6 days

YIPEEEE! Only 6 more days. I finally sat down to make lists of everything we need to pack. My lists include absolutely everything that everyone in the family needs. Incredibly anal, yes, but definitely neccessary. This way we won't end up in Florida and spend our first day buying all the crap we forgot. I'll have to try to remember to take a picture of everything going just so you can all imagine what it's like to fly a family of 5 to Florida for a week long vacation. It's going to be great!

Happy Birthday Emma!

I can't belive how much Emma has changed in just five years. Watching her grow everyday you kind of forget how much she is changing. To me, she no longer looks like a baby at all, and truly looks like such a big girl.

Just minutes old

First Birthday and still bald

2nd birthday with chubby cheeks and finally some hair

3rd birthday and she still had those chubby cheeks

Brithday number 4 with much shorter hair again and newly pierced ears

And now on her 5th birthday she looks like such a big girl

And here is a picture of all the younger kids that came to Emma's party on Saturday.

Aquatica

Just to make everyone a little more jealous that we are going to be in Florida in 9 days I had to share about one of the places Sean and I are both dying to go. Sea World is opening a brand new water park called Aquatica. You have to check out the pictures on their website. I can't wait to go there. I'm sure that since it is part of the Sea World family it will not disappoint. I will be sure to bring back some great pictures since the stuff on their website are only drawings of the plans right now. I can't wait to be in 80 degree weather! :)

Tons of birthdays

Let's start with Sean's Birthday, which was Wednesday. Yes, I'm a bad wife and didn't post anything about his birthday on the actual day, but he's 35 now (eek!), so I don't think he's super obsessed with his birthday anymore. Unfortunately, he was feeling pretty crappy on his birthday and he stayed home from work and laid around all day. I felt bad that he was semi-sick on his birthday, but he got some much needed rest so it all worked out.
On Thursday Megan turned 13 months old. She is learning so fast and is talking more all the time. She won't say things if you ask her to, but sometimes she just repeats what we say out of the blue. Her vocabulary now consists of "Dada, bye-bye, all gone, hi, moo, and sometimes mama". She is also learning lots of sign language, which helps her communicate what she wants since her talking is very selective. She is walking like a champ, which makes Sean and I very excited since we only have 10 days till our trip to Florida (see the ticker above for a countdown). I am also happy to report we are getting her to eat more an more real foods and relying less on breastfeeding to fill her up. She still wants to nurse a lot, but we are down to about 3 feedings a day, which is just fine with me when compared to the 5 or 6 and sometimes more, she was at a few months ago. I am just loving watching her grow and learn new things all the time.
Friday Sean's mom called to tell us Sean's sister had her baby. They had a little girl and both mom and baby were doing great. I asked Sean's mom to send us pictures when she can, so hopefully we can share those soon. Unfortunately, they live in South Dakota, so it will be a little bit before we can make a trip to see our new niece. Congratulations Kelly and Vince, we can't wait to meet her!
Today we had Emma's 5th Birthday party. We decided since she is turning 5 we would have a bigger party than usual for her. We rented a party room at a local community center that had an indoor pool. We had cake and Emma opened her presents and then the kids swam and played for almost 2 hours. I think everyone had a great time, and Emma was so happy to have all her friends and family there to celebrate with her. She is such a big girl now. I can remember every detail about the day we had her like it happened last week. Time is going by way to fast in our lives now. I got a lot of good pictures today from her birthday party and I promise I will add them soon.
Happy Birthday to all the February birthday buddies out there. We sure have a lot in our family. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

A Happy Valentine's Day to all. Emma asked me this morning what you do on Valentine's Day, and I have to admit it took me a minute to come up with a good answer. I don't want her to think that today is about your boyfriend/husband buying you chocolate and flowers. So I told her that today is the day that we tell all the people that we love that we love and care about them. Pretty good, huh? She then made a huge list of everyone that she loves. It was pretty darn cute. For me, this was a good reminder that we really should tell everyone in our lives that we care about that they are special and we love them, and not just focus on our spouse and what present we are getting. Kids are amazing gifts sometimes.

Laura's wedding

As some of you already know, my really good friend from the 5th grade is getting married in May. I'm super excited for her, and she has asked me and Emma and Nathan all to be part of her special day. She came over one night to ask the kids and they are so excited about being in Auntie Laura's wedding. Emma and I went with Laura and Laura's aunt and her daughter, the other flower girl, to shop for dresses. We all agreed on one that is so cute on the girls. It is very similar to this dress.

That is the dress Laura had originally picked out, but after stopping in at strasburg children we all decided this dress was much cuter on the girls. I tried to add a picture, but their site won't let me. Laura has also decided to order material from the bridesmaids dress manufacturer to have sashes and hairbows made for the girls. If anyone knows of someone that will take material we have and make bows for the flower girls please let me know.
Laura did an awesome job picking out bridesmaids dresses. They are really cute and quite comfortable. I can't say thank you enough to Laura for not picking out something super tight that will make me feel uncomfortable and huge all day long!

I have to say I am slightly nervous about how the yellow is going to look on me with my pale skin, but I think it's a nice color and not banana yellow or anything obnoxious.
Laura has decided to let all of us pick out our own shoes as long as they are white. I like this since everyone has a different shoe preference, but I hate it because now I have to pick out shoes that I like that I think will look good. IT would be easier for me if Laura just said, "Here, these are your shoes for the wedding." I do know I don't want something with a major heel since the aisle is 147 feet long. Thanks for that Laura! I put in my request to walk with her older brother Lonny so that if I get tired he can just carry me.
I have no idea what tux exactly Nathan will be wearing, but we did find out they do carry sizes small enough for him to rent, so that makes me happy. Aren't we going to be so cute?

hmmm

I'm never good at thinking up cute title's for my posts. Sorry...
Since Magan's birthday we've just kind of been in a boring routine with nothing new going on. Life is definitely never boring here, but there never seems to be anything exciting enough to blog about.

-We are only 22 days away from our trip. I'm getting really excited, as are the kids. I have started packing already. I know you think I'm crazy but the clothes we are taking are all summer clothes since the average high in florida in March is 80 degrees, so it's not like we need to wear things I am packing. Plus, with 5 people to pack it takes a lot of planning and forethought as to how I'll get everything we need into as few suitcases as possible. Everytime I think I've decided on a plan of attack I rethink it and decide maybe that's not the best plan and start over.

-Emma and Nathan are both doing well in swimming lessons. Nathan gets to advance to the class that Emma is in, which she'll be repeating this next session, so they will be together. The sessions are only 6 weeks long, and so they don't progress as quickly as I'd like, but I think the teachers at the Y are doing a good job.

-Poor Emma got a UTI last week and I think she is finally feeling better. She never really seemed sick, but she couldn't go to the bathroom without crying because it hurt so bad. I can't remember ever having one, but I've heard that they are incredibly painful. I felt so bad I couldn't give her any medicine to make it at least a little better. Now that she's been on an antibiotic for 4 days she's much better.

-Emma's 5th birthday is quickly approaching. I can't believe my baby is going to be 5. YIKES! I can remember being pregnant with her and having her so clearly that it seems almost impossible that was 5 years ago. She is so excited that once she is 5 she'll go to kindergarten and get to ride a bus. We are still unsure if Emma will be attending catholic school or public school. Ideally I'd love for her to go to catholic school, but I'm pretty sure that just isn't in the financial cards right now.

-Sean's company is going through some major changes right now. They are re-organizing and several people are being let go in an effort to save the company money. Luckily it seems like Sean's job will be spared, but please pray that he makes it through all the lay-offs with a job and not too big of a loss in salary. If he loses his job, I don't know what we'll do.

So that pretty much sums up what's been going on here. Just getting through the days as they come.

Super Tuesday

Just wanted to remind everyone that can, to go vote tomorrow! Every vote makes a difference.