cool candle huh! it looks like a real match. cute four year old Sam. He is busy, and talkative, creative and a smarty pants. (I will try to keep all his descriptives positive since it's his bday) I can't believe how time has flown. One minute I was sitting watching Gilmore Girls and before I knew it I was in labor and had this little man 15 minutes after arriving at the hospital. and things haven't slowed down. We love you Sam William Painter!!!

Maggie's Birthday & Halloween Festivities

Here she is posing, all 17 lbs and 28 inches of her. She is my smallest one year old...all the rest were somewhere between 18-20 lbs. She walks full time now and has been for a few weeks. It is funny to see people think she is so advanced b/c she is pretty petite.

there is always One! The tween was having a meltdown about shoes. Our kids are getting a bit out of control with their attitudes as of late so we are really trying to get a handle on things. It is hard. It is also hard when the babies will not stop having runny noses and coughs and the mom has to stay home A LOT more than she would like to!!

Sweet Emma Grace turned NINE last week!!! She LOVES
BALLET
hot pink & zebra print
Sideways stories from Wayside School and lots of other books
playing with Barbies, Bitty Baby, and bugs, worms, and other creepy creatures
(so funny because she is absolutely terrified of dogs and cats (tigers)
cooking eggs
her hamsters Sugar and Despereau
Funyuns
cookie dough ice cream
drawing
horses
shopping
painting her nails
cuddling
science

here she is blowing out her candle. Chris was on call on her bday so we had cupcakes with our Gulfport family that came up and around nine that night had her cute "e" cake.
SHe is having a fabulous carnival birthday party this weekend even with a cotton candy machine.

I love my EG, she has so many different interests and I think that makes her so unique...she can be quite the girly girl but LOVES to play outside and get dirty.

Happy birthday to Jakob!! When we found out you were a boy, Chris was thrilled !! I was less than thrilled, did not know whatever would I do with a little baby boy.

out of all the babies I have had, Jakob's was the hardest. It wasn't really long, a little over two hours, but I had the pitocin and it was my first labor without an epidural. ouch!

I did not even get to hold him for hours and hours because they took him right off to the NICU because he wasn't breathing as they thought he should. (I cannot imagine the pain a mother who truly goes through something that serious feels).

all my worries were for nothing because of course I feel in love with Jake immediately.

He struggled to grow big the first year, but has made up for it almost catching up with his older sister.

Being the only boy with the sister's has helped him be sensitive and caring, and I love to watch him take care of his younger siblings. I feel bad that he has to play Barbies and Pollys a lot since Sam is a bit too young to really play well with him, but it just aids in making him a diverse person.

he is totally crazy boy though with SO MUCH energy.

so Happy SEVEN to the sweetest little guy ever!!

I love you Jakob Riley Painter!!

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.