Our very first sleepover!

We had 4 friends over, in addition of course to my own four (yes Tennyson counts!).

It was a really fun time, lots and lots of video gaming, DS and Gameboy playing, lightsaber fighting, hysterical laughing, crazy boy wrestling, more video gaming, and of course Pokemon movies – the party was a total success!

They were having so much fun that it was almost hard to get them to take a break from playing to eat their pizza and cake! My favorite part of the night I think was when they all surprised me while we were singing “Happy Birthday” by adding a VERY loud “CHA CHA CHA” to the end of each line – notice the little arm shaking dance they were all doing:

It was by far the most exciting rendition of happy birthday I’ve ever heard (poor Tennyson was REALLY not a fan of it, he burst out into tears from the shock of it all!)

When it was time for winding down we laid the sleeping bags out in a row on the floor and turned on “Pokemon Rise of Darkrie” (one of Gareth’s birthday gifts) and I was just sure that since it was after 10, they’d all drop off to sleep during the movie. Much to my surprise 3 hours later at 1 am all of them were still going strong, and even a full hour later, at TWO AM there were three of them (including my dear son) who were WIDE awake!

They were really being great, just watching movies, laughing and playing their games, but I was starting to feel a bit sleepy myself! Finally at 2:15 I told them it was time to turn off the tv and really get some rest, and they all dropped right off to sleep (it is amazing how fast they just zonked!).

We were relieved though, and amazed, when everyone slept past 8 the next morning, and we even had to wake some of them up to feed them a bacon and egg breakfast before their parents came!

All in all we survived it! It was a really fun time and easier than you might expect, it was nice for me to be able to do something like this for Gareth, since the poor little dude misses out on a lot as the oldest of 4 boys, so many times I don’t have the time or the energy to make the classroom snack, or take him to all the school activities, and I’m SOOOOO not the mom that is making home baked cookies for the moment he walks in the door. But having his buddies over, playing and hanging out, and staying up till the crack of dawn now THAT I can do!

Still, you’d better bet after all that, and then another full day on Sunday, that I was REALLY REALLY tired by last night!

Well I told you all that I took the week off last week to scrap, but I forgot to share my pages! So I thought I’d take a little post to catch you up on all the scrappin’ I’ve done recently.

These four I did last week:

When I jumped in on making “Freckle Face” with Eva at SSD, it was these little freckles on Owen’s nose I was thinking about, SO I have been dying to make this page since! See credits HERE.

This page makes me laugh! This is Reece last week, I made the page right after he got “dressed” in nothing but his snow boots and pullup and tromped right out the back door! Credits HERE.

This was also a page I did right after the moment I snapped the picture, Owen was all dressed up as a pirate, but was quite offended when I just called him “pirate”, because apparently he was a SPY pirate people! See Credits HERE.

“As you are getting older, your little personality is really starting to shine through… My favorite part, is seeing your little face light up when you see me!” Credits are HERE.

Also, here are a few more I just never posted here on the ol’ bloggy that I’ve done since I last shared:

Some pictures I snapped of Tennyson and I, I thought mine and Lauren’s You and Me Baby was the perfect kit for us! See Credits HERE.

“you saw me scrapping this page so i asked you what you wanted me to write on it. you said “i love you owen” so i did, and you know what owen… i do!” See Credits HERE.

You can probably guess that this page is about Owen’s trip to Disney with my parents! I just love this picture they got of him! See Credits HERE.

I adore this picture of Tennyson’s BIG eyes, I just think they are so striking! Credits for this page HERE.

YAY! I love seeing them all together like this, my pictures and my families memories all wrapped up like this This is exactly why I love scrapping so very much!

This week has been a busy one, so not a lot of time for page making, but I did finish a few new things for the Sweet Shoppe, I’ll have to share those soon!

… would you be this annoyed over it?! Serious little Tennyson was just a bit freaked out that I insisted on kissing his little cheek AND taking his picture at the same time!  It is so funny he’ll be all giggly and giddy, and then I’ll get out the camera and he gets so serious on me!

I think he thinks he needs to concentrate to have his picture taken properly!

Can you believe it!?!  My baby is all big and stuff!

Tonight in celebration, we had ice cream for dinner and pizza for dessert (as requested by the birthday boy) and then we did what this kid has been DYING to do for almost a year now – we took him out shopping for his very own Nintendo DS.

He was so wonderfully excited asking for the red one at the store, and as we walked out of the mall he was seriously giddy over it all – he couldn’t wait to get home and start playing “Mom, in all my 8 years of existence, I’ve never played on my very own DS” big big stuff I tell you!

Here he is with the new beloved DS:

Can you feel the excitement???  And check this one out, probably this is the way he’ll be looking at me, with the DS between us for the next few days.

Gareth is such a good kid, I couldn’t be more proud of the boy he’s grown to be.  G keeps reminding me, we are halfway to 16 now!  akkk!  But you know what, I have a feeling that with this guy the best is yet to come!

This little man is my first born, he’s taught me so much about being a parent, about having a family, and more than anything: about what really matters in this life – I can’t believe he’s 8 years old now, because that means that I’m 8 years old now as a mom!  It makes me feel so old, and so young at the same time.  I just can barely wrap my mind around how much he’s grown, how much I’ve grown, and how different our little family is today from what we were, practically just two kids and a newborn, 8 years ago when he was born.  Life has been good to us, God has been good to us, and you know, my first born Gareth, has been so good to us too.  I can’t wait to see what is ahead of us as we enter this next chapter of childhood with Gareth, I only hope I can get it kind of sort of right…. reguardless, Gareth is the kind of kid thats pretty gracious, I’m sure he’ll be patient with me while I learn how to be the mom of an EIGHT YEAR OLD BOY!

Happy Birthday Gareth Shawn!  We love you so very much!

Well, usually I have been trying to split up my posts like this because it can get overwhelming all the craziness going on around this house on any given day… Now, I signed up for this chaos but my poor readers didn’t!… So I’ll try to make this short and sweet (TRY I said…)

Movin’ - Well this weekend was BIG in my word, because the kids have been asking to play on the computer more and more, we have been trying to figure out the best solution for how to make that happen – add to that the fact that I’ve started playing with my paper crafting again, and it was starting to take over the living room a bit – so we decided it was time to move g’s computer out of our room and set it up so the boys could use it too – Friday we hit up IKEA, and picked up a desk and chair so we could set up a space in our playroom/family room area:

Also, because Gareth is out of school for the summer, the timing couldn’t be better to set up a new activity for him and a new rewards system to encourage good behavior and doing chores. So I set up a little rewards system where the boys can all earn time for playing on the computer or for playing video games:

The boys were very excited about decorating their own envelopes, and so far it has been great, especially for Mr. Gareth who in all his almost 8-year-oldness needed a bit encouragement to get his attitude in check about doing his chores. Each little ticket is worth 30 mins, and they earn them by doing the chores I ask them to do (with 1 warning/reminder or less) after 2 short days, I have to say I’m feeling rather impressed with my idea – I think it will be great for us this summer!

As if that isn’t enough – I now have MY OWN SPACE at the desk in our bedroom, AND I was able to take all my poor neglected craft supplies out of hiding in the garage, and set up a craft space for myself again! Look at this great space:

I can’t help but feel inspired looking at it all, and I’m SOOOOO anxious to get to play with my paper more now!!! Hybrid scrapping here I come!

Changin’: Well believe it or not, as I type this, I have only 26 minutes remaining until I am a mother to an EIGHT YEAR OLD! I just can not believe that I’ve been at this mom thing for so long! Well on Sunday we met my parents for lunch, because it is my Dads birthday too (today happy birthday dad!) And they decided spur of the moment to take our 3 older guys (poor little t is too young still to go!) The boys had a blast, and my Gareth got roller-blades for his birthday! Also, Grandpa taught him to ride his bike with out training wheels! We haven’t done a ton of bike riding because Gareth is always glued to his scooter, but now that he has a taste of the two wheel action he is HOOKED!

Here’s a picture of Him zooming along:

And, the boys all together I have a feeling our summer will be filled with lots of scenes like this:

And as if that isn’t enough changing for this poor mama’s heart with my oldest turning 8, riding bikes, finishing second grade, and roller-blading around, my youngest is also changing on me! Today Tennyson is officially FOUR MONTHS OLD! He had his four month check up and the Dr. said (and I quote) “He is absolutely perfect”

Here is all 14.2 pounds of him at the Dr’s office:

and a little “hi, I’m four months old” face for you too:

Poor little guy got 4 shots and is not as happy with me now as he was earlier in the day, I know it is short term, but I hate to see him all sad! I’m hoping he feels better tomorrow!

and finally Shakin’: So, although I had a bit of a snag with my whole treadmill fiasco – we are lucky to have some great weather again, and I so tonight I jumped into week FOUR (that means I’m almost half way to 5k!) It was the hardest run yet, but I felt GREAT afterwards…. I guess we will see tomorrow what my poor body thinks! I am feeling very proud of myself though, not only am I still working hard and running, I also am down 16 pounds now since I started working at it at the end of April, and I feel GREAT…. I am as thin as I’ve been since I had baby 2, 3 and 4 – I still have a bit of a ways to go, but my goals seem really with in my reach now!

Since I’m all picture-y in this post I thought I’d share my picture I took tonight after I came home from my first day of week 4!

I think the flash was a bit intense because you can’t tell that my face was BRIGHT RED, but I really was feeling pretty dang good!

Well there you have it! things are moving right along around here! Tomorrow is gareth’s 8th birthday so I’m sure we’ll keep ourselves busy celebrating, and of course there is designing to do, and kids to feed and a house to clean, so I guess getting some sleep would be called for. I have to say, I’m not really one for things getting predictable and the same day in and day out. So one thing I love about having a big family and being a mom in general is that things are ever changing, and really don’t “settle” (funny how they call it settling down!) I’m sure tomorrow will bring all sorts of action I can’t wait to share!