happy birthday to finn

.

Happy Birthday to our man!

At this age you:

are even sweeter than you look.
are really into your mommy and planning to stay this way.
are very verbal (momma, dadda, nonna, go, no, and most importantly "gush").
lay your head on our shoulder before bedtime and pat our back slowly.
don't even PLAY about your food intake, in addition to your distaste in people, or the dog, eating around you with no intention of sharing.
are a biter.
crawl back and forth in the tub the entire bath time.
love to look out the window.
scream in torture over diaper changes.
have close to no entries in your baby book.
also go by "tote totes man", "pork chop", "biscuit", "buddy", etc.
love to make us laugh.
have infamous hair.

throw yourself to the floor (usually backwards) if ticked off.
and

were, by miles and miles, the best thing that happened to us in 2008.
This family needed YOU.

lucy has had to warm up to you quite a bit this year. and i think you guys are almost there.




























olive has been overwhelmed with how she feels about you from day one

















you always seem nervous that you are going to be stepped on and don't like to be put down on the floor much. we couldn't imagine being you.












what a blessing you are every day. happy birthday, son!

i don't want to be anything other than what i been trying to be lately

sometimes i like to pretend that i'm a part time working mom. most of the time actually. before i had children,
i NEVER wanted to be working. not even a little bit.

i was convinced that it would be nothing but blissful to have nothing to do all day, but nurture my household. but as i get older i have learned to separate the me that i thought i was going to be from the me that God designed. truth is...i admire moms that find total satisfaction in that. that is the kind of mom that my mother is. and i think part of me thought that i would just automatically morph into her. not so though. here i am. still identifying with my 8 year old weird self at times. some things don't change. and thankfully some things do.

and technically i guess i am part-time. two days a week is hard to complain about. just enough to get focused on something entirely different from my norm, and of worth for a bit and yet still doing the at home gig for everybody most of the time. but...... my responsibilities there run thick. i am responsible for much and when push comes to shove, that place needs me as if it were a newborn child at times. and i have to stop everything in my life for it. hence, our summer and partial fall. as tends to be with anything significant, there are many details i could give. but i'm just not sure where to start.


in short, we were required to be nationally accredited, an extremely expensive and intensive process that required me and mi ladies to drop everything to make happen. i will not get into how hard we rocked the plizzy. just know that the hizzy was rizzied while one of us was incubating a life and while four other little ones learned to rely on their daddies in ways that bang bang shrimp from bonefish grille cannot thank one daddy enough for.








but oh, is this all worth it, dear fam? will you remember this year, beautiful children?



















but now we are home together. catching up. i'm learning that somewhere between june and september, these girls became gavin degraw groupies and there isn't any turning back.




i'm very close to "losing" this chick fil-a kids meal cd goodness, but not sure i can break their little hearts like that. could you?