Father's Day 2010

Jeremy and the boys a few years back.....

My Dad and Tristan passed out on the couch.

Cullen will climb into just about anything he can find or fit into. This is an air conditioner box. I'm glad it makes him happy. Simple things.

Yesterday was Father's Day. It's a hard day for me anymore. I miss my own father.....and I never know what to do for Jeremy. He's WAY better at the whole gift and surprise thing than I am. He's a GREAT dad to our kids. I appreciate all that he does for our family. I am so thankful that he works his butt off so that I can be a mother to our children and stay at home with them. So, yesterday we all went (except for Cullen) to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. It was a great movie. We all enjoyed it! It was Asher's first time to the movie theater and he was a little crazy in the lobby but did pretty well for the movie. The second half he had me squeezing my fat belly onto the floor looking for his 3D glasses and when he went down to look for them he came up eating popcorn off the floor! EWWW! I think it was mostly from his own bag of popcorn but still. I think he only really got one piece from the floor in his mouth.....
After the movie we stopped by Jeremy's parents house and ate some pizza off the grill. Then we did a quick stop at my dad's grave and headed back home. I think when we get a new car to fit all of our kids in we should get a limo. Because then I could have a window barrier that goes up and down to block out the noise going on in the back! haha! Seriously though, good idea, huh?!?!

Cullen and The Sunscreen

He seems so pleased with himself, doesn't he? I'm glad at least one of us was.

The Past Three Days

The past three days have been hell. Literally HELL. These are the times that I want to sell my children and run away to some deserted island. All of them have just been awful. And I have been in an awful mood. (Most of this is pregnancy induced, I'm sure. These hormones and I don't get along too well.) Two days ago Cedric almost killed me and Cullen.
The story goes like this....

We have a big deck on the back/side of our house, off of the kitchen. Me and Jeremy's bedroom is right above that. When we moved into the house the air conditioner in our room wasn't secured well at all and it worried me that someone would accidentally knock it out and kill someone on the deck below. Then winter came and I didn't worry anymore because we took it out. When we put it in again this year we tried to secure it differently but we have new windows and you can't screw into them so we were perplexed as to what to do with it. So we did the best we could and told the kids on a daily basis not to touch the window or the air conditioner in any way, shape, or form. They listen so well by the way. I love the way I waste my breathe telling them right from wrong. *sigh*
Anyway, so about 5:00pm or so the boys decided they wanted to get in the pool. Everyone except Cedric who was watching a movie in my room. Cullen wanted to swim too but since it was nearing supper time I didn't want to get in the big pool with him so I decided to fill a big rubbermaid container and let him play in that. I was carrying ice cream buckets full of water in and out of the sliding door with cullen trailing behind me....I was on my eighth bucket when I heard a cracking noise above my head! I knew exactly what it was....my worst nightmare coming true. I dropped the bucket of water, grabbed Cullen and stepped out of the way with just inches to spare as the air conditioner came crashing down beside us and smashing to bits! I screamed a few choice words and looked up at the window where Cedric stood looking mortified. I couldn't even think about talking to him. I went inside with Cullen and found my phone and called Jeremy. It scared the living crap out of me!! I was crying and couldn't breathe. I talked to Jeremy and proceeded to go sit on the deck and cry.
I think it was more than just the near death experience. It was the fact that I am overwhelmed and can't keep up and can't seem to get through anyone's head that they need to listen to me. I really thought when I started having kids that I would be a "cool mom". I certainly don't feel that way. I'm sick of having to say the same thing over and over and over again. I'm sick of being pregnant. I'm sick of all the mess. People say that you will look back on these times and miss them.....honestly, who are these people and what is wrong with them???? Because I can't see missing cleaning up poop out of a pair of mesh swimming trunks. Or having my kids tell me on an hourly basis how mean I am.
This is the choice we made when we started having children. There are so many good times too. It's just hard to see them when you have had three straight days of bad. I just hope they remember the good times and not the times where Mom is a complete basket case.

Last night we realized that our baby, Cullen is on the verge of hitting his crazy stage. It's so sad. I miss my kids being babies.

Our Bloggin' Journal

I got this idea from Ariane and Mike Cameron. Every year they have been printing up their blog as their family journal. I thought it a swell idea since I can hardly keep any of the boys baby books up to date....at least we would have some record of our life and have these memories for years to come. I used blog2print.com.....and it was super easy! You can't change the layout or anything a whole lot but it took me about 10 minutes to order it, from upload to the final click. I ended up with 156 pages from May of 2008 to May of 2010!! The book was actually better quality than I was expecting! It's hardcover (you can order softback too) and the paper is glossy and nice. So, this makes me want to take my blog even more seriously because there was a lot of stuff left out of those two years. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool so I thought I would share!

Our Adventure to the Science Center

This was a hole in the floor that showed the cars driving on the freeway underneath us. Asher was so funny. First he stood on the edge of it and peered down....then he cautiously, just barely stuck his toe on it......then put a little more of his weight down to see if it was gonna hold him....then finally stood on it! It was so cute! One of the precious moments of the day.

On Tuesday of this week we all woke up and were going about our normal daily activities when Jeremy came to me and said that he was taking the day off of work and we were gonna do something fun! Okay!! So we loaded everyone up and headed for St. Louis for a day trip to the zoo. Yes, I said the zoo. We wouldn't tell the kids where we were going so we had a many questions and a fun game of "Where are we going already?!?!!?" I had checked WGEM weather before we left and St. Louis had a storm in the morning but looked good otherwise......

Skip ahead to us driving into the outskirts of the suburbs.....looked very, very dark ahead of us. We get our phones out and get on the internet and there are all kinds of warnings out. 60 mph winds, hail, torrential rain, lightening......seek cover immediately type things. The freeway was covered in water, there were cars pulled off to the side and under overpasses everywhere, I couldn't see where I was going AT ALL. So we finally got to an exit I could see and took it and parked on the side of the road until a good portion of it passed over. By this time we didn't have but two or three hours before the zoo closed. We got to Forest Park....the rain had stopped but we didn't know if we should chance the zoo with a possibility of more rain so we headed to the Science Center.

We had a really good time! Other than the fact that Liam got a little confused on elevator etiquette, Cedric decided to puke and be sick the whole time, and Asher ran around like a crazy person almost every chance he got. I don't think I want to do our family vacation in July. I'm too pregnant to chase them around crowded public places. We'll see how that goes....

Complaining, Dog, Bad Food

Last night I was pretty sure I was at death's doorstep. I have never in all my pregnancies experienced back pain like I had last night (with the exception of back labor which I have had in multiple deliveries and would not wish upon anyone....okay one person maybe.)
Anyway, the pain was awful to the point of tears. I thought of the time time my mother said she didn't know she was in labor, she just thought she had a backache. UGH!
So, I went to bed early. Like before 7:00pm early. I was wasted. I propped my legs up on some pillows because my legs were starting to swell. I was on my feet too much yesterday. I didn't think I was but, I guess I was.


While all this was going on with me, poor Tristan and Cedric had to experience something awful. One of my mom's dogs, Angel, got out of her pen and hit by a car. She was actually my dad's dog. She didn't die thank goodness. She's big. A collie. So the boys and my mom had to pick her up off the side of the road and get her to the vet.
The vet said that Angel needs her back leg amputated or she needs to be put down. She's still a pretty young dog and very healthy and full of life so my mom said to keep her overnight and see what she could do today. It's gonna cost a ginormous amount of money to get her leg amputated and I think my mom is trying to weigh the options. UGH. Poor thing.
She's a good dog. Her nose is pointy. but she's nice. Anyway, I guess Tristan rode in the backseat with her to the vet and Angel put her head on his lap and Tristan wiped her head and face with a cool, wet washcloth.

Jeremy and I went to one of our fave places to eat in our area on Saturday. Martini's in Burlington. We expected the same great food as always and ended up paying out 80 bucks for a meal that we completely disliked.
Everything from the appetizer to the bread to the food was just yucky. They had changed their menu again and I don't know if I want to fork out the money to try again after this night. SOOOO disappointed.

It's A Boy..........

Nope, I'm not having another boy but, I realized I forgot to announce that Trisha and Josh are having a baby boy! He's due on October 18th. All of my boys are just thrilled that she's having a boy! I told them when I got the text on my phone and Cedric said:
"Oh good! Now we can play shooting games with him and Josh!" What a nut!

Today I went to the doctor for my regular appointment. All is well. The ultrasound turned out normal this time. No huge abdomen for baby girl anymore. My glucose test was fine. PHEW! I really hope this last trimester goes by quickly. I am huge and uncomfortable. I can't ever breathe because she's constantly got her butt in my lungs. I have ZERO energy. ugh.

Memorial Day and Anniversary

So, on may 29th we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. For years Jeremy has been saying that if he doesn't get to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field before he dies (or before they decide to do away with Wrigley Field) that it will kill him.
So this year we decided to go to Chicago to watch the ultimate team-up of the Cubs vs. the Cardinals at Wrigley Field.
Well, that's what we were gonna do.......but things didn't work out that way.
We couldn't get babysitting worked out and so we had a quiet anniversary doing almost nothing. Jeremy was really disappointed. I was too but, what do you do. Then I had the grand idea that we could go to Menard's and get retaining wall stones and build ourselves a fire pit. It was awful. We both about died from the heat and we had to make two trips to Quincy to get all the stones in our van. But, the pit turned out pretty cool. I should take a picture of it.
It is raining now so I will post it later.

On Memorial Day we had the Kelley side of the family over for a cookout and the kiddos got to swim in our new pool. We had a really good time. Jeremy got the cornhole game out.
I didn't play. I'm pretty much useless when I am preggers.
I built a fire int he new pit for the kids to roast marshmellows though. No pictures of the cookout though because I hadn't found my camera yet.

My Baby Girl Shower

My shower was on Saturday at the Knights of Columbus hall in Nauvoo. My mother, mother in-law, sister (susan), sister (vicki), sister in-law (trisha), sister in-law (vanessa), and niece (joanne), were all involved in pulling off one awesome shower! The pics above are of the cake that Joanne and Vicki made. It was AMAZING! I was very impressed. We had a great turn out and I had some of my best peeps in attendance! In fact I was lucky enough to have Abi Orme (Hall) and her mom, Barb drive up from St. Louie just for the occasion!! It is always so good to catch up with my old friends! And Tuesday McLeod drove over from Peoria!!! I have some pretty awesome people in my life.

Some might think that I took a lot of pictures. I think not. In fact if I had the brains to think about bringing another set of batteries there would be more! I wanted a picture with each and every person in attendance. The decorations were super cute! I loved all the pink!

I had no idea how much stuff I would get!! It was crazy! And much appreciated! I am basking in all the ribbons and bows and pink and ruffles I can get! Lovin' it!!

On a serious note, I really wish I could've conveyed to everyone just how grateful I was for everything. Since there were so many people there I didn't get to spend a lot of time with each person and let them know. I felt so special!! Every one went all out just for me and it was perfect! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!

Now, I need this little girl to get here so we can play dress-up together!