And now it's Aubrie's turn!

100 days of school is pretty exciting for a preschooler too. So exciting that she wanted to wear her shirt a day early! But I talked her out of it and convinced her to save it for today. So this morning she went out the door this morning very excited to be allowed to go to school on a "non-school day". (Thanks Missi - hope they remembered your Diet Coke!)

100 days is exciting, I tell ya!

100 day, 100 days, 100 days of fun

The 100th day of school is a big deal when you're in Kindergarten. I mean BIG. It's so important, that you request a shirt with a "100" on it to wear on the special day. It's so important you've been counting down and talking about it for weeks. And let's not forget the special surprise of 100 goodies from the teacher that you'll be receiving.

So yesterday was THE DAY. 100 big ones.



And because it's such an important day it calls for a "100 Day Lunch". (For some reason I don't have number cookie cutters, but I do have food safe pens.) :)

Snowboarding Anyone?

Daddy pulled out his snowboard to let someone borrow not long ago. It still hasn't been put away, so little Miss A thought it'd be fun to try things out.

Snowboarding anyone?

Diapering Done Right

About 10 years ago I had an almost 2 year old and our diapering days were coming to a quick end. And besides, disposables were just what you used. I had a friend tell me they were going to cloth their first daughter. I thought and am sure I told her "Why in the world would you do that? You're crazy." She thought she'd give it a try since her husband had been allergic to the old sposies. I just thought she was crazy - cloth diapers? Really? She did diaper service with some prefolds and covers and it lasted a couple months. Then it was discovered her daughter wasn't allergic to sposies, so the switch to sposies was made. After that not much thought was given to diapers, cloth or otherwise, in our house.

5 1/2 years ago we had our second daughter and disposables were what we used. We didn't know any better. That's just what was "normal" and what we used. Then 18 months after that we welcomed our third daughter. Towards the end of my pregnancy I discovered cloth. I discovered how pretty they were. How versatile they were. How EASY they were. How you didn't need a diaper service. How they would save money in the long run. How they were better for the environment. And so on. So with the birth of our third daughter we made the switch. The two youngsters donned their cloth bums and rocked it. Oh yes they did. And I took back all of the jokes and bad thoughts I had about cloth. When I decided cloth was the way to go I even told my friend "I take back all of the bad things I ever said about cloth. It's so easy and pretty."

We welcomed our fourth daughter just four months ago and cloth is still a happy member of our house. Sure, we use sposies on occasion. Like when I get behind on diaper laundry or we go on vacation, but for the most part cloth is the way we go. This is our diapering done right. Isn't it gorgeous?

Photo Challenge - 52 weeks/52 photos

I was inspired this year by some photog friends of mine to do a photo challenge. Many of them are doing the 365 challenge, which is a photo every.single.day. That seemed like a bit much for me to take on this year, but I thought it would be fun to do the 52 photo challenge. One picture, every week, for an entire year. Sounds like fun, right? Check 'em out as the weeks progress - they'll be pictures of the kiddos, stuff that inspires me, who knows where the camera will take me.

Come and enjoy the journey - Briana Monaco Photography.

Happy 4 Months!

My sweet Haylie Mae,

It's been four months since you entered our family. And I can't believe it's going by this fast. You are no longer the teeny tiny newborn that slept in my arms for hours. You are now the rolling, raspberry spitting, giggling, squealing little girl that sleeps in my arms for just a little while. You're taking in the world and learning from everything you see - including those 3 big sisters that can't get enough of you. You'd think by four months the newness of you would wear off (especially for those two big sisters that have already done this whole little sister thing before). But nope, they still want to cuddle, play and enjoy you. Which is just how it should be.

I don't think there's never going to be a time that I don't wish you were still that itty bitty baby I brought home from the hospital. But I also know that there's never going to be a time that I'm not going to be excited to see what you do next. I look forward to all of the days and years ahead of us. It's going to keep being a wild ride and to be quite honest, in 44 years you'll still be my itty bitty.

Deck the Halls

Holidays, holidays, holidays. They came, they went and we rocked them. All of them. Thanksgiving was delicious, Christmas was merry and New Years was delightful.

Here's a little picture -fest of our Holiday awesome-ness.

Christmas Eve at the in-laws. Here's the Mama.

Santa Came and boy did he deliver.
The Girls and their Loot!
Haylie gets blankets. Because well, Haylie only needs blankets and food. And well, I've got the food thing covered.
Cameras for the tween - YES!
Oh yea, new tooth brushes for the littles. Santa wants us all to have pretty smiles, ya know.
Books for the Babe. She'll be reading my 5 months - we've got a genius on our hands.
Coolest Sock Monkey Ever! Her name is Nina.
And Daddy got this Mama some buh-ling. Got my "mother's ring" or what we like to call "we've had 4 girls and Daddy says we're done ring". :)
Merry Christmas All.

Fast Forward - New Years Eve. It sort of evolved from a dress up, watch movies and play Wii kind of night to a dress up, play Wii, have the in-laws over and play cards kind of night. Go figure. Su-pah fun though, because well, we know how to roll.
Me & the Hubs. Be jealous.(Kidding.)
Getting ready to party.
The Girls and Grandpa. (Don't you just love how festive he is with his party hat?)
That's it folks. The Holidays are over and we're bringing it in 2011.