Shillig 4 Family

At 5:22AM I went for a run/walk/jog. I had no need for my 530AM alarm. Solomon had been up since 2:30AM and I had tried dozing on and off but it was impossible with him saying, "MOM!  MOM!" every two seconds. I whispered to Jake as I left that he needed to listen for the kids. I came back to Solomon way too close to the TV I had turned on when I left. I did a mile and a half alone and a half mile with Zelda. I made waffles for breakfast. Jake commented multiple times, "Thank you for such an easy going morning." Maybe there is something about the Mom being up and going before everyone else that helps. We'll see if I can keep it up.

Aimi Lark comes home and tells me it's Dr. Seuss' birthday on Saturday.  She was way excited.  I found her and Mali Su in her room reading all the Dr. Seuss books she got for her 3rd birthday from her Grammie Lark.  She's never touched them I feel like til this week.  That's the power of birthdays my friend.  She went to school today with all her Dr. Seuss books from her shelf and a Dr. Seuss VHS movie we have.  I wrote her teacher a note, hope she doesn't mine.  Aimi Lark was so excited, I just couldn't not let her.  Also, her outfit today, precious.  Sequin belt (that a piece of material she tied at her waist), Christmas argyle leg warmers, purple glitter shoes, and a flower headband with a jewel in the middle.  I wish I had taken a picture.  Once again, so cute, didn't have the heart to tone down her style.   These pictures from last week when I dropped her off will do.  Watching her walk away to school just tug...

Mali Su sees the baby dolls I have put by the stuff to get rid of on the curb. She asks, "Why are you deleting our babies?" I tell her they have plenty of babies and we are giving these dolls away. She then asks, "Did you delete my red turtle?" We truly live in a digital world! (and because every post needs a picture, this is Mali Su with her birthday card/money from her Grammie Lark)

 We made it on the jumbo-tron!  When we showed the guy our tickets he said, "let's get you some better seats" and he showed us to a different section.  They came through and gave us all these Disney hats and clapper noise makers and I thought maybe they'd show us.  I was so excited I got a picture of it (even if it's not amazing).  Can you see us?  hint, I am taking a picture in the picture. Pro Basketball games are more of a party than Pro baseball games.  I'm so excited that we went and had this fun experience.  The game felt like a college basketball game or watching any other basketball game for that matter.  The surroundings are what made it feel professional.  Every single time there was a break of some sort they had something on the court.  Dancers, drummers, slam dunks with trampolines.  It was a party/show/basketball game.  I love that Jake takes note of little things I say.  This was, ...

 Me with my first blog book!   These days, its so important to have something tangible to reflect on good times, hard work paying off, or simply being creative. I am totally in love with making Blurb books for just about every occasion, whether it be a wedding book, a birthday album, a cookbook, all of our family trip pictures, even my Instagram account can be converted into a Blurb book! I have been meaning to make a new BLOG book for a while and as if Blurb read my mind, they are offering 25% off purchases from 2/22-2/25. Head over to Blurb now and tap into your creative side! Use the links on my sidebar for this great deal!  

Solomon says, "MOM" more than all my other children ever have in their entire lives combined. Sometimes I think my brain might explode if he says, "MOM" one more time. I have always tried to be almost annoyingly patient with my kids and answer ALL their questions and not blow them off.  Solomon leaves me no choice sometimes.  He'll say, "MOM" times 10 and I answer him and then he says, "MOM" times ten again and it's never ending.  Sometimes when he says, "MOM"  I say, "NO! Solomon, NO!"  When Beau was in town he swapped, "MOM" for "BEAU" and it was a heavenly peaceful few hours.  As soon as he started saying, "Beau" Jake said I was getting a break. I remember my Mom telling us we couldn't say, "Mama" anymore for the night and now I get it.  Your brain can't handle being called to attention constantly.  Jake can just tune things out, I do not have that gift....

In April of this year it will mark 12 years since I became a Mormon.  When I first learned of this religion I was intrigued by their strong base of families.  I was impressed by this.  I wanted to learn more about this.  I WANTED THIS! My family history isn't exactly filled with successful marriages and I wanted one.  I wanted a successful marriage.  Before I was exposed to Mormonism I had this future mapped out in my brain.  I'm not sure if I've shared this (kinda sad/embarrassing) story on my blog before.  I planned on attending medical school, I figured I'd meet my husband in medical school, after awhile of both being married and working as doctors he'd have an affair and we'd be divorced.  I didn't think I'd have children, I'd have a career.  Not exactly the "Happy Ever After" but it was realistic to me and I'm a realistic person, not exactly a dreamer.  This worked for me.  Now here came these friends my sophomore ye...

Posted 2/6/19 on a quest to catch up all the posts in my drafts folder on my blog that I never posted

Malachi called out to me saying, "Mom, Come look at my Boys." He was showing me his transformers all lined up and seems to reference them often as "my boys." We love these RESCUE BOTS.  The boys have had a couple for awhile and I recently stocked up on all the ones they didn't have since Solomon and Malachi have birthdays coming up.  Soon enough they'll have the whole collection to match the movies they watch on their leapsters.  This boy will be 4 in May! He is in the SUNBEAM class at church. He tells me how beautiful I am all the time. He wears his "power underwear" (pull-ups) to bed at night. He loves to ride his big wheel tricycle FAST down the hill with no fear. I love this boy! He got a new suit and I took him to a barber for a flat top and they gave him more of a MARINE flat top than I was hoping, but it works.

 Behind Solomon are gators on top of gators on top of gators.  There are some turtles in there too.  Gators literally at every turn.  I heard one worker say there were 1500 and another said 1700 gators on the property.  Malachi perfected "gator surfing."  We went walking through the forest to find this FAMOUS gator named "Pops" who has been in all kinds of movies.  Jake's favorite part, WHITE GATORS, not the same as albino gators.  Louisiana legend has it that humans who stare into these alligators' baby blues will receive good fortune. These were not the more common pink-eyed albino gators, but are called leucistic (loo-SIS-tic) , which is basically a genetic defect.  I always like to do a little extra or buy a souvenir at the places that give us a military discount or like here they let Jake in free.  This time it was fun to buy a picture of us all holding a Gator and Jake weari...