We are happy to announce........

We are

now a

FAMILY OF FIVE!!!!!

It's a

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meet the newest addition to our family:

 Meet Reese!!!!

The kids named her...well Avery wanted Luna, but Parker convinced her on Reese. She was born on June 10th and will be 8 weeks on Monday. She's a sweet puppy, but she's got a little crazy side to her...I think she will fit in perfectly with our family!

R.I.P.

Alligator passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was with us for three very short weeks. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't handle the whole thing very well. As our ritual every morning, Parker and I went to the bathroom to feed Alligator and then brush Parker's teeth. Only when Parker dropped the first pellet Alligator didn't swim over. Normally he's like a little puppy that goes crazy when it's time to eat. So I peeked in his bowl, screamed bloody murder and cried out: "He's dead! Alligator died! Oh my god!" It wasn't a proud moment especially with Parker right there! At Parker's horrified look, I got my act together and pulled him out of the bathroom since he was starting to freak out.

kevin and i always said alligator was like a little puppy...whenever we walked into the bathroom he would start swimming like crazy and follow us (well as far as his bowl would allow)

First I asked him if he knows what dying meant. I felt that he did after he learned about Jesus during Easter time at school and we talked about Bailey dying. He said yes, but then asked to see him. Unfortunately, I heard the toilet flush just then. Not knowing what to say, I told him that Alligator is playing with Bailey and Jesus in heaven. He had huge tears in his eyes and kept saying: "I just miss my fish!". It about broke my heart!

I knew the fish would die one day, but I wasn't expecting it to be 3 weeks after we got him!

We still have Alligator's bowl sitting on the kid's bathroom vanity and just yesterday morning while I was brushing Avery's hair, she pipes up in her squeaky little voice: "Alligator all gone! Goldfish (she thinks all fish are goldfish) all gone, Mommy!" I've promised Parker another fish, but I don't know if I can go through another traumatic event like that again and have to explain it to Parker.

New Family Addition...

Kevin and I have talked about getting a puppy after Bailey died and Kevin talked about getting a big dog after we got robbed. But after talking about it we decided we're not ready for the responsiblity of having a dog right now. Let's face it...dogs are sometimes harder to handle than kids. Kevin and I are happy with our family of four...well ok if I can be honest, sometimes I really miss having a teeny tiny baby and I miss those little flutters in my belly when I was pregnant and Parker and Avery would somersault. But we decided long ago that we were done and we are content with our family of 4 and our 2 crazy kiddos. We weren't planning on expanding our family, but then things change when you least expect it.

This is how it all started...my morning started out rough. Kevin left early to go to a car show with his brother and the kids were acting crazy. I had a late night and wasn't feeling good. Then I found myself arguing with Parker to get his hair cut. The kid hates to get his haircut! I bribed him and he let me cut his hair with scissors...uhh yeah...he almost had a bowl cut! lol So I begged him to let me use Daddy's "buzzer". He shrieked as if I had just "buzzed" his ears off. So we started slow...I let him touch the guard of the razor...gentle little pets while it was turned off. Then we progressed to running it through his hair while it was turned off. Then Daddy brought out the big gun and showed him a ring pop that he could have after we cut his hair so he agreed to turn on the buzzer. He was fine and wasn't crying or shrieking...that is until the first clump of hair fell on his lap. Then he acted as if I had literally cut his ear off. I jumped away from him thinking I had...then I realized I was nowhere near his ear since I had started at the top middle of his head. This was my first time buzzing his head and I was a bit nervous, but Kevin yelled at me to just keep going. So I buzzed away while Parker cried about his hair hurting him as it fell on his lap, legs, neck, and shoulders. I kept telling him how proud I was of him for being so brave and my sweet polite boy just kept saying "thank you, mommy." So after about 10 minutes I had a freshly buzzed boy with a ring pop...

please try to ignore the runny nose...his allergies are driving me nuts!

Oh and what about our new addition you ask??? No I wasn't going off on a tangent...I really had a point. You see I had to bribe him to get a hair cut. Not just with a ring pop, but with a:

fish!!! And with a tiny little slip of the tongue I agreed to get Parker a fish if he let me cut his hair. And just like that we became a family of 5. Parker originally said he wanted a small fish, but then gravitated towards the koi. I laughed and steered him towards these cute little guppies w/ pretty red fan shaped fins. We got two...one for each kid. Then I told Parker to pick out a bowl and the sales lady advised we needed a filtered a tank. Say what, lady? I wanted something simple! She said the only fish we could get that didn't require a filtered tank were beta fish. So we said goodbye to the guppies and I steered Parker towards the beta fish.

looking at the goldfish...I think he looked at all the tanks...

Avery loved looking at all the fish too! Too bad Mommy didn't want to handle more than 1 fishbowl and you can't put 2 beta fish in the same bowl. So we are gonna be a happy family of 5!!!

Parker's first pet...it was love at first sight! Welcome to the family, Alligator! My child obviously needs to be brainwashed a bit that he is a Seminole and not a Gator. Needless to say he has insisted that his fish be named Alligator. When I first asked him what he wanted to name his fish he said: Chuck E Cheese then he said Nemo. His third choice was Alligator and he has refused to rename him. Sigh!

"Alligator, you eat your lunch!"

So we are now a happy family of 5. I haven't had a fish in forever and I have high hopes, but I'm hoping this will teach Parker some responsbility. Our rules regarding Alligator: 1) You can't touch the bowl 2) You can't feed Alligator without Mommy and Daddy. I will clean out Alligator's fish bowl, but Kevin has agreed that he has burial duty when the time comes b/c I am NOT going to do it!