All Squishy

Big news for the family in November was the birth of baby Samantha, she waited until after Thanksgiving to be born, but when she made her appearance she was just beautiful, all squishy and soft and smelled oh so yummy like newborns do.

I love little babies, I love the way their little hands grasp your fingers, how they can't quite open their eyes because it's just too darn bright out in the non placenta world.  

And Baby Sammie is just GORGEOUS!  Of course look at her mom and dad... seriously!

But those cheeks!  Those big huge checks, just want to kiss um!!

LOVE MY NIECE!!

Josh the toolman

So the other day, Josh decided to teach the boys about tools.  He pulled out all these tools and started going over the names of the tools.  He went over the hammer, screwdrivers, etc and gets to the leveler.  He talks to the kids telling them, if you don't have the leveler everything is cock-eyed.  He then goes on to tell them, "You know I had a friend that lost the skin around his eye and the doctor had to take some skin from his penis and place it on his eye to help him.... Ever since then he was a little cock eyed..."  Oh geez, I thought, what am I going to do with this man!  A little while later, he's going over more tools and the uses and he gets to a tool that I didn't know what it was, he asks the kids what's the name of this (they don't know), he then says, "well you know when a woman and a woman like eachother and they are called dykes....well that's the name of this tool"

WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO DO WITH THIS MAN!!

Cregan's Birthday

This year for Cregan's birthday, I had an intimate party at the bowling alley.  I had learned from Collin's Harry Potter party, that things can and often do get expensive fast!  So bowling alley it was, and Spongebob was the theme.  

Cregan got a BB gun and aquarium from mom and dad, and Lego's from his brothers and Amber and Crystal.  He had a blast and ate pizza and had cupcakes with his friends.

I can hardly believe how much he's grown over the past year, he's blossoming into such a big guy, I love and adore that big guy too...
Below is writing from Cregan and it exemplifies why I love this kid so darn much!

Las Vegas

Awhile back Josh and I decided we needed to go on a trip just the two of us.  We haven't been on a trip longer than a day or two since the kids were born and Clay is 11 this year.  I was so excited when he mentioned it and ran with the idea.  We decided to go to Las Vegas for a week.  I really wanted to stay somewhere nice, plus I found a really good deal on a ticket plus room combo to stay at Trump Towers and it was a suite facing the strip to boot.  It was GORGEOUS! I mean, posh on crack gorgeous!  Full kitchen and living room and dining room plus 2 full bathrooms and one of them was ofcourse huge with a TV within the mirror!  Part of the mirror, not lying, don't know why you'd need one in there, but I turned it on the 1st day and watched the news while getting ready and the bedroom, awww, just didn't want to come home and sleep on my lumpy bed after sleeping on a cloud for the last few days....  But really we didn't spend much time at Trump Towers.  We walked all around the strip several times, So much to see and ofcourse so much to do...

The 1st night there we took a shuttle from Trump to Caesar's Palace and walked around, there's basically a mall inside the place and so we walked around there and over and around looking at all the lights, and people.  The next day we walked around again, all over the place and in the afternoon we went to Fremont St which is basically the old strip.  It was really neat too, but you had to take a taxi to it, it was too far away.  There we went to a murder mystery/comedy that had Josh and I in stitches.

There were only 40 people there and dinner was served as well and during the dinner the people in the audience died/murdered...  So you didn't know if you were sitting next to a cast member or an audience member, imagine interactive Clue.  After that we got tickets to a comedy show and he was hilarious too.  He claimed to be a telepathic comedian and dang if he didn't have Josh and I convinced that he just might have been by the end of the show.


The next day we walked the entire strip down all the way and back and that was quite a ways, we did a lot of walking this week that's for sure.  That night we went to the Stratosphere and went up the tower to see the overlook all over Las Vegas for miles and miles and miles.  Gorgeous...

















The next day was our last so we went the other direction from the strip and found this fun casino called Circus Circus and in it there was a large arcade area (imagine if you are at the circus x 20) and we thought it would be fun to take all these random photos of us "playing" arcade games and send them to the boys telling them we were having so much fun without them.... they were so jealous!  haha, and then I got a water massage, and then back to the room, rested and then to the free shows,















 We saw Treasure Island boat show where the 2 boats shot to eachother and there's fireworks and then over to the Mirage to see the volcano erupt and then finally the Bellagio to see the water dance to music (my favorite). 

Ofcourse we gambled too.  I just gave money to the slot machines... Josh actually knew what he was doing and made some money, then lost some money, then made some money, then spent some money, then lost and you see a pattern here... but we had so much fun... now it's back to reality and to children and responsiblities...and apparently back to my lumpy bed...

Home Finally

We waited and waited and finally Josh is home and this time I know he won't be going away again.  It was a bitter sweet pill to swallow but once I truely thought and prayed about it, I realized it was for the best.  After many, many years of Army service, Josh has decided to get out the military.  It felt so good, so very good that I have my husband home and now it's for good!

Harry Potter and Collin

My darling Collin is obsessed with Harry Potter, he and his brothers have watched all the movies and are in the process of reading the books, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when Collin announced he wanted a Harry Potter themed birthday party.  The only flaw in his brilliant plan was that Harry Potter has been out of fashion for a while now and finding the supplies required some ordering online, but I was also lucky in that some of my friends children, who had once loved Harry Potter, had now out grown and/or just didn't want the stuff any more and so I was able to get a broom and a wand and a Dumbledore hat (thanks Janny) and at a garage sale the week before his birthday Cregan happened upon a Harry Potter party favor box (3 actually) that had glasses, an owl (Hedwig), some stickers, and a lightening bolt.  And while strolling through the discount store one day, Collin happened upon a spider pinata brand new for 1.99$, and yelled from across the room, "hey Mom, it's Aragog" (who's referenced in the books and movies).  So we got a pinata even though, I wasn't intending on it. 

I actually wasn't intending on having a birthday party at all, but by the time you invite the family and the kids and the friends, well it's a party.  There were 16 kids including my 3 there, and there was the park up the street.  A great little area where we usually play baseball in the spring, but has a large covered pavillion and shaded play area.  

I did it simple, cupcakes and Little Caesar's pizza and chips oh and Jugs for the kids and pop for the adults.  (although I did find Clay drinking a Diet Coke!!  Shameful!)  So cleanup was easy and it really turned out to be memorable for Collin who announced it was his best birthday EVER...                   And now my baby is 6....

 

Hot Summer

It has been a really hot summer for Ohio this year... ofcourse it has because this year (look down) this has been my pool.... sigh

I've taken to visiting my friends who have pools at their apartments, like my friend Kaitlynn

and going to the Gahanna YMCA to swim, or the New Albany pool, or even the Pataskala pool.  I just know as hot as this summer has been though, next will be cool as ever because we will have the pool open....

Best Friends

Sometimes in this life we are blessed with best friends, I found mine when I was 12 years old, I had a crush on her cousin back then and had sent him a secret valentine, I guess a rumor got out that I had said bad things about him and his girlfriend (which I didn't) but ever the protector Julie had me pinned to the lockers saying you don't mess with her family...  Fast forward a couple of years, I had joined the same church as her and needed rides to the Wednesday night activities and the leader would go out of her way by 20 minutes and pick me up and take me and then take me home and Julie was close with this leader and so she'd often tag along, we started to get closer.  

Then terrible news came, my sister was killed I was 15, she was 16 and she made me Mississippi Mud Pie and took me to the movies to distract me from the awfulness of my life even if it was for a few hours.  We have been best friends ever since.  Even when her dad would scream, Julie you are talking long distance too much to Mandy and it's costing me a fortune, we still couldn't be kept apart.  We did ever thing together and even moved in together when we went to the University.  Although, we have had many a rough patch and stretches of time when we didn't talk either because we were mad or just plain busy, I've always known she'd be there for me.  But it always surprises me how much, for example.

When my parents were very sick, my dad had just passed away and my mom was down hill and I had to take her home from the hospital knowing that she was coming home to die and I was 7 months pregnant and never wanted to leave my moms side.  She took vacation from work and stayed and helped, we would go in shifts watching my mom so that she'd never be without someone beside her (which was a fear of hers to die alone) and so that I could rest.  What an awesome friend.  And after she passed away and the chaos got to be too much she took me to a movie and I felt like I was 15 again, escaping it all even for a brief reprieve.  

From that point years ago, I shouldn't have been surprised that she would be there for me when I truly needed her, like this past week.  I won't say what surgery I had, but I will say it was a rather painful recovery and her and her husband came down the day before, her husband watched the kids while she took me to the hospital, she was waiting after the procedure and took me home, her husband ever the sweet heart fixed all types of things I was not even concerned about, things that I thought can just wait until Josh gets home to be taken care of, but it was lovely that he did it.  He left the next day and Julie and her daughter stayed for the next 10 days to take care of me and my children and my house and my pets. She did laundry, cooked meals, make sure I rested and took my pills, watched out I didn't do too much, even getting made if I pushed myself, she made Clay's birthday wonderful which I was so sad that I couldn't be apart of because I was 3 days post surgery, she just stepped in and stepped up.  Ever the protector, Ever my best friend.  

I'm one lucky chic!

my buddy Collin

Recently Collin says to me, "Mom, you used to be a Lady, but now you are my big Mama"  Oh really I say back to him.  and he says "you know you were a lady because you come from the place that Harry Potter was filmed where they talk funny (England)" 

And another one from this morning - He says "Is it my birthday yyyyeeeetttt?", I reply no you have at least a month left, in which he responds "but that's like fffooorrreeevvveerrrr......." I say I know buddy, I know...

Clay's Day

I can hardly believe I am a mom to this big huge guy, he is almost as tall as me, and I'm sure by the end of 2012 he will be taller than me.  He is dramatic and sassy but also loving and insecure and he's such a compassionate little boy, I love him so much.

For his birthday this year, I was sick, like post surgery, popping Percocet 10 like candy sick.  But luckily, Aunt Julie was here to save the day, She took him to McDonolds, and the movies to see Spiderman in 3D, got him nerd AND popcorn AND a drink.  Got him a present before the movie AND a present after the movie!  And to top it all off, made him an ICE CREAM CAKE!  

it was DELICIOUS! all oreo and snickers, dang it was good

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAYTON

I LOVE YOU

4th of July

Collin looking all cute with his hat we got from NYC

This 4th of July kinda had lost its thunder for me before it had even begun, I was just not looking forward to celebrating when I didn't have my husband by my side, I know he is fighting for why we celebrate the 4th and all, but I just really was craving him, I just wanted him close on that day.  All in all, it turned out to be a fantastic day, thanks to friends and family.   First off, Amber had signed the boys up to march in the YMCA float for a parade over in Columbus (Karl Rd parade), which is not what I usually do, which is go to the Westerville parade, so I went with a bad attitude but ended up having a blast and enjoying the community feeling from the neighborhood and churches in the area serving cotton candy and popsicles (sugar does it for me apparently) afterward Amber and the kids and I jetted over to Westerville parade, getting our usual spot by Favoli's, we have claimed it for about 5 years now with the exception of last year when the parade was re-routed and we had to go to a new location, it was good to be back in my old spot with Amber and Rachael and my cute neice and nephews and then I had them and the Christoff's (minus Sophie who was sick) and the Laugheads over for a grill out and just playing games.  Most of the games were inside since it was so stinking hot (what a year not to open the pool...) anyway later in the evening we squeezed into a spot off at the side of a building and watched the fireworks which I don't usually do (1. because I hate the crowds of Red, White and Boom and 2. Josh usually does fireworks at the house for the kids and I) but it was a lot of fun and I loved the not so big crowds of the Westerville parade vs Columbus.  All in all, it was a good 4th, I just wished Josh was there to see it too.  It's one of my favorite holidays, especially with the pool and all the yummy summer food (watermelon...) and family and parades and fireworks, I mean really what's not to love.. 

Here's the boys the night before at Red, White and Boom with Amber 

 

I'm so glad when daddy comes home...

Josh got to come home for 2 weeks at the beginning of May.  We were so very excited to see him, we made a huge poster and bought him all kinds of presents and waited.  and waited.   and waited... Josh's flights kept having delay after delay, it took him a lot longer to get home than we thought but once he was the wait was well worth it.  At the airport, we all got teary eyed when we were all reunited as a family, it was an emotional experience hard for me to put into written form.

The 2 weeks were filled quickly with family events, and fixing up the rental property and even a quick trip to Put in Bay just the two of us.  It was such a lovely time, I didn't want it to end, but it had to but now we wait again, this time not as long but long enough until September for Josh to come home forever.

 The sign the boys made for Josh, it says Welcome Home Dad!

 Josh starting a run to get to us!

 The Hughes' back together again

The 2 of us in Put in Bay, what a fun fun time

New York, New York...

Recently my friend Amber and I took her son and Cregan to New York for the weekend.  It was a blast!  We left on Friday, spent the whole Saturday walking around New York seeing the sites and then drove back on Sunday.  Favorite part, Statue of Liberty, it was amazing to finally see it and I wasn't the only one Cregan while on the ferry sat on the side not moving just staring out at the Statue and finally turns to me and says "I've wanted to see this my whole life", another great place was Time Square we got there at Twlight and went into the Toys R us which was amazing and by the time we left it was dark and all the lights were lit brightly all around us, it was breath taking!

 Here Cregan and Nemo are at the Twin Towers Memorial Park, where the towers stood there are now 2 inverted fountains, with the names of the people who lost there lives going all the way around it. 

 The lady herself, she was beautiful, I've always wanted to go to NYC and see her and it was so great being able to

 The building in the background is one of the 4 buildings being built to replace the Twin Towers

 And finally in the Toys R Us store, it was like nothing I could imagine, for example this Hulk was made out of Legos, 4 levels, one of them made into Willy Wonka candy shop, a life size Barbie house.  I was in heaven along wth the boys.