Come on!  Can you believe this?!  If I could have picked the characteristics in a son that the two of us could NEVER produce, they would have been: self-motivated, over-achieving, sensitive, accepting, and non-judgmental.  Behold, my son, and his straight A's for the entire year.  Grades that were earned entirely by him.  We barely stayed on top of him this year.  He deserves all of the credit, and we are extremely proud.

Grade 02 (2009-2010)

    After over 8 hours of valiant effort to keep my computer from freezing during the process, I was able to download 2 videos of Victoria's end of the year performance.  I'm checking into children's plays as I type this.

Today is Wesley's birthday, so in honor of this occassion, I'm going to do something completely out of character.  I'm going to be nice. I'll take this opportunity to say that Wesley is the best husband and father you could ask for. He cooks, cleans, and takes care of the kids.  He has been amazing throughout my (lack of) job situation and has completely supported my decision to go back to Nursing school.  He never shies away from showing his affection and adoration for our children, and because of him, they are growing into strong, independent, caring individuals. He is their defender, protector, and hero.  Of course, I can never tell him any of this to his face, so he'll just have to read it here.  Happy Birthday, Babe!

    There are only 2 weeks left in the school year, so we decided to celebrate early with a beach trip. It was a great trip, and I finally got the family photo at the beach that I've been asking for.  Too bad the baby bombed it.

    I looked at Sophie this morning, and I realized she looks like something very familiar...

I originally adopted Bella because Trevor and Victoria really wanted a puppy.  Looks like I still need to get them one.

SQUEE!!!!!!!

Despite my best efforts to perpetually keep Sophie in the infant stage, she has taken a big step toward toddlerhood.  That literal big step ended up with her lying flat on her back with the wind knocked out of her for several terrifying seconds.  She had crawled (fallen) out of her crib for the first time.  Unlike my other 2 kids, Sophie is a climber, so I knew it would happen again.  Sure enough,she did it again the next morning, so I immediately converted her crib into a toddler bed. She, of course, was in the middle of it the whole time, minus that 10 minute diversion in which she decided to clean the toilet with Trevor's toothbrush.  Oh, and did I mention my kids never flush the toilet, hence the picture of her in the tub.

    It was an exhausting, yet fun weekend in Aiken with the grandparents for Mother's Day.  My present was a night out with Wesley-alone.  We went to dinner and a movie, which is the first time we've done that in months.  Meanwhile, the kids got to play with their Nana and Papa on Saturday and went swimming at Grandma's pool on Sunday.

2 comments about the pics:

1. 16-year-old Sophie will never forgive me for posting a picture of her naked ass, but it's the cutest baby butt ever and deserves to be immortalized.

2. I have been wanting us to take a family picture for the past several holidays/ events, but we always forget.  The one below was take 5, and you can see by the serial killer grin on my face that I was about to drown one or all of them in the pool behind us.  I was quickly reminded why we rarely take group photos.

Now, I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea, but I'm pretty sure if I took Wesley to court for child support, he could very easily deny fathering this child and totally get away with it.  Minus the hair, that is.  Her hair is definitely not mine.  Lucky little girl.

The kids constantly beg to go on a picnic, so we decided that would be a good idea this weekend. We went to this amazing park which has been there forever, but this weekend was the first time we've ever gone.  It has a lake, boats, 2 playgrounds, a dog park- anything a park could have, it has.  Trevor made a girlfriend, Vic caught up with one of her friends from her old school, and Sophie wandered around collecting sticks.  I fell in love with this place, because it had a ton for the kids to do, but it was so spacious, it was still calm and serene.  That's one reason I didn't hesitate when Trevor asked to go back on Sunday when he found out his little friend would be back.

The pool also opened on Saturday, which was a little early for my taste, given that the water temperature topped out around 20 degrees, at least that's what it felt like.  DIdn't matter, though, because as soon as the kids saw other people there, we had to throw on our suits as well.