it has been waaayyy too long.....

I have no idea how long it has been since I blogged last??
Alot has changed, so let me catch you up to speed.
#1-  is 16 (aahhh), which makes us feel so so old by the way, and is now a working boy, making great money as a bus boy at Heston Supper Club. And thank goodness for that, because he now has a CAR!!!! Pretty much every mothers new worst nightmare, that their child will have to drive a vehicle, without their parent.  It has been going great though he has had his permit for about 8 months, and will be getting his license in June. (That's when I will really be freaking out) I still slam my foot to the floor board as all parents with new drivers do, but now I get to text and ride, so not a bad deal. I do at times feel like Miss Daisy though, I ain't gonna lie :)

#2-  is 14 3/4 (Somedays it feels as though she is going on like 20)she has changed into a beautiful young woman with straighter hair, perfect teeth and a much nicer wardrobe, that I wish desperately I could fit into,  and still doing the volleyball thing. That is her life, that is our life, and for some reason I don't see that ever changing, and I am ok with that. Watching your child pour her blood, sweat, and many many tears into something that she LOVES with a passion makes me one proud mama! She is doing awesome as a freshman in school, rocky start with a faulty locker, but now life is good. School is something this girl takes seriously, she must because I pretty much NEVER have to tell her to do homework, study, or even ask her when projects are due. Thanks goodness too, because with 3 other siblings, well you all get it.

#3-  is quickly approaching the big 11, and I meanin  3 days  . He is a sweet, sweet boy, who is working his way through the 3rd grading period of his 5th grade year, with awesome grades (and his last year I might add ) He has taken up the new sport of Bow and arrow. Bow and arrow-ing ??? Anyways, he wined and complained and googled and really did his homework to convince us that he would be great at it. Using big words to describe the different parts of the arrow, and or bow, and the holder thingy,  as it turns out, he's not bad. He also convinced us that he needs a fish, or two (which he got) and most recently a blue parakeet, named blu. (Of course) Who has decided to be stubborn at the moment, and start biting us.

#4 as some call the" spoiled one", I have no idea why... she is now 6 turning 7 in March. How do I sum up the last year of this ones life? She has really taken to reading, alot, like always, and has gotten very good at it. I sometimes think that me taking her to storytime for about 1 year and a half might have had something to do with it, or maybe not, who really knows, or cares I am just really proud of my girl and her acomplishments thus far. She too convinced us that if her brother gets fish, she of course needs some. She started with 2, and in about 1 month was down to 1. We have NO idea where Bob went, pretty sure his hot pink fish friend, Izzy devoured him in the night and we haven't seen him since. Oh, and yes she needed a bird too. The 1st one was a green parakeet, Peter, and 7 days later he decided to pass on. So the replacement bird is a blue,gray,and white "fancy" parakeet (not sure what's so fancy about it) and his/her name is Fuzzy. One can only hope he makes it a bit longer than the last. And I must add as I type she is watching videos on her new iPad about the American Heart Association, because today she brought home paperwork explaining their "jump for heart event", man I love her.

So as you've read this I have also managed to multi-task ( I like to think that  if they gave out trophies for this said accomplishment I'd have tons!) because I have been folding laundry, helping with homework and even uploading the latest volleyball tournament photos to facebook, AND emailing a few friends copies of their daughters pictures, whew. So now, here I go adding  a few pictures to this post and hitting publish....

Meet Mr. Wrinkles.....

Ok , where shall I begin ?? The big kids came home from school today (track practice was cancelled due to the 89 degree weather) and thanks goodness for the following reason....

Ashden comes in yelling my name, now mind you I am knee deep in the boys bedroom by this time "Down here" I yelled back. Here he comes flying downstairs holding a note card holder. He proceeds to tell me he found something really cool at school today during his 3rd hour. They were working outside on something or another. He opens the box and inside is a baby painter turtle!! Aka Mr. Wrinkles....

He was very cute, as I do like turtles and remembered when I used to "collect" a few here and there keeping them until they die. Anyways.. Reese fell in love with him right from the start, and so I knew he was going to be around for a bit.

Funny part of the story is how he managed to make it to our house. So my child is in 3rd hour and sees this turtle outside, and decided he is going to keep him. Now how do you think he plans to smuggle the little guy into the building?? HA well, why not wrap him up in notebook paper putting in a few staples to make sure he won't escape. (In case you are confused on my 2 boys Ashden is the 8th grader) So not what to do with him until school lets out at 2:08? Well why not just stuff him into your locker?? Seriously what was going on in that little noggin of his is beyond me. So there Mr. Wrinkles sat hour after hour, possibly being checked on during a passing period or two. Reese is now "In love with him" she says. Why not she has seen him and held him all of 10 minutes..

This takes us to 4:00 time to take Rileigh to her volleyball lesson, so with puppy dog eyes and a real pitiful look here came Mr. Wrinkles in the car for a visit to the Dunes Center. The girls got a kick out of him, and according to Reese they all love him as much as her, and were quite glad she brought him.

And as I sit here blogging with a full belly of my husbands spaghetti (which he prepared early this morning before work for us, god love him) Reese is still perched at the counter now trying to convince her friend Maya that "He is just a baby, he will not attack you!!"

For those of you that know the Yettaw's you should know he will not be with us for long, so we will enjoy Mr. Wrinkles for now, and pray he goes before we are planning a turtle funeral!

Reese Addison 3-30-06

On this day, 5 years ago Scott & I welcomed our newest and last sweet baby girl. The next day she was given the name Reese Addison. She was a whopping 7 lbs 11oz and 21 inches long. She came home to two older brothers, an older sister, and a dog Zoe. She was perfect in every way!! It is crazy to think that 5 years has breezed by so quickly!! A wise woman once told me that "These are the best years of your life!" and then, I laughed "If these are the best , I would hate to see the worst!!" Little did I know , I would soon be missing the late night feedings snuggling with your sweet baby while she gazes up at you with those big beautiful brown eyes. Miss hearing the mispronounced words that we once thought were absolutely adorable. The naked little butt that would run off the minute you tried to change her diaper. The spills and "uh oh's " that you would be left to clean up on a daily basis. Raising children is very stressful, exciting, scary, hilarious, but most of all rewarding when you reach a time in your life when you can say to yourself, "wow I guess we didn't do such a bad job after all." There are times when you lay holding a sick baby, and pray that everything turns out ok. But as the time quickly flies by, you realize that all of those "stressful, & scary" times are the ones that you will forever cherish and remember. Being a mom has been a life changing experience to say the least, so thank you Reese Addison for being a wonderful, beautiful, smart and funny child, and for letting this mommy spend each and every day loving you, and being honored to share my life with yours...... Please enjoy these pictures they are some of my favorite ones of her.. Sorry about the bad quality of some of these, I litterally snapped pics of framed pics, and out of scrapbooks. Lets face it I do not have the time to go scavenging areound finding the master copies and scanning them all. :) Photo taken 8 months pregnant...

March 31, 2006 the day we brought you home.

I believe this was about 4 months old.. 1yr old

2yr old fall pictures

3rd birthday picture the day of her party

1at day of Preschool at Lambs Little Ones

Catching a little snowflake

Fun in the sun

And this brings us to today Reese- 5yrs old!!

ear piercings.......

The wait is finally over. Rileigh has been bugging her dad to please pierce her cartilage..... While most girls her age if they want them that is have had this done for quite some time, no she has had to wait. It is funny you know that people assume that because Scott does what he does that our children don't have to play by the same rules as everyone else. In fact, Rileigh was about 5 years old before he pierced her ears. We waited until she was ready to get them done, until she could make that decision. Maybe she wouldn't of wanted them pierced as a baby, or at all for that matter. Nonetheless, he pierced one one day, and the other about a week and a half later! LOL So we fast forward 7 years later, and she is finally getting her cartilage pierced. That's about as lenient as we get, so she know until she is 18 that she better not ask for anything else. Can you believe someone actually asked Scott one time if he has tattooed any of his children?? He responded with "Uh no the oldest is only 14!" Seriously people?? I could only imagine what he would get if we left it up to him at a tender age of 14, OH Lord........

A room fit for a princess.....

Gramas stool before

And after ...

Well, she made it...... drum roll please...... 9 days and counting. Reese Addison has been sleeping in her room for 9 days, and gets excited about it every night that she will be adding another tally to her list by morning. Sometimes I think that it's the parents that worry about it and have the hardest time. maybe she has been ready to "sleep" on her own, and we just haven't been pushing the issue. She was a breastfed baby and it was just WAY to easy to leave her there snuggled up to me for convenience sake! Daddy on the other hand did not have such fond memories of his beautiful baby girl snuggling with him, no he however had knees in the back, pushing him until he almost fell to the ground. A mighty little thing she is. So our "idea" was to make this switch a very big deal for her, and since decorating is practically my middle name, off to shopping mode went my brain. Rileigh is turning 13 this July, and she has been asking for a new "big girl bed" lol and so the idea was to give Reese Rileigh's bedroom set, and buy Ri a new one sometime soon?? Now to get dad on board with my master plan, he usually sees me pulling out the Pottery Barn magazines and runs the other way... lol. No seriously, I think he just tunes me out after a few moments into the convo with a blah blah blah, and "how much will this cost me?" When looking at the pictures I must add that the little stool came from my moms house, one that I had totally forgot about until my cousin pulled it out one day when Reese was there playing at her house. She thought it would be perfect in her room, thanks Tammy!!

So, the plan worked Reese got Rileigh's bedroom set, 4 freshly painted walls of Deep Carnation, and Posy Pink. New linens, curtains, and other cute decor. Not completely finished but close enough!!

And by the way RIleigh's bedroom set was delivered today, and her wall color is awesome!!! Not to tease you, but it is totally not ready to be seen yet, lots of decor to still go up!!!

A volleyball weekend.......

Last Saturday morning we left bright and early to drive to Rileigh's volleyball tourney in Indy. First, we had to drop off the other 3 kids to Scott's moms (well we meet her at a Pilot station on the HWY) lol its actually 1/2 way between her house in Ft.Wayne and ours. Reese was super excited to go to Nana's that she pretty much told anyone that would listen!! The boys were happy to just not be going to yet another volleyball game. SO with that said, by 9:30 we were the proud parents of just ONE 12 year old girl. Ahhhh.... Ok back to reality. Funny thing is, we didn't even have our bundle of joy with us, she decided to ride down with another team ate! We made in to Indy in awesome time, and met up with Ri and some of the other girls and moms for some lunch before the shindig began. We played that weekend at Sportzone, and let me tell you it was an awesome place for all things sports. Except for the seating arrangement, but you know we always find something to complain about. The first game we got beat, not a good start, but our girls were determined NOT to go home losers! So during the second game they proved to be great little volleyball players, and spanked Team Indiana!! Woot Woot. Ok, yes we get a bit excited for our girls, they practice way too hard to not be showered by our love when they win. Last game of the day we played Munciana, and WON!! So that tool us to leaving at 8:00 to check into our hotel, and find some food. The girls however decided to take a dip in the pool, before having some pizza. That led us up to our room, and quickly falling fast asleep, just to get up and put in another full day back at the court. (Funny how I'm telling this story like I'm the one playing lol)

Sunday comes we decide to get hotel breakfast which was very good, shower and hit the mall, I mean c'mon we had like 2 hours of down time. lol. Sundays game were awesome we played our first games against another Muncie team, and beat them! Thank god because their parents were very arrogant, spewing that "their"girls were 3-0 yesterday, blah blah blah, our girls ricked that court, and the parent, well sad they were. Ohh that sounds mean of me. sorry.

So that led us into the GOLD bracket, where we won the first match, lost the second and lost the tie breaker by 3 points!! Sad for us. But happy that they were a level above our girls and we were the only team to take them to 3 games!!! That says alot about how our girls played!!

Ok gotta get ready for work, ot the preK kids are gonna think, its wet hair day, and be oh so mad at their mamas for not sending them there like Miss Kim showed up!! LOL

Here a few pic, not good ones by any means terrible lighting, bit blurry but better bad than not at all!!!

Aidyn is cooking dinner..

So it's a normal Friday night in the Yettaw household, Rileigh has left us for her other family, The Bogers, Ashden where else but sitting 2ft away from the tv screen in his room playing Black Ops with the surround sound in full force, Reese huh well ...she has been playing Easter egg hunt all evening (Now that's a whopping good time), and Aidyn and I started his board for his science fair project (mind you a project he does not have to do, he simply said "I'm doing this for practice for next year when it counts, that way I won't be so nervous"... insert: melted heart.

But our tummies were getting hungry so there we were left to decide between popcorn chicken, chicken pot pies or..... pizza??

My little Aidyn, bless his heart, LOVES to cook. Often you can find him perched on top of the counter watching, learning, and helping as Dad is cooking. (If you didn't know by now, you should know that Momma doesn't cook!) So giving Aidyn the go ahead to choose what he wanted he decided on PANCAKES!! We added a side of bacon, and it was perfect. We are an easy bunch to please around here. The kids know that if Dad ain't cooking..don't expect too much! By the way I did get suckered into playing 2 games of Easter Egg Hunt, do we know how to have fun on a Friday night or what???