I do love to shop, especially for little kids clothes!! While we have been financially challenged for the entire time we have been married it has been hard not to do it as much as I would like. Luckily I have a very generous sister in law that has given us A Lot of very nice things for my children over the years...and nice grandparents. When I found out Maggie was going to be a girl I went a little crazy!! more than a little, she has so much even things that have not been worn, over 75 bows/headbands (I made most of these though). I have even given a ton of stuff away and I still have a huge rubbermaid tote of stuff she has outgrown that I am hording for who knows what. I cannot bear to give them away, not just because of the money that may have been spent on some things but I just cannot let it go. and on the money thing as I go to these yard sales and see some of the stuff people sell I think I sure could have made some great money on some of the stuff I have given away...but am way too lazy to do that. Plus since I have been given so much I really like to give stuff to people. It makes me happy. I try not to go shopping especially to Gymboree. I have a love hate relationship with that store. I do not love the boy clothes except for the holidays because I like the matchy factor. My big girls really will not really wear gymboree anymore (we did get some great jackets and the yellow raincoat that Emma does love and the were only $1.99 and my mom bought it all so even better) so it just leaves Maggie to shop for. I do love their little hats but there is so much and you get one thing and then another to match that and then they are Constantly coming out with a new "line". I do not like that it seems EVERYone has the same stuff and it is kind of oh I got this at Gymboree. While I used to think it was great quality the outlet stuff not so wonderful and might be as fall apart prone as to The Childrens PLace has become.

whatever clot

Hershey School Musical

Emma's class put on a show the Hershey School Musical (Sam calls them Hamical) it was cute...she was in the nerd group and whatever kind of the same thing as the movies, there were jocks and skateboarders. Then they all got dressed up or had props as to what they want to be when they grow up (emma a ballerina) so it was like the movies but they personalized it and talked about what they learned this year and favorite memories. She is still shy at times and I was so pleased at how well she knew her lines and spoke out, her confidence had grown so much this year. She has a wonderful teacher too. We will miss Hershey Elementary next year!! so here is a sampling of the million pictures I took....

a little slide show was playing in the background...that is always my favorite part of these end of the year things.

all the kids were seated at a long table for autographs of the program. cute

breakfast at Tiffanys

I used to be very FANCY...all growing up loving dresses and jewelry and could not wait until the day I could wear make up on a permanent basis. That all pretty much changed when I went to college and had just gone down hill since having children. My girls love the ladies at church with their high heels, velour, satins, sequins, etc. and get too excited when I put on make up (I do wear mascara everyday because I have no eyelashes) and jewelry. I have a pair of pearl earrings, diamond studs, and some white gold thingies...and a bunch of costume jewelry from my Grandma which I let my fancy daughters play in. I don't wear my wedding ring for more reasons than it has not fit since six kids ago.

I have told my girls about a little special blue box, because somewhere underneath the spit up, boogies, dirt, extra pounds I am still a girly girl. Chris went to New Jersey last week for a board review (it was a llooonnng week) and went to NYC and got ME my own little blue box (actually two). sometimes I do feel like a Fancy lady and lucky too!

hopefully if you can read this because your eyes are not rolled up into the back of your head because you think it is a bit braggy. It is a bit braggy I will TRY to keep these to the minimum.

I cannot believe Magnolia Claire is SEVEN months old today!! her stats Cute, crazy, army crawls all over the house and tried to get in the dishwasher...no real weight height because I do not know. and now she even sleeps all night long!!!!! YEah

bumper pads, not safe? yikes

so excited to see the bus coming with his NonnieKats (anna)

I never have any pictures of Anna, I tricked her and got this one. She is just about as tall as me and wears the same size shoe as I do. I am not sure if she will just stay this size. I was about her size when I graduated high school (yes, really) and grew taller to the giant I am today. I need to take her to get a b r a. she would DIE, just a trainer but it is crazy

Nollie decided Emma needed a cleaning, not just the car. yes, he still Loves to be NAKED

we found some modeling stuff (no wheat like playdough so sam can enjoy it) at Joann's, which was the first time I have taken all of my kids at one time to a store, I do believe I am crazy, it sounded like such a great idea before hand..... and it does not dry out. it is great. Here are Emma's monkey with a banana (not a flower MOM) and the other stuff.

Anna's girl with a hose

sometimes I do not care where he sleeps just as long as it happens!

perhaps a future career as a party planner FYI do not take your kids to Sharp Shopper unless you are good at saying no to bringing home a car load of junk

Jake with the CRAY/CRAWfish/Mudbugs in Emma's classroom, no they are not eating them in a boil for the end of the year party.

Nollie had his check up today, he is 24 1/2 lbs (25%) and in the 75% for height. I can't remember inches right now.

so last weekend the girl's had their dance recital. The day started out well, we got some great yard sale deals (except the mean lady who sold the girls a video camera that does not keep it's charge, if it worked it would've been a steal at $15) blah blah

so we get home and start to get ready and I fix Anna's hair which she immediately takes out because I made it "too puffy", then she tells me she needs tights still. I get angry and angrier because "why couldn't she have let me know that when I asked days before, do you need anything for the recital?" I turned into a monster and said some things I regret and she told me she wished I weren't her mother. Emma says those types of things, but Anna never has...it really hurt. I would have wished the same thing if I were her too. So finally we get to the dance store and get tights, and then rush to the grocery for some water and snacks, then we are almost at the theater and I ask Emma if she has her ballet shoes. She looks through her bag which held so many things otehr than her ballet shoes, mary Pippins would be envious, but NO, no ballet shoes. Again I loose it and did not handle the situation very well. I drop them off and try to decide if it will be quicker to buy her a new pair or rummage through her things at home to find them. First I need to go get a ticket (b/c we have found you get a much better seat this way and for cheap) of course this lady has an issue in front of me...tick tock, I am quite aggravated! I do try to call Chris, but he does not pick up! So I get home and find her shoes and get out to the car, oh just about out of gas and the van is not so reliable....here come the first drops of what will be a big storm. I hurry to get some gas and back to the theater and by now it is POURING rain and I cannot wait it out because Emma needs her shoes and the show is just about to begin. I run with no umbrella and get her shoes to her and get to my seat just in time. I am soaked and dripping wet and annoyed more than anything, just smoldering MAD but sitting in a great seat though. The show begins and the first number was good and then the next are all the little teeny girls, and then I just loose it and I am crying like I moron because it seems like yesterday that my little girls were that small. These moments in life are all too precious to argue and fuss about things that do not matter, to make my ladies feel bad about silly mistakes is wrong. before I know it they will be all grown up and while I know every memory cannot be wonderful, I want to try my best to make more good ones than bad.

(this picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post)

I really would love it if someone would buy my house, so then I would not have to worry about it when we move.

When we put it up with a realtor, I was not happy about paying her 6% and then another 1% to Derry Township. (she was so encouraging though and we thought our house would sell fairly quickly) However I do not have time to sell a home on my own...or do I? At this point the realtor says people are offering $a certain amount less than the list price. If we take $that certain amount less we will not even cover what is owed on our mortgage, after we pay the fees. We have given up on getting back what we put into the house. Apparently the advice of you will get back the money you spent on a kitchen and bath is not true in "this economy" (I am a wee bit tired of hearing that phrase everywhere).

If we would have rented a house we would not have gotten our great tax refunds for the last few years though and would have had to worry about the kids breaking things. When you own the home if your kids break it you can choose to ignore it and paint it however you want. We did paint our rental house living room RED in our last house, it was worth not getting our deposit back.

enough of the negative nonsense... the little monsters are playing nicely together. baby Maggie is so much fun now, she is kind of on a schedule and sleeps nicely in her crib for most of the night, and she giggles and it is very very precious (and now I sound like one of those annoying bragger moms, but she is cute). I have gotten rid of a bunch of stuff that I will not need to move. Today is the day for my weekly philosophy microdermabrasion, the kids are having less homework as the school year ends so they can just play outside, Sam's skin icky gross stuff is getting kind of better, and until tonight I am caught up on the laundry.

I have unloaded the 500+ pictures from the camera for the last week or so, yikes!, there are so many it makes me crazy that they are not organized better in files, but not crazy enough to do anything about it, just enough to be a little annoyed. So here is what has been going on look little Henry Nolan turned TWO last week, I am always saying I worry he does not get enough attention being sandwiched in between Sam and Maggie and it is eveident in the fact that he doesn't even get his own post about his birthday...he is such a sweet little guy, cute and cuddly and a great sleeper and he rarely fusses unless Sam is annoying him or he wants his "B" that is for blanket. he is a boy of few words. why is this blue and underlined? he seemed surprised with all the attention. (you now can buy shirts with the sleeves already cut off for you in case you were wanting to get your man one like Chris' for father's day, it's HOT!! you will be the envy of the neighborhood as your man struts his stuff while mowing the lawn in it)

I really need a lot of help keeping this house clean for any potential buyers (not sure if there are any of those!!) my kids may think we are breaking some child welfare laws, but I think we're ok

see how happy he looks

Maggie can now take off her bows, this one looks like it is weighing her down

Gettysburg

the fun Land of Little Horses, nice and small and the horses and donkeys just walk around. It is very cute, hopefully your kids won't be terrified like crazy lunatics like some of ours were. that part wasn't so much fun as it was annoying.

Nolan with his white trash cheap $1 bottle, I couldn't bring myself to buying the pricey ones because I do not love the environment enough. no, it isn't watered down Kool-Aid in there (I am not a big fan of koolaid just cheap bottles that a two year old is clearly TOO old to be drinking out of, they are really for his baby sister but he likes them and his teeth are already messed up from thumb sucking and maybe it makes up for the fact that his is often forgotten in the middle of the other two kids)

since Maggie doesn't have teeth yet we though letting her have a rock candy was alright

this was a cute little alpaca, I wish we remembered the tip about getting the fence out of a picture so I could have nagged Chris about it.

they all took a horse ride, but if I put up all the pictures it would have taken way too long. I was sad that Sam, who loves horses (now we konw only pretend ones or if they are really far away) wouldn't get on. he looked at the giraffe birds instead (emus)

you can't see the scary horse that was laying on the ground about to get him here

all better just had an itch to get to

running from the mean old minature horsey

better times at the playground
mesmerized by something cool on the tv Anna at her orchestra concert/chorus show

Emma was too sweet to share this PeekaBoo petite with Maggie, but I had to take it away because I am a mean mommy

getting ready for Anna's piano recital, I went solo to this one so unfortunately no pictures there,

she is pretty mad that she can't get this other shoe off
just chillin eatin a lemon those bunny ears are still hilarious in this and the other 100 pictures

Maggie loves to roll around all over the floor, and gets stuck in lots of places, and she gets mad...here we just pulled her from out under the bed.