Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! I am very fortunate to be surrounded by amazing kids and by friends who have become my family. For that, I am thankful and blessed.

My two little blondies are getting so big!
No resemblance, but he's MINE! Eventually he'll look like one of us, LOL.

Aaliyah (my neice), Madison and Abrianna

My sister, Lynn

Aaliyah, Madison, Dee and Andrew. Not pictured: Dre and Tre.

I am awful with names and embarrassed to admit that I forgot the couple on the left's names :( , 'Lil Charles, Charles and Michelle, Jessica and Lynnie. Not pictured are: Louis, DeSean, Lee and I.

The menu included deep fried turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, artichoke dip, cranberry sauce, macaroni & cheese casserole, green beans, corn, green chile, chicken mole, tortillas, and dinner rolls. I had my favorite wine, Chateu St. Michelle Reisling as I enjoyed my feast. We finished off the night with pumpkin pie, banana cream pie, chocolate cream pie, apple pie and some dessert shots of Chambord liquor topped with heavy cream :P All in all, it was a great dinner!

8 and counting

I can't believe how fast eight months went by! Tommy is at that age where his personality is starting to come out and he is learning new things constantly. He absolutely LOVES people. Everywhere we go, he is constantly trying to grab people's attention- which isn't hard with a face like that! I know, every mom thinks their kid is adorable and I'm guilty of it as well :) Tommy is very curious and is always trying to figure things out. I love how at this age you can actually tell when the "light turns on" and they have learned something new.

Thanks to Uncle Lupe, he has found his love of Twizzlers! Not a fan of all the sugar but it breaks my heart to see those crocadile tears fall when you take it away.
He also loves those little biter biscuits. I only give these to him when he is naked and ready for a bath because they are MESSY! He isn't crawling yet, which I'm slightly thankful for because I can do without him getting into things! I have tried to get him to crawl but all he does is scoot back and then roll over and laugh at me.

Stats:

Stage 2 foods

Started a sippy cup, though not very successful yet :)

Claps

Plays Peek-a-Boo

Loves fries, biter biscuits and twizzlers

Gets excited when he sees us

Loves to torture the cat

Dances

Weighs 21 lbs 11oz. (60%)

30 3/4 in. long (97%)

18 1/2 in. head (92%)

Has two teeth on bottom

Still has his big blue eyes, which I'm hoping he keeps, but Andrew and Madison's eyes changed at around 3 years old. He had his flu shot and the H1N1 shot about 2 weeks ago. As always, he cried for about 5 seconds and was fine. Still breaks my heart though. He was a bit fussy the next day but other than that, he didn't have any side effects to the shot, thank God!

Until next time, have a great month!

Happy Halloween!

This year we went Trick-or-Treating in the Stapleton neighborhood with my sister and her friend. Such a great place to go! There were TONS of kids! The weather was probably the best Halloween weather we've ever had. It snowed about 28 inches two days before, but by Halloween day, it was about 60 degrees and almost all the snow had cleared! Gotta love Colorado!!! Amber (Madison's best friend) and Madison were vampires, Andrew had a scary mask on and Tommy was a biker dude complet with red mohawk, tattoos and skull bandana!

I had to dress him in something different than a doggy or super-hero costume that the other two had been. It's hard to tell in the pictures but he was "sleeved" with tattoos and even had a skull tat on his cheek :)

Madison wanted to look like Victoria from the Twilight series.

Estes Park

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful weekend to spend up in Estes Park! It was about 70 degrees, the sun was shining, and a cool breeze was floating across kissing my face...simply perfect :)

The kids had fun feeding the ducks, playing in the water and plain ol' goofing around. The scenery is amazing and people watching was lots of fun.

We hope to make it up there again at the end of the month to see all of the beautiful trees as they change to orange and golden yellow. Just another one of God's gifts that takes my breath away.

Boondocks!

'Twas the day before school starting and I decided to take the kids to Boondocks as a great way to end the summer. Granted, they have been driving me up the wall the last few weeks; but, as most parents know, this usually happens right before school is about to start. So, despite their lack of mutual respect for eachother, if that even exists between siblings before the age of 23, I take them out for a night of fun. First, Tommy, Madison and I hit the photo booth. We were laughing because we made such a huge effort to get Tommy to fit in the little circle so he's in the picture with us, and then we get the pics and he's not even in them! LOL! Then, they have a little race car action...Next it's time to cool off in the boats.Madison gets out, walks toward me, everything is fine. I turn my back to grab my phone out of the stroller and I hear, "Mom, I fell into the water!" OMG!!! Apparently some kid bumped Andrew's boat as he was getting out and knocked him into the water! Yes, completely submerged! I have a spare outfit for my 6 month old, but definetly not for my 11 year old.You can always count on Andrew for a good laugh! I was crying from laughing so hard as I'm telling my girlfriend about it. As I'm typing this, I can't help but to giggle about it again. He's gonna kill me for sharing but I couldn't resist!

Slacking...

Okay, so I'm a HUGE slacker when it comes to blogging! I am way behind on posting pics and events from our family, so, here is a condensed version of the past few months:

Update Part 1: Tommy

Tommy is almost 6 months old! OMG!! 6 months have past already?! Scary! He's already eating 1st foods. He loves sweet potatoes and bananas. I sometimes think I'm Martha Stewart and can make anything. Case in point, the ugly dolls (http://www.uglydolls.com/). I think the ugly dolls are adorable and thought, hey, I could make one of those for Tommy. My first ugly doll wasn't very successful. Of course the kids thought it was cool and Tommy loved it so it wasn't a total loss. I decided to try it again only this time I added things I thought he would like. I put a rattle in his belly so when he shakes it, it will make a noise. I gave it hair so he could pull it and give mine and Madison's hair a rest. Lastly, I gave it a protruding googly eye. He LOVES his new and improved ugly doll. Look out Martha! LOL.

Sitting up on his own is slow coming but I'm sure that soon enough I'll be wishing he stood still :) He is constantly babbling but says 'Ma ma' clear as day, which melts my heart.

By far, he is the silliest baby of the 3. He is so loveable and cute and the kids can't get enough of him. I was worried at first about the age difference, but now, I wouldn't have it any other way. I have come to truly realize how quickly they grow and I'm cherishing each and every moment.

Update Part 2: Madison

Madison is growing like a weed! Bad choice of words for my sweet Madison...she's growing like a Sunflower ;) She is tall, very tall....don't ask where she gets those long, skinny legs of hers 'cause they didn't come from me, unfortunatley :O

She learned how to ride her bike a few weeks ago and now I can't keep her off of it. Yes, she is 8 and just recently learned how to ride a bike! She was too scared and decided it wasn't for her. That is, until her friends from the neighborhood all rode bikes and Madison grew tired of getting left behind! The first few days were hard and she had bruises from her ankles up to her knees. I have a pic of her bruised legs but for some reason it won't let me post it :/

She is still a 'Mama's girl' and is always scrappin' along side of me. She is always eager to learn new techniques and gets just as excited as I do when walking thru our LSS. Can't complain there! I'm enjoying her as much as I can because 12 years old is right around the corner :(

Update Part 3: Andrew

Andrew has grown so much that he has a full beard! Thankfully he is still a kid at heart. He is at that age where he is in between being a little kid and a young man. Oh boy is it tough! He is a good kid and does very well in school so I have to be thankful for that! One night, my little brother, Ray, girlfriend, Afton, came over and they took turns painting on eachother with these face paint crayons. It was hilarious!He has his 6th grade orientation for Jr. High tomorrow...AHHH! I think I'm more nervous than he is! LOL. I can't believe I have a kid old enough to be in Jr. High! Heck, I still remember Jr. High, was it really that long ago?! I have people on Facebook that I've know since then :O

Andrew has already started football practice with Broomfield Blitz NFC team. I can't wait for his games to start. He went to a few football camps, one at Northglenn High School and one at East High School. He will be a lineman again on Offense and Defense so he will get plenty of playing time. We are hoping for a successful season like last year!

Tommy is 3!

It's so hard to believe that Tommy is already 3 months old! A blink of an eye and I'll be blogging about his 1st birthday! Ahhh! He is such a great baby. I will be the first to admit, I was worried. I thought everyone has that terror child or that child that tests you every chance, but so far, so good. (knock on wood!) He wakes up with a giant smile that lights up his face and the loudest and cutest little coos. Unfortunately for me, he is an early bird like his brother and dad, but I can usually get an early morning nap (my version of early) in and cuddle with him. He is constantly smiling until I get the camera out! Then he goes for that deer in headlights look that isn't so good for scrapbooking. Urgh! I think the picture below is so funny because it looks like he's pointing at his chubby belly! LOL! Here is the standard, "what the heck are you doing Mommy" look I get when I try to take pictures. Of course I think he's adorable but he so much cuter when he has his big smile on his face!

And those toes, I'm just so in love with his adorable little feet!

Way to go!

We are SO proud of Andrew! In April Andrew took a test to see if he could take Honors classes at Silver Hills and out of 700 or so kids, only 80 made it and Andrew is one of them! We were pretty confident that he would make the Honors Math, but to our surprise he also made the Honors Language Arts class as well!

We hope that he is successful at Silver Hills and welcomes the challenge that harder classes bring. Great job!

Smiley Eyes

Tommy has just started to smile like crazy and giggle. I absolutely love it! I can always get a squeel out of him when I play patty cake with him but every time I pull out the Flip video, he won't let me capture it on film. I cannot help but smile with him. I just had to share!

Big Red

We had another Dr. appointment today and my little Tommy isn't so little. He weighed in at 12 pounds 8 ounces which is the 95 percentile. He is 25 1/2 inches long which puts him clear off the charts. Dr. Mark told me it was in the 110th percentile! His head is growing with the rest of him and is 16 1/4 inches which is right in the 90th percentile. He is getting even bigger and growing faster than I anticipated!

In these two pictures his head looks big and bald, poor guy lost the hair, but in most of his other pictures his hair is strawberry blonde. (See Flickr photos at side bar). I was hoping for at least one of my kids to have black hair and instead I get a red head!

He had his first round of shots and doesn't have to be seen 'till he is four months old. It'll be interesting to see how much he'll grow from now until then.

5 weeks old

Tommy turned five weeks old today! He had his first well baby check up and is already growing like crazy. He went from 8 lbs. 0 oz. and 21 inches long at birth to 10 lbs. 11 oz. and 23 1/2 inches long. He is in the 75 percentile for weight and above the 98 percentile for height! He is only in the 50 percentile for his head circumferance as opposed to my daughter Madison who was in the 98 percentile! I was so worried she wasn't going to grow into that head but thank God she did! He is such a good baby. He only wakes up at 4 a.m. to eat and sleeps the rest of the night. He rarely cries. Even today when he got his Hep B shot, he cried for literally 3 seconds and then stopped and fell asleep. He is staying awake for longer periods of time but pretty much eats and sleeps most of the day. No cooing or cute baby noises out of him, he prefers to grunt and groan like a little monster :) . His pictures are in black and white due to his baby acne... he's embarrassed.

Though you can't tell, he has blonde hair and blue eyes. I hope the blue eyes stay longer than the two years that they stayed with Andrew and Madison.

He's grumpy because not only does he have baby acne, but he's having a bad hair day as well!


Getting some love from his Auntie Lynn.

Look-a-likes

I thought it would be fun to post a few pictures of Andrew, Madison and Tommy at about the same age to see how much they look a like. Though they all have big blue eyes, big bald heads and huge cheeks, everyone thinks Tommy looks a lot like Andrew and I'd have to agree.

Andrew at six weeks old

Madison at 7 weeks old

Tommy at 5 weeks old

Eight is enough!

Over the weekend we celebrated Madison's 8th birthday. It's hard to believe my baby is already eight years old! No more birthdays! She is growing up much too fast for me. Madison is such a sweet and friendly little lady. She makes friends easily and if someone is left out, she makes sure to include them. I love that she is outgoing, independent, and as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.

Since her little brother came so close to her birthday, we celebrated it later in the month, however, it is Spring Break at school so most of her friends were out of town and couldn't join in the celebration. Luckily she has lots of cousins!

Pictured from left to right: Serenity, Madison, Alex, Noelle, Andrew, and Dre.

If only I could freeze time then she would stay my little pal that follows me around, helps me with the baby and scrapbooks with me.