Mother's Day

We had so much fun this Mother's Day!  Will and I decided to take the kids to Action Wildlife Foundation upstate. It was a great idea! The kids had a blast!

This was the best picture I got of the kids together for the day. How cute are they?
All ready to have a great time!

 Daddy and the boys with a Bison.
I am still trying to figure out if that one was a model, or one of the many taxidermy animals there!

The view from one of the parking lots!  This is just a small portion of the huge 116 acre park!

Benny sitting outside of one of the goat exhibits on the rocks.

Camden wanted to do the same! 
He is such a ham!

So this is about how close you can get to most of the animals.
These guys were more friendly since they actually came up close to the gate to say hi.

Addie fed some of the animals with Daddy.
She thought it was HYSTERICAL!
I wish I would have gotten her laugh on video!

She pet the piglets.
I think they were some of the nicest animals in the petting zoo.

These guys were my favorite though.
I wanted to take one home as a pet.
They are baby goats.

We bought one of the little bottles they had to feed some of the baby animals and
the kids had a blast giving the bottle to some of the animals.
The goats straight up fought over it!

These guys were as crabby as they look. LOL!

These guys were just as ruthless fighting over the bottle as the little tiny
baby goats. I guess they miss their mommy?

 

Last but not least at all, the Zebra!
I think he was easily all of our favorite because none of us have ever seen one in real life
before this! Even our local zoo doesn't have one!

After the fun trip to the animal park we had ice cream, and started to head towards home when Will decided our day wasn't over yet. We ended the day at Lake Quassy amusement park. Someplace with rides small enough for the kids to enjoy.

They had a great Mother's Day special going on we took advantage of, and we all had a blast. Although by then my camera had died! I do predict we will be back there soon though!

Camden's Surgery

Today Camden underwent surgery for some issues with his teeth. Many of our friends and family members knew it was coming, and I wanted to give an update on the process and how the little guy is feeling.

We arrived at the hospital around his appointment time and they took him right in because they were running ahead of schedule. We got him into his gown and they let him drive a little scooter around. It was adorable and it really helped him be comfortable with the staff working with him.

Not the best picture but he was in motion.

He was in for around two hours, and then when he was waking up they brought Will & I into the recovery room to be with him. I sat in the chair and held him, and rocked him as he woke up. It was extremely hard.

We were told he would whine and cry for a while, and it was a good half hour of that with him finally falling asleep on Will's chest before he really calmed down. It was probably the saddest thing I have ever witnessed.  It was extremely hard and trying as a mother to watch my baby go through it.  No matter how much he needed it.

He was a trooper!

We were able to get him dressed and have his IV taken out. After that we had to wait about another 20 minutes to make sure he was ok before they would let us bring him home.

He was good for the whole car ride home since he slept most of the ride, but as we got home he got sick. Which I was expecting since I had the same reaction to surgery and all the medications.

Once we were home he laid down and slept a little bit more and when he woke up he was feeling much better, he also noticeably looked much better.

A juice box and apple sauce and he was well on his way.
He actually had dinner too, we made Mac N Cheese, nice and soft for him to join in.

We are winding down for bed now and he is almost a 100% different kid than he was this afternoon.

I want to thank all of our friends and family for the calls, texts, e-mails and checking in on him all day. You made a difference for all of us.  Thank you!

Now to see if he is up for school in the morning!

Addie's Birthday Party

On Sunday we celebrated our baby girl's first birthday party... She isn't a baby anymore!  While I had a couple breakdowns of tears, it was a beautiful day.

Addison's cake! It not only was pretty, but it was absolutely delicious!

Will decided to get Addison thee biggest Minnie Mouse balloon he could find. Can you tell Addie has him wrapped around his finger?

My mother always does amazing with the decorations, Addie's party was no difference!

Addie with the #1 man in her life. Can you tell Will hates being in pictures?

Grandma having fun with Addie. If you can't tell from the picture, she is clapping!

Grandma even decorated the highchair at her house for the birthday girl!

 Waiting patiently for cake and wondering why there was a room full of adults staring at her and taking pictures of her.

You told me cake... I am still waiting so I am going to eat my necklace!

Oh cake! There it is! Give it to me!

This is fun!

Oh this stuff actually is food? I can eat this?

I think she wore more than she ate, but it was fun!

Then for the traditional bath in Grandma's kitchen sink. Three kids and counting!

I love this picture of Dylan with Addie. Now if I could just con him into a haircut!

Then came present time! She got all kinds of cool stuff. A purse and doll house from Grandma, a ton of sundresses and bathing suits. Adorable nightgowns and lots of Little People!

Addie's friend Caitlin came to hang out too. How cute are they together? Caitlin is about three weeks younger than her.

She actually kept the birthday hat on for a while! I was really surprised!

Overall we had an awesome day. I will post more pictures when I go through and edit some more of other people, and also collect the pictures that friends took!

I can't believe our baby girl is a year old!

10 Days

10 Days until my precious little Princess turns a year old. Where has the past year gone? I cannot believe we are at such a major milestone in her life already when it seems like she was just born yesterday.

Next weekend we will have her Minnie Mouse birthday party, and I am sure I will cry a little... or a lot.

It is hard knowing your last little baby is no longer a baby!

Beach Boys

Today we headed out to the beach for a picnic with Grandma. After collecting and throwing some rocks into the water we headed to our favorite playground and ran out some of our energy.
We had a great time!




Nothing too fancy, just some boys playing on the beach. Also today Addison got to play on the playground for the first time. She wasn't too amused by the wood chips. I am sure she would rather be sitting in the sand.



Happy Tuesday!

Easter Dinner

Like always we had Easter Dinner at my parents house. Joining us was Will's Dad Bill, my ex-brother-in-law Frank and my nephew Dylan. It is in moments like Easter dinner that I miss my sister so much. There was just someone missing from the day. And it was her.

First I took a ton of pictures of Addison in her Easter dress. Of course boys are cute in their Easter outfits, but there is something about a little girl in their fluffy dresses for the holiday. I had to make sure I documented it!


Over all she loved her dress and didn't really fight it too much. I think she is kind of used to everything that I put her in. I have played dress up with her since she was born. Poor kid probably thinks to herself every morning - LADY! I am NOT a DOLL!


These pictures were the best I could get with the boys in them. They just wanted to run and play all day. Which is totally fine with me because they sleep wonderfully at night. Oh and the one with Addison was my attempt at getting all three children to sit together for a nice picture. She didn't get the memo about photos at holidays yet. I am sure one day she will get used to it!

Then we started all the candid pictures!


Then I made it a point to try and get some posed pictures. HA! What a nightmare that was, but we got a couple.

This was the best picture we got of us as a family. Yeah... I don't think any of the kids are actually looking at the camera. Whatever right?

This was the second attempt. Not much better than the first, and man do I look pissed! Also, never give your expensive SLR camera to your Dad who has broken the point and shoot Kodak you got him for Christmas two years ago... oh say... four times already!

I wanted to try and get a couple pictures of all the children with me... yeah this is how well that worked. Camden ran as soon as Will grabbed the camera. Oh well!

And last I wanted a picture with my mom. We rarely do "family" pictures and even after this we were yelling for my Dad to come join us. He completely ignored us. I cherish the time I get with her, and the moments we have as mothers together.

It is really a special bond you have with your own mother once you become a mother yourself. It is something words really cannot describe!

I know it is late, but I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Where Does Time Go?

I guess I really have been neglecting our family blog. Between writing on two sections of Babble and keeping up my own website I realize this one really has fallen behind. I apologize to our family for being lazy with pictures!

I promise over the next couple months I will update far more than I have! I am going to start with pictures from our Easter!

The Easter Bunny left the kids baskets on the back deck after hiding all the eggs around our back yard for them to find. A grand total of 17. The boys broke one in the dying phase. Addison sat that one out... she was sleepy.

Addie with her copy of Runaway Bunny which she absolutely loves. Looks like we are going to have a third reader on our hands which is not a bad thing at all!!!!

Ben was so cute finding all the eggs in the back yard. He needed a little help, so mommy joined his team to help beat his brother. In the end Camden still ended up with one more egg than us! at least they were a little more fair though!

Camden found an egg in his "tree house" as he calls the top of the swing set.



I just loved snapping this one because this kind of wrapped up the mood of the whole day. Most of it with them doing their own thing. It is so interesting to see as they grow how different they are becoming and how some days they just want to be left alone from the other.

It was like pulling teeth to get them to sit for a couple minutes and try to take a couple pictures of them with their eggs. This was the best out of a half dozen pictures I took in this pose. I guess I have to just cut my losses sometimes and make the best with the pictures I get of them.

By the time we got back inside... Addie had successfully emptied her entire basket and was playing. She loves her My Little Pony Baby she got from the Easter Bunny.

I will put a separate post up with pictures from Mom & Dad's house for Easter dinner. I took a lot of pictures since I have been using my camera way more.