So we left off last week as Kristen and JP left town. Sad. That also happened to be Tim's 33 BIRTHDAY! Happy. Happy Birthday Tim! Love you. Cale & Tom, being the awesome in-laws they are, had all of us to their house for Tim's B-Day dinner (they knew I had company all week)...plus they would have done that anyway! We had a sweet family time together:

 All on her own Lily made Tim a birthday card and taped her own $1 bill to the back. SO CUTE:

 Lily loves her Daddy...

 Grandpa with his Whitney Girl Girl...

 Moving on...a few days after the Birthday Party Lily comes walking into the house crying a muffeled, high pitched, I-am-really-sad type of a cry. 
"Lizzie is dead, Mommy! The ants are getting her!..." 
"Who is Lizzie?" I ask in a semi-panicked confusion? 
"Our Spider Mom! Lizzie!...and she hasn't even met her babies yet!" 
Dagger to the heart. You know how during Charolette's Web you can get caught up in the moment and shed a tear or 2, but after the credits roll no amount of Julia Robert's slapped onto that spider is going to change your view on bugs? Well you should have heard the way Lily was talking about Lizzie and how her babies are still growing and how they will never meet their Mommy. Seriously, I really dislike bugs and I could still cry about poor Lizzie (which btw I had NO idea they had named her). Lizzie was the huge Banana Spider living on the side of our house. The kids loved her, so we left her alone... and I think you know what I mean by alone. She has 2 sacks of babies growing on the side house. Well, apparently she died and fell off of her web and Lily and the kids found her getting devoured by red ants. So the Mom instinct in me took over. I got up, found a spoon and picked up sweet Lizzie, brushed off the red ants and dug her a grave. It was pretty surreal (am I really digging a grave for a spider?). Even though Lily was still whimpering, she felt better giving Lizzie a respectful burial. She did all of the rocks and the paper grave stone. Lily checks on her 'Kittens', which is what she calls Lizzie's babies, everyday. Lily, I love how you love! Stay tuned after the Pumpkin Patch photos b/c you are not going to believe what happened...

LIZZIE 2010

Mother of Many

R.I.P.

OK, now back to SWEETNESS! Look at the girl girl. She is 25% in her weight (8lb 10oz), 75% in her height (22.25"). Not bad for someone born under 10%! She is sleeping and eating well. This was about 2 weeks ago. LAST NIGHT we put her in her crib for the first time. That is always the ultimate symbol of parenting...putting them in their room that first night. Its a perfect mixture of heart-break and relief all in one. I slept on the couch :) She did well going down...which is really our main goal...but did wake up at 2am. I happily scooped her up and nursed her in our bed and slept with her the rest of the night :)

 Googie Muffin and Whit-kins...

 YAY...FALL is one of my FAVORITE TIMES...and the Pumpkin Patch holds most of my treadured kid photos!
***Disclaimer: I have relaxed tremendously over the years. I consider myself a hard-worker...but I try not to label myself Type A for a multitude of reasons. However, Type A Jenn ressurects herself when it comes to Pumpkin Patch Photos. ***
I was looking at pics from pumpkin patches years ago, how we are all in fall clothes, smiling, looking happy and TOTALLY SWEATING b/c it was 90 degrees out that day. The point? These pictures are planned. Every year, this included, I tell myself "Relax...just go the the patch in what you have on, take candid photos, have fun"...and every year I bust out the iron to iron their jeans, pick out co-ordinating outfits, and literally give the kids the same speech in the car on the way over. Let me sum it up for you: "HI Sweeties...you look so cute. Ok, we are going to the Pumpkin Patch and you can each pick out a pumpkin...but remember (insert Chris Farley's Voice doing the "Lay Off I'm Starving" Gap Girl Skit):
 

NO ONE IS HAVING FUN UNTIL I GET SOME PICTURES OF YOU HAVING FUN!!!   

Now the pleading begins: "...remember to look INTO the camera...I will even give you MnMs if you do a good job". Yes, yes...I know...I should be ashamed! Bribery, performacne, sugar, dare I say lessons in fabrication? :)  I know, I know...but I truly can't help it...and I don't want to help it- that's the bad thing. I LOVE PUMPKIN PATCH PHOTOS! Maybe it is because as a child growing up near the farms on East Long Island, Pumpkin Patch Days were HUGE! So FUN! And, in my defense...I counted with NO EXAGGERATION 50, YES 50!!!! photos of my 3 last year and not 1 of them made eye contact with the camera and the same time! That is enough to make you want to throw your Cannon across the parking lot :)  Or laugh bc they are kids. So anyway, I had a lot more peace then other years internally, but I still worked it in the beginning (It's all about the 1-2 photos in the beginning of all 4 of them looking at the camera). The rest actually portray them having true fun!

Worth it!

 I HEART taking photos of Pumpkins...they sit so still:

 YAY, I got it!

 Poor Lily, She is 7 going on 14...so she really didn't want to do this pose...you can see it in her eyes. Last one like this for a while I think...

 Not for these Hams:

 Whitney Baby and Mama:

 Look what I found in the Pumpkin Patch:

 Sweet Dada:

 Love These...Owen was REALLY tired on our way here, so after this photo I tried to do a few more. He took the stem and chucked it with a bit of frustration across the parking lot. It was soooo unlike his personality that I couldn't help but laughing. I know...great parenting again!

 Trying...

 Biggest stem ever award:

 Lily picked out one for her sister:

Ok, exhale all of the joy from the Patch. My amazing, and long time friend Darcy, brought her sweet daughter Madeleine over last Friday for a playdate. So the girls were playing in the yard and a strange experience happened. Lily walks into the house again, this time NOT crying, and announces that "Finally is Dead!"
Here we go again!
"Who is finally?"
"Our bird!"...GROSS. Ok, Finally was A bird, not OUR bird. The girls found this semi-headless bird in our yard and decided to give it a proper burial as well (Lizzie's was a funeral since I actually prayed out loud with the kids for her)! So, R.I.P Finally (the girls named it that...so appropriate!) Thank the LORD that Darcy and I have been friends long enough that she is still going to let Madeleine over...how creepy if this was a 1st play date. Anywhoo, now our backyard is like a pet cemetary in one corner.
Editor's note: A smile breaks out over Jenn's face as she ponders the fact that she is renting :)

A Special Lunch

I still have a lot of BLOG catching up to do...but this couldn't wait. A few years back my Dad and I were talking about how I homeschool. He gave me some of the best advice I ever got in regards to that area of my life. He basically said to guard the balance between being the kids teacher and being their mom. I have to admit that a light bulb went off in my head. I so easily become the teacher, manager, organizer, planner, task oriented-goal setting figure in their lives. It is hard for me sometimes to stay the relaxed, nurturing, dare I say FUN mommy during the months of September-May! Anyway, a lot of people call us homeschool Moms, 'Super MOM' when in fact I think most of us who homeschool struggle with even feeling like a 'Satisfactory MOM' some days. I think if I sent my kids to school I would better guard the whole nurturing figure thing. Anyway, for every bad day I have (homeschool wise), I have at least 2 weeks worth of good ones...does that seem like a good ratio? But my kids are learning, they LOVE learning, and I am confident we have chosen the right path for our family this year. Today was one of those confidence building days.

So let's back track. Yesterday was the bad day...really just sheer exhaustion. So after an AWESOME PiYo 5:30am class today, I came home, showered and spent about 20 minutes reading Luke 11 and praying for my day: My attitude, patience and my kids. AMAZING how that always wonderfully tempers the day! So at lunch I spontaneously told Cole, Lily and Owen that we were going to say 3 things that we love about each other... I went first:

Lily:

1) How she has such a sweet and sensitive heart...like when she made the girl who struggles in her ballet class (and who doesn't have a Dad) a card in which she had everyone in our family, and Amber, write down encouraging words for her (little prophet!) in a card she made for her.

2) How she is so willing and excited to learn

3) How she is a sweet, kind  daughter...

Cole:

1) How he is sooo FUNNY and cracks me up...crying laughing!

2) How he is holy and always stands for what is right

3) How he LOVES little children and babies and is so caring for them

Owen:

1) How is full of life... he IS the Party

2) How he is cute and confident

3) How he always notices things about me...like my perfume, my hair, my jewelry...and he tells me I am beautiful. Melts me every time!

Anywhoo...Lily told Cole he was a good leader, Cole told Lily that she was a one of a kind sister, and how they get along better than most brothers and sisters. It helped me to see my kids in a whole new light when I heard what their siblings saw in them. Cole mentioned to Owen and Lily that they (Owen and Lily) have been best friends since Owen was born (he said this in a happy, non jealous way). Owen told them both that he loves how they share their toys with him. Well, Lily and Owen are vocal in their expressions of love...so I was blessed by their kind words towards me, but Cole brought me to tears in the middle of lunch. He told me that he loved how I always encourage him when he is struggling, how I give 'consequences'...but how I'm not mean and don't take away Wii for like 3 weeks if he gets an F (I remained quiet concerning that one), and then he paused and told me he loves how I can find something good in every situation. Tears! From the mouth of a child who works hard at being positive to a mom who has had to work at being positive...very touching! Anyway, I sat there and realized how my kids really do love each other and really are close. It was one of those special moments I will always remember (only actually because I am writing it down)...but you get the point!

HUNTER FAMILY MEETS WHITNEY

What a delightful weekend we had when My SISTER and her family came back to Tallahassee to meet their new BABY WHITNEY! I was excited about this trip for weeks...as was all of my kiddos and husband. They got in late on Wednesday night and the laughs immediately started when JP opened the trunk on our driveway (slight hill) and all of the crazy decorations for Kristen's meeting fell out! Then we stayed up too late for a pregnant lady and a Mommy who's nursing. Thursday was a blast! Kristen and I ran errands (laughing about the clown card in Publix) and all of the kids were in reunion heaven. How many you ask? 7 now between us. Owen and Ava bunked, Ellie and Lilly bunked, Whitney was with us, Cole in his bed and Emma floated. The noise level was pretty overwhelming, but they play so great together that Kendahl actually did facials on Kristen and I for an HOUR with no interruptions (except for Whitney). We ate yummy food, the boys ran twice (Tallahassee Marathon training), and we laughed all weekend. There is no one in the world who makes me laugh like JP! Love HIM! Being with my sister all weekend felt like the way things should be :) BUT even though we all haven't seen each other since July, everyone picked right back up...as you will see in these photos. Thanks for making the trip guys! Love you forever...so much in fact that I BALLED the entire way to church on Sunday morning after they left!

 
Whenever I finished feeding Whitney Ellie, Ava and Emma were there all lined up waiting their turns to hold her. She will never be without a play mate!

Cole told Ellie that she was near completion with her Jedi training...May the force be with you...

At lunch Owen sighed deeply and said, "Ohhh Ava...I am so in love with you...I love you!"

A Sister's Moment right before Kristen's Park Lane Party...so fun!

I LOVE the feeling of my babies CHEEK to CHEEK...YUMMY...

We were laughing and saying how Dad would be, "Girl...enough pictures...her eyes...enough"...

Cindee and Meredith...heart them...

Grandma and her girl girl...

Look at those Blondies...

Uhhh...that's pretty much how I felt, except that being a TRUE Golden Girls fan...I would never fall asleep during an episode!

Lily just asked me, "Mom...whose DOG is that?" I laughed so hard I cried. Its your brother Lily!

Morning Emma...

JP wrapped up the remaining hot dogs like a giant piece of candy. Kristen and I were hysterical...but I guess you had to be there!

MY GIRLS! I still can't get over how much I LOVE saying that!