Some joy in the mundane!

My poor neglected blog... I don't actually feel to bad about it! If you know me, you know winter is NOT my season! I wish I was that person to get out and enjoy every season, but lets face it... I was meant to be plopped on a sunny beach somewhere; clear turquoise waters and warm balmy air! When asked recently what my dream job would be, if nothing else stood in the way, I said, "To run a tropical surf/scuba/adventure shop on the beach in some tropical location with as little commercialism as possible!

I write this as I stare at the grey sky out the window... blah!

Well, lucky for me, I will soon be rescued from this mundane weather. For the first time ever I will be going away on my anniversary! Yes, at the coaxing of my in laws. They obviously love me and know that my husband works ALL THE TIME! Well, they talked him into booking us a cruise to the eastern Caribbean! I absolutely love cruising... best way to see the world in my opinion! We will be going on Royal Caribbeans Allure of the Seas - the largest cruise ship in the world holding 5,400 passengers. Which is about double any other ship. So in 3.5 weeks I will be enjoy 10 whole days with my husband, alone! In a tropical location. It is safe to say I am in heaven!

I will say though, we have had some great times this winter. Namely birthdays. We all have our birthdays in the winter (Dec, Jan, Feb, March) The last being Tommy's! I can't believe he is 10!!

With every passing year I become more and more afraid of the teen years and the choices he will make, but Barry always reminds me of what a great kid he is now and why will that change? It is so true.

Tommy is a gem! So sweet, makes good choices and tries really hard to be a great friend and brother! I couldn't ask for a better kid! I would say his life is a bit more stressful that a lot of kids with him traveling back and forth to Texas to visit his dad. But I will tell ya, the kid always leaves with a smile and returns with a smile! I think he is starting to see the benefits of it in his life. 2 Christmas's, 2 birthdays, Vacations to Texas multiple times a year as well as the fact that he LOVES to tell people how independent he is because he flies alone so much.

For his birthday he got a really great basketball hoop and as of this very moment he is out there with his best bud, shooting hoops! Lets say he is in love with it! Though, he is an easy kid to please! Happy Birthday Tommy. We love you so much!!!

This little girl can take me through the largest scale of emotions! More than my other children. I find at times that the things she says and does are beyond adorable. She is very smart and makes me feel really proud! She is so petite that everything she does seems that much more amazing! But, this child can also take me to the limits of my breaking point! She is strong willed, determined, and demands my attention NOW! 

In the long run this will be a great thing for her! I hope she grows up with strong convictions, a good self esteem and with clear direction of what she wants and where she is going in life. But for now, it causes me to take multiple time outs for myself every day!

We celebrated Kyla's 4th birthday this last month. I am continually shocked at how big my kids are getting. She is old enough to start kindergarten this year. Though, we will keep her back a year and let her enjoy preschool.   Her interests right now are crafts, crafts, crafts and oh, did I mention crafts? She will sit for hours and work on projects or beg me to print off work sheets for her. I bought her some workbooks on letters and numbers about a week ago, well she has just about finished them both! 

She's the sweetest sister to Macy and loves to dance around with Tommy and his little crew. Her smile is just about the cutest thing and she has daddy wrapped around her finger... literally!

We love you Kyla!!

A rite of passage... it seems so!

There are a set of words that keep repeating in my head. These are words I will never forget. They came from an adorable little, sweet, innocent voice. 

Saying, "Mommy, do you like my hair cut?" 

I was quickly snapped out of my afternoon downtime and into a mini nightmare! 

Now, to state for the record. I am not a very materialistic person. I like nice things, but I can also do without. I don't worry about vanity or being perfect. I like looking nice, but I also like days where I get to hang out in over sized sweatshirts and a pair of lulu's! I don't teach or expect my kids to be perfect and I teach my kids that being nice, being a good friend and having integrity are much more important things than  being beautiful.

With that cleared up, lets just say; I was a little shocked. Her beautiful hair was no longer on her head, but in a sad pile on her bedroom floor. My fear was caused from an experience I had as a young child. In grade two there was a child in my class that had very short hair. I, being naive and innocent asked this child, "Are you a boy or a girl?" Turns out she was a girl and a very nice one, but I fears for my daughters self worth!

I quickly called my husband who is away in Las Vegas. He laughed! Than his parents laughed. They all thought it was so funny. While I am doing the ugly blubber cry, snot coming out, can't catch my breath... you know. I proceeded to call my friend who was much better at handling my tears! Meanwhile (which I later found out) Kyla was hiding under her bed.

If you remember, she came to tell me about her new haircut. So obviously she didn't realize that I would have this kind of reaction! She didn't think it was wrong. And when I showed her in the mirror what she did... the look in her eyes made me realize that she was also scared of what she did!

I started to think a little more clearly and realized that I had to handle this with a little more dignity. It was hard! Her hair takes forever to grow. She had some adorable curls at the back. But, all of that was gone now and I needed to talk to her in a non-crazy-mommy way and make sure she knew not to ever do it again and that we would make sure to fix it so it would be pretty!

And you know what, the end result is so adorable! Of course it is, because Kyla is so adorable! 

And I have told her, that is anyone says she has hair like a boy, she is to sweetly tell them that actually, she has hair like tinkerbell! 

She was also excited to learn last night that her hair is the same as Ellen Degeneres! 

 I think I am actually excited about it... so maybe this was all a good thing!