not ready to let her go.....

to Kindergarten in the Fall.

She is so excited and we have been talking about it a lot lately. I don't like to think about sharing her with the world -even if only for 2 1/2 hours a day! She is by no means an angel, don't get me wrong. She is spoiled and a drama queen but she is my one and only baby girl. She loves me and always makes that known throughout the day. I love having her around and I am just not ready for her to grow up and become more and more independent each passing day. Five years has gone by in the blink of an eye and to think about another 5 years from now when she'll be 10 just makes me feel ill. She'll always feel like my "baby" no matter where her place is in our family. Most people, including myself, complain about Kindergarten being such a short amount of time but for once I am going to be grateful.

Life is short!

cleaning out my memory card....

and came across this beautiful day. A very much anticipated day to say the least. This is my sister-in-law Liz. Everyone that is fortunate to know her would agree that she is the most beautiful person inside and out. She is a mother's dream. Her mother (my husband's mother) was only able to attend this perfect day in spirit. I can only imagine the joy she must have felt and happiness that filled her soul to witness this special day.

You couldn't have done or said anything to wipe the beaming smile off of Liz's face on this day January 3rd, 2009. I have never felt that anyone was ever perfect enough for this amazing girl. I think it is safe to say that she finally met her match. Steve is such a great guy and I couldn't be more thrilled that she chose him to spend forever with. If my daughter even turns out half as incredible as Liz, I would be one proud momma! Here's to you Liz and Steve!

Life if romantic!

it's all fun and games around here.....

well, most of the time atleast! Over the last several months we have become quite the game playing family! We started playing games with some friends of ours and they got us hooked on a couple that were then purchased for Christmas. Now our kids have joined in on the fun and have even learned how to play.

One of our favorites is Ticket To Ride.
We spend a lot of time playing this and it can even be played online http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/play/

Our next favorite game to play is Acquire

And of course my game list wouldn't be complete if I didn't add the two games Uno and Trouble. Emma's favorite game is Uno and it's not just played on a daily basis but more like an hourly basis...no joke! She sure can play a mean game! My days are consumed with one on one with her. Stockton's favorite game is Trouble and it's played pretty often as well. However, the nice thing about Stockton is that if no one wants to challenge him at Trouble, he'll just play against himself! Love that boy! I guess he's figured out that playing against himself always makes him a winner. I think I kind of like his tactic. Maybe I should try it sometime considering I'm always the one to lose.

Life is fun!

sticks and STONES may break my bones....

but names will never hurt me! Well family and friends, I no longer can use the excuse "I don't have time to start a blog." Thanks to this pesky little thing they call a gallbladder, I have all the time in the world this week. As of Monday February 9th around 9:30 a.m. that devilish thing and the STONES it had created were officially removed from my body! It will certainly not be missed. If any of you have ever experienced a gallbladder attack, I'm sure you are celebrating with me right now. I would love to show a picture of the nice little container that exhibits my three gallstones but I wouldn't want to scare everyone away on my very first blog post. Well OK, "everyone" refers to the only three people that I can think of that may possibly read this blog.

This week has meant lots of aches and pains but it has also meant:

1. no cooking

2. no showering (scary)

3. no cleaning

4. no driving

5. no _______ (anything)

The drama has been pretty minimal since the drama queen has camped out at Grandma's house since Sunday night. Gotta love Grandma's. Dinnertime rolls around and magically a full course meal appears in my kitchen. Gotta love sister-in-laws and sweet friends. Pretty flowers come to my door. Gotta love sister-in-laws and employers. Kids make it safely home from school everyday and extra food and fruit show up. Again, gotta love Grandma's. Friends and family call to check and ask if there is anything they can do. Gotta love compassionate people. Husband still helps and even still sleeps next to me in bed every night. Gotta love husbands who look beyond the outer beauty (or lack of). I'm sure I could easily make the mirror crack right about now but since I haven't looked in the mirror we shall never find out!

We weren't sure going into the surgery if it would even be possible to remove my gallbladder since I am 32 weeks pregnant and measuring even bigger. But the sucker is gone, I am alive, I can feel my baby kicking...and I am very very blessed!

Life is good!
Angela