This One's (Mostly) About My Husband.

Wesley and I got to know each other during an oppressively boring Spanish class in college. We bonded over defacing our textbooks and shamelessly trying to one-up each other with shockingly inappropriate crudeness. I would like to tell you we've outgrown this juvenile behavior, but no. Not, really.

Soon after we started dating, I moved from Florida to New Jersey for law school. We kept our relationship alive via email, instant messenger and MS paint. Here's a small sampling of why I love my husband. Circa 2000 - 2002.

Have I Mentioned That I am Completely in Love With This Little Dude?

...I just couldn't stop taking pictures of him while we were at Animal Kingdom!

Do You See This Ridiculous Cuteness? Of COURSE I'm Not Done Having Kids!

I write blog posts every night. I do. In my head while I'm nursing. Most of them are great! ....informative, entertaining and full of words. But by the time I wake up in the morning, they're gone. I need one of those doohickies that turns your speech into typing, except for my thoughts, because I don't want to be loud and chatty at 2am.

The Best Baby Daddy Ever.

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Another great shot from Sarah Bray Photography.

Have I Mentioned, We Love EPCOT?

On Friday we hit EPCOT again. The weather was fantastic and the crowds are gone now since the Food and Wine Festival is over. This time we took the short boat trip in The Lands, went on the Figment ride and then hopped on the monorail. The monorail was our only big hit. "It's like Thomas, Mommy!!!"

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p.s. Have you joined SwagBucks yet? Seriously, you need to. They're now offering Alice.com gift certificates for only 12 points. That's like being handed free diapers. Or toilet paper... you know, if you're up on that whole potty training thing. Seriously, though. Join.

Most of My Kids Hate Me and They Decided to Show It By Refusing to Dress Up For Halloween and Ruining My Night. Except the Baby. He's Still Cool.

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Did you enjoy this tribute to my new little bear? Check out more tributes here!

A Tribute to Doing as Much as Possible!

Friday! Sea World with my parents. It was a scorcher (96 degrees in October?!), but we still had a great time checking the flamingos, sea lions, dolphins, alligators, sting rays, sharks, fish, frogs, manatees, penguins and so much more... and, of course, lets not forget the sand box!

In the evening our friends came in from Melbourne to celebrate Wesley's birthday and Casey had his first sleepover. How exciting! The boys spent about ten minutes when they first went to bed tattling on each other... "MOMMY, Casey's laughing!!!"... "MOMMY, Merrick's talking!!!" Too flipping cute. The big boys stayed up playing Rock Band, while Erin got her fill of Jessi's purple stained bundle of nummy nummy new baby.

Saturday! Wesley's birthday party!!! The little boys were tickled pink to throw a birthday party, so we brought them to Dollar Tree in the morning where they each picked out a mylar balloon, a present for daddy and party hats. I surprised Wes with food from his favorite restaurant and we all had a lovely afternoon watching football (and maybe playing just a little bit more Rock Band).

In the evening we packed up the kids and headed to Gainesville for the night to visit Wesley's parents and brother.

Sunday! A fun day with Grandma and Grandpa Mimi! The boys played in the yard, fed the fish, petted the guinea pigs (like the WonderPets, Mom!!!) and visited the park. Around dinner time we headed back to Orlando. Despite drive-thru snafus, tons of traffic and heavy rain we made it home by 7:30 and Wesley and I were able to enjoy a little bit of the evening to ourselves.

(pretend this is a picture from Gainesville)

Monday! A visit to the vet for Izzie, followed by a trip to the pumpkin patch! The boys each picked out two baby pumpkins while I chose a whopper for carving. After the pumpkin patch we hit Old Navy for halloween costumes. How excited was I when the boys picked out lion and tiger outfits?! Hello! You'd better believe I got the new baby a bear costume!!! Yay!

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More tributes here!

A Tribute to Friends... New and Old!

The boys made a new friend, Sofia, when we visited my parents in south Florida this weekend.

And then we were able to visit old friends in Melbourne on the way home!

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More tributes here.

A Tribute... to Making Room for Three.

So this past weekend we took the plunge and bought a brand new 2006 Toyota Sienna. I'm not going to lie. I LOVE IT. My old ride was fine, but this one is just sooooooo roomy. And we NEED roomy! It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but I never really used them anyway. Oh, and have I mentioned it's super roomy? Seriously, it seats EIGHT. Including, three ginormous Britax car seats in the second row. I am totally within smacking distance of each child. Perfect.

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p.s. Have you joined SwagBucks yet? Seriously, the easiest and best rewards program I've ever joined. I've earned $35 in Amazon.com gift certificates in just under two months. Love it. LOVE IT.

So Many BABIES!!!

A tribute to our rapidly growing family and meeting the cousins!

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More tributes here.

My Tribute... To Sleeping Like a Baby.

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More tributes here.

p.s. Have you seen my shop lately? Lots of new merchandise including scarves, blankets and now hats!

A Tribute to Saving Money... And Spending Money.

I figure we save about $15 per mommy-done haircut...

...so I feel pretty ok when it costs $10 in Auntie Anne's pretzel's to recover.

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More tributes here.

A Tribute to Violent Toddler Kisses. *MWAH!*

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More tributes here.

A Tribute to Stickers. Even If They Do End Up In The Worst Places Imaginable.

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More tributes here.

A Tribute to Modern Medicine. a.k.a. Why My Belly Looks Like a Well Used Pin Cushion. a.k.a. AntiPhospholipid Antibody Syndrome Kind of Sucks.

So, a few people have asked why I don't show my bare belly in the pregnancy pictures I post. The answer is, it's a little bit modesty, but not really because I'm not especially modest. I mean, much to my sister's dismay I have a whole category about boobies on the internet. So, mostly it's because I don't want to gross everyone out and lose all my friends.

I have antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS), which is a fancy way of saying my blood is too sticky. Normally I take a low dose aspirin every day to counter the effects, but when I'm pregnant the extra hormones up the stickiness factor, and so I use injectable blood thinners twice a day. In my belly. Which makes for a really ugly picture. Not to mention, I have stretch marks. A lot.

The APS, unfortunately, complicates pregnancy. It's to blame for my two miscarriages and can be tangentially blamed for my two emergency c-sections. Also, it means I have to go to the doctor a LOT. I've been going three times a month since the begining of my pregnancy (twice a month to my regular OB and once a month to the high risk folks), and starting this month I will go every week to my regular OB for check ups and NST's and also once a month to the high risk folks. Starting in September? Twice (and sometimes three times) a week! Woot!

I know, sounds like a major pain, and kind of it is, but also it's nice to see my doctors so often and be constantly reassured that everything's going well. Plus, I get so many pictures of the soon-to-be baby! And who doesn't love that?

p.s. I recently learned that I'm in good company with my APS. Heather and Jenny (yes, I AM totally pretending I actually know them) have it too.

p.p.s. If you're still curious, you can see a picture of my jacked up belly here. Don't say I didn't warn you.

A Tribute to Handy Dandy Daddy!

Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Gordon still won't run. But they had fun trying!

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More tributes here.

A Tribute... To Patience.

(yes, my butt IS growing at the same rate as my belly. thanks for noticing.)

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More tributes here.

A Tribute to... Accessorizing.

Who needs little girls, anyways?

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p.s. More tributes here.

p.p.s. Don't forget to enter!!! Here, here & here!

My Tribute to Elastic Waist Pants.

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p.s. More tributes here.
p.p.s. Contests galore!!! Check them out here & here!

A Tribute to Fast Healers!

You would never know this child had surgery less than two weeks ago!
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p.s. More tributes here.
p.p.s. Check out my new digs!
p.p.p.s. You can still enter to win every day this month!