All Hallow's Eve

Love Halloween! Love the little kids all dressed up!

Dilyn as Super Girl! Brevin as Mr. Incredible! Love his muscles!! Dilyn said he had a "six packet"!!

Haidyn and her friend Kylie . . . they were "Lazy Heads" . . . which means they walked around in their pajamas!

Caitlyn and her friends . . . she was a PowerPuff girl . . . Blossom I believe.

I was slightly disappointed that I didn't get a picture of all my kids together this year . . . I guess they are just growing up and doing their own thing!

The Carving of the Pumpkins!

I love Halloween! I love to carve pumpkins and decorate the house and help the kids with costumes! Here we are getting ready to carve up those Pumpkins!!!

Get a load of Cait's face.

First you must gut . . .

I don't know what it is . . . but I love to gut the pumpkin! And I must say I am VERY good at it! I get the inside so clean . . . and I and super fast at it! I dare say, it is a talent I possess!

Dilyn actually did her own carving this year! With a little supervision from Daddy!

Haidyn . . . getting her pattern just so!

Do you think he is proud of his pumpkin? I am guessing he is!!

Family Pictures!!

Last weekend we got all gussied up and went to Wheeler Farm to have family pictures done! I am so excited how they turned out! I have never been this happy with family pictures before!!

John and the estrogen sisters!

Mommie and her little guy!

Love my little girls!

Who is that good looking girl with that old guy!?

My mom came down to join us for pictures!

Grammy and us!

Daddy and Brevers!

Look at the ducks Mommie!

Are they not beautiful! They take after their Mommie!

Riding the tractor!

What a good looking bunch!

Caitlyn's grin kills me!

Love the Fall colors!!

Thanks Mindy! I love them all! You did fabulous! Check her out! www.mindylynnphotography.blogspot.com

She is just like her mother!

I have never professed to being a perfect mother . . . and perhaps my children have learned just a very few improper things from me. What can I say? I am imperfect, extremely much so! I get in trouble from my children for my love of using a few swear words here and there. I make inappropriate comments and speak my mind, usually without the use of a filter. Now that my children are getting older and have the ability to think for themselves my errors are becoming more apparent. A few nights ago, my entire little family went over to my friend and coworkers house for the first time. Lynette was impressed with how much Caitlyn is like her mother . . . the sarcasm, whit and silly gestures are all quite apparent. It has been obvious to me for quite a while, in fact, John and I took Caitlyn shopping and out to dinner one night last month and after one of her sarcastic comments I looked at John and said "Oh my, she sounds just like her mother!". John immediate relief was ALL to apparent when he yelled "Thank you! I have been wanting to say that! Thank you!!!".
John and Caitlyn have been at odds as of late, she being twelve and her hormones just banging on the door to be heard and John pushing mid-life crisis mode, are loving life! I tend to spend much of my time as their referee. John will come to be begging me to talk to her and she will do the same for me to talk to him. Needless to say, it can be exhausting! Well, this past Sunday was no different than any other day. John was trying to get Caitlyn to do her dishes and Caitlyn was trying desperately to avoid doing them. After plenty of arguing and harassing back and forth, said dishes were finally done, save for the silverware. Caitlyn was waiting for Dilyn to empty the silverware from the dishwasher before the dirty silverware could be put in, and we know she was not going out of her way to do Dilyn's job. This is what we found on the counter . . .
Needless to say . . . Caitlyn is still on dishes this week. But secretly, I laughed my guts out! She is definitely my daughter!

One day . . .

Do you ever have one of those days when you think . . . Why am I doing this? Why am I here? No one listens to me, no one appreciates anything I am doing. What is the point!? I must admit, I have having these thoughts all too frequently as of late. I get tired of not having any help, and when asking for help I am inundated with whining and crying, and that it just from John! Seriously though, I have those days when I really wonder if they would even notice if I didn't get out of bed, other than the fact that they didn't have clean clothes or no food. Would I be missed at all? I know this is extremely selfish of me, but it doesn't hurt to be a little selfish on occasion. A few Saturdays ago, I was feeling sorry for myself, wondering "Why me!?" and one by one the kids came in to my room and climbed on my bed with me. I looked at each of them and thought how truly lucky I am to have such beautiful and amazing children . . . Now don't get me wrong, they drive me crazier than I am sure I drove my mom, but I love them. There I admit it! We played and tickled and most importantly laughed. I told John to hurry and grab the camera, because I wanted to remember the moment when all my kids actually wanted me and liked me, all at the same time! Will miracles ever cease? I hope not!

Love these precious moments!

And these precious kids!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch. I love Fall, the colors, the cooler weather, decorating the house and it really makes me want to start doing the fun seasonal baking along with it. Last weekend we got all the Fall and Halloween decorations out so this weekend we decided it was time to go pick out our pumpkins. We have been going to the same pumpkin patch for a few years now, one reason because they have tractors lined up for the kids to sit on and play.

Aren't they cute! (Warning! Though they might seem cute, they have a naughty side to them!)

John always takes the longest to pick his pumpkin . . . it is quite the process!

Brevin, always has the smallest pumpkin.

Haidyn always has the largest pumpkin.

Dilyn likes to strike a pose!

We can never get Brevin away from the tractors!

Caitlyn . . . need I say more!?

Peace Out!

Haidyn thinks she is all that and a bag of chips! So she has to get her brother to be the "gangsta" that he is . . . peace out!

So, of course Dilyn has to participate . . . I love Caitlyn's face in the background!!

Daddy, pretending he is cool too!

He is G-funk, and O.G. . . . Gangsta baby!
(that is for you Carlye!)

The Boys . . .

Brevin firmly believes he can help his Dad with anything! When and if John gets out a tool of any kind, Brevin is by his side helping! How cute are they!

My boys! Gotta love 'em!

Leave a comment with a caption . . . best one wins!

Many Firsts!

This year we had four first days of school! They each started on a different day and they all have school start at a different time . . . I thought last year was confusing with two kids on different tracks. I was definitely wrong! Now that we are a few weeks in, I think I have the schedule down.

Brevin started Preschool this year! He is so excited, until he gets there, then he rethinks his decision for being excited. When I pick him up he says he loves it!

Dilyn started Kindergarten! Can you say deer in the headlights? I have the hardest time getting a normal picture of her! Silly girl!

Haidyn started 4th grade with Mr Foote. She was so excited to get him as her teacher! My first male teacher, Mr. Rogerson . . . I cried!

Caitlyn, my Middle School test child! I was nervous for her, had a few friends that freaked me out about it, but she is loving it and doing really well so far!

Anyone know CPR?

I want to get this down before I forget all the details . . . so here goes. Last Saturday night, thinking I had the night off, I was called in to work. I got there at 10:00 PM, received report on all the patients we had for the night (we being Matt, Jonathan and I). Just thinking it was going to be another evening of helping patients to the bathroom and getting pain pills for the night, things changed quickly. We had all made our rounds checking on patients, getting vitals, nothing too unusual. Jonathan checked on patient D, took off his glasses turned off his light and TV, because he had fallen asleep. 15 minutes later, Matt went in to check D's vitals, but he was unresponsive and not breathing. After coming to inform us, grabbed the crash car and we all went in running. We got him on to the floor, Matt was on the ambu-bag while I started compressions. Now, I had never administered CPR before, and there is no way to explain what it feels like to be giving compressions on someones chest, it is almost disturbing. The feeling of pushing, the pops and almost cracks that you feel is like no other! The nurse had called 911 and we had them on the phone while I was doing compressions, they wanted me to do 600 compressions by the time the paramedics got there, doing 2 compressions per second. The paramedics got within minutes and I continued doing compressions while they were getting everything situated, and lines in. I have to say it was amazing to be right there first hand watching and participating. They worked on him for almost 30 minutes, managed to get a faint pulse, so they loaded him up on the gurney and took him to the hospital. Unfortunately he didn't make it. I didn't think he would, I knew he was gone when we started CPR, but we have to do everything possible to help him. I was so impressed with the paramedics and all the things they do. There were several sheriffs that came to, I wasn't expecting that, but I am sure it is protocol for a death, and they kept a log of everything that was done and noting the times, as well as talking to us to find out exactly what happened. While all of this was going on, I felt so inadequate, felt like I didn't know what I was doing, but when questions were asked I knew the answers and after everything was over Matt said I was calm and that I was amazing. I sure didn't feel that way, but I am glad he said that. During, they asked me several times if I needed to be relieved, but the adrenaline was pumping and I didn't feel tired at all, I was rather warm though! The next day, I was exhausted and my arms were sore, but I would do it all over again. Truly an amazing and humbling experience.

Happy Birthday Dilyn!

Happy Birthday Dilyn! I am very behind on my blogging, so in an attempt to catch up, I had to start by wishing my sweet Silly Dilly a belated Happy Birthday! Dilyn was born, very quickly, on September 3rd, 2003. My doctor induced me a week early and less than an hour after he broke my water, Dilyn was born by the nurse and John, without even one push from me. The doctor came in to the room just after John had cut the cord. Dilyn was my smallest baby weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces.

When we found out we were having our third little girl, I was so excited! I was terrified of having a boy. I was supremely shocked and disappointed how others reacted to us having a third girl. Dilyn was such a beautiful baby! How could I not be excited to have such a sweet little girl come into our home!

Dilyn's first Christmas!

Dilyn at 9 months old . . . she was the sweetest baby! Very easy going and so happy!

Dilyn's first birthday.

She always has a smile on her cute little face!

She loved her pacifier!

And she loved her bottle! I loved this, she rocked herself to sleep in the rocking chair.

Cute, right?!

Dilyn is a wonderful big sister! She loves those sisters too!

She loves her swimming suit and loves to swim!

One day when she was about 2, Dilyn just disappeared. I knew I hadn't heard the door open, so I thought she had to be in the house somewhere. After a few minutes I started to panic, I kept calling and calling her name, but she wouldn't answer. I walked in to my closet for the second time and I finally saw her, curled up on a pillow under my clothes!

How can you not love that face!

Dilyn loves to dance!

And she loves to play dress-up. Doesn't she look fabulous!

Did I mention that she used to call herself Dilyn Princess Jade Baker! When asked her name, that was her response.

My sweet Dilyn . . . Love you!!