The Best Week

Last week I turned 29 and it was spectacular!

 My dad's best friend was over at my parents detailing his 1968 Merecedes on my birthday. So of course, I took a pic inside of it, posted it to facebook and I got the best reaction of all time from some fb friends. Isn't she a beaut??

I took the kiddos to The Flying Cupcake for my birthday. This is one of my favorite traditions. We love to sit on Mass Ave and watch the cars go by and we get as messy as possible.

 This was Lou's first big girl trip to "the cupcake shop." She is choosing to attempt to fit in with the boys more and more. At 15 months though, she prefers no shoes and crawling still. She's taken quite a few steps at home though. LJ didn't walk until 20 months, so I'm not too concerned.

We finally bought Joey a lizard for his birthday. The kids are in love with Green Tail. Me, however, not so much. Did you know that lizards eat 3-6 crickets/day? You only can buy about a 6 day supply of crickets at a time AND YOU HAVE TO BUY CRICKET FOOD!!! To top it all off, the crickets have yet to survive for more than 3 days at a time. I can't even begin to describe how much fun it has been taking all 3 kids back to the pet shop every 3 days with dogs all over the place (Little Joey is severely allergic to dogs). I don't think I had any idea what we were getting myself into.

 

We try to have a lemonade stand every week. The kids make about $15-20/stand. It's amazing. We've learned how to roll money and deposit it into the bank. I know exactly where he gets this from too.... me!! I opened my first bank account when I was 8 with  $1000 after I had my first garage sale. Yep, I'm patting myself on the back.

With some of Joey's money from lemonade stand we bought a butterfly net. We sent off for caterpillers and watched them develop. It was pretty amazing, especially since we propped the net right on the dinner table, which kept them seated for quite a bit longer.

We did swim lessons for the last 2 weeks. It was such a great deal at Perry Meridian High School. It was only $45/kid for an hour lesson for 10 days. Deal of the summer, baby!! The boys bawled their eyes out the entire first lesson like I just left them at an orphanage. After that day, they loved it. So strange.

Our mornings are filled with watching our lizard. We feed him and talk to him. I think Louisa loves him the most. I think it's a matter of days before he escapes.

Our summer days are filled up with dressing like Spiderman every morning (walking around the neighborhood and freaking people out) and trying to find a pool every afternoon (thank God for tea tree oil for their dry, crispy, chlorinated hair). We were able to go to Holiday World yesterday and plan on going to Myrtle Beach next week. These 3 little boogers have begun to be my best friends. I love our inside jokes and giggles throughout the day. My days are so long and so hard, but when I do find some quiet time I love looking into our ginourmous back yard and thinking about how lucky I am. Cheers to my last year in my 20's.

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the entire world!! He gives and gives and gives his time and energy, and I don't understand how he is never in a bad mood. He amazes me and I thank God every day that I landed such a perfect man!

This is one of Louisa's Godmama's Katie. I think Lou finally got over her "I'm glued to Mama all day long" phase. She is starting to go to anyone and can kill ya in a good game of Peek-a-boo.

What, he's 5?

 

Like that, he's 5. Like THAT, HE'S FIVE!!!!

 

It's so hard to believe!

 

We had a super cool Spiderman birthday party last week, and the REAL Spiderman came!!!

Joey's Godfather came too!

Uncle Dog made Joey his very own lemonade stand.

And we now have Spiderman on everything we own.

 

 

We took all of our allergy meds and took our first horse back riding lesson on his birthday.

I grew up riding horses near by and wished so badly my kids would too, but it's not looking good with these crazy allergies.

We have had a challenging month, but a special month. I did want to journal quickly about Joey's terrible anaphlactic reaction to Septra, a sulfa drug. OH EM GEE! Pcitures to follow. Uh, scary.

The kiddos are getting easier in some aspects, but a lot harder in others. Finding ways of entertaining them is getting more expensive and harder to do on days when I'm with them alone. School is out for the summer, and our neighborhood pool is open. That is probably where you will find us on a daily basis.

 

Lou is getting sassier and trying her best to fit in with the boys... sometimes.

 

Who does she look like?

She's One and I'm Too Busy

I had to get these pics up because they are stinkin' adorable, but I'm not real into blogging right now. My time is so precious and spending in front of the computer all afternoon is hard for me to do. I still scrapbook our lives and journal fairly regularly, so I really don't feel too bad not posting to 4 different social networks.

 

Life is good though. Louisa is still working on trying to walk, Ray is still working on a better diet and Joey is starting to be more confident in himself.

We jam out on a regular basis. Lou's body goes into convulsions if we play One Direction or Blue Swede's Hooked on a Feeling. See picture below.

 Our photographer had her work cut out for her. Louie cries when anyone looks at her. She holds on to me as people try to rip her off, and she will scream for an entire hour at the gym. Annie Syers, you are an amazing woman for working with us.

Like really, Joey is only 4. I totally feel like I can picture what his senior pictures are going to look like by looking at these. He'll be 5 next week, and we are having a super cool Spiderman party. He's hoping to have the real Spiderman there and is begging for a lizard and a lemonade stand.

 The boys get closer every day. Even if they are at each other's throats, they manage to stick with each other. I thank God every day they have each other. Ray's confidence helps Joey through most awkward situations at the gym or park, and Joey's sweet demeanor shows Ray how to socialize with little confrontation.

 Lou Lou's eyes were originally blue.... now they are hazel. Where does she think she's going with this? As I look at this picture of all 3 kids, I feel so lucky they are exactly who they are. They are so different and so them. I stumbled upon this adorable quote this week, which has really helped me.

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." - Dr. Seuss

I have been having an ongoing discussion with my best friend, Alli, who lives in Los Angeles about how every stage of our lives has its challenges. As I approach 30 (over a year away), I want to look back and see what I have accomplished and look forward knowing what I want in life. Alli continues to remind me to live in the moment. Feel the good of the day and feel good being me.

 I'm getting used to this, and I love it.

 

2 Weeks

 

I only had 2 weeks to recover from Ray's party. I have no idea how my mother-in-law did it. All three of her kids were born in October. All one week apart. My poor husband was last, and I can see how she was too tired to throw him the same birthday as the first. Little Joey keeps asking me why he can't have his birthday when he is the oldest. So cute, but I really hope I'm not too exhausted by then to give him a good one. Well... Ray Ray got his "big red car" for his birthday, just like The Wiggles. Since the weather has been so crummy, we go around and around in the garage. I'm sure we have screwed up our garage door by now.

 We had to put Ray through detox again after Valentine's Day and his birthday. This kid can down sugar like it's nothing, which is totally opposite of little Joey.

 I had to post this pic of Joey. Look at that belly!! 53 lbs and doesn't like sweets that much. Genetics blow me away.

 Lou Lou wasn't too sure about her birthday party. Two days before her party, she comes down with a two day fever, her first ear infection and her first antibioitic. The slightest noise would make her cry. the first hour of her party she hung tight to me and her pacifier.

The cousins enjoyed each other though.

 Sweet baby liked her balloons.

And her Nannie.

Check out this little princess still trying to celebrate his birthday.

 Below is the beautiful cake our babysitter made for Louisa. How perfect! Louisa has been on a pretty good diet of mainly fruits, veggies and occasional turkey dogs. I'm so scared to have another Ray Ray (terrible eater) that we haven't exposed her to much. However, she looooooved the cake.

 What our parties really look like.....

 then there's the fam.

 We love you Laura, our sweet babysitter!

 Lou Lou has six teeth. Three on top (on one side) and three on bottom (on the other side). She is a complete wild woman! She climbs, bounces and falls off of everything. I'm so devastated that she has already chipped her front tooth. Here comes my hillbilly daughter for the next five years.

 

How do I even begin to sum my little sweetie up?

She melts all of our hearts. Her smile, her courage, her outfits, her sass.  She entertains us all by just following her around the house, and she is completely bored and fussy without all of us. She is an amazing sleeper and will go with the flow anywhere as long as she's on my hip.

 

She absolutely fills our hearts. We love you sweet baby Lou Lou!