "Hi Rylee!"

McKay follows along with Rylee in our preschool world.  He is learning to recognize all his letters and picking up a lot of the sounds as he goes.  In this picture, he is using some wood pieces to build the letter I.

I look at these pictures and can't help but to be amazed!  It seems like yesterday we were amazed when they learned to roll over.  Now we have a house full of scholars who amaze us each day with how much they are learning!

On this day, six years ago . . .

On this day, six years ago, Chris and I were holding our very first child.  I remember those first moments of wondering how in the world we were really going to take care of this little blessing.  Today, that little blessing turned six years old. 

I don't know why I couldn't get this kid to take a serious picture just once today! :)  He said, "This is my six year old picture, mom!"  So, here you have it: Haydn at 6 years old!

To celebrate his birthday, Haydn got to choose today's menu.  He picked waffles for breakfast, taco salad for lunch, homemade pizza for dinner, and icecream brownie sundaes instead of a birthday cake.  Of course, we still had to have candles and sing "Happy Birthday!"

Six candles on melting ice cream . . . make a wish fast! :)

No birthday would be right without a couple gifts!  Between some close friends and family, Haydn came away with a Hot Wheels color changing track, a Corvette Transformer, a Toy Story wrist watch, K'Nex, Scooby Doo game, and some card games!  It was pretty cute hearing him list each one of those items in his thank you's to God tonight!

It was so hard for Rylee not to "help" Haydn open his gifts!

With three kids and lots of nieces and nephews, we decided once the kids turned five that we wouldn't do big parties anymore.  So, Haydn got to choose two friends to do something cool with him for his birthday.  This Saturday, he is taking two friends to the Monster Truck Jam!  Haydn is super excited! 

I can't help be reminded of a popular country song whose lyrics say, "You're gonna miss this.  You're gonna want this back.  You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast."  So, as we bow our heads in thankfulness tonight, I pray for these days not to go by so fast!

Velma and Daphne

Halloween weekend, Chris and a couple buddies went to Cedar Point for Hallo Weekends.  That left my best bud, Julie, without a date for her work Halloween party.  So, she and I scoured our brains for hours trying to come up with a perfect costume theme for us so I could essentially be her date.  Here's what we came up with:

So, hopefully you've figured out we were Velma and Daphne from Scooby Doo!  It was so much fun to dress up and play the part!  I actually felt like a movie star that day as Julie was in charge of putting together my hair and makeup!

One of the funniest things about this whole costume adventure was when we walked into Walmart on our way home from the party.  You could hear people saying things like "Scooby Dooby Doo" and "Where's Shaggy?"  The checkout lady was very surprised that Daphne had gone anywhere without Freddie!  It was all quite funny!

And, yes, that is my hair!  I have had so many people ask me if that is really my hair!  It's amazing how light my hair is with no products in it to help keep all the curls from frizzing!  Though I really like the idea of being able to have straight hair if I wanted it, it took poor Julie two hours to straighten my hair that day (not to mention the extra time to style it)!  There's no way I have an extra two hours to get that look on a given day!

Two Knights and a Princess

 Two knights and a princess . . . sounds a bit like a fairy tale, huh?  Actually, it was the kids' Halloween costumes this year.  Grandma was extremely creative - what started out as a Cinderella dress for Rylee turned into an amazing dress along with two incredible knight outfits for the boys.  

This first picture is actually my favorite.  The boys were in full knight mode as they acted as if they were protecting the princess.  Rylee doesn't look at all like she is enjoying the knightly protection, huh? :)





May we introduce Sir Haydn!  This is his sword-handling stance with his most serious warrior face!

There is a cute story behind this costume.  When Haydn asked if he could be a knight, we thought it would be perfect for McKay to wear the dragon costume we already had in the basement.  When I asked McKay if he'd like to be a dragon, he cried and said, "But Mom, the knight kills the dragon!"  So, hence, McKay became Sir McKay.  What a cute little knight he was!

You must notice Rylee's glovelets and the sparkly shoes - no princess dress is complete without such accessories!

Princess Rylee Turns Four!

It is so hard to believe that our little princess has turned four years old!  That means that it was just over three years ago already that we began the battle with Celiac disease that shriveled our little girl away to nearly nothing!  No one would ever know now! 

Well, Rylee turned four in royal style!  Grama made Rylee her very own Cinderella dress, Grandma Babcia created a princess castle (gluten free) cake, and Haydn helped decorate the house with pink and purple streamers and balloons!

Try to imagine all these little screaming and giggling princesses all dolled up in their royal gowns, dress-up glass slippers, jewelry, and tiaras!  Chris and I couldn't help but to laugh when we saw this picture - it looks like a future homecoming picture!

The highlight of the day was the visit from the Queen.  Aunt Phylicia dressed up as the Queen who had come to crown the princess.  The only problem was that the Queen had lost her magic wand.  So, the girls (and boys) helped the Queen find her wand so that Rylee could be crowned princess for the day. 

Building the Nile River

Ok, so have I ever mentioned how much I love being a homeschooling family?  This week we were learning about the Egyptians who lived along the Nile River.  To really illustrate the point of how the flooding of the river helped the farmers along the land, we built our own model of the Nile River.  Now, I'm no dummy!  I took care of presenting the information during the school day and waited for Dad before we began playing with the dirt and such!

So, first we had to build the banks of the river as well as the delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.  Once that was set, we used foil to create the Nile River running through Egypt.

 Now we were ready to plant our crops.  In our case, we just planted some grass seed that could be watered by the flooding river.

Next came the fun part - flooding the river!  The kids were so amazed to see all the water get sucked up into the banks of the river. 

Now if only we could control how fast our crop grew!  The kids check their Nile River everyday for signs of growth!  They can't wait until it is time to flood the river again!