Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not kidnap my 15 year old sister on Friday just so I wouldn't have to go shopping with just the kids and myself. Since I could tell withing 5 minutes of them waking up that it was going to be one of those gloriously peaceful days days from hell and I would need help not going crazy on the boys staying sane throughout our shopping trip.

I did not take pictures of Cayleigh-Grace's first time eating pancakes. It was just too cute, she kept ripping them up into tiny pieces and eating them. I could not believe it when I realized that she ate both of the little pancakes that I made for her. I do not have a little piggy for a daughter.
I did not finally upload the pictures of Kiale wearing Cayleigh-Grace's diapers from my Not Me! Monday post last week.


I did not absolutely melt when Cayleigh-Grace finally said Mama yesterday!!

I did not get super excited when one of my hair bows from my Etsy store, Love and Grace Designs, were featured in a Treasury on Etsy site!!

I did not stare in amazement and then take full advantage of Colin wanting to help me clean on Friday!! He is so sweet to his Mama!!

I did not go all gushy inside when I caught her doing this the other morning when I got her up.

It did not remind me of her biggest brother who also did this until he is 4 and I had to explain to him that kids in K-3 didn't suck on blankets anymore...
My oldest and my youngest do not look anything alike do they!!

Couldn't Help Myself

Gotta love the legwarmers! Our wood floors get so cold on her, I had to find something cute to keep her warm during our sweltering summers!

My favorite flowers, after a little tweeking.

I love my kids (even on the bad days...)

A Dimpled Darling

Thats my crazy girl!

Etsy Featured Item!!!

One of my 4th of July hair bows is a featured item on Etsy, I am so excited!! You have to go check it out, you cannot miss my beautiful model our own Cayleigh-Grace!! Did I mention I am beyond EXCITED!!!

1st Spaghetti Dinner

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not use a bathing suit top as a bra to go to the store on Monday. Since my 2 nursing bras were dirty...

I did not let Colin go pee behind a tree at our Doctors pharmacy on Tuesday b/c I was too lazy to take the kids all the way around the building to the bathrooms since we were all outside waiting on our prescriptions to be filled. (Don't worry no one was out side, and you couldn't see him, he was between two cars and a really big tree.)

I did not sit down and plan out ALL of my Christmas presents that I am going to be giving to everyone this year, now all I have to do is make them. The hardest part is over now.

I did not take a picture of my almost 6 year old running around the house in one of his sisters diapers. I totally know what I am going to pull out and show is girlfriend in 10 years! (I will be posting the picture later, since I did not forget and leave my camera in my husbands truck last night, and he did not take it to work this morning.

I did not forget that I was holding my daughter last night and ask my sister if she had already put her in the car. After asking twice and my sister giving me the oddest look I realized that I was still holding Cayleigh-Grace. This is not all my Mom's fault since she gave me NyQuil a couple of hours earlier, and I was not feeling a little "toasty," as I call it, by that time.

I did not forget about about the Father's Day photo shoot that I wanted to do yesterday since I as feeling sick, and got progressively worse as the day went on. I did not remember that I wanted to do the photo shoot after it was dark out and the kids were all tucked into bed and sleeping... oh well. Maybe we can do it next weekend...

Happy Father's Day

First of all I would like to say "Happy father's Day to all you Dads out there." You know, I don't usually talk about my husband too much on here, but I have to admit he is one amazing Dad. We found out we were pregnant with Kiale on February 2nd of 2003. He was trying to go to college and I was just trying to finish out my senior year of high school. We had been dating for two years and engaged for 1 month. I was in absolute hysterics and he just had the most elated look on his face. He couldn't have been happier. Neither of us were happy about the timing of the pregnancy but as I have said I don't think I had ever seen him that happy. He took me in his arms that night and held me and comforted me as I cried and cried. I was 17, and a Mom. I felt in no way was I ready for all of hell that was about to ensue (and trust me those next few months were hell, I have blocked the majority of it from my memory.) KS took it all in; he was ready to be a father, and to be the kind of dad that his father was to him. You see I never met KS's dad... well I did when I was very little, 4 or so, but I do not remember. He died in a motorcycle accident June 4th of 2000, 2 months before I met Kiale, and 7 months before we started dating.

At 20 to Kiale

At 22 to Colin Hunter

At 25 to Cayleigh-Grace

KS has been such a wonderful father to our children. He is an excellent father and a wonderful husband. He works so hard to try and provide for our family, working 45+ hours a week and 6 days a week and always coming home from work with a back that will not un-knot and cease from hurting. All that he does he does for us, to give us a roof over our heads and food on our table. His job is FAR from easy on his body, but he takes it and frequently pushes the pain aside; even when that means spending hours and hours leaning over the front of a vehicle to work on the engine. He is such a wonderful man and I am beyond blessed to be able to call him my husband, and soul mate. I love him dearly and I always will.

I love you Honey, Happy Father's Day your are truly one amazing man! Thank you so much for dealing with the teasing about dating a "15 year old kid" during your senior year, and thank you for standing by me when we became pregnant with Kiale. So frequently it goes the other way and the "dads" skip out and are never heard from again. You stepped up to the plate and have never backed down. Thank you for all of your hard work, even though I may not seem appreciative 100% of the time, I really am. Thank you for being who you are (stubborn or not) you are the perfect man for you and the perfect father to your three beautiful children. I could not have asked for a better life. God has really done well knitting this family together. I know I tell you all the time but...

I love you honey,
Charity

Quick Update

Cayleigh-Grace is doing MUCH better today. Her eyes have cleared up most of they way, and she only needed one dose of Motrin today. She is back to her happy go lucky self again thankfully. She really had me worried there for a little while.

Summer break is going good. We made an attempt to go to the park this morning, but we were only there for a short time before we had to come home due to the insane heat that we are already experiencing here. Our highs for this weekend are in the triple digits which is just absolutely ridiculous if you ask me.

Well I have to go do some laundry... big Kiale thinks he needs uniforms to be able to go to work tomorrow. I guess that was a hint or something.

God Bless & Goodnight!

Worried about my girl...

Well Cayleigh-Grace is sick... the sickest she has ever been in her 9 months here with us that is. She has been running a fever for about 30+ hours now. She seems to be just a constant 101+ I took her to the doctor yesterday and she said that she has pink eye in both eyes, plus the fever. She gave me a script for what is basically Motrin and then one for eye drops. I am starting to get worried that she is getting dehydrated though since she only peed a VERY little bit in her diaper last night. She isn't eating well at all, the equivalent of one banana yesterday and a handful of puffs. She is still nursing like a champ, but I think I am going to try to nurse her ever 1.5-2 hours today to try and keep her hydrated. She isn't really wanting the drink the Pedialyte stuff that I bought her yesterday. She also had diarrhea yesterday and she has a nasty cough on top of everything else. The poor girl just seems to be falling apart.

She spent the entire night sleeping in her Daddy's arms on the couch last night. We were too worried to let her sleep in her bed. I just hope she starts getting better soon... She is playing in her room right now. She isn't being cranky or anything thankfully. All she is really doing is being a bit more clingy than usual but that is to be expected. Well, off to my sweet sick girl.

Cayleigh-Grace's 9month Update

Well its official Cayleigh-Grace has been here longer than I was pregnant now. These past 9 months have gone by so quickly... too fast. Why is it that the most precious time with babies goes by the quickest...

Cayleigh-Grace is 22lbs 4oz now, a full 12lbs of growth in 9months is doing pretty darn good I would say. She is also about 28inches tall! I cannot get over how long her legs are. Both of the boys (especially Colin) always had the shortest legs. We used to say that they just "get their legs in late," because that is exactly what they did. It would take them forever for their legs to catch up to their torsos.

She can stand up on her own without any support for a couple of seconds now (6-11-09), and she is finally crawling now(6-13-09), no more scooting around on her belly and messing up all of her pretty clothes. She has 7 teeth, 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom. She hasn't said DaDa or Mama yet, but she does say Yea, Hey, HeyA, and HeyDa... so I guess that will just have to work for us.

She is such an amazing little girl who is SO in love with her big brothers, she will sit in their room and "play" with them for literally hours. It is wonderful to watch. She is still closer to Kiale than to Colin, but I have a feeling that Colin is going to end up being more protective over her than Kiale will. He just shows things differently... more of the strong silent type. Sounds like a certain Husband I know...

We did find out that she is in fact allergic to her diapers, we have tried putting Aquaphor on her for the past few weeks to see if that would clear it up without having to change her diapers, but it didn't work. So now I have switched from Pampers Cruisers to Huggies Pure and Natural. I am very happy to say that I have already noticed a difference in her "private parts" and they are already clearing up. I just hope they stay clear, the rash kind of developed over the course of time, and then just got worse and never really went away. So we will see if one developes from these diapers. I are really hoping that she stays clear, because if she doesn't its off to cloth diapers for us.

She started saying Di Di Di, and Deedle Deedle Deedle sounds today...

Colin's Very Late Checkup

Well my baby boy is quickly becoming quite the little big man. He now weighs 42lbs and I 3ft 4.5in tall. I cannot believe how big he is getting, he now out weighs his older brother by 2lbs. We always knew that would happen we just didn't think it would happen this fast. (Although if you were to ask some family members they would be surprised that it took him this long to overtake Kiale in weight.)It still amazes me how fast time truly flies... Colin is almost 4 and a half and he will be starting K-4 in August. Wow... He got 2 of the 4 immunizations done and out of the way... I figure I will get the other 2 done in the next month or so, I'm not all that worried about it.

You know I sit back at the end of the day and I find myself wondering/worrying that he is slipping through the cracks. He is the quietest of our three, and also the one that needs the least. Cayleigh-Grace is of course attached to my hip most of the time, and Kiale just seems to always be there wanting to know what I am doing and whats going on and if he isn't with me he is always with Colin. We wanted to have them 18months apart so they would have a close relationship and so they would always have someone, and that is exactly what we got. Those two boys are inseparable, were one is the other is either there as well or is pulling up the rear. I just worry that Colin and I are just not close enough, he is so close to both Kiale's and we don't relate very well to each other. He always comes to me for extra snuggles and TONS of hugs and kisses throughout the day... literally every time I turn around that boys is asking for a kiss and a hug, I just love it! He is truly my love bug that has been one of his nicknames all throughout his life. He has either been called, Hunter Bug, Buggie, Love Bug, or our little Snuggle Bug (catch a pattern here?). He is just so sweet and loving. I love that little guy so much... I just hope I am a good enough Mom to him.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not end up taking a couple off weeks off from frequent blogging to enjoy all of the wonderful end of the school year celebrations, and to enjoy the beginning of summer with my wonderful family.

I did not get super excited when Cayleigh-Grace finally started to actually crawl on Saturday. That being said the majority of my excitement was not because I no longer have to worry about her ruining her precious clothes, dragging that sweet baby belly across my wood floors. Said floors would never have cat/dog hair and dirt that her big brothers constantly drag inside...

I did not finally get it through to my boys that if they put their toys away as they play they will never have to clean their room because it will always be clean. It has been a very peaceful couple of weeks since they figured out that "Hey, Mom was right after all..."

I did not spend hours on the computer yesterday trying to figure out what type of cloth diapers I should use on Cayleigh-Grace... I have yet to blog about it but she is allergic to her diapers, and she has a horrible rash that will not go away no matter how much Aquaphor/Desitin you put on it, or if it does go away it always comes back. I think I am going to be going with the gDiapers... they are semi disposable and seem to be the easiest ones to work with, any suggestions?

I do not have three posts that I am working on, one for the boys end of the year celebrations, and the two for updates on Cayleigh-Grace's and Colin's doctor appointments... They will get published... eventually.

We did not buzz Kiale's head and give him a Mohawk. I then did not fall in love with his hair like this and decide that it has to stay like this for awhile. It is just too cute not to keep it this way, not to mention he LOVES it... actually I think LOVE is an understatement!

My Monkey Man... and his new haircut

He will be 6 in 3 months... the boy is growing up way to fast.

Complete

According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary this is the definition of "Complete," but to me the word means so much more... what does it mean to you?

Main Entry: com·plete

Pronunciation: \kəm-ˈplēt\

Function: adjective

Inflected Form(s):com·plet·er; com·plet·est

Etymology:Middle English complet, from Latin completus, from past participle of complēre

Date:14th century

1 a: having all necessary parts, elements, or steps b: having all four sets of floral organs c: of a subject or predicate : including modifiers, complements, or objects
2: brought to an end : concluded
3: highly proficient
4 a: fully carried out : thorough b: total, absolute cof a football pass : legally caught

You see there is one thing that has always puzzled me and that has always kept me wondering. When we were blessed with Kiale we could not have felt farther from "complete" we felt "slightly satisfied," as that is really the only way I can describe it, and then 9 precious months after giving birth to our first born we found ourselves pregnant with Colin, our little "Hunter Bug". It was by no accident I can assure you that I became pregnant so quickly, as we had always planned to have our first two children 18months apart, and thankfully I am Fertile Myrtle have no problems getting pregnant so that is exactly what happened. After the birth of Colin we found ourselves satisfied to a point, that point being that we always knew we would have another child, as our hearts yearned and called for a sweet baby girl to fill our home and hearts with giggles, dancing feet, and hair to twist and braid. I will not lie to you the ride home from the ultrasound tech we very quiet once we found out that Colin was indeed a boy, the thought took some getting used to. All Kiale and I had ever talked about was us having a little girl and here we are with one son and another one on the way. Needless to say 24 hours later we were ecstatic, as I said before the thought just took some getting used to, but I know I am not the only one who has felt that way. Fast forward 33 months, countless hours of discussion between Kiale (Sr) and myself, as well as countless hours of discussion between our boys and we came to the decision. We were going to "try" for our girl. That is exactly what we did after hours on the computer and talking with friends we knew "when" to "try" and what to eat what not to eat while "trying." (Kiale has always said that I killed off all his girls with my acidic food preferences...) Needless to say I was pregnant right away, and due September 3. If you had asked Little Kiale at all during my early pregnancy he would tell you that it was and girl, and sure enough he was right. We had our little princess.

Now rewind back to the beginning of this post and the word Complete. That word when used to describe a family can have so many different definitions. I now know and fully believe that as a family we are complete as we have... 1 a: having all necessary parts, elements, or steps to make our family feel whole, and for the fist time in our lives together that is exactly what Kiale and I feel like we feel like we have all necessary parts we are whole. We have our 2 boys and our little girl. What I am constantly finding myself wondering is how can other people feel whole and complete we have friends that have had 1 child in their family all the way to having 5 children in another family and then everywhere in between. I look onto the families that have 1 and 2 children and I am constantly wondering how they could possibly feel whole since when we had only 1 and 2 children we still felt so empty in ways. I know that they feel the same way I do now, I know that they feel whole and complete it is just hard to imagine since I only know how I felt then.... so I am wondering what is your complete? Is it 1, or 2 children or is it more? When did you realize that your family was complete? I know for me it was once all of the pregnancy and baby hormones left, as I always go baby crazy within the first 5 months postpartum, and all I am able to find myself thinking is when can I have another one... guess it is Gods way of making sure the planet stays populated... :)

This is my definition of complete and whole...
Isn't it perfect... it is for us. What is your perfect?