The End of an Era

Well it seems the day has come that I have nursed my last baby :(  This is actually very sad for me because I really had wanted to nurse Lilah Grace for a year like the others.  For those fellow mommies out there that can relate this was a special time for us and something that only I could give to my babies (unless of course you are Salma Hayek or something).  It meant a lot to me to do this for them and lets be honest it was EASY - no messy bottles or stinky formula to prepare, nothing to forget at home (well except a cover up on occasion), no cost :), it was always there and ready at just the right temperature.  Okay, okay - maybe not always entirely easy.  I do recall the days of being a first time mommy when it felt like I was nothing more than a human milk machine and crying constantly; dealing with a snacker who constantly fell asleep; getting engorged; and of course being the one to feed them during nighttime wake ups.  But those times are far outweighed by the good memories - the cute little suckle noises and precious little lips; the tiny little hands reaching out and holding onto me (Lilah even massaged me as she ate); the incredible feeling of love and attachment; and so much more that I will miss.

Many factors went into making this decision and I pondered over them a great deal.  First of course was my own personal health.  My RA (rheumatoid arthritis) is worse than ever and most mornings I can barely function.  I cannot open jars or bottles and trying to dress Lilah is a long process.  Carrying the kids is almost out of the question and buckling their carseats takes a great deal of pain and effort.  I cannot treat my RA while nursing as none of the meds are safe for her and I am continuing to do permanent damage to my joints the longer it goes untreated.  Jay informed me that I will be a better mother in the long run if I take care of myself.

Along the same line is the fact that I have found myself to be on edge more recently (hmmm go figure with four kids age 6 and under) and I have become short with the kids and lacking motivation.  Soooo it is about time to find something to help me cope a bit better.

And the biggest deciding factor is my milk production.  I guess I should be happy that I was able to nurse four babies as long as I did.  What really did me in is having to cut out all milk and milk products from my own diet due to Lilah's milk protein allergy.  It is really hard to produce a sufficient amount of milk when you are not getting any yourself.  Of course part of me feels like I have failed in some way!  And don't even get me started on the cost of the special formula that has to be used without any milk protein (double the cost of the other stuff).

Looking on the bright side I guess I can have a milkshake, chocolate cake with ice cream and chocolate sauce, and any other yummy treats I have been missing out on.

Happy Thanksgiving

Falling Leaves Fall

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No Tricks! Lots of Treats!

Wow - what a busy Halloween week we had.  It seemed like there was something fun to do every day.  This year we decided to get 6 pumpkins (one for each of us) but Jay was not thrilled about the thought of carving all of them so we decided to let the bigger kids paint three of them and then design what they wanted carved on the remaining three.  Jay decided to free hand as the kids dictated what they wanted and they came out great.

 

Then the carnivals began.  A friend invited us to join her and her children at their church fall carnival.  This place was HUGE and awesome!  An entire baseball field filled with inflatables, games, candy, costumes, prizes, and more candy!  The kids had a blast.

 Our church also had a fun carnival and of course the kids played all the games, jumped in the bouncy, and got lots more candy.

This was Lilah Grace's 1st Halloween so in our tradition she had to have an appropriate outfit.  Well she didn't just get ONE but rather TWO!

She also had two costumes (one was a hand-me-down that I couldn't resist using).  They had a common theme in that they were both bugs and pretty appropriate since at times I call her my little Lilah Bug :)

Payton's school had their annual Math Night and the kids got to dress up and enjoy a hayride and many different math themed activities throughout the classrooms.  We ran into many people we knew and the costumes were all so cute.

Halloween day was very busy but extremely fun.  Payton's class (and all other First Grade classes) had a field trip to Sims Family Farm (nope no relation) complete with a corn maze, corn angels, bouncy slides, games, camp fires and a cool hayride.

I rushed right over from the field trip to meet Cole in his class for their Halloween Party.  So many goodies and yep we went home with yet another goody bag of candy (get the theme here).

And of course the event the kids have been counting down for, Trick-or-Treating.  A good friend brought her three boys over and they all had a blast running around the neighborhood filling their bags.  We only made it a couple of streets before everyone was tired and our bags were too heavy to carry.  Graham was so funny because he was running full speed up to every house and then he would run back holding his bag open yelling "Look what I got".  Cole came to tell us he said "Thank You" at every house and Payton was very sweet and helpful.  Lilah Grace rode in her stroller and took it all in - she fell asleep half way through.

Our kids had a theme - the Spider Family.  We had Black Spider Boy, Red Spider Boy, Spider Girl and Spider Baby.

Graham and Payton wanted their faces painted so I did the best I could (Google helped me out).

The kids had so much fun and us parents enjoyed watching them.  Our kids were totally wiped out at the end.  They couldn't even take off their costumes before they passed out.

As you can see there is no lack of candy in our house.  What a fantastic Halloween Week :)

A Fabulous Fall Break

So our Fall Break started out not so great.  We had plans of driving to Florida and spending some time with Jay's family (all of them).  We were even going to Disney World!  But then everyone got sick :(  Jay had pneumonia; Graham had a sinus infection; Cole had bronchitis; and Payton was getting over an upper respiratory infection.  Since everyone was sick we decided it was best not to travel and let everyone rest and get better.  A total bummer but it worked.  After a few days of nothing but sleep, sleep and more sleep (and of course some meds from the doctor) everyone started feeling better :)

We decided to make the most of our fall break and do some things locally that we could all enjoy.  The kids wanted to go to a new playground so we went to the Tennessee Riverpark.  It was the last warm day and it turned out great.  The kids played on the playground and swung on the swings then we all walked around the water.  The kids watched a boat launch into the water and to quote Graham it was "totally awesome".  I really love seeing all of these things through my children's eyes and experiencing them all over again.  As always I took a ton of pics so here are just some of my favorites.

The next day was cold and rainy so we figured what better way to pass the day than at the movies ;)  Our local movie theater plays movies for $1.00 on Wednesdays.  I didn't realize that every child in the two local counties would be there but we still managed to see what we wanted.  First we saw Cars 2 and the kids did so well that when they asked if we could also see The Smurfs we said sure.  We were pleasantly shocked that  all the kids made it through two back to back movies!

Fall Break would not have been complete without hitting up an orchard and doing some fall festival things.  We drove into the mountains south of us (it felt like it took forever) and it was a beautiful drive with all of the leaves changing and great fall colors.  We went to Hillcrest Orchards and the kids had a lot of fun.  We had our very own private tracker ride around the orchard - it was Lilah's first.  Then we went to the petting zoo where everyone got to hold baby chicks (their favorite), pet goats, a baby cow (he was really soft), a pig and some bunnies.  Then it was off to the play area with slides and climbing walls and even a zip line.  We played there for a while until it was way too cold and headed back inside to pick our bag of apples.  The day ended with a visit from an overly friendly large black cow who was quite interested in Baby Lilah :)  Every time Jay moved the cow moved to get closer and even licked Lilah a couple of times.  We all totally cracked up and the kids thought it was great.

Payton is 3 apples tall.

Cole is also 3 apples tall.

Graham is 2 apples tall.

Baby Lilah on her very first tractor ride.

The kids being their usual silly selves :)

Picking out which apples they want.

A fun day for everyone!

Lilah Grace getting licked by a cow.

Since we have an upcoming photo session with our favorite photographer and this time she is coming to our neck of the woods we wanted to scope out some possible photo locations so we all hopped in the van and headed out on an adventure.  We started out at the Chickamauga Battlefield.  A very big and nice place full of history.  As we drove around and saw all the monuments, signs and cannons we tried to explain to the kids about the Civil War and how battles were fought right there where we were.  Payton wanted to know who the "teams" were and which one we were cheering for (love that kid).  And of course in Cole's new obsession with all things fighting he just couldn't ask enough questions about the blood, fighting and finally "Daddy do you think some of the men who lost the battle also lost their heads?".  I am still not used to having boys and how everything gets turned into a gun or some sort of fight.

The kids favorite part of the battlefield was the 'castle' which Daddy took them to the top (twice).  

Then it was off to the Chattanooga Nature Center.  We have a membership and had been there before but part of it was closed that day so we went back to check it out.  It ended up being the perfect spot for our upcoming session and is at the top of our list.  The kids enjoyed getting out to check out all the different areas including a bamboo forest, wishing well, pond, pavilion and of course the open fields where they ran around and chased each other.

As usual Payton posed for each shot, Cole acted goofy and Graham watched what they were doing :)  Oh and Lilah Grace looked adorable as always.

We also drove through and checked out Pointe Park on Lookout Mountain and Coolidge Park in downtown Chattanooga but didn't get out to play.

As Fall Break came to a close we decided to check out our town hayride and Halloween celebration.  We went on the hayride which took us down the Ringgold Nature Trail and dropped us off at a camp fire complete with roasting marshmallows.  Then we went to The Depot where a live band was playing and people were waiting in line for the Haunted Depot tour (way too scary for our kids).  We finally left once Graham announced "this place is freaking me out" (he is so funny!).

Even though we didn't go on our planned vacation we were able to spend a lot of quality time together as a family and make more precious memories with our children.  We also were able to get some much needed rest that will hopefully carry us through our next couple of extremely busy months!

Back to School - otherwise known as Mommy is getting her sanity back

The long anticipated day has arrived and the kids have gone back to school.  This is a very bittersweet moment for me as I have both been looking forward to it but also dreading it.  This was my first summer home with the kids - EVER.  As I am just approaching my one year anniversary of being a SAHM (stay tuned for an upcoming post about that) I have never experienced the joy of summer break.

I had so many plans for ALL the amazingly fantastic awe inspiring things we were going to do together.  Well....we didn't actually get to all of them.  I could go on and on about the excuses reasons why we did not but really why bore you with those?  For this reason I wanted the summer to last a bit longer.  Our summer break was extended by a month due to the tornado damage but by the beginning of August my countdown to the return of school had begun.

We began picking up school supplies each week as they went on sale and the kids just couldn't wait to pick out their backpacks and lunch boxes.  Although they had a good time playing outside, at the pool, the park and the other little adventures we had over the summer - our kids LOVE school.  They began asking when they would go back the week after it ended in May :)  So the past couple weeks leading up to school have been much anticipated.

Well after all that anticipation we had to wait an additional day because the night before school was supposed to start we got hit with a major storm which caused flooding, downed trees and power lines so the first day was cancelled.  Go figure...

So now the part you all really care about - the pictures!

The backpacks were hung by the front door with care....in hopes that the first day soon would be there...

Payton was pretty grumpy that first morning as she didn't want to go to bed early like we tried so we did have some drama and tears but I think she still looks beautiful.

I still cannot believe she is in the first grade!!

She chose a Barbie backpack and coordinating big girl lunch box this year.

Walking to the school bus (which picks up in front of our house).

With a final "Good Luck" and kiss from Daddy she was off.

We entered Cole into a full-time Pre-K program this year.  I am still not completely sure about our decision but we think he will benefit greatly from it (Jay also really likes the fact that it is completely FREE).  Our big boy is growing up so fast and these photos show just how big he is.

So handsome isn't he?

Off to Preschool he goes (he was so excited).

He chose a super hero backpack and Transformers lunch box.

Off he goes into his class.

How cute is his name on his very own seat?

Now that my big babies are off to school full-time I am hoping to spend some serious quality time with my little babies as they will be gone before I know it.