Happy Birthday Skyler

June 16, 1992 was one of the best days of my life. Guy and I were so young and naive, but we couldn't wait to meet this baby that would change our lives forever. Sky was a sweet baby, cuddly toddler, and cautious and kind kid. He never went through the terrible teens and was always an easy kid to raise. Now, I'm not saying he was perfect, but he was always perfectly easy to love. 

So, here's to another year watching Sky become a great brother, son, and man. I'm looking forward to many more birthdays with my first born. Love you ♥️

Rainy Day

The kids were excited to have a rainy day and watch movies in our jammies. All was well until we had to run a couple errands and I told Sloane he needed to put some clothes on. He didn't want to take his jammies off so he asked if he could just put his clothes on over them. Hoping to avoid a meltdown I agreed. This is what he came up with. Not exactly what I had in mind, but with #6 I no longer sweat the small stuff. So, off we went!

Sloanie my Snugglebug

Sloane and I love to snuggle- a lot! So, being creative with nicknames, I call him my Snugglebug. This morning as we were in bed we were hugging and I told him I loved him so much I was gonna squeeze his guts out and gave him a big hug. I asked if I squeezed any of his guts out and he said, "no, just ear wax." I guess I was squeezing a little to high. 

Maybe I should try it with the older boys that aren't really into hygiene right now. I won't name names but they are the ones who look at me shocked when I suggest they brush their teeth or take a shower because they just did it ____ days ago. (Fill in the blank with a number higher than 1 and lower than 4. I do have my limits!)

Their idea of "summer hygiene" includes riding a bike through a sprinkler, spraying their hair with a water bottle, or playing baseball in the rain. Ooooh I forgot my favorite- spraying on some body spray. Cough cough. 

Back to Sloane the Snugglebug, I might squeeze a little tight, or spend too much time holding him, but I know what happens next. Soon he'll be taking sprinkler showers and running wild with the neighborhood gang. Even worse, some day before I even blink my eyes he'll be turning 22 like Skyler-my original Snugglebug.  I still squeeze Sky every chance I get but he doesn't look at me like my snuggles are the best thing in the world anymore. Hold on to that feeling as long as you can!

Sloane

Tonight we were outside and Sloane was giving Lucy and SiSi rides on his 4-wheeler. As the rode up to us he was scowling and Scarlett asked him why he looked so mad. He said, "I'm not mad! I'm just gassy. " OK......

Sagism #1

As we are driving this morning and chatting Sage says, "summer mom is way different than winter mom". 🌞

Back at it-Summer 2014

First REAL day of Vacation (Monday)!!

 Another summer with lofty goals- clean eating, daily exercise, organizing the house. I know I know, I've set these goals before-but this year my kids are older and more self-sufficient. They can all dress themselves, latch their own seat belts, even help themselves to a snack. 

So, day one and I'm up at 8:00. Already I'm a bit cranky because even though it stormed during the night and the dog shivered and whined on my bed the streets are dry which means 9:00 & 10:00 baseball practices were still on. So we were up and out the door before Kelly and Micheal started. Forgetting we were starting "clean eating" today I grabbed a sleeve of graham crackers and off we went. 

As usual in ND we were dressed for cloudy weather but it was also windy, drizzling, and cold! Stell played first and all went well- then it was Sloane's turn. It's his first try at organized sports and after 5 years of watching his siblings he was so excited!

 Excitement quickly changed to disappointment when he realized being on the field meant taking turns, waiting, being in the rain, and missing his siblings playing at the park.  He did get a chance to bat which was pretty cute and them I couldn't find my shivering white-haired ball player on the field. I knew he didn't get passed me so I wasn't in panic mode- yet.

 All of a sudden he struts out of the other teams dugout and says, "I'm done-let's go". If I was a younger, less drenched mom I would've used this as a teachable moment. "You're part of a team, blah, blah, blah" but I was really cold too.

 So as we were leaving he looks up at me with those big blue eyes and says, "Mommy, can we go home and snuggle in bed?" Yes!!!! So, that is where you will find us on our first REAL day of vacation!