In Memory

As a separate post, I wanted to pay tribute to the family of Shane Malone and the entire Storm team. Sam was privileged to be on the same baseball team with Shane and was honored to call him friend. Shane was died tragically in an accident in April 2010 and while it was a very difficult time for the entire team, it truly made us a family. This picture was taken with the banner that will reside at the Shane Aaron Malone field at Central School and with the EMCRA. Shane and his family will forever be in our memories and prayers.

May 2010

May was a very busy month in our house. The boys both had wonderful seasons of baseball come to a close - Sam in coach/kid pitch and Jack in instructional t-ball. The end of school came way to fast and both our boys made us so proud on awards day. Sam finished first grade on the A/B honor roll and Jack completed Pre-K with flying colors. Once again we were blessed with the most wonderful teachers and we're forever grateful for their time and patience with our boys. Ellie started off the month with chicken pox, but ended it completely healthy and discovered the joy of swinging for the first time. Sam played in his first piano recital (and my first spring recital as a teacher, too!) and did exceptionally well. Finally, we ended the month at the Cotton Row Run where I completed my first 10K and the boys did the 1 mile fun run. Whew!

Ellie's 1st birthday party

We had a grand time at Ellie's first birthday party. She got way too many presents and had way too much fun with her birthday cupcake, but it was fantastic to share such a special occasion with so many of our friends and family. I had my first foray in fondant usage and I think I was pretty smart to pick a nice, simple polka dot theme. Not too bad if I do say so myself! Ellie got what continue to be some of her favorite toys, and some of my favorite clothes for her - including the cutest pair of kicks you've ever seen! She devoured her cupcake so well that she ended up in the bathtub before we could even go home. All in all, a wonderful way to celebrate a wonderful first year of life for my little ladybug!

No More Worries!

So, in an effort to ease my conscience about just exactly how behind I am with my blog, I've decided to make some big collages and group as much together as possible. I'm new with collages, so bear with me if these first few are pretty basic and boring. I'll work on it! So, I'm starting with last Easter (yes, I am that far behind). We had a lovely Sunday and enjoyed a yummy dinner at my Mom's house. We usually get a family picture, but for some reason I can't find any right away. So, here's some of at least the kids - they looked marvelous! That's lovely Aunt Karrie with Ellie on the bottom right. We had a great time doing an Easter Egg Hunt at New Market Baptist to spend some extra time with the family too.

Love

I love the craziness that is my life right now. I love that from 6am until 11pm I'm running around with hardly any time to eat or sleep or do anything except wipe runny noses or change dirty diapers. I love watching my boys play soccer and football and losing my voice cheering for them. I love being responsible for teaching each of my children almost everything they will learn about how to be good, ethical, hard-working people. I love walking by my refrigerator and seeing the chore charts covered up with stickers. I love that my house is always cluttered with toys and cleats, backpacks and baseball hats, baby dolls and dirty laundry. I love watching my little girl finally start really walking and then laugh at herself because she's having so much fun in something so simple. I love the way our house doesn't really feel like home until Aaron walks in at the end of the day. I love that I have so many pictures from the last few months that I never have time to download them and update this blog! I love that Heavenly Father has given me this amazing family and the energy to keep up with them. Love, love, love.

I want one!

This looks absolutely FABULOUS! I definitely want one ASAP!

http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6344

A Rough Start...

Ellie's first month as a one-year old has been a rough one to say the least. It got started with a bit of a tumble at Mom's house. She's pulling up on everything and one of her favorite places to do it is on the window ledges at Mom's. They're really low to the ground and allow her to see out the window, which she loves. So, Aaron and I were out for the night and all three kids were at Mom's and from what we can figure (Sam was the only one that actually saw her fall), she slipped, caught her cheek on the window ledge on the way down, and then smacked down on her hand, REALLY hard. She ended up with a lovely bruise on her cheek and by the next morning, a really swollen hand. We were so worried about her hand that I took her in for x-rays the next day. No breaks - just really bruised, but since her bones are completely formed yet and much of her hand is cartilage, the entire thing was bruised and looked terrible. We wrapped it up for a few days to help with the swelling and to keep her from hitting it again and while it looks much better now, more than two weeks later, you can still see the bruising across her knuckles and it's still a little sensitive to the touch.

Our next trip to the doctor was early Saturday morning when Ellie woke up covered in red welps - yep, it's chicken pox. She was scheduled to get her first dose of the vaccine in two months, but she was evidently exposed at some point in the last week. We're really not sure where she got them because she doesn't come in actual physical contact with many other kids, but nonetheless, she's covered. I think it's a pretty mild case, hardly any on her arms and legs, but it's still no fun. She had a few that looked infected, so the doctor put her on an antibiotic just in case, some eye drops for her left eye that also looked really red, and a prescription-strength antihistamine to help with the itching. Thankfully, the antihistamine seems to be working really well because she's not scratching at all. She's such a trooper, but it's so hard to see her pretty little face covered up with those nasty bumps. Poor little thing! Let's hope the other 11 months of her first year turn out a little better!

Let's Go Strawberry Pickin'!

At the end of April, Ellie and I got to go with Jack on his very first field trip. We went to Brown's Farm and picked strawberries. We had so much fun and the strawberries were delicious! Jack even managed to talk me into checking him out and bringing him home after the trip was over - the little rascal! I'm not sure if he had more fun picking the strawberries or one his very first bus ride, but nonetheless, it was a great day!