Last Day of Preschool

It seems like the last day of preschool came so quickly this year!  This year seemed to go by very fast!  Here are the boys on their last day!  Matthew had a water day so he wore his swim trunks to school.

Here they are this year:

And last year's last day of school:

Here's John Michael this year:

And here he is last year's last day of school:

Matthew had fun playing in the water for his last day of mother's day out.  He will start preschool next year!

We always go out for an ice cream treat for our last day of school!

We had some chick fil A and it was so fun.  We stayed for a bit a played in the play place.

I've been so proud of how well Matthew did at mother's day out this year.  He loved to do his art, loved his teachers, and really enjoyed going on Wednesdays.  I know he will love preschool next year too.  I'm also so sad that John Michael is finished with preschool.  I have no idea how life went this quickly!  We are proud of how much he learned and progressed this year.  We still have a lot of struggles with handwriting and his grip/strength of his pencil holding but he is doing great and learned so much this year from his teachers!

All By Mysellllllfffff!!!

The one things I've noticed so far this year how well, how much easier everything is getting.  There, I said it.  It's hard, if you don't have three crazy boys all crammed together in the span of 3 years, to understand what the last 3-ish years have been like.  It's been plain hard.  Potty training, nursing, meltdowns, exhaustion, Jordan working a LOT,  no family in town to help or give us a small break, you get the picture!  Now that Noah is almost 2, we are coming up on some really fun times.  Not that I didn't take the boys places by myself, but it was just hard and I usually had to go sit in the car with a movie on for the boys so I could feed Noah and it just took forever!

Here lately, things are getting fun and I'm finally getting to a point where I feel really comfortable packing them up and taking them by myself and going and doing things that normally I wouldn't have done by myself a year ago.

Last month we packed up and drove out to our drive through safari, which is the coolest place ever!  This was a big deal for me, mainly because I am terrified to be in the giant petting zoo part with the donkeys and goats that try to eat you.  Not to mention the chickens and pigs that follow you around.  I usually make Jordan take them in there, but this time I went in there and I didn't want to act scared because I want my boys to have a sense of wonder and excitement at seeing all these cool animals up close!

Everyone acted so great, they all obeyed and truly made it an enjoyable experience to be out with them!  Whenever we have a successful library trip or a great trip out and about, I just think YES!  Yes!  It was so, so worth it all those months of really hard times of leaving places to discipline unacceptable behavior.

Of course we had to stop by our all-time favorite pizza place, Pioneer Pizza!  It's the best after a long day at the safari!

I love that they are still ok playing games without actually having to put money in the game!

I know this isn't everyone's experience with having lots of small children in a row, but for me there was just nothing easy about it.  Sure, we still have meltdowns.  Yes, we still have to discipline unacceptable behavior but it feels like it's getting less and less and they are turning into truly awesome little guys that are a pleasure to be around.  (and as a side note, may I say that bless his heart, Noah is still in the middle of hitting the terrible 2s and we have a LOT of work to do on that little stinker!)

I took them to the pool all by myself yesterday.  We packed lunch, ate there, and stayed about an hour and a half in the water.  They all behaved, everyone was safe, there was laughing and splashing and jumping and when it was time to go, they all came and got dry and helped me carry our things out to the car. They even put their swim trunks and towels into the washer when we got home!  As I buckled everyone into their car seats, I wanted to cry because it was just a big mom-achievement moment and it was bittersweet.  Bitter because they are in fact, growing up.  Sweet because, although we are NOT perfect by any means, they are slowly choosing obedience in their hearts and that just makes me happy!

His Amazing Handiwork

The next day when we woke up at the beach and I walked into the den and saw this.....

my jaw about hit the floor.  It was just so beautiful!  It took my breath away!  I just sat and stared at God's glory and how he shows it in small things and in big  things too, like the beauty of ocean!  We ate on the patio as much as possible just to soak in this view!  Absolutely amazing!

We have three distinct personalities going on at the beach.  Matthew doesn't like it and will only dig a little bit or make castles and then stomp on them or destroy them.  He does not like the water or the beach at all.  His true love is being in the pool and jumping in 1,000 times!

John Michael takes after me!  He loves the water, he loves the beach, he loves to find shells, and he just loves looking at the waves and the ocean!  The first thing he says in the morning is that he's ready to go down to the shore! I love his adventurous spirit when we travel!

Noah's motto for the beach is: "I dun wike".  He doesn't like the beach and he definitely doesn't like the water.  It makes me sad because I want to stay at the beach for hours on end but they aren't very into that at this age.

We ate at Captain Anderson's and then went to Pirate's Island mini golf.  The boys LOVE mini golf!  We actually went back to this same one another night.  It was so clean and well kept and I just loved being around all of the flowers and greenery that they have there.  I definitely recommend it if you're in the Panama City Beach area!

Date night! Hello!!  We were so excited to go on a date night by ourselves while the grandparents kept the boys.  We ate at the Saltwater Grill and it was one of the best meals we've had in years.  Everything was wonderful and tasted great.  We were pleasantly surprised to have picked a great place.

Here I am with my 3 beautiful blessings from God on Mother's Day.  I still can't believe that they are mine sometimes.  They are fun, sweet, crazy, cranky sometimes, loving, and all around the best boys I could have ever even hoped to have.

What a great time we had at the beach!

A Special Surprise 5th Birthday!

We planned a fun, surprise birthday for John Michael's 5th birthday.  He didn't even know until that morning of his birthday that we were leaving to go get on a plane to head to Panama City for his birthday!  We woke them up and let him open gifts and blow out a candle.  His last gift was sunscreen, sunglasses, and a book about the ocean and then we tried to get him to put it all together that we were going!

To say that they were excited was an understatement!  We already had everything packed, in the car, and ready to go (even their breakfast that they ate on the way to the airport!)

We have a small airport so everything is so easy to get checked in and get through security.

We were ready to take off!

We had a small layover in Dallas, and then on to the beach! We watched a movie on the floor at our gate while Jordan got us Chili's To-Go and we ate that just hanging out on the floor watching the movie.  Kind of gross, but it worked for us!

By our second flight, Noah was not happy.  Every time we walked onto the plane he would just try to get out and say no, no, no!  He fell asleep and eventually did fine.  He did much better on the return flights (sort of!).

Jordan's mom picked us up at the airport.  I LOVE the beach so I was SO excited to be at the beach for a few days!!

I have not been to Panama City since I was in 6th grade and I didn't know a lot about it at all.  We stayed at "Splash!" and had a great time.

I mean, when this is your view, how in the world can you complain about anything.  What a blessing to be ON the beach and see this!

We went out to eat and then opened presents and did John Michael's cake after dinner.  The boys were SO tired by the end of the day.

I love surprises so it was so fun to plan this and not tell them!  We had a great time and the boys traveled so wonderfully.  It was a fun way to celebrate our oldest turning 5!  I still can't believe he is 5.  The time has flown by, but it's been such a sweet few years at our house.  John Michael will start kindergarten at a private Christian school next school year.  I am so proud of him!  More beach pics to come!

SO Biiiiig!

How did Noah get so big?!

I can't believe he will be TWO in a few weeks!  It's crazy!  Love this little blessing!

Easter 2013

 We had a wonderful Easter this year!  We didn't have any family to celebrate with, but we had a great day of worship, food, and later in the day, celebrating with friends.

John Michael came to big church with us!

We came home for lunch, a nap, and then we were off to a friend's for an egg hunt!

The boys had a VERY fun time, as did we!  It's nice to get together with friends for a holiday, especially when you don't have family close by!  We had a great day of celebrating the Lord's resurrection and what it means to us as Christians.  It was a neat time to talk to the boys about what HE did for us and why it was so special and important!  I've heard that Christmas is definitely important for Christians, but that Easter is the big show!  What a special thing to celebrate that we get to be with HIM forever.  It's amazing!