Mother's Day 2011

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. The kids were really good to me (and for me)! They were very sweet to cooperate with my picture taking and Taylor and Caleb even took over the camera for a few shots :) And after church we enjoyed lunch at our favorite mexican place (that we haven't been too since Matt left) and then the kids allowed me to go shopping for some new shorts since I couldn't keep any of my old ones up :) Boy, is that a good feeling!

My reason for existing


Me and my big girl who is almost as tall as me!


Me and my sweet boy!


Me and my baby girl!


2 beautiful mom's....we are going to miss my Grandmother when she goes back to Memphis


3 generatioins


Baby Quinn even made an appearance at our house where the kids fought over who got to hold her while I took a picture. This one was the best of the 3 takes.



And I had to include this one....Caleb was holding her and she pooped! It was so loud and he got very tickled! He did ask me to take her and change her though and then he wanted to hold her again. And all 3 kids wanted to watch her get her diaper changed...who would have though poop would be so fascinating! It was hilarious :)

Caleb's Birthday Party

Last weekend Caleb turned 8! I don't know where the last 8 yrs have gone...my baby boy is turning into such a man :)

He wanted to have a slumber party and invited 4 little boys (2 from school and 2 from church). 4 of them were able to come...that was a perfect number of boys. They were so good. They enjoyed playing outside until it was dark....I looked out at one point and saw 2 boys hiding in the flower beds with their light sabers :) I didn't ask them any questions as I didn't want to give away their hiding spot. After a gourmet meal of pizza and cookie cake the boys moved on to opening presents! Caleb got some money and 2 lego sets. He was very happy! Th boys got on their pj's and enjoyed some popcorn while watching Star Wars. I finally got everyone settled down around 11:30. I had to come in a couple of times and finally at midnight I "laid down the law" and said no more talking. They were asleep in minutes.

The next morning they had another gourmet meal....donuts and chocolate milk :) The boys then got dressed and headed outside to play some more before parents started arriving.

Caleb told me after everyone left that it was the best birthday ever! I was so glad since I was afraid he would be disappointed since Matt isn't here.

Taylor's 11th Birthday

Easter Sunday also happened to be Taylor's actual birthday. We had celebrated with her friends a week before and had planned on celebrating with Amy and Aaron and their girls on Friday night but due to my complication with Lasik we had to reschedule it (and we still haven't celebrated it with them).

We had Aunt Hope, Uncle Chris, Kym, Dorian and their girls over for Easter Dinner. I baked Taylor a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (her favorite) and we just celebrated very low key. We will celebrate again once Matt is home.

Taylor blowing out her candles


My baby girl quickly becoming a young lady


Then it was on to presents






And the most important item a tween can have...her very own phone!

Baby Quinn

Monday evening Quinn made her much anticipated debut! Hope went in Sunday evening for an induction. By Monday afternoon she hadn't made much progress (5 cm) and due to her age (she isn't even that old) they weren't going to let her try for long. The decided to just go ahead and do a c-section. Quinn was born at 8:24 pm weighing in at 7 lbs 14 oz and measuring 20 1/2 inches long. She has a head of black hair and chubby little cheeks! The kids were very disappointed that they weren't going to get to see her until after school the next day. Taylor was especially sad as Aunt Hope had promised she would be the first to hold Quinn after her and Chris. It actually didn't seem like she had been born since we couldn't see her right away. This afternoon when the kids got out of school we headed up to the hospital. We were praying that they would let Madison in (the rules say no one under 8 unless a sibling) b/c we knew it wasn't going to be pretty if she couldn't see Quinn. Chris came out and acted like Madison was the big sister...yeah, we are sneaky like that :)

The kids were in love! They weren't ready to leave 2 hours later. Taylor actually said "I am going to spend the night".

Caleb and Quinn


Taylor and Quinn


Madison and Quinn


This is the only picture of me...I look so bad right now due to the horrible acne I have after taking steroids for a week and my eyes still look a little rough. I will just have to wait for a picture with Quinn until I am looking a little more alive :) However this is the 1st picture I have had taken of me since I lost 25 lbs and I am pleased with how "skinny" I look :)