mondays

I love Mondays!! Or at least, I love Mondays that are followed by very productive Sundays. I love waking up to a clean house and a fridge stocked with groceries from three different stores with EVERYTHING we need for the week. I love feeling refreshed after a few days of sleeping in (7:30 counts as sleeping in, right?!) and renewed after spending two days with Ryan. I love feeling recentered after a great service at Summit. I love that I have a kick-butt workout on Monday mornings to jumpstart my week. And I love that on this Monday, all of this is happening in the absence of a dog!!!! Finally, we broke down this weekend and gave Rex away to a family with older kids that are hopefully appreciating the little guy much more than we ever could. And I love that Ryan steam cleaned all of our carpets and our house is rid of Rex's pee......FOREVER!

the first ever boyd family photo shoot!

It's only taken us five years, but today we had our family pictures taken for the first time! It was hot and humid and after the first 15 minutes the kids were melting down, but still.....it was so much fun!! Check out the pics at http://www.mariaglassford.com/ . Maria, we can't thank you enough! Tonight at bedtime, Madeline prayed "Dear Jesus, thank you for taking pictures". So sweet :)

memory lane

We had another busy weekend! No matter what we do, I love weekends because I just love having Ryan around. In the midst of our spring cleaning, Ryan was determined to to through all of our storage bins in the garage. I am not kidding, my ENTIRE life was in those bins....everything from my Indian Princesses dress and black cabbage patch doll to my prom dresses and the response cards from our wedding. It was crazy to see my whole history laid out before me!! Emma was in heaven-I don't know if it is mostly her age or her personality, but she is always very nostaglic and sentimental and she loved going through everything and asking a million questions about when daddy and I were little. She hit the jackpot with my old stickers and dolls. She found this doll that looks like a smaller version of a barbie doll that she has named Caroline and it hasn't left her side in the past two days. Caroline has quite the 70's wardrobe complete with Vidal Sassoon T shirts and bell bottom jeans :)

Sunday was a great family day! We went to church and brunch and then we took the kids to the circus. It was sooooo good! I don't know who had more fun-me or the kids :) All of the acts were crazy!! The girls favorite parts were the animal tricks and all of the silly stunts by Bello the clown. I think most of all they liked mowing through a bag of cotton candy! Claire slept throught the first half of the show and was mildly entertained through the second half-she was a trooper.

i'm back!!!!!

the princess and the puppy dog

You know it's been too long when it takes you ten minutes to figure out your password to login!!! Life has been crazy busy here and I've been meaning to get back to my blog, so here goes....

We've had two big trips to Disney in the past month! The first was with Ryan's whole family and the second was just the five of us. Ryan had a business trip in Orlando for 5 days, so we all went with him and the girls and I lounged at the pool all day while daddy worked and then we went to the parks with him on his time off. We had so much fun! It's so funny to see the differences in the girl's personalities while we are there. Emma is scared of most of the rides and likes to watch the shows and see the parades and Madeline is begging to go on "rollocoastos". She's big enough to go on the rollercoaster in Mickey's Toontown, but none of the bigger ones yet (she was heartbroken)...maybe next time!

Claire is getting sooooo big! I can't believe she is already 9 1/2 months old. I feel like her birthday is just around the corner. She decided this week that she is way too cool for baby food and wants to eat whatever her sisters are eating and she only wants to feed herself. She has six teeth now and looks so different when she smiles :) She's starting to get some hair and it looks like it might be curly like Madline's. She's not crawling yet, but she kind of "army crawls" and scoots to get where she wants to go. When she is happy she giggles and says dada, but the minutes she gets upset she crys for her mama.

The big news with Madeline is that she is potty trained!!! She woke up one day and decided that she was ready to wear big girl panties and that was it. It took her a few days to figure the whole pooping thing out, but once she got the hang of it, there was no turning back. Emma was the same way with potty training-she just decide one day that she was done with diapers. I really think that it has to be on their terms and they are ready when their ready-no sense in forcing it. When Emma got potty trained, I only let her wear cute litte bikini undies from Gap and now Madeline wears elmo and hello kitty underwear that come up to her belly button. See what having three kids does to you?! Lol. Madeline will probably grow up to be much more well adjusted because of my lack of anal retentiveness when raising her compared to Emma. Poor kids. Mad's favorite movies right now are Annie and Parent Trap. She knows EVERY word to EVERY song from Annie and High School Musical and she sings them with such drama-it's hilarious. She's definatley our little actress.

Emma got her first Webkinz for her birthday, a pink platypus from Grammy and it was by far her favorite gift. She named her Charlotte and she loves to go online to play in Webkinz World. Ryan took the girls on a date the other day and let them each pick out a present and Emma bought a new oufit for Charlotte :) She is getting so grown up and starting to think about reading and writing. She walks around with a notebook and pen and asks how to spell EVERYTHING! I'll admit that sometimes as I'm driving down to road and she's asking me to spell things out for her the ENTIRE time, I am tempted to lose my patience! Her favorite hobby at school is to collect snail shells on the playground. She was coming home everyday with a bookbag full of little tiny shells, so we brought a little container to school to keep in her cubby where she can put all of her shells..she's got quite a collection going. After much begging from Emma, I finally dug my old eraser collection out to give to her. She was in heaven!! We had so much fun looking through them together.

We took the girls to the beach last weekend and it was beautiful!! The weather here is perfect right now-spring in Florida is like a nice, mild summer anywhere else. Perfect for spending our days in the sun under a bright blue sky-I love it! Our pool is just starting to get warmer, not quite swimable yet, but we've been heating up the spa and letting the kids swim in there. A neighbor gave us one of those pull behind bike carts that doubles as a jogging stroller and all three girls fit in it. They LOVE riding in it and I always love getting in an extra workout :) It's been great, because now Ryan and I can run together. A saturday morning run followed by a trip to the farmer's market-there's nothing quite like it!

Claire is in the other room crying-Rex is probably jumping on her. I'll try to post some recent pics later!

the first five years

Yesterday was Emma's fifth birthday. I can't believe that my baby girl is already five-it's been so emotional for me. The funny thing is that she seems so grown up all of a sudden. I know that it happens slowly and gradually, but at the same time it feels like it all happens overnight. I can't believe that it has already been five years since she's been born. I feel like I can remember every minute of her as a newborn-her smell, her eyes, her sounds, her wardrobe :) I remember when she was ten months old and she was sitting on my lap while I read her a book and all of a sudden she looked up and gave me her first kiss and I burst into tears. I remeber when she was a year and was talking like a little adult-never any baby talk for Emma, she was always like a little grown up. I remember when she was a year and a half and the highlight of her life was a "cream pop" from starbucks. I remember when she was two and she would show up at ballet and scowl and warn the teacher that she was grumpy that day. I remember when she was two and a half and would scream "I hate you" at me over and over again. ( A little traumatized by the birth of her baby sister, I think!) I remember when she was three and really loved to spend time with her uncle Tim. I remember when she was four and she really started to be eager to learn about God and to have so many questions about heaven. I remember throughout all of these years that she is not always kind, often shy and withdrawn, but also gentle and nurturing and loving and smart and artistic and creative and the first baby I ever had and the one it felt like I waited a lifetime for. Happy Birthday, Em!

baby, it's cold outside

Ah, tonight was one of those great nights. We actually had a night with nowhere to go and nothing to do and we enjoyed a quiet evening at home. The cold front that's here is perfect!! It's cold enough that it really feels like winter, but still warm enough that we can play outside without needing to bundle up. Tonight we lit some candles on the front porch and sat with the girls drinking hot cocoa and looking for stars. It was such a refreshing time, being outside with our girls and listening to them talk and taking the time to really see how much they are growing. It was one of those moments that makes it all worthwhile.

coincidence...or not?

It's probably not a coincidence that my blogging seems to have slowed down ever since Rex joined the family. My days are that much more chaotic now juggling three kids and a puppy. It's been a challenge keeping Rex and Claire separated for most of the day because he would rather be top of her face than anywhere else in the house :) I think that I threaten to get rid of him at least once a day, but I know that Emma would be heartbroken so it never actually happens. Oh, well....

We had a great Christmas this year! After "santa" came on Christmas Eve, I could hardly fall asleep because I was so excited for the girls to open their presents the next day!! We had both of our families at our house this year and although it was a lot of work and not a lot of rest for me, it was great to have everyone together :) The weekend after New Years, the girls stayed home with Ryan and I went on a much needed girls weekend to Orlando with my mom and sister. It was so nice to get away with them without the kids and Ryan kept busy with the girls-they had a blast. Maybe I'll have to get away more often!

So much is new with the kids....

Emma got her ears pierced last weekend. She was so brave! I was so proud of her. There was only one girl working so they had to do one ear at a time. You could tell that she really wanted to cry but she was willing herself not to. She is so proud of her new earrings and wearing her hair in a ponytail everyday so that everyone will notice them! Emma is going through a phase where she is very jealous of Madeline and therefore is mean to her all day long. That has been one of the biggest struggles for me lately. It's hard to balance disciplining Emma for being mean to her sister and at the same time making sure that I don't come across as favoring Maddie. Does that make sense?! Ugh, girls and their emotions...I am in for it!! Fortunately, Madeline is still little enough that she is very resiliant and not easily bothered by it and most of the time she doesn't even realize that it's happening. We have been busy trying to pick out a school for Emma to start Kindergarten next year. I start touring the schools this week and it is an overwhelming decision-especially when the schools here do not meet the standards that I am used to. The thought of sending my baby away everyday to a school that I am not comfortable with is so unsettling for me. I am praying that God would make the decision clear to us.

Madeline had her first dance recitial. It was the cutest thing ever....a group of two year olds in giant pink tutus up on stage. And the best part was how much she loved it--she ate it up! The rest of the night she kept trying to get back on the stage, begging "I do that again, mommy!". She's starting to become so much more of a little girl than a toddler. Her vocabulary has been increasing so much and every now and then she gets a little bit of an attitude with me. I'll ask her to do something and she responds with "ug, moooooom". Hmmm...wonder where she learned that.

Claire is seven months old!!! I cannot believe it. She is eating lots of solid foods now. Some days she likes everything and opens her mouth wide to eat and other days she keeps her lips tightly sealed and I need to force feed her. Emma is actually the best at feeding Claire because she can do an "airplane" with the spoon just right and it cracks Claire up and then she opens her mouth wide enough for lots of food to go in :) She's been saying mum and mama and lately she says dada all the time. I think Ryan secretly loves it!! She's started to show little signs of a temper when you take a toy away from her-she now notices and gets mad.

Ryan got back on Friday from a nine day trip to Chile. I was heartbroken as he was leaving and cried all afternoon thinking that I was not gonna survive without him. We made it, though. With lots of help from his parents, of course! It's so good to have him back-hopefully it will be a while before we have to part with him again.