Mia's 18 month pics

18 months already! Hard to believe! Kian, Mia and I went to Portrait Innovations today and had her pictures taken. I wondered if she would struggle with having a stranger take her picture, but overall she did pretty well. They brought a little basketball out and she LOVED that.

Mia is such a delight. She is still our little fireball, but she also is pretty obedient. She loves being where the action is and she rarely stops moving. I am so thankful for our little girl!

1st grade

Aiden woke up bright and early this morning, showered, ate, and off he went! He hardly seems old enough to be in 1st grade already. I pray he has a wonderful year and makes great friends. He seems to have gotten so much older this summer. Kian already misses him too! I love this little boy so much and pray that God does mighty things through him.

fun at mcdonalds

We went to McDonalds while visiting my parents today. The kids loved playing hide and seek in the equipment. Mia loves running around and climbing the slides.

 Kian's sunglasses. He LOVES wearing them right now and feels so cool with them on!

Mia is in a screaming stage right now. Happy or sad, she pretty much responds with the same scream. I am hoping this stage isn't too long!

summer pics

 We have had an amazing summer so far. It's hard to believe that its almost over. Here are a couple of pics from the summer. The kids have grown up in just these couple of months!

Mia is such a fun, spunky little girl. My

Kian jumping into the pool. Yes....he made it in!
Hopefully I will have more time to update the summer later, but it's been a great summer!

Aiden's graduation video

Here is the video of Aiden getting his diploma. He was so excited! You can hear Kian in the background too, excited to see his brother up there.

Mia's new headband

Seriously, how can you resist this face?

Kindergarten graduation

 Yes, I know, I know. It's been a ridiculously long time since I have posted and a TON has happened in our family (Like Mia's first birthday, Kian's 4th birthday, Mia's hospitalization). I have a lot to catch up on, but tonight was Aiden's kindergarten graduation and I thought you might like to see some of the pics.

We are so proud of you Aiders!

He looked so stinking cute walking down the aisle in his cap and gown.

After the ceremony and ready to go get ice cream!

It was a 50's themed night and the kids played air guitar and sang. It was super cute.

I tried to download the video of him receiving his diploma, but the computer is being very difficult. It was a great night!

a couple of pics

Happy almost Valentine's Day!

crazy february

What a crazy month! Between basketball, grad school, school, and sickness, we haven't had a spare moment. It seems like the sick bug has run rampant through our house this winter. Mia had diarrhea very badly for about 5 days and I finally took her in and they took a stool sample and she has a very contagious bacteria called C Diff. The doctor doesn't know where she got it, but most likely she caught it because of the amount of antibiotics Mia has been on. Anyways, this bacteria is not to be taken lightly and it doesn't respond to normal antibiotics and it can live on surfaces for months. Mia has been on a antibiotic called Flagyl since Wednesday and has been doing great. It was rough for her for a little while though. Her poor diaper rash...it looked horrible. Because it is so contagious and has to be basically bleached to be killed, there has been a LOT of cleaning and hand washing going on. I woke yesterday with the same symptoms Mia but seem to be doing better today.

Chad is doing a great job on his grad school. He is such a hard worker and I am very proud of him! Balancing teaching, grad school, coaching, and being a husband and father has been a little tricky though. This Tuesday, he is taking a personal day and we are going out for the day. I am SUPER excited to say the least.

Aiden and Kian are doing great. They are such fun boys! Kian is still in his "testing" phase with obedience. He is one stubborn boy, but at the same time is so loving too. Aiden seems to be growing up so fast. He loves watching Chad's basketball games and loves playing video games. He is not my little boy anymore. :(

I have my cough again. It's the same cough I had for 8 months while I was pregnant with Mia and for 4 months after. Please pray that it goes away! I cannot do cardio right now, because I cough too much. It is very frustrating. I did insanity for 3 weeks and enjoyed it, but I'm taking a break to let my body rest from being sick.

Hopefully the rest of the month will be a little less uneventful!

ENT appt.

This morning Kian had his ENT appt. We were hoping that tubes aren't necessary and they aren't! At least for now, the dr. doesn't think its necessary. He thinks Kian is a little tongue tied, but not enough to need to have it cut and he doesn't think it's whats causing Kian's lisps. All is all, GREAT report! For now, we will just keep treating Kian for ear infections as needed unless he gets more than 5 or 6 in a year. If that happens we will go back to Dr Westfall for tubes. Kian HATES anyone looking into his ears. In fact I always have to bear hug him and hold him still so the doctor can do that. That still happened today, but there weren't any tears, so for that I was very thankful! Thanks for praying!

10 months and counting!

How is it possible that my little girl is 10 months old already! She seems to be growing up SO fast! She is just such a sweet little girl. Chad and I have noticed a couple of differences from her and the boys recently. 1. She cries when either of the boys cry. She does NOT like them being upset. 2. She gets scared about things that the boys never had a problem with. For example: she gets freaked out when a koosh ball touches her skin. She hates it! Also grass... hates that too.

I don't know how close she is to walking, but she cruises along the furniture pretty easily. She is very easy going (so far) and still doesn't like strangers a whole lot.

We are so thankful for you Mia Gracie Grace! We love you sweet girl!

Insanity

Yeah, I know... 4 posts in one day, but I hadn't updated from Christmas!
Well, today I started a workout program called Insanity. It truly is insane! My friend Lisa and I have committed to doing this for 2 months at 6am. We measured and weighed our bodies and wrote everything down and we put a little wager on who will lose the most inches. I gained about 4-5 pounds over the holidays and need to get back to business. This exercise dvd series is extremely intense and although I probably won't be able to do much at first, it's a great challenge! My goal is to lose 20 pounds these next 2 months and to stay committed to this program. Every 2 weeks we take a fit test to see how we are improving and we also measure and weigh ourselves. I am excited and a little frightened about the next 2 months, but I know I can do it! I will keep the blog updated with any progress.

A few more pics of Christmas break

One of Chad's dad's gifts to us was taking us to Splash Lagoon water park in Erie, PA for a couple of days. The kids had a BLAST going down the water slides and playing in the pools. These 2 pictures were taken right before we left to come home. Me and my girl and Chad and his boys!

Aiden and Kian slept in the same bed in Rochester and one night I went in to check on them and found them like this.

Grandpa and Grandma and the grandkids.

Courtney, Chad's mom and Chad. We were celebrating Aiden's birthday at Chuck E Cheese. We won a ridiculous amount of tickets there! We had a great time. Thanks Mom!

Christmas

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas. We had a very busy but great Christmas as we had 4 Christmas', 2 birthday parties and a Christmas Eve party. We travelled to New York to spend time with Chad's family. We feel so blessed to have awesome family!

Happy birthday Aiden!

It's hard for me to believe that Aiden turned 6 on January 4th! He seems so grown up now. His latest passion is football. He literally could talk about it all day long. He loves school and is reading pretty well now. He draws everyday (usually involves football or cars). For his birthday we took him to a place called Crazy Pinz, which is like Chuck e Cheese, but also has mini golf, bowling and bumper cars. We had a great time together! Aiden, we pray that God would soften your heart and that you would become a great leader and man of God someday. We love you so much!