Pierced Ears

When Stella was all of 3 years old, she started asking to get her ears pierced. I told her she could get them done when she turned the ripe old age of 5 years old. That seemed at the time to be way far off and I figured by then fear would kick in and we could wait even longer.
Not so much how it happened. The day that she turned 5, she reminded me of my promise from almost two years ago. I asked if she would want to wait another year and told her that it hurts, but she still wanted to get the earrings.
We made a trip to the mall for the big event with Dad and brothers in tow. She took her favorite stuffed cat with her to help calm her worries.


We requested that they do both ears at once, as we did not want to walk out of there with only one ear pierced. And I would have felt really bad if I would have had to pin her down for the second piercing. They did and were very nice.


This was the worst. She looked up at me and mouthed the words, "That hurts!"
I was glad Caleb was there to see this. He has been determined to pierce some part of his body for awhile. When he was about 6 years old our neighbor got her nose pierced. He was so fascinated that he walked around with a round gold sticker stuck to the side of his nose for days.
He is, thankfully, a bit of a pansy when it comes to pain. I think he will be holding off on any piercings or tats for the time being.
I felt horrible when I couldn't make the hurt stop. We ran right across the mall to the Disney Store and bought a new bathing suit. It helped us both.



Now she looks so old. Not quite my baby anymore. *Sigh*

Splish, splash wasn't planning on takin' a bath

So my hubby left for his vacation this past week. He left on the morning of my birthday. We had a huge storm that same morning and lost our power.
Just before he left, we still did not have power and so I jokingly asked him if as a birthday present to me would he check the sump pump and make sure the basement wasn't flooding before he headed out.
Our basement has never been so much as damp.
It had flooded.
My hubby must have made 50 trips up and down our stairs hauling 5 gallon buckets of water before the power came back on and the water began to recede.
I sent him on his way to the Great Northern Wilderness and proceeded the clean-up without him.
The laundry room was hit hardest. It was, of course, Am-Vets pick up day and I had sorted through several bags of clothes to give for donation. Thankfully the donation stuff was already bagged and I was able to just chuck those out onto the front porch. The rest of the piles did not fair so well.
All in all it was nothing a lot of laundry and some serious steam-vac power didn't fix.
I set up probably seven fans in the basement to dry out the rest of the dampness in the carpet. The thought of mold gives me a serious fright.
So, while it didn't qualify as the best birthday ever. I am sure it could have been worse.
The kids were awesome during the whole thing and even sang me the happy birthday song while we ate frozen pizza for lunch. What more could I ask for.

Happy Day

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Stella. Happy Birthday to you. Do you think she enjoyed that cake?

It is hard to tell from these pictures, but the morning of Stella's party she fell head over heels down our unfinished basement stairs and landed on the concrete floor. 911 had to be called. They sent all of the big fire trucks plus the ambulance. She was fine. She had a huge bump on her forehead. It was so big, it really just looked like she had a giant forehead. She has a dent in her forehead still today.

I love this little person. She is an absolute joy. She was so excited about her big day today. When we walked into her preschool classroom this morning, they all yelled "Happy Birthday." Made her day.

So you say it's your Birthday....

These kiddos have Birthdays this week. Miles' is today. He is 7 years old. *big sigh* He has always worked a special kind of magic in my life. Could they be any cuter?


We thought Miles might never part with his pacifiers. He used to keep two in his mouth at once and one or two in his hand. He would rotate them in and out of his mouth. At night he would have at least two in his mouth and he would tuck the extras, oh yes. Between his toes. Yummy. Of course he did give them up. Now it makes me sad to think we were in a hurry for him to do so. *Another deep sigh*


Thomas. Our love/hate relationship continues to this day. I can't believe this kid is 7. I still have that shirt tucked away. It was one of his favorites.


It is hard to imagine the impact these little people will have on your life when they first get here. I know it is a cliche, but I love them more everyday. I wish I could go back and convince myself to slow down. Enjoy the little moments. I hope I can remember that tomorrow when I am not feeling all mushy inside because one of my babies just turned 7.