Aubrey's First Birthday

I'm starting to get really bad at this. I wrote the first part of "The Past Month" over a month ago so now I'm officially two months behind. It's starting to get a little ridiculous. I keep thinking I'm going to catch up but I'm really only getting farther behind. I should just forget about catching up and start fresh but I can't seem to bring myself to do that. My goal is to get caught up by the end of next week but we'll see. No promises. Anyway, to continue the catch up...

April 26, 2008~

At the end of my week with the nephews my niece, Aubrey, had her 1st birthday. My family all got together at the Park at Riverwalk to celebrate. My niece is such a sweet girl. I love her so much! My sister did a great job throwing the party and as always making her own cake. The theme was ladybugs which turned out really cute. It was a blast watching the little kids' reactions to the water and watching the older kids socialize and play in the water together. One of the biggest highlights of the day was my cousin announcing that she was pregnant. I am so happy for her and I can't wait for her to get big and pregnant. She's going to make such a cute pregnant woman!

A Week with the "Shederton" Boys

April 19th- 26th

As I mentioned a couple blogs back I got to watch my 3 totally "RAD" nephews, Brains, Cracker & Char Char. My week with the boys was definitely hectic, no question, but also a lot of fun. They really are great kids and I enjoyed getting to know each one of them. I also got a chance to experience what it would be like to have 5 kids all at once and let's just say it's not going to happen for me anytime soon. The kids all did great considering the circumstances and they all managed to survive a week with their Aunt Amber and Mean Uncle Andy.

Brains was a huge help taking care of the little ones and making dinners. One of the first nights he just up and decided that he wanted to make everyone breakfast for dinner. It was great!, complete with pancakes, eggs, AND bacon. It was also great to have a kid old enough to be able to have a conversation with. Brains is a super smart kid (hence the nickname) and it was great getting to chat with him.

Cracker was great too. Evelyn really took a liking to him. He really took the time to play with her which was so sweet. He always managed to include Evelyn in everything he was doing and I really appreciated that. She was like his little buddy for the week. Another fun thing about Cracker is that about mid week he lost a tooth so I had my very first experience with the tooth fairy. It was fun to watch him get all excited about his tooth and it made me excited for when my own kids get to go through that. Also, the sweet kid that he is, one morning he got up extra early and decided to make breakfast for us which was so sweet.

Char Char was just so adorable. He has the strangest obsession with the movie Gremlins. I lost track on like the third day how many times we had watched it. Plus, when he wasn't watching it he was humming the Gremlins theme song over and over. By the end of the week I actually caught myself doing it too. He and Evelyn had a pretty varied relationship throughout the week. They're fairly close in age compared to the others which meant they had similar personalities but unfortunately they also had all the same social dysfunctions which made for an interesting combination. At times they were like old friends but 5 minutes later they would be worst enemies. During the day while the older boys were at school I just had the 3 little ones which was really kind of fun. We went to the park a couple of the days and one day I took them out to lunch.

Here's some pictures of the week.

Cracker and Evelyn.

Char Char wanted to be "Muscle Man" at the park.

Brains making his delicious pancakes.

Cracker proudly showing off his newly liberated tooth.

Evelyn LOVED the trampoline. I literally had to drag her off of it several times.

(Sorry I just had to throw this picture in)
Cousins in the bath.

Char Char showing me how to blow bubbles.

Evelyn's first attempt at blowing a bubble.

Preston watching the older kids jump on the trampoline.

At the park, Evelyn climbed all the way up to the top of this swirly thing. I was so proud.

Our breakfast in bed from Cracker. Yummy!

Little kid lunch

The Easter Bunny came!

March 23, 2008

Evelyn was so stinkin' excited for Easter this year. Last year she didn't quite get what was going on so it was fun getting to watch her expressions and actually letting her enjoy the candy we bought. I can't say her Easter basket was a complete surprise however. She was with me when I did all the Easter shopping so inevitable she picked out her own basket. It took all my power just to keep her from opening it right there in the store. I even put it under the cart hoping that she would forget about it but she just kept looking down at it through the cracks and giving me a big cheesy smile.

Easter Sunday came and we had planned to wait until we were all dressed and ready for church but Evelyn made her way into our room while no one was looking and found the baskets anyway before we got a chance to give it to her. She loved it and Preston seemed to enjoy his pretty well too.

After church we made our way over to Andy's mom and dad's and there we enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner of one of my all time favorites, ham and THE BEST potatoes. Dinner was amazing and the company was just as great. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking, playing games and just having a very nice time.

The Guitar Hero

One man's Quest to become THE GUITAR HERO.

I just thought I'd mention that this is the video that Andy and his new business partner, Jason, put together to play on St. Patrick's day. The main character (i.e. the guy with the awesome mullet) is Jason, Andy's new business partner. And if you look closely, Andy makes a couple of appearances as well.

St. Patrick's Day

In true St. Patrick's day style Andy and I went to a bar.

March 17, 2008

Being that it was my very first time at a bar I have to say that it was exactly how I always thought it would be like. Also, as much as I know you all want to hear about all the drinks and the crazy wild dancing we did, I'll have to disappoint you. Actually, Fish Lips (the bar) was previewing some of Hectic Films' new shorts and since Andy had a huge roll in making one of them we decided to stop in to make an appearance and hopefully see the film. We got there pretty dang early and I was surprised to see how many people were already there. I guess as a non-drinker I've always underestimated how big of a holiday St. Patrick's day is. The good thing is that Hectic Films got some really great exposure and I had an awesome time too! I finally got a chance to meet all of the Hectic Films guys that Andy's spent so much time with and we actually got to stay just long enough to see the short film/ music video that Andy and his new business partner came up with.

News

Sorry to keep everyone hanging. I'm sure by now you're all totally annoyed by my "Single Mom" post. I can't believe it's been an entire month since I've updated my blog. Well, a lot has happened in the past month. I'll slowly try to get caught up over my next few blogs. Some of them may seem a bit old to everyone but since this is the closest thing I have to a journal I want to include them anyway.

April 19, 2008-

First things first, most of you already know that we're moving. We've been in the process of packing for the past few weeks which is one of the main reasons for my not blogging (that and the fact that Andy needed our computer for his new office) so at the moment I am without. We've applied for several apartment managing positions but have yet to hear anything back from any of them. The plan now is to move into Andy's parents' guest house. They are totally awesome to offer it to us and we greatly appreciate it. It's actually probably going to be much better for our family anyway. It's a tad bit bigger than our last house and has 2 bathrooms (thank goodness!). Right now we're in sort of a transition period. This week, however, Andy and I are actually taking a nice little break from packing and we're taking care of my 3 super awesome nephews. Today was our first day and Evelyn is just loving it!