Patience is a Virtue...: December 2011

A few Fall pics.

I bet my puppy is prettier than yours.

He's such a handsome boy. :)

Family Smores night

Ever since I built the fire pit in the backyard Smores have been a favorite FHE staple around here

I mean who can resist them once the nights get cooler.

Give me S'more!

Emily admiring the fire

Butterfly Pavillion

For one of our fieldtrips we went down to Charlotte to go to the Butterfly Pavilion.

The kids had lots of fun chasing the butterflies and looking at all the other animals

they had there.

Except Emily, she was terrified even of the butterflies.

I thought it was pretty funny.

We got to watch the turtle eat some leaves and the kids played on the playground.

practice

Couple of pics I snapped during Boo's practice.

Look at the smile on her face.

She loves life and I love her for it.

Field trip to Carrigan Farms

So I have decided this year to "home school" Emily's last year of preschool. Why? well there are a many reasons. The two main reasons are

1. Money

2. She's my baby

I'm desperately trying to save to give my kids Disney for Christmas. I have wanted to do it the last couple of years. $165 extra a month into my Disney budget goes a long way. But let's be honest. Emily is my baby. But more than that she is my buddy. I know, I know, we shouldn't have favorites as a mother. But all of my kids have had their season as my favorite. I'm sure it will all be their turns again. But for now.....shhhhhhhh Emily is holding the "mommy's favorite" trophy.
She is just so sweet. And her imagination is wild and vivid. And she is so so so sweet. I don't think I can stress enough how tender hearted she is. She really does find a way to melt my heart weekly (if not daily) and my heart has a pretty thick wall of stone and barbed wire around it. She loves fashion, loves to shop, isn't whiny, is so AGREEABLE! Do any of you have any idea how amazing it is to hang out with a kid all day who is agreeable? Especially after hanging out with Madison? Queen of OPINIONATED. It is bliss.

Pure and total bliss and I'm not ready for it to end.
I don't know what I'll do next year when she isn't here all day. It will be the first time in 12 years I haven't had someone on me asking me questions all day. 13 years if you count the pregnancies, which I kinda do. I was being undone from the inside out after all. It will be the first time since HIGH SCHOOL I will really have any consistent amount of time to discover who I am. And truly, I have forgotten. I'm not sure who Steph is anymore. I know who mom and mommy is. I know who "hey, babe" is. But me? Stephanie? nope, no clue. It's a little bit terrifying and extremely exciting all at the same time.

Whoa, anyways. Yeah, I kept my baby home so I can hang on to every last second I have of this sweet time in my life. I can't believe it's almost over. No more chubby cheek and fingers. No more momma's and toddling and first words. No more finding a cute little chubby face covered in lipstick. Or my roses my husband got me torn into a million pieces. No more sweet cuddles and naps...... :.( Seriously people, I'm in mourning here.

Okay! Anyways again.

I took Emily and some of her friends to Carrigans to go apple picking. It was a blast. They saw the animals. Learned about bees and went on a hayride. The best part is when we got back we had hot apple cider! YUM!! Here's some pics from the day.

Getting ready for the hayride!

Beautiful Quarry on the property

Yum!

The girls with their stash!

yummy apples and hot apple cider!

Double YUMMY!

me with my sweet girl. :)

E with one of her bestest

My Zombies

Last year my friend Catania had this fantastic idea of dressing her kids up like dead people

and taking their portraits for Halloween.

I was in LOVE with this idea and my kids and I had a lot of fun with it.

Here are the 4 that are hanging over my piano when you come in my house. :)

HAHAHAHHA This one is just my FAVORITE!!

She's 4 and she nailed this look! The arm raised

the cocked head the vacant expression.

My Em!

The cutest little zombie ever!

Natalie is just plain scary

Like Carrie Scary

I'm moving on now before i wet my pants.

Bryson did a great job to I think!

He was pretty excited about the knife

in his head.

Madison on the other hand couldn't help

laughing

she is such a giggle box.

This is the closest I got but you can see the smile creeping in on

the side of her mouth.

I have been so incredibly slacking on this blog!

I have no much catching up to do it's almost overwhelming.

Oh well, I'll give it my best shot.

Soccer season went by so fast this year.

In fact the whole year has flown by.

I feel like I have way to many ball in the air a lot of the time but

on the the other hand am extremely grateful for the opportunities I have been given to make some extra money for the family. Nathan's job has taken a hit being in the mortgage industry. So I really feel blessed to have things going as well as they are with my photography and piano.

All that being said I am grateful for soccer season.

I admit it.

I'm a soccer mom.

I lose my mind when I watch Madison play soccer.

She's good.

and she's smaller than everyone else

but she doesn't care, or even notice.

She is so competitive and so FAST!

I lose my mind and scream my head off like a banshee when she plays

it's like therapy but better.

Screaming sometimes is good for the soul.

Her team did well this year and came in third place.