Summer Time!!

I'm back for another blog, 4 months later. LOL

We now have a toddler! Elyssa is crawling around like a little army man or scooting around on her butt through the house. She is also a champion runner in the walker. She stands while holding onto furniture. I'm not sure if she will ever get her knees up to crawl the right way but she sure does get around! It's so hard to believe that she will be one year old in less than 2 months!! She waves now and shakes her head "no-no" when I say no (which is often these day, lol). Still, her favorite thing to do is hang out on my hip :o) Some days that gets old but I know someday I will miss this time.

Brandon graduated on June 4th. So, I guess I managed to keep my first child alive for almost 18 years. Thats always a good thing! He had an issue earlier that day and almost didn't go to the ceremony. Thank God for my Mom, the talker. We convinced him to go and I think he was glad he did in the end. He looked so very handsome in his cap and gown! He is a good boy and I am proud of him for sticking with his morals all throughout high school even though it cut him off from alot of people. That says alot about a person, especially a teenager.

It's summer so all of the kids are home for the summer. I was a bit nervous about that but it's going alright so far. I really was getting into a slump about Motherhood. I was starting to slightly think of my children as burdens instead of beautiful blessings. LOL I have been taking better care of MYSELF, praying for a more positive attitude, and sleeping more and I feel much better about life again. I really am blessed to have these 5 munchkins.

I started typing this about 6 hours ago and got sidetracked a few times. Now it's 11:30pm and I am heading to bed.

Everytime I say I'm going to post in this thing weekly, it ends up being months before I come back to it. Oh well, here's a quick update on us.

In December, Mike's Dad died from alzheimers. In early January, his sister died very unexpectedly. She had a heart attack while driving. Two days after her funeral, his cousin was found dead in her apartment. Needless to say, it was a rough month.

Christmas went well. The kids got more than enough, of course! They love their Nintendo DS systems.

Then the birthdays came...Haylee turned 9 on December 28th. We took her to McDonalds playland and to get a new DS game at Gamestop. She also had a sleepover party the following weekend. Then it was Isaac's birthday on January 20th. We had brownies with candles and he yelled at us to "stop singing at him" when we sang Happy Birthday :o) He's always such a happy little guy (note my sarcasm). Gotta love his attitude though LOL He did enjoy blowing out the candles. He got some hotwheel tracks, clothes, cars and a goldfish named Diego...Yes, I said Diego!

Aunt Rachel had her baby on December 26th - Samara Moriah Noel Smith. Elyssa's future best friend :o) Beautiful little girl with lots of dark hair and weighing in at 10 pound exactly. Funny thing is, she is now 6 weeks old and weighs LESS than 10 pounds. Rachel had to start supplementing with formula but now little Samara is growing quickly. We are now patiently awaiting the birth of Janell's little girl, Ava Marie. She is due anytime!

Hmmm...what else?? The kids are great...they are all doing well in school. Haylee just danced with the Skippers Dance Team at school. Thats always cute! Elyssa is almost 6 months already. She is almost sitting up by herself. I am reading "The Baby Whisperer" book, trying to get her to sleep better. She had been sleeping all night for a couple of months and suddenly stopped in december, so we're trying to get back on track with that. So far, she is improving.

Looks like I need to go control the sibling rivalry, bu-byeee! :o)