Happy Birthday Emma

Fourteen years ago, I had no idea how my life was about to change. When Emma was born Adam and I were young and clueless and had no idea what we were doing. Thankfully we haven't screwed her up too much. :)

Emma is such a wonderful young lady. She is extremely successful at about anything that she puts her mind to, school work, athletics, you name it. Not only successful, she is also a very kind and compassionate person. In all of our moves, she has never had a hard time making new friends and almost welcomes the challenge. I could go on and on, I just love this girl so much.

I will tell you this, she once was the hardest child to deal with. She is extremely strong willed and when she was in her toddler years I was not sure we would make it this far. Thankfully, she has matured, I have gained wisdom in parenting and we made it through some of those harder days.

Emma is such a joy to our whole family and we are blessed to have her.

Happy Birthday Emma.

The Admiral

It has been so long, I almost forgot how to post on here.

Tonight we had the chance to go the Naval Academy and meet David Robinson. He was the most gracious celebrity I have ever met, like I have really met that many. He was so kind to the kids and took his time signing their various items, a poster, a "blue rim", Andrew's shoe, yes his shoe. :)

We had a great time as a family and it was refreshing to meet an amazing athlete and role model.

Happy Birthday Laura

Yes, it is Birthday Season at our house. Starting in February we have ALL six of our birthdays in four short months.

Today is the day for Laura Elizabeth Scott's 8th Birthday. We celebrated this weekend with a glamour party. We had twelve girls over for a day of beauty and fun.

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Laura. You were the baby for so many years. Now you are a big sister to Sarah and a GREAT one. :)

Thank you for being such a sweet girl. We love you so much.

Happy Birthday Adam

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband.

Thank you for always providing for us.

You work hard all day and then come home and pitch in and work hard around the house.

I could not ask for a more loving and kind man. You are a wonderful father and our kids are blessed to have you as a role model.

We love you so much.

Happy Birthday

Let it STOP snowing

We have had a record breaking amount of snow this winter and this past weekend was the mother of all snow storms. We had almost two feet of snow dumped on us over the past 36 hours. Now on to the fun part, digging ourselves out.

Happy 13th Birthday Emma

Happy Birthday to my first born.

You are an amazing daughter and I couldn't be more proud of you.

You bring joy to all of those in your path.

You are beautiful, smart, caring, funny, athletic.

I couldn't ask for anything more.

Happy 13th Birthday Emma

Etsy love

Living in Southern Maryland makes shopping for unique gifts almost impossible. Thankfully for me there are limitless options in the cyber mall of the internet.

I found a really cute gift for Emma and wanted to share it with you all. These are recycled scrabble tiles. There are tons of different patterns and pictures, you are sure to find one for someone on your list. I picked a pendant with a map to show you, you know how I feel about maps. Go check out their etsy shop, there is a design for everyone.

I can hardly believe that Emma will be 13 next week. Crazy, where did time go?

Where to begin?

It has been so long, where do I even begin?  

Last I posted Laura was turning 7.  Well, that she did.  I turned thirty seven, Sarah turned one, Andrew turned ten and Adam and I celebrated fifteen years of marriage since.  That is just to name a few.  Andrew played flag football and Laura and Emma played lacrosse. I pretty much was a taxi driver, cheerleader, chef, maid, tutor, party planner, etc.  Needless to say, I just ran out of time in pretty much each and every day.

Well, the past two months we have been doing one thing... swimming.  We have been loving every minute of it too.  I was so proud of each and every one of the kids.  Laura conquered her fears and tried out for the team and has become a much more confident swimmer.  Laura has never had formal lessons and has improved her strokes more than we could have imagined.  

Andrew has excitement that is contagious.  The boy is a natural when it comes to breaststroke.  Ever single time he swam he came in first or second in his age group, even in the BIG meet against all of the summer swimmers in our area.  Many of the kids he was competing against swim year and Andrew still places above them with minimal coaching.

Emma, well leave it to Emma to outdo herself.  As in most things Emma tries, she does extremely well.  Emma is one of the most gifted people I have ever met, I can't think of many things that she does not excel far above average.  She is humble and a good sport too, I guess that is why I want to brag on her.  She did amazing all summer.  She is a natural in the pool.  As she swims it is almost an art, as she glides through the water.  Emma is also a natural breaststroker.  At most every meet, Emma placed at the top of her age group in every stroke, she was usually just behind the year round swimmers.

So I think we have found a great fit for our family, competitive swimming.  It was fun, the kids liked it and Sarah was such a trooper getting drug to and from the pool multiples times a day.

Now the big question is to swim year round or not?  If we do, will they burn out?  Do they have natural talent and passion and we should harness this energy and talent?  

We will see what the fall holds and if we decided to take the plunge, literally.  For now we will just enjoy the rest of the summer swimming at the community pool, for fun. 

Painting Party

When we were brainstorming ideas for Laura's seventh birthday party we knew art was something to keep in mind.  Well... I started thinking.  I want to take the wallpaper off the wall... we will need to prime it before we paint it...why not let the kids just paint right on the wall?

This was the result.

It was a great time and I am not sure how soon we will paint over it.  Eventually.  

Sarah 11 months

These are way overdue, but here they are.

Our little Sarah Jane is already eleven months old.

Sarah 10 months

On Valentine's Day our littlest Valentine turned ten months.


Can you believe this this little girl was ever "failure to thrive"? It is hard to believe looking at her now.

Sarah 8 months

It is hard to believe that our sweet Sarah Jane is eight months old today. In the past few weeks two of her teeth have popped through and she has been sticking EVERYTHING in her mouth. She likes to do some funny things with her tongue as well. She bring so much joy to our family and we all love to watch her grow and develop. I love my sweet little Sarah Jane.

Vote

What more is there to say?

Trick or Treat

We had a great time on Halloween. This was the first year in our new neighborhood and it did not disappoint. The kids were a hit in their costumes.

Andrew's costume had a few wearability problems and I even ended up wearing the Wii for a short time. One kid even told me that I was "sick". I am pretty sure this is a compliment, that is what my kids told me. ;)

Sarah was a trooper as we toted her along in the stroller.

All in all we had a great time. The best part of the night was spending it with some great friends that will be heading to California in a few months The kids and parents had a blast together.

The Art of Carving

Yesterday we carved our pumpkins.

Here is what we ended up with.


The happy gourd



The spooky ghost


Boomer Sooner


The Wink

Half Birthday

Our sweet little Sarah was born six months ago today...that is hard for all of us to believe. It has been a crazy and busy six months but we are so thankful that Sarah is here to add so much joy to all of our lives.

Here are a few pictures of the adoring big kids and their little sweet girl.



If the next six months are anything like the first it should be a fun adventure.

Little Lego Laura

In the spirit of the "year of the box" Laura decided to be a Lego. It is simple but adorable and she LOVES it.

We are all very excited about Halloween and can't wait to show off our new costumes in the neighborhood. I have a hunch people will know us by our boxes. For years we may be known as the family with the box costumes.

Game on

As I mentioned in my last post, our Halloween costumes are taking on a theme this year...BOXES.

As we were brainstorming what we could make with a box, we got a wild hair and thought it would be fun to make this:



He loves it and is convinced he will have the coolest costume this year. What do you think?

Stand by for Laura's sometime in the near future.

Recycling

Emma has a passion for recycling and has caught the "green fever". She thought it would be fun if we used some of our moving boxes for Halloween costumes this year. I thought that was a great idea. So all of the big kids are going to use a box for their costumes. I haven't decided but if we have time I might even get into the fun.

Today Emma had her good friend Regan over and they worked on their costume.


Here they are. They were so proud of their work.

I will post Laura and Andrew's when we get their costumes done. Wait until you see Andrew's, it is hilarious.

Home Sweet Home

We are really enjoying life in Maryland. I am so proud of the kids, they have made such a smooth transition. They have been so brave and courageous and have jumped right in and made new friends and tried new things.

Here is a picture from the "cracker barrel house". I was at Lowe's the other day and they had just marked the white rockers down fifty percent. Like any other bargain hunting woman, I snatched up two of them for the porch. We are loving them!