Chillaxin and just having a good time

Dad got a hot tub. Oh boy. Yes, an eight person hot tub for his back yard. It's really as big as it sounds. The kids call it "Papa's pool" because, to them, it is big enough to be a pool. Tonight the kids and John all went "swimming" in the pool. Perfect time for a photo op if I do say so myself lol.

I have a question for anyone that may be able to help. Is there something I am doing wrong when posting pics? I am having issues when posting them to my blog. They look "grainy" for lack of a better word. They haven't always looked like this and I haven't done anything different when posting - can anyone help?? Any advice would be *greatly* appreciated!!

These are just a couple of random scenic shots I took with my Nikon.......and a picture of what our house is looking like these days.

Time for the Dentist!

The boys went to the dentist last Thursday. John took my camera and I am SO glad because these pictures are just priceless. The boys all got GREAT reviews - no cavities at all. YAY! Gotta love that my husband got RIGHT up in there for some of these shots!

After the boys get their teeth cleaned they get to practice on some patients of their own.

YAY for a great visit to the dentist with no cavities!!! (now that reminds me that I really need to get my own mouth to the dentist! oooops!)

Still more

to catch up on. Things over the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I had to unexpectedly fly to FL b/c Cheryl was in the hospital. She had a very severe allergic reaction to something she ate at work and she stopped breathing. They rushed her by ambulance to the ER. They had to intubate her (put her on a ventilator to breathe for her). Fri night they tried to extubate but she stopped breathing again so they had to re intubate. I flew down Sat afternoon. They took the tubes out Mon am and she is doing much better. I went back home Tuesday.

Work officially moved from Quincy to South Boston. I was *dreading* the commute but it's honestly not as bad as I thought. A big help was the fact that my boss allowed me to change my hours. I now work 630a - 3p. Oh yes. I am getting up at 5a now Mon - Fri and I'm on the road by 545a at the latest. It's really hard but I'd much rather lose sleep than lose time with my family. That's that.

Mike and Brandon's wedding is now less than a month away. You're probably thinking oh, that's nice. Yes, it absolutely is but the wedding is AT MY HOUSE. Tell me again why I agreed to this? LOL. I think they were a bit unprepared for all that would go into wedding planning and as much as I've been trying to push and prod it did me no good. So now I think Mike is panicking. Of course I'll be there to pick up the pieces at the end b/c that's what I do. But I'll let them suffer for now b/c that's what they should. They shouldn't have waited til the last minute on everything. Anyway. Erynn got her flower girl dress - TOO damn cute for words. And she LOVES it. I love that my little girl is SUCH a little girl.

Here is Erynn in all of her flower girl glory:

The boys will be wearing these Ralph Lauren shirts with khaki pants

This is what I will be wearing

There is still quite a bit of planning left but it will all be over soon. I know Brandon and Mike are ready for it to end! LOL. Speaking of - they will be moving out a week from Monday. I am both happy and sad about this. Sad b/c I love having them nearby. Brandon is a huge help in a pinch when it comes to watching the kids. Truth be told the extra $100 a week for their rent helps out a LOT right now. That is going to hurt. Happy because Ryan will be back in his own room. I can't wait for this because I really think it will help keep the boys in bed when they go down for the night. Now we just need to buy a tv / dvd combo for Ryan's room because he has gotten used to watching tv at night. I found a great one for a steal at Target, just have to wait for it to come in.

Speaking of buying things. Today, out of nowhere we went to buy Erynn a new bedroom set. Seems that Dad was none too pleased when he found out about the condition of her furniture. When we bought it we didn't have a lot of money and we were trying to be frugal. Unfortunately that old adage is OH so true - "you get what you pay for." We did. So, my mission for today and I was given no choice as to whether or not I'd accept it lol, was to go and get her a new set. I will say my mission was completely successful and baby girl is currently sleeping in her new crib as I type. The changing table and chifferobe (seriously, who came up with that name?!) are ordered and will be here within a week or two. I LOVE the new set and you can definitely tell the difference in quality. We went to BRU and we ordered the Babi Italia Eastside Collection in Cherry. LOVE it. Here is what it looks like:

The biggest benefit to having this bureau is the right hand side is a closet of sorts. This is very important b/c Erynn's room doesn't have a closet in it. It was never put in with all of the issues we had building. This will hold her off for a few years at least.

I guess that's it for now........I'll just post a few more random pics of the kids that I love.

Yes ladies and gents, she is an absolute DIVA. LOVE IT!

Once again

I am miserably behind on my blogging. You know what it is - I think about getting on and blogging all the time. Then I realize I have pictures I want to put in with my stories so I put it off until I get home. Then I get home and life creeps up on me and I have 1,000,000 other things to do and rinse, lather, repeat. So here we go again trying to catch up on everything that has been going on in the last month. I think I'm going to do a few different entries over the next couple / few days because there is so much that has been going on.

We'll start at the beginning. We did our trip to Maryland........my eagerly anticipated trip. I got up at 4:00am to pack up the every day things I couldn't pack up the night before. Got the car all loaded up and ready to go. Woke the kids up, got them all sippies of milk and we were off. We got on the road a little later than expected but still VERY early. I think it was 6am. This trip went MUCH better than last yr. The boys brought blankets and stuffed animals and they slept or watched movies the whole ride. It was amazing. My darling baby girl? She was a different story altogether lol. I thought for SURE she would sleep b/c she is such a big sleeper. Yeah, not so much. Chatty Cathy just wanted to talk for 6 hours. We made two stops the whole way (not bad with 3 kids) and Erynn fell asleep exactly 30 min before we got to the hotel. Oh boy. A couple of pictures from our road trip:

See what I mean? Not so sleepy LOL.

We had a great stay in MD. We stayed in a hotel which worked out really well. We had our own little fridge / kitchen area, sitting area, bathroom and two queen size beds. It was great. The first night we were there Jess came to babysit the kids to John, myself, Marty and Alice Anne could go to dinner. A night out?! YES! We went to Ruth's Chris restaurant. Oh. My. Word. Hands DOWN the BEST steak I have ever had in my entire life. John immediately asked if we had one in Boston. Yep. We do. Now he wants to go back again lol.

Friday we took the kids to Marissa's Dance Recital. They loved it and she did GREAT.

Friday night we were invited to a MSII GTG that was held at Chantelle's house. There was a decent sized group of us and we all had a wonderful time. Thx to Chantelle and Alice Anne for hosting!!!!

Saturday morning we went out to dinner at a Diner. We have nothing like this here at home - at least not that I have ever seen. You go in and order your food on the computers right at the door. Get your drinks, go find a table and they bring your food to you. The food was great and we had no complaints.

After the diner we went to a family cookout at Marty's sisters house. The kids got to go horseback riding while we were there. I wasn't sure how they'd handle it but they did GREAT. The boys kept asking to go back on the horse - they didn't want to let anyone else go lol. I think their smiles say it all, don't you??

A shot of the girls from the cookout

That night Alice Anne and I went out to dinner, just the two of us. Of course we had the now infamous Chocolatini's. The food was great - the company was even better. I miss my dear friend immensely so the two of us getting out alone was just priceless. Thank you to John for letting that happen. He stayed at the hotel with the kids so we could go out. My husband is amazing!

Sunday morning we had to hit the road. I'm always so sad to leave AA. We had such a good time and I miss her when I don't see her. Thankfully she's coming back to visit in November. It seems far away now but I just know it is going to fly by. The kids were great on the ride home. More of the same.......the boys slept and watched movies, my girl chatted the whole way LOL. We really had a great mini vacation and now we know it won't be an issue next year!!!

That's all for now - I'll be back later to post about the next updates.