Happy 3rd Birthday Nicholas!

My sweet little man turned 3 today! I can't believe it's been 3 years, and he's gone from a sweet little baby to a sweet little boy.

We had his birthday party at McDonald's yesterday. He had such a good time!

One more birthday to go before we get a break until September!! Seth's is in 2 weeks and somewhere in there mine creeps in. lol

--B

Getting over the cough....

It's been a horrible week for me. I started with a terrible cough Monday night and I'm just now getting over it. I haven't been able to sleep since I've been up most nights coughing, so I am tired and grumpy.

Tomorrow is Nicholas' birthday party at McDonalds. Will post some pics of it afterwards. They are all so excited!! :)

--B

Happy President's Day!

What a great day to have off! Got the kids off the school and then went to have Nicholas evaluated by the speech pathologist. She said he will qualify for the program, so now it's all about the paperwork and meeting on his birthday and then he's in. He should be starting out 1x per week, 1 hour per session. If they feel he needs more, they will always up the sessions. So, that's good to know.

After that, we went grocery shopping and then dropped G off at the office. The kids and I then went to Blockbuster to turn in our online movies. I love that program. We ended up getting a new Backyardigans for the kids and then Talledega Nights and The Departed for us.

Mom and Adrienne came over for dinner and now I've been at the computer downloading photos from this weekend and today. We took all the kids and Harlo to the park yesterday, along with all of Houston. lol.

Then today we stopped off at my mom's neighborhood park for a bit. Got a great photo of Nicholas, it's one of my favorites.

Can you tell Harlo has adjusted well to our family? I thought this was too sweet to pass up, so out came the camere. :)

--B

Some photos of the kids....

Here is Nicholas, 2 (3 next weekend)

Here is Valerie, 2 and the only one with the curls

Here is Olivia, 7 and missing teeth!

Here is Seth, soon-to-be 6

I have finally joined the digital camera world....yeehaw!! I've been playing around with my Nikon D50 and just uploaded some pictures to the computer. How can I not showcase the kiddies? :)

The weather here has been absolutely beautiful! Not a cloud in the sky, cool and crisp mornings/nights and no humidity. That's my favorite part. lol. I have tomorrow off at work, it's President's Day. woohoo! Of course, the day will be filled with laundry, cleaning house, etc...but the older kids will be in school so it will just be me, Gabriel and the little ones. Nicholas has his speech therapy evaluation with the school district as well. He's been in the early childhood intervention program for the past year, but now that he's turning 3 his options are the school district (which is free since we pay school taxes) or private speech therapy. My insurance won't cover his therapy sessions, so unfortunately that is not an option for us. It's just too expensive since they want to see him 3x a week, at $150 per session. But, he's coming around and we are able to understand him most of the time. I'm thinking the school district therapy will be adequate and give him time to develop before he starts Kindergarten.

We also added a new family member, the paw kind. Here's Harlo. He's a poodle we found at a local poodle shelter. We lost our other dog, Otis. He sadly was taken after he escaped from our back yard. It was hard on everyone. They've been wanting another dog and we thought it was time. We went with a smaller dog this time, he's an inside dog and we thought we wouldn't have trouble with him digging out. Plus, Gabriel had a poodle growing up so he was all for another one. So far, he's a perfect fit to our family. He's 3yo, house and leash trained and has the best temperment. He is a sweet dog and the kids have been in heaven since he came home with us.

--B

Life's little pleasures....

Olivia loves sunsets. At seven, she appreciates the beauty in nature and God that most people take for granted. She and I are so much alike. I have been blessed.

Some little kid at the school said Valerie looks like she's going to be famous. lol. How cute is that?

Seth is my homebody. He loves home more than anything. I wonder if he will ever leave the house? lol.

Nicholas is sweet as ever. He is the one who makes sure we say grace each night, he is the one who throws away any trash he comes across and he is the one who watches out for his sister, Valerie.

Gabriel and I have been together eight years. Wow! Each year keeps getting better and better.

New Year, New Blog

1 year ago today I started chemo. What was once a dark and uncertain road has now been lit and I have a second chance at life. I am enjoying every second I have, from the birds chirping to my kids' smiles. On the way to girl scouts tonight I let Olivia sit up front. Our meeting is at the local church in our neighborhood, so we just have to make two turns and we're there. She was so excited. She rolled down the windows, extended her legs to the dashboard and the radio blasting...what a sight, mother and daughter singing and dancing to Beyonce on the radio. lol. I loved it and will never forget how my once little baby is growing into such a sweet girl.

I promise to add more to this blog. I'm getting a digital camera...FINALLY...and will be adding pictures on a daily basis. We're also trying to upload our videos we have, there are some that are classic. But, needless to say we are searching for our software that we packed away somewhere two years ago.

Just a quick update.

B