My three youngest…they are growing and changing so fast. Tayah turned 5 in January and starts Kindergarten in July. She is very ready!

Kyne turns 3 in a couple weeks. He attends Tayah’s preschool now and really enjoys it. He is such a smarty-pants

RJ will be 2 in August. He will be starting preschool Aug 16, along with Kyne. I will have 2 mornings a week completely free of kids for the first time in…well, I don’t even remember, but a LONG time. He is so clever and funny. He says everything possible, is a real talker just like his brother.

My oldest:

Talon starts a new school in July (the same one Tayah is going to). It is a year-round school so I’m really happy with that. He will be 10 in April…yes…TEN! wow…amazing. I will have a 10 year old child.

Just been super-busy with life in general (and 4 kids). Time just flies by and before I know it a month or so has passed.

All the kids are doing good – No sickies for awhile (fingers crossed I don’t jinx things!).

Talon took his EOG tests last week…then took retakes – He ended up not passing his reading, which we were so shocked by because he is a pretty great reader…even his teacher was shocked. We’re hoping his great class scores will help him not be kept back in 3rd grade.

He also graduated into the Webelo’s at Cub Scouts! We all went and hung out at the campsite for the day and then watched him crossover. The kids had a blast! It was a lot of fun..Kyne ate too much popcorn and threw-up all over his bed that night though

(There are pics of Talon doing his crossover on my facebook)

Tayah has just completed her first session in gymnastics and is moving up to Level II – She really loves it and I am glad she gets to do something all on her own (with just mommy watching).

Kyne has hit the terrible two’s stage. He is demanding, whiny, physical…but still awesome – He loves to do imaginary play with Tayah and they can play cars all day long. He regressed with the potty training and will no longer use it at all

RJ is growing up into a beautiful, sweet little boy. He took his first steps on Friday (May 29) and loves to stand up on his own. He says quite a few words now (RJ, Tayah, bad-boy, uh-oh, num-num, up and a few more). He still has no teeth..but eats better than Kyne ever did at this age (and Kyne had at least 4 by now). He weighs over 20 lbs now (and Kyne is almost 24lbs) and wears the same size clothes as Kyne (shorts and onesies only).

Phoenix came and hung out with us last Friday…the kids all had a blast, running around like animals! – They gave lots of love and watched Thomas while sitting on the coffee table…..

It’s rare that NC gets snow, so waking up to 4 inches of the pretty white flakes was pretty cool. It carried on snowing until late afternoon and we ended up with around 7 inches.

Ricky took the kids out in the morning to play. I stayed inside with RJ. They had so much fun. Tayah even made a snowman!

Our back deck. This was towards the end of the day.

Making snow-angels and her snowman.

Our house and daddy with Kyne.

Kyne before he went out.

Our little princess turned 4 last Wednesday! We made sure she had a special day just for her. She wanted Macdonald’s for lunch so we went there and played for awhile. Then we went and looked at the cats in the shelter but didn’t find one we thought would fit our family. We then came home and made her fish sticks for dinner because that is what she wanted! She got lots of nice presents too. Nanny (my mum) got her a huge dollhouse for her Barbie’s (she bought it when she was here and we hid it under our bed. We assembled it the night before her birthday). Nanny & Grandad got her the Dream Town Market and accessories. Becky took her to Build-a-Bear on Monday and she made a dog with a ballet dress on. And then we got her a Hannah Montana doll, a Princess Barbie, some Little Petshop Pets, a Princess handheld game, dress-up stuff, some earrings and a necklace.

Princess Tea Party

On Saturday (10th) we threw Tayah a Princess Tea Party. She originally had 4 little girls coming but one didn’t show up. In the end there was Tayah, Ethany (5, our old neighbor), Brianna (7, Becky’s daughter) and Sierra (4, goes to preschool with Tayah). The amount of kids was perfect for me!

I decorated our table in a Princess theme and made ‘tea’ (apple juice) with pink heart ice cubes in it. They had snacks and pink cupcakes and we played games and opened gifts. The girls also had some playtime upstairs with Tayah’s new dollhouse. It was a lot of fun and Tayah loved her first real party!

Tayah did a trial class of gymnastics while my mum was here (12.15.08). She loved it so much and we hope to put her in permanently soon.

In the morning the kids opened their stockings (Talon was with Crit this year) and then 2 big gifts each. Kyne opened his ELMO Restaurant (this was his biggest gift) and Tayah opened a Barbie Car and Barbie. We then ate breakfast and got dressed. Ricky and I then opened gifts from each other (even though we weren’t supposed to get anything for each other!). I got 2 rings, a Sephora Gift Card,  a front license plate with a British and US flag together for my new car (more on that later!), some chocolates, an engraving tool, wine preserver, Will & Grace season 8 on DVD and a GPS holder for a GPS that I do not have

I got Ricky a big bottle of Jack Daniels, an electric saw, a MP3 player, some chocolates, some Jack Daniels sleep shorts and some new Sonic Toothbrush heads.

The kids got quite a lot of stuff…we didn’t go quite as overboard as last year though. They also got a trampoline between them which was their main gift from us.

Pics:

Opening stockings.

I love the excitement on her face…she appreciated every.single gift she got….so worth it!

The gifts before opening.

Kyne with his ELMO kitchen/restaurant.

Around noon Talon and Crit came to do the main opening of the gifts (the kids waited patiently until Tal arrived). You can see our new Plasma HDTV that we got with Christmas $ from family.

The wrecked front room after present opening!

The 3 oldest eating their marshmallow pops from Santa.

The kids are all doing very well.

Rhys is sleeping very good now. He averages about 5.5 hours, but has  done over 6 a couple times. The last week he has been doing this, and it’s been awesome. The night before last he did 11:15PM until almost 6AM!

Kyne’s really into being imaginative and copying his sister these days. Yesterday he came up to me and said "do you want some?" and I said sure…well he starts giving me some pretend food and I look over and it’s from his toy vacuum! Weird kid was getting pretend food out of his vacuum and feeding it to me. He then says "want some more?"…he cracks me up! He is getting 2 new teeth so he’s a bit cranky…oh and both he and Tayah caught Ricky’s cold, so we’ve had that to deal with.

Tayah is back in preschool and she is loving it. Kyne is starting next week also! I can’t wait. I know there might be a big adjustment for him…he is very antisocial, but I also know he will love it once he’s settled.

Talon is back with us after being at his dads for 2 weeks following my mums visit. He spent the night at Becky’s last night with his best bud Tyler. He was very well behaved this visit thankfully! (the last visit didn’t go as well).

I haven’t lost any more weight (I actually gained a little while mum was here!), but I feel a lot more energetic these days (especially with the extra sleep). I really want to get in shape soon though, so I know a diet is in order shortly.

Ricky has been sick for like 2 weeks now. Headaches, dizziness, sore throat etc. We assume it’s the flu since he had an MRI and blood work done which were all fine.

OK well here are some recent pics:

The youngest 3 having their first bath together.

I was trying to capture his smile…they came out soooo funny though!

She came downstairs like this. Dressed herself….even down to the shoes she found in her closet. The sweater is on upside-down (see the buttons along the bottom?), but doesn’t she look good? ha ha

Just some random pics I took on Friday…..Talon and Kyne when Tayah was at school and then the only decent one I managed to capture of all 3 at the park.

Talon had to hold Kyne’s head up because he was not in a picture-taking mood!