2weeks**4days

Two weeks and four days since my last post.

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Friday, August 1st, the Monkey had surgery.

He had his ear tubes removed and new ones put in, along with his adenoids removed.

We arrived at the hospital 2 hours prior to surgery time.

He was so happy and playing great with his toys,  even enjoyed watching TV.

Once it was time to prep him for surgery, he became very agitated.

When it was time for the nurse to take him back to the O.R., he screamed and cried for me.

Broke.My.Heart.

After surgery they carried him back to me crying and disoriented.

The anesthesiologist told me he was pretty sure everyone in the O.R. was able to hear my little boy.

It took awhile for him to come out of the drowsiness but once he did he was in great spirits.

Here is he is almost an hour after his surgery

 AND, here he is a little bit later.

At home trying to rest while watching the Disney Channel!  I can tell a huge in improvement in him since the surgery.

I know he is feeling much better.

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Bedroom Makeover for the Princess

Before and after photo of her dresser

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It's BACK-TO-SCHOOL Time!!!

So hard to believe summer is over and another school year is beginning.  

Superhero is in 2nd grade

Princess is in her third and last year of preschool

Monkey is embracing his first year of preschool

Back to school = No T.V. at bedtime.

No T.V. at bedtime = Sad, sad kiddos.

At this very moment they are praying for the weekend to arrive!!

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GIRLS NIGHT OUT!!!

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The weather has been fabulous.

Highs in the 80's with a light breeze.

Superhero and I went on several bike rides and it was SO much fun!

I played a little baseball with the boys. I'm really horrible, but they still let me play!

~~~

Hope everyone has a great week and I can't wait to catch-up on your blogs!!

What a busy weekend....

Saturday night the Superhero celebrated his 8th birthday with his friends playing Laser Tag!

There was so much going on that I failed to take any photos.

BUT

I did manage to get a photo of the cake!

~~~

Bedroom Makeover for the Princess

This project remains a work-in-progress

My husband is on labor duty and I am on shopping duty!

Sunday morning I headed out with the older two kids to pick out the perfect shade of pink.

This ended up being much more difficult than I had imagined. There are SO many shades of pink!!The Princess and I picked out what we thought would be just the right color.

Oh.My.Gosh.

It looks like bubble gum is splattered all over the walls! 

Each time we enter the room we feel like we are entering a candy store on crack.

Would you like a lollipop?

The most important thing, though, is that my little girl absolutely adores it.

She is in love with the color.

Whenever we have guest over, she immediately directs them to her room to show off the new color.

 She is so proud of it.

I suppose it does fit her personality. It is bold, loud and sassy!!

~~~

Mr. Monkey is experiencing some major ear pain.

Poor little guy has the worst ears.

He had tubes put in both ear canals over a year ago and it appears that we are headed back to the O.R.

He keeps his little finger in his ear and says "it hurs momma, it hurs".

OH.MY.GOSH.

Breaks my heart.



Never Allowed to Eat Popcorn Again

My younger two children are NEVER allowed to eat popcorn again
...seriously,
never eating popcorn again!




Leave them alone for a few minutes and this is what happens




~~~
On a side note, here is the Princess playing dress up with her puppy!
(the glove is on the dogs tail)

I’m gonna miss this, right???

I have a quiet moment and what do I do….

I blog about my craziness!

I really don’t want to forget the moments in my day

that make me want to pull my hair out piece by piece,

because I will miss these days, right???

So far today, a finger has gotten stuck in a camera

Sunny D has been split on the kitchen floor

Pages have been torn out of a bible

 Then the bible got thrown in the yucky water that was in the mop bucket

Salt was shaken out onto the counter and floor

Items such as finger nail clippers, tweezers and Q-Tips were thrown into the toilet

There has been a lot of giggles, screams and crying

(The screams and crying were coming mostly from Momma)

All of this was done long before 8:30 this morning by my Monkey.

That's not including what my other two darling children have been up too!

Now you may be asking yourself, does she watch her child?

I do, I swear….I really do.

So I want to know, do you have days / moments like this?

Am I alone in my craziness?

Please tell me you have days like this!!!

I need to hear that I'm not alone in this madness.

Well, Handy Manny is about ready to go off which means Momma better get out of computer world!

Happy Wednesday….Hope you are having fabulous day.

Playdate with a Monkey

Today I had a very special play date with my Monkey.

We went to Pump It Up while the Princess and Superhero were at school.

I wasn’t there to socialize with other Mothers ~ I was only there to play with my lil’ guy.

There was a lot of giggling and running and jumping.

We had so much fun together.

I love being able to spend one-on-one time with each of my children.

As you can see, the Monkey was sad when it was time to head home.

Basketball

The monkey loves playing basketball in the house.
Here are a few photos of his father showing him how to throw the ball

Here he is waiting to see if the ball went in .... and it did!

He made numerous shots all by himself.

Some of his lil' sayings while playing ball:

• "TaaDaaa"
• "Itz Mine"
• "Itz My Ball"
• "Catch It"
• "Ohhh Gosh"
• "Nooooo"
• "Daa-deee ... Get it"
• "Yay" **Fist made, Arm pulling down toward waist**

Such fun times.....

Potty Time

My youngest is on his way to being potty trained!

I am SO thrilled.

He has officially started using the "potty" this past week.

He is really proud of himself too.

He gives us a high five, throws his arms up in the air and yells "Yeah"

Then flashes us this little smile

He is too cute!

It's a *Green* Day

Happy St Patrick's Day.

The Princess would only stand still for a moment

and the Monkey did not want his picture taken at all.

(He wants to go outside, NOW!) Maybe I'll be able to get a picture of the Superhero to post later this evening.

Have a *fabulous* day and don't forget to wear your green!

Baseball's coming...

Baseball is HUGE in our home

so we are anxiously waiting the arrival of opening day.

The Superhero has had tryouts this week

and is doing very well.

I'm so proud of him!!

The Monkey is also getting ready for "Ball-Ball".

He is very fortunate, as he has his father and big brother

to teach all about the sport.

Here is a photo of my little guy playing ball with his dad

Party Time for the Lil' Monkey

For Mr. Garrett’s 2nd birthday it only seemed fitting that it be held at Chuck E Cheese. The guests arrived by 10:00 to celebrate this very special occasion. CEC was not busy and it ran very smoothly. I had a reservation or two about having the party there, but in the end I am glad that we did.

I had been so sick prior to the BIG Day with the awful flu that has been going around. I was able to pull myself together and attend the party. My mom had to take charge for me though ~ there was simply no way I was up to taking care of everything. Oh who am I kidding, that is me with anything I do!!!
I’m so sorry I just made this post about my special little boy all about me. I have a bad habit of doing that….Sorry Garrett!

For me, the cake is the center of the party. I have a huge obsession with having the prefect cake. Garrett’s theme was Curious George, because Garrett is my lil’ monkey. He is just like George….always into something and yet very adorable while up to mischief. I was just tickled pink with the cake. I thought it turned out perfectly! If you look up at George’s left elbow/shoulder area you will see that the cake has been tampered with. Mr. Garrett stepped on the box that the cake was in right before the party. I almost had heart failure. Luckily he didn't fall completely on the box!!!
It's Happy Birthday time! We started signing "Happy Birthday To You" days before his party and he just loves the song. He signs along and thinks it is terrific. My Mom helped him blow out the candles b/c I didn't want to breathe all over the cake. I'm sure the guests were pleased with my decision! I do believe it was Garrett’s mission to destroy this cake! He kept trying to smack it. He accomplished this goal once! Unfortunately for Mr. Garrett his piece of cake was almost all icing
Daddy tried to help him with it but Garrett was disgusted and replied "Uck".
The most memorable part of the party for me will be Garrett dancing and singing. He loved it and had so much fun. He is full of life.
Nolan was disturbed with Melody and me at this moment. Not sure what was going through Miss Maggie's mind....

Nolan had spent the night at a friends house the night prior so he was VERY tired!
Garrett was Uncle Dennis's lil' buddy. They played a lot of games together and this one was Garrett's favorite! Of course it was, b/c he was able to make a mess with the water.A sweet pic of Miss Livia. Isn't that smile just so sweet? Next year she will be down chasing Garrett everywhere...or maybe he'll be chasing her! Garrett loves his cousin very much. I wish we would have gotten a pic of them two together....
Garrett had a lot of fun playing in this car with his cousin Riley.

A very good picture taken by Amanda of Matthew and myself with our handsome and adventurous lil' boy.

Happy Birthday Garrett. I hope you had a wonderful time at your very special party.

I think he did have a wonderful day. He fell fast asleep watching Handy Manny on the "T".

Isn't this picture priceless?

A Very Special Little Boy

Sunday was Mr. Garrett’s 2nd birthday, I’ll post more later on how we celebrated his very special day, for now I just want to reflect on Garrett.

Garrett was a “surprise baby” to us, meaning we had not planned on a third child. I was so afraid Matt would freak out when I told him there were two pink lines on this little white stick in the bathroom. Matt took the news really good, in fact I didn’t even tell him I was pregnant he already knew by the way I was acting.

We had his parents, my parents and my grandparents over one evening to share the news with them. I bought an ice cream cake and had “Grandparents for the 3rd time” written on it (I didn’t have a lot of space to work with). And of course, everyone was excited and took the news very well.

Maggie was only 15 months old at the time ~ She had no concept of what was going on. We would just point to my tummy and say "baby". For the longest time she thought everyone had a baby in their tummy. She even thought she a had a baby in her tummy!

Nolan was just before turning 5 when we found out. He was so excited. Did I mention he had been praying for a little brother? Well he had been. He prayed every night for months asking God for a baby, but not a sister because he already had one of those, this time he wanted a brother. He was on cloud nine when we shared the news with him. Talk about making someone a believer.
We found out we were having a little boy sometime in October, I think. His father was so proud to be blessed with another little boy. You could see the relief come over him when he heard the news. (Not that he doesn’t love his princess, becuase he does.)

We had chosen his name prior to finding out the sex. We decided on Garrett for a boy. It was the only name we could both agree on but we both really liked it. The middle name didn’t come until after I delivered him. I tossed around Matthew, after his father, Lee, It’s Matt, Nolan & part of Maggie’s middle name, or Kenneth, after my grandpa who I am named after. Matt left the decision up to me and so Kenneth it was. It is a mouth full, but a strong name. Garrett Kenneth. (May I just say this little boy is a lot like my grandfather…)

Garrett was born by C-Section on February 24, 2006. He was 8-12 & 19in. He was such a handsome little baby. I feel in love with him the moment I laid my eyes on him, well I was already in love with him! He had most beautiful completion. He was just prefect, absolutely perfect.

This picture was taken the day we came home from the hospital. My mom was holding her 3rd grand-baby! I just love the way his little hands are placed and how big the pacifier looks. A great picture of Garrett with his sister. She loves him so much. Maggie has been "mothering" him from day one! He will grow up to call her "LaLa". Melts my heart.

Garrett with his big brother, Nolan. Nolan was so proud of Garrett and still is. He takes very good care of him. They are best buds. Garrett will grow up and call him "Nonan".Garrett loved his swing. Doesn't he look tiny in it? Hard to believe....where does the time go?

Garrett started sleeping throughout the night by 2 ½ weeks. I was extremely lucky. He did have nights when he would be up, but for the most part he was a very good sleeper.

A sweet picture of three babies. Garrett looks a little scared in this picture, doesn't he? Here Garrett is a little happier w/his brother and sister.
Garrett loved to eat those gerber cookies. He was so messy with them...but I suppose all kids are.

Garrett was about 10months old when he started to walk. He walked earlier than the older two did. Garrett loved balls even he was just a little thing. Here is about 11months old.

"Happy 1st Birthday Garrett" ~ He loved his cake so much and did such a wonderful job eating it. He had cake everywhere. Mommy was so proud.A funny face that Garrett would make while eating! Such a funny baby.....This picture was taken in March of 2007, so he was 12-13 months old. Already climbing up slides....I almost had heart failure when I turned and saw him. I knew life as I had known it was over!

He pulled his bath seat out of the tub one day and decided to sit in it, then....
he decided, why not go for a walk! Priceless.

I just love this photo of Garrett ~ He looks all boy.

Garrett learned how to climb in and out of the crib from his wonderful sister, Miss Maggie, in November of 2007 at the age of 20months. At first, I will admit I thought it was cute. Then, it just became down right annoying. But that’s not the point ~ the point is, Garrett loves to climb in and out of his crib and stand on his crib rail while yelling at the ceiling.
Garrett gets a thrill from jumping to Daddy! I just had to snap a quick photo....
This is the latest picture of the 3 kiddos together that I have. Not sure what they were doing but I do know that they were having fun together. Garrett loves his big brother and big sister so much. He'll tell me during the day "Nonan at school Momma" or he'll ask "Where Lala go"

He is an adventurous little boy who keeps me on my toes every second of the day. I love him terribly. I am so thankful that God blessed our family with this precious little boy. What a blessing he is to so many people in his life. I don’t ever want to take a moment of my time with him for granted and always appreciate him for who HE is. He is prefect. After all God made him just the way he is.

I love you Garrett.

Mommy