What a crazy weekend! I had taken vacation on Friday to get together with my sister and to take their family pictures since they were in town from San Diego, but that quickly got rained out! Which only means that now I'll have to go to San Diego to perform this task - can you tell how disappointed I am?
I could have went on into work - but decided a nice lazy day seemed more to my liking. It's nice to have a day off once in a while without any agenda. I really wasn't feeling the best anyway, so it was nice to lay around and take it easy.

Of course, Saturday was just crazy with the rain, hail, sleet and snow. The kids got all bundled up for a few minutes when the snow was coming down, but they didn't last too long. I was disappointed because I wanted to go spend the day at my parents, but with the weather wasn't sure what the roads would be like, so just hung out at home.

This poor daffodil was just being hammered by the weather - but I noticed yesterday, it has perked right back up! Very resilient.

Sunday morning, the kids and I got up very early and left our house around 7:45 and headed down South. The drive down was beautiful! The sun was shining and the trees were snow covered. We met my family in Fort Scott for Mass and Natalie's baptism. It was nice that everyone was there together.

These are a couple of my favorite pictures from her baptism.

I have many more photos to share and hopefully can put some out here later this evening. I wanted to share a few.

I probably should be going - need to be getting ready for work. The boys, Peyton and Tanner, have doctors appointments this morning for their well child checkups. Zach had an appointment too, but I found out last night that I need to reschedule his - he has MAPP testing at school and probably shouldn't miss it. I'm sure he's not too worried. I'm anxious to see how much Tanner is weighing these days, as I think he has went through such a growing spurt. They should be uneventful - just yearly checkups.

Until next time....

Dawn

Snow...What in the World!

I thought we had finally made it to Spring and was past this cold weather! It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few hours. I am hoping that if it does anything that it won't do too much, as I'm sure most of us are.

I am so looking forward to seeing my sister and her family this weekend! It's been exactly one year since I've seen them - the kids and I went to San Diego along with my parents and siblings for Carrie and Tony's wedding. They will be celebrating their one year anniversary on Sunday, as we are also celebrating Natalie Grace's baptism. I hope the weather doesn't prevent us from being able to get together - where there is a will, there is a way!


There hasn't been too much going on around here with the exception of the "bug" making it's way through the house. We are still battling it, but it seems to be dying off a little bit. Peyton has been home two days from school as he can't seem to quite beat it - I think he's feeling better now though.

I hope everyone is keeping warm and avoiding this "bug" stuff that's going around.

Take Care!

Dawn

Spring has Sprung!

What a beautiful weekend! We woke up very early Saturday morning to the sounds of someone getting sick...Peyton ended up with a stomach bug on Saturday and spent the entire day on the couch either sleeping or watching cartoons - or running to the bathroom. He didn't have any symptoms other than vomiting, so guess it was just a little bug. He kept telling me "mom, I don't like being sick" Poor guy! He missed out on a beautiful day, but the rest of us enjoyed it as much as possible. We opened the windows and let the fresh air in. David worked in the flower garden. I took Aubrey and Tanner on a walk - they hung out in the wagon as I pulled them. It was so nice to get out and Tanner just thought he was something sitting back and relaxing while being pulled by mom. Zach played some basketball and Hunter hung out with him. It was a quiet and peaceful day.

I have to say that it was quite something how quiet and peaceful Saturday was...when we woke up on Sunday morning, Peyton was back to his normal self. It was not a quiet and peaceful day! Siblings were fighting, crying was going on and it was a total turn around from Saturday. I told Peyton that it was amazing how one little boy could keep things so stirred up - he just smiled at me and I imagine he was thinking "I know".

After David went to work Sunday evening, I was sitting on the couch, talking on the phone and holding Tanner in my arms. He was just about asleep when suddenly he started vomiting all over me and the couch. It was just awful...sorry Aunt Karen for the sudden exit of the phone call! I was taken by surprise on this one. I got him, the couch and myself cleaned up and was walking back upstairs from getting everything in the washer when I discovered another trail on the kitchen floor. I cleaned that up - put Tanner in the shower to get him all clean and he went to sleep - but it was anything but a quiet night - he woke up several times sick. I guess it's going through the house and hopefully it avoids the rest of us! Poor little guy just didn't know what was going on.

Ball practices have started in full force...Zach is practicing twice a week on Monday & Thursday, Peyton on Tuesday and Hunter on Wednesday - all from 6-8 each night. The little ones like Zach's practice as there is a play area there and are enjoying going to the park so much. I look forward to when the games actually begin.

I guess that's all for now...

Until next time

Dawn

Birthday Celebrations

We had a weekend full of birthday celebrations for the boys and everyone had lots of fun. First of all, I need to say Happy 2nd Birthday to Tanner! He turned two yesterday and it is so hard to believe that much time has flown by since he was born. He is such a joy to our family!

We spent Saturday afternoon with David's parents and the kids enjoyed playing outside and celebrating the birthdays of Zachary, Peyton and Tanner. The nice thing about having the birthdays so close together is one big party!

I thought I would share a few pictures of the weekend...

Tanner enjoying his birthday cookie!

Peyton & Tanner with their birthday cookie.

Zach was special and got his own birthday cookie.

Here is a picture of Tanner playing out back on the slide. I thought this was such a good picture of him -he was saying "Set, Set, Go" or in adult language - Ready, Set Go!!!
The kids all enjoyed a game with the nerf guns.On Sunday, we went and celebrated the birthdays with my parents. The kids had a great day playing outside and was even more excited when Tyler and Nikki showed up later in the afternoon. We didn't expect to see them this weekend, so they were quite excited when Uncle Brian showed up with them.

Here is Aubrey and Tyler

The birthday boys and Aubrey along with their "1425" cake:
The weather was so nice outside and Grandma fitted them with some bubbles to blow and they had the best time.
Aubrey had a slight run in with Tom the Turkey...she got a little too close to him and he got a little upset over it - he ended up swatting her with his wing and then chasing her - It was sure a sight to see. I noticed the other day when I was holding Aubrey that her left eye appears to be in the middle of changing colors. I have never noticed this before on the other kids, but thought it was the neatest thing - so we took a picture - what better thing to do. The top half of her eye is still really blue while the bottom half is green. I wonder if it's just working it's way up and not complete yet or if this will be the color of her eye...we'll see - I would guess though it's probably in the middle of changing colors.

The boys have started up baseball already and looks like I'll be running to practices four of the five nights. I am looking forward to watching them play this year and getting back into the summer activities. It is a very busy time, but also very fun to watch them with their events. '
I guess that is about all for now...

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

Dawn

Happy 5th Birthday Peyton!

Today was Peyton's 5th birthday - so hard to believe. We had a fun evening together. When I got home from work, we all got ready and headed to McDonalds Playland and had a kid friendly meal and then the kids enjoyed some time playing in the tunnels in the play area. They all had such a great time and I wondered about Tanner, but he just took off and up in the tunnels he went. It was fun to watch them all and they were worn out when they got home.

Peyton and I made a birthday cake and he opened his gifts, which consisted of two new monster trucks. He opened the first one and had such a look of disappointment and I just thought I couldn't go wrong with that gift for him...but I quickly learned he wanted a Superman Monster Truck and I got him the Batman Monster Truck...Oops - he got over it quickly though and went on to playing with his new truck.

Happy Birthday to my Peyton!

Dawn

Catch Up

I am not sure why I have gotten so far behind in posting, but not too much has been going on. Maybe that is why...not much to report.

The kids have been doing pretty good and we have had a little illness going through the house. Last Wednesday, as I was leaving for work and getting Peyton to the car to get to school, he was just throwing such a fit about going - his leg hurt, his head hurt and so on and he was crying his eyes out like I hadn't seen before. He told me he just wanted to stay home with his dad. Normally, I would just get him in the car and talk to him about going to see his friends, but this day I decided I was not going to fight it and so I just brought him back in. David said that as soon as Hunter got on the school bus, Peyton went back to bed and was asleep instantly. He began running a fever and was home with a fever and complaining of a headache for 3 days.

He wanted me to stay home with him on Thursday, but I told him I had to go to work and decided to take off Friday to spend at home with him. He was feeling back to his normal self on Friday and ended up back to the normal sibling fights - it was enjoyable! I did have a good day with Peyton, Aubrey and Tanner. Then...Saturday came and Hunter woke up with his fever and headache and he was out of school today - he was back to normal today, but with the 24 hour fever policy at school - I left him at home today. He is ready to go back tomorrow and I'm just hoping that the fever/headache avoids the rest of the family!

Aubrey and Tanner are both growing like crazy and changing so much. Aubrey's language has just taken off and she is so funny to listen to - she is such a fun little girl. Tanner is starting to talk more and has added the word "move" to his vocabulary - he's not afraid to use it either if you are in his way. He is asserting himself right in the middle of the sibling fun and makes his voice known - it's hard to believe that he will be 2 years old next week.

Other than that, there isn't too much else going on at the moment - I've been keeping busy with work and so has David. Zach just began baseball practice last week - hard to believe it's already time for that - will be keeping me busy here before long when all three boys start up their practices.

Aubrey is begging me to go to bed with her now - the rain is scaring her. So...with that, before she cries much more - I better head to bed with little Miss.

Until next time!

Dawn

Some Snow Day Pics

I wanted to share a few snow pics that we took both yesterday and today while enjoying the snow.

Hunter
Zach and his icicle
Tanner enjoying a ride in the sled - having a great time!

Peyton

AubreyI will probably post some more out on Flickr...hopefully later this evening.

Enjoy!

Dawn