Mommy & Me Monday:a new pet

On Sunday afternoon, we took Emma to Petsmart to pick out her very first pet hamster. She has been begging for a hamster for a long time but we weren't so sure. We tried to get a couple of fish hoping that they would be a good enough pet...ha! Surprisingly the fish are still alive. Since she has been doing so well in first grade and has continued to talk about getting a hamster, we decided that now is the best time. She named her new pet Cocoa Nutella! My girl loves chocolate...what can I say!

I have to admit...the hamster is pretty adorable and I am so not an animal person. It has the cutest, chubbiest cheeks and is a little fiesty yet laid back.

She wanted to take some pics of Cocoa last night before they were getting ready for baths,books, and bed. (So please excuse my worn out look!)

Four Year Old Friday

This week Max had the back to school sickies! I was really hoping to at least make it through the month of September but I guess it wasn't meant to be! He has had a fever on and off and went to the doctor on Wednesday (thanks to my awesome sister in-law who's a huge help and took him for me) and he was diagnosed with an upper resp. infection, ear infection, and tonsillitis. Our doctor said all of these things were in the early stages and could go either way. We were given a prescription just in case. I honestly thought(was hoping) it was a 24 hour thing. But, when we woke up on Thursday he had a fever and was pretty puny. This mommy was a little frazzled(especially since Max is terrible about taking his medicine and it usually takes Damian and I both to hold him down to take the medicine-fun times I tell ya) because I had a very busy day planned and already had to take a day off this week, but I am SO fortunate that I have my family that helps me when I need help the most. When I called my mom she didn't hesitate to tell me she'd meet me at my school to pick him up and take care of him for me. Whew! And today my sister volunteered to watch him. What a relief to know that my boy was being taken care of during the day. He has been extra clingy and been needing his mommy to hold him which I don't mind one bit. I'm just hoping to keep away the sickness from myself. Lots of hand washing and cleaning going on over at the Hillen's. He has had his appetite back tonight and has been playing.(and tormenting his sister a little bit too!)

I also wanted to record this for myself:


Last week I took him for his 4 year old well child check-up and he did amazingly well. He weighed 40.5 lbs and was 42 inches tall. He's in the 75% for both height and weight. I guess they do BMI checks now and his was about 20% which is good for his age. (I still need to look into that more for the kids.) He had to get his blood pressure checked and the cuff was sooo small. He thought he was big stuff and was making the doctor laugh with all of his observations. He is a pretty funny kid even at 4 years old! Our doctor asked him to identify colors and he knew them all(he even knows turquoise thanks to big sis!), he was able to spell his first and last name. He can write it too! He was talking our doctor's ear off and showing off! He loves to "read" his books. He doesn't love to color pictures so much(my boy is SO different from my girl) but he is all about building with his legos. So I know those fine motor skills are in tip top shape. He has been bringing home his work from VPK and is doing a great job in school. His teacher tells me that he is really good at following directions and often uses him as an example for the other children. When I called her to say he would be missing school because he's sick she said that he's doing a wonderful job and won't get too far behind but she would still put a packet of work together for him to work on. I'm so proud of my big boy!





I just have to write this down too. I know this post is entirely too long and boring but if I don't write it down I'll forget it! I've pretty much forgotten what happened on Monday of this week!





While my mom was watching him yesterday she went out to the garage to help my dad with something. She said Max was playing with his legos and when she came back into the house, Max said "Gwam, what are you doing?" When she told him she was helping Papaw in the garage. He said very seriously, "Don't worry Gwam, I was in charge!" She told him that he was in charge in the house and that he was watching Lola(their dog) too!


He makes me smile and laugh out loud every single day.


Here's my sweet, smiling freckled boy with his little cousin Noah a couple of weekends ago. He loves him so much and even busts out with the silliest baby talk whenever Noah is around. Oh, the cuteness!!

Six Year Old Saturday

When I was going through Emma's agenda and take home folder from school the other day, I discovered a folded up piece of white paper. When I took it out and opened it, I found this:
I asked Emma what this was all about. In her sweet and innocent six year old way, she said her friend Brandon gave it to her. Oh my, her first little love note. Apparently, Brandon has been listening to a little too much Justin Bieber. Damian just about died when I told him about it! I guess Brandon is trying to earn points with Emma's mommy because it was his day on Friday to bring snacks for their class and he made sure to come by my classroom to see if I wanted an orange muffin and a juice box. It was a sweet gesture. But, oh dear, I am not ready for these growing up years!

Today is my "baby" sister's 30th Birthday!! Happy Birthday to the best sister, aunt, godmother, and friend! We love you "Aunt" Brooke! There will be many pics to come of her big birthday celebration with the entire family. Today is also my Father in-law's and nephew Aaron's 24th birthday. What a very special day!!

Also, last week I was a little MIA, but I totally missed posting pics from my awesome hubby's 34th birthday on the 14th! I might get around to doing that soon!

gymnastic party fun

On Sunday, we celebrated our sweet friend Bailey's 6th birthday! Damian has been friends with her dad since they were kids and I have known them for well over 12 years! I can still remember the day she was born and can hardly believe it's been six years!

She had her party at La Fleur's Gymnastics in Tampa. The kids had a blast! They have been asking when they can go back. Max keeps saying "Bailey's party was so awesome!!" I wish the gym was closer to our house...I would love to sign them up for some classes. Although Max was a little grumpy at first(I think he was still tired from all of our partying on Saturday!) he quickly warmed up and loved the zip line, foam pit, and trampoline! Emma loved climbing up the very tall pole! (she might have scared her mommy a little there!) Of course she did tons of cartwheels,was jumping on the trampoline and loved just about everything else!

What's Cooking Wednesday: Monkey Bread

I've been meaning to link up with my friend Heather every Wednesday for this fun link, but quite frankly, I don't do the cooking in my house. I am VERY fortunate because my amazing husband does 95% of the weekly meal cooking for our family. That doesn't mean I don't like to cook, I do, but I have a rather long commute and my hubby is able to get everything together and actually enjoys cooking. I like to wash dishes and clean the kitchen...I know I'm weird but it's a stress reliever for me! So we make it work.

I do love baking and cannot wait for the holidays to start my baking. I also love to make appetizers and dips which I will be doing plenty of with football season here! I also love the opportunity to have the kids cook or bake in the kitchen with me. Emma is quite the little helper and loves to bake...especially when it's something sweet! A few weeks ago we made monkey bread. It always brings back memories of my childhood when I make monkey bread. Every time my brother, sister, and I had sleepovers with friends my dad always made monkey bread. So it's been around for awhile in my family.

Sometimes the oldest recipes are still the best. There are so many variations on monkey bread. I don't really use a recipe but I have certain ingredients I always use. Sometimes I make it in a muffin pan, or a loaf pan. My favorite way to make it is in a bundt pan!

Here are the ingredients I use--sorry I don't have the exact measurements but I'm sure there are tons of recipes out there:

sugar, cinnamon, 4 cans of biscuits,(small pillsbury ones) a stick of butter

First, I mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Then, melt the butter. Next, I cut up the biscuits with my pizza cutter and coat with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Just layer in the bundt pan. I usually pour some butter over the biscuits.
Make sure you have a cute six year old assistant who loves to help!! :)

I pour the extra cinnamon sugar and butter on the top. It's really nothing fancy but such a hit with everyone!

Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes and enjoy!

Way Back When-esday: my sweet girl

I was doing a little closet reorganizing and came across my bin of cd's with pics...mostly of Emma's first few years of life. I just had to take a look and this week wanted to share some pictures of my sweet girl. I can hardly believe she will be 7 years old in a little over a month! My oh My!! It doesn't seem possible that seven years have flown by so quickly.

This is one of my all time favorites of my sweet sleeping baby. I used this pic in the announcements I made and sent out to our family and friends.

Here is Emma's Peter Rabbit inspired garden theme nursery. I loved the mural painted by the niece of my friend Jenn. I wish I could find pics of the whole room...loved it!
Here is one of our first family photos at home. Boy do we look tired! Welcome to new parenthood! We thought we were exhausted then but having two kids, working full time, driving here, there, and everywhere to take the kids to their many activities is so much more exhausting than those first few months. Although I am so thankful I have kids who have always been such good sleepers!

I love baby sleepers and hair bows! Please excuse my blob that is post-pregnancy and focus on the cuteness!!

Love this one of my dad, Papaw and his first granddaughter. I think they still do this! :)
It's so much fun to take a walk down memory lane!

I'm linking up with Cheryl at Twinfatuation this week!

Football watchin' with friends

On Saturday we cheered on our Florida Gators with our fun friends! While the kids enjoyed playing, the adults feasted on some yummy appetizers & dips, talked, laughed, and loved watching our team beat Tennessee!! I didn't get too many pics because my camera battery died...boo!

We're looking forward to many more Saturdays of football watchin' fun! Go Gators!!

Mommy and Me Monday: Go Gators!

This weekend we had so much fun with our friends! It has been way too long since we've had the chance to hang out. It seems that everyone is always so busy and has something going on every weekend! We got to see everyone yesterday AND today for a birthday party. Twice in one weekend was a treat! I took a ton of pics both days but here is one of my favs of me and my girl in our gator shirts. Max was so excited we were all matching yesterday!! I'm looking forward to another week...hopefully not as crazy as last week. Low key and ordinary sounds great to me!

Six Year Old Sunday: oh,baby!

I didn't even get a chance to get on the computer or take many pics last week...for being a short week it sure was long and busy!

I'm glad we were able to have a nice relaxing weekend with my family! My dad, brother, brother in-law, and Damian played in their annual Knights of Columbus golf tournament. This was their fifth year playing and they came in third place. My brother even won the grand prize in the raffle. While they had their fun, the kids and girls had lunch at Chick-fil-a and then did a little shopping at Target. Two of my faves with my mom and sis!! Last night we also had an early birthday celebration for my sweet hubby's 34th coming up this Wednesday.

To kick start our weekend we went to visit Emma's first grade teacher and her new baby boy after school on Friday.

Emma loves babies!! She definitely gets that from her mommy!

She was beyond thrilled to hold Cameron. She is definitely a natural! She was able to feed him a bottle too and she was so happy! She just talked to him and cuddled with him. He was so sweet! I'm just loving all these baby boys!

We're looking forward to a great week... fun and learning at school/work, ballet, religious ed, Damian's birthday, and hopefully my friend Jennifer's little boy Ethan will make his grand entrance very soon! He was due on Friday the 9th and she is beyond ready to meet her sweet boy (along with his daddy and the rest of their families!) He has been prayed and hoped for so many years!

Mommy and Me Monday:Pioneer Days Festival

Yesterday we decided to take the kids to the Pioneer Days Festival in Dade City. We have never been to the museum before and thought it would be fun! We were right...it was definitely a fun family day! Emma is really into the "old days" as she calls it. She is always asking us questions and loves to hear stories and see things from long ago. The museum was right up her ally. She was giddy with excitement and squealing over all the cool things. I love that she shows an interest in our history and I cannot wait to take her to more museums and other places around our country. Max also had a blast! He loved the vintage fire truck, train, and soldier memorabilia. I also loved that I told the kids there were some things that they couldn't touch in the museum and they immediately put their hands behind their backs. (you can see it in some pics) They are sooo my kids!!

My favorite was the old school house. It was so cute! (That's Emma and I sitting on the steps of the little red school house!) I can't even imagine how teachers did it so many years ago. They even had the rules for teachers from 1915. Wow...it was such a different time!

Last night Max and I met up with our friends Jessi and Brody to see the lastest Spy Kids movie. It was a cute movie and Max kept saying "this is so awesome"! I love spending some one on one time with my boy!

Damian is working this morning...that golf course is NEVER closed... but we're planning on going swimming and barbequing this afternoon! Plus I should probably finish up my laundry and look over my lesson plans so I'm ready for tomorrow!

I love Labor Day...a day off from school and we're getting ready to welcome Fall--my favorite time of year!

Six Year Old Saturday

My sweet Emma is having a ball in first grade. We are all getting used to being back in school and having a routine again. Emma loves her sleep so at least once a week as I wake her up at 6 a.m., she sighs:"I cannot wait until Saturday so I can sleep in!" She does have a flair for the dramatic but I totally agree with her! The beginning of the year is exhausting for all of us, but I know it will only get better!

She had her second ballet class of the year and is already loving the new dance they are learning for the fall performance. Next week she will start Daisy Girl Scouts and then in a couple of weeks she'll start religious education at our church. So our little first grader will keep our weekday evenings pretty busy!
She is pretty excited about a sleepover with her cousins this weekend. She also has a loose top front tooth that she is both excited and nervous about falling out!

Four Year Old Friday: a pirate party

Max's 4th birthday weekend started off on Saturday with lunch at Red Robin with Baba and Grandpop, then a trip to Toys 'R Us where he chose his bday gift from us. He was soooo excited about his Lego Kingdoms playset. He and Damian had so much fun putting it together while Emma and I finished up the cupcakes, treat bags, and other party things on Saturday night.

Sunday morning started off a little crazy for this mommy. I heard thunder and rain pelting outside my window at 5:30 a.m. I immediately jumped out of bed and thought our party at the park would be ruined. I kept thinking sunshine and hoping the rain would be over soon. But that's not even the part that stressed me out. Our local park doesn't let you rent the pavilions, so it's first come to get one for the day. Needless to say, I didn't realize I should have come at 5:30 a.m. when I woke up. Instead I got there at 8:30(the party started at noon) and all 3 pavilions were taken. I'll be honest, I was a wreck! I didn't want Max's special day to be ruined! I called Damian and we knew this might be a possibility so he went to his golf course and grabbed some tables and folding chairs. Luckily one of our friends and my brother let us borrow their tents so we set everything up and it turned out even better than the pavilion. Although it was VERY windy, the rain held off and it turned out to be a great day for a party at the splash park.

Max had so much fun with all of his cousins and friends!! We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends who joined us in celebrating our little pirate.

Max has had the best time this week playing with all of his fun new gifts.