Our Memorial Day weekend.

I wish i could say that this memorial day weekend was filled with activities but the weather was very uncooperative. Its the beginning of hurricane season down here in good ole south carolina and everything we wanted to do consisted of being outdoors. So in other words, we didn't do much this weekend. Its kind of depressing because frank doesn't get many long weekends, like EVER!! I had so many things planned but oh well, that's life, huh?? But i guess a long, nice weekend of relaxation wasn't so bad!! We did a couple things though... To begin on Friday was Jenna's last day of school.....pics....

^ It was beach day for the last day of school, so she was supposed to look like she was going to the beach. But i kinda wanted her to be patriotic because of memorial day, so i kinda combined both concepts. So she's beachy/patriotic, it kinda goes, right?? LOL. She had to represent for her dad on her last day of school!! So when Jenna got on her sunglasses, Frankie had to also. And tahh dahh, here is the pic taken right before she was about to go out the door in the morning. Cute, huh??

^ This is just Frankie, isn't he getting big? Had to show you how big he is getting... sooooo........

On Sunday we decided to go see Shrek Forever After, Jenna loves all the shrek movies. So since it was rainy and gloomy, it worked out to be a perfect movie day. The good thing about the shrek movies is that its entertaining for adults also, i laughed quite a bit. Nathan wasn't too thrilled about it but daddy was keeping him somewhat happy. And Frankie, ohh he was loving it...sitting next to his big sister eating twizzlers and popcorn! Also, this was Frankie's first movie and yes i was the weirdo mom that had to bring the camera to the movie theatre because i couldn't bear missing out on this memory... yes i know...I'm weird...frank was embarrassed but hey i got this cute pic to show you all, lol....


And finally on monday, memorial day! We made our flag cake with the strawberries and blueberries. This is becoming a tradition too for many reasons... we are a military family and we know how much we sacrifice and how much frank does also. Not only on memorial day am i reminded of this, its my everyday life. I have an american hero as a husband and I'm damn proud of him. Memorial day for me is not about BBQ's or a long weekend.. its about the fallen soldiers, please remember them. Please thank a soldier when you see one, they deserve it. I'm proud of my country and my hunk of a husband! :) So we make this cake together because the american flag means a lot to my family. Happy Memorial Day to all the soldiers that have served, are serving, and the ones that gave it all for this country. And happy memorial day to everyone! :)..........(pics below)
Here is the cake pics.... oh and please don't mind that Nathan is just in a diaper, LONG STORY!! Also note the red, white, and blue theme with their clothes!! :)

Kindergarten Graduation.

I can not believe my first born baby girl graduated kindergarten today, its bittersweet in a lot of ways. I'm so proud of her and love that she is growing up but on the other hand it is going by too quick for me. Its moments like this where you realize that you blink and they just grow like weeds. It was kind of emotional for me because shes going to FIRST GRADE, I HAVE A FIRST GRADER!!! While frank and i were at the graduation, i looked over at him and said,"We have come a long way since that delivery room where we were holding our brand new baby girl and you were throwing up in the bed pan" He laughed and yes I'm serious frank threw up in a bed pan the whole time i was pushing, he needed the nurses more than me. Ok now I'm totally off the subject, somehow i got on the subject of throw up and pushing out babies... BACK ON TRACK, NICOLE.... OK... So Jenna sang three songs and walked across the stage like a big girl. Its actually called a bridging ceremony, its supposed to represent her going from a little kid to a big one, i guess, it was cute. She looked so proud of herself and she kept waving to me from her seat. It was great and I'm happy that frank was there to see it. I'm happy he didn't have to see it in pictures while he was deployed. So here it is, MY GRADUATING JENNA!! She will be accepting cash and checks for her graduation, HAHA, just kidding. Enjoy the pics... Also i don't have pics of her walking across the bridge because i filmed that instead, for some reason i cant get the video on my blog, sorry :(

Strawberry Picking

We decided to go strawberry picking this weekend, even though i was getting over this terrible bout of stomach flu/dehydration but they were only opened for another two weeks, so i really wanted to get there. I don't know when we would have an opportunity to ever go strawberry picking especially since this is going to be our last summer in south carolina. It was a hot, humid day and while we were there it even started to drizzle a little but it was fun. I would have to say that Jenna and Frankie had the most fun, it was sweet. I would help Frankie pick the strawberries and then he would walk over to Jenna and put them in her bucket. Jenna was in her element, i think she could of stayed there all day. Poor daddy had 23 pound Nathan in a harness which was attached to him and he was bending down picking strawberries, he got quite a work out. By the time it was over, we were all tired and sweating. We filled up two big buckets, which was a lot. As you will see in the pictures, Frankie was sweating and had rosy, red cheeks towards the end. It was a new, fun family outing and we came home ate some strawberries and took a nap. What a perfect day. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

If someone would of told me when i was 16 that by the time i was 24, i would have 3 kids and be married for almost 7 years, i would of laughed them out of the room. But here i am, the happiest wife and mom there is. I really, truly wouldn't have it any other way. You know whats really exciting, getting those handmade mothers day gifts. Jenna made me a plate with mom written out in macaroni and a sunflower which we planted in our back yard. But this morning on mothers day, i got completely and utterly surprised by a 3rd mothers day gift, it was one of those huge stainless steel pots with the built in spaghetti strainer. I feel all fancy now, i have been wanting one of those forever. I dont know if this is weird but it always has annoyed me to use a strainer, half of it falls in the sink or i have no one to hold it while i drain it, blah blah blah. Anyways, i had no idea this gift was coming and I'm in heaven. Then if that wasn't enough, my sweet hubby went and got me some waffle house, which i love. I felt so loved all day. I'm so proud of my little family and I'm proud of myself. I might not be the perfect mom but i love my kids more than words can even explain and my life revolves around making them happy. I feel blessed, very blessed. OK, I'm done being mushy now... :).... So we decided to go to the park, we wanted to get some mothers day pictures and let the kiddo's get some of their energy out. Its kind of funny though.... You always see these great pictures of the kids on my blog but you never see the obstacles we face to get the picture..... NOW YOU WILL....

^this is the beginning of us trying to get the perfect mothers day picture by getting the kids to all be around me on the slide. What you are witnessing in this picture is me trying to get Frankie to come into the picture.

^He is such a tease, this is him giving us the look, HAHA IM NOT GOING TO TAKE THE PIC BECAUSE I KNOW YOU WANT ME TO. He just gave us that big grin and ran off to the slide.

^Now this is Nathan wiggling out of my arms, so now there is no Frankie and a wiggly baby.

^Still not ready for the picture because he wants to do the alligator death roll and spin in circles. Take a notice to Jenna, the look on her face is " Come on people, lets get this over with" RIGHT?? lol, funny

^ Well this is the best we got. Nathan trying to pull Jenna's headband off and Jenna looking like she just couldn't be more bored. UHHHH, well there you go, thats my mothers day picture. HAHAHA. See how difficult this is, its hard work. (KEEP READING, THERE"S MORE)

^Here is a picture of Nathan and i, our first mothers day ever together. Aww, i love this pic. But ummm, if i didnt see this baby come out of me, i wouldn't believe that we were related. No resemblance, i think some people think i stole him,lol.



^So here are some more random pics of our park/mothers day outing. It was a sweet and simple day, that's exactly how i wanted it. I hope all the moms out there had just as an amazing and special day as i did. Happy Mothers day! :)

Frog and Toad Play at Jenna's School

I was super excited about this performance Jenna was going to put on at school. It was a frog and toad play and musical, you remember those books?? I remember reading them when i was a kid. Anyways, it was adorable but things didn't go exactly as planned. Frank was supposed to be home at 5, but they did a last minute meeting. So i was running around like a chicken with my head chopped off trying to get everything together. It was 5 and i had to leave by 6. In that hour, i had to feed all 3 kids, get them all dressed, pack the diaper bag, i had to get dressed, and somehow try and feed myself also. IN A HOUR!!! Luckily Amy was home from work (she is my neighbor/babysitter), so she came over to help me and she also did Jenna's hair which you will see below in the pictures. I ended up getting out of the house about 6:05 and i got Jenna in her classroom just as they were leaving for the auditorium. By that point i was sweating like a wild pig and was about ready to pass out but the show must go on!! Frank ended up showing up just as they began, thank god. So anyways, Jenna was great and totally in to it. We didn't get the best seats due to the lateness but we did our best. So here it is....


^this was Jenna's part in the play, she was a squirrel and had to mess up the leaves.

^Jenna and her friend Mae

^The kids after the performance at home

^ another pic of them but this one is funny because Nathan is pulling Frankie's hair. Nathan is going through that stage, hilarious. But not when its done to me, lol, :) Just kidding

^ Jenna's hair, Amy did a great job.

^ This is Frankie at the performance wearing daddy's hat, he wore it the whole time and wouldn't take it off, so cute. Doesn't he look just like frank? Oh and Frankie was flirting with the ladies in front of us, what trouble he will be. :)

^ It feels like where's waldo, so we will call it where's Jenna???

Update about Jenna! :)

My little girl is almost going to be 6!!! I just cant even believe it sometimes, it goes by so quick and she has been such a blessing. She is the perfect big sister/first child. This is going to be all about Jenna and the new things she has been doing lately....

So where i will begin is SHE JUST LEARNED HOW TO TIE HER SHOES!! She has been practicing and practicing on daddy's sneakers and finally it just clicked. She was so proud of herself and so are we. I know she was starting to get discouraged because a lot of the kids in her class already knew how, but i think that's one of the reasons she learned so fast. Here's my big girl...



She also had her first school project. She could pick any subject she wanted. What do you think she picked??? I was quite surprised when she told me she wanted to do her project on SHARKS!!! HMMMM, sharks, huh? I said OK, lets go to the library and get some books about sharks. We went to the library and she asked the librarian to show her where the books on sharks were at. You could tell she felt like such a big kid and we got out tons of books about sharks. So this past Sunday morning, daddy took Frankie with him to get a hair cut and Nathan was napping, so it was the perfect opportunity for Jenna and i to start. Here it is...





So to end this wonderful blog that makes me want to cry, SNIFF SNIFF!! I have a great story to tell....

Jenna and I are sitting at the picnic table outside eating dinner, daddy wasn't there. This is how our conversation went.....

Jenna: Mama, whats the difference between old and young people

(I'm thinking hmmm, this is a hard question, so i tried to answer it to the best of my ability in 5 year old terms)

ME: Ummm, well old people have gray hair and are usually grandma's and grandpa's.

Jenna: I know something else that makes old people different from young people.

ME: Oh ok, well what is it??

Jenna: Old people drive really slow.

ME: (laughs) Ummm, ok where did you learn that??

Jenna: Well every time we are in the car you yell at the old people and say they drive too slow and need to get off the road.

At this point I'm laughing so hard my stomach hurts, she couldn't figure out what was so funny and i think she thought i was nuts. Geez,nothing gets past my 5 year old. Needless to say i watch what i say a lot more now, OOPS!!! :) Bad MAMA! Hope you enjoyed this lil update and had a laugh! ENJOY

Oh, how I love my handy man!!

For awhile I've been wanting to get a picnic bench for the kids, so they can sit outside and eat or do projects that are too messy to do indoors. I was just going to go to walmart and buy one of those cheap, plastic ones because i just wanted one so bad. But when i brought it up to frank he said, "well I'll just build one, it will be better and cheaper." OHHHH, what a great idea, something that daddy will make for them. So he went to Lowe's and got all the materials and started it that very same day. While i was sitting outside watching him build it, i thought to myself.. I'm going to take pictures, this will be a great memory. Daddy building this picnic bench with his own two hands for our kids, something that i truly hope will hold up to give to my grand kids. I felt so emotional at that very minute because this meant so much to me, it was so much better than buying one. Is there a memory that you remember from your childhood that just makes you smile? Well i hope this bench is something they will always remember, i hope they remember all of us sitting around this special little bench laughing on a hot summer day while eating our dinner. We have ate outside almost every day since frank made it and they love it so much. The best past is i don't care what kind of mess they make because we are outside, who cares!! Not to toot my husbands horn too much but it only took him 2 hours to do it and all the neighbors couldn't stop complimenting him on it. They couldn't believe he built it. We even got asked by a friend that lives down the street to make one for her kids, look at that, hmm maybe we can start a business. Maybe i can talk frank into quitting the army and becoming a picnic bench builder?? For some reason i dont think he will go for that. Oh well, a lady could try, right?? So here it is...the love of my life building a picnic bench for my 3 other loves of my life. Enjoy.

^measuring everything out

^cutting the wood

^drilling the nails in

^sanding it to make sure our kiddo's get no splinters. Man, he has a lot of patience

^ TAHH DAHH, all assembled and ready to try out, as you can see frankie wasn't happy sitting on it at first but now he loves it.

^ and as if you thought my husband couldn't get any more talented, he even paints it. What a man i got. Now tell me this isn't the cutest thing you have ever seen, like EVER!!!