Hannah's Big Day!

Taking our own picture after the big event
Profile picture of the new stud!

After it was all done

Prepiercing. Sitting in the big chair .

Prepiercing. Waiting patiently.

Hannah has been asking for weeks to get her ears pierced. With Jack and Will at camp all week I decided to have a girl (plus max) day. I called ahead to the store and she said that there would not be 2 people working until 2:30 if I wanted both ears done at the same time. Hannah was so excited this morning she was in tears on the steps at 8am crying because she just couldn't wait any longer. We arrived at the store at 1:45 so she could look around and pick out 2 pairs of earrings to wear in a couple of months when she could take the studs out.

At 2:30 the additional worker walked in and Hannah hopped up on the chair as fast as she could. They placed the dots on her ears, everyone checked that they were centered properly and they counted to three. The manager had her ear done quickly but the other girl only got hers 1/4 of the way through. they had to pull it out, load a different earring and do the left ear again. The manager took over to do the left ear again and after it was complete, she says "Oh my gosh!"

The box that the earring was in was labeled wrong so now she had a square diamond in one ear and a circle diamond earring in the other. My 2 choices were to either have them remove the earring (which would have been painful) and repierce it for the 3rd time or leave them as a square and circle. I did not want to put her through any more pain so we left them. Hannah still does not know that they are different or what was going on. The manager also mentioned that this has NEVER happened before. How lucky.

Now to the good news, Hannah did not even shed 1 tear!! She was so brave and just took it all in stride. She was so proud of herself and has already asked me 4 times tonight if we could clean them like the lady at the store told us. We then went to get ice cream.

On a side note, after being in a little earring store for 90 minutes during naptime, Max had had it! The lady pulled the suckers out for Hannah and being desperate, I gave Max one. Lets just say that he was sticky and blue from head to toe. He was quite the site. I think I used 15 wipes trying to clean him off. It did buy me the last 15 minutes before we could get out of there though!

Hannah and I had a great afternoon. She is already talking about our next day together without the boys!

Camp Pokamoke

Last week was a great week of no camps, swim lessons or appointments. We slept in until 9 most days and didn't get going until after lunch. Max actually had 2 naps a day and did not spend much time in the car! We went swimming one afternoon and bought out school supplies. I took Jack to the pet store to see lizards and the kids played with the neighbors.

This week Jack and Will were up early this morning to catch the bus that would take them to Camp Pokamoke. They were excited and Jack was a little nervous but nothing terrible. I packed them all up last night and I was even nervous. Will seems so little to be going on a bus to camp all day. I am worried but I am sure they are having fun. I hope they remember to put on their sunscreen and drink enough. I think I might have been the only mom dropping off this morning not in her workout clothes excited to wave them off. I actually felt like I was going to throw up as the bus pulled away. I think taking Will to his first day of Kindergarten is going to be much harder than I though it would be.

Hannah and I are going to have a girls day (plus Max) this week. I am not sure what we are going to do but she is excited to do something girly. She really wants to get her ears pierced and I told her it "barely" hurts. We still have to talk to dad about it. We definitely need to go somewhere that will do both ears at once!

We are also getting ready for Max's big 1st birthday this weekend! So much to do. I want him to look back and know that I put as much thought into his birthday as I have for the others. I never want him to feel like since he is the last one that he gets the leftovers of my energy. I have a lot to do!

I only got one picture from my cell phone of Jack and Will on the bus this morning. No one else was taking pictures so I didn't want to look like the crazy lady!

A Storm & Gretna Days

This week there was a storm early one evening and it rained A LOT! Hannah was terrified of the rain and wind and kept asking me why God would let it storm. She would not leave my side until I forced her to go to bed an hour after the rain ended. There was a ton of water in our front yard so Darren took Jack and Will for a Ranger ride through it to see how deep it was. Right as we all went outside there was a beautiful complete rainbow in the sky! For some reason my camera would not focus well enough to get it all in the shot but you get the idea. The kids associate a rainbow with Sam and Shelby telling us that they are having fun in heaven. They still talk about Sam and Shelby a lot.

Gretna Days began on Friday night and we went to the park for dinner. It was really hot and we decided to go home and sit inside until the fireworks started. Darren and a couple of friends took the boys a couple of streets over to watch the show and Hannah , Olivia and I watched the fireworks from the comfort of Hannah's bedroom window. They were great and lasted a full 30 minutes. We went to the parade this morning and I don't think I have ever been so hot in my life. We all looked like we had just gotten out of the shower. It was close to 100 degrees with 100% humidity. It was pretty miserable. Jack walked with the football team in his 1st parade appearance and handed out little footballs. He had fun and Will was nice enough to collect a bag of candy for him. It was so hot I only took 3 pictures through the dripping sweat!

Summertime Swinging with Hannah and Max

Hannah and Max seem to be my only willing photography subjects lately! Hannah begs me to take her picture and poor Max just doesn't have a choice. Jack is currently at his draft night for football and Will said it was too hot to swing!

Hannah is such a little ray of sunshine. Always eager to please and most of the time is smiling. She has also turned more affectionate than ever especially when I am holding Max. She has grown up so much over the past few months and is always talking about when she gets older like me and what she will be doing. She is so good with kids and has compassion for others. I don't know how I was so lucky to has a daughter but it has been more than I ever thought it would be. I know that as she gets older she will no longer want her picture taken and bows in her hair but I will take what I can get for now!

4th of July

Can you see us through the smoke?
Bonnie & Max

Hannah & Claire

Brandy & Jeff

Laurie & Claire

Will lighting a smoke bomb

Hannah with her stash

The photo I forced them to take before any action could begin!

A RARE photo with mom in it

2 photos in 1 day!

July 3rd

A really quick 4th of July paint job for Hannah. She chose black and red!

She also wanted a picture of her toes

The kids had a blast this year again for the 4th. Dad made at least 3 trips to the firework stand! Jack and Will drug dad outside every evening last week to shoot off as many as they could talk him into! Hannah also enjoyed the poppers but not the "dangerous ones" as she put it!

We went to a couple of parties on July 3rd and then over to Grandma Gail's on the 4th. Lana and Bill and Bonnie and Ron were also there. Olivia, Claire, Noah, Jack, Will and Hannah had a great time shooting off their piles and then we waited until dark for the bigger ones. Grandma Lana brought over a ton of glow necklaces and Will carefully handed them out to everyone.

Max did great on his 1st 4th of July. He wasn't scared of the loud noises at all but was exhausted being up so late. We watched most of the events from the inside window due to the mosquito's and my concern over his hearing!

Lake McConaughy

Always hungry!

Jack & Will sitting in the front

Can you see the little frog?

Smores!

Blue tongue!

Jack & Grant

D napping

Last week we spent a few days at lake McConaughy with some friends. The kids were really excited to go and I was also excited to get away. We decided to leave Max with my mom since he would just try to eat sand the entire trip and miss naps. It was nice to be able to spend time with Jack, Will and Hannah without having to say "hang on" a million times.

The weather was perfect and the rain held off until the night before we left. The days were full of sand, avoiding cacoburrs (sp?), keeping track of 14 kids, eating a lot of snacks, boat rides, tubing, frog hunting, making sand castles, swimming, riding bikes and applying tons of sunscreen every couple of hours.

Jack loved the boat and spent hours on it. Will liked riding his bike and swimming and Hannah spent most of her time playing in the sand. We were very proud of her for playing with the other little girls this year!

The kids slept the entire way home on Sunday. Their eyes opened as we hit the Gretna exit! Max was not very excited to see me. He wanted my mom. I guess he didn't miss us as much as we missed him!