Happy Birthday Ethan!!!!

JANUARY 30, 2007

AT 1:28AM

ETHAN MICHAEL DEVORE

5LBS 1OZ 18INCHES LONG

"We loved you before we meet you"





Ethan,


Your Dad and I waited 4 years after your sister for you, had I known it would be this much fun the second time around I might have done it sooner. The day you came into our lives was an unexpected adventure. I was asked to go to the hospital on Monday 1/29/07 and have my blood pressure checked, after about 2 hours at the hospital they told me I was having a baby.."What???" I was not ready you were not due for another 6 weeks..."Why??" turns out my blood pressure was so high it was not a good situation for either of us and the only way to help us both was to have you! After the initial freak out I called your Dad and grandparents and everyone quickly came to wait for your arrival. I should also tell you we had no idea if you were a boy or a girl, as with your sister your Dad and I decided that there are few things in life that are surprises and we choose to be surprised.





So as the night went on and I was being prepared for labor we talked about what life was going to be like with 2 kids. I really wondered how I could share my love? I knew I loved you from the moment I felt you but hard to explain. So as soon as you where born I fell in love with you....my baby boy! You had to go to the NICU since you were so small and also a Little early, but all in all we both came through.





I look back now Ethan and I am sad that time is flying by, I love that your are always willing to cuddle and that you always know how to make me smile, and I love how you always seem to know when I need that Hug! you are so sweet, kind and loving. Whenever you get a cookie you always get one extra for your sister. Always thinking about others. I hope you never change. I love you so much it hurts, I tear up at the thought someday you will leave and be grown, but until then...please lay with me,kiss me good night, share your smiles, ask me to "rock..rock", and I promise I will do it all without a second thought, but most important Ethan has just be you.





All our love


Daddy & Mommy

Kissing boys....and so it begins

Alyssa came home from school today and as I was reading her planner I saw a note from her teacher and it said "Please talk to Alyssa about kissing boys at school as we do not allow it"...my first reaction was a laugh...then a OMG she is kissing boys and she is only 5 years old!!!! the second thought was where did she kiss him? Why did she kiss him? Kyle and I are very open and kiss in front of the kids but I show this as a way of letting them see how much we love each other.So I asked Alyssa the questions I had and this is how our conversation went:

Mom: "Alyssa who did you kiss at school?"

Alyssa:"Jack's friend Nick, he's in the other class"

Mom: "Why are you kissing boys you are too

little, and did you kiss him on the lips?"

Alyssa: "Ewww, Mom that is gross, I kissed him on the head don't tell Daddy he won't understand!" (she starts to cry)

Mom: " Alyssa I won't tell him ( to self I know I will) but you are not in

t trouble just remember we need to hug our friends not kiss, ok?"

Alyssa: "OK Mommy"

So that was our conversation of course I told Kyle and he thought it was funny she thought he would not understand. We had a private laugh and for the sake of not embarrassing her we decided Kyle would not bring it up to her. I look at this situation and think "Is this what it will be like" not the laughing part but will she come to me and trust that I will protect her and know that I will always understand?" I hope so, I try to enjoy today and not worry about what the future holds but kissing at 5 years old....in 10 years what will it be? Ok I will enjoy it now cause looking that far ahead is scary.

One great Dad......

I wanted talk about Kyle today. I was talking with a friend yesterday about how Kyle was taking the kids to Sea World since Alyssa had gotten a good report card. She told me I was lucky..lucky?? I had to ask, she went on and on about all the things I tell her that Kyle does with the kids and said he was " a rare breed" really???. I thought about it and realized I am lucky! I feel in love with Kyle the day I meet him! I knew soon after I would spend the rest of my life with him....but I had no idea that I could love him more then I did at that moment....then we had children together.

Kyle has always been there no matter what, he is the one playing in the yard wanting to take them to the park or just to lay and watch TV together. I love him! I thought wow this would be great to blog for Father's day but then I thought why wait, why should he be praised one day when he is a great Dad everyday!!! I love that he wants to do things with the kids and every Dad should, but I guess I am lucky. Kyle works FT and goes to school PT to be a better provider...he tells me so he can get the kids everything!!! But someday we will all look back and realize we have it all!!! I wanted to just take the time to say I love you Kyle and you are a great day, and sorry I don't say it more!

Cold day in Florida

So today it is a chilly 36 degrees in Florida. I would consider myself a Florida girl since I have lived here more then half my life at this point, but my daughter was born in Florida and she shows it. Today while getting ready for school Alyssa out on a long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve over it and hooded sweat shirt and then her jean jacket and scarf and hat......Florida girl??? 100% Alyssa did live in Ga for a 1 1/2 years, but I guess she would prefer the sunshine state. I asked her before she got out of the car this morning "are you cold or something" and she replied with "Cold? I am frosty here mom, but not melting"....out of the mouths of babes. I really enjoy our morning talks waiting in line at school, I hope we have warmer days soon though.

Sea World

So we decided to go to Sea World on Friday and get our annual passes. We knew we wanted to get it this year as we have enjoyed it in the past and since we thought the kids were a good age to enjoy. This morning was Alyssa's follow up with the Ear specialist and it is necessary for Alyssa to have the surgery to have her adenoids removed and tubes put in as her right ear drum is still not working and her hearing overall is about at a 60%. Even though this is a standard procedure it is still the thought of your child having surgery. So we were glad we were going to be having "family day" as the doctor's information set our mood for the day.
We hit the rides and Alyssa and Kyle went to get in line for Shamu express (kiddie roller coaster) and Ethan and I were going to take pictures, well a few minutes after the ride started I saw Kyle walking towards me and then saw Alyssa riding by herself. Kyle said just before they got on she told him he to go and said she was a BIG girl and could ride by herself. Kyle thought it was funny and said it sucks at the same time, while we are proud we are raising her to be a strong willed girl, yet sad it is happening so fast. She was so happy though when she got off the ride that she did it all by herself.

After that a little bit more low key we took Ethan on the sea horses carousel. He kept say "whoooo" it was so funny, we had fun.

Of course we needed to stop and enjoy the view and have a little snack and the kids took this to be a great chance for them to be camera hams.

Alyssa and Ethan loved the sea lions they kept yelling at them to wake up, but no chance we did hear one burp though, which they thought was hilarious.

Well I guess we can say even though the day started out with a little bit of sadness all it took was a little bit of "family time" to make it all better. The kids fell asleep before we even got out of the parking lot and snuggled with their new toys Daddy help win them in the kiddie arcade area.

The Leap Frog Pen

Alyssa got the leap frog reading pen for Christmas and loves it. Last night after I was cleaning up the bathroom after the kids bath I went back into Alyssa's room to get the kids to have them go brush their teeth and when I walked in Alyssa was reading out loud to Ethan. I quickly ran and grabbed my camarea of course and took a couple quick pictures, they could have cared less they were so into the book. I watched them for a couple more mintues and hide in the corner in case they even noticed I was still there. Alyssa even showed Ethan some of the words and waited for him to respond, she is such a great big sister! I can't believe I would ever see this...and then again I better blog this so in 15 years I can show them how much they lovd each other! I just love that Alyssa wanted to read to him and he truly enjoyed it, we actually had to tell them time was up for bed time and they both cried! More tommorrow I said.They begged for more time.

I could not help but just give them 10 more mintues as I watched over with tears in my eyes, they truly have no idea what these moments mean to me and I hope someday they will, need and love each other as they do now.

Disney Marathon Volunteer Day

This Sunday I volunteered at the Walt Disney Marathon, and even though I had to wake up at 2am to be there to check it at 3am, I had a GREAT time.The tent we worked was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society tent for team in training. We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the runners to eat when they were done. I must say I do not want to see another jar of peanut butter or jelly for a while. But I got to hang out with some great people and work for a good cause the team in training alone had 1800 runners and had raised 7 million dollars!!!! I was there because friends of mine lost their son to Leukemia last August and now are in the fight to cure cancer! I hate that we have become friends from this lose but I love that we are now joined together to fight cancer, and have fun doing it.

This is the tent we where at also have to note I did blow some of those balloons up.

This is the whole gang and also our famous "peanut butter jelly time"wooowoooo.

Here we are on our assembly line making the sandwiches, it was really hard work, but fun.

This is Jannae and Stephen and the whole reason we went on Sunday! To Celebrate in memory of Camden.

Chuck E Cheese

Chuck E Cheese "Where a kid can be a kid". This is where Alyssa said she wanted to go after her perfect week at school. After 2 referrals and a couple of notes we have come down to pure bribary with Alyssa...hehe. We started a reward chart at home and everyday she has expectations, like be nice to Ethan, clean your room, put clothes in the hamper, make good choices at school, and no cussing! Sounds great huh, well we tell Alyssa after she gets so many stars she gets a "prize" and after the long school break we knew getting back to the old routine might be hard so we told her if she came home with a stamp everyday and got at least 2 stars every night, Friday we would go to Chuck E Cheese. So obvioulsy she made it!!! Woohoo. We even took Grand Ma and Grand Pa to celebrate!!!We all had a great time and most of all Alyssa had a perfect week.

She was pretty good at air hockey.
Daddy had fun too!

Ethan got some help from Grand Pa, but look at the serious face.

Ethan was relaxing while Daddy was playing.

After about and hour he finally rode the roller coaster.

Happy New Year!!!!

Ethan, Alyssa, Joshua and Noah all got their new years hats on and ready to party!

Alyssa,Joshua,Noah and Ethan were ready for bedding and trying very hard to make it til 12:00am.

Alyssa was the new year princess with her crown.

Our last family picture of 2008. We are happy for 2009 and all it has to offer us, I look forward to 2009. I have high hopes of continued great friendships and wish us as well as everyone else a happy,healthy and prosperous new year!!!