First Installment - Brook's Pics

Brooklynn, as the photographer's child she is, received a quality digital camera for Christmas (Santa is just that good :) ) She got a Samsung SL30 10.2 MP Point and Shoot Camera.

When I held this thing it felt so awkward, do you know how long it's been since I've used a point and shoot? lol. I'm so used to the monster DSLRs! Nnot that I'm trying to review product here, but "Santa" got this for $50 off of Craigslist from a nice young couple who took good care of it, original box, USB cord, and even a Case! The camera's user side just takes some exploring to get used to but has some photo effects like vivid, muted, b&w, retro... etc about 10 different options. Pretty cool, anyway. Upon getting this camera she's been, mom take a picture of this, mom take a picture of that, and of course she's been photographing things she finds interesting too. I just pulled some images off of her memory card to save to the computer and I noticed in this batch she had mostly pics of her brother and sister and herself, most of them I took... but it made me think how blessed I am to have a daughter who wants to document her memories WITH her siblings along side her! I just thought I'd share my favorites that I've pulled this week!



Here's to bloggin!

One Year...

It's been one year since I've blogged! I cannot believe how bad I suck! This is a feable attempt at making my one post, at least, per week.. that I will strive to make! At first this was a way to hopefully keep family updated on these babies and how they are growing, facebook takes up for what I've failed to do however. I guess though it would be good to get the whole story out there for the fam to read :) So... I guess I'll provide you with some visual entertainment! Here are some scrapbook pages (yes I still do them...not as often as I'd like though :( )





Let me get through this week (broke as a joke due to the winter lay off) and I just might be back for more!

big Love.

Well. Today seems like a good day. Weather is a beautiful 70 Degrees and Sunny! Jay and the kids are riding the ATV and I'm listening to the joyous sound of peace and quiet. Apart from the barking and whimpering of puppies and dogs as the 4-Wheeler runs by the windows.

Did you remember?? It's big Love Sunday!! I absolutely cannot wait for my show to be on tonight!! I big bowl of Fudge/Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate sauce and the remote control... not to mention the babies will be in bed by then - yay!

Eh...

I can't tell you how much I love my kids. If I had to explain it, it would be days. So why don't I try?? Ok, sure I will :)

Brooklynn:

I am fascinated with how smart my little girl is. At 3 years old she was making her own pb&j sandwiches, microwaving her own corn dogs, and pouring her own cereal and chocolate milk. As a 5 year old she likes to try and read the directions on the cake mixes. Though, she doesn't know the difference between cups, tsp, and TBSP... but soon. Soon. I love how she feels like she has to take care of mommy and daddy when we're sick or get sick. I love how she tries to "teach" things to Caliber and Edyn. "I know you want to play with my DS Caliber, but it means a lot to me and I don't want you to mess it up." I love how she has a love for all Animals.



Caliber:

I love how lovey my boy is! He's smarter than I give him credit for I can tell you that. He doesn't talk much or make sense, but he understands a lot. Caliber can take plates and put them in the sink, he puts his toys away most of the time when I ask him to, he gets his own diapers and wipes, and I'm just so thankful to a have a rough and tumble boy!



Edyn:

Oh... Words can't express how much I love this girl. I hate to say it but she's my favorite baby. I mean I love each of my children all the same, but as a baby - she's my favorite, lol. Well come to think of it, all my babies weren't really that bad, maybe it's just because she's my last :( Yes I want more but I am smart enough to know I can't HANDLE any more children. At least for another 20 year... good news, in 20 years, I'll only be 45....... but I'll be over it by then, lol. Anyway, this girl is about turn 1... tear...

big LOVE.

I'm sorry - but I just have to scream about it!

I'm super excited about the new Big Love! Season 4 is starting tonight!!

After last season's ups and downs I feel like - ahhh too excited!

Slow week.

It's been a slow week this week - difficult week.

Hmm. So let me tell you about my week, lol. Saturday... Jay and I were able to trade our Brazilian Rainbow Boa for a Mini Horse! Sligh joined our family Saturday! He's the coolest thing! Easy to handle, super cool, and such a doll. We were super excited to have him. Brooklynn kept saying, Thank you for buying me a pony mom! (We really didn't buy him, I wish we had the money our kids thought we had.)

On Monday we left to get some Chinese Food and run to Lowes, well after getting our food we came straight home because we didn't feel like messing with Lowes at the moment. When we got there we saw a dog attacking Sligh. I mean I've never seen anything like it. Jay and I hurdled the two chain link fences like it was an everyday thing. Running as fast as we could when we got closer we saw that Sligh was covered in blood and his ear was just hanging. He had bite marks and puncture wounds under his chin, his hind legs, and one of his front legs.

It was like sheer panic trying to get the dog away and Sligh looked at. Upon closer examination you could tell this was an emergency situation. I was so worried Sligh would suffer from shock. I got an old baby blanket and Jay brought the car in. I held the blanket up to his ear. With my phone I googled Emergency Vet and then handed it to Jay. He ended up getting a hold of a veterinarian who could come out within 30 minutes. So we waited. I got the babies changed and fed and then sent them to their rooms for nap time.

While I was doing all of that Jay let the vet and his tech in and they began looking Sligh over and taking the necessary actions. When I got out there they were done looking over him and started clipping his hair around his ear. He sutured his ear to the proper place, but whether or not he'll have control of it again is still in question. Whether he will in fact keep his ear is still in question. We're playing the waiting game right now, feeding him 8 pills a day, spraying him with horse antiseptic sort of spray, and now that our vet is out of town, we are changing his dressing once a day.

So here's to Sligh - the poor pony! We're confident he will be ok, but it all comes down to... what will happen to the ear? btw - his hearing was not affected - this is a pure cosmetic issue...



But still - how cool is he?? (the photo is pre attack - the ear pictured was the one affected :( )

2010 - Our Year

I resolve that 2010 will be our year. After one of the most mountainous years Jay and I have ever had, we deserve to make 2010 a year about us and the ones we love! 2009 held the craziest ups and downs, one would mistake them for a polygraph test!

Looking back:

January:
I want to say January was such a bad month - but I can't. While I did lose my mother in law, I gave birth to the sweetest most easy going baby... Edith Faye Davis - RIP 1.16.09 - Edyn Faye Noelle Davis - Born 1.25.09. While it was such an amazing experience having my last child born, we were very quickly reminded how bitter sweet the moment was. In 2005 I lost my mom, Kim Noel Ermlich - RIP 2.18.05 and then just NINE days prior we had lost Edie.



February:

February was by far - a really tremendous month for us as a family. Us Hoosier/Buckeye mixed group moved to Florida! (I know, can you believe it - NO MORE SNOW - yay!) It was a LONG drive down. We moved out of the house we were renting the beginning of Feb and stayed in the Motel 6 in Richmond for a week, then we stayed with Buddy and Mandy for a few more days until we were able to hit the road with nothing but some toiletries, a computer, and clothes! Three kids and our dog Lex (RIP - Feb 12th - Parvo) went for the adventure of a lifetime! Everything was smooth sailing until we got to Georgia... thats when our battery kicked it. Jay went with some strangers in a big white van - which seemed highly suspicious so I wrote the plate down *just in case* but everything was good when Jay returned with a new battery! On the road again. That night we arrived in Florida roughly 9:30-10 pm... boy was I pooped! I wanted to pass out! However, we had to run to Wal-mart to get an air mattress. While we were there Jay was hell bent on painting, so we grabbed ourselves a big 5 Gallon Bucket of "Coffee House" and went back to our - New House. It was a small two bedroom house with a converted 3rd bedroom... anyway... we were back at the house and spent the entire night painting! I think we went to bed around 4 a.m. We were psyched!



March, April, May:

These months went by, boring with not a whole lot going on. We did have some fun by going to our landlord's beach house, it really was heaven on earth. I will always love Flagler Beach!



June:

My little girl turned 5 in June. Quite the milestone for any little girl! Thanks Aunt Amanda for her dress. She wore it to her party and she calls it her "party dress". We celebrated her b-day at the Beach House of course ;)



July - August:

This pair of months I think I really learned how strong I was. I'm sure family has heard Jay and I had difficulty during this time, but we came out of it victorious as a family and as a married couple should. We grapple with things daily, but we're learning, well I am. All I can say is - I hope my mom's proud, lol. I think I handled myself very well with three small children! August was also the month I officially became a Photographer for Lifetouch Preschool Portraits! I am so thankful for that!



September:

Hmm.. I worked my BUTT OFF - literally - I lost like 15-20 lbs! I love every aspect of my job honestly!

October:

Just the usual October, only instead of worrying about layering up for Halloween, we were ready to take off the costumes - so hot outside :) Gotta love Florida!



November:

Well... November - again... worked worked worked... This month was relatively uneventful - HOWEVER - I did stand in a 10000 man line for Black Friday - Midnight Sale at Toys R Us! I wanna say I won't do this again... but you can't buy that kind of craziness - or can you?



December:

December was a bad month - but it was ok too I suppose! I had an awesome christmas party with the Tampa Team - Make Em Smile! Lily had FOUR puppies! We found a FOUR bedroom house! And while I have some more work to do on myself I feel pretty damn good :)



But like I said - 2010 - It's going to be our year - where each month will matter and my look back will be tremendous :)

Gaping Holes...

There are gaping holes in my Project 365! I am so disappointed in myself.... but in my defense we haven't been doing much and I should really pull myself out of this funk entirely (someday hopefully) and stay on top of it. I do plan on filling in the holes of my project (only because out of 365 photos I think I'll be missing only a small portion.

And I want to upload some pics of our little trip we took last week. Our landlord invited Jay and I and the kids to his family's beach house of the west coast so Jay could fix up a few things that needed attention. Flagler Beach is where it is located and it is just BEAUTIFUL! The few from the balcony is just mind blowing.

The first day Bob showed Jay all the things needing attention while I occupied the kids and worked with Bob on web site information (I'm building a web site for his Beach House to be rented). Then around 3 ish (give or take an hour) we all took a walk on over to the beach. It was so great, some mini waves (a lot more than what we'd see on the East Coast - in the Gulf). We stayed long enough for the kids to play and for Jay to try his hand and body boarding. I also saw a number of Star Fish!

The next day we woke up and waited for Bob to wake up (he's a late riser). Brooklynn, Cal, Jay and I sat on the deck enjoying the breeze and sun. After waiting for a while Brooklynn wanted to go to the beach really bad. So I decided that she and I would take a stroll on the beach alone together. So we walked over, bucket in hand, and just walked along the beach picking sea shells and enjoying time together. I have to say it was just amazing to relax with the wind in my hair, ocean at my feet, and my daughter ahead of me holding her capri pants up running along the shore....

Afterward we headed back to house with our finds. I sorted while Brooklynn played with the little girls who lived next door. She enjoyed playing with friends, I really think it's been good for her to have these experiences. I honestly think she is more friendly and outgoing than I was. I still find sometimes that I'm reserved, but for my daughter's sake I really need to learn how to take a more proactive approach to making friends myself.

We ended up going back to the beach, I took the kids minus Edyn while Jay finished up the odd jobs with Bob. The girls tagged along and they all had fun digging huge holes and building a sand castle. Brooklynn was actually really bummed because the kite she wanted to fly had broken so she was unable to fly it. I will have to get her one to fly soon...

So we packed up the next morning, cleaned the house spotless, and headed back East. It really was a great and exciting trip.

Here are some photos of the vacation :)

Reflecting

I hate it when I have those moments when I get so overwhelmed with daily life that I forget to take time to love the sweet little moments, or realize that I've been taking things for granted. I should've really learned my lesson on taking things for granted when my mom died. I thought she'd be there until she was old and gray AND wrinkled (haha sorry mom). Is it so sad that she didn't even get to see her 50th birthday, her daughter have 2 more kids, her youngest go to Prom, her first real boyfriend, and soon her high school graduation. Yes it is. But then not only did I take her for granted, but I still take everyone for granted. I feel like I will always have them around. In January Jay's mom died... 44 years old. She didn't get to see 45! What does that say for me? When am I going to die? Will I get to see my kids have kids? It just honestly has me worried.

But still today I am sitting here realizing that I take everyone for granted STILL. In my mind everyday is my dad and sister and my father-in-law. I pray daily for them to live LONG not just happy lives, but LONG lives. I worry so much about my dad. I worry about his drinking, I worry about his cholesterol, I worry about his stress and whether he's going to be here and for how long? Will I get a call that somethings happened? How will my sister take it?

I sometimes wonder if we did the right thing moving down here... of course I will miss them terribly, but I'm thinking about my kids... and not to mention I hate the snow. Honestly, after school is over and once I've gotten a good paying job I want to be able to take at least one weekend every month to fly up and visit just because I know how precious family is and my family, whether they know it or not, they mean the world to me AND THEN SOME.

Playing Catch Up - Easter Morning

Goodness will I ever get the hang of having three kids? That and I'm having such a hard time with motivation lately. I really need to do something to kick my system in the butt and get myself moving!! Believe it or not I'm starting to enjoy cleaning my house so I can take pride in my house. I enjoy doing school work because I know where it'll take me in the future. I also enjoy blogging, baking, cooking, photography, website tinkering, and scrapping... but I literally have NO motivation for ANY of that! I mean cleaning yeah I can understand lack of motivation... but seriously? Why don't I have motivation to do ANYTHING??

Anyway.. thought I'd play catch up with Easter Photos and MAYBE I'll come back someday to post about the awesome vacation Jay and I and the kids took last week!

These first few photos are of the Easter Baskets...


**Cal's New Shades**


Looking at his baby sister's pail instead of his own, lol.



I knew she would want a stuffed animal, but she's not the bunny kind of girl. So Mrs. Easter Bunny made the call for her to get a Frog!


This is a onesie Edyn had gotten from Tiffany in a bag of "Hand Me Downs" a BRAND NEW
tag still attached Old Navy Onesie... I saved it for Easter!


The remnants of chocolate cupcake on her face as she checks out her new LPS Bunnies.


And ditto for Cal.


Edyn checking out her Easter Goodies.



She's loving it!



Cal's cool Spider-Man Pail.



Brook's Cool Tinkerbell Pail



Little Bit of the Hunt! Yes I did hide that egg in laundry hanging on the line...

And his first Easter where he was able to participate in!!

Easter Prep!

It's been a busy day! We've been running today and it's bee a fairly productive day. At 11am we started getting the kids ready to go to the babysitter's. We were so lucky to have found such an awesome landlord. Jay does work for reduced rent, their 15 year old daughter (and our landlord's wife) watches the kids. We've only been out twice. Once last month for her to get the hang of the kids and meet them so Jay and I could go out to eat. Then today so Jay and I could get the things for us to prep for Easter. We were able to get some cute things. Easter is one of the Holiday's we don't really go all out for yet. No decorations or crazy amounts of food or basket goodies. Just simple and nice.

We were able to score these pails for the kids' "baskets" at Wal-Mart. Initially I had picked out three baskets for $4 each. But Jay suggested the pails...and I just had to agree. The things are going to be rough to fit in there, but at least those pails will last longer and be used more often (instead of just tomorrow). I got some candy from Walgreens because they had these Chocolate Creme Eggs by Russel Stover and Carrot Bagged Reece Pieces. Then I ran to Publix to grab some cake mix to make cupcakes on the fly!

Once we had picked up the kids and came home we quickly cleaned the house and the crap from the backyard (that the previous residents had left). Then we warmed up the leftover Chinese and sent Caliber to bed because he was acting REALLY grumpy because he had a full day with the babysitter and ended up taking his nap a little late, ha really like 5 hours late! After conquering my son, "Seek & Destroy" (as my step-mom - his Mamaw Ermlich - calls him) Brook and I set out to color some eggs! The egg coloring kit we got has these nifty little plastic cups already in it. I decided to only do a dozen eggs. And after trying last year to color eggs and then later trying to eat them only to discover they were SO NOT COOKED all the way, I decided to crack one open just to make doubly sure that I was successful in my attempt. That left us with 11 Eggs... still enough for a 4 year old and a 16 month old I think.

So following are some pics of our Easter Prep.


These are the coloring cups the kit came with!


These are the face stickers that came with it, Brooklynn had fun making the faces!


This is Humpty Dumpty... we made up our own rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty sat on the couch; Humpty Dumpty had a great ouch; All Brooklynn's horses and all Brooklynn's men couldn't put Humpty together again."


Brooklynn and I shared the cupcake making responsibilities.


Filling the cups.

And after Brooklynn went to bed.... the Easter bunny went to work with his surprises!


Adding Jelly Beans to the already frosted cupcakes...


And filling the spring pails with goodies!

**Coming up later - An Easter Morning Update!**