5 years...

Five years ago today I almost died. Five years ago today my life began...
Today was my firstborn's 5th birthday. Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday this picture was taken. For those of you who don't know the story, after a LONG labor (which included my contractions stopping and having to be given pitocin, then at one point Drew's heartrate falling and being on oxygen) followed by around 2 hours of pushing at the end of which Drew was finally extracted with forecepts and the vacume; we finally welcomed our baby boy on Oct. 30, 2003. Shortly after Drew's arrival the doctor informed us that my placenta would not detatch and I was losing A LOT of blood, so they would have to take me imediately to emergency surgery and do a D&C, and if that did not stop the bleeding then they would have to do a hysterectomy in order to save my life. Not exactly what you want to hear when you're 23 and have just given birth to your first child. Thankfully, after a sucessful procedure and blood transfusion I was fine and did not have any complications with my second delivery. Needless to say, looking back on Drew's birth is such a momentous occasion in my life and leaves me with such a mixture of emotions.
Today, on Drew's fifth birthday, I thought I would share some things about him...
Drew is totally my loving child. He LOVES to snuggle and hug and kiss. Everday he will randomly come up to me during the day and tell me, "mommy, I love you" and give me kisses and hugs.
Drew is also into "manstuff". Drew wants to be as manly as he can be. Anything that dad and the guys are doing, he wants to do with them too. On the weekends he would much rather hang out with Joe and his man friends than with children his own age.
Drew is currently very into Indiana Jones and Ironman. He is actually dressing up as Indiana Jones for halloween and thinks he is the coolest! Drew's current favorite tv shows are "MythBusters", "Dirty Jobs", and "SpongeBob".
Drew is a funny guy. He says the silliest, craziest stuff and has the best imagination. He will amuse himself for hours. He is so much fun to be around and I am so proud to have him as my son and my friend. He will always be my "best boy". Happy Birthday Drew!!!

Not Forgotten

No, I haven't forgotten about my blog and I'm not purposefully neglecting it. The computer is still cooperating and we've done several things around here that I could have blogged about. The problem is that now our camera seems to be broken. It's always something around here! And lets just face it...blogs without pictures=no fun. No one really cares about what I have to say, they just read this to see the cute pics of the kids!!! And I'm ok with that...really. We'll have the situation fixed within the next week or so, because our halloween party is next weekend and then we've got Drew's birthday, and of course I have to get pictures of those. So I guess I'm shopping for a new camera...anyone have any suggestions for an inexpensive digiatal that will last for more than a year?!!!

The Peanut Butter Facial

Today I FINALLY got some sewing done (more about that later)! I was up in my room working this afternoon and the kids were downstairs watching SpongeBob (yes...I let the tv babysit my children...shame on me). Well after a little while what should I hear but my sweet darling little Anna coming up the stairs. And THIS is what I saw... A.R....."Mom, wash my hands"

Me...."Why did you put peanut butter all over your face?"

A.R....."Cause...."

Two year olds!!!! Then the little stinker, who never cooperates for pictures, proceeded to give the biggest cheesiest smile and pose for several photos. So go on...rush out to the spa to get your own peanut butter facial...it's all the rage at the preschool!!!

A Donut Picnic...

So last week was Drew's second week of school. This year he is in 5k, which means he goes 5 mornings a week. In the past, Drew has had a hard time going to school. He does not like change and it usually takes him a while to adjust...however this year he is doing EXCELLENT!!! I told him one day that we would have a picnic at the park after we picked him up from school. He said that he would want chocolate donuts at his picnic. Why donuts? Your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, since he has been so awesome about going to school I decided to suprise him Friday with a donut picnic, complete with chocolate glazed donuts and "little milks". I think Anna enjoyed it too...

We are still alive....

Just want to say first that, yes, we are all still living! I had such good intentions when I started this blog and I've just totally been slacking. Most of it is due to the fact that I have the WORST computer known to man. I don't know what the problem is, it's not even that old, just one day it was working fine and the next day it was really crappy. I really think the kids did something to it...Anna especially likes to play with the keys and I think she typed in something crazy that messed my whole system up. Anyway, I think I've figured out how to manipulate it so that I can get it to cooperate for the time being.

So let me update on our summer...
Pretty much boring and uneventful for the first half. Then in the end of July we took our annual beach trip. This year we rented a beach house in Gulf Shores for a week and met Chris and Erin (bro-in-law and wife) and Jason, Carolyn, and Blayde (Joe's unofficial bro and his fam). We had a really good time...the kids played great together, Joe and I celebrated our 8th anniversary, and we got some good family photos on the beach (which we took ourselves because we are WAY too cheap to pay a professional!).
This is my fave...

The whole Rodriguez family...

The last few days of the trip I was not feeling well and turns out...We're having another baby! That's right folks...3 babies in 5 years. We were TOTALLY suprised, but are pretty excited now. Due date is March 27th (which is just 4 days before Anna's 3rd birthday). I have felt worse this time than with both my other pregnancies...I just feel really gross all day...but hopefully I should start feeling better in another week or two as I get out of the first trimester.

The only other eventful thing we've done is go to the first Auburn game last weekend. It was a night game (which I've never done) and since it was against a smaller school (LA-Monroe) we thought it would be a good one to take the kids to. It was soooo hot until the sun went down and it was PACKED!!! Not exactly what we were thinking of when we made our plans. But the kids were really awesome. We didn't go to any games last year (the kids and I...Joe went to several) so it was really exciting for them and it was fun for us to see them get into it. All I know is that we will NOT being going to anymore games for a while...I do not want to get that hot again anytime soon!!!

Fun in the sun and a little home improvement

So this past week the kids and I stayed pretty busy running errands and going to appointments and the library. A.R. had her one year check-up on her tubes in her ears and everything looked good. One of the tubes is about to come out and the other one is still in there, so we'll go back in 6 months to see if they've come out and if everything is healed up good. By the end of the week the kids were seriously upset because we had not had been to the pool, so I pulled out our dinky little excuse of a baby pool and hoped that would pacify them. They actually played in it both Friday and Saturday morning...it was a lot more fun once I put the slide in it! And don't you love the shades...

So after 4 years we have finally gotten around to doing some painting! Perhaps we were inspired by Drew's recent paint fiasco? In any case, Saturday morning we decided that we wanted to go get some paint, so we did. We bought a new quilt for our room and some paint for our walls, and then we bought this bright blue paint for the kids ducky bathroom. This was only our second experience with paint, so we're still learning, but I must say I'm pretty proud of our work. Just don't look at the ceiling...Someone (not me!) had a little trouble controlling when to stop his roller!!! Such an improvement over the blah "eggshell white" that was in there before. Guess all those years of watching "Trading Spaces" finally paid off...

Oh No He Didn't...

I wanted to post this earlier in the week, but have been having computer problems so I haven't been able to. On Monday afternoon Drew wanted to play outside while I put A.R. down for her nap. He was out there maybe 15 minutes before I came to check on him. I walked into the garage and the first thing I noticed was the distinct odor of an aerosol spray. Now I just know he couldn't have been spraying anything because just a few weeks ago we had a major discussion about not spraying things (he sprayed white Kielz primer on our garbage can and on the front of the truck!). I mean, surely he is smart enought to know better...right? WRONG!!! As I looked around the garage this is what I saw...

and this...

and then this... Florescent yellow spray paint. What in the world could have possessed him to do such a thing?! Thank goodness he didn't touch any of our vehicles or I don't know what I would have done. But he painted the front of the house!!! He also painted a bunch of spots on the grass too, I just didn't take pictures of those. When I asked him why, here's what he said..."I wanted to make a hot ride" (that's why he painted his car and bike) and said that he sprayed the house because he was "killing bugs". Needless to say...he felt the wrath of Mom and Dad for the rest of the day and it's going to be a looong time before he is allowed in the garage alone again!!!