34

So apparently I turned 34 last week. I still feel 30 (probably will permanently feel that for a decade) and 34 sounds a TON older then 33 because I'm now in my "mid-30s"....... but that's okay with me. Because I'm married to a 37 year old....and he's getting gray hairs.......so I guess I have to age with him, right?

To explain about my actual birthday, I have to start on the evening before. We had a double header baseball game.....with some light sprinkling which made it nice for me since I didn't bring any water for my kids to drink.

By the time the 7:15 game starts Kellyn has her friend (that she basically glues her hiney to for the whole game).....any guesses why Kellyn loves her so much? haha

(Kellyn could definitely pass as her child)

Some lady on the team made signs to display for the first game (Camden and Emerson's team that Brooks coaches)......my girls loved holding them up but Kellyn REFUSED to point it towards the team, because SHE wanted it facing her. Aaaaaaand I don't need to point out the obvious, but here I go anyway......you do NOT want to mess with Kellyn when it's a meaningless battle like this.

Here's Aleeya, I just like this picture because of her outfit.....plaids, crazy striped pants. I'm sure her teachers smile every day she walks into their class.

The reason I brought up the baseball games is because we got home about 9:30......young kids in bed by 10. A HUGE lack of sleep for the youngest ones which made the 7:15 a.m. dentist appointment on my birthday morning brutal. And I mean BRU-TAL!

Royce's face says it all.....

I take it back, Everly was happy there......but while we waited for Bronson's teeth to get cleaned Royce and Kellyn were basically in a permanent puddle on the floor.

As we walked out to the car, all I could think about was getting them in, buckled and leaving!!!!!

The problem with THAT is I left the lights on and my car was dead.

We "only" had to wait 30 minutes but that was kinda 30 minutes longer then Royce and Kellyn could handle, so Bronson and I buckled them in their seats and sat outside the car waiting for jumper cables to arrive. Neither of us wanted to be with the younger kids any longer.

All this to say, my birthday didn't EXACTLY start how I wanted....... 

THANK GOODNESS for my close friend Laura who came and saved me when I got home.

Laura is one of those friends who loves my kids (sometimes more then me) and my kids love her. She comes from a family with 7 kids and can tolerate and even laughs at ANYTHING my kids throw at her. 

(Two of the prettiest faces)

She understands sleeping in swimsuits. dirty bathrooms, loud dinner tables, and a whole lot of action and love packed into small spaces. She also sends random texts saying, "Can I come hang with your kids so you can run errands?" or when I tell her all embarrassed-like that we had to deal with lice with the girls she said, "Wow, all SEVEN of us kids would get it every year. They are the absolute WORST!" She just gets it. 

And she comes to my boys baseball games. Look at her all cute-like, pregnant with her first.

All this to say, she came and picked me, Royce, Kellyn and Everly up and took us to Chick-Fil-A for lunch on my birthday. And Laura MENTIONED to the lady that it was my birthday so she gave me a free cookie (they have the best chocolate cookies EVER!!!). 

Can you see how excited we are over the cookie?!?!?! It made me forget Everly was just losing it a moment before!!!!

The outing turned around my whole day!

When I got home I checked my email to see my sister gives me a gift card for Domino's pizza!!!! Which means I didn't have to make DINNER THAT DAY!!!! To celebrate this amazing news, I took a "Birthday nap" while the younger kids slept.

For my birthday Everly gave me the gift of standing up by herself. She really is so proud of herself.

And not only THAT but for my birthday she gave me my body back too!!!!!

I know this doesn't sound like a big deal to anyone but it's been 13 years straight that I've been either nursing or pregnant. There was only one month in those 13 years that I haven't had someone dependent on my body! haha. I stopped nursing Everly a few days before my birthday and I feel like it was my birthday present to me!!!!!! YAY.

After pizza we had my favorite (non-chocolate) dessert of angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream.

Every year I ask Brooks for two things and one of them is always a junk box. He knows me TOO well!!!

Brooks, Camden and Emerson had baseball practice and I ran Bronson to the church for scouts. While we were driving we were HAMMERED by this huge rainstorm. 

One of the HUGE advantages of being Aleeya and always dressed in a swimsuit, is you are constantly ready to go run and play in the rain. It's probably one of her favorite things to do.

Seeing her so happy and smiling like that could've very well been the highlight of my birthday.

The boys

Here is my SUPER weak attempt to keep things updated and documented about what my boys have been up to lately.

Brooks and I took the three older boys to see the Harlem Globetrotters last weekend. Word has it that it has been 17 years since they have come to South Carolina because the state capital has the Confederate/Rebel flag flown on its grounds and the team was apparently against that. Anyway, I guess they got over it? Who knows. But we were thrilled to get tickets with the money from Brooks' returned wedding ring.

I think it's safe to say the boys had a BLAST.

Camden REALLY thought it was real. Got REALLY into it. and yelled REALLY loud at the refs. It was pretty funny.

It was fun. I think I had more fun then Brooks though since he was more concerned about the guy showing crack in front of us.

Royce......Royce........Royce.

He is just an entertaining kid trying to be like his brothers and dad in EVERYTHING.

For example, after we get home from the church ALL the kids change out of their church clothes. Brooks and I stay in our's all day and I guess Royce has noticed. He will NOT change out of his clothes. When we ask him if he wants to, he says no, because he "wants to be like Daddy". So here are the two church-dressed boys making bacon for dinner.

He also can throw balls up the driveway and have them roll down to him (to practice grounders) for hours. It's so cute. (getting ready to do his crocodile "chomp" on the ball)

He also has been doing my workouts with me that I do from videos online. It's actually been fun (hard) because I'm doing it with my sisters. It's kinda a cross-country-sister-bonding thing..... +Royce and Kellyn.

This particular day Royce had me help him hit 3 buckets of balls off his tee. He's clearly loving it.

Royce is actually standing in our NEW batting cage that Brooks and the boys built.

Royce was SO helpful stepping on it as they were trying to build it.

It was so funny watching them put this up from my kitchen window because Emerson and Camden had to stand on Brooks shoulders for part of it.

The cage was bought for 3 reasons: 

1) my family LOVES baseball

2) this will prevent them from hitting balls over the fence and hitting our neighbor's client's convertible window and breaking it so we had to pay $1500. (hypothetically speaking of COURSE)

3) and a home for THIS BEAST of a pitching machine..... Brooks is SO excited a guy let him borrow it (maybe have?) for baseball season.

Literally every day since it was built there have been HOURS clocked in it.

Emerson doesn't like putting the balls in for Bronson because he hits pretty hard. (I should know, I have a bruise on my side to prove it.) So he came up with hiding behind the wading pool to stick the balls in.

(Aleeya just wears a football helmet while putting balls in it. haha)

Yesterday Bronson and Camden built a pitcher's mound on one side of it to practice their pitching and their catching since they both play those positions.

It's aaaaaaaall fun and games until "someone" forgets to wear a cup while he plays catcher.

That ended fast. Pretty sure he won't make THAT mistake again.

St. Paddy's Jellybean Race

It's the time of year for the St. Patrick's Day jellybean race!!!!!!

(a tradition I've done every St. Patrick's day for over 30 years!)

In our skinny living room we have to break down the race into heats. We decided to switch things up a little and put Camden against Aleeya (who is actually better then Bronson and equal to Emerson usually, so we thought this battle was fair).

Aleeya actually was ahead most of the jellybean race!!! 

(She could use her hands since she isn't 8 yet)

Until.......this picture really does make me sad though.......notice Aleeya's pink jellybean SO close to the finish line and you can SEE how far back Camden was. He basically had an amazing flip of the jellybean and you can see the little green speck at the bottom, passing the finish line before Aleeya's did. Soooooo close. It's like she's staring at it in disbelief!

Next it was Bronson vs. Emerson.

Which, as expected, Emerson creamed Bronson. I think his days of winning haven't happened since he was 4 or 5. haha

We had to do a little adjustment to the finish line since Everly couldn't keep her dirty paws off it!

Then there were these three.......

They were having  a little too much fun and towards the end both Royce and Iris just swatted their jellybeans with their hands over the finish line and agreed to a tie. Whatever.

Next was THIS intense battle.....

Emerson had my phone taking pictures and I'm SO glad he caught this "boxing-out" moment Brooks pulled on me on camera. 

So I at least had an excuse as to why I lost......(Brooks celebrating in the back)

The semi-finals was btw. Emerson and Camden.....

Needless to say, Camden won and Emerson spent the next few minutes explaining through tears how Camden cheated.... (he didn't). I can't IMAGINE where he gets his hate-of-losing from.....

And the GRAND FINALE...... THE RACE OF THE YEAR (since Camden allowed the parents back in the "running" to officially win).....the DECIDING FACTOR OF THE LOCATION OF DINNER came down to Brooks vs. Camden

Game. Faces. On.

And I'll be darned if Camden didn't pull out the win!!!!!!!

(it's legit too.....we aren't the let-your-kids-win type )

The obligatory congratulations handshake of the winner.

Camden was SOOOOO excited.

He picked Golden Corral........(surprise surprise.....pretty sure that's been at LEAST 5 years straight. Brooks reeeeeally wanted to win to go someplace else). We loaded everyone up in the Yeti and gave Kellyn JUUUUUUST enough time to find my make-up bag and make herself all "pretty" for dinner. Great.

The whole clan out in front of Golden Corral. Pretty soon that restaurant won't know what hit them!

So I DON'T let my kids win, but I DO let them pick out their own clothes. Aleeya's outfits never disappoint. I need this picture framed.

The winner with his dessert plate, fish tacos, pizza and everything else he already downed.

Mascara lady with her cotton candy....

Okay, so we are SUGARED-up and ready to leave.

Maybe NEXT year someone can beat Camden and we will venture out and eat someplace else!

Boyish Girl

Of COURSE I think that Everly is the cutest!!! (and she is).....after all, I AM her mother.

But Brooks and I (ESPECIALLY Brooks) are also objective/realists about our children. For example, ALL our girl babies look like boys. You take their bows and pink away and they could definitely pass as little boy babies. It's so funny. (Then again, the old ladies at Walmart STILL get genders wrong whether they are painted pink with 20 bows on them or not!)

See what I mean?

This picture REALLY got me because she was playing with an Iron man notebook!

And there are SOME things Little Ev has a growing-boy's-appetite for..... like when you peel a whole orange and hand it to her, it will be gone in a few minutes. The WHOLE thing.

(It's serious business with her orange-attacking too)

Where are her other two at-home sidekicks? Oh, ya know, being normal.....for them.

There is a LOT of dress up going on here. Everyday. And Kellyn has to MULTI-LAYER her dresses.

Kellyn is kinda full of personality if you haven't noticed....

(I love her disappearing-eye trick when she smiles)

But Kellyn has decided over the past two months to take out her morning nap. Now she's just down to one nap (around noon when Royce and Everly go down too). The problem with THAT is I used to take my shower during her and Everly's morning nap!!!

So lately I've had a few visitors in my bathroom with me when I step out of the shower.

(Apparently I took too long that day for Royce?)

As you can imagine that got old, so after putting Everly down for morning naps a few days ago, I took matters into my own hands to make sure my bathroom didn't turn into a toddler visitor center.

I turned on a show and buckled Kellyn in a carseat watching it. #motheroftheyear 

She thought she was SO special sitting up in that throne. 

It was beautiful. 

Oh, and because I want to remember our most fun date ever, I'll include the only two pictures I have from it. Here we are at a "Mascarade Ball"

I realize they aren't really "masks" but we didn't know what to expect (there were people dressed like Phantom of the Opera there!!), so we went for the Throw-on-the-obnoxious-Pepto-Bismal-colored-dress and put-something-ridiculous-from-the-dollar-store-over-our-eyes look. 

I think we pulled it off perfectly.

Turns out everyone was basically dressed in black there, soon, weeeeeeee, kinda stuck out. Which made the dancing all the more fun.

We danced our hearts out. Swing dancing, line dancing, slow-dancing, cha-cha-ing, waltzing and ridiculous farm-yard dancing. We never sat down to eat, it was just too much fun. This is SOOOO not my husband's thing naturally, so it made it all the more memorable.

Sometimes it's fun to let loose like you're at a college sock hop again. And that's exactly what we did.