Home Sweet Home

4 years ago this morning my world was shocked into the introduction of a 9lb 5oz Dale into my life. He came so quickly into the world that his face was bruised and purple! The cord was wrapped around his neck and he didn't scream at first, which had us alarmed for what seemed like forever but was probably only 10-15 seconds, but after a few suctio ns out of his throat he started screaming and didn't stop for almost 4 months! He has been my biggest trial and yet my tender sweetheart all in one. With hard and frustrating work also comes a deep love and special bond. Third of our of 4 kids, he has done EVERYTHING differently than his siblings. God sent him to me to shake things up for sure, and to teach me how to handle (or not handle on certain days) stress and grow patience and calmness when my initial reaction would have been the opposite. He has caused me tears and yet warmed my heart. He loves his fingers and his blanket, Pink Panther, Felix the Cat, and Handy...

Wow, we hit an unexpected milestone today with Dale. For whatever reason, he has never been willing to tell me (or anyone else) what his name is. Tonight he came out and said "Hey Mom, I just know my name!" and I said "Really? What is your name??" and he says "Dale" !!! Okay it sounded more like "Day" than "Dale" because he seems to always talk with clenched teeth, but he has NEVER even been willing to try! So let today mark the day. He said it!

Well, I knew that there would be a point when it was time to look into filters on the computers for our kids. Almost two months ago I finally upgraded and got a phone with internet access. I've used it quit a bit for my wrap business. About a month ago my mom upgraded her tablet and gave me hers, so we were really starting to catch up in the techy world! Not to mention I bought Justin a laptop (our first laptop) for Father's Day. All this technology in addition to our desktop computers! We have passwords on the computers that our kids don't know, so they can't get on unless we let them. I hadn't set any passwords for my phone or the tablet yet, because most of the time they were in my possession and the kids never did anything but watch cartoons or play children's games on them. Adaira, lately, has asked if she could stay up with my tablet and read the Friend magazine, and I've let her do it a couple of times because Brighton gets to stay up and read on his ...

I'd say we had a pretty good summer. The first 2-3 weeks was spent relaxing and hanging out for the most part. We had a few fun outing days, we went to Hamilton Pool once. FYI, taking four kids to Hamilton by yourself scores you major Good Mommy points. Good thing because I really need some. Brighton & Adaira are always happy to show Daisy around the pool, whether she likes it or not!  Lucky for us, Daisy LOVES swimming. She could be half drowning and choking on water, but you pull her up and she has a huge smile on her face.  "Hey Brighton, smile!"  "Don't give me that smile, give me a good one!"  See this girl's happy face?  Dale had a blast, there was no way I was going to have two non-swimmers that I had to keep watch of, so Dale had a life jacket on the whole time. Good thing because he was all over the place!  I kept trying to keep Daisy up on the shallow beach area and she kept pushing herself deeper and deeper, then...