Bad Blogger

It is June, well now july. It has been four months since my last post. I feel like I needed to confess if you didn't notice the dates already. Every now and again I have to play catch up. So here I am...playing catch up. The easiest way...by months. Here goes:

March-
The month of March brought on a wave of craftiness. I painted, took pictures, picked fabrics and even bribed my very own loving mother to create my idea due to my lack of sewing knowledge. My very loyal friend Cyndi and I created a family rules canvas. It is a set of rules for our family to live (haha) by. Here is my final product. I also took the cuties to the park and embarked on one of many to come photo shoots with my new camera.

I bribed mom into making pillowcase dresses for Taylor. They are aparently really easy and so very cute. Tay's favorite is her ladybug dress. I think that she would wear it daily if I allowed it.

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We also began building our privacy fence in the back yard. Every night after work, we would go outside and work. Mark-o is superman. He amazes me. He worked so very hard and we have a beautiful fence that can keep our kids safe, and provides so much privacy. I LOVE it.





For spring break the kids and I went with our very wonderful Cyndi and her little lovelies to see their Nana in St. Augustine. We swam,went to the kids museum, painted easter eggs and just generally had a great time.





April-

We finished off our spring break by taking a trip to St. Marks. As a child I have memories of it being this miraculous place. This is an example of how childhood memories should remain just that..memories. When we got there the sand fleas almost carried us away. There was not really a place to walk out in the water so we walked to find some. As soon as we found a place, Taylor ventured out onto the rocks and fell on some barnacles and cut her leg all up! So after 15 minutes of being there we loaded the kids up and went home. Next time we drive to a real beach!

Easter came along and we went to Yaya's and grandaddy's and hunted eggs with the grandparents and Uncle Cody and Melanie. Aiden and Taylor did so well and it was so sweet to see Aiden help is little sister out and find the eggs. Taylor sported her coll shades most of the day and refused to take them off.

Then came the big event. Aiden and Taylor's big Spiderman Princess party! We had so much fun! Aiden was turning four and Taylor turned 2 on the day of the party. All of our friends and family came to celebrate with us. The day was complete with a spiderman bounce house, sno cones, crafts, a pinata, games, two cakes and tons of kids everywhere. Aiden was so very excited about his bouncy house and between the two of them they probably ate 25 sno cones. People just kept handing them out to the kids and they never objected to this. Mark was a sport and manned the snocone machine most of the time. By the end of the day there was a new meaning to the word exhaustion! I loved baking the cakes and planning the day, but mostly I enjoyed how thrilled A and T were about all of the fun!

The weekend of the party we decided to move Taylor to her big girl bed. She was so excited and jumped on it and played and kept saying "my bed" In the beginning she would lay in bed in the morning until someone got her up. Now when the sun comes up, so does Taylor!

For his birthday, Aiden got a big boy bike. It is now June and he has become very good at it. In April...not so much. We would go outside everyday and practice. At first there was no pedaling, steering or any activity. Now he has gotten it down and is very proud of himself. Go Aiden!

May-

Mother's Day was wonderful. Mark and I went with the kids to the beach. The kids love the beach and the waves. Some of my favorite childhood memories happened while at the beach. Every chance we get we try to take the kids.

We had a cookout with our dear friends the stallers. We swam, made dinner, we made smores, watched lightning bugs, and then the kids snuggled up and have movie time. It was a wonderful night with great friends. Cyndi and I secretly have a plan for an arranged marriage for Taylor and Kyle. I hope they will be okay with this :-)

So hopefully I am all caught up. Now I can start fresh. Well, somewhat..it is almost July ;-)

Valentines Day

I try to fight it. I try to say I am not a fan of such silly days like Valentine's, St. Patricks Day, Halloween etc., but I am. I love all things festive. More and more I see the product of this through my children. Aiden was extremely upset when Christmas was over and frequently asks me when Halloween will be here again. I secretly love it.

This was the first Valentines Day that Aiden could really get what was going on, I guess. So, If Aiden thinks it is cool so does Taylor.

Aiden filled up his bedtime sticker chart for sleeping in his bed all night every night, and got to go have frozen yogurt and pick out Valentines for his friends at Ms. Amanda's. He was in heaven! He chose spiderman valentines (of course) cups to drink out of, m&m's, heart shaped cookie cutters, and heart sprinkles. I took this as a hint that we were going to make cookies (again, I love it!)

So this week we made cookies (no cut out roll cookies here folks), rolled them out, made icing and decorated them. There were moments of sure chaos and screaming that they wanted cookies before they were done, but we made it through. They had so much fun decorating (and tasting). Taylor was a little angel! She was very meticulous with her frosting and spent a great amount of time placing sprinkles on each cookie, and Aiden was frosting one after the other like a little machine. By the time they were all done, it was bathtime and then bedtime. Mark whisked them off to the bath and I got to clean up the mess without little grabby hands reaching everywhere.

When Taylor went to bed Aiden and I sat down and wrote his name on his valentines. It went well for the first two or three but by number 5 he was done and so was I. It was a great night but exhausting and I wouldn't trade one minute. Happy little festive memories.

2009

New Year's Eve 2008- One of the worst nights ever. Our sweet Dog Coletrane was hit by a car and passed away soon after we found him. Our hearts were crushed and we spent the next couple of weeks mourning his death. He was so special to us and touched our family so much. I know...he was a dog....he didn't think so, and he made us really understand what it meant to love an animal. This is the way that our 2009 began, but thankfully it went much better as the year progressed.

This New Years Eve of 2009 I sat and began to reorganize pictures. Nothing like starting the year off with a little organizing project, right? As I sat there I realized how different our lives have become in just one year and how my baby boy seems a whole foot taller, and our little baby girl is so much bigger with so much more hair! These are just some of the physical changes of our year.

Shortly into the New Year we realized that our kids were only getting bigger and the drive from Monticello to Tallahassee was only getting longer. Things were different after Coletrane was gone and it felt like a majority of our time was spent in the car. We took the plunge and finally put our house on the market.

In April Taylor had her first birthday. Our little girl celebrated in style with her friends and family and the wonderful people that support us on a daily basis.

After a few short months our house sold late in the spring. We packed our home that we brought our babies home from the hospital to and moved to a two bedroom apartment and continued to look for our new home. It was such an emotional time. We were so excited about the next step of our lives, but as we cleaned our home that one last time, tears poured from our eyes as we walked and reminisced about everything that had taken place there. Our Monticello house was one that we put everything we had into. It was full of love and happy memories.

The summer brought a time of looking at houses, swimming in the pool at the apartment, teaching a spunky little three year old to jump off the side of the pool without fear, easing his fears of the people upstairs at bedtime, watching Taylor take her first steps at the end of May, buying a new house, a stomach bug that traveled through our entire family, renovating our new home, vacationing with family in Sarasota, moving into our new home, and finally starting a new school year.

We are into our routine now and have enjoyed the first round of holidays in our new home. We have had family stay with us through Thanksgiving and Christmas and have really enjoyed our new lives. Our friends live within 5-10 minutes of us. We do not require an entire day to do one activity anymore, and have come to realize what wonderful neighbors we have. Bedsides the few minor illness that we have had our family has been healthy. We are happy. 2009 started out poorly, but overall we have had a blessed year. 2010 here we come!

Have a holly jolly christmas

We started our holiday season off this Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving at our house. Mark's grandmother and grandfather, aunt and uncle, and mom and dad came to stay with us. My mom, dad and brother also came over and I got a surprise visit from my aunt. It was great fun! We well I woke up the next morning and went shopping at 3 am with my best friend and my mother. We got 90% of our christmas shopping done, but ran into a ton of crazy's along the way.

This Christmas has been a great for teaching about the reason we celebrate. Aiden is supremely interested and loves this time of year just like I do. It was very important to him that we get our christmas tree, and it must be big, and be put in the center of our living room. We have our big tree but it is not in the center of the room. We decorated our house for the first time with christmas lights and let the kids play in the ever growing piles of hickory nut leaves.


I also started an advent calendar this christmas. I started but did not finish. I got somewhat off track. I began by adding a piece of candy in each little door and we would talk about a piece of the christmas story from the kids bible, or read a bible verse. Since then I have gotten a plan from Sandra and plan to start it hardcore next year. The lack of planning started my slackness, but what really got the ball moving was what happened in the wee hours of the first weekend of advent.

Aiden woke up very early and I took him into the living room and put on a movie for him to watch. I got him a cup of milk and his breakfast bar and left him playing cars. Usually Aiden will come back in our room 15 times. The result of this is never going back to sleep but rather just closing your eyes. This is really the story of my life lately, but thats another story. So, this morning he did not do this and I when I woke up at 11:00 I flew out of my bed. I was not worried about Taylor because I know she will stay in bed just as long as you will let her most mornings, but I was relieved when I found Aiden still quietly playing with his trains and cars. That is until he looked up and his mouth was covered in chocolate. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: Aiden, why do you have chocolate all over your face?
Aiden: I ate chocolate
Me: Yes, I know that Aiden, but from where?
Aiden: From the calendar
Me: (running to the calendar and frantically opening every door) you ate it all?!!! All 20 pieces?!
Aiden: I did not eat baby Jesus' birthday.
Me: Does your belly hurt? Do you need to go potty? We don't eat chocolate without asking mommy or daddy!

Needless to say he did not eat much for the rest of the day. So this is how our holiday began.

Friday we went to see Santa. Taylor cried and Aiden had a long talk with the big guy. Aiden ran right up to him and began telling him that he wanted a rope? for Christmas. He also asked him if he liked chocolate milk. He was a hoot. Santa even chuckled a few times. After Taylor got as far away from Santa as she could she pointed and called out "Santa!" and "hohoho."

Today we have more family coming in and we will have the first of many family dinners. Here we go...