I'm going to call you "Mom"

*Sigh*...It's happened. Matthew informed me a few days ago that he was no longer going to be calling me "mommy". He offered no real explanation, just that he liked it better. I managed to get him to admit that he felt that he was to old (he just turned 9) to still be calling his mom "mommy". At the time I thought he was so cute. The way he decided to inform me about it. As if I needed to be forewarned of the new change. It's so Matthew. Well thought out and organized. But as time has passed and I've noticed a seamless change to him now calling me "mom", I miss it! I miss hearing him say "mommy". He DOES seem so much older now.

I was blessed at a young age to be Matthew's mommy. He is the reason I am who I am today. I changed my life for him. To be a good mommy. To live my life for someone else besides myself for a change. I loved being Mathew's "mommy".

*Bigger Sigh*...So now I'm his "mom". That's not a bad thing in anyway. It is actually a great thing. That means he's growing and healthy. That means that now he wants to be older and more grown up. But for me it is a milestone worth noting. Though I miss hearing "mommy" coming from my oldest boy I have 3 younger children who say "mommy" about 500 times a day so it's not gone quite yet...there have been times when I wanted to ban the word "mommy" half way through the day. If I heard it one more time I would pop! Now I can listen, breath and appreciate my younger childrens' use of the precious name of "Mommy" that I get to be called. I appreciate it more.

Halloween '09

This year I avoided the Halloween isles at the stores the best that I could. I was trying to avoid the kids seeing all the new costumes and asking for one. It's just that we have a bin FULL of costumes and dress-up stuff and I was bound and determined to not spend $60 (or more) on costumes this year. And it worked!!! Halloween got nearer and nearer and the kids ran to the bin to rustle up a costume no questions, and best of all no complaints! Though I had bought Lily's costume last year for $5, the boys found something that they hadn't been before and all were happy! Whew!

Here we are at our wards Trunk-or-Treat. I dusted off my old kung-fu gi and we were ready to go!

And here are the kids on Halloween night trick-or-treating. (Notice that Matthew has switched to Harry Potter.)

This is right before I let them dump out their bags and go to town!

Fancy-Shmancy Pumpkins

Well here they are. Our masterpieces. 2 hours of hand-cramping work to produce these great results. I did the spider web and Jess did the other two. He impressed me for sure! (And himself, I think!)

Milo

We've had him for a few months now, but here are some pics of Milo. The lone kitten born under our couch. The mama cat (Tori) went and got herself pregnant, but I was so excited to have kittens! Little did I know that she'd only have one baby. ONE KITTEN! Who's ever heard of such a thing?

Anyways we got a little attached (well duh!) and we decided to keep him. Especially since the behavior problems that we had with his mom and the other cat we had were getting worse and we had to give them to the shelter.

He is very tolerant and loving with the kids and puts up with a lot. Now that we have Abbie, Milo is very happy. The only-child kitten finally has a playmate!

Abbie-Gail

Here she is! The precious new addition to our family, Abbie-Gail. We've had our tiny Chihuahua pup now for a whole week and she's won over our hearts many times over. She weighs less than a pound and a half but has a big personality and an amazing tolerance for children.

Abbie is a very loving sweet little thing that is perfectly content to sleep on someones lap all day. She is mostly white except for a few, very cutely placed, tan spots. She fits perfectly into our family. Even our young cat Milo likes her!

More pictures to come...a warning to our friends and family though...Abbie comes with us wherever we go...a few exceptions of course. :)

"Wanna Play Mommy-Daddy?"

"Andrew, wanna play mommy-daddy?" This is the question Lily asks her brothers all the time. Since the other boys are at school Andrew is the lucky one who gets to play with her the most. It' is actually very cute and he seems to enjoy himself too! I thought these pics were priceless!

Big Frog

kind of weird, but we thought this was cool. One night when Jess got home late he found this big frog/toad...(not sure) by our driveway. He didn't do anything, he seemed scared of us, so we left him alone. We've seen our share of little frogs, but we've never seen one THIS big!