Mommy.... It's my favorite name

It is hard not to associate fall and school starting with being another year older. Even if your numerical age doesn’t change until spring you still feel older.   You are no longer that little ten year old in 4 th grade, but now you are a “grown-up” ten year old in 5 th grade. I used to love the first day of school, riding the bus to my new class, I was full of anticipate, excitement and anxiety for what was to come. My Niece on her first Day! Today I see countless pictures of all my friends and their little ones with the “First Day School” pictures I can’t help but feel nostalgic. This is one year closer to my baby going to the ‘big-kid’ school. One year less that he doesn’t have to worry about the homework and school pressure. I will be excited for him to go to Kindergarten and slightly heartbroken at the same time. He starts in his 4 year old room Monday and continuously reminds me how big he is, how much he is going to learn in his new ‘big-boy 4-year old” room,...

There are so many moments that I look at my sweet little boys and think “I am doing something right.” Moments when they stand and hold the door for a lady to walk through before coming in the door themselves, When they tell each other “you’re my best friend Buddy!”, When they climb up on my lap to give me a hug or kiss out of the blue and tell me they love me, all of these moments they are MY boys. Then there are the moments, and moms of boys may understand what I am talking about, The moment that they pull a stunt or say a phrase that you look at your significant other to tell them “HE IS YOUR SON!”….. Because I do not know how in the world he thought of that, so it must be my husband’s doing. (Obviously kidding, most of time we are both flabbergasted). After talking to a man that I work with who has three boys he continues to enlighten me on the fact that little boy “tick” different then little girls. My little boys say what is on their mind and they mean every word of i...

We recently took our first family vacation. We went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina….Well actually Surfside Beach, South Carolina (It is a little more family friendly) but for less geographic explanation, Myrtle Beach. The drive from Central Illinois to Myrtle Beach is about 16 hours. For this reason alone I could not even focus on how great it would be once we got to the beach because I was so preoccupied thinking about how the boys would do on such a long car ride.   Well, like they do time and time again, they exceed all my expectations and were the best little car riders. We had two melt downs one on the way there and one on the way back, both just because Jimmy was hungry. Honestly, I think they might have been better behaved then mommy. (I was so ready to NOT be in the car any longer) We arrived around dinner time on Saturday to the condo, which is just a couple blocks from the beach. We decided to get settled into “home” (for the next week) and unpack and get bat...