Weekend Fun

Weekends are generally packed full of family togetherness. Last weekend we had Katie's soccer game and a special lunch out. A birthday party and a very realxing picnic at the park. This weekend we ended up doing the same thing! Except had our picnic at the County Fair at Chester Frost Park. It is so nice to be able to spend some time together since Joe works so much during the week. The weekend is kind of like our wind down time, getting us ready for another jam packed busy week.
Mondays for the kids and I consist of: 6:30am getting 5 people up, ready and out of the house before 8am. Taking the katie to school. Going to the gym for an hour or so. Mom and Tots play date. picnic lunch. Naptime. Pick Katie up from school. Art/Craft or TV time. Play time. Dinner time. Bath time. Bed time.
Then...to start all over again with few variations each day.
Tuesdays I take an aerobics class.
Wednesdays Ally and I go to Lapsit at the Library. And Katie has cubbies that evening while I attend a moms book club.
Thursdays and Fridays I work.
Hence, why the weekends are so nice to one, have joe there and two have the help joe brings. It is so exhausting to have all three babies. But nothing I would ever take for granted!
Looking forward to this fall weather! We love to go to parks and the nice weather will make that so much more enjoyable!

A great Mama?!

I am fighting a battle, a battle that I feel I have lost too many times during the short time I have been a mother.

Tha Battle?
What makes a great Mama?

Is it the smell of something yummy baking as you enter their home? Is it a clean home or chores that are always complete? Is it a manicured yard or even just the yard trimmed? An upkept mother and ironed clothes for every family member? Is it a homemade dinner on the table every night? Each child participating in everyextracirricuuler activity? A solid routine for which the children follow strictly day in and day out?

Is it the sound of happy children at any hour of the day? Is it a little bit of chaos while an art or craft is being so happily completed by little hands even though the dishes need to be done? Is it playing in the floor with your little ones even though laundry is undone. Is it playing Candy Land one more time instead of vacuuming? Is it cuddling as you read a book for the millionth time instead of mopping?

I feel it is letting the laundry sit while I play with my little ones. Not worrying about the dishes in the sink while I cuddle on the cough with my babies. Forgetting about the mess while I read them a story or paint with them.

Time flies by, the laundry will be there later, the dishes can wait and the vacuuming can be done another time. My little ones will only be a little for a short amount of time. They will not be 4yrs 4 months and 2 weeks old, 2 yrs, 3 months and 1 day old, and 8 months 2 weeks and 2 days old tomorrow.
And as much as I struggle with the battle of what makes a great mama....deep down I know that my children come first. I should be proud of the 'art work' all over the house, the mess in the girls room, the stains on the rugs and the sticky spots on the kitchen floor and chaos that is my life and home.
For Today is a gift, tomorrow a mystery and yesterday a memory to be cherished forever.
Make every moment count and a memory that you can rely on to get you through the tough times.
It is so hard for me to let the dishes go, the cleaning slide and the laundry pile up. I feel I need to 'impress' others. But what I need to remember is my kids are little treasures that need me more then the house needs cleaning. That need to be held before the things are straightened up. As long as the house is livable and lived in.....nothing else should matter over my babies.
I know this....now that battle of making sure I do this.

Kids

I cut Katie's hair Monday night. I probably chopped a good 3-4 inches or more off. I am a poor judge of length. But it is now at her shoulders when dry. Of course I cut it when it was wet and she was looking at the ceiling! I was so frustrated that she was looking up...i did not relize she had moved her head till after I snipped. It looks good though. It was almost a year since the first 'real' haircut I gave her. Then I cut it shorter then I had wanted as well.
But she gets hot easily so this will help her stay a little cooler and it will grow out by winter.

Blake started crawling this weekend. He is doing very well now. Gets most everywhere he wants to go in the room in which he is in. I am going to be putting the play pen to more use now! lol
He is teething again, wont let me sit him down for even a minute. Wearing on my nerves for sure. Porr little guy must be in some pain but when I pick him up when he is screming he immediatly stops, smiles and laughs. Joe thinks it is funny and says he has me wrapped around his finger....I do not think it to be so amusing. =/

Time Flies

I sit here thinking of yesterday....or what can seem like yesterday. The days when i was young. Our childhood is gone in a blink of an eye. It feels like just the other day Katie bug was a tiny baby in my arms. My first born little bundle of joy.
And now my 3rd, and last, little baby, in a matter of a month, has sat up, started scooting, is trying to crawl and is pulling up on everything. My baby girl is talking up a storm, sentences and phrases I never knew she knew. And my sweet princess is going to school. Oh my, where does that time go?!
Just last week I was playing on the trampoline in out backyard with a water hose and my sis and bro. Or a couple months ago I was watching Annie water our TV with the same water hose. lol Or last year I was celebrating my very first Christmas(although I do not remember it).
I can not believe that so much can happen in such a short amount of time. In what seems like a lifetime when you are in the moment goes by faster then we can even imagine.
I am 28 yrs old, but feel like I am still 18. I am scared to grow old, mainly because it happens so fast and also because it is an unkown. Unkown because I have never been there, felt it, experienced it. So much unknown. So many years that will fly by faster then a speeding bullet. So much to do and see....so little time.
Life is short. Live it, Love it and never regret what made you smile!

Family and Birthday

My mother's birthday was yesterday(September 8th) The kids and I went over to my parents house and made them a spaghetti dinner and cake to celebrate.
Then tonight, the kids, joe and I met my sister, brother and Addison at my parents house for a surprise 'party' for my mom. We had another cake, the girls decorated it, drinks and ice cream for all. I think we really surprised her and she enjoyed having us all together for her. =]

In May for Dad's birthday we did a similar thing. We went to Chester Frost Park and got a pavalion. Every day when dad got off work he would go visit my brother who was a ranger there(he is a cop with Red Bank now). Well, that day when he went to talk Mom had decorated the pavilion, grilled hot dogs and had a cake with much much more to surprise him. He was so not expecting that! =]

We love family get togethers. It allows us to spend that time together that we rarely get to spend together due to hectic lives. I wish Joe's family was closer to us so that we could do the same with them. But at least occasional visits take place to make up for it.

I ask Katie and Ally every night what their favorite part of the day was and they always say spending time with their family, or a certain activity they did with family that day or spending time with a certain family member that day. I am so glad that at such a young age they realize the importance of family.

Gym

Aerobics....I am not coordinated enough for anything. Although I attempted an aerobics class today. To my surprise it was actually fun...exhausting...hard...and helped me realize just how horribly OUT of shape I am! I am so sore now....... I plan to attend the class once a week! =] At least that way I will work through the soreness. hehe

I also have 3 personal trainer appointments. One I had last week and my next one tomorrow. I enjoyed getting to learn how to correctly use the gym equipment and then feel confident and comfortable enough to go back and try it by myself.

I really need to do this for myself, to get myself back in shape and back in the shape I want to be in after having three kids. It is some great me time too!

Ally loves playing in the nursery and Blake gets lots of attention in the infant room due to his charming smile, handsome laugh and head full of hair.

Sunday afternoons

Oh, How I love lazy sunday afternoons.
We go to mass almost every sunday morning, then try and do something fun with the girls. Like go to lunch, have a picnic, go to a park, go to the mall play area....ect
Well, today we went to Riverpark and had a nice picnic lunch next to the river. It was a perfect breezy day to do so. Then we walked a bit and treated the girls to ice cream for behaving so well. They played on the playground for a bit and then we headed home for naps and relaxing.
Sundays are our family time. I cherich it so very much. With the amount of work Joe does during the week the kids and I have little to no time like that with him during the week. But it is a sacrifice we are willing to take for a better future.

I forgot to mention that I took Blake to have his ears checked Friday afternoon. He had been waking in the night the weekend before last, I took him to the doc cause after the 3rd night of this he woke with congestion that was a little green and a low grade temp. He ended up having a double ear infection that was caused by a cold he showed no signs of having other then a very slight clear runny nose. They put him on amoxicillian and at the end of the ten days(friday) I took him back for a re-check cause hs started to wake in the night again and his runny nose came back. So, he still(or again) has ear infections and they put him on another form of Amoxicillian....I did not know that existed. They want to check him again in 3-5 wks.
While we were there I wanted Ally's ears checked as well cause she and Katie had apparantly caught the cold and had runny noses earlier in the week. Although Ally;s was worse and she was very congested and had a cough on top of it. Ally's ears checked our ok but Katie's (she didnt want to be left out of the ear checking!) were not so good. She also had double ear infections and never once said her ears hurt! So, she is also on an antibiotic and since we just finished 3 rounds of antibiotics jsut 2-3 weeks ago trying to rid her of an ear infection....she has to see an ENT specialist in a couple of weeks. She may have to get tubes like Ally did last fall.
My poor babies and their ear troubles.....

Soccer

Katie had her first soccer game yesterday. She and her daddy ran around the field practicing and then playing a short scrimmage. I, Ally, Blake and Mom and Teresa sat on the sidelines watching and cheering. It was great to see her participating in a sport Joe enjoyed so much in his younger years. The jersey, shorts and socks were huge on her and it looked like she had short stuby legs. hehe
She loved it though and can not wait until next week!
She has games every saturday(except 10/11) at 10am until the last week in october or so.

In addition to Soccer Katie is in Awanas Cubbies program again this year.
They meet every wednesday night and have a little book they do a chapter in each week. They learn a verse to recit to their teacher each week and learn various games and songs.
Last year Katie was only in Cubbies for about 6 wks and learned all 30 or so versuses that all the other kids learned that whole yr in thos few weeks. The teacher was so impressed with her they want her to do a book in addition to the book that everyone does this year! She is so excited! =]

Katie

My little photographer.....Katie loves to take pictures. Whether it be with our camera, her camera or my phone. She is little miss creativity. She loves to draw, "do her homework"(she does not have homework), color, paint, play on my laptop, memorize her versus for cubbies(which she did so well last year the teacher wants her to do an additional book from the rest of the class, where she would memorize extra versuses each week) and much more. i posted pics that she took herself with my camera phone. =]