This semester

We survived the first semester of Lydia's first grade. We dropped dance this fall thank goodness. Lydia has homework every night or I at least make her because this learning to read stuff is hard work. We did try out soccer again. I ended up coaching Sadi and Jon helped coach Lydia. Sadi was over it the first couple of times and says she just wants to go to school, and Lydia is not competitive but will probably continue to be with friends. Funny how your kids turn out so different from you.

We started the break out with nice weather. Winston thinks he's big like the girls and tries whatever they do.

He also loves shoes. Thank goodness here he chose Papaw's boots instead of some of Sadi's pink or cheetah print shoes (his normal preference).

We started the holidays earlier than normal because Jonathan worked almost every day this holiday. The kids didn't mind. They just enjoyed cousin time! Poor Winston is surrounded by girls. He even threw a fit because he didn't get a headband in his stocking.

 Winston serenaded us as we decorated the tree. He thinks he needs the songbook, too. He is very determined and expresses it loudly.

English Fam Chaos

So the girls took dance this year, Lydia's 2nd and Sadi's 1st time.  Maybe I am trying to live out my dream through them because I always wanted to be a good dancer and dance on Broadway or something. Anyhow we are moving on to some other extracurriculars. Going to dance class became a "Whine Fest." It is way too expensive for that nonsense. They looked cute, though.

Dance Recital...last one for a while...too much complaining!


Sadi had a Pinkitastic Birthday as you can tell by this grin. It was filled with pink treats from pink pizza to pinkalicious cupcakes. I love doing fun theme parties no matter how exhasuting it is. I hope I can keep it up. I feel sad for the kids that never get parties. It's makes them feel so special!

 Winston makes the funniest faces. This could be him fussing or waiting for a bite...the faces are pretty similar. You have to really pay attention when feeding him because his nose-sniffing position causes his eyes to shut and he just waits for you to put in the food. Well it's that or he feeds himself and coats every surface imaginable within food-slinging distance.

Nother bite please!

 And Winston turned 1. Our little musician had a music party with lots of instruments and dancing. In the next video he is dancing and amazed by his Great -great uncles (? Jon's uncles) playing in their bluegrass band.

 This summer we have also been able to spend a little time with English cousins. MiMi got all matching Mini Mouse shirts. They had a blast. This was the zoo trip after playing in the fountain.

Well much more has happened since last post, but I don't have my camera right now to upload pics. Other than the normal chaos and what I mentioned we had Katelyn's shower and wedding, jon's and my Mexico cruise, my lifeguarding at YW camp, hanging with Brett's wife Courtney and baby Austin, Jon's Residency Graduation, Riley's court of Honor .....uhhhh guess that's about it. There'll be more pics to come.

Family Talents

Here are the girls and a neighborhood friend "getting down" to Taylor Swift songs. Lydia discovered her at school in gym class. She calls her Taylor "Smith". She also heard Justin Beiber songs but she and esp Sadi decided that they don't like him because his pants are always falling down.

Winston loves the piano. He can bang and make loud sounds which are his favorite things to do except drink momma milk!

HUM DRUM

Nothing much going on here other than the normal everyday silliness. Somedays there are other ways I would describe this life as a parent such as "driving me nuts." It's funny that these pics are all from dinnertime, which is the time my blood pressure is probably the highest (other than getting Lydia dressed.....all diva!). There is always drama, complaining, messes! UGH!

Busy, Busy!

Oh man, the holidays were so busy for us. We usually, and did again this year, hit all the parties both sides of the family...it's good and bad (ok not bad...tiring) to be from the same city. Luckily we are only an hour away the families so if needed we can always drive home. But we mostly stayed there to help with Reed's wedding.

We squeezed in our 9th Anniversary celebration by going to our favorite Thai food place and staying at Goldstrike. It's just nice sometimes to not be on a kid schedule and relax so we did!

Winston has really been growing. He's hit a few milestones since last I blogged. Here's his favorite pastimes.

Looking handsome.

Jumping, jumping, run run...jump

And standing AND bath time (multi-tasker...takes after his mom)

Oh, and I had to add this pic of Lydia with Nana in her poodle skirt she wore at her Kindergarten "Jukebox" Christmas program. She did the hand jive and got to be on the front row since she was only one of 2 who actually wore the suggested attire (overachiever on my part I guess or actually Nana since I roped her into to doing it...Like I tell Jon all the time I don't sew and don't really want to add that to my list of things I'll never get to...so Nana better stick around! Mending is enough sewing for me, which btw I hate) Too much rambling...better stop now!

My little Punkins'

So we try to go to some kind of pumpkin patch each year so its fun for the kids. It gets tiring esp as we add more kids, but I want all the kids to have fun experiences not just Lydia because it was easier with one. So anyhow here is the best pic I could get of all 3 kids.

And here is my littlest punkin' Winston. He really just wanted to eat the hay and could have cared less about the pumpkins.

Halloween is hard for little lions because all the fun usu starts around bedtime. Here he is trying to tough it out, but he really just wanted to go to the Wizard of Oz in his dreams!

Wow...my mom took this pic and it actually turned out good (no offense, mom). I believe we are all looking. This was first of several parties so we're still smiling. By the 3rd time, I just dressed the kids up...I'm so tired! And I'm not even 30 yet!

Projects

Well this was my project last week. I volunteered to make the cake for Jon's granddad's birthday. It lets me express my creative side while being productive. I really needed to be scrapbooking with any spare time, but I'm so far behind on that that it's too overwhelming. Anyhow Granddad likes to garden and Sam's didn't have any choices so here is my version. I think it turned out well esp since I usu get stuck doing princess/girlie cakes. The girls had Snow White and Barbie this summer. It's all edible except the signs! And it was yummy; I hate when cake only look nice and taste nasty. I used a chocolate ganache (http://www.easy-cake-ideas.com/chocolate-ganache.html) for the filling, which is great for icing too if anyone is interested.

Ok and here is pic of Winston, which probably what you really care about! He loves bath time now since he can reach the water and splash.

OH MY!

Goodness, I can't believe I haven't posted since before the little man was born! Well actually a while before. He's 4 months old and I'm tired! He eats all the time, guess that's a boy thing. And I am trying to train him to sleep at night instead of eat. That worked until his growth spurt the last several days. The girls treat him like a baby doll, and Sadi is always in his face baby talking or kissing his face, hands, feet, whatever. They call him "baby" or "baby Winston."

Lydia graduated Playschool and had her dance recital debut all right around Winston's birth. Of course he didn't make it easy and come on time or even a little early. He wanted to make an entrance into this crazy world and fit right into our chaotic lives. It worked out though because Aunt KayKay and Uncle RiRi and Uncle Reed got to see Winston.

Lydia started to kindergarten in August and likes school but argues about the uniform and shoes everyday. She attempts to express herself through the crazy headbands and bows and socks/knee highs. I have to grit my teeth and go with it I suppose. I'm a more matchy, matchy person.

And Sadi just started back to Playschool 2 days a week. I've come to realize that the rest of my child rearing life will be mostly chauffeuring. Anyhow, despite adding Winston to the family, we have still continued with our busy lives. We took our annual Florida trip with the grandparents. And Winston managed to get in some snoozing on the beach

when not riding the waves with Mimi (Jon's mom)...

or sailing Papaw's (Grandpa Carter) Hobie Cat...

or surfing the waves on Dad's paddle board.

We also had a few zoo trips. But we mostly played in the stream/fountain thing because it hung around 100 or so degrees most of the summer.

And we tried to go to the park anytime the temperature became bearable.

Jon and I went rafting and on a high ropes course with the medical residents retreat. Also, Jon and I went kayaking with the youth. (Of course we have no pics of ourselves... it was entertaining watching me at 3-4 weeks postpartum climbing those ropes). Then most recently we took our best buds Meggan and Ben to The BYU vs Ole Miss game down in Oxford. It was a blast being kidless and hanging like college kids again.

We went several times to Beech Lake with my parents. Lydia and Sadi like riding on the tube, but mostly swimming or playing in the sand. And yes Jon and I can still wakeboard. I'm determined not to lose too much of myself so I keep on acting like I'm 20 and doing crazy stuff. Btw I just started playing soccer again in a coed adult league. It's me and about 20 Hispanic guys. Oh well. (If you recall last I played was about 2.5 years ago, because I was breast feeding and low on calcium and broke my wrist, which required surgery).

All in all. he's just my little "cutie pie."

Well gotta go...he's screaming his head off right now in his bed...guess nap time is over! See ya again in 4 months...haha!

Utah trip

So our last adventure was a couple weeks ago. We took the big trip out to Utah with my family. I was 32 weeks pregnant so it was kinda risky or would be if I didn't have such a history of going way past term. We tried to stop frequently for me and for the girls to run out some energy. It turned out better than expected, and I think it will be a long treasured memory for us all. The girls both started to learn to ski. It was kinda torturous for me just sitting and watching the others have fun, so I snuck in a few moves.

First of all this is West TN snow just to compare to the masses of snow out in the Utah Mountains. And we thought we were getting so much snow! HA!

Sadi just stood there since the boots went to her knees and sped down the mountain. We would drag them up and catch them at the bottom. Nana, Papaw and I really got out workout for sure.

Lydia liked the skiing more if she could strip off some of her clothes. We were lucky to find pink snow pants and a "BYU" thick jacket at Deseret Industries that she agreed to wear, which still didn't stay on long.

The boredom got to me and so I snowboarded. Not to worry Dad or Jon held me as I went down the hill a few feet....not too exciting but oh well.

The girls became pros at skiing so decided to hop on Uncle RiRi and Aunt KayKay's snowboards.

And here is Jon bundled up for the big slopes making it down another time alive! After giving himself a concussion (self diagnosed) he decided to slow it down a little.

Here is Papaw getting ready for the lifts after "mastering" the bunny hill.

And here is Nana learning again how to maneuver the skis.

Has it really been that long?

Opps! Sorry fellow bloggers. It has really been too long send I posted. Don't worry my journal had been even more neglected....i can't keep up with what i wrote where...scrapbooks, blog, facebook, journal...yipes so much history-in-the-making to record. We're still trucking along with residency and traveling home when we get a chance. The girls just love seeing Gparents and friends.

Here's Lydia with her best bud Kate.

As soon as we have a somewhat warm day the girls love to be outside. And they climb the only tree available. The temp was only about 50 this day...hot natured little girls!

And of course our big news...we are having a boy in May. These pics show he is not shy like the girls were during their ultrasounds. And during his debut he kept looking right at us. Lydia wants to name him the boy of the week from school who is nice (and not mean like most boys are of course) like Sam, or Nathan this week. Sadi just mimics her big sissy in the name game. I wish I new what the name is going to be...Jon and I have much conflict in our taste in names.