Mack is ONE!!!

My last baby is now a year old!! I can't believe it!! Here are some pictures from his first birthday, I will post more in a little bit in slideshow form. He had a great birthday! He had to go get his 1 year old check up, so sadly he had four shots and blood drawn. He handled it pretty good, but is also cutting his top teeth, so he was kind of out of sorts anyways. He had a good check up. He gained 4 lbs since 9 months!!! He is now in the 75th percentile in height at 30 1/2 inches. His blood issue that he has always had had completely cleared up! His whatever counts were totally normal!! We were sure it was nothing, but it is always a relief when you find out that everything is now normal. He got the ok for whole milk, which he hates. Even though his birthday was a week a half ago we finally changed his car seat around yesterday and so far he loves it. For his birthday dinner we chose what is probably one of his favorites, Chik Fil A. Then we picked up some Cafe Carolina cupcakes for for dessert. This kid loves cake!! The week before his birthday I had his pictures made with a cake and him digging in. It was so cute!! I did the same picture with Cale and Carter and they barely touched it and didn't like the cake. Not Mack!! He dove right in and loved it. By the end he had two fist fulls and was eating in between getting cleaned up. He smelled very cakey the rest of the day!

With his remote. I got him a fake one for his birthday, but he didn't fall for it.


With his remote and watching his favorite show.

Loves being outside and swinging

Still got the remote!

Yummy!  Finally a kid with a sweet tooth!

I love how the baby is smiling great and it is the 5 year olds who are not!

A Little Catching Up

I always tell myself that I am going to blog more and I even have really crazy things that happen that would make interesting blog posts, but to sum it all up I just don't make time to do it. I like writing about what the kids do and what is happening, but I just forget and remember when I am not at the computer. Well here are somethings that have happened to us lately and I am going to try hard to keep blogging more. I really want to do more crockpot recipes. I think I have some labeled, but I am going to be better at labeling my posts.

Last month I was at the outlet mall in Morrisville. If you live around Raleigh and have never been, you aren't missing much except for the Carter outlet. Well Andy has always worried about me going there and will not let me go at night, so I usually go during the middle of the day. He says this because there are never many people there and he says it looks "sketchy". It doesn't matter what time you go either, it is almost always dead in there. Well last month I had to go out to the Carter outlet to get some onesies for work. I pull in the parking lot and the way the parking lot looks, it overlooks the driveway in front of the mall. So I am sitting my car getting ready to get out and I notice a man looking suspicious and walking fast across the driveway. Then he starts running and these cops and a man in a suit are chasing him! Then he is running towards my car! I totally freaked out and locked the door. I thought, oh no is this guy going to pull out a gun? Is he going to car jack me? Are the cops going to pull out their guns? I should mention that I did not have any of the kids with me and this was a weekday afternoon. The man runs and jumps in the car right next to me, so of course before he gets in that car I think I almost had a heart attack!! After he jumps in I noticed there was a girl in the drivers seat and she starts to back up right away. All the while I am just sitting in my car. Then the cops and the man in the suit jump on the car and the cops grab her door and open it and grab the keys. Then when the car was stopped they grabbed the guy out and threw him on the pavement and handcuffed him!! Remember, I am still sitting next to this car and am still in my car! So then when I feel it is safe I just get out and walk into the mall. As I am walking past the guy on the ground in handcuffs, I kind of felt like it was like a Seinfeld episode or something. There was another lady who was walking by the car on the other side and she had almost been run over by the cops. So once we got down the steps to the driveway, we were talking about how crazy that was. That was definitely the most scared I have ever been, at least crime wise. Now I am definitely more observant when I go to that mall.

On a happier note, Mack is just so smart. He is totally obsessed with the remote and my keys. We let him play with the stinkin cable box remote because I can't even get the channel to change without holding my tongue just right, I figure he is not going to do any harm. Well in the last couple weeks Mack has begun getting the remote and pointing it at the tv pushing buttons. He will only watch one show, Special Agent Oso. I don't know why, but he loves that show. He will also only watch the ones that we have taped, so unfortunately that means the same two all the time! Well now whenever the list of dvr'd shows comes up he thinks he is going to watch his show. If you ask him if he wants to watch Special Agent Oso, his face lights up and he starts to giggle. It is so cute, but Andy is wondering what have I done to this child?! It's not like he watches it all day long. This past week he did something new. I asked him if he wanted to watch his show and he got all excited. Then I asked him to bring me the remote, so he went and got the remote(he didn't have it for once) and brought it and opened my hand and put it in there! Last week he brought me the remote and started grunting and pointing at the tv. When he does get a hold of my keys the first place he goes with them is the back door and tries to reach the door knob with them.

Here he is pointing the remote at the tv, not a good picture because it is with my old camera.

August Beach Trip

We took one last beach trip right before the kids started school. This time we went to Surfside Beach just south of Myrtle Beach, SC. We had a pretty good time. We got off to a major bad start. We realized when we were half way there and had to stop because of Mack's screaming in the car that we left Mack's bags at home! They were sitting all packed and ready in his room. What happens is that I am responsible for packing everyone up and all stuff and all Andy does is put it in the car. I think I have the raw end of the deal! I swear I am loosing my mind as it is.
We don't like having to drive to the beach everyday, but it is nice. The boys enjoy the beach and we did some new stuff this time. Myrtle Beach redid their boardwalk and made it really nice. That part of Myrtle is always sketchy at night, so we were hesitant, but we went one night with my parents and the kids. We walked to the arcade, which Andy had never been before. They all had so much fun, eve Andy!!! The boys and Andy loved playing a baseball pinball game. My mom thought it was funny that I had to teach Andy how to play. At first she thought I was teaching the boys and then my dad told her I was teaching both! We then played the classic game of Skeeball. I love skeeball. We had a great time, but the long weekend was way too short!

Cale and Mack playing with trucks. I love seeing them play together!


Carter riding the waves on his "sorf" board.

Mack or Bernie (as in Weekend) sleeping again on the beach

Carter and Cale riding the waves! They had a blast!

Mack's Firsts

It has been a while since I update Mack's accomplishments. He has now started walking and he is improving daily! It is so funny how much he walks now. He is to the point where if he falls he stands back up instead of crawling. So sad that my baby is growing up!!! He also has a couple teeth and is working hard on his top teeth and maybe more, as his whole mouth is puffy and he loves his cold teether.

He has two little teeth on the bottom.

He also started mother's morning out this week. Since his birthday is after September 1st he wasn't old enough for the one year old class at preschool and he is in the infant room at his MMO. I guess he will pretty much be the oldest in his class always! He is at the school the boys went to for a semester when they were two going on three, except they were in the preschool program there. The mmo people are super nice and Mack seems to do really good while he is there. Poor guy likes to sleep, so I just need to get his sleeping schedule worked out. He does nap while he is there, so that is good.

This was actually after I picked him up, because of course I was so busy that morning that I forgot to get his picture!


Up and running!

He loves those little windows

First Days of School!

Cale and Carter started kindergarten last week! They went on Monday for their assessment day and then Tuesday they found out their teachers and Wednesday was the first real day. I was extremely nervous as to how they would do, since last years fiasco with Carter refusing to go into the preschool he had attended for three years. Well, they did great! They came home and said they had a good time and couldn't wait to go back! Andy and I were so relieved. We had one hurdle down and one to go...being in separate classes.

Before their assessment day

 We talked to them about how they would have their own teachers, own friends and how Mack was going to school and wouldn't know anyone either. Then Wednesday came and they went to their classes wonderfully! I made Andy go with me, because of what happened last year, and he took Carter and I took Cale. They seemed very excited to get their day started. I have to admit I was still a little nervous, even though they liked school I was afraid once the newness wore off they would not like being away from each other all day. I was wrong, at least so far, they have enjoyed seeing each other briefly at lunch and on the playground and have made some new friends. I thought maybe Carter would be a little sad at first because their were a couple girls from preschool in Cale's class and a friend of ours is his assistant teacher, but nope Carter was ok. He does know his assistant from preschool and his teacher does a treasure box, which is a big hit with him.

Before leaving for school


Outside of school, not sure what the leaning is about.




Cale in his class

Carter in his classroom

It has been a week now and everyone is still happy, except for Mommy!  I was definitely not sad when they started school, but I hate change.  I am having a hard time getting into a routine and adjusting to a new school and lots of traffic and different teachers and things to do.  It has just been a lot of transition.  I know they like school and are smart boys, for example Carter walked up and started reading what I was writing, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed I tell Andy I am just going to home school!  Anyone who knows me knows that must be crazy talk, because after two days I would go insane!!  I really hope that we all adjust soon.  It has been hard on Mack too because he also started a mother's morning out and his afternoon nap gets interrupted to go get his brothers, which means by 4:30 he is super cranky.  I feel like it is Cale and Carter as toddlers all over again!