6 Years Old!?

 

I feel nostalgic on birthdays. I told myself I was going to look back for a cute baby picture of Reagan, and ended up spending 1 1/2 hrs. reminiscing over photos, and crying. Yes, crying. Partially because she was the most beautiful little girl and I feel so blessed to have her, most mostly because she will never be that young again. I swear, there were some pictures I had never seen before.
Like this one…
Who is that darling girl? And can I eat her up?
 

And this one…
oh, I recognize that smirky smile

And who wouldn’t want to wipe this bum?

Looking at all of the pictures made me wish I could relive all of those years again. And yes, partly because things were easier.
Each year this girl gets older I have to step up my game and get tougher. She keeps me on my toes… on the very tippy top of my toes…. always!
Is it a female thing?
In fact, I sometimes wonder if I am parenting her at all, or if I am merely walking along side her. Reagan knows exactly what she wants and nothing I say or do will EVER change her mind. That’s wrong… things I say actually do change her mind… to the opposite. For example: say Reagan puts on a dress for school and I say “I really like that dress on you”, she will immediately go change into something else. Or, when she said how much she loved dancing and I said, “You are a good dancer, I think you should join dancing again,” she suddenly hated to dance. Or, when I decorated her room with pink and purple because, “I thought little girls loved pink and purple,” and she says “I hate those colors, I only like dark colors like black.”
I have learned to be very carful with my words, and I try not to share my opinion with her. Everything has to be “her” choice.
So, the best parenting I do is to keep her fed, clothed, and groomed (and sometimes I can’t even control those things – see picture below). This either makes me sound like the worst mom on earth, or her the most stubborn child. Both may be true.

Here is a picture of Reagan showcasing her style of dress. She has a green shirt, striped sweater, flower headband, flower/striped skirt, white leggings, and polka-dot socks, with jellies… in Winter. She features outfits like this every day. I can only imagine what the staff at school think. Especially when it’s 20 degrees outside and I am fighting with a crying girl in the parking lot who refused to put a coat on. 

I signed the boys up for Basketball recently and asked Reagan if she wanted to play also. “No, I want to do cheerleading” she said. Okay? It’s been a few weeks and she is still enjoying it and (contrary to her past record) actually enjoys participating. I think a huge reason is that Shawn and I aren’t fussing about it. I know the second I ask her to practice her cheers at home, or show her Nana on Skype, she will quit. Suddenly it will no longer be “HER” idea and she will change her mind.

I know… eggshells folks!

She is a very good girl, who just so happens to be extremely persistent and determined.
EXTREMELY persistent and determined! oh, did I just say that? I wanted to make sure you all heard.

Reagan excels at anything she puts her mind to. I feel so proud to be raising her because I know she will be successful in life… in anything… anything she wants.
Right now she still wants to be a Doctor, that hasn’t changed in a couple years. Although, after a recent illness I had, I’m skeptical at whether or not she will actually be a good Doctor. I was really sick, so sick I couldn’t even get up and drive Reagan to school, so I kept her home… thinking she would be my helper around the house. I was lying on the couch and she was sitting next to me coloring. “Reagan?” I said, “I think what would help Mommy feel better is if there was more sunlight in the house, will you open all of the blinds for me, please?” Without even stopping her crayon from coloring she says, “No. You know how to walk, you can open the windows yourself.” Perhaps she’s better suited as a research Doctor who just orders other people around? And, for the record, she got a good lesson after that comment and eventually did open the windows for me.

This sassy girl is always striking a pose. I just love her to death! 

Something else about Reagan… she is neglected. Trust me, I give her everything I have! Every single ounce of energy that I have, plus the energy reserves that are stored in the emergency fund of my brain… I give them all to her. But it’s not enough. She requires more, and therefore, I fear she feels neglected. I pick her up from school instead of allow her to ride the bus specifically so her and I have 30 minutes of alone time before the boys get home. Her and I color, read, talk, talk, talk, talk, and talk. Then, it’s not uncommon to hear her cry latter that afternoon about not being able to spend time with me. Um, what? I need to clone myself, that’s what!

This beautiful girl is the greatest companion (for those of you who have energy left). If you are ever lonely, all you need is a dose of Reagan. She is quite the conversationalist, and has been known to even talk to herself in her room.
She climbs into bed with me in the morning and cuddles all over me, “I love you Mommy, so much!” Her hugs are as strong as a bears, and they freeze time and make you feel like the most important thing at that moment. You are! I am! To Reagan, I am the most important thing at each and every moment of her life, and for that I feel a great amount of pressure, and pleasure.
I feel proud to have a daughter with such an array of characteristics. She is truly incredible. She is witty, observant, intelligent, talented, crafty, sensitive, fun.
But of all her traits, the greatest is that she forces the best out of me. There is no slacking on the job with this child! I have been forced to be a better listener, comforter, encourager, supporter, caregiver, and mother.

Thank you Reagan, for teaching me how to be your mother.  I’ve loved you for 6 years and I will love you for all eternity more!
Love, your Mommy

On her birthday she brought cookies and milk to school. Shawn took some time off of work and we were able to join her for lunch at school and sang “Happy Birthday” with the whole cafeteria. She came home from school to find the house decorated with pink (which is when I was informed that her favorite color was black).
For dinner she chose Taco Bell and ordered nachos.
She doesn’t like cake, so we had a pyramid of brownies instead.


We went to cheerleading practice, then headed to her favorite place on Earth,
Chuck-E-Cheese….

Kennedy had fun riding these guys over and over,
 

Opening gifts,
 

And a big family birthday hug from her brothers and sister (sort of)

We tried to make this girl feel as special as humanly possible on January 8th. A smile never left her face the entire day. I think we succeeded.
Perhaps she doesn’t feel so neglected anymore.

Happy Birthday Reagan!!

Christmas and a photo-shoot

This Christmas flew by. I couldn’t even catch my breath, and then it was over. The funny thing is that we didn’t even do much, yet it felt like we were busy every day. I guess we were busy… busy watching Christmas Movies. We must have watched every single Christmas movie made. I’m a movie-Nazi every other month of the year, but in December I let it all go.

Both Jefferson and Grant participated in Christmas musical productions, and they both had speaking parts. Here’s Jefferson before his production. He is Bob, Santa’s mechanic. Isn’t he cute?

I was able to get a free ticket from a girlfriend to see Manheim Steamroller in concert. I was the happiest I’ve ever been… besides going to the Billy Joel concert. Really, Billy Joel and Manheim Steamroller are my favorite artists in the entire universe and it has always been my dream to see them. Now that I’ve seen them both in concert, I have no more reason to live.
You would think that I would bring my camera on such an exciting night. Instead I had to steal this poor-quality photo from google.

Then my dear friend Susan and I planned the Ward Christmas party. This just about did me in. Shawn had to spoon feed me for 2 days afterwards because I could not move a muscle, and my brain power was empty. A slight exaggeration perhaps, but it really was exhausting! 

For Christmas Eve we had our good friends, the Ross’ come over to eat. We also had my mom and the missionaries joining us.
I made enchiladas, and Maggie made the most delicious taco’s (her family’s tradition). We had enough food to feed my entire neighborhood. It was a huge Mexican feast that only got nibbled on. Oh well.
After dinner we had the kids act out the Nativity story and we sang songs. 
I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone at the table together, but I forgot. By the time I remembered to take a picture, Shawn was gone (taking the missionaries home), so this is half of us.
 

We opened 1 gift (pj’s of course), set out milk and cookies for Santa, then quickly got to bed.
While the big kids were getting into bed, Kennedy found the plate of cookies and snuck 1, then 2. She licked the frosting off of all the cookies before I had the heart to stop her and put her to bed.
 

Jefferson reading Christmas books to the baby


On Christmas morning we had some very happy boys and girls.






It certainly was a Merry Christmas!

We felt so lucky to have my mom visiting us for the holiday. We were hoping that my brother Ian and his wife Clarissa could have come also, we really missed them. It just wasn’t as fun without them. But one of these years we will all be together!

I tried taking a picture of my mom with her grandkids, but wasn’t very successful. This is the best shot I got….

It was high-time I took a ‘good’ picture of them all together! So, on one of the days she was visiting, we went out to the park and took some.
We had a little too much fun, and I had a great belly laugh watching my mom on this teeter-totter.
 

The kids cooperated well for some great pictures! 



 

Family Pictures 2013

Jefferson (9), Grant (7), Reagan (5), Kennedy (18 months)

Thanksgiving, but mostly a Battleship

Remember when I used to average 80 posts a year? 2013 yielded 26. That’s how awesome I’ve become.
Really, there are 3 reasons I haven’t been blogging. 1: I am busy (but don’t have much to show for it), 2: I don’t take pictures anymore, and 3: I’m a tad lazy

Well… “Wendy, I’m home…. Heeere’s Johnny” (said with the same enthusiasm, but not as much fright)
After reports of poor innocent people logging onto my blog disappointed at finding Halloween pictures for the past 2 months, I figured I would update. And I’m making another public vow to post more. Haha, we know how well I follow through.

Anyways, let me take you back to Thanksgiving. It sounds so long ago… it was. And perhaps you don’t know me very well, but if you did, you would know that I have the worst memory on Earth. It’s actually really frightening,  but we won’t go into that now. Lets just say, I will do my best at documenting this. We’ll have to let the pictures do a lot of the talking.

We got the greatest surprise when we found out that Shawn’s parents were coming out here for Thanksgiving. It was the best week ever!
Shawn was able to take some time off work. We did the tour of his clinic and parts of the base. The kids were still in school, so we pretty much got to relax an do whatever we wanted to during the day. It was lovely.

Here we are on Thanksgiving Day. That morning we went to the movies and saw “Frozen”. Then we came home, visited, and ate. Peggy and I made the most delicious meal, and we had enough food to feed an army. I think we may have just finished the leftovers this month.  

One day we took a day trip to Wilmington and visited the USS North Carolina. This battleship fought in WWII and now it’s retired just a couple hours from us.


We had to go see it of course. The weather was cold and rainy, but that never seems to discourage my kids.
Here’s Jefferson, totally unaware that it’s raining. I mean, he’s holding a machine gun, there is nothing that could phase him right now.

This tour is Boy Heaven. Just look at those smiles

And this sucker is HUGE! As in, 9 levels of exploring. It took us 2 hours to walk through the whole thing!
Up stairs, down stairs, up, then up, then down, down, down, up…. it was a major workout.
 

I don’t remember everything we saw (I really need to blog the day after we do something so I don’t forget), but I do remember being pretty fascinated. I have a lot of pictures of things, and I don’t know what they are. For example, this thing….
I think it was a contraption that peeled potatoes? Whatever it was, it was picture worthy.


And this…
I think it was the barrels of gun powder that filled a missile?

Shawn, in front of something
(I know… I should be a tour guide)

The boys loved this control panel. I think they could have stayed here the entire time. Yes, this is a picture of them fighting over the controls….

My favorite part was finding the bunks, because we all got a much needed rest. I look unusually happy to be lying in total filth. Those mattresses probably haven’t been washed since the ship was commissioned in 1941. And is Grant actually biting the mattress? Lovely


Sitting in the same place where hundreds of sailors ate. And from what we read, they were fed pretty good.

Kennedy made an appearance up on deck


Everyone… cold, wet, and tired


and my little family. I just noticed Jefferson on his tippy-toes, weird.

It really was amazing. I had no idea how big battleships were. I mean, just look at Shawn’s dad in the bottom right of this picture…. he’s an ant compared to those cannons! The kids enjoyed themselves, and we learned a ton of facts (which I promptly forgot)

We really spent most of our visit just enjoying each other’s company. Monty and Peggy took each of my kid’s out for individual dates, which was special. And they got acquainted with Kennedy… she just loved them! But who wouldn’t?
 

Oh, we also took a day trip to Raleigh and visited the Museum of Natural History and the Science Museum. We spent hours getting really educated. It was a lot of fun. Here is everyone with their 3D glasses on before a dinosaur show…


Thank you for coming to visit us! You made the holiday special and brightened up our home while you were here. We were truly sad to see you leave. A couple of us may have cried (but I won’t name names).