I made it!!!

Today was my last day at work!! Praise God I made it!!! I now get to go home and put my feet up for the next 2 weeks before LG makes her debut into the world. I've been waiting (not so patiently) for this day to arrive, but I hung on and made it!!!

The thing is, I'm not gonna get an ounce of rest while I'm home, but it's just a relief to not have to go into work every morning. Did I mention that the boys are coming home with me.. I mean, why pay for daycare every week when I'm home.

Ok, that's it. WOO HOO!! GO ME!!! *off to bed*

Happy New Year!!!

Wow!!! The holidays sure did come and go!

Sooo, what's been going on with me?

I'm still huge.... growing more and more everyday. C-section scheduled for February 9 (2 days before my due date). I can't wait for it to get here. Pregnancy really isn't for me! Ha!

Christmas was great! Little Girl got her first gifts... some booties and this ginormous bear (from her 2 grandmothers of course). The boys had a ball!! Jordie was dying for a skateboard, but well, we all know what a bad idea that would be. So, Uncle H got him a 3 wheeled scooter instead. When he opened it, Jordie said, with the utmost sincerity, "this is exactly what I really wanted!" He is so cute!! LOL Really though, what 3 year old says stuff like that?? lol Since the boys are moving into their new "boys room," they got all new bedding and pj's to match. Really, they are so cute!!

Umm, what else??
Still in physical therapy, but I'm gonna stop at least til after the baby's born. I'm too big to do many of the exercises and I can do what they've taught me at home. If I'm still in pain after some of this weight comes off, then I'll go back.

Ummmmmm, I guess that's it. My last day of work is Jan. 22.... so I'm counting down the days til a little bit of freedom before I have 3 babies in the house... Wowzers!! 3 babies!

Til next time.. here are a few highlights from our annual Christmas breakfast. Enjoy!

Infirmery Much

Last week is a complete and utter blur! Not one, not two, not three, but all four of us were sick last week! And I guess I'll make that 5 by proxy. Ohhhhhh, the horror!!! There were doctor's appointments, prescriptions, rub downs, thermometers, and tissues galore!! At one point or another, everyone had a fever. Ty, who hates to miss work, had to call out. The boys had to stay home from daycare. I was home battling my own illness, trying to keep the boys from re-infecting each other.

Saturday was Halloween. I spent waaaayyyyy too much time HERE fighting for the best monkey and lion costumes to let the day pass us by. We all had to be better by Saturday to ensure the boys could show off their costumes. It was touch a go for a while, but the boys began to rebound by Friday. It is now the following Tuesday and I am still coughing. Don't get me wrong, I feel MUCH better... but I know I'm still not 100%. I think because I'm not really allowed to take cold medicine. I'm taking just about everything else (that's legal anyway), so I hope to have complete relief one day soon.

Here are the boys all dressed up! Aren't they just too cute!!!

Here are the 3 amigos AKA Team Trouble! :-)

Trifecta!!!! Oui ou Non??

Soooooo, are you ready?????

Are you ready to find out the most delicious news across this here innanets???

This is the biggest news I've had to share since...... well, since telling people the sex of the other two babies.....



Well, I've been saying all along that I'd really love to have another boy! I'm used to boys now, and since my boys are so super duper fantastic, why shake things up with a girl... right?

Plus, I don't do hair. Little girls need their hair done... like everyday! Uhhh, good luck with that little imaginary daughter of mine. Ha!


So, my mind was made up. Boy! Boy! Boy! Ty didn't care as much, but I reeeeeallllly had a preference. Have I made that clear yet? lol



Anyway, when I left the ultrasound appointment, I left quite content! I just couldn't stop smiling!!!

We're having a GIRL y'all!!!!!!!

Yep, a girl! No trifecta over here! lol



I had no idea deep down I wanted a girl. I mean, you really could've fooled me! lol I'm sure I would've been happy with another little boy, but man, you couldn't wipe that cheesy grin off my face!! The u/s tech had to confirm the gender like 3 times though because I just didn't believe her. So, of course, there's an arrow with "GIRL" written on the picture they gave me! haha


Anyway, WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO for us! I am just too excited! Now, if only she'd ease up on the pain producing girations sometimes (that's a whole other can of worms I don't dare open today).


YAY Us!!! And, yes, we already have a name picked out.
It was gonna be Aaron's name if he was a girl.

Countdown Much

We're just a few weeks away folks!!!


I can hardly believe it... in just a few short weeks I will have left the (so far) most eventful decade of my life!!! During my 20's I graduated from college (Go Dragons!), got married (heyyyy Ty!), bought my first house (sooooo ready to move), had my first sweet little baby (hi Jordie!), had my second sweet little baby (hi Owwie!), and got pregnant with my third bundle of joy (shhhhh, it's a secret)!!!


That was a mouthful, eh....


Well, I usually have this grand, loud and in-person countdown leading up to my birthday, but beacuse I have so many mixed feelings about this upcoming day - I'm leaving my countdown on the web. Won't you count down with me... It's okay if you don't start today... just make it over here on the 27th! :-)




Dirty Thirty here I come...

Partaaaay Much

Whew!!!
Party, party, party!! That's all we seem to do! SIKE! LOL

My sweetie, Ty, celebrated his bday last week - so of course we had to celebrate! We threw him a surprise party on Saturday, so this past week was full of all the last minute things we hadn't checked off our to do lists.

The main thing we had to do was KEEP IT A SECRET!!! We had to throw him off somehow.. Since his bday was in the middle of the week, we had a mini-bday celebration at his mom's house on that day and let him think that was it. *trickery*

Well, everything after that is a blur!! LOL We had to buy food, decorations, balloons, make jello shots, finalize the dj's playlist... and on and on and on. Saturday came and went. The party was a lot of fun... the boys even partied for a bit. Even though Ty had a good time - he knew about it. I guess it didn't help that the guests parked RIGHT IN FRONT of the building!!!

Ty & his fave dance partner... his mama!

So, the surprise was a bust, but we still had fun. And the food was super yummy!! And the desserts were.... you already know! LOL

Ty & I having a blast!!

Two Much

Man on man... time is surely flying!!! My little Owwie just celebrated his 2nd birthday on Saturday. I can't believe what a big boy he is! Almost makes me want to cry. Almost.

Well, we had another full weekend of festivities to commemorate this special occasion. Not to be outdone by Jordie's Diego extravaganza, Aaron got to celebrate with his favorite peeps - Mickey, Goofy and Donald. The boy loves Mickey Mouse...it''s so cute to hear him call out "Ohhhh Tootles!"

Anyway, we got up on Saturday to big hearty bowls of oatmeal! Yum! Again, Owwie's favorite - so I had to indulge (so what if he eats it just about everyday.. lol). We then packed up the car and headed to the aquarium. The boys had no idea where we were going, so they fell right asleep the moment we pulled out of the driveway. They wake up very slowly, so I was quite nervous that they wouldn't be able to pull it together to enjoy all the sea creatures. I forgot who I was dealing with..... Jordan saw a picture of a shark and perked right up! lol

We spent what felt like days at the aquarium looking at all types of fish - from piranhas to jellyfish to sharks and everything in between. We also saw the seals and the penguins and some funky looking frogs. So much fun! The boys didn't want to leave. But we had to. I was STARVING and I refused to spend my life savings on a hot dog and water. Besides, the party was just getting started.

We head back home and I keep the boys outside while we wait for our guests. Because of the whole "broke-ness" which has turned into the theme for 2009, there was to be no party. Our guests just consisted of a few family and friends... a very intimate birthday gathering. It was great.

The boys got to jump in their jumper, they got to blow bubbles, they got to eat (just about) whatever they wanted... and they got cake and ice cream. Sounds like a fun time to me.

The sun slowly went down, and so did my energy. The family left, the boys went to bed and Ty and I got to discuss how the last 2 years have just flown by. I CANNOT believe my little Aaron is 2.

My dear Owwie is a lover, a trouble maker, an instigator, a greedy little eater, and my lovebug! He is the sweetest little boy in the world. He never turns down a hug and always pokes out his cheek when I ask for a kiss. He oftentimes even asks for more and more kisses. so sweet. He also likes to bother his big brother and he can be quite aggressive at times. He's tiny, but he packs a punch! He must get all that strength from NEVER turning down food. He is sooooo greedy, but I just wonder where it all goes. You know he only weighs 22 pounds... and is below the 5th percentile. The doctor isn't worried though, so I try not to be...

So, to my dear son who loves his mommy's kisses, who loves to sing and dance (but it must always be a solo)... to the boy who never keeps his shoes on and we'll often find with just one sock on... to the boy who will eat anything, and I mean anything (does a little poop in the mouth incident ring a bell)... to the boy who will only poop in a clean diaper (which results in us changing 2 diapers within 10 minutes sometimes)... to the boy with the eyelashes that just won't quit... to the boy who all the ladies just adore... to the boy who I just love love love so much..... Happy Birthday!!!!!

Graduation Day

Before we even start on the graduation festivities, allow me to take you back a few weeks.

My dear Jordie, the star that he is, came home with a prize one day. The prize was for Good Behavior!! Amazing. Now, Jordie is NOT a bad kid.... not at all - but he does have a penchant for challenging authority. He's a thrill seeker and I think he gets a kick out of testing boundaries. In any event, we were so proud that he was recognized for calming it down a bit!

WOO HOO JORDAN!!




(sorry for the smile.. this is the best pic out of like 10 that I took)


Nowwww, on to the graduation. The school the boys attend had an end of the year "graduation" for the kids going to kindergarten in September. This "graduation" also included a moving up ceremony for the kids in Jordan's pre-school class into the pre-k class. It's really a big deal. I guess, since the kids are so small they had to include everyone....so, even though Jordie isn't moving up, he got to participate too. How nice.

The program started at 5pm. We got there at 4:58. It was Standing Room Only. If you didn't know better, you would've thought this was a Harvard graduation or something. There were sooooo many people there... and many weren't even parents. They had their video cameras rolling.... balloons blocking views (ya'll know I'm short right!)... flowers, streamers, etc. It was all a bit much. I ended up leaving the room and watching from the window in the hall. I went to get Aaron so he could see his brother simultaneously graduate and get left back! HA!

The kids recited the Pledge of Allegiance, they sang songs, they danced... it was all very merry. The pre-k class even recited some poetry while also performing full-body sign language! No, it wasn't mime... it was sign language, but with high kicks and neck rolls. Really, quite informative.

Of course, after this major accomplishment (first of MANY graduations).. we had to have a celebratory dinner. Applebees it is! (did you think we would go somewhere else on J's special day?? lol)

So, here are some pics of this most auspicious occasion. Ty played photog, so sorry for the blurry dark pics.

In this pic, Jordie is getting his "diploma," but he had already been given a bag of tootsie rolls - hence his complete lack of interest in receiving proper documentation of attending school for 2 months! lol

Our Jordie graduated!!!! WOO HOO!! Magna Cum Laude I might add!!! LOL

On This Day...

Six years ago TODAY, my life in the BlueWorld began! My dear Ty and I got married! I was a young bride... think 12 or 13 (don't I just ooze tween bride? :-D)

Truly one of the happiest days of my ENNNNNTIRE life!! It's funny when everyone at a wedding reception remarks that they've never seen a bride have so much fun. Yes, I was indeed the life of the party! HA!

To commemorate the day, Ty and I celebrated in he grandest of fashions...

lounging on the couch ALL DAY!!! (well, in between doing like 10 loads of laundry) Romantic, I know!

So, let's raise a glass to the first 6 years and another keg (errr, glass) to the next 60 years of wedded bliss.

Cumpleanos Much

Yesterday was May 11. The day marked a very special day in the BlueWorld household. Our Jordie turned three years old!!! I CANNOT believe it! Really, I can't. Just yesterday I was single, childless, and broke. Now I'm married, with children, and broke. My how things change.

Even though it was also Mother's Day weekend, we had to go all out to celebrate Jordie's birthday since there would be no parties this year. Did I mention we were broke. And we had all of our money stolen out of our bank account (which we still haven't gotten back... uggghhh).

The celebration started on Saturday morning. The boys woke up to the smell of....

well, nothing. I was still asleep. The boys woke me up in typical fashion and I groggily went downstairs to start breakfast. I made my Jordie (& his very greedy brother) a wonderful pancake breakfast.

Would you believe Aaron ate 6 pancakes, 3 pieces of bacon, a bowl of applesauce, a banana and finished it off with a cup of juice!!! His metabolism is crazy (the doctors were a bit concerned because he won't gain weight). I think Jordan only at 4 pancakes.

After breakfast, Ty took Jordan to get his birthday haircut. He desperately needed one...
They returned and it was Aaron's turn. Ty cut Aaron's hair himself. Aaron was (to my surprise) very agreeable.
After haircuts, we got dressed dressed and headed out the door.

After a 90 minute (10 mile) drive, we finnnaallly arrive at the zoo. Jordan was too excited!

I didn't make the mistake I made before... Ty and I took TWO strollers! Forget the double stroller, forget walking with two rambunctious toddlers, forget being ambitious.... time to get practical! LOL

Here are my boys checking out some hippos or turtles or something... how cute are they!! :-)

Here are the 2 AJ's! and some sleeping lions in the background.

Bday boy & brother too distracted to let Mom get a good shot...

This HUGE gorilla just got finished swinging from a rope (a la Tarzan), banging his entire body against the window (scaring me half to death), and falling to the ground. This is the aftermath... silly gorilla!

After a GREAT time at the zoo.... we went to see GG. She and Tif & Will were going to join us for a celebratory dinner at Jordie's FAVE spot.. wait for it...
Applebees!!! LOL He loves that place!

So we ate, we drank, and were quite merry. Then.... the waiters came around and sang to my Jordie! They sang to a 3 year old! I didn't know they did that!! LOL

Anyway, here he is with his birthday chocolate mousse (that his mom politely stole and devoured within seconds! Thanks for sharing J)!

That was about all the celebration we could muster for one day.... but that certainly was not the last of it. After all, his actual birthday was on Monday!

Like any good mom, I spent my Mother's Day making cupcakes for Jordie's class. I made the mini cupcakes (just enough sugar for a toddler) and found they were quite harder to handle than the regular sized ones. *shrugs* Then I tried to get fancy and dye my icing... some were blue... others were green. ALL were eaten! Ms. D (Jordie's teacher) said I'm the new favorite mom of the class!! I'm so honored.

After I picked the boys up, we head home for the real birthday "party." GG, Tif (& Jace), Shana and Ms. Beale came over for pizza and cake to celebrate the big 0-3! The theme of the party was Go Diego Go! as you can tell by the pics below.

So, to the boy who could sing his ABC's before he was one, who never took to crawling but walked before he was 10 months... To the boy who likes to tell knock knock jokes and sing songs and dance to Move It Move It.... To the boy whose intelligence and memory and PURE genius astound me on a daily basis... To the boy who can read... To the boy who can memorize an entire program (including random narration that has nothing to do with the subject)... To the boy who never naps and is last to go to bed and the first to rise in the morning.. To the boy who can eat oatmeal at every meal... To the boy who loves to give sloppy kisses.. To the boy who is the best big brother a little brother could ask for (thanks for not hitting Aaron back all those times - we're still working on AJ's aggression).. To the boy who assigned everyone in the family a color and a halloween costume and can rattle off who belongs to what color and costume (MONTHS LATER!!!)... To the boy who wears me out on a daily basis... To the boy who loves the sky and the moon...

Yes, to that boy - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Keep making Mommy proud.

Ahhh yes, this is also the same boy who refuses to go to the potty consistently, who throws tantrums like NO OTHER, and who kept Mommy in labor for 17 hours before being yanked out with that suction device!!

Uhhh, yeah, thanks..

Love you Jordie!!

Feel The Love

Do I feel the love????
In a word, NO!
Why, you ask....
Simple.
I am in the throws of my third, yes THIRD, cold of this young year.
We are only in mid-February and I am already in the midst of my third sneezing, coughing, fever, chills, aches, episode of the year..... UGGGHHHH! (since I'm still feeling so awful, this is going to be brief)

It all started on Friday. We were celebrating a VERY special occasion - one where we wanted to share our love with others. :-)
Our little Babydoll Caedee turned UNO!!! I cannot believe that she is alread one year old, but alas, she is. God bless her!

How cute is the birthday girl!!!

Here she is with her royal subject (her mommy) getting ready to blow out her candles.
How do you like her bday tiara?? I was told her dad bought that for the little princess!! How appropriate! HA!

I woke up Saturday morning feeling AWFUL!! I had to make mac & cheese for my sorority meeting. Of course, I waited until the very last minute to get it done so I headed to the nearby Pathmark to get the ingredients at 6:30am. What's funny about that is the guy in front of me in line had nothing else with him but 2 (not 1, but 2) packages of Double Stuff Oreos!!! At 6:30 in the morning??? That literally made me LOL! Maybe he had a pregnant wife at home with an early morning craving... Really, at 6:30am all you need are some Oreos????? LOL

Anyway, I make the mac & cheese - but didn't taste any of it before I wrapped it up for transport. I thought to myself that I should taste it, but I wasn't feeling well, I had been up since 6:15 (I'm soooooooo not a morning person), and in typical fashion I was running late.
All I'm gonna say is that I should've taken the few extra minutes and just tasted it. It wasn't bad, it was just bland. Ah well...

Moving on...

I had promised the boys a special treat for Valentine's Day. V-Day is not a day Ty and I particularly celebrate. In all actuality, we barely even acknowledge it. Anyway, I get home and make them some muy delicioso cupcakes. YUMMY!! No mistakes here!! lol

Think I made enough?? :-)


This was Jordie's first AND last bite of the cupcake.
He doesn't have a sweet tooth like me and the other AJ. Don't worry, it didn't go to waste (I ate it)


Here's Owwie going to work!

Here he is trying to get me to take a bite, but because of the aforementioned cold, I declined. :-(

Since our February is jam packed with activities and travels, we also set this day aside for dinner and a movie. I let the boys (Jordie) choose the movie. Jordan has maaad love for Cars, so we watched that - for the umpteenth time.

Once the movie ended, it was bedtime.

I woke up today even sicker than yesterday. I spent most of the day either in bed or on the couch. Hopefully no one else in the house will get this bug. Speaking of bugs, did anyone see Grey's Anatomy on Thursday when McDreamy surgerized out those brain worms!! YUCK!! but definitely one to watch!

Ok, back to bed I go....

Love to all, but I'll try to keep my germs to myself

All Things PINK!

I had a very full weekend (now moving into the next weekend). Friday was a hoot and Saturday did not fail to keep up!

Lil Sha Sha reached a milestone and turned the big 3-0 early in January and with all that she's gone through - we knew she could use a day/night out. Her other close friends and I devised a plan to surprise her with a day of fun and a lovely girlfriends dinner to wrap up the evening. We knew she'd love it.... she can be a bit of a ham!!! Love you SSG! LOL

We surprised her in the morning with balloons, cards, flowers and gifts. She loved it all!! She was so cute...giggling and smiling. Just thank goodness she didn't cry - PinkLady doesn't respond well to tears.

After the initial shock wore off, we went to brunch. We had a GREAT time!! We were there quite a while, but never felt rushed by the staff to leave..that was nice. And as a bonus, this guy who was planning to propose to his girlfriend that day (he showed us the ring and everything! lol) bought Shana a bday drink!! What a great start to the day!! :-)

Shana and the happy couple! LOL

After brunch, we all went to the movies. This was the only part of the day where Lil Sha Sha wasn't surprised. At least she didn't know which movie we were gonna see.... which we all now affectionately call the Morris Chestnut movie!! YUM!

Here's Alikia & Shana just before the movie

We were keeping really good time and had very little trouble keeping with our schedule. Our next appointment was at MAC...and we were juuussst gonna make it on time. We arranged for Shana to get her 'birthday glamour face' put on - including eyelashes and everything!!!


"SURPRISE!!!"
Here's Shana with her magician.. I mean her make-up artist, Chris
Doesn't she look beautiful.

We spent waaayy too much time at MAC, and alas, fell behind schedule. We got back to Shana's and somehow took a very long time to get ready for our 7:15 dinner reservation. We all finally got ready and were able to leave the house at 7:05. No big deal...
We were running late and there was a bad accident on our way there. From what I've heard, everyone made it out unscathed, but that really set us back a great deal. I think we finally got to our destination at 7:40. Not too bad, I guess.

Shana was a good sport though. We had her close her eyes about halfway there so it would all be a surprise to her. She had no idea where we were going or who would be there waiting for her! I LOVED IT!!! LOL

Here is Shana being escorted down the stairs at the restaurant. Her eyes were supposed to be closed!!

We all sit down and Shana finally realizes we are at the Melting Pot. She told me more than once she wanted to try it out, so we thought this was a good selection. We had a really nice time. Allyson, Martina and Tiffany joined us for dinner (Thanks again guys!!) and that was a nice surprise for Shana.

Alikia, Martina & Allyson fon-doing it up!!
LOL

Shana blowing out the candle on her birthday fondue!

The End.... until the next Pink celebration I guess..

Today is a special day

Today is a very special day. October 23 changed my life.
I have been EXHAUSTED the past 4 weeks and it seems my biggest victim through all this fatigue is my blog.

Much has happened since I last posted, but at the same time, nothing has happened at all.

Shana had her surgery. It was a success. She has been at home recovering - which has humbled me beyond comprehension. Just watching someone go through something like that, all the while not knowing what the future will hold, take so much courage!! GOOOOOO SHANA!!!!! I went with her to meet cancer specialists (since it was confirmed that the tumor was cancerous) and they suggested radiation. No one wants Shana to have to endure any more, but the docs just weren't certain that they got it all with the surgery.
Well....God is good!! He is the Master Physician!!! We just got word yesterday that she won't need any radiation and they feel they can control her situation by closely monitoring her. Praise God!!

What else? swimming ended. I missed my last few sessions. Life got super hectic and like I've been saying - I am just soooooo tired!

Ok, so like I said... today is a special day! I will force myself to be productive this evening and provide an update as to this special day.

I also have tons of other updates - my 29th bday (9/27), our family trip to the pumpkin patch, this month's dinner and a movie (which has to be pushed back to next week) and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.

Til next time...