"Nap Time"

During "nap time", I heard Hadley opening her dresser drawers about 30 minutes after she went down for her 'nap'... I went in to investiage. She had destroyed all of her diapers, stripped off her wardrobe, had completely soiled through one pair of panties, and I found her in a fresh pair of clean panties that she had put on herself.... backwards.

After mommy got to clean up that fun, Holdyn made a homemade pizza for lunch, and Hadley had some shredded cheese for a snack. We won't even go in to detail on how much landed on the floor compared to how much made it in her mouth..............

BUT..... she can be pretty cute at times :D

What's for Dinner?

You think I'm gonna eat THIS for dinner???!!!

OK.... I guess I will try it.........

Hmmmm... It's pretty yummy afterall!



Amelia Island 2012

The day after Holdyn graduated, we packed up the car (it looked like we were staying for months... better to pack too much than not enough!) and headed to our first ever family vacation.

Hadley LOVED the beach and was not scared at all of the waves. We were screaming at her to come back because she would just take off running down the beach and towards the water the entire time!

Late Afternoon stroll on the beach. It was so nice not having to drive from the hotel to the beach. We could walk everywhere!

The kids had so much fun playing together on the beach and chasing each other!

The first night we got to eat at a pretty neat restaurant on the beach. We ate on the 2nd floor balcony and it had a playground on the beach at the restaurant for the kids to play on!

Holdyn loved building sand castles and digging tunnels!

Hadley just wanted to live in the water!

They loved cruisin on the 'alligator' !!

Snuggling with daddy before bedtime after a fun filled day!

First time Hadley slept in a bed, and the first time the kids slept in the same room together, much less then same BED together! I thought it would NEVER work out, but we walked in to check on them before we went to bed and they were both passed out! Soooo cute!

The last night we were on the island, we hired a nanny agency. Best thing we ever did! They sent a nanny to our hotel room with a full bag of toys and goodies geared towards the kids gender, ages, and likes. We ordered them a pizza and headed out the door.

We got to go to a nice 'adult' restaurant and have some alone time. We took a nice walk on the beach alone and just spent time together. Our dinner was amazing!

We then went to a band that was playing at a tiki bar on the beach. We ordered drinks and sat down to enjoy the music. Not 1 minute later it started POURING rain... not just drizzling... POURING!! We decided to head out before it rained any harder since, remember, we could walk everywhere there and had to walk back to the hotel in the pouring rain. We made a pit stop in to the dairy queen to get a blizzard to top off the night.

We had an amazing vacation. The kids had a blast, and we had just as much fun not only watching their excitement, but getting to go on a date while on vacation. When we got back to the hotel room the kids were already in bed and sound asleep!

It was the perfect distance from the house... not too close and not too far. We will definetely be going back sooner than later! It is a beautiful town, so laid back, and so neat how you could walk to pretty much anything!

Pre-K Graduation 2012

Well I can officially say that I have a kindergartener!! Holdyn graduated from Pre-K last week.

 All the kids put on a great program and then had a little brunch afterwards. Holdyn was nervous but he did a great job!!

Ms. Debbie is the director of the pre-school and the Pre-K teacher. She will always have a special place in my heart. She was always there not only for Holdyn, but for me also for any reason at all. She even came over to the house today to check out Holdyn's construction site he obviously told her about all school year! She brought him a firetruck placemat and a little dalmation dog. The little dog was a toy in the classroom and she said every single day he would walk in the door and the first thing he would do was go and get that little dog. She said she couldn't leave it in the classroom for next year. She said Holdyn loved it SO much she would have felt so guilty and would regret it if she didn't give it to him. He was SO excited.

 I am so glad Ms. Debbie will still be in our life next year. She won't be Hadley's teacher, but she is the director so we will still get to see her all the time :)

 Holdyn and his best friend Santiago. They go to school together and they live right around the corner from us!! We love Santy and his family!

 The graduate and his daddy.... he loves that daddy!

 Mommy and HoHo

 Hadley was SO good during the program. She is such a ham and just adorable! I think she is going to love going to school next year and getting to play with friends!

 Holdyn's true crazy side! He was SO excited and proud that he was now offically on Summer break!

 All of the grandparents got to come and then we took Holdyn out to lunch to his favorite restaurant!

Momma's sweet baby girl!

True Love..............

Wham!!

It was 5:00 on a Tuesday.......... I heard someone with a microphone speaking. I glanced up and saw a screen come up that had the words..................... k.i.n.d.e.r.g.a.r.t.e.n. .............. yes.... KINDERGARTEN!!! I looked to my left.............. and WHAM!!!!

This boy was looking up at me with his big grin. My heart just melted. I'm not gonna lie.... My eyes may have been a little watery just wait till what daddy gets to put up with his first day of school !! One cute/humerous story about Kindergarten orientation. One of the screens came up listing all of the 'options' the parents had for their child to get to and from school. Holdyn thought it was a list of choices, and you got to pick from whichever he thought was the best. He heard "car rider, bus rider, walker, after school program... etc etc" He looked at me and whispered very seriously "Im gonna walk mom. I will walk to school and I'm gonna walk home". I couldn't help but giggle. He was flat out serious. After we got of the orientation, I had to really explain to him why he couldn't walk. He still didn't care. He was walking... rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It didn't matter how far it was.... he knew.... and he was still.... walking!!! So now we have come to the agreeance that he can walk home..... from the bus stop!! And he can walk in the morning.... to the bus stop!! I will take him the first day and help him find his classroom and get settled. I will beg to take him/pick him up the first week. We will see what he allows. I'm not too keen on sticking a 5/6 yr old on the bus. I would worry and have to hold my arm down not to call the school every second to make sure he got there O.K. every single day. Too many creepo's out there these days. Sad but it's true.

Seriously where have the (almost) past 6 years gone??

It was just yesterday............

That I remember this sweet little thing!!

Do you realize that I will have a child who is in kindergarten???  He is SO grown up and handsome. I don't know how he has gotten so big. Makes this momma sad. Very sad. Her baby boy.... mommas sweet love muffin!! I have always been excited about the 'next chapter' in his life, however, I am NOT looking forward to this... at all! I might change my mind after him being home for summer break.. HA!

I am going to be a COMPLETE trainwreck mess the first day of school. At least we have all summer to spend together :0)

 .... and a child that will be in 2 year old preschool....

Dramaqueen!!    Diva!!

What in the world is this momma gonna do with herself??!!! 

When the cat is away....

The mice will play!

Dad is out of town and we have the baseball gear to take to the next game.... look what we found outside this morning....

Looks like Holdyn was getting organized and set up for his next big game!

Sun up to SON down

Holdyn has kept me on my toes since he was little.... well I guess since I was pregnant with him! He is a very busy little guy and NEVER slows down. The only time he stops is when he is sleeping, and that is not very often! He is smarter than most children his age, and his mind is constantly on the go. He says things that amaze us and does things that stop us in our tracks. He always has to be doing something. The world 'relax' or 'stop' or 'slow down' is not in his vocabulary!

Holdyn and his best buddy "Santy", or Santiago. I took them swimming this afternoon and boy did they have a good time. None stop shooting each other with water guns! They both have a baseball game tonight so hopefully they will sleep good tonight... I know I will!!

Holdyn also says random things out of the blue. Some times he stops me in my tracks and makes me think "How in the world does he know that?!" or "What in the world is he thinking!" I had another one of those 'stop in your tracks' moments with Holdyn this week, where he blew me away once again. He never ceases to amaze me. His mind is working constantly and I always have to be on my toes because I never know what will come out of his mouth next and what answer I will have to come up with!

Background (If you didn't know): Balloons have always been a very significant reminder to Holdyn of his PawPaw... for some reason! PawPaw passed away in August of 2011. Holdyn was 4 at the time. You never know what a child will remember when they are so young. I knew Holdyn would remember him for some time, but then you assume that they will 'forget' or he would start talking less frequently about his PawPaw. I knew Holdyn adored his PawPaw and his PawPaw adored him and made an impact on his life, but I NEVER knew that almost a year later, Holdyn would obviously have the memories that he does of PawPaw. We got a golf cart about a month after PawPaw died. I thought that would trigger Holdyn to remember him or talk about him since everytime we went to visit GiGi and PawPaw, that was their 'thing', PawPaw took him on golf cart rides every single time. To this day, Holdyn does not talk about anything related to PawPaw and golf cart rides. He takes balloons very seriously now, whether it be his balloon or Hadley's balloon. Before PawPaw died, Holdyn NEVER asked for balloons... we always just had them on his birthday, and he knew that. For about the past 6 months if we go in to a store and Holdyn sees a balloon he will ask for one. He NEVER used to do this. When he asks, he doesn't tell me why he wants one... or two... or three, however, after watching his pattern the past few months, I know exactly why he wants a balloon now, at every chance he gets.

Yesterday (5/1/12) I picked Holdyn up from school like any usual day. We had to stop in to Publix before going home. Publix is covered with balloons. We walked in and like usual, he said "Mom, I need a balloon before we leave". We grabbed the few things we needed then headed to check out. Holdyn went over and asked for a red balloon (of course.. his favorite color!) and he picked out a pink balloon and let Hadley hold that one. As we were driving home, out of the blue, he said "Mommy, I love PawPaw SO much". I told him I know he loves PawPaw and that PawPaw loves him too. He then immediately told me "We have to hurry to get home so we can send our balloons to PawPaw." Every single balloon he has gotten in the past 6+ months, he doesn't get them for him... he get's them for PawPaw. He doesn't even keep them for a few days. He has been releasing them in to the sky almost immediately. After any release, he jumps up and down and smiles so big and says "I just sent PawPaw a balloon!!" I told him I thought PawPaw had PLENTY of balloons and we didn't need to send him anymore. Holdyn said "Well how do you know? Did GiGi tell you?!" I didn't know how to answer that one! It was silent for a few minutes then he said "Well mommy, how does GiGi know how many balloons PawPaw has?" We tried to call GiGi cause I was going to let her answer that one, but she was not home! As soon as we pulled in the driveway, Holdyn jumped out of the car and IMMEDIATELY let his favorite red colored balloon go and it floated up in the sky. As Holdyn watched his balloon float high up in to the sky he said "Well now PawPaw has another balloon!" He then ran over and immediately jerked Hadley's balloon from her hands (of course that caused a major meltdown but he calmy tried to explain to her why they were letting their balloons go, but she just didn't understand!) and he let her balloon go in to the sky. With the BIGGEST smile on his face, he then said "I just sent PawPaw 2 more balloons. He will be SO happy!" and he then walked inside and started playing and continued his day as any other normal day. 

PawPaw meeting his 1st great grandchild for the very first time.

After PawPaws death, Holdyn knew he was very sick and he died. He kept asking us where did PawPaw go after he died and we have always told him that PawPaw was in the sky. Holdyn's little mind is constantly working and he obviously thought about it and figured it out himself, that balloons can float up and get in to the sky..... that is why he gets balloons.... they can get up in to the sky and get to his PawPaw!

I know Holdyn is little but I am SO glad he got to know his PawPaw and he will never forget him and will always remember him. Balloons now have a very significant meaning to me, and I think they always will. A balloon is just not a 'balloon' anymore now. To my 5 year old, they are a significant rememberance of his PawPaw!

This morning he crawled up in to my lap to snuggle for a few minutes before he got ready for school. He said something about a balloon so I decided to take the opportunity and flip the situation around and question him about balloons. I said "Why do you like balloons so much?" He got the biggest smile on his face and just giggled and wouldn't say anything. I said "No seriously, tell mommy why you always get a balloon when we go to the store." Still smiling as big as ever and laughing he said "For PawPaw. I get balloons to send to PawPaw".

I never knew my 5 year old could make my heart stop, and that his memories could make such an impact on others. I decided to share the above story with a few family members who in turn, emailed it out to other family members. They all have written back telling me how they were crying their eyes out reading the email, and the screen was still blurry because their eyes were still filled with tears, happy tears. I printed out the story and mailed it to GiGi. I know she will be SO happy that Holdyn still has amazing memories of his PawPaw and that Holdyn is making sure PawPaw is still happy by sending him lots of balloons!

My favorite time of the day is at night when it is the only quiet time of the day and before I go to bed  I go look at my sleeping babies.... I always wonder what their little minds are thinking about!!! The saying "Moms of boys work from Sun up to SON down" is SOOOO very true! They sure do know how to keep their momma on her toes, especially when I never know what Holdyn is going to say!

I think it's almost time to move Hadley out of the crib and in to a big girl bed!! Holdyn has always slept curled up in a ball and Hadley always sleeps stretched out... they are total opposite in every aspect of life!