Havin' a little fun!

I was never a rebellious teenager or young adult. I've never had the desire to rebel or act out against authority. I was always too serious. I wanted to be perfect and act perfect and never mess up! But I turned 30 this year. And something clicked in me. I realized that this is my life and I am going to LIVE it. I am NOT going to constantly worry about what other people think of me or how they think I should be living my life. I am going to make my dreams happen (buying a house!) and I plan to enjoy my life. Yesterday, I did something just a little drastic that has been a whole lot of fun. While getting my hair done, I had her put two pink streaks in my hair! Why not? It looks cute and it's summertime! Time for fun! It will grow out or get cut out eventually. But for now, I am enjoying this little bit of craziness in my life :) I told Garr yesterday, "You're only 30 once!" I never did anything like this as a teen or in my 20's - I'm tired of being totally serious. Life happens way too fast. I think someday I will look back and laugh at myself and be proud of myself for "living on the edge." Lol! Enjoy!

ok, this isn't a great picture -

but it shows the pink streaks better -

they can be covered by the rest of my hair

when I want to look serious!

Garr MMA

Garr has been studying jiu-jitsu, KFM, Filipino Dumpag, and MMA for about a year and a half now. He tries to go train a couple times a week. He would like to go more often, but due to his work schedule and family schedule, he can't. He does love his training though! It amazes me how much my husband enjoys working out. Every day he does some kind of workout - sometimes twice a day. He lifts weights, rides his road bike (~20 miles each ride), trains in MMA, and runs occasionally too. Being a police officer, it's very important for him to stay strong and in shape. You never know when he might have to chase someone on foot or wrestle someone to the ground. And his training has definitely paid off in his work. I can't tell you how many guys he has been able to subdue because of his jiu-jitsu training! Recently (in May - I'm a bit behind - have you noticed?) he received his blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I am very proud of him - I know he works hard! (the blue belt is the 2nd out of 5 belts in jiu-jitsu.) He trains with Sensei Allen Sachetti at Dauntless Practical Martial Arts.

Mr. Sachetti and Garr

The guys receiving their blue belts
Garr receiving his blue belt from Mr. Sachetti

Ama and the girls

While sorting through photos on my camera, I came across this one taken in May when Garr's mom came for a visit. Isn't this a great photo? They look so cozy together :)

A Day in the Life...

To start out the day...

get a drink, put on bike helmet, watch Wiggles

play peekaboo with mama while getting dressed

Say Good Morning to Grandad

pretend to drive the tractor
laugh at sisters
Eat lunch while wearing pink glittery cowboy hat

Let Grandad have some fun wearing pink glittery hat too

busy morning - ready for naptime

take a ride on the tractor with Grandad

go on a walk with Grandma and Grandad

watch a little more Wiggles after bath

(Daniel turning TV on)

have some snuggle time with Abby before bed
night, night baby Daniel

Abby and Liv - end of school

I posted a few days ago about how great Emelyn did this year in school. Well Abby and Liv did great also. They also had high A's all year long and excelled in every area of school. We just got a letter in the mail that Abby has been accepted into the Gifted and Talented program for next year. Here are some photos of them at the end of the year.

Olivia Grace

Olivia and her teacher, Mrs. Ross

Abby and friend, TJ
If Abby looks a little weird in this photo, it's because TJs Mom and I are making jokes about using these photos from each school year in their wedding montage someday! lol

Abby and Mrs. Kelly - one of the best teachers ever!

Stellan

Please pray for baby Stellan again. He has been admitted to the PICU with SVT today.

Eme - end of school and a museum

The school year ended recently and all our girls did great! They all made honor roll throughout the year. Emelyn was given the Citizenship Award for her class - we were so proud of her! She is a wonderful kid! Her teacher said she was always willing to help out the other students even if it meant pausing in her own work. I was able to attend a field trip with Eme to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. We had a fun day! Eme's bff, Kaeli, and her mom also went. Here are some photos of the girls that day and also the last day of school.

Emelyn holding her award - she looks thrilled doesn't she?

Eme and bff, Kaeli, at the Institute

Our group of girls at the museum

Eme trying to lift Kaeli using a pulley system!

This was not easy but it was fun!

Eme rockclimbing

Mrs. Diggs, 3rd grade teacher

Eme and her other bff, Ash, at their chorus concert

Complications

So we aren't closing tomorrow after all. Yes, I'm bummed. But I'm kind of relieved too - in a strange way. I have been waiting for something to go wrong to hold off closing - waking up with a stomach ache and carrying around a bad case of nerves all day. And now that 'the something' has finally happened, and so far it's not too bad, I feel much better! I know I'm weird, aren't I? So I have a bit more time to pack and a little time to finish up some special projects I've been working on. And ten years from now, we will look back and laugh at how uptight we were and kick back and enjoy. Or maybe we'll just be uptight about something else, because come to think of it, Emelyn will be 19 in ten years and that's a scary thought! {smiles}

Closing will be sometime next week - probably the 26th, possibly the 29th, if you want to pray with me - I'm hoping for the 24th! In the meantime I think I will share some more adorable pics of Daniel at our new house!

Big Week!

This is going to be a really big week for our family. Garr and I have been waiting almost 11 years for this - We are buying our first house! Yes, that's right! We close on Wednesday. It's a great house about 30 minutes south of where we are right now. It needs a lot of work, but thankfully, I have a hubby who can handle that! It is 2700 finished square feet - 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. The upstairs is not finished. We have plans to put a bedroom up there for the girls, eventually another bathroom, and some other ideas in the works. So I have tons of packing to do in the next couple days. I put it off for fear something would fall through and then I would have to unpack everything I'd packed! But everything is on track - so far, so good! Wednesday morning we close. Then Garr and I will be shopping in the afternoon - the house has no appliances right now. Thursday - Sunday we will be doing major painting and cleaning. Then start moving in sometime next week. It is going to be a crazy week! After that we have plans to replace all the floors with hardwood (except bedrms which already have hardwd); update the kitchen (possibly new cabinetry, def paint, hardware, etc); fix pool (inground); fix some siding; and put in new septic (blah!). So we will be plenty busy for the coming months! Here are a few photos of our house!

Our house!

To the left of the house, pool in front and then pole barn

Our backyard

back view of house

Moments

I'm sure there is a whole list of things I ought to be doing right now. But I just realized it has been almost a month since I've posted. And there are some milestones happening with the kids that I know I will forget if I don't write them down now.


Daniel -- He is the cutest, sweetest, busiest boy! So far this week he has:

• pulled half the keys off my laptop (to the point that we have to get a new keyboard for it)


• broken a plastic bottle of syrup and I found it seeping in the cabinet and drops all over the kitchen floor - well, he put it back where he found it right?
  
• thinking himself very cute, he put his head between the railings on the front porch, and giving me his cheesiest grin, proceeded to get his head stuck!
• learned to smack his lips after a kiss
• taken the floor molding, the jumbo pencils, and the drumsticks and hit anything within reach

Emelyn -- She has done so amazing in school this year. This girl has just blossomed! She is loving reading and math. She is the only one in her class to meet both her AR (Accelerated Reading) and AM (Accelerated Math) goals for the year! She went from an AR score of 3.2 (3rd grade, 2nd month) to a score of 4.3 (4th grade, 3rd month.) She draws amazing pictures and she writes equally amazing poetry. Here is a sample of one of her poems:

My Baby Brother

"His hands are like tiny mice

His hair is like red strawberries

His face is like soft feathers

His voice is like a laughing jack in the box

His smile is like the sun looking at me"

Both Emelyn and Abby have made high honor roll all year long in school. Eme is also growing like a weed :) She came out to the kitchen this morning showing me a pair of sneakers that she just found in the basement. She was telling me how they fit her perfectly and how "cool" they are. As I came around the table to look at them, I saw that they are my old sneakers! Yes, my 9 year old now has the same size feet as me! I always knew I would be sharing shoes with my kids someday, I just didn't think it would be my 3rd grader! :)

Abby has persevered through this school year. We were blessed with a fantastic teacher for her. I say persevered because she would MUCH rather stay home with me then go to school everyday. She is still our silly, smart, loving, rambunctious girl! She loves playing her DS, reading Nancy Drew books, and playing outside with the neighbor kids. She can't wait to get her own puppy or kitten. Her goal for the summer is to get 1st place in the library's summer reading program for her age group. :)

Olivia has done very well in school this year also. She is ALL about socializing and fashion! I think we are in serious trouble with this girl! She is reading pretty well. She can read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss without much help. I am not pushing her. It took Eme a few years to get confident reading and now you can't stop her. :) I know Liv will pick it up when she is ready.

We are also working on keeping her dry throughout the night. Yes, she is still in pull-ups at nighttime. She is a tiny little thing and I don't think her bladder is much bigger than a pea. :) On top of that, she sleeps the soundest of any kid I know. It's like you turn a switch with her - she falls dead asleep and there is no rousing her! I have heard others say that they get up during the night to take their kids to the bathroom. Well, for the past 18 mo., it was definitely not worth it to me to have to wake up another time during the night! Now that Daniel is sleeping better through the night, I decided to set my alarm clock for midnight to wake her up and take her to the bathroom. We did fine the first night and she was so proud to stay dry in her panties all night long! Last night didn't go so well. I turned off my alarm and promptly fell back to sleep. Sure enough, around 2 am she crawled into bed with me. She had gotten up and changed into dry clothes. I felt so bad. I'll do better tonight! :) Hopefully her internal clock will begin to wake her up so she can go to the bathroom on her own eventually.