Happy 9th Birthday, Michael!

Michael,

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday my little man!  I can’t believe you’ve survived for 9 whole years.  You don’t eat much else except pasta, fish (white fish only, please), McNuggets, steak with pickles or lemon sauce, rice with soy sauce, lobster, sushi, and hotdogs, and a few other food things.

Your favorite places to eat are Steak n’ Shake, Pei-Wei, McDonalds, Kobeya, Sushi Sam’s, Red Loster, and Café Italia.  We make you go to other places and we can usually order you plain pasta, but these are our “go-to” places with you. You chose to go to Kobeya for your birthday dinner.  I can't say that I am surprised.

The last time we measured you, you were 51 inches tall.  I don’t remember how much you weigh, but it was not much. It’s been a real struggle with you and food.  I know you need to eat a better variety, but I get so tired of fighting you.

You are ALL about soccer right now.  All you want to do is kick the ball around. Unfortunately, Matthew has not been a really great playmate when it comes to outdoor play.  He would rather sit in the house and play with his toys.  There have been many fights between you two about this. 

You are on 2 teams - a recreational team called the StarJets and an academy team called Odyssey. You are so good at soccer, especially your passing skills.  We hope you continue to pursue this if this is your PASSION.

You are my sweet and sensitive little man.  You love your brothers and you adore Mark.  You have been so helpful with Mark and I am so proud of you.  When Daddy’s traveling, you are Mark’s little baby-sitter in the evening.  You play with him and take great care of him while I clean up after dinner, shower and get you all ready for bed.

Your sense of humor is beginning to take shape and I love it.  You have been telling jokes and you make me laugh every day.  You make me want to cry almost every day too, but that’s for another post. You are still throwing tantrums, but the number has definitely gone down.  When you get upset, you get really quiet, and it breaks my heart because I see so much of me in you.

You are happiest when you are in your shorts and T-shirts.  You hate to be uncomfortable is your clothes.  You won’t wear a shirt with a collar unless we make you.

I just love you so much.  A part of me is happy that you are growing up, but another part of me wants to bottle you up and keep you just as you are now.  It makes me so sad to think that you won’t need me to tuck you into bed anymore.

Welcome to the World! 

1Year Old

2 Years Old

3 Years Old 

4 Years Old

5 Years Old

6 Years Old

7 Years Old

8 Years Old

9 Years Old 

Reading List

I need this list like a I need a shot in the head.  I'm not sure when I'll be able to get to it, but I'd love to read these books. 

And Our Next Family Summer Destination Is....

Our next family vacation has been booked. Aloha, Maui! I can’t wait to see you again and introduce your awesomeness to my three boys.

First, we will stay in Wailea at the Grand Wailea.

Then, we will make our way to Lahaina and stay at the Marriott Ocean Club.

I've missed you and can't wait to see you again!

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

Happy Spring! I can’t believe it’s already mid-March and my Michael will be turning 9 in 5 days! We've had wild weather in North Texas in the past couple of days. On Monday, there were all sorts of weather warnings and watches from tornadoes to flash floods. Today, it's sunny, mild and beautiful. This is one of my favorite times of the year in TX. The trees have fresh leaves on them. The bluebonnets are blooming and tulips are in season. The weather is usually mild and beautiful. Not too hot and not too cold. Just perfect. This doesn’t last long here in TX, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

This year, I’ve promised myself that I will make it the Dallas Arboretum during Dallas Blooms. This is a short period where the tulips and other bulb flowers are in bloom. It’s supposed to be spectacular. M said that he can get one of the guys he works with to take our family photos and I’d like to have the photo session there. Problem is I need him to schedule it NOW so that we don’t miss the peak bloom period.

This is also when the Spring dresses come out! I’ve seen a few that are really pretty but I can’t buy them because I need to lose a little more weight. I want to get back to my pre-third baby size which is between 2-4. I’m at a 6-8 right now and I am not at all happy about it. I would like to start going to the gym again, but I’m not sure how that will happen. Sigh.

Mark will turn 5 months in less than 2 weeks. He is just getting cuter and bigger every day. He’s still not sleeping well and is cranky a lot. It’s pretty much our fault because I know that Sarah hold him most of the day. He’s probably spoiled. For me, that’s OK because he’s still so little.

Spring Break 2012

Back to reality. Reality as in real life, not reality TV, but we did watch The Real Housewives of Orange County last night so it could mean both.

Since we are on the topic of TRHOC, I have to say that Vicki is annoying the heck out of me. She can dish it, but she sure can’t take it. It makes no sense to me that she doesn’t see that dating a guy who has gone to jail for not paying child support is hypocritical, especially when she was so public at how Slade is a deadbeat father. I’m on Gretchen’s team on this one. Vicki should just shut up about it.

Anyway, back to real life reality. We got back from a wonderful trip to Horseshoe Bay. I was very skeptical at first because our accommodations were a little worn out looking and the kids seemed bored, but after the first day, the kids started playing with the other kids and we discovered that the resort had some beautiful grounds and wonderful amenities.

Michael trying to get Matty to smile

With Daddy by the lilly pond

Brotherly love!  They were holding hands.  Love it.

We got there at about noon and had lunch at the resort. Then I went back to the room with Mark and M took the other 2 boys to the putting greens. M said the boys weren’t really into it because it was pretty hard to get the ball in the whole. Matthew said he won, but Michael said only because Matthew cheated.

On Friday, we spent the afternoon at the pool and once the kids were done with swimming, they went to the activity field and met some other kids. They spent the whole late afternoon and evening playing games with a bunch of other kids. When they were done, we went to dinner at this place called On the Rocks in Marble Falls. It was not good. It started out very lovely because we were seated right away and Mark was sleeping so I thought “great when the food comes, I can eat.” We waited and waited and waited. Our food arrived and hour and twenty minutes after we ordered and we ended up taking it to go because Mark was very cranky at that point. They weren’t even busy. What a horribly run restaurant! That pretty much ruined our dining experience in Marble Falls.

Playing on the activities field

Marky's 1st swim!

We went to the Yacht Club and spent the day there on Saturday. The Yacht Club was lovely. The kids played on the sandy beach, went into the hot tub, and played on the field where there were games and activities set up for kids. We went back to the resort where we had dinner. After dinner, the kids made their own s’mores and played glow-in-the-dark football until 9:30. They had a blast!

We left bright and early this morning so we can make it home for Michael’s soccer game at 2pm in Grapevine. His team won 2-0.

Wednesday Randoms

I am now a proud owner of the cake pop maker as seen on TV. One of my co-workers had extras because her husband ordered 8 on accident and they couldn’t return them. She asked if I would like to buy one. Being the sucker that I am, I bought one from her. I figured that boys would like it. I just need to find the motivation to actually make it for them. I would post a pictures for you, but apparently all images on their website is strictly copyrighted. That's how good it is.

I have not watched the finale of The Bachelor yet, but I already know who Ben chose through other bloggers – namely Reality Steve. Urgh…that guy is such an idiot and if I ever met him, I would tell him to go wash his hair. Ben, not Reality Steve. Rumor has it the he’s already cheating on her. That’s a big surprise. Rolling my eyes.

I am working on a list of what I will need to pack for our little trip to Horseshoe Bay. There’s so much more to remember since we are traveling with Mark. I know that we can always buy whatever I forget (it’ll be something), but making the list makes me feel like I’m super organized. M bought him a cute little swim outfit and I can’t wait for him to put it on. I’m not sure if he’ll get to go in the water because of his eczema, but he’ll look cute poolside.

The Swimshirt



The Shorts



To top it off, the Hat

I scored a Trina Turk bikini at TJ Maxx today. I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to rock it yet, but I’ll try it on and see how I feel. It’s super cute and for $50, it’s a no brainer.

I’m really looking forward to this break. I just hope the resort is nice. It was a choice between the Horseshoe Bay Marriott and the JW Marriott and we picked Horseshoe Bay because we’ve never been there before. I’m not expecting it to be as nice as the JW Marriott, but I could wrong.

Sick Eyes

Michael looks like he was in a fight. His right eye was completely swollen yesterday and we think it’s an allergic reaction, but we really don’t know, even after we’ve taken him to the allergist.

This was what he looked like Wednesday night.

This came after both swollen eyes Wednesday night after his soccer scrimmage. I gave him some Benadryl and he was a little better Thursday morning, but the swelling was still pretty bad so I took him to urgent care. They sent us back with some drops. By Friday, he was back to normal and I was happy.

He was all better by Friday - this was Saturday

Then yesterday afternoon, his right eye acted up again. M took him to an allergist and they prescribed him some Prednisone and Pataday drops. As of this morning the swelling has not completely gone down yet. Poor baby…

This was Monday afternoon

I'm hoping it will look much better tonight after we do the Prednisone and eyedrops.

Michael's 9th Birthday Party

Michael had his birthday party on Sunday and he LOVED it! He said it was the best birthday party EVER and I’m so happy to hear it.

We took 6 of his friends to FC Dallas Stadium to watch the FC Dallas soccer team play New York Red Bulls in their season opener. Everything went perfectly. The weather turned out perfect, the kids were very well behaved, and our team won the game!

I’m not sure that all the kids were into the game, but I think they had a fun hanging out with each other and experiencing a soccer game with the food and the crowd.

When we first got to the stadium, it was a little cold and I was nervous that it may rain, but as it got later in the afternoon, the sun came out and warmed things up. We were able to get down to the field level to watch the teams practice. I thought the kids might have been bored, but Michael said it was exciting. I can tell that he and Daniel really enjoyed watching the professionals warm up.

Michael got to go down to field level again during half-time where they announced that it was his birthday, showed him on the big screen and presented him with an FC Dallas ball. All his friends were thrilled to see him up there and they all started chanting “Michael Fisher, Michael Fisher” during the birthday announcement. It was really cute! They also displayed his name on the matrix board up on the rafter, so that was really neat too.

The gang

Michael doing the soccer kick

Matthew giving the soccer kick a try

At field level watching the team warm-up

Having fun!

Clay and Aris

Daniel and Aakash

Harry, Matthew and Luke

Michael and Clay

Waiting for the game to start

Daniel and Michael at field level

My two babies..Matthew barely avoided a meltdown before this picture was taken

You can barely see it but it's there - Michael's name on the matrix board