2011 Cinderella Christmas Pageant

On December 11th, Chloe competed in the Cinderella Christmas Pageant. She decided she wanted to compete full glitz and she ROCKED the stage like I have never seen her do it before! She won Christmas wear in her age division (a proud victory for Mommy because I was up at 3 am making her Christmas wear!) and then won the 4-Up Overall Supreme (she had the highest scores from ages 4-up)! Goooo Tootie! Way to Rock it Baby Girl!

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Professional Pics of Baby Moose

While at the hospital, Amy from Bella Baby Photography stopped by to take some photos. I thought they were going to be the same old photos that we got with Chloe where the nurses take the pics and they aren't very good pics, but nope, we were highly impressed and the photos turned out BEAUTIFUL!

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Introducing...Moose

On November 21st, I gave birth to a precious, beautiful, very big boy, lovingly nicknamed "Moose" by the Dr & nurses that delivered him. His real name is Gabriel and he weighed in at a whopping 9lbs, 10oz, was 19.5 inches long, with a 14 3/4 inch head circumference.
My Dr's decided to induce me early (though I think the due date was off) because of my diabetes...can you imagine how much Baby Moose would have weighed if I had delivered him later than the 21st??? The 3 weeks leading up to inducement was full of twice a week non stress tests, checking my sugar levels, and my weight.
I got to the hospital at 5am on November 21st to be induced. From 5 until about 6, the nurses got me comfortable, talked to me, had me sign all kinds of forms, and all that happy jazz. They started my pitocin at about 6-ish. When I got to the hospital, I was already dilated to 4 and had been for a couple of weeks. The pitocin did nothing...so when my Dr came in to check on me at 7am, he broke my water. Immediately, contractions hit back to back and didn't let up. I screamed and begged for an epidural and about 10 minutes later, I got one...that FAILED. At approximately 8am, I yelled for the nurse because I knew Gabriel was coming. The nurse came in and checked and sure enough it was time. My Dr came in and the 1 thing I remember hearing was "Holy crap, that's a big head!". My body began to just push, I couldn't control it. The Dr and nurses kept telling me "Push, Rebecca, Push" and it felt like my body was but nothing was happening. Baby Moose had gotten stuck. He ended up having posterior & anterior shoulder dystocia, as well as full body dystocia...yep, he got stuck 3 different times. But, then by the grace of God, he was here...safe and sound at 8:58am. It took him a few seconds to cry but when he finally did, I knew he was okay. He was a little blue for a few hours since he was pretty bruised from his very eventful journey in to this world.

So, I've been asked a few times, why the name Gabriel. Gabriel means "God is my might", "able-bodied one of God", "strong man of God". The angel, Gabriel, was a messenger of God and foretold of Christ's birth as well as John the Baptist (Luke chapter 1). In the Bible, it states that he was able to stand in God's presence ("And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings." Luke 1:19). I want to raise my son as all these things...I want him to grow in to a man of God, a man who has a strong faith in God, a messenger of God. He is already my little messenger of God because I believe that God sent him just in time to save me, mentally and physically. Without him, my diabetes would have not have been found in time, nor would my severe anemia. He, along with my other 3 babies, give me that reason to get out of bed on days when I am my own worst enemy.
The name was inspired by my beautiful friend, Nikki, who lost her baby girl, Gabrielle, last year and I wanted to do something to honor Nikki as well as sweet Gabrielle.
The third reason for his name...well, we all know I am a sucker for good movies (Noah's name came from The Notebook) and I LOVE "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. Heath Ledger played a good hearted and loyal character named "Gabriel" in The Patriot. So, there ya go...that's where the name Gabriel came from.
His middle names, Bryant and Andrew, are both family names. Bryant is my great grandmother's maiden name. I am told often that I look, act, and talk just like her and my Mimi tells me all the time that I have her sense of humor...so what better way to honor her name than to give my sweet Gabriel her maiden name as his middle name. His second middle name, Andrew, is after my brother-in-law, Andy. Andy and I are so much a like that we fight, a lot, but through it all, he'll tell me when I'm wrong, praise me when I'm right and there has never been a time when I asked him to do something that he hasn't done it. Even on days when we can't stand each other, if I ask him to help me do anything, he is always right there.
Next question I get asked alot...How do the other kids like their new baby brother?
Well, Chloe loves him but to her, he's another brother...she's a pro and has done this twice before. Noah is in love with him and thinks he is the most awesomest (his words) baby brother in the world and Eli...well, Eli has his good days and bad days. At the hospital when Eli realized that I had to stay with Moose, he looked at Greg and said "I don't like him, put him back!". After we got home, Eli warmed up quite a bit and loves to be "Mommy's helper".
Here are some pics of Gabriel from his birth...

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Thankful Thanksgiving Turkeys!

I joined the website called Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) and have gotten lots of cool craft ideas to do with my kids. So today, I decided to make Turkeys with the kids and have the kids write on the feathers, things that they were thankful for.

Chloe is thankful for: God/Jesus, Friends and Family, Neighbor, Nature, and School.

Noah is thankful for: God, Cookie Monster and Elmo, Toys, Athena and Snickers, and Family,

Eli is thankful for: God, Toys, Athena and Snickers, Family, and our House.

Chloe wrote hers and Greg and I helped the boys write theirs.

Here is our Door with their Turkeys on them...

Chloe's 1st Day of 1st Grade!

Yesterday, was my sweet baby girl's 1st day of 1st grade! She was so excited, she hardly got any sleep the night before which meant she went to bed early last night. She loves her teacher and she had awesome behavior yesterday! When I asked her how her day went, she said in her most grown up voice "UH-MAZ-ING!" (yeah, she's been reading Fancy Nancy quite a bit, lol!).



This is a very sad little brother...Noah asked all day yesterday "Is it time to get Chloe yet?"...


This is my big girl getting on the bus with her friends...

I'm back to blogging...Woo Hoo!

I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and I had to have my gall bladder taken out on May 26th, 2011 due to it being full of gall stones and then it quit working on me. I have lost a lot of weight due to not being able to keep anything down except sugar free pudding, jello, applesauce, and yogurt for about 3 months. Greg has been on deployment since late March and life has been pretty hard without him.
My baby brother came down for a little bit and helped me with the kids and did yard work since I needed help and was sooo sick.
I finally got my diabetes under control and I am only on glyBuride to keep my sugar low right now.

Now on to the monkeys...
Chloe will be 6 in a month and a half...She just got done with kindergarten at the beginning of June. She read 420 books by the end of her kindergarten year...talking about a proud Momma!!! She also played her first season of soccer and had her dance recital. Her soccer team came in 1st in their division and she plays pretty awesome! She was her teams starting kicker and played goalie in the last quarter. When she wasn't playing goalie, she played awesome offense and defense! In the past few months, she also competed in a few pageants...the first being the NC State Kings and Queens pageant where she competed glitz for the 1st time. She won 3-6 year old Grand Supreme! A week later, she competed in her very first National pageant...Tiny Miss of America National pageant. Chloe won 3rd runner up in talent where she composed her very own ballet routine and she received Princess. Then she competed in the Haley's Easter Bunnies Pageant in South Hill, VA which benefited a very sick little girl. Chloe competed in Natural and Glitz and won her division in both. Finally, the last pageant she competed in was the SC Open State Water Festival Pageant. She won Wow wear, Swim Wear, Color Photogenic, Black & White Photogenic, and received 1st runner up in Beauty. I am soooo proud of my girl and all of her accomplishments! She will be a first grader next month.

Noah turned 4 in April. He has grown so much! He is almost as tall as Chloe and runs like the wind...he uses this to his advantage when he plays Tag with Chloe! He got his 1st hair cut right before Greg deployed, so no more baby curls for him...that happened on one of our trips to the Dollar Tree when a lady mistook him for a little girl because of his long blonde curls, so off to Walmart we went to have his hair cut! He is super smart and can already spell and read some smaller books. He has the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Good Night Moon memorized. We are hoping he will get to play soccer this fall. He favorite thing to tell me is "Mommy, you make my heart suuuuper happy!" which he got from a little tv show he watches. Noah also competed in the Haley's Easter Bunnies Pageant and placed 1st Runner up...he was sooooo handsome in his black and purple pinstriped suit!

Eli will be turning 3 in August. His speech is incredible! He is also going to be tall and is only a few inches shorter than Noah. He likes to draw on my back porch with chalk and he loves riding his little 4 wheeler. He is an amazing little boy that just breaks into giggles and pretty soon, has everyone around him laughing. He loves when Noah recites The Very Hungry Caterpillar to him. He still at 2, likes to crawl up in my lap and go to sleep. He competed in the same pageant with Chloe and Noah and got 4th runner up after a nice temper tantrum on stage, but that's what happens when a pageant interrupts his nap time! He is my little water baby and loves to go to the beach and get knocked down by a wave. He just giggles and giggles. He also likes the little pool we have here at home and often times, we find him in the pool or bathtub fully clothed with his toys or dumping water on his sister. He is also a climber...and he can scale my counter in just a few minutes flat! He definitely keeps us on our toes!

R.I.P. Edward

On January 20, 2011, my precious dog, Edward, went to doggy heaven. He was approximately 9 years old...we don't really know his birthdate because he came from the SPCA but we always celebrate his birthday in February since that's when we adopted him. When we adopted Edward, we noticed that he had a huge knot on top of his head, a weird looking mole on the side of his leg, and one of his "toes" was swollen. He was sent home with antibiotics that we were never told what they were for. When we asked the day that we looked at him, we were told "Oh he's an adoptee, we really don't know where the bumps came from". After we adopted him, we were told that Edward did have a brain tumor. We chose to take him home anyways...he was ours and he chose us. Had we not adopted him, he more than likely would have been put down because he was an older dog, had some medical things going on, and he was huge...like small pony huge. We were able to give him 2 more years of life.
When we adopted him, Eli was only 6 months old. Eli and Edward fell in love with each other...I still remember Eli learning to crawl and Edward would just lay in the floor and let Eli crawl all over him, pull his fur, play with his ears, and Edward never cried, whimpered, growled, or even got mad. He just layed there and became Eli's big ole' play toy.
The one time that we had a peeping tom, Edward corralled the kids and I up in the living room and would not allow any of us to go in to my bedroom until Greg got home from work. He stood in front of my bedroom door and would not move. When we tucked Chloe in at night and read her story, Edward would come in to her room and lay beside her bed until she fell asleep. He ended up being read too also. Noah and Edward loved each other too but Noah isn't really a dog person!
It's times like those that I am thankful for...Edward was an amazing dog. I am sitting here thinking "maybe, I could have petted him a little more, let him in the house a little more, played with him more often"...but after talking to my grandma, we gave Edward 2 more years of happiness that he wouldn't have gotten had we not adopted him. My children gave him back his spunk and allowed him to be playful and run and play with them. He gave my kids a love for animals and responsibility.
Those last few days were hard...He quit eating about 3-4 days before he passed. We thought he was going to leave us on the 18th, but he didn't. He had 1 big nonstop seizure from the 18th until midnight on the 20th. He was already gone mentally on the 18th. We wrapped him up so he stayed warm and Snickers stayed by his side until he went. She signaled to us on midnight of the 20th that he was gone.
Snickers is taking it harder than the rest of us. She had been Edward's playmate since she was 3 months old. They shared a doggy love like no other. She loved him. She is becoming a house dog again...and I think that she likes it. We have contemplated getting her another playmate but we are just unsure right now, especially with Greg going on deployment soon.

Edward~ We'll miss you old boy...we will never forget you.



Edward and his love for Twizzlers...


Eli and Edward