Where do I start??

Happy Birthday to Grandma!! Is this a happy bunch of people here isn't it?!?!? Could it possibly be the cake?? Yes, there is a "2" on the cake - it's really just another candle to blow out - That's a Young Grandma right there!! You would never know she was the grandma of 5 grandkids!!

My goodness!! I have not blogged in forever - so for that, I apologize! I don't even know where to begin as to what we have been up to. Well, I first must say thanks to my parents for watching our crazy kids so much lately!! Shawn and I went on THREE dates last week!! We went on a "date night" on Monday night - we actually went to dinner and a movie - it was awesome!! It was so nice to sit and eat together and have a real UNITERRUPTED conversaition. Shawn had his company end of year party at Dave and Busters - which was a blast!!! and then Saturday night we went to a huge party with lots of friends - it was through our church and it was a game night - we reenacted all the old game shows - hilarious!! We did the price is right, family feud, newlywed game, 10000 pyramid - so fun!! Shawn and I didn't get picked to actually get to play, although we did get to play plinko. There were over 100 people there and it may be one of the funnest parties I have been to. Anyway, my parents watched the kids all three times - are they saints or what?!?!?

We also went to a wedding on Saturday - the kids were cuter than ever on the dance floor. Gabriella is doing great - slept from 7pm til 7:45am this morning - love it!!

Shawn took a few days off last week and we had some fun family time - we went to the zoo all day on Tuesday - the kids were all fast asleep by the time we left. It was so nice for shawn to be home a couple days. I bought a small swimming pool for the kids to play with in the backyard - they LOVE it!! I have been to three baby showers the last three weeks so that has been fun - I sure hope the pregnancies didn't rub off on me though - three is quite enough to keep me busy for now! I guess that's about it for the craziness here - oh yeah - austin gave up the napping - he claims he's "too old for naps"....hmmmmm oh well. It was nice while it lasted!! We had playgroup this morning - I think there was a million of us there - we had a blast - thanks to Dana!! We seem to have several new people joining SGC (the moms group) lately - makes me smile every time we get a new mom involved. And I had some HUGE news from a close friend - you know who you are - and I love you to death and I am SOOOO happy for you!!!!

Here is a photo of something soo special to me that it is hard to put words to it. For each of my children my dad has built a wooden dresser/bookshelf piece of furniture. It is something that the kids will have with them forever and will pass on to generations to come. It means more to me than he'll ever know. He just finished Gabriella's piece and it is a toy box with a bookshelf above it - I love it!! Isn't it beautiful!! And on the toy box you will notice something else that is extremely special to me - it is the quilt that my mom made for Gabriella. This is another thing that all my kids own - a quilt from Grandma. These are things that are irreplaceable, will be around forever, and we will cherish them always. Thanks grandma and grandpa!! We love you!!

Here's the kids in a cave at the zoo - aren't they cute?? Ashlyn has turned into quite a little girl as of late. It seems as though the last 2 months she has changed a ton. Lost a lot of the baby stuff and is turning into a

And this is the aftermath of the zoo outing...the kids were exhausted!! We tried to wake them up to see the elephants, but they didn't seem to care at this point - what a fun day!!

Well, that's all I can think of for now - I must enjoy the silence of my home at the moment. Austin is haveing "quiet time" in his room and Ashlyn and Gariella are napping...ahhh...it's like finishing your last college final!

Until next time...

Hope you are having the time of your life!

ST