Been a long time, been a long time...

Recently I've had a few family members ask about the blog...in the days of FaceBook, Instagram (I still haven't been a Twitter person), it's been much easier to post on social media versus a blog post.
I've missed the blog - it is always fun to look back at our early posts and see all the photos and funny kid posts.
They are less "cute" but beautiful, and less innocently funny but more sarcastic humans these days.

Just a quick update to 2019:
 - Mason - engaged and getting married in October.  We get a beautiful daughter-in-law (Ciara), sweet grand daughter (Mia) and grand-pup (Jade) ... and we couldn't be more thrilled about it.

Ella and Silas are busy bees - Ella has soccer training all summer. 6:15am  every morning.
Silas has decided to focus on wrestling and tryout for football this fall. His soccer days are apparently over.

We just returned from a family trip to Colorado and I have so many pictures.  I'll need to do a day by day. I'll just say - it was amazing and I can't wait to go back!

Where Did 2012 Go???

There are only 2 days left in 2012.  Honestly, I don't much care for how the year went.  Seems like all of 2012 was a blur, I spent it playing catch up at work and at home, and I lacked a lot of motivation...

But anywho, here is what we've been up to:

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year at our house after taking a two-year hiatus. I enjoy having it at our house.

My FB post: This morning I'm thankful that the children who were driving me nuts yesterday, are quietly playing together with a cardboard box (turning it into a spaceship). I'm thankful for a hardworking husband that is just as good at kissing boo-boos and caregiving as he is at building rooms and fixing just about anything. I'm particularly thankful today to feel healthy again. I'll be standing by in a Hazmat suit as Justin prepares the turkey. 
For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.
 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Mason had his Senior pictures taken by on of our extremely talented photography neighbors. I procrastinated to the point where we finally HAD to get the year book picture in and she very kindly squeezed him in! I thought they turned out awesome - very "him".

Here is what Lori said about Mason:
Mason - Hilliard Bradley Class of 2013
What a great way to end my Fall senior sessions tonight with this equally handsome and charismatic senior. I was very impressed how comfortable Mason was not just having his photos taken, but how well he kept up a conversation with me. I don't remember being able to talk this well to adults when I was in High School. 

I know the next 5 months are going to go crazy fast as we try to prepare for Mason's May graduation, figuring out college and his 18th birthday in July...phew...scary!!

Sadly, 3 days before Christmas:
FB - We were very blessed to have Zoe as our family companion for 15 years. Today we said good-bye. We will miss our sweet Zoe girl. She'll always be with us though...there's not a chance in hell we'll ever get rid of all the dog hair in this house.

Fifteen years with a pet in your house is a long time.  My kids don't remember a time when she was not with us.  I was looking back at old blog posts and pictures of Zoe and saw this post from 2009.  We will miss her so much :(

With that all going on, I was feeling very unprepared and not much in the mood for Christmas and birthdays.  Christmas Eve morning I was still out finishing up my shopping and hadn't wrapped a thing.
It managed to get all pulled together (by 3am)...

And we had a very nice Christmas morning

The only bummer was that Mason had to work at noon, so he missed the Christmas dinner and festivities at Mom and Dad's. He was less than happy about that...

And on the 26th, we celebrated Silas' 7th birthday!
This boy is growing up way faster than I can keep up with.  My Smiley Siley isn't a baby anymore.

And now it's time to try to recover, clean up, get organized and prepare for a 2013 that doesn't get away from me quite like 2012 did.  It will be a challenge!!

Baby boy, part 2

Silas lost his first tooth last night!! He was brushing his teeth and noticed blood. At first he freaked out and cried a little and then he noticed his tooth was missing. We both panicked a bit thinking he had spit it down the drain but after wading through a little toothpaste spit, I found it clinging to the side of the sink.



Now he has a nice gaping hole and is so excited to have lost his first tooth!
The tooth fairy came and gave him a whopping $5 for this first tooth (but he was warned that the others don't pay out nearly as well!)

- Posted on the go from my iPhone

Baby Boy

Last night Silas had a tough time going to sleep. He was up and down 5 or 6 times - his tooth was wiggling and hurt, his eye hurt, his belly didn't feel good. Just all kinds of ailments that manifested in his body and brain while trying to avoid sleep. Finally I asked him if he'd like me to rock him for awhile. He said yes and crawled up onto my lap.

His legs hang down to my knees and he weighs almost half of me but I was thrilled to have him snuggled up on me in the dimness of his puppy light (that's his night light), rocking together and me rubbing his back. I enjoyed it greatly but almost in a bittersweet way...thinking soon he won't have even this teensy bit of baby left in him. When it was time for him to get back into bed, he hopped off my lap and got in himself. He's really about too big for me to pick up and carry anymore.
Time seems to move at warp speed with him, even more so than with Mason and Ella. I don't feel like it's possible that he's a day over 3 but he'll be 6 in just a few months!!

Luckily, he's doing a great job of recording his own childhood on my iPhone. I have no fewer that 90 self portraits of him stored on it. It eats up a lot of my space but makes me smile when I see them :)








My silly baby boy.

- Posted on the go from my iPhone

Preschool Graduation and All Star Soccer

Busy week for the OH Youngers!  While still recovering from the fun but tiring holiday weekend, we had to get back in the swing of things pretty quickly with Silas' graduation on Wednesday night.  It was so cute and made me cry (or course).  He was so excited and proud of his cap and diploma.

They sang a graduation song


and he got his preschool diploma.

It sounded SO crazy for his principal to say that he will be the Class of 2024 - and yet, (not) so long ago, I remember thinking that Mason's class of 2013 was forever away...and now it's just around the corner!

I love seeing my little guy still holding hands and looking little.  I know those days are numbered.

On Thursday night, Ella had her All Star soccer game (the one that got canceled with all the storms last week).  It was a great game!  Ella scored an awesome goal and her team won 4-3. She is so competitive on the field.  It's so fun to watch.

I love when she sits on the ball and watches the game.

She and her Cheetah teammates (Avery and Alice) had fun playing together one last time.  We get new teams with the Fall season :(  We will really miss the Cheetah girls that we played with the past 2 seasons!

I'm already looking forward to the next soccer season.  I hope to get E in a summer soccer camp so that she can learn some new stuff over the summer. 

Tomorrow morning, Justin and I will set out on our own competitive adventure - it's FINALLY Warrior Dash time!  Really, the only competition is between me and death.  I'll be happy with crossing the finish line in one piece so that I can sit (or lay) and enjoy my Warrior Beer!

Schoolapalooza 2010

Just like I thought it would...summer has FLOWN by and it's back to school again.  Time is a strange thing!
The kiddos have successfully completed the first week of school and almost a 2nd.  The schedule was a little rough at first - 3 kids, 3 schools at 3 different times but it's starting to flow now...just in time for no school on Monday!

First day pictures - Mason is thrilled as always to smile at 6:40am.

Mas in all his Sophomore glory!

Miss Boo is a big 2nd grader and her teacher will also be her teacher in 3rd grade. I can never remember the teacher's name (it's tough!) so it might take me this year and next to get it memorized!

We've been walking every day so far.  I love walking the kids to and from school. The girls keep asking me if they can walk by themselves and I would, but I'd miss it too much!

McKenna, Ella and Kelly walking to school
*Ella has her Skullcandy backpack.  She absolutely refused to get any other...

Si is doing afternoon preschool this year.  He was REALLY sad that he didn't have his old teacher but is right next door so he sees her all the time!  He gets to ride the bus to school from Kelly's. He looks like such a big boy getting on the bus.

(thanks for the bus pictures Kelly!)

 Hard to believe my baby is just a few months away from turning 5!

School must be really tuckering him out because he had an accident while sleeping the other night - while sleeping beside ME...and he peed all over my arm while I was sleeping. Then, after I put him back into his bed, he had a 2nd accident a few hours later.   It was a rough week with his potty mishaps!!

Ella is starting Girl Scouts next week and I think she will REALLY like it and we'll get to sell the cookies - YUM!! We're all looking forward to a GREAT school year!

Happy Birthday to My Girl

"You won't remember how it started with us, the things that I know about you that you don't even know about yourself. 
We won't come back here."

Kelly Corrigan - Lift (2010) 

Dear Ella,

Today you are 7 years old! You have been waiting and wanting your birthday to get here for months. And today, as you celebrate being 7, a part of me mourns just a little bit. My heart catches to think of you another year older, another year closer to growing up, and there's not a darn thing that I can do to slow it down. You've prepared me from Day One though.  Your independence has been fierce since the day you were born.  One thing that you don't know now but I'm sure I will hold over your head many times down the road:  you almost killed me within your first 6 months of life.  You never slept (okay, you actually slept about 14 minutes a day). Within the first 6 weeks of you being home I had mastitis, strep throat, a uterine infection and felt like I'd been tortured by the Mafia. I was so rundown and exhausted.  Oh, but you were such a beautiful baby those minutes that you did sleep.  I could hardly pull my eyes away from you  as you slept, to finally get some sleep myself, because you were so peaceful and perfect (and I was probably in shock that you were actually sleeping).  You slept propped up in my arms at night for months on end, and Dad and I did try tough love.  We tried to let you cry it out but you won, always.

Your sense of adventure started early. You loved to stand on Dad's hand and balance. Nothing frightened you.  When we look through your baby book, this is one of your favorite pictures. You love looking at your baby pictures - "why didn't I have any hair?" is a favorite question.  I guess because I didn't either and you seem to be looking a lot like me (so I've heard).

You might look a lot like me, but you've definitely got your own personality.  You play hard.  And you crash hard. You sing, you dance. I call you Crazy Girl at least 5 times a day. You were never a good napper, but sometimes you exhaust even yourself. 

You have your own sense of fashion.  From the time you were old enough to walk, you've fought me tooth and nail about what you would wear.  Sometimes nothing but dresses, sometimes nothing but capri's.  Wool tights in August.  But it's always YOU. I even ask you what I should wear sometimes...

You have a beautiful spirit. You don't seem to fear hard work if it gets you what you want.  It used to scare me because often when you fell down or got hurt, you wouldn't cry.  But now I know it was your pride that stopped you from crying. Pride and stubbornness -you've got a lot of that too.

One thing that often amazes me and Dad is your focus and determination when you are working on projects. You can work on art projects or play with your dolls for hours. You really only get bored when you aren't doing what YOU want to be doing.

You are still at the age where you want to sleep with me and Dad some nights. Sometimes it's you AND Silas wanting to sleep with us - that gets a little crowded. As much as I fight to keep you in your own beds, I'm often secretly happy when you win, or find your way into our bed in the middle of the night. When you do, you usually hold my hand as we fall asleep. You snuggle in and again, I find myself fighting my tired eyes so that I can watch you as you sleep, just like when you were a baby.

As much as I want to keep you little, keep you safe, keep you mine...I am also excited to think about the person, the adult, that you will be someday. You will have the world by its tail. You've got a lot of drama and a lot of queen in you but you say you won't be an actress. Maybe not but whatever you decide to do with your life, it's going to have to be big enough for that personality of yours.

(Melissa Jones Photography)

"Remember this. This is what love feels like. 
Don't take less." 

(Kelly Corrigan - Lift)

 

I feel like it's my special day on your and your brothers' birthdays. You are the gifts that dad and I get to celebrate over and over. We thank God for you every day. My birthday wish for you is that you enjoy every moment of your 7th year and that your passions, tenacity and rambunctiousness grow right along with you.

Happy Birthday sweet Miss Boo. 

We love you!

 

So Sweet

Ella brought this home from school on Friday but I just found it in her bookbag with her progress report. Sniffle, sniffle...