Finally Friday

Whew..it's been a long 2 weeks. Paul's traveled 3 nights last week and 3 nights this week. That makes for a long week. Single parenthood is not for the faint of heart. At all. Thankfully he's home for the next few weeks. I think.

So..what's been going on with us? Lily got her hair cut last night. Probably her 6th haircut in her 7 1/2 years. She wanted a big haircut. So Paul took her when he got home last night and cut probably 5"(if not more) off her beautiful blonde curly hair. It's still blond and beautiful but not as curly, more wavy looking now. I didn't think I was attached to her hair but apparently, I was. I miss the long hair. It's going to take a long time for me to get used to her with shorter hair. And I told Julia she was never getting a haircut. Ever.

We're in throes of Girl Scout cooking selling & delivering. The weekends have been busy with Cookie Booths and trying to deliver the 200+ boxes of cookies in our dining room. And keeping the children from eating full boxes of cookies at one sitting.

We're also in the middle of our big fundraising campaign for our school. We do 2 fundraisers a year - a carnival in the fall and Boosterthon Fun Run in the Spring. It's going well and the girls are loving it. Thanks to all our family who has supported them!

Work is going well for me - I'm incredibly thankful for all the referrals I've been getting. I can't thank my friends enough!

Oh - Paul got a promotion - he's a Regional Compliance Manager now - a step up from what he was doing before. It will be less travel but also less flexibility in his schedule. It's all good though!!

I think that's about it - a quick update on us!

Fabulous 5

Julia is finding 5 to be the perfect age. As the youngest girl in our family she's often trying to do everything her big sisters do. Now that she's turned 5 and on her way to kindergarten (in 6 months as reminds me often) she's found a confidence to tackle some physical things her sisters can do. First, the monkey bars. She's longed to do the monkey bars on our neighborhood playground for years. She's watched her two sisters master them and she couldn't wait to try them. Since we're having the weirdest, warmest"winter" we hit the playground the other day. She said:"I'm 5..it's time to try the monkey bars." She did and she crossed them. Quickly. Like she's been doing it all her life.

This week another, Win-Spring-ter day she decided she was ready to ride the 2 wheeler. She's tried on a couple other occasions but just wasn't quite there. I hear her call me from the garage.."Mommy, come help me ride the 2 wheeler. (pause) That's OK Mommy, I don't need your help." I go out there and she's riding the 2 wheeler. Like she's been doing it for months. And fast. Still a little trouble braking but she's got the concept. Her sisters were impressed and I think a little shocked. They quickly did the math and realized they were 6 (and well into Kindergarten or First Grade) when they learned to ride.

Clearly this kid has some motivation. Now on to learning to read..her next goal!

5 Years Ago

Five years ago I was laying in a hospital bed in Milford, MA staring at this precious, tiny baby girl who came exactly on her due date and changed our lives in ways we couldn't imagine. Her story actually starts over 6 years ago when we decided that we were ready to go for it in terms of having a 3rd baby. Why not? I always wanted a big family I told Paul. Also adding, you know it has to be even numbers so if we have a 3rd we're also having a 4th. Somehow Paul agreed and we got lucky - so lucky, getting pregnant the first time trying. All was swell until I went in for my 12 week appointment and they couldn't find the babies heartbeat. Worst day of my life. Fast forward 3 months and we figured I'd healed (at least physically) and we'd try again. I got pregnant again. I was MUCH more cautious and I'm sure drove Paul absolutely crazy. I refused to do anything strenuous (like vacuuming) until I was like 24 weeks pregnant. And with 2 toddlers at home it was interesting to say the least. It was also winter, in New England with my family in NC and my husband working over an hour away from our home. I've never had so much anxiety. I begged, pleaded and even scored my OB a wii (this was 5 years ago when they were new and very in demand) to try to get her to plan my induction so I would know exactly when this precious baby would be born. No luck. As usual, God had different plans in mind. It was the weekend before my due date and my mom came up - thinking surely I would have the baby soon. Thankfully her timing was perfect. On Monday night we went to bed like usual. I remember a few days before having contractions but they never got organized. That night I awoke about midnight (gee..the older she gets the harder it is to remember the little details) with some contractions. They were pretty tough but I remember not wanting to wake Paul up just yet. Finally I decided to wake him up and have him help time them to see if this was it. This part I'll never forget - he got up to go to the bathroom and heard a POP. I had no idea what it was but I ran to the bathroom and realized it was my water breaking. Thankfully I made it to the toilet! Ha! I remember yelling to Paul to call the doctor and having to repeat the number several times. I then remember going to tell my mom we were leaving and heading to the hospital. I think was around 2:30am (ish). I remember that on the car ride the contractions started hurting in a way that I had never felt and as soon as we walked into the ER I begged them to call for my epidural. I got settled in a room and asked everyone who walked near me to please, please get the epidural. The doctor came in to check on me and I wasn't dilated too much. Finally I got the epidural (though it seemed like it took forever. It did not.). And literally about 20 min after I got the epidural I needed to push. And a few minutes later our precious baby was born.

We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl with her. Emma (who was 3 at the time) was convinced it was a girl. She would tell anyone it was a girl and her name was going to be Julia. When we did indeed have a baby girl it only seemed right to name her Julia. Claire was just a name we liked and it seemed to fit. On January 23, 2007 at 4:31am Julia Claire was welcomed into our family.

Fabulous Forty!

My dear husband turned 40 on the 18th. 40. Oh my. Not that I AT ALL think 40 is old since I clearly knocking on 40's door but wow..just how did time pass that quickly that many of my friends are turning 40. I vividly remember my parents turning 40 and now that's us?? Can't. Get. Over. It.

But anyway, I digress...my husband. 40. So I decided I needed to throw him a party. A surprise party. Yes..this was a good idea. I had toyed with the idea for months but kept putting it in the back of my mind since January was so far away. Ha. Once you get to December 1 January gets here in about a blink of an eye. But I managed to get a date, do a Facebook event and mentally start preparing. I'm so bad at being sneaky so this was really hard for me. Thankfully my BFF agreed to come to town to help me with everything. Thanks to pinterest we got some great ideas. And many thanks to my friend Angela who made the most amazing cake! Everything was set! The hard part was keeping Paul out of the house for the day. Thankfully his work was busy and we had planned for him to pick up Emma from camp and take her to her dance class. We decide that we are going to send him for pizza before he comes home. We decide on Mellow Mushroom knowing they will be super busy on a Friday night and we were right. I get some angry texts from Paul about how busy they were all the while giggling about it with our friends!

Finally he makes it home and I think he was a little surprised! Not shocked but surprised. He said he had an inkling that something was going on - I think I called him one too many times that day at work. Nonetheless it was a great evening with great friends celebrating Fabulous 40!

We celebrated on Saturday evening with dinner at the Melting Pot with Erin and Tom. What a treat! So yummy!

His actually birthday was a little quieter - we met for lunch at Tribecca Tavern. For dinner we grilled steaks and had some of his favorite sides: grilled Brussels sprouts and cheesy grits. And it was the 10 year anniversary of the German Chocolate Cake. A very great night! I hope his year is off to a great start!

Winter Break

I can't believe it's 3 weeks into the new year and I haven't blogged yet. Clearly I'm not doing well on my resolution to keep up the blog better! Fail! Oh well..I'm going to play a little catch up this morning on what's been happening at our house since the start of the year.

Track Out. That's pretty much it. My older kids have not been to school since Dec. 21. Yes, that's like nearly 5 weeks ago. The break has for been great - I really can not complain. It just feels like FOREVER since we've been at school. And when 2 kids are out of school it just feels like our whole routine is thrown off. And generally..my family likes routine. Nonetheless the days have been filled and good. The first week of the official track out Julia and Jacob headed back to school (and seriously Wake Co. what is up with all the Mondays off in Jan??) and the girls and I got some fun shopping time. The second week both girls did camp which was a new experience for us. Generally we just hang out during track outs but since this one was so long Paul & I decided they would benefit from doing a camp. Lily did an art camp at the town of Cary Art Center which was great. She loved it! Emma, not so much into art did a sports camp at Sport2Sport. We found an awesome deal thanks go Living Social and Emma LOVED it. She came home exhausted every day and loved getting to do all sorts of sports. It was a perfect week for them! We also had visitors that week - my BFF and her hubs came to visit! It was great! And..in a "I can't believe I said yes" moment the girls went back to Ohio with them for a week at Camp Auntie Erin's house. Yep..they've spent all week in Ohio and I miss them like CRAZY. They are coming home today and I can't wait!

The little kids have seemed a little lost without them here this week. We've spent a ton of time at home since we weren't running people all over the planet to activities and it's been nice. Really nice. Just the break we needed. I've been armed with trashbags and boxes getting this house organized and cleaned up. Paul's gave me some house cleaning groupons for Christmas but I felt like I needed to clean a bit before cashing in. Well now is the time..can't wait!

It's back to school, back to craziness on Monday (and Julia's 5th birthday). I think we're all ready. Also? Our next track out brings our big family vacation so let's get it started!

11 Highlights of 2011

I've really done a terrible job blogging in 2011 (yes Nana Cheryl..I know). It's disappointing to me too since I'me keeping up with my scrapbooks either so there's a good chance I'll remember very little about this year (boo). I'd like to hope in 2012 I can do better. But I'll end this year with 11 highlights for our family in 2011 (in no particular order)

1. Vacations with my hubby - This year we took 3 occasions to go out of town alone! One one-nighter to the Masters, one surprise weekend away to NYC and one well planned Disney Cruise. It was wonderful to get to be away with him and I think my kids enjoyed the spoiling by the aunts and grandparents as well.
2. Jacob potty trained!! - This might be my number 1 highlight of 2011 - while we are still using pull ups at night we are no longer, for the first time in over 8 years, buying diapers!
3. Jacob started preschool - Milestone. He loves. I love it. And for the first time in over 8 years I have 2 mornings a week (6 hours) with no children at home. Honestly..it's good for all of us!
4. My Disney Business - I'm so grateful and humbled by all the support of my amazing friends! My business has been better than I expected and I'm SO SO thankful!!
5. Erin's Wedding - My bff got married in Oct. It was such a special and wonderful weekend. I'm so incredibly happy for her.
6. Kids Birthday Parties - the kids all had fun birthday parties this year from Julia's 4th birthday gymnastics party, Emma's 8th birthday sleepover party at the hotel, Lily's 7th birthday party at the candy shop to Jacob's 3rd birthday at the farm they were all fun and we're thankful for the friends who got to celebrate with us.
7. Dance Recitals - All of my girls were involved in dance performances this year. They were So. Stinking. Cute. Love, love, love watching them perform!
8. Lily's Triathlon - My 7 year old did her first triathlon in July. I'm still amazed at her determination and commitment to doing it. She worked hard, trained and did amazing at it.
9. Julia's Soccer Season - Love watching my kids play sports. She was so cute and by the end of the season she actually started to get it.
10. Health - I'm very grateful that we all seemed to have made it through the year with no major issues. Only 2 trips to the ER (Jacob for his head, Lily for her eye) and no big sicknesses. We are indeed blessed.
11. Our New Church - We switched campuses with our church in Sept and it's been a great change for our whole family. Our new campus is smaller and we've all enjoyed being more involved.

2011 was a good year for our family. Like everyone we had our ups and downs but all in all it was good. We're so so blessed and thankful and we look forward to 2012!

Kids Write the Darndest Things

Today was the last day of school for 4 1/2 weeks. Sometimes I LOVE our year round school schedule (hello warm April, July & October) but this track out makes me strongly consider traditional schools. Anyways..it's the last day of the quarter and so Lily, my 2nd grader brought home a bunch of work. One thing she wrote was a non-fiction book about Pandas. She did a great job on it. The BEST part is the About the Author section of the book. Here's what she wrote:

Lily potter is a 2nd grade student at Carpenter. She has a talented body and likes to draw. Someday she wants to be in a art show. She likes to read books. Her faviorte aminal is panda thats why she wrote this fantastic book! Hope you enjoy!

About the authors family:
Her parents were strong enough to raise 4 kids to live a life & did a good job! The two younger ones are about anoying to me. They are deffnitly cute. My older sister, Emma is my older sister and about mean and is a computer hogger! Me, Lily has her own room and loves to play and have troubble fun!

I'm dying over here....