Memories of us......

A few before and after pics of our new house

2010-08-29T16:36:00.001-07:00

Our dinning room before

and after

Family room before....

and after!!

Thanks to all of our friends and family that really helped us get this place in shape!!

Second part to this past year

2010-08-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

So after spending countless nights, weekends and thousands of dollars working on our new house we finally moved in over Memorial day weekend. Thankfully we had some help from friends and family members to help us complete the demolition of two bathroom, painting and ripping out floors. As for the moving we hired a moving company!

In June my aunt and uncle and their daughter came out from Utah to visit for a week. My uncle is a building inspector and knows how to do just about anything when it comes to home repairs so he and Ed agreed to stay back and work on the house while my aunt and I and all of the kids headed to Ocean City for the week.. I know not to fair but they got a ton done while we were gone.

So while I'm away Ed calls me to tell me the next door neighbor that had been so extra nice to us since the second we bought the place had just bee arrested! I was completely shocked. Of course Ed being totally non social had no clue why he had been arrested. So the next day the local paper comes out and turns out he was arrested on charges of child molestation.

Let me tell you I was floored. He seemed like the nicest guy on the planet.. mowing our grass, offering to help take a few trees out on our property, filling us in on all of the activities in the area for the kids etc.

So anyway he posts out on bail and is STILL awaiting his trial which was supposed to be in August and has since been postponed until this October.. talk about awkward.

He comes over to talk to Ed the day it hit the papers and never once says "Hey I didn't do this" . Instead he just goes on and on about that the incident occurred 8 years ago and tells Ed not to worry cause we are not in any danger.. gee thanks.. that makes me feel so much better. so needless to say we have cut all ties which makes it so awkward to even go in our backyard when he is in his back yard which for some reason is like every two seconds either to mow the grass.. water the lawn or work in his garden. We are in the process of having a 6 foot fence installed as soon as our permit goes through.

The whole thing makes me so mad... at first i wanted to sell this house immediately, but after thinking it through I guess it's better to have the information then to not know at all...I'm still hoping that somehow he is innocent and the victim recants the entire story.

I'm back.. well sort of!

2010-08-16T16:56:00.001-07:00

So it has been over a year since I last blogged. So much has happened since last summer. In August of 2009 we put our townhouse up for sale ( it was getting a little tight with having 3 kids and 3 bedrooms)... we were anticipating a long wait before it sold based on the housing market and were totally surprised when we got an offer in about 45 days So by closing we still had not found "our dream home" so we moved everything in to a little tiny apartment ( and a ton of stuff to a storage place). The apartment was horrible to say the very least, and I think we all went in to a slight depression living there! Finally in January we put a bid in on a house that we really liked only it was a short sale home and let me tell short sale means anything but short when it comes to waiting on the bank to give you and answer on your bid.. in March after some haggling back and forth on the price we FINALLY came to an agreement and settled on March 26th 2010 ( also known as Jillian's second birthday!)

Next came the two plus months of painting, reflooring, ripping out bathrooms etc.. and on memorial day weekend we moved out of the terrible apartment and in to out new home. ( I will have to post some pictures later.

At the End of January Alexis started to feel sick so we took her to our family doctor for a check up, after some blood work it turns out her platelets were over doubled of what they should be.. from there were sent to a hematologist at children's hospital and to an infectious disease specialist.. after some more testing we were told she had Llymes disease.. 3 weeks of doxycycline and another couple of tests with zero improvement, the Lymes disease was eliminated as the cause. Over the next few months there were several more appointments more blood work, a cat scan, ultrasound, 2 genetic mutation tests and a bone marrow biopsy. ( The biopsy for me was the worst) For two days I had to wait for the results hoping and praying that the platelet count was not due to a type of myleoprolific or lymphomic cancer) We were told the odds of it being a cancer were 40% (scared the life out of me literally) After all of that and now we are 7 months in to this we still do not have a firm diagnosis other than that if her platelets remain in the millions for an entire year and they do not ever find any type of cancer she will be solidly diagnosed with a blood disorder call Essential Thrombocythemia or ET for short. In a few weeks we have another appointment and yet again more blood work and then a follow up Marrow biopsy in December. so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things go well.

So much more to blog about as far as the past year goes, but I will have to do a little at a time to try to catch it all up!

SeeHere Photo Sharing

2009-11-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

SeeHere Photo Sharing

Camp

2009-07-19T17:31:00.001-07:00

So Marissa left today for her first overnight camping experience!!! She decided this year for the first time to go to sleep away camp. In past years when Alexis has gone she wanted nothing to do with it. She hardly ever sleeps away from home.

Last year she went about 45 minutes from here to stay with a friend from school that had moved out of the district and at about 2am I got a call that she was scared and wanted to come home...so I drug myself out of bed and Ed and I drove up to get her... by the time I got to her friend's house she was dead asleep on the couch!! Could have killed her!

The camp is about an hour from here so I'm hoping she makes it through and stays until Friday as planned! Crossing my fingers!

I told her a million times that once I signed her up and paid for her spot that she would have to go and stay there the whole 5 days. When we were having these discussions a few months ago she was completely fine with it, but as the day got closer and closer she seemed a little hesitant. There were only a few tears when I left her today so I'm hopeful!

We miss her already!

I took my camera today hoping to get some pictures before we left her there, but as we were pulling up tpt he camp I went to set up my camera and realized that the memory card was still at home in the computer! :( (Ed's fault) LOL So needless to say the piture avove is an old one!

Marissa's Tournament

2009-07-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

By the time we got a new camera tournament was just about over so these are all of the pictures I got this year :(

It wasn't our best season anyway. Alexis was not drafted this year and Marissa's team lost every single game.

They all played their hardest, but we came in last place which was kind of surprising to me because last year we only got beat once and in the end we finished in second place. Guess that's just how it goes!

Marissa was catcher this whole season and absolutely loves the spot. Guess she is following in Alexis' foot steps!

The highlight of the season for Marissa was during our first tournament game. A girl from the other team was coming in to home when Marissa noticed that the girls foot never touched home. So she turned to the umpire and told him. According to tournament rules the umpire is not allow to assist in telling her what to do so all he said was "what are you going to do about it?" Marissa remembered from one of Alexis' games a few years ago that you could "challenge the play" She told the pitcher to toss her the ball then she tagged home plate and the girl was out, no run scored!

Marissa was so proud of her self and so was her coach. I think she has learned alot over the past few years watching the older girls play! Good for her!

Hope we do better next year!

Finally

2009-07-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

We finally got a new camera!!!! Just wanted to throw a few pictures up of Jillian since she is 16 months and I have not been able to take any for so long. I missed all of her being 15 moths!

I can't believe how old she looks in this one just hanging out watchin a little coos coos as she calls it ( blue's clue's) and in these pictures she looks like a total redhead. Sometimes in a brighter place it looks blonde. Hard to tell since she still doesn't have very much!

Looks super red here to.....hmmm maybe she is a red head! I called that as soon as I found out I was pregnant.. both Ed and I have red heads in our family..neither of us have red hair so I figured she would. I always heard it skips a generation.

She is finally starting to talk... some of her words are cacka (cracker with no "r" sound), alessis (alexis), wissa (marissa), up, and sometimes you can get her to say peas (please). and of course coos coos for her favorite show at the moment!

We are also trying to take the bottle away right now which hasn't been going very smooth. the first morning that I tried to put her milk in to her cup, she threw it at me and screamed! So we are only giving her the bottle once a day first thing int he morning. None at daycare and none before bed anymore. That morning one is going to be tough. I think ti would be like someone telling me I couldn't have coffee in the morning anymore... so I feel her pain! LOL

She's Going

2009-07-15T16:37:00.001-07:00

So after a few weeks of back and forth on trying to decide IF I would be able to let Alexis stay with my Aunt for the month of August and fly back here on her own...we have come to a decision!

She will be going, but I changed her ticket to a flight where there is a stop but no change of planes. When I call the airline customer service to change her flight I started talking to the rep asking if they had a lot of unaccompanied minors that fly. She said a ton and was surprised that I was this worried about a 12 year old doing it. Kids only have to be 5.. yes 5 to fly alone!! WHAT?!?? Are you kidding me? I could NEVER do it.. i would be a nervous wreck the whole time putting a 5 yr old on a plane alone!

So needless to say Alexis is thrilled!! And shocked i think that I finally said yes. Let's say a little prayer that all goes well and I don't have a heart attack when she flies back here ALONE next month!

Parenting Dilemma

2009-06-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

So Alexis has been invited to stay with my Aunt in August ( we will all be flying in for a week and then going home). Alexis has been invited to stay for an extra 3 weeks and then fly home a few days before school starts. She would be staying to help take care of her cousin for a few weeks ( she is 5 and Alexis is 12).
Alexis and I have talked about this for the past few weeks and I really am leaning towards not letting her stay and just fly home with us as originally planned, but she is not letting up.

My reasons for not wanting her to stay are because I'm scared to death to let her fly back on her own. My aunt lives about 3,000 miles from here and there is a change of planes during the trip. I know Alexis is responsible enough to get from one plane to the next, but everytime I start to consider letting this happen I get physically ill in my stomach. All I can think about is 911 and the "what if's". i know me being on the plane with her would not stop any of this stuff from happening, but at least she would have someone with her IF it did. I know the chances are very slim of anything like this happening, but I'm terrified!!!!

Alexis was calmly asking me today if there was anything she could do to change my mind so after some talking we agreed to blog about it and see what other people think.. parents or not. So please comment and let me know what you would do if it were your kid ( even if you don;t have one yet).

This doesn't mean that I'm going to go with the most popular vote but I think ti will be interesting to see how many people think like me and how many think I'm way to over protective

BTW I have already called the air line and kids 12 and older are allowed to fly with a change of planes, but there is no escort to and from the gates! SCARRY!!!!!

... Alexis would like everyone to know that she is highly responsible and that the war is totally under control and that Barack Obama is ending this thing as we speak so NOTHING is going to happen! (her words)

Our Anniversary (3 Years)

2009-06-19T17:52:00.001-07:00

Wednesday was our 3rd wedding anniversary. We have a million pictures that one of Ed's friend's took loaded on to our computer so I decided to post some of them.
All of the professional ones are stuck in my wedding album and I'm not sure how I would go about scanning them! Maybe next year.

In some ways the last 3 years have totally flown by, but in other ways it seems like Ed and I have been together for a lifetime!

I still feel like I was so lucky to find him! I truly believe that he is the one person in this whole world that completely understands me, all of my moods, my ups , my downs and my in betweens!

I always tell him that I love our boring little life together. I don't mean that we are not busy or that we don't have fun together, I just mean that it is so nice not to have a ton of drama or issues in our marriage. That's something I have had a lot of and am glad that it has been left in my past!

I'm so happy to have gotten a second chance and got to see what it was like to be 100% in love with someone and have them feel the same exact way back!

I have yet to find something that Ed will not do for me or a time when he has not taken my side.

Since I STILL don't have a functioning camera ( did I mention that not only did my camera break, now my old one isn't working right either) I wasn't able to get any of us this year on our anniversary date night!

The biggest disagreement we had in all of the planning was over what our wedding song would be. I love country and he is obsessed with 80's rock bands! We ended up picking you had me from hello, but I so so badly wanted it to be bless the broken road by Rascal Flatts. Everything about that song reminds me of our dating days! Oh well, since he would not agree to use it I had my cousin sing it during our reception.

The entire day went perfect.

This picture cracks me up because leading up to the wedding I told Ed that he had better not shove cake in my face after I spent hours getting ready. Then he made me promise I wouldn't do it to him... HA HA HA.... I guess back then he didn't know any better! I was shoving such a huge amount in that it looks like his lower jaw is practically unhinged from his face!

Some of Ed's buddies trashing our car. You would not believe the stuff that was written on our windows.. I'll keep those pictures to myself. This is a family blog!

14 months

2009-05-27T19:12:00.001-07:00

First let me just say that all of these pictures were taken by my friend Michelle. I just totally stole them off of her site. As soon as I get back the ones I buy I will post them to!
www.michelleevansphotography.blogspot.com
www.michelleevansphotography.com

Jillian at this age looks EXACTLY like Ed. We can not go anywhere without at least one person saying... OMG she looks just like you! WHATEVER! I guess I just don't have any dominant genes because none of my kids look like me. Poor Marissa has been asked several times if she was adopted!

Hopefully she doesn't kill me!

Jillian turned 14 months yesterday and these pictures were taken last weekend. I love every single one of them and am so thankful to know someone as talented as Michelle.

I'm in love with her smile in this picture. Jillian is pretty shy compared to the other two at this age. She's kind of quiet (like ed) and takes a while to loosen up!

Jillian, I want you to stay small forever. Right now I worry that since you are so far behind in age from Alexis and Marissa that you won't have any one to grow up with. For this reason only your dad and I are seriously considering having a 4th child (gulp!) If that never happens I have begged Alexis and Marissa to make sure that they are always always close with you! Your laugh lights up my day and your dancing cracks me up every time I see your little feet stomp around!

NY Trip - Shrek

2009-05-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

Two weekend's ago we finally made it to NY to see Shrek the musical for Alexis 12th birthday. We decided rather than have a party we would head up to NY for the day. Her birthday was back in March but we wanted to go when the weather was a little warmer.

Since my mom bailed out on us last minute, Alexis got to bring a friend of her choice. I was so so so glad when she chose to bring Amy along! Love this girl!

We took a bus trip up with Grandma Smith, one of her fiends and Ed's cousin Janice. I didn't get a ton of pictures because unfortunately our camera is STILL broken and I hate the old one.

The girls were thrilled about this sign and joked that Alexis's friend Amy owned it. They just had to run in and buy something!

We got there at about 9am so we had a ton of time before the show started at 2. Luckily about 2 blocks from where we got dropped off there was a huge huge food festival. Tons of food and little craft tables set up. The girls wanted to head to Times Square, but we spent so much time at the food festival that we didn't get time.

When we bought the tickets for Shrek I really didn't think I was going to like it all that much, but to my surprise it was hilarious! We were all cracking up at the guy who played the donkey! To to funny!

After the show we went for dinner at a place called the Stardust dinner. It's a little place where all of the servers dress in 50's clothing and sing. Our waiter was telling us that everyone that works there is trying to make it broad way and just doing this until they get their big break! It was cute, but my old crappy camera would not get any shots in the restaurant..they were all way to dark.

We had such a fun day!

Mother's Day

2009-05-27T18:26:00.001-07:00

I know I'm really late getting this posted but hey I have been busy! Mother's day this year was so awesome. I got to sleep in til noon, watch whatever I wanted to on t.v all day while enjoying my very favorite... Starbucks Mocha! All three of the girls made me "home made" gifts ( the best kind). Alexis wrote me an awesome poem that read..

Stacie

Mother of Alexis, Marissa and Jillian

Loving, Helpful, encouraging and ecstatic

Says, "I'm not your maid", likes coming to our games, and facebook

Loves her family, spending time with us and Max

Smith

I loved this idea... and the card just about made me cry. Not sure why but I guess just because she took the time to actually think about what I like!

Marissa made me two cards and a drawing of she and I together.

Jillian's school sent home a little heart with her tiny little hand prints on it ( got to love that!)

And then Ed, gave me a gift certificate for a massage and manicure to a day spa right near our house. I can not wait to use that! We finished it all off with a huge family style dinner at Maggiano's with Grandma Smith. Almost forgot I also got a gift card from Grandma Smith to Starbuck's!!

I could not have dreamed up a better day if I tried!

Alexis and the Art Show

2009-05-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last month Alexis had two pieces of her artwork selected for her school districts art show that was held in our local library. I was completely surprises since I have zero artistic ability.

These were the last few pictures I took before my camera decided to break!

This picture of the lady bugs is my absolute favorite. It was inspired by the room decor in Jillian's room. Jillian's room is themed with lady bugs and flowers. I plan on framing this one to hang in Jillian's room.

Alexis was getting so embarrassed because I kept making her pose in front of her work.... but she did it anyway!

In Case You Were Wondering!

2009-05-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Yes I know it has been weeks since my last post. My freakin camera is broken. I took it a few weeks ago to an art show at the library that Alexis had a few pieces of art work in and when I got home and went to turn it on to show Ed her work... the dumb thing would not even open. It kept coming up "lens error" UUGGHHH! SO annoying. I think I have an old camera around here somewhere, but I just need to find it or better yet.. get Ed to look for it since he is the one that probably put it away somewhere!

Anyway.. lots has been happening and I'm missing it all! LOL Tons of softball games. Jillian turned 13 months. Ed and I had a date night to see....
Dane Cook! That was awesome.. loved it!

Anyway hopefully I will get the camera fixed, find the old one or buy a new one in the near future. In the meantime you will just have to read my boring words with no pictures or just ignore my posts until the pictures are back!

Easter

2009-04-13T17:58:00.001-07:00

The night before Easter we put Jillian to bed and then the older girls dyed Easter eggs. I figured she was to little this year, but hopefully next year she will be ready for it. This was her right before she went to bed.. all smiles as usual! Her face in this picture absolutely cracks me up! She reminds me of a little mouse! ( well really a rat with her nose all scrunched up and her two big front teeth showing!)

Alexis and Marissa are so artistic! LOL

Easter morning all of the kids came downstairs and hunted for their baskets then Alexis and Marissa got ready to go to church with Grandma Smith. They were both so excited about helping her usher this week and about having the Easter egg hunt at the church.

Alexis looks so much older to me in this picture!

Later in the afternoon we headed over to Ed's cousins house for Easter dinner and yet another hunt.

Jillian had fun playing with all of the eggs before they were hidden....

and then later she discovered that they had candy in them!

Alexis, Marissa and Ed's cousin Rachel counting up all of their eggs!

All of the "kids" after the big hunt. I put kids in quotations because Lauren really isn't a kid.. she will be going off to college this fall!

It was a fun day, we walked over to a little park that is near their house and let the kids play for a while. Then later we had a contest.. everyone had to decorate a hat and bring it to be judged. We left before the judging was finished, but everyone was really creative!

I still need to put Jillian's first Easter Bunny picture up, but I will have to scan it first because at our mall.. taking your own pictures with the bunny is highly discouraged!!!

Max is 4

2009-04-11T18:53:00.001-07:00

On Friday Max turned 4! The first two pictures are from a few weeks after we got him 4 years ago. He was such a little ball of fluff back then. My moms two dogs had a few litters and after the passing up a puppy the first time around I just had to have one.

At the time Ed and I did not live together but were engaged. I lived in an apartment that didn't allow dogs so I had to beg and plead with Ed for weeks to get Max and then for Ed to keep Max at his place for the next 3 months until we were planning on moving in together. And let me tell you.. it really took some pleading. Ed wanted no part of a little dog messing all over his bachelor pad!!! Finally he gave in and I went to my moms house to try to decide which of the 4 puppies I wanted to take home. As soon as I sat down on the floor next tot he puppies Max immediately ran over to me and I knew he was the one for me!

I have NEVER in my life loved an animal as much as Max! He was great for the girls and even though Ed completely hated him in the beginning, they are the best of friends now! I often remind Ed that HE didn't want a dog! LOL

I know I'm a little bias but isn;t he just the cutest thing you have ever seen?!!?!

We celebrated his birthday with a doggie peanut butter cookie and a meat stick.. He loved it. As you can see he was very excited for Marissa to give him a piece of the cookie!

I know the cookie was a New Years theme, but the birthday one was HUGE and way to much for such a little dog to eat!

Now if I could just get Max to love Jillian as much as he does the rest of the family we would be set. He is not a fan of her. Any suggestions on getting him to like her are welcomed!!

Nancy's Wedding and Baltimore

2009-04-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Ed and I headed down to Maryland for my friend Nancy's wedding. Nancy is a friend of mine that I met in tech school for the Air Force. As I was talking with some of the people at the wedding most of which I have not seen in atleast 10 years it dawned on me that I have known Nancy for almost 14 years... it seems like yesterday that she lived just down the hall from me. CRAZY how time goes by. Anyway last weekend she and her fiance Keith were married.

She looked absolutely beautiful! It was a perfect day for a wedding. The reception was outside on a balcony over looking the water.

Tori was so happy the whole time. It was great. I thought back to my wedding when Ed and I got married and Marissa (who then was about the same age as Tori) cried her eyes out for about 15 minutes becasusefor some reason in her little head she thought that once I married Ed that meant that I would be leaving to be with him and she would not be a part of that. As soona as she caught up with me out side of the church and was reassured that we were all staying together.. it was smiles all night LOL

I think Tori looks like a mini Nancy!

Here is the happy couple just after being pronounced man and wife!

Rick also announced this weekend that he is engaged. We still have not met Sarah, seems like every time we get together she unfortunately has plans. Last weekend she was in Nebraska, her hometown visiting for a long Easter break :(

While Nancy and Keith were having their first dance as a new couple I thought it was so sweet that Tori came right up and joined in!

Since we were so close to the Inner Harbor we decided to meet back up with Rick for lunch at Ed's very favorite place ESPN Zone.. he can not get enough of their nachos and the only other one that is even semi close to us is in NY.

We had a nice little mini-vacation without the kids. Thanks goodness for grandma's!

Happy Birthday Little Bean!!!!

2009-03-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Jillian is one today! Since she was so sick last week she has been here at home all week. She has been feeling much better the last day or so and I was so glad she was in a great mood for her cake tonight. Grandma Smith came over right after work tonight with a delicious cake from her favorite bakery. It was such a cute cake! We turned out the light, lit the candle and sang happy birthday. At first Jillian was a little shy about it and was really hesitant to eat her cupcake. Once she figured out how great it tasted she loosened up and dug in!

Love this picture. She was laughing along with the older girls as they laughed at her eating her cupcake!

Grandma Smith brought over a bunch of adorable new clothes, a first birthday picture frame, a Backyardigans movie and a baby songs CD, but Jillian was more interested in the box that everything came in!

I love this dress and I can't wait to have Michelle take her one year old pictures in it!

We have decided to have her "party" in May when the weather is better

A few things you like at 1...

Shaking your head no at dad and I

Any kind of music you can dance to

Pointing out on our faces where our eyes and nose are as we say them to you

Favorite food is pasta pick ups

Listening to Marissa laugh (everytime Marissa laughs at you, you join in)

Rocking on your little pony

Making your funny face.. I will have to try try to get a picture of that!

Happy Birthday Alexis (12)

2009-03-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

In the middle of all of the chaos with Jillian being sick, Alexis turned 12. She is a St. Patty's day baby. 12 years ago she was born at 1:29 am and has been a night owl since day one! These days she loves sleeping in til noon and being up all night (at home of course) She is very independent and can not wait to get away and go to college. She already has it all planned out. She wants to go to Penn State! Of course I joke with her that that would be wonderful since there is a Penn State campus about 15 minutes from our house, so I say.."that's great, you could live at home and go to college and I could still see you every single day".. then she reminds me that it's the main campus hours away that she wants to go to! LOL.. so funny how at 12 you think you know exactly where your life will go!

The night of her birthday this year Jillian was really sick so we stayed in and she and Ed and Marissa went out for ice cream. I have had a trip planned for she and I for months but didn't tell her what we were doing until the day of her birthday.

In May we are heading to NY for a broad way show and lunch! She seemed thrilled when I told her she could pick the show!

Here are a couple of random shots of her over the last few months. I need to dig up and scan some baby ones because when she was that little I didn't own a digital camera!

It's always so crazy to think about how fast they grow up. Alexis and I have so many personality traits that are the same and so many that are completely different! This makes for an interesting mother/daughter relationship! I wouldn't trade her for anything! in the world!

JILLIAN IS BACK!

2009-03-23T04:47:00.000-07:00

Well she got released from CHOP yesterday afternoon! We are back at home and she is lsowly getting back to her normal self!

Hopefully that was our one and only stay at CHOP forever!

She won't be able to go back to day care this week, but by next week we should be back to our normal schedule! Except for now I'm a little paranoid about germs!

Quick Update

2009-03-21T15:56:00.001-07:00

I just got back home again from CHOP and things are looking a lot better today. They removed the I.V last night and took her off of the oxygen this morning. She still is not drinking much but ate a small breakfast, lunch and dinner today! If her breathing stays above 90 even while she is sleeping tonight then they will let her come home tomorrow!! Today while she was napping they did fall down to about 85 but hopefully tonight they will stay up, if not it's back on the oxygen. Let's just pray that doesn't happen.

Today I was able to pick her up and she even played a little and smiled.. slowly getting back to her normal self!

As I walked around the hospital over the last few days I came across a lot of little kids that were in serious serious conditions. Some of which had been in the hospital for months! I hope to god I never have to go through anything like this again and I think it takes a very strong person to watch their child go through months of hospitalization and differnt proceedures and treatments. We have only been there since Wednesday and I'm so ready to be done with it and have Jillian home... I can not imagine enduring months of this.

I'm really hoping that tomorrow this will all be over!

Heading back down

2009-03-20T05:59:00.000-07:00

I'm on my way back down to CHOP in a few minutes. Ed called a little bit ago and said that Jillian did pretty well overnight. They were able to lower her oxygen and are hoping to keep lowering it over the next little while until she is back to breathing on her own. She still hasn't eaten anything since Tuesday, but was able to get down a few ounces of pedialyte last night! The doctor came in and said they are going to try and remove the I.V and see if she will start to eat on her own later today. I'm taking some pasta pick ups down with me just incase all else fails.. they are her very favorite and if the doctor allows it...hopefully she will eat them. I'm assuming they are going to start with a smaller more liquid diet, but when she's ready I want to have something there that she loves!

It seems alot better than when we originally took her in and they were talking about the possibility of moving her to the PICU and inserting a feeding tube. That was scarring the life right out of me! Hopefully things are turning around!

CHOP

2009-03-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

It's a very long story with what has gone on over the last week...

Jillian started running a fever Sunday afternoon and when she got up from her nap was breathing really heavy and I could feel her heart beating really hard and fast. I called our pediatrician and he seemed to think everything was ok and that that her heart rate and breathing were increased because of the fever.. which he said was a common thing. Monday morning she seemed a little better, her fever was down but we decided to take her to the doctor anyway. He put her on a nebulizer and sent it home with us to do breathing treatments at home every 4 hours. He guessed that she had a common infection called rsv and that this had most likely caused her to get bronchiolitis ( a swelling of the bronchial tubes). Monday night it only got worse, her temp went even higher and the breathing sounded worse even after 2 treatments so we took her to the hospital. They ran some tests, took a chest x ray, did two more breathing treatments and sent us home. Tuesday she was miserable. She slept most of the day, didn't play at all and stopped eating and drinking totally. We were literally trying to force her to drink by squirting juice in to her mouth with a medicine dropper. Wednesday was her follow up appointment with the her doctor. Ed took her in and he sent him back to the hospital.. from they they finally agreed that something was wrong and that she needed to be admitted for more tests and observation. By this time she was dehydrated so they gave her an I.V along with another chest x ray and more breathing treatments. The treatments did nothing!! The doctor decided to start her on oxygen becasue while monitoring her breathing she was up to over 110 breaths in a minute. They noticed some spots on her lungs in the xray and decided that she should be sent to Children's hospital. They took her by ambulance last night and she has been there since. They still are not certain exactly what is going on but the good news is the fever has come down and is now only around 100 degrees. The bad news is she can't breath with out the oxygen tube so she will have to stay until it is all figured out and she can breath on her own. They have given us a couple of possibilities, but none have been right yet. They thought maybe it had gotten so far in to her lungs that she now had pneumonia... but after the radiologist looked at the last x ray... he ruled that out. The test for the RSV came back negative but a test for a different virus came back positive. On top of this she now has a double ear infection! Ed and I are both pretty much freaking out and hope that they will eventually figure out what exactly is causing all of this. Ed refused to leave the hospital tonight or at any point during the day today, so I decided to come home with the older girls, get some sleep and head back in the morning. Hopefully they will know more tomorrow and I can convince Ed to come home and get some rest while I stay with her!

Ed has been really good at sticking by her no matter what they are doing to her, she had a catheter yesterday and I just HAD to leave the room, I have to get away from it or I will go crazy! It's a good thing she has him there! Ed sat up with her all night on Tuesday night with Jillian on his lap becasue he was afraid to lay her down. Everytime we layed her down she would cough and then her breathing would get worse. I get so upset that I can not stand to stay and watch it all! At this point we can't even hold her because there are to many things hooked up to her and if you try to hold her.. things start getting unhooked... it makes me so sad.

I know that some of you that read this are big on prayer and some of you are not, but even if your not just play along and please keep her in your thoughts at least and for anyone that believes in the power of prayer please please say one tonight for her!

I'm confident that she is in a good place and hope that everything will be ok, but then I have this horrible feeling in my stomach that worries me to death! I pray that my mom instinct is wrong and that this is just a viral infection and will run it;s course and go away!

11 Months

2009-03-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

Jillian turned 11 months on the 26th of February! I have been so relaxed with taking pictures that when I went to post this I realized I had not taken any of her in the last month other than on Valentine's day.. so I got the camera out and tried to get in a few shots. She was not at all cooperative! I wasn't able to get her to look at me at all.

So then I had Marissa try to hold her still so I could get a picture. Her face in this shot looks so defeated! LOL. It cracks me up. She was about 2 seconds from screaming at the top pf her lungs so that Marissa would let her hands free!

She is now totally walking and starting to say just a few words. Of all the words to say first.. she says "eyes" We started teaching her eyes nose and mouth and pointing to them on our faces and then on hers. Well she finally picked up where everyone's eyes are and now that is pretty much the only word she says other than the occasional "mama" when she is upset!

When I get her out of her crib in the morning she grabs at my eyelashes and says "eyes, eyes". Kind of funny!

Most of the time she is pretty laid back and very lovey. She will randomly just come over and put her head on my shoulder or give me a big slobbery baby kiss with her mouth wide open and then start cracking up! Ed and I have been so on the fence on whether to have one more baby or just leave it at three. On a good day.. I'm all for it, on a stressful day I can't even think about it! So we will shall see! It doesn't help that we have 10 friends right now that are pregnant! I keep thinking that down the road Jillian would like to have a sibling closer to her age! I just keep going back an forth with it. I do know that IF we decide on more I want to be pregnant before I turn 35 which gives us about 2 and 1/2 years to decide, but then again I don't really want them that far apart! uughh decisions, decisions!!!

Father Daughter Sock Hop

2009-03-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

Friday was Marissa's school's annual father daughter dance. This year they decided to make it a 50's sock hop which I thought was such a cute idea.

Marissa decided that since Ed has gone with her the last 2 years she would ask her dad to go this time. Surprisingly he actually showed up this time. Late of course but he showed. She said she had a good time. I wish I would have volunteered to serve dinner this year so I could have gotten more pictures of her and her little friends.

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Marissa told Ed a few weeks ago that he would be her back up just in case. I think sometimes it is hard for her to pick between the two "dads". Poor thing.. she asked me if it would get Ed upset if she asked her dad to go this year instead! She is such a thoughtful 9 year old and always thinks about other people's feelings!

I snapped this one real quick when I dropped Marissa off at the school before they went inside!

She said she had a good time but that next year if it's a sock hop she will stick to rolled up jeans and not a poodle skirt. I thought it looked adorable!

Growing Up

2009-02-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

Ok so Marissa was "my baby" for so long, almost 9 years. For a long while I thought she would always be the baby. I didn't imagine having anymore kids before I met Ed. Since Marissa was about 4 we have played this silly game just about every morning. Alexis, Marissa and I used to live in an apartment which only had one bathroom so every morning right before I got in to the shower I would wake the girls up and tell them I was getting in the shower and to get up and start getting ready. Every morning Marissa would come in while I was in the shower. As soon as I would hear the door open I would say to her...

ME: Hey who's in here??
Marissa: It's me
Me: Me who??
Marissa : Marissa
Me: Marissa who?
Marissa: Marissa G*****, your daughter
Me: I have a daughter?
Marissa: MOM!!!, yes you have a daughter, you have 2 of them ( after Jilly was born it became 3 of them)!!!!

I know it sounds silly but this went on every single morning until the other day when she came in to the upstairs bathroom while I was showering instead of going downstairs. (guess she was to tired to take the steps down!) I hear the door open and start to play our little "game" She immediately says to me.. "Mom stop it, you know who I'am!" I laughed alittle and then thought to myself how sad it is that she is not such a little baby anymore! :(
Then about a week ago she informed that she probably would move out one day and get married and will most likely have 2 kids. This is after about 6 years of me making her promise that she will NEVER EVER move out of my house and will live with me forever. She had always promised and even pinkie promised. ( Of course i knew it would never really turn out that way, but it was just fun having that little promise between us for a while.) So when she told me all of this I said to her very seriously... Marissa!!! You promised.. I can't believe it, everything is changing and your growing up! What am I going to do now? Who's going to stay with me? She got a sad little look and said... Well ok, I guess "we" ( her , the husband and 2 kids) can all just live here with you! HA HAHAH! I was cracking up! I know it is normal for kids to grow up and have their own lives, but I feel like when the time comes it is going to be devastating for me! I can NOT imagine my life without them in it every single day!

First Steps, Valentine's PJ's and a visit from Titi

2009-02-20T17:08:00.000-08:00

I have not had much time to blog lately and have been really lazy about bringing my camera when we go out.

About 3 weeks ago Jillian started taking her first steps. about a week later she was able to make it 1/2 way across the living room and now she is all over the place. I can't believe how fast this first has gone by. She will be 1 already at the end of next month. 2 weeks ago she moved up to the new class at daycare! She seemed so little to be in there already.. but has done great and I think she started to get a little bored in the old classroom because most of the babies were under 6 months. The other day I walked in to pick her up and she was just sitting there on a little chair in front of the table having her snack.. she seemed like such a big girl out of the high chair. They have even gotten her to nap on a mat which I can't even imagine doing here at home!

I know my pictures are a little out of order but I didn't feel like fixing them. Last Friday Aunt Crystal (or titi, as the girls call her) came for a visit and stayed with us til Monday. We haven't seen her in a while and it was so nice having her here. It was so weird for me seeing her now that she is totally grown up and in college. I still think of her as the little 5 year old that she was when I met her. She looks a lot like what I imagine Alexis to look like when she is 20.

On Valentine's day when I woke up, Ed gave me a card with first level Kenny Chesney tickets!!!

Grandma Smith came over and Ed cooked dinner for all of us girls! It was so sweet of him. He and I celebrated alone on Sunday and went to dinner. I figured it would be so crowded on Saturday. Then Sunday I finally went to see Twilight with Kristen and Crystal. The only place that was still showing it was like 45 minutes from here. It was an ok movie, but after reading the book it was a little disappointing. I guess the book is always better than the movie. :(

I loved these cute little PJ's that Jillian got from Grandma Smith. Hopefully my little video clip at the bottom will work. It took for ever to upload and looks like it only got 1/2 of the video.

First Steps

Quick Update

2009-02-17T18:01:00.001-08:00

I have been so soo behind on blogging... a few weeks ago Jillian started walking and I need to upload the video on to my blog. SHe is in to absolutely EVERYTHING!!! Ed gave me Kenny Chesney tickets for Valentine's day ( can't wait for that) I have been wanting to see him for a while. Alexis' basketball playoffs start tomorrow. Her team is in 4th place.Should be interesting! I can;'t wait for softball season to start! Clinics and "tryouts" start March 1st (YAY) This weekend we had a visit from Aunt Crystal ( Ti Ti) who we haven't seen in over year because she is now a busy college student! It has been crazy lately and no time for blogging. I do have quite a few pictures but just haven't found time to get them up! Hopefully soon!

10 months and SOOO sick!!!

2009-01-26T12:31:00.001-08:00

Always so excited to get a hold of something that you shouldn't have! The older girls things are always so much more fun than your own toys!

Growing up so fast.. does anyone think she is at all starting to look more like me???? She is like a miniature ED

10 months today... normally you are so happy and active, getting all around the house, taking your first steps and loving your family so so much. Marissa is your biggest fan these days. It seems like no one but her can do anything the right way when it comes to taking care of you. ( Not even me, according to Marissa). In some ways it can be very annoying but in other ways it is so sweet the way she wants to protect you from everyone and everything!

Over the weekend Jillian stated to get really clingy and sate in my lap for hours on Friday night and Saturday. This morning I took her to the doctor and she has an ear infection on top of the cold that started this past week! Poor little thing. Marissa woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat and then had a fever this morning so the three of stayed at home today! Both kids were pretty miserable today... Jillian is so cranky and whiny and there is nothing I can do for her but give her the medicine and love her. (she has been literally attached to me all day!) It makes me feel so helpless!

I can't wait til you are feeling better and back to your normal happy self!

Mexico is over and now it's back to reality

2009-01-18T11:24:00.000-08:00

We're BAAAACCCKKK!!! So our Mexican vacation is over and we are home. We didn't have the best weather this time around but it sure beat the 18 degrees we were welcomed home to last night when we stepped off of the plane! This is going to be a long post and I really out of order. There were way to many pictures to blog all of them so I tried to just pick a few of my favorites. Second thing is there are a lot of self portraits of Ed and I. Since we went alone this time there wasn't anyone to take our picture except for the few times I asked a stranger. (which neuter of us likes to do)! Last thing is since the weather was cooler than we had expected I feel like alot of the pictures of me I have on the same jacket.. well that's because I didn't bring a light jacket and had to buy one there so I wore it almost every night! LOL

I love this place. Everything is so beautiful. The beaches are so clean and the you can actually see your feet when you stand in the water and tons of fish swimming all around. It's nothing like the Jersey shore. In some ways the beaches remind me of when I lived in Hawaii!

All of the landscaping at the resort is in perfect order. It seemed like there was constantly someone around straightening up or trimming something. The picture below is one of the pools where we spent most of our time. The little hut you see is a swim up bar. I didn't get in the water at all (to cool for me this time) but Ed hopped in a few times. If you don't feel like swimming over to the bar there is a waitress that comes by about every 2 seconds to see if you need more to drink. It was so nice just being lazy all week. No kids, No laundry, No work, no cooking... nothing just sit around and be waited on. I missed the kids a ton and Max, but boy is it hard to be back to all of the daily responsibilities!

One of the many self portraits!

Ed outside of Senor Frogs in Playa Del Carmen. Right next tot his place was a jewlrey store and standing out side of the store was some kind of security, but it was sort of scarry because he was guarding the store with what looked liek a freakin machine gun. I took a picture and I will have to remember to put it up later.

Thursday was the day with the most rain. We had a trip planned to snorkel in Isla Mujeres, but decided not to go when we woke up and saw that it was pouring! They were calling for rain on Friday to so we decided not to reschedule. Friday came and it didn't rain at all so we missed out. I guess there is always next time. We spent most of the day Thursday just hanging out inside the resort drinking and reading. ( I finally got to finish the third book in a series I have been reading since August, Twilight, LOVED IT! I can not wait to start the 4th). Once the rain stopped Ed and I found some lounge chairs under a covered area near the beach and hung out there for quite a while talking. It was so nice to have this time for just the two of us. It seems like life around our house is so hectic all of the time!

These last two pictures are of our room the day we arrived. Everything was in perfect order and the maid service comes around twice a day to clean your room for you!

Ed and I were talking and want to try to plan another trip back to Mexico hopefully right after Easter in 2010. This time we want to invite and many of our friends as possible and take the kids along. As soon as we find out pricing for 2010 I'm going to put the invitation out there for anyone that wants to join us..... hopefully we can get atleast a few other families to go. I think this place would be so much fun everyone to go together. It;s so big that you wouldn't have to spend every second with each other but if you wanted to you could.

A little side note.... The day we were leaving the bell boy came to our room to take our luggage and I noticed right away that did not have the regular Mexican accent that everyone else had. I asked him if he was from Mexico originally which he answered ye he was. He then went on to tell us a crazy story... He said that he was born in Mexico and when he was three months old his mom came to America (illegally). He lived in CA until he graduated from high school at which point he was offered a partial scholarship to a college in CA. In order for him to attend the college he had to get all of his paperwork straightened out (since technically he was illegal in the USA). His mother contacted an attorney and got the advice that he should return to Mexico and stay there for a few months and file the paper work and come back to the US the right way. SO he did. A few months later his mom is unable to find the lawyer that was helping her and he has been waiting for ther last 4 years for an answer to whether or not he can return to the US or not. OK so this story seemed absolutely crazy to me. I said why don't you just get a passport and go back and try to get it straightened out? He told me that they do not give out travel passports to the US very easily at all. His mom and two sisters live here and according to him.. once his mom had a baby in the US that made her legal and since the sisters were born here they are also legal. He is the only one stuck over there basically because of his mom's mistake. We then got in to the discussion about the resort and the people working there. Since it is all inclusive and they tell you NOT to tip, I was curious how much they got paid. He claimed that the salary of a "laborer" ie, bell boy, waitress, landscaping.... was only $6 a day... WHAT???? Are you joking?? was my reply.... He swore it was true. For some reason I have a really really hard time believing this. Anyway in the end I wondered if this was true or if he was just sort of going to extremes in hopes of a big tip??? Anyone have anything they would like to say? Think it's true????

Back to our honeymoon spot :)

2009-01-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning Ed and I are going to Mexico back to the same resort that we went to for our honeymoon 2 years ago! Just Ed and I and no kids. When we booked this trip it seemed like a great idea. Now that we are actually going and leaving the kids behind I want to cry. I know they are all in good hands but leaving Jillian for a week is breaking my heart at the moment. Hopefully once we get to Mexico and start to enjoy our time together I will feel better about it. We took Alexis and Marissa last year right after Thanksgiving to a place in Mexico similar to this one and vowed never to bring them back since they fought with each other the entire time!

I think I'm coming down with something. My stomach has been killing me so let's hope that my trip isn't ruined by a stomach bug! Below are a few of our pictures from our honeymoon!!!

I know I will miss the kids, but I am looking forward to our time alone together! This place was so much fun the first time around. Not sure if I will blog or not while on vacation. If not I will post everything when I get back next week!!

2009-01-06T14:46:00.000-08:00

Right before the Christmas break and my two weeks off, we decided that we wanted to take Jillian out of the day care center that she has been going to since October. Many days I walked in to her class room to see that there were 6 or 7 babies and only one teacher. After talking with the director about it and having it happen 3 more times Ed and I decided it would be best to just look for a new center. I don't feel like any one person can take care of seven infants under a year old. I did really like her teacher and the assistant, but they were NEVER working on the same days let alone in the same room at any given time. Both teachers were so friendly, but I felt so uncomfortable leaving her there on the days that her room was pretty much full and there was only one adult in the room.

Jillian's first day at the new place was yesterday. So far everything seems to be ok. Only now she has started that stage where all she wants is me, so dropping her off this morning was heart breaking! One of the teachers was trying to help and put her hands out to Jillian.. Jillian screamed and buried her face in my shoulder. I got her to sit and play with some toys on the floor for a few minutes and then went to leave. I made the mistake of waving goodbye to her through the little window and she lost it and started screaming. I'm pretty sure it only lasted a few minutes but I felt horrible leaving her there. When Alexis and Marissa were this little they didn't go to daycare so this is kind of new for me! I KNOW this is just a stage she is going through but it really came at a bad time! Let's just hope this place works out!!!!???!!

MARISSA'S FIRST GAME OF '09

2009-01-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Marissa's first game of the season was this morning. This year there seems to be a bit more action!!! Last year on her second grade team everyone was still just barely learning and it didn't make for very exciting games! We are not yet at the age where they run the score board and make a big deal over who won or lost and they still only play 1/2 court, but it was still a lot more fun to watch this year. Here are few shots of Marissa doing her thing!

I love her so serious and concentrated face in this picture. See how her tongue is shoved to one side of her mouth??? Total concentration!!!!

And Alexis actually rolled out of bed this morning to come and watch. This made Marissa extremely happy. She is always saying "Alexis never supports me and she never comes to my games". So today we were all there cheering her on!

Jillian munching some cookies to try to keep her still. She is so at the age where she wants nothing to do with sitting around!

This should be a fun and exciting season!!!

A Few Days With Ray

2009-01-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas the girls went to have their once every 6 month visit with their dad. They saw a movie and went to lunch. Before he came down the girls asked if he could drop off their cousin Ray with us for a few days. So here he is... Ray stayed with us from Friday until Tuesday evening. Their was a ton of football and Guitar Hero. The girls were thrilled to see him. I think it has been over a year since the three of them have seen each other. Ray is 9 just like Marissa and they all had a blast together.. that is until the girls started fighting over who would hang out with him.

Marissa ended up feeling alittle left out by the end, but all in all they enjoyed their time together!

9 Months

2009-01-01T18:58:00.001-08:00

The day after Christmas you turned 9 months... You love to explore and are becoming extremely mobile! In to everything is an under statement!!! So close to walking. Yesterday you took two little baby steps and then dove in to my arms! You like to play in the trash, with the tree ornaments, Alexis' saxophone, Max's dog food, climb the stairs, and anything else you can find that isn't a toy that belongs to you! It is alot of work keeping up with you!

You forever have a huge smile on your face and are almost always in a terrific mood! You make your dad and I laugh out loud at least once every day! We have been so happy watching you grow and learn!

Christmas Eve and Morning

2008-12-25T20:02:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve was so so busy. We spent all day cooking. The girls made sugar cookies and decorated them. I didn't get any pictures of that since I was busy making chocolate chip cookies and getting everything put together for our dinner. Here is Marissa's snow man cookie that she took a picture of "for the blog"! Marissa loves for me to blog everything and Alexis wishes I would blog less!

We had Grandma Smith and her friend Laura over for dinner. Later on my mom came over and both grandmas spent the night to be here for Jillian's first Christmas.

Not sure if anyone else will notice but there is a little bruise on Jillian's right eye. I was so annoyed when I picked her up on Friday from day care and this is what I saw. We had pictures scheduled for Sunday. Luckily Kiddie Kandid's was able to photo shop the bruise out of the pictures!

Alexis was happy that Santa brought her a gift certificate for a salon on our street so that she could get purple extensions put in to her hair over the Christmas break!

I really didn't expect much of a reaction from Jillian this year since she is still so little. We were so surprised that when we woke her up at 7 this morning she was in a great mood and even seemed excited each time we helped her open up a present. She was laughing and smiling the whole morning. She loved this little tickle me Elmo. I think Grandma Smith liked it almost more than Jillian did. She was laughing harder than the doll watching it wiggle around and seeing Jillian's reaction!

This was Marissa's reaction when she suddenly heard a phone ringing and figured out where it was coming from and that the ringing cell phone belonged to her. She got a Disney Firefly and was ecstatic! Totally made her day!!

We got to relax all morning and then spent the afternoon at Grandma Smiths house with some of Ed's family! I never look forward to all of the work that goes in to Christmas but I do love seeing the kids faces on Christmas morning! Our house is still completely trashed (toys from one side tot eh next) and I need to find room for everything. I just wish the day could last a little longer!

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

I have been so behind with blogging lately. Last week I met with my friend Jen for dinner and when I got back the tree was all decorated! Ed and the girls did it without me.. I know.. RUDE!! but honestly decorating the tree has never been my favorite thing to do. Luckily the girls were smart enough to snap a few pictures for me though.

Looks like Jillian liked the feel of the fake tree! SHe has been pretty good over the last week at staying away from the decorations. Only one ornament broken so far!

Pretty sure Ed took this picture. One of his lovely Sports ornaments!

Then yesterday we headed over to Kiddie Kandids for our holiday pictures! Although we made an appointment it was still packed and they were about 40 minutes behind schedule which made it a little difficult. Jillian was NOT in the mood yesterday! Needless to say I wasn't impressed this time with the final product. I loved the ones we took over the summer at this place in a different location, but this particular store wasn't my favorite!

Not the worst picture ever but definitely not my favorite of all time!

Update

2008-12-11T14:02:00.001-08:00

I realize that I need to update my blog but other than shopping, getting things together for Christmas and the kids basketball practices... I have not had much to blog about! Stayed tuned.. maybe something exciting will happen soon!!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T09:07:00.001-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving day in Peddler's Village at the Cock N Bull Restaurant the same as we have for the last 5 years. 5 years ago when Ed's dad passed away just a little before Thanksgiving his mom decided not to stay in and cook all day but came up with the idea of going out for Thanksgiving dinner and we have done it every since. The first year it was just Ed, me, his mom and the girls. Some years we have had as many as 22 family members with us but this year... it was back to where we started but with one extra little girl ( Jillian). I love all of the little shops in Peddler's Village but unfortunately most of them are closed on Thanksgiving day so we usually just eat and then head back to someone's house. This year we spent the evening at his Ed's cousin Janice's for dessert and watching some old slides of their family.

Fake smiles...

and then Alexis started slipping off of the railing ....

Real smiles!

Just the 6 of us this year!!!

Maybe some day one of us will decide to go back to cooking and staying home but I don;t think it will be any time soon! This place has a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and the best part is that none of us have to clean it all up!!

8 Months Old

2008-11-29T08:44:00.000-08:00

November 26 Jillian turned 8 months!! The time is going by so fast. You are such a happy little baby and so easy to take care of. It is crazy to me that you are the same baby that screamed for hours at a time in the first few weeks, making all of us think that we were going to go insane!

I love your tiny little fingers and your adorable little face. You are always smiling so big and making us all laugh. Your able to stand on your own and are almost ready to walk. For a very long time I thought I would only have 2 kids and could not imagine myself having a 3rd. Thank goodness I did, you bring so much joy to all of us! Alexis nad Marissa werea little worried when they first found out that you were on your way here, but now they are the best big sisters anyone could ask for. They literally can not keep their hands off of you. I don't think any of us can imagine life without you here! You h ave fit in to this family so easily and we are so thankful to have you in our little family!

Bath time is your very favorite time of the day!

Alien Results

2008-11-29T08:26:00.000-08:00

Since I want to move on and blog other things I have given up on getting any more comments on our alien debate.
Just so everyone is clear.. I DO NOT believe in aliens. I think it is completely ridiculous!!! And unlike Kristen and Tracy... please if you have one hiding in your house or know where I can see one.. let me know I would love to meet him/her! HA HA HA! Call me closed minded and a silly earthling.. or whatever else you wish. I'm not buying it!

Ed on the other hand.. totally buying in to it. This is one of very few things that Ed and I are on completely opposite ends of!

One thing that Ed said to me right after I posted the debate entry was that he thought it would come down to men seeing it his way and women seeing it my way, which going only by what people said on my blog was true. The anonymous # 1 was a man and I'm still not exactly sure who #2 is but I'm guessing that it is also one of Ed's male friends!

I LOVED Michelle and Merry Jo's comments.. I'm so with them... WHO CARES and why waste our time?? "One of you seriously believes in alien's "???? HA HA

I still don't think either Ed or I really got more votes, so we will just have to continue to disagree on the subject! The debate here at my house will just continue on but that's ok because I get so much fun out of watching Ed get so worked up when he talks about it and tries to get me to believe it and then so irritated at me becasue I won't even say ok.. MAYBE there is something out there! It cracks me up every time!

Thanks for all of your thoughts!

The Great Alien Debate

2008-11-25T18:42:00.001-08:00

Ok everyone, the ongoing debate in our house (this has been going on for at least the last 4 years) is over whether or not there is life on other planets! One of us says there most definitely is and one of us says hell no.. are you crazy?

I don't want to post yet which of us (Ed or me) thinks which way because I want to get people's honest opinions on what you think.

One of us says that there are thousands of planets that we as humans have never been to so obviously there has to be some form of life on at least one of them and the other just laughs and says yea.. ok and I guess soon the little green men will be here on earth trying to abduct us for research! HA HA HA!!

One of us says don't you know that 1/2 of the people on earth agree with me that there is life on other planets.. and again the other one laughs and says yea... "the 50% of the earths population that is certifiably nuts"!!

So.. IF you are reading this and even IF you have never ever commented on my blog before, please let me know what you think..... even if you want to make an anonymous comment that is fine by me! I just want to prove that more people will side with me than with Ed!! Let's see what happens. In a few days I will post which of us thinks which way, just so everyone knows! Thanks in advance for your opinions!!!

Holiday Parade

2008-11-25T13:23:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend my mom and cousin Aidan came to visit. Because of certain circumstances this is the first time Jillian and Aidan have played together. He is 2 months older than Jillian and they got along well this past weekend!

Sunday was our annual Holiday Parade. This year both of the older girls were in the parade. Marissa carried a flag for our local church to advertise for First Friday. (The first Friday in each month there are community activities all along the main road and all of the little shops are open). Alexis was in the parade this year with her school marching band.. she plays the saxophone!! This is her second year playing and can I just say...MY HAS SHE COME A LONG WAY!!! Last year was painful at times! LOL

Jillian is forever smiling! It was freezing out but she was a trooper!

Marissa and her flag!!

On Monday we had a visit from the "L" family. Amy Bobbie and Mrs. L were the very first people we met when we moved up here 5 years ago. They were our neighbors for a few years until Ed and I got married!

We Are Getting Way To Old For This!!!

2008-11-16T18:46:00.001-08:00

Last weekend Rachel, Kristen and I heard that NKOTB was doing an after party at the Borgata in Atlantic City so what did we do??

We drove over two hours to get down there to stand in line at a club and wait for them in a standing room only bar! Did we have tickets to the concert there?? NO!!

Just went and waited, and waited and waited....

They finally made it to the club a little after 1am, by this time we were so tired from standing and waiting that after about 45 minutes of NKOTB doing nothing but leaning over the second floor railing... WE LEFT and drove over 2 hours back to Rachel's and then Kristen and I back to our area! FUN FUN FUN!!! Let me tell you. I didn't get any good pictures of the guys because they had this fog machine going the whole time!

Eventhough we didn't really get to see them it was a fun night out and I got to sleep til like 1pm the next day while Ed was sweet enough to keep the kids out of my room. He actually posted a note on our bedroom door that said "Don't wake up mom" HA HA and they listened!! AMAZING!! that NEVER happens.

I would definitely do this again, but next time I would position myself on the upper level of the club the second I got in there!

Marissa's Sleep Over Party

2008-11-09T11:45:00.001-08:00

We have been so busy that Marissa had to celebrate her birthday almost a month late. Every weekend has been booked! Saturday night she picked to have a sleepover party. We invited 4 of her friends and only two could make it! Even better for me!! HA HA!!!

Marissa Maddy and E

Marissa and Maddy met in Kindergarden and have been best buds ever since!

Maddy gave her this cute little best friends hoodie. You buy two jackets and then they have a zipper all the way through them that you can unzip and then switch with a friend so instead of all white or all blue they are zipped together with half of each jacket.
I have never seen these before! So cute! I remember when I was in school all they had were the little necklaces that looked they were broken in half and then could fit back together.

Most of the girls were asleep by about 1am and then were up this morning at about 7:30. Not to bad. Still can''t believe Marissa is 9 though. I say the same thing every year... where does the time go?

NKOTB

2008-11-06T14:15:00.001-08:00

Danny, Donnie, Joe, Jordan and Jon ....together again!!!

Here are some of the pictures from last night! I know we are huge dorks but this concert was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was like going back in time! Except this time we were actually old enough to be served alcohol. None of us were drinking, but there were many that were which made for an interesting night. There were grown women flashing their "goods" and someone threw a bra on to the stage which Jordan decided to pick up and fling around. HILARIOUS!! The woman in front of us was so wasted that she fell down through 4 rows of people, hit the wall and was then promptly escorted out by security!! HA HA It was crazy to see that the place was pretty much sold out! (guess we are not the only ones that were so happy to see them back together again) When we walked in and looked around it was like stepping back to 1990. They were selling the huge NKOTB pins with the guys pictures on them. T- shirts, sweatshirts.... and people were actually buying them!! Rachel and I kept saying how crazy that was. I mean for goodness sakes we are 32 years old.. what on earth are we going to do with huge button?? or better yet where we would go that we could actually wear a NKOTB t shirt and not have people laugh at us!!! LOL

I know he was not most girls favorite, but Danny was always my favorite New Kid!! I was totally infatuated with him 17 years ago!! And let me just say that he is STILL my favorite today. He is close to 40 and still has an awesome body and can still break dance like a mad man!!! LOVE HIM!!!!

If they come back around I will definitely be going again.. I'm ok with being a dork!

It's kind of interesting to me that none of these guys have been very successful as solo artists but you put them all back together and they sell out the Wachovia Center!!

My Last 20 Years

2008-11-04T07:52:00.000-08:00

I saw this little thing on a blog I came across a while ago and decided to post it on mine.

20 years ago I was 12 and in the 6th grade. Rachel, my life long best friend was already established. She is still my best friend today. We had a sleep over at my house almost every Friday while I babysat my brother and sister! I had big puffy hair and was just starting my journey in to puberty!

15 years ago I was a jr in high school. I cared very litttle about my grades and very much about my social life!! I worked a part time job at Taco Bell and lived for my time spent with friends!!

10 years ago I was 22. Young but still responsible. I had just gotten out of the Air force and was living in Hawaii with my ex husband and Alexis. she was less than 2 years old and I was a stay at home mom!!! Marissa was not even thought of yet!

5 years ago, my divorce from my first marriage was finalized and the girls and I were living in a little apartment near my moms house! I had two crappy paying jobs, but we were all still happy and healthy! I met Ed that summer and had butterflies in my stomach every time I saw him!!

Yesterday I worked all day and then spent the evening with the girls while Ed worked!

Today, I'm married to the sweetest man on earth and we have 3 beautiful girls! I'm off from work today with the kids (they are off for election day) and we are headed out for a movie and maybe some lunch!

Tomorrow I'm reliving old times and going to a NKOTB concert with Rachel!!!

If your reading this, please post your last 20 years on your blog... I would love to see how other peoples lives have twisted and turned!!

Found one

2008-11-02T19:41:00.001-08:00

I just remembered that I had a printed copy of one from 2007 hanging on my fridge. I just scanned it in. Look at those sexy legs!!! HA HA I was pregnant last year and had a horrible time finding a costume so I finally decided to get some scrubs and be a plastic surgeon! Hopefully I can get Matt to dig up his pictures from last year!

Everyone always says how much Jillian looks like Ed.. Let's say a little prayer that this is not what we have to look forward to ! LOL

Matt's 5th Annual Costume Party

2008-11-02T19:20:00.001-08:00

Saturday night was our friend Matt's 5th annual costume party. As always it was a fun time! It is one of the few times during the year when the whole group is actually together! Seems like everyone is so busy!

Here are a few from past years. I'm missing all of my pictures from last year. Our computer crashed a few months ago and Ed fixed it just long enough to back up all of our pictures, unfortunately for some reason last years Halloween pictures didn't make it. I will have to get Matt to send me a few because it was the best year.. Ed was dressed as a woman.. SO FUNNY!!

2006

2005 (ed was a gorilla, but didn't have the head piece on for this picture!)

2004

Phillies Parade

2008-11-02T18:37:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of what we SHOULD have been watching on Friday at the Phillies parade

All of the player going by on big floats. Confetti being thrown all around! Everyone waving, clapping and enjoying themselves...

But as you can see by the below picture.. there were close to 3 million people that showed up!!! (these first three pictures were not taken by me, they were borrowed from the newspaper!

This was our view. This picture was taken by Marissa who was sitting on Alan's shoulders (he is about 6'5) holding the camera up over her head as high as she could and just snapping radom pictures!

The morning started out with all of us getting ready to catch the train to the city to line up for the parade. We decided to try to leave around 9:30, catch the train and be in Philly around 10:30 since the parade didn't start til noon. All of the news stations the night before were warning that you shouldn't try to drive down because of all of the traffic and it would be a much safer to use public transportation, which we foolishly listened to!!! Ed's friend Rob who was supposed to go down with us call a little after 9 to let us know that he had tried to take the train at the stop before us and that all of the tickets were sold out, which meant that by the time the train got to our little town it didn't even bother to stop! There was no room on the train and all of the tickets were sold out until the noon train.

We decided to try a whole different place to go and get the train. We drove about 1/2 hour from here and stood in a VERY VERY long line, caught the train and got to Philly just before noon to a spot that was about 6 block from where the parade was going to start... PERFECT!!...

Alexis and Jackson just listening to the crowd go crazy as the floats passed by!

Except for the fact that there were at least 1/2 a million other people in that very same location!! So needless to say we saw absolutely NOTHING!!! But it was an experience, possibly a once in a lifetime experience so I'm glad we decided to go!!!

Halloween

2008-11-01T17:21:00.001-07:00

Halloween day started off with all of us trying to get to the Phillies parade, which will be a whole separate blog. That was quite an experience! Anyway this afternoon Jillian's daycare had a Halloween parade for the kids. I missed it because after we came back from the mess in Philadelphia I felt like crap and decided to take some cold medicine and get in a nap. So Ed and the girls headed over to the celebration!

I found this costume over the summer at the Childrens Place and fell in love with it! It's a butterfly!

Later that evening we headed over to Grandma Smiths for trick or treating!

Yes I do realize that I look heavily drugged in this picture but it was the only family shot I got from the night so I used it anyway!

Jillian really liked Alexis' scary costume. She wasn't afraid at all!

Why are they posed liek this? I have no idea, they both love to make crazy faces and poses when I'. trying to get pictures!!

After trick or treating in Grandma Smith's neighborhood for a while we realized that there were hardly any kids around and the older girls wanted to go back by our house. So while Ed and Jillian stayed, the older girls and I went back home and ended up running in to a million kids from school! It was a fun night. Tonight Ed and I are headed to our 5th annual Halloween party at Matt's house!

World Series Champs

2008-10-30T20:21:00.001-07:00

THE PHILLIES FINALLY WON!!!!!

And guess who was there to see it all??? ... Yep you know it... he was in his glory!!

He only had to wait 28 years!! Ed was just telling me the other night that the last time the Phillies won the world series he was 4 years old and had no memory of it!!

I was at home last night when they won. We live a good hour from the stadium but that didn't matter. People here were going crazy. There were a ton of people out in the street honking their horns and screaming. The fire house down the street had their sirens going off. It was insane.

Tomorrow we are all taking the day off and heading down to the parade. I'm even letting the girls take the day off from school which in this house NEVER happens!!! I think Alexis was shocked today when I called her to tell her!! They are estimating that there will be at least a million people at the parade tomorrow. I hate crowds but I figure this will be a once in a lifetime experience and I don't want the kids to miss out!!

Backyardigans

2008-10-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

This is a very short little video clip! I wanted to get more but no sooner than I switched my camera to video mode and taped for like 1/2 a second and it beeped telling me my memory card was full. I have a bad habit of not deleting the old pictures off of my camera even though I have already saved them on to the computer. I will have to try to get a longer video of this soon

Every morning after the older kids have already left for school and Jillian and I are getting ready for work and daycare I usually have the t.v on the same channel. So every morning since I have returned to work Jillian has heard the intro to the Backyardigans. A few weeks ago I realized that every time she hears it she gets super excited and starts going crazy! The other night we saw that it was on right before her bedtime so I put it on to see if she would react so that Ed could see for himself. This is what she does every single time this show comes on! I can't believe she has a favorite show already! HA HA

I hope this little clip works once I have it up! I can not wait to show this to her one day! I think Ed and I get more of a kick out of it than she ever will!! BTW, don't mind Ed and I.. we are dorks and we know it! LOL

Standing Already!!??

2008-10-27T13:33:00.001-07:00

She was 7 months yesterday and growing up soo soo fast. Last week she started pulling herself up on everything! I feel like this is so early, but maybe since I haven't had a little baby in so long I just forget how quickly these things happen!!! She just seems so tiny to me still. I'm thinking she will be walking by Christmas!

This on cracks me up...it looks like she is being arrested!! HA HA.. "Up against the wall and spread em!!"

She is constantly standing at our back doors. I'm not sure if it is because she likes looking outside or if she likes licking the cold glass or maybe because she can see her reflection in the glass!

Hey can someone tell me how to get a video clip from my camera on here? I tried uplaoding one today and it wouldn't let me!!

Petting Zoo

2008-10-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

Jillian absolutely loves our dog Max.. however... Max has not yet totally made the adjustment that he is no longer the most adored creature in our house! Alexis and Marissa were about 8 and 6 when we got Max and so they were not little babies that needed our total attention, which left lots of time for us to play with Max and snuggle with him.. take him to the dog park and for long walks. Since Jillian has been born it has been a bit harder to find time for all of that (eventhough we still totally love him) So everytime Jillian tries to get near him or puts her hand out to touch him he runs away very quickly. I know she likes dogs because grandma Smith has a little dog that Jillian plays with. Last weekend we ended up at a petting zoo and she loved it! She was smiling so big and cracking up while touching all of the animals!

Here is Marissa making sure that each animal around her gets an equal amount of the food she bought to feed them! She loves all animals. She has recently realized where our dinner comes from (pigs, cows, chickens) and thinks it is so mean and gross. We always joke that she is going to grow up to be a total tree hugger! Only nuts and berries!! LOL

One of mommy and Jillian since I'm usually the one holding the camera, I got Ed to snap a few of she and I.

6th Folder 6th Picture

2008-10-21T18:09:00.001-07:00

So today on Tracy's blog http://tracysfrontporch.blogspot.com/ I saw the idea to open up your 6th folder and go to the 6th picture and post it to your blog... so here it is......

This picture is of my mother in laws hands!!!! How funny! Janet works for Bloomingdale's at their customer service/wrap desk. Last year one of her friends nominated her for the Scotch Tape's Most Gifted Wrapper Contest. She along with 6 other people were chosen from all over the U.S. She received a fully paid trip to NY to compete in the contest which consisted of these people wrapping a few different oddly shaped items...an ice skate (out of the box) a snowmobile and a few others which I can not remember right at the moment. She won the contest hands down and the grand prize of $10,000. She was so excited and became an overnight celebrity!! LOL She was on several news channels including Good Morning America and did a few interviews for some local news papers! One of the news stations included her wrapping tips in their holiday show. This year she will be in Nickelodeon and Style magazine.

This was actually the 6th picture but I had to post atleast one more. Thought it would be a little rude to only show her hands! She is such an awesome mother in law, mom, grandmother, friend and obviously gift wrapper!!!

Janet after winning the grand prize!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARISSA

2008-10-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

Can you guess what I was doing at this time 9 years ago??? HA HA! Marissa was born at 3:29 PM on this day 9 years ago....

I don;t have any pictures scanned in from her first moments.. maybe by her next birthday.. these were the youngest ones I could find...

First day of kindergarden

I can't belive my little peanut is growing up so fast!!

Happy Birthday Marrissa!!!! I love you more than you can imagine! Sometimes I think about what it will be like when you are all grown up and I can barely stand it! I want you to stay with me forever. Just a few weeks ago you told me that you would live at home with me forever even if you got married!!! Let's ask that same question in about 5 years or so!!!

Carving Pumpkins

2008-10-20T15:26:00.001-07:00

Alexis and Marissa carved their Halloween pumpkins yesterday.

Marissa took over the job of separating the seeds from the pumpkin guts so that we could make a yummy pumpkin treat!

Jillian had fun just playing with her baby pumpkin
And here is the finish product. Not too bad huh?? The one on the right (as your looking at the picture) is Alexis' and on the left is Marissa's. Alexis says hers has a big nose just like her dad!

After carving the pumpkins, we took all of the seeds that Marissa spent so much time digging out and seasoned them and then baked them in the oven. These are delicious!!!

Phillies Win

2008-10-16T14:14:00.001-07:00

So incase you do not follow sports...last night the Phillies won the National League Championship and are headed to the world series! Had you told me this 5 years ago it would have meant absolutely NOTHING to me! I would have said "that's great" and went on with my day. I actually used to be really irritated by people.. mostly men that were so in to sports that it affected their daily lives.. like not leaving the house on Sunday's no matter what else was going on in the world because football was on. Or missing a family members random party because there was an "important" baseball game on. That was until I met Ed.... when we first started dating and I told him how much this type of behavior annoyed me.. his response was "yea.. well that's ok.. I'm not really in to sports that much" (exact words) so I was thinking ...I'm so glad for that one... BONUS!!! But the key here is to look at his whole response... he ended it with "that much"

After a VERY short time of dating,, I realized that Ed's idea of "that much" and my idea of "that much" were completely different. Ed is the biggest Philadelphia sports fan I have ever met. I slowly started to realize this the first year we were dating and I invited him to Marissa's 5th birthday party.. he didn't exactly say no that he wouldn't come, but he was acting really strange. He was like well when is it??? (it was on a sunday during football season) and at what time?? I'm not sure yet. I kept thinking what the hell does it matter. Are you going or not? Whats the big deal. I finally figured out he reasoning behind that months later when he was finally to the point that he would tell me that NO WAY am I going out while the game is on! So last night while the game was going on he literally could not sit still.. pacing the floor, moving his legs all around...it was crazy. He can't even eat during the games!

Here is him directly in front of the television... umm hello.. do you think if your sit that close to the t.v they might actually hear you cheering?? LOL This is about the time I went to bed.. not Ed he was up for the next 2 hours listening to the post game talk on t.v. I said to him.. you just watched the game.. you know what happened.. why do you have to listen to them talk about??? I will NEVER understand. And of course this morning he was over to Modell's before he even went to work to buy the championship shirt!! I don't think I will ever truly understand his obsession. I get much more excited over one my girls little league softball games! Don't know if anyone has ever seen the movie fever pitch, but Ed and I went to the movies to see it a few years ago and the whole time I was cracking up because the guy in that movie is exactly like Ed. Ed on the other hand found absolutely no humor in it!! HE HE I often joke with him and use a line from that movie... I say to him... You love the Phillies right??... but have they ever loved you back??!!

But I guess he does appreciate my tolerance for his obsession because today when I came home from work these were on the kitchen counter..

Along with this sweet little note!!

I guess when you find someone as kind and good hearted as Ed, you just have to learn to deal with the sports mania!! He's worth it!

Baby Sitting "S"

2008-10-11T07:34:00.001-07:00

Thursday was another day off from work and school. Once again it was a Jewish Holiday and since the kids were going to be home, I took the day off from work! Fortunately for Alexis one of my friends from work did not have a sitter for the day. He agreed to let "hire" Alexis for the job under my supervision. (afterall she is only 11) This ended up working out great! "S" got dropped off a little before 8 that morning. Alexis actually got herself up and out of bed and was waiting for him about an hour before he showed up. This is really unusual for her because normally she sleeps right through her alarm and I end up having to get up and drag her out of bed!

Alexis and "S" got along great (which is usually the case with Alexis and little boys, with her being a tomboy and in to sports and all things boy, she was a great babysitter for him) They spent a good couple of hours playing Mario Kart on the Wii. I kept saying to him.. Aren't you getting tired of that yet?

Then Alexis got out the craft box and they made little pumpkin people!

"S" brought over a bag that had a bunch of little cars in it. He told us what a big nascar fan he was. Jillian was just dying to get her little hands on these!

Then it was off to the park. Of course Jillian spent most of the time in her favorite swing people watching!

They all played some soccer and then hung out on the playground.

"S" was an easy little guy to babysit for! Alexis made $20 and was thrilled! I don;t think she had any idea it was a paid job! She makes an outstanding sitter!!

Jillian's First Day!!

2008-10-06T15:04:00.001-07:00

Today was the big day.... She was in a great mood this morning driving over to the new daycare center. The first picture is of her when I opened the car door to take her out of her seat!! So happy, but I think she still has a little bit of a cold judging by her right eye and the fact that her nose will NOT stop running!

We went in and were greeting by one of her teachers and one other little boy who is almost exactly the same as Jillian but looks like he out weighs her by about 10 pounds :). She was all smiles when I dropped her off. I called in the afternoon and they said she was sound asleep. She was not at all napping at the other place but they had a lot more going on, tons of kids there. As of right now there are only 2 other babies in her room. She got a great nap during the day and was in a terrific mood when I picked her up. She must have played hard today because she fell asleep again on the car ride home! She was only there for 5 and 1/2 hours today and according to her paper her diaper was changed 5 times!!! YAH!!! So exciting!!! LOL

So far so good!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday At The Park

2008-10-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

Since Ed was wrapped up with the Phillies and Eagles game this afternoon (Go Phillies!!, better luck next time for the Eagles!)... Alexis and I took Jillian over to the park. We were all there yesterday and I took my camera only to get there and realize that I left the memory card at home. :( I was NOT happy about that!! I wanted to get some pictures of Jillain. She loves it there. She is finally big enough to go in the baby swing! Alexis took her down the slide to, she didn't seem the least bit thrilled with eitehr of the two. Her main focus was watching the other kids play!

She sat in this swing for atleast a half hour and would not look at me except for when I put myself between her and the kids she was watching play! I wonder if she is just waiting for the day when she can run around with all of them! You can't see it in any of these pictures but we just noticed that she got her first tooth.

New Daycare Center

2008-10-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the day off to spend with the kids since thanks to our Jewish friends, school was closed!! Marissa and I took Jillian and some of her stuff up to the new daycare! I'm really excited about this place. When I stopped by yesterday I got to talk to one of the ladies in her new room. ( I had met both of them before but just briefly while touring the center) She seemed so nice. A mother herself and I think grandmother. She seemed like she truly loved her job!(has been there for 10 years!) I also found out that right now there are only two other babies enrolled for that room. (They can have up to 8). So right now... 2 caregivers and only three babies!!! Yeah!!! They had all of her areas labeled and set up already. And the teacher actually knew her name and that she was starting on Monday. These are good signs people!! LOL I think I will take some pictures for the blog when I take her in next week. May seem a little strange to the ladies in her room, but that's ok..I'm a little strange.. right???

Please let me totally love this place.. it will make being at work so much easier!!!

Her Smile

2008-09-30T07:33:00.001-07:00

There is something about this picture of Marissa that I'm in love with. I think it's her smile! Most of the time when I take her picture I give her a warning before I do it. So they are kind of "posed" in this one I just called her name and quickly snapped the picture catching her off guard and the result was an adorable honest and pure smile! Of my three girls, Marissa is the most of a mommy's girl. She shares everything about her little life with me.. bad or good! She does not hesitate to tell me when she has done something I will be proud of or even something I may be disappointed in. I hope our relationship and openness with one another stays this way forever!

Last Baby Bath and a Day Off

2008-09-30T07:20:00.001-07:00

Last night Jillian had her 6 month immunizations. Today the older girls are off from school for the Jewish holiday. I was so glad that I scheduled today off from work to hang out with the kids because poor little Jillian is STILL not feeling that great. She has had a little cold and then with getting her shots last night and a 1/2 of a flu vaccine she has been a little clingy. We spent most of the morning just laying around together. I don't want her to be sick but at the same time I love when she will lay or sit on my lap and cuddle. I love how soft her skin is, rubbing the peach fuzz on her little head and the way she still smells. (like a baby)

Ed normally bathes her at night before bed but last night I just let her go to sleep after her appointment which meant I got to bathe her this morning. I think this may be one of her last baths in the infant tub. She so wants to sit up now when I put her in. She is growing way to fast. Last night at her appointment she weighed 15lbs 5oz. I know ... still tiny but to me it seems huge!! HOW DID 6 MONTHS GO BY SO FAST???

I love her smile!

Kate and Alan's Wedding

2008-09-28T14:06:00.001-07:00

Ed's very best friend got married this Saturday! They have known each other since second grade. For the longest time we thought this day would never come because of how shy Alan is. Of course Ed was the best man and Alan was the best man in our wedding 2 years ago. We had so much fun. This was one of the most fun weddings we have gone to in a while! It made me want to have my wedding all over again!!!

Isn't he the cutest best man you have ever seen?? :)

6 out of 7 of the groomsmen! All of these guys with the exception of Kate's brother have known each other practically their whole lives!

The Frank sister's. (Alan's sisters) They are all so beautiful!

I had never seen this done before, but after the ceremony, Kate and Alan released 14 white doves as a sign of good luck!

Later on at the reception (after Ed had a few drinks) things started to lighten up! Ed is not the dancing type but as you can see he and Brian we doing some pretty awesome moves!! HA HA (go white boys go white boys go!!)

Ed was so nervous about his "best man" speech. He wanted to include every funny thing that has happened over the many years he and Alan have been friends ,but at the same time didn't want to offend anyone! In the end it turned out great and everyone was laughing as he read it!

The funniest thing was Alan's cousin Dave O. Alan (just like Ed) is a huge 80's rock band fan, so Dave decided to break out the wig and fake guitar while the DJ was playing some Bon Jovi!! Hilarious! I didn't get a picture but even though Kate has a much different taste in music, she grabbed the guitar and was jammin out to the 80's music as well!

6 Months Old Already

2008-09-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Jillian had her 1/2 year birthday on Friday! I can't believe she is 6 months already. She is so funny right now. She has been attempting to crawl lately and gets quite a kick out of herself when she actually moves herself a little across the floor on her hand and knees. Before this she got around only by rolling! She is so close to sitting up all by herself to. I'm still afraid to leave her sitting alone because once in a while she falls back!

I so wish I could freeze time and keep her this way FOREVER! We are thinking this may be our last baby so I want to enjoy every second with her. She is such a happy little baby and a great sleeper!!! Love this baby girl!

Weekend in Ocean City, NJ

2008-09-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend in Ocean city with Grandma Smith. She has been going to this same place for about the last 8 years. The woman that owns the house is so nice and always lets the girls borrow bikes, skateboards and toys for the sand! While we were there we met up with an old friend. Rick drove down from MD to meet up with us. We haven't seen him since Thanksgiving so it was nice catching up!

The water was only at about 60 degrees so I didn't let the girls swim. Boy were they irritated!!!

We did spend sometime on the boardwalk and getting on rides!

Sunday morning we got up early and took a bike ride along the board walk. I wish I could do this every morning!

My friend Rachel gave us this baby carrier a while back and we decided to try it out. Jillian absolutely loved it. I guess because it puts her higher up than in her stroller and she can see everything!

What fun is Ocean City without a stop at Mack and Manco's pizza?? Ed and Rick waiting in line for pizza!

Ed was so happy to take Jillian on her first carousel ride. He is such a proud dad!

Ed and I ended up with the cold that Jillian picked up last week. It has not been fun around here. Both of us sick and trying to take of the baby has been a little rough. Yesterday Marissa had to go to a follow up appointment for her collar bone. Thank goodness for Grandma Smith. She took Marissa to her appointment and even brought us back some dinner. I was so glad not to have to cook! Jillian and I took the day off today and it was so nice being at home with her even though I feel like crap!

Random

2008-09-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

So today I saw that Tracy (www.gundysporch.blogspot.com) gave me an award. Thanks Tracy! It has been hard to find time to keep up with this blog since I returned to work.

So today I get to the daycare to pick up Jillian and am a little annoyed because she's laying in a crib wide awake, with spit up all over her clothes and a diaper full of crap. This is the second time I went to visit or picked her up and she had a dirty diaper. This transition back to work has been a bit rough for me. I realize that today there were 6 other babies (2 years and below) at the daycare with her, but it still annoys me when I get there and she is a mess! I probably should have said something while I was there today, but I don't want them to get irritated with me and then in turn take it out on her! Who knows maybe I just need to get used to the fact that no one is going to take care of my baby the way I would!

She has had a little cold for the past few days which has made me feel even more guilty for dropping her off at daycare! In October she will be finished at my work's back up center and on to the permanent daycare so hopefully I will LOVE it there! (Good luck to me on that one!)

On a more positive note... The first day I went back to work, I got home and came in to see a vase of white roses with a sweet card from Ed thanking me for being a great mom and being home for the last 6 months to take care of Jillian! How sweet!

One more day of work and we are off for a little mini vacation to OC! Can't wait!!!

One last thing... Ed mentioned to me the other night that maybe he should start a sports blog. If you ask me this has disaster written all over it. He is such a die hard Philly fan that I can only imagine that it would take one rude little comment about the Eagles, Flyers or Phillies to send him over the edge in blog land! He absolutely can not stand for someone to live here and root for a different team. I could see him making a ton of enemies this way, which is sort of funny because in real life I can't think of anyone that doesn't like him... I guess we will see if he goes through with it!! :)

Returning to Work, Stitches and a Broken Clavicle

2008-09-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

Jillian and I managed to survive my first week back at work (eventhough it was only really 1/2 of a week). She did pretty well, except for that she has a really hard time napping with all of the new surroundings! The first day she only slept for about 40 minutes so when we got home she crashed for 3 hours before having dinner. It was kind of sad! Day two was a little better and by day three she still had only slept a total of an hour and 15 minutes all broken up throughout the day. I guess it's just going to take some getting used to. It is really convenient that my work offers a program where your baby can use the back up center right downstairs from my office for the first month that I return to work. It's great being able to go down and see her on my lunch break but at the same time I think it makes it that much harder. Everyone down there is really nice but I just feel like I could do a much better job of taking care of her and that while we were at home she had me to take care of her every little need where at the center she is one of 3 babies being taken care of by only one person. I guess that also will take some getting used to. I think it bothers me alot more than it does her!

This is a picture of Marissa's X-Ray. The Monday before I went back to work I took Marissa to the doctor after she had complained for over a week that her right shoulder had been hurting. While on vacation at my aunt's house Marissa was jumping on her trampoline and came over to me crying ( not screaming or really freaking out, just teary eyed) and said mom, my shoulder hurts. I need to go to the doctor. Knowing how dramatic Marissa can be, I told her she was fine and to put some ice on it and relax for a little while. She put the ice on but still insisted that it hurt. I still kind of brushed her off and told her that if it still bothered her once we got back home I would make a doctor's appointment. Over the next week she mentioned it a few times, but seriously did not seem to be in much pain at all. She had been playing and jumping on the trampoline again. We flew home, she went back to school and then Sunday night she was standing in front of me with a scoop neck shirt on and I noticed this bump on her collar bone. I asked her what happened and she said...that's from when I hurt my self in Utah. I felt really bad but still thought it was probably just bruised. We made an appointment the next morning and sure enough it was broken. We had an x-ray taken and then went to see an orthopedic surgeon. I felt horrible for not believing she was really hurt. Now that it has started to heal on it's own we were told that there really wasn't much that could be done. It would just continue to heal in it's own form which means she will most likely have this bump for a very very long time. We will have to go back for a repeat x ray and follow up visit. The whole thing made me feel horrible especially since a few days earlier when her cousin Addyson tripped and hit her face on the t.v stand....Marissa was so upset and was so nice to Addy when it happened. Addyson ended up with 12 stitches right below her eye and as her parents were leaving to take her to the emergency. Marissa was crying and told Jenny (my Aunt)... " I know that me and Addyson fight but I care for her" those were her exact words. Marissa has such a tender heart and is so aware of people's feelings and then she gets hurt and I pay no attention to it thinking she is just being dramatic. It was a rough week!!

Did I mention that it was my bag that Addyson tripped over?

Back to Work

2008-09-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

My time is up!!!! I can't believe how fast my almost 6 months of maternity leave has flown by. It seems like just yesterday Ed and I were anxiously waiting for Jillian's arrival. Trying to decide what colors to paint her room, which items we wanted on the baby registry and even wondering if she would be a boy or girl! It was a little rough getting her here, but I'm certainly glad now that we did not stop trying!!

It has been tough these last few days knowing that I won;t be with her all day and that I may very well miss a lot of her "firsts". Just writing about it now is making me cry! As much as I would love to be with her, I know I do not make a great stay at home mom and I need to go back to work!

I will miss seeing her cute little face all day long. Let's say a little prayer that the daycare works out and she is happy there because I'm dreading tomorrow morning!

Flaming Gorge and the Cabin

2008-09-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

During our trip to Utah we visited great Grandma Ilene's Lake house in Flaming Gorge! We stayed for 4 days and got to do some boating, jet skiing and knee boarding. There were 20 of us all together. Fortunately not everyone stayed at her house! It was so nice to have everyone together and yet so LOUD!! ha ha (which made some people a little cranky)

As we were pulling up to the cabin, these deer were just hanging out on the side of the road.

Jillian got to meet her great grandpa Darwin for the very first time and to my surprise he did really well with such a little baby!

Alexis and Marissa got to sleep in the loft with Kia and Addy which they thought was pretty cool!

Jillian did great even with all of the noisy people!

And we FINALLY got to meet our cousin Reece. What a sweet little girl!!

Doesn't Addy look thrilled?? HA HA HA!

The girls had a blast jet skiing with Great Uncle Jeff ( AKA - Chuck Norris)!!

Jillian was not loving this life vest. It was the smallest size they could find but was still much to big for her.

Some of the cousins!!

Ed's 32nd Birthday!

2008-09-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

The day I got back from vacation (Labor Day) was Ed's birthday. We got in at 5:30 that morning and then didn't get home from the airport until 7:30. Everyone was so so tired so we all napped until like 2:30 (including the baby).
Once we were up and awake everyone was still so jet lagged that Ed didn't get much of a party! I did get him a new watch while on vacation and his mom came over for dinner and brought a cake with her. Poor him, maybe next year I will plan something really fun to make up for this year! Sorry Ed :(

I tried several times to get a picture of the 4 of them with everyone actually looking at the camera. It was quite a challenge! HA HA!

GOT IT!!!!!!!

More from our Utah trip....

2008-09-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

The morning after we got there, we took the kids down to the parkway for a walk alnog the trails. Jillian was really cranky on this morning. I think she must have had a little case of jet lag because after she caught up on her sleep she was so good for the rest of the trip!

Later in the day, we got a hip hop dance lesson from Addyson. She loves to have dance offs with her cousin Whitnie. Whitnie is almost 21 but somehow Addyson always wins!! :)

Our cousin Kia came to visit and the next day we all headed to the water park!

We met up with Jenny's friend Jacey along with her nieces and nephew. These were just about the nicest most polite kids I have ever met!!! Not to mention so so cute!

Alexis and Jake got the courage up to go down this huge water slide. Jake went up but never made it down. Turns out he didn't weigh enough so he got to the huge dip and was on his way back up but didn't have enough momentum to get him back over the hill! Next it was Alexis' turn and as we watched she went down and then back up to the top of the hill and then literally clawed her way over the top and slide the rest of the way down. It was hilarious to watch!

In this picture, Addyson remind me so much of her dad. She has all of his same facial expressions!!

I think this was the most fun we had the whole time we were there. All of the kids got along well and there was plenty to keep them entertained!! Fun Fun day!!!

Bus stop

2008-09-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

Ok just want to see what other people's opinions are about something I'm nervous about. This year the bus stop for Alexis (who is 11 and in 6th grade) is about 3 blocks from our house which would mean she would have to walk out of our development on to the sidewalk of a busy high way and 2 streets down to catch the bus. I'm thinking in the winter it will still be dark when she leaves to catch the bus, so today I decided that I will just drive her in to school everyday. Who thinks I'm crazy and that she is old enough to go alone? Does anyone agree with me that that is ridiculous to have her walk in the dark three blocks away alone? I know I'm a paranoid mom, but I also think I don't want to treat her like a baby. If you are reading this please let me know what your thoughts are!!!

Back to School

2008-09-03T07:28:00.001-07:00

School started today and it was Alexis' first day in middle school (gulp). I was so much more nervous than she was. We were talking this morning as I was helping her get ready and I was asking her if she felt nervous about today. All she said was why? There isn't anything to be nervous about! I was so nervous this morning for her to go that I thought for sure I would throw up on the drive over to drop her off! I kept thinking what if she can't find her classes or what if someone is mean to her? You know this is about the age when all of the catty girl stuff starts. I so hope she never gets involved in that! I can not believe how old she looks in these pictures from this morning! I absolutely LOVE the clothes she picked out this year. Not to girly but for the first time ever, we didn't shop in the boys section!! YEA!!!

Since Alexis had to be to school so much earlier than Marissa this year when I had them do my annual "first day of school" pictures her hair wasn't even done. She was barely dressed yet! This morning was a little hectic with the girls leaving at different times, I can't imagine what next week will be like when I have to go back to work and get everyone off in the morning including dropping Jillian off at daycare!

Marissa waiting at the bus stop. How cute is she! Big 3rd grader this year!

And of course Jillian at the bus stop still in her PJ's watching Marissa leave. I was also still in my pajamas, if I looked this cute just rolling out of bed I may have posted one of myself, but of course that's not going to happen!! LOL

I can NOT wait for everyone to get home today to see how it went. Especially Alexis!!

Day one in Utah

2008-09-02T13:53:00.001-07:00

After a very early morning and traveling for 8 hours including a long layover we were finally in Utah. Once we got back to Jenny's house the girls ate some noodles. Addyson was cracking us up with her huge mouthfuls of food!!!

Then the kids changed in to their suits for some fun in the back yard. The swing set has misters on it and Addyson also has a huge blow up water slide.

Jillian loved this swing with the spinning ducks at the top

Ok so there are still 12 more days of our trip to blog, so it is going to take some time to get it all up. Be patient and I will try my best to get through all of the pictures in the next few days. Alexis and Marissa are back to school tomorrow and I don;t go back to work til next week so hopefully while Jillian naps, I can blog!!!

Utah

2008-09-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

Just got back this morning from our 2 week visit to Utah. We are all so tired since we flew in on the red eye and didn't get home this morning until about 7:30. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be awake enough to post some of our pictures from the trip! It was a fun time and I took a ton of pictures!

She's Baaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-17T19:38:00.001-07:00

Ok so I know the first picture of Alexis is blurry but it was all I had!! We picked her up from camp tonight and Marissa told me on the way over that she had butterflies in her stomach because she was so excited to be picking Alexis up from camp! She has been back for about 2 hours and they will not go to sleep. We are leaving here at 5am tomorrow morning for our trip to Utah and I can still hear them whispering in their room. I went in earlier to tell them to save it for tomorrow on the plane and found them both in Alexis' bed. Which is a little crazy because she only has a little twin bed. I have no idea how they can be comfortable sleeping that way! I'm sure all of the "back together bliss" will end tomorrow morning when I wake them up at 4am to get ready. I'm already preparing myself for traveling with 3 cranky girls tomorrow!! I have so much to blog from this past weekend, but no time. Hopefully I will get to it when I get back from vacation!

The camp gives out medals for different relays and Alexis got the silver medal for fast swimming!! Not sure what the other one was for, I will have to find out in the morning!

They were both so happy to see each other!

Missing Alexis

2008-08-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Alexis has been gone at camp for 10 days and will be back this coming Sunday! Marissa and I have missed her so much. The house has been really quiet. I also miss having her around to help out with Jillian. She is an awesome big sister. It's kind of funny that Marissa misses her so much because when they are here together it is non stop bickering! I sure hope that when my girls grow up they will always get along. I hope that they will always have each other to lean on in life! I know their personalities are completely different, but I pray that they will always be close! Despite the bickering, these two have such a bond with one another!!!!

Neil Diamond Concert

2008-08-11T08:26:00.001-07:00

Ed's cousin somehow got free tickets to a Neil Diamond Concert so I figured what the heck might as well go. I'm thinking I would have never gone to this if the tickets weren't free. Eventhough I only knew like 3 songs it was still a fun night. The ticket said no cameras were allowed in, but I could have totally gotten mine by security. They weren't even checking your bags just asking if you had a camera and then taking your word for it. Wish I would have known because I missed a ton of great shots of Ed's mom dancing!!! HA HA

The lovely self portrait before leaving for the concert. And in case you are wondering... NO Ed did NOT go to this. He would NEVER!!

I'm only 5"6" but I felt like a giant next to these two!!!

Since I couldn't take my camera in, here is a picture of the shirt Ed's mom bought after the concert out on the street. She was cracking me up because she kept calling at a bogus shirt when she really meant to say boot leg!! HA HA HA !!

And then this is what I came home to! Lucky me!!

Jillian fast asleep

Marissa in bed reading a book

Ed watching T.V

and Max after greeting me at the door, ran up to bed to wait for me! Love that dog!

More from the party....

2008-08-11T08:04:00.001-07:00

A few more from Joshua's party...

Bernie got some of the adults to agree to a sack race and I convinced Ed to give it a try. Luckily no one got hurt and Becky won by a mile, but as you can see the women had a huge head start!

Marissa has been doing a great job of "taking care of" Alexis' cell phone while she is away at camp. Needless to say Marissa does not own a cell phone yet! And with the amount she talks she may NEVER own one!

Jillian can almost sit up now and Rachel gave us the great idea to put the boppy pillow around her to help give her some support. Great Idea! We will be doing this now at home to.

Joshua's Birthday Party

2008-08-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Can you believe he's already 6??? Saturday was Joshua's 6th birthday. He had such a cute party with a Nascar/Monster Truck theme. His dad announced him through a microphone as if he were a race car driver! And the cake was so cute with all of the little trucks on it!

Joshua after he was eliminated from the hot potato game!!

Loved this cake!!