Summer is here

I think that these smiles should tell Mum and Paw that they like their pool. This is their seahorse, they are very excited to tell you he had a cameo in the beginning of Transformers. They are so proud of his acting skills.

Hang on tight it is going to be a bumpy ride.

Tell me how precious this girl is.

A very rare, very shortlived, very sweet hug.


We had a lovely weekend with Mum and Paw. The best part was that we got Daddy the whole weekend all to ourselves! No work. Billy and I enjoyed a night out to celebrate our anniversary. We went to see a movie and enjoyed dinner afterwards. It was very relaxing. We have been married for eight wonderful years. On August 1st my parents will celebrate their 39th anniversary. I hope that Billy and I have a marriage as long and as happy as theirs. This year for the first time in years that our children got to enjoy Fathers Day with Billy. It was so nice to spend all day with both him and my father.

Who Me?

This here is an innocent man. This sweet angelic face. He wouldn't do anything crazy, anything embarrasing. Would he? He couldn't, could he? No, not him. Now this little devil, I think he is capable of it. Capable of embarrasing mommy. Have you ever had the sherriff show up at your door? My littlest devil decided to call 911 last night. Imagine my surprise when my doorbell rings (several times). "Uh, yes officer, can I help you." "Mam we had a 911 hang up from this address and we are responding, back up is on it's way. Is everything alright?" " Why yes sir, my 1 year old had the phone earlier and he dialed a number, I turned it off I did not realize he had called anyone much less 911" " Mam who all is in your house right now?" "My husband, three kids and myself, sir" " I need to have everyone come to the door to verify that you are all ok." Obvoiusly I was extremely embarrassed. He cancelled the back up and sat outside for 10-15 minutes and then left. Oh dear I don't even want to know what my neighbors are thinking. Kids, you gotta love em!

A Year in Review

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Emily's year in first grade. As we prepare to enter second grade I thought it was a good time to look back and reflect on last year.

Our First Grade Hedgehog
Emily and her friend Rebecca

Our new first grader desk



First grade Sock Hop. Emily had so much fun and won best dressed!
Here she is with her friend Jillian

Our Pink Lady. She even knew the Pink Lady Pledge!

Emily, Olivia, her sister, and Jillian

Favorite Book Character Day. Our little Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Emily, Kalina, Kendall, and Jillian at Muffins with Mom. Such a treat for the moms!

Emily,Kendall, and Kalina

Emily, Lauren,Sydney, Logan and Collin

They all did very well in their play that day!

Emily and her friend Lauren

Andrew and his big sister the Butterfly

Emily and her two teachers Ms. Woosley and Ms Gutshall.

She will miss them both so much

Emily on her last day of school! What a great year. It is sad to see it come to an end.

A Day At The Bowling Alley

Our Little girl has a future on the pro bowling circuit!

Unfortunately for Drew he needed a little help from this ramp!!

This ball couldn't decide what was more intimidating Andrew or the pins. So he just stopped in the middle of the Alley. Excuse me , We could use a little help down here!!



That was fun mom (at least Em thought so) we need to do it again!!

We enjoyed our first family trip to the bowling alley this week. It was fun. Emily did really well for her first time, Drew got a little distracted while waiting in between turns. He thought that the video game arcade looked like a lot of fun! Alex was very well behaved and enjoyed sitting in Grandma's lap eating goldfish. They were great spectators! We can't wait to go again!!

Andrew

Our Crazy Man
He is such a constant ball of energy. Our pediatrician always says- "Please bottle some of that energy up and sell me the first bottle." If I could I would, then we'd be rich. Drew is so opposite of Emily that I am still learning how to deal with his complex personality. He takes a different type of attention-which is ok. He is such a little devil-can we say Poison Control on speed dial? He is so loving- when he will sit down. I think that he just has so much energy he doesn't know how to channel it. He is as strong as an ox! It is amazing to me how much all my children look alike yet how opposite they are of one another. Three completely different kids yet I love them all the same.

Our Littlest Man

Here are some of my favorite recent pictures of Alex. He is crawling up the hill at my parents house. He just looks so sweet sitting there. It was taken in between screams- he did not like the mower on this particular day. Now he loves it, especially if Daddy is driving it.He is truly a sweet natured baby. He has his sister's disposition, but his brother's strength and determination. A perfect mix of the two! I look at him and I pray that he doesn't grow as fast as the other two have.

Our Last Day as a Hedgehog

Unfortunately for Emily, June 2nd was a bittersweet day. It was her last day as a 1st grader- very exciting! However it was also her last day at her current school. Next year she will start a new school (Herbert Akins Road) and will leave her current school and most of her friends behind. She will luckily be taking a couple of her classmates and a gym teacher with her.We are so proud of our big girl. She had a wondeful year at Holly Grove. She received great grades on her report cards, she even received some 3 stars on it (crazy Wake County grading system), still do not quite understand it. She will miss all of her teachers and friends there so much. It is hard to believe that we will have a little girl in second grade in less than a month. So on July 2nd she will be a Herbert Akins Hawk. Until then we will enjoy having her home with us for the next four weeks.

I am new at this, so please take it easy on me

I have finally started a blog. I swore I never would, however I finally realized that I would love to share with all of those in my life. I have enjoyed to view the blogs of family members (Dawn, Susan and Fred, D.J. and Christa) along with blogs of my daughter Emily's classmates. It is such a blessing to be able to watch families grow, reach milestones, surpass expectations, overcome tragedies even if it is through a computer. It enables us to somehow stay connected to those that we can not be with. It hit me that I have become selfish to not give those in our life the same opportunity. So here is our life, our Kaleidoscope of constantly changing colors and images. I hope that you all enjoy watching them change and seeing them grow through this blog.