I truly can't believe it, but our third child hit double digits this week! Lily is such a sweet, smart, and funny girl, and we love her so very much. Turning a decade old is a big milestone, and we had so much fun celebrating her 10th Birthday!
We filled Lily's birthday with favorite traditions, favorite people, and favorite things. She started celebrating at midnight, took a small break to sleep, then was back at it at 7 AM. She didn't stop celebrating until her birthday was officially over, and then she simply crashed from exhaustion!
Every year, Lily claims it was the best birthday ever, and that says so much about her. Grant and I believe that because childhood is fleeting, birthdays should be magical. We make it a point to celebrate each child to the fullest on their big day, and they are always so grateful. Turning ten is a big deal, and we loved celebrating one of our most favorite people in the world!
You know that saying, "March Comes In Like a Lion and Goes Out Like a Lamb?" It wasn't quite accurate here. March was a whirlwind, and on the last day of the month, we were in the emergency room with Lily and her broken arm. To top it off, the month ended with the coldest night we have had in weeks, complete with freezing temps and sleet. Yeah...I'm not falling for that saying!
I have so many posts to publish...SO MANY...but I'll just start with the most recent news. Lily fell victim to the dangers of jumping on a trampoline, and ended up with a fractured elbow. Needless to say, my husband is ready to burn that trampoline! My thought? Kids will be kids and stuff happens!
It definitely wasn't the best way to kick off Spring Break, but thanks to our l o n g night at the hospital, all of our kids started their Spring Break one day early. We didn't get home until early morning, and none of the kids slept long enough. So here we are, shivering from the sudden return of Winter, physically and mentally exhausted, and REALLY hoping that April is going to be kind! Here's the scoop on the second broken bone in our crew...
Last year, Lexie and Coen's birthdays fell days before the pandemic made our world shut down. We were able to celebrate their birthdays, but had to put their birthday parties on hold. Lily had been hoping for a big birthday party with her friends, because she had never had a party with classmates due to having a Summer birthday, but as August 3rd approached, we knew it wasn't going to happen. She was so diappointed, so we decided to come up with a fun alternative!
On Lily's 9th birthday, our new favorite family birthday tradition began! We tackled our usual birthday traditions, then after Grant finished work for the day, we loaded into the car, dropped off our dog at my parent's house, and took the party to a hotel with a swimming pool. Thanks to lack of travel during the pandemic, we had the entire hotel to ourselves!
We had such a great time that we decided that it needs to be a permanent tradition! Once a year around Dylan's birthday, once between Lexie and Coen's birthdays (14 days apart), and once between Lily and Liam's birthdays (15 days apart). I thought it would be fitting to share our new favorite tradition on Lily's half birthday!
We are back from Lily's 9th Birthday celebration! We had a great time, and found a new favorite tradition to add to our list. I will be sharing our little adventure later this week, but first wanted to honor Lily's wish to share her birthday interview!
My kids love answering the questions for their birthday interview each year! It's fun to see how much their answers change from year to year, and compare their answers to their siblings' answers. I didn't realize how much Lexie and Lily had in common until I copied Lexie's 13th Birthday interview, and changed the answers for Lily!
Lily had a wonderful 9th Birthday despite the pandemic changing all of our original plans. She wanted to answer these questions the night of her birthday, but we were all exhausted. Instead, she answered them last night, and I promised I would share them today. So here is Lily at 9 years old...
She arrived on a warm August morning, as the sun was rising over Pittsburgh. What I remember most about that day was how still, how silent, how calm, and how beautiful that morning was. Not a sound was heard in labor and delivery, as she took her first breath. Her arrival was peaceful, as if she had always been with us.
As of 7:24 this morning, Liliana is 9 years old! I truly can't believe 9 years have gone by since her birth day. Lily is a beautiful, smart, loving, funny, strong, and confident kid. She is so sweet and unique, and has the ability to capture the heart of everyone she meets.
Lily had her heart set on a party with her friends at a skating rink, followed by a big family party this year, but hello, pandemic. She was so bummed, so Grant and I worked extra hard to give her a socially distanced birthday celebration that she will always remember. We can't wait to celebrate our beautiful girl when she wakes up later this morning! For now, here's a look at Lily's birth day, followed by each birthday she celebrated. She grew TOO fast!
On Saturday, August 3rd, Lily celebrated her 8th Birthday! It's so hard to believe my baby girl is 8 years old. I swear, I just had her, but she grew up far too quickly. I just want her to stay little, sweet, and innocent for as long as possible!
Lily's Birthday was a busy one, and she had to share her special day with a family event. My family reunion is always the first Saturday in August, so every few years, Lily's birthday is the same day as the reunion. She didn't seem to mind one bit. She celebrated her birthday with some of the people she loves most, and had the loudest happy birthday song! She said her birthday was so much fun!
One of our birthday traditions is to have a mini photoshoot, and answer questions in a yearly birthday interview. I love seeing how their answers change from year to year, and I love watching them grow! Motherhood truly is bittersweet - you want to watch your children grow, but you also want them to stay little. I honestly love my kids' birthdays so much more than my own, so we make birthdays a BIG deal around here!
Well, we did it! We survived - and recovered from - dance recital week. Any parent who has a tiny dancer knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about!
Lily just finished up her third year of dance. This past year, she took jazz, ballet, and acro for the second year in a row, with her BFSB. (Best Friend Since Birth - she came up with that term!) She dances at a local top-ranked dance studio (they just announced they placed in the top 20 dance studios in the nation), and they have an amazing award-winning competitive team, so the recital is always a huge production!
The week leading up to the recital was intense! Lily had her last dance class, then a rehearsal to learn the recital finale, then a full dress rehearsal, then another finale rehearsal...and finally, the recital...PHEW. Plus, I had to cut, tie, and bedazzle two recital shirts for the finale. It took F-O-R-E-V-E-R. Lily was nervous (her former thespian parents told her that was perfectly normal), but had an amazing time!
When Summer began, it seemed like August was so far away, but the months flew by. It felt like I blinked, and August was over! I took off half of the month for vacation and family time, so I left a lot of blog posts hanging out in my drafts folder, just waiting to be published. That included my usual weekly mom life recaps, so I figured I would just share the rest of August in a quick monthly recap!
At the end of my last recap, I left off a week into August. So let's play catch-up on what happened last month! Spoiler alert: It's a lot!
Lily celebrated her 7th Birthday on Friday! I remember the day she was born so vividly. It doesn't seem all that long ago, so it's hard to believe my baby girl is now 7 years old!
Lily had a great birthday, and we spent the entire day celebrating! She kicked it off with a room filled with balloons, and it ended with a tent full of kids. Every moment was special, and I have no doubt she's going to remember her 7th birthday fondly!
Happy Friday!!! If you read my post on Tuesday, you know we're recovering from a tough two weeks. The good news is Liam is on the mend, he's done taking steroids (YAY!!!), and today is Lily's 7th Birthday! We have a LOT to celebrate!
I'm keeping this week's Friday Favorites short and sweet, and sharing 5 awesome things that we are currently loving!
Time is a bittersweet thing. It goes by way too quickly and just slips through my fingers! One event flows rapidly into the next until it's a steady stream of constant activity, and before I know it, months have gone by. I'm going to be completely honest with you. I can barely keep up and my days are a complete blur! That's my only explanation as to why I'm posting about Lily's 6th Birthday three months after the fact!
The sad part is, I didn't even realize it until I was clearing out my drafts folder. I *thought* I had posted about it already. Actually, I also found Liam's birthday post and the rest of our vacation posts in there, so I'm going to be interspersing those events with current posts over the next few weeks. Such is the life of a mom of four: Always playing catch up!
SO...it's hard to believe, but Lily is now 6 years old, and she has been for, oh, 3 1/2 months. But still...6 is so old! When I think about how big she is getting, it makes me both incredibly proud of the amazing person she is growing up to be, yet sad at the same time!
Lily had an awesome birthday this year! We work so hard to make birthdays special for our kids, and it always pays off. She was busy from the moment she woke up until the moment her head hit the pillow that night!
On the beautiful morning of August 3rd, Lily awoke to a bedroom filled with balloons, a brand new outfit hanging up, and a living room decorated just for her! She was still sleepy, but oh so excited!
There's not enough time these days. Not enough time to write, not enough time to read, not enough time to exercise, not enough time to clean, not enough time for ANYTHING... An entire season passes by in a blur, and I'm left whirling from constant busyness. Before I know it, months have gone by, and I haven't had the chance to blog about an event or story, so I just give up. But I don't want all those stories to just go by unwritten. That's why I started this blog in the first place - to chronicle life with my family!
I decided I'm going to play a little bit of catch-up. One story each week until I'm caught up. Today, I'm taking it back to July 12th, when Lily had an unfortunate accident. Thankfully, we can laugh about it now!
Most kids are naturally accident-prone. And when you have four of them, those accidents just seem to happen ALL the time! This doesn't bode well for a mom who gets queasy and light-headed at the mere sight of blood!
This story begins on a hot, sunny Summer day. As you know from reading this blog, the kids and I work on a lot of crafts and activities together. On this particular day, we decided to go outside to work on a project. All four kids gathered up the supplies, sat together on a big picnic blanket, and got to work. I sat with them to supervise. Everybody was getting along and working together.
As every parent knows, everything can change in literally an instant. That instant happened when Liam stood up suddenly, lost his balance, and fell directly onto Lily, despite my efforts to steady him...and Lily just happened to be cutting with scissors at the time. I'm sure you can imagine what happened next.
All I remember is the unified, blood-curdling screams from three kids, blood spurting everywhere, and cars slowing down to see what was wrong. I immediately went into emergency mom mode, and was able to solely focus on fixing the situation.
I raced inside with Liam so he stayed safe, and grabbed a few towels. I raced back outside and wrapped a towel around Lily's hand, trying my hardest to avoid looking at the large amount of blood that surrounded her. Everybody was still screaming, and the only time I almost lost it was when I spotted the unusually large chunk of skin on the blanket.
In a matter of just a few minutes, Lily was strapped into her car seat with Lexie at her side, and we quickly made the drive to our local hospital. Thankfully, I had rush hour traffic to keep my mind off the blood and the current state of Lily's finger. Grant, unfortunately, was still at his office, which was 45 minutes away, but my parents were on their way to my house to stay with the boys.
By the time we arrived at the emergency room, Lexie had managed to calm Lily down. The staff got us back to a room quickly, and the nurses assessed the damage. Thankfully, Lily had just "amputated her fingertip and part of her fingernail" without causing much damage. And to our astonishment, we learned that fingertips grow back!
The worst part of the ordeal was when they had to clean the wound. Lily started crying again, and I finally got a glimpse of her injured finger. I did NOT take a picture of that, but let me just say that it looked like a finger with a big chunk missing out of it. Instead of a rounded fingertip, it was flat and noticeably shorter than the rest, and the towel was soaked with Lily's blood. The adrenaline that had kept me going came to a crashing halt, and I had to fight against the nausea and dizziness that threatened to make me faint.
To add to the gross factor, Dylan texted me a picture of Lily's fingertip in a sandwich bag, and asked if the hospital needed to sew it back on. (They did not.) Some things can never be unseen. Trust me. I told him to toss it into the garbage, but I did save the photo for some odd reason. I mean, who actually cuts off their fingertip with a pair of scissors?!?
With the worst part finally over, the doctor came in to take a look. He did confirm that no stitching would be needed, and the fingertip would grow back. The only concern was possible infection and probable nerve damage which would just cause certain areas of her fingertips to feel numb. He wrapped up her finger and put a splint on it to keep it protected, and sent us on our way home with instructions on how to care for a fingertip amputation. (Yes, that is exactly what the medical term for her injury was!)
Lily's finger healed really well and surprisingly quick. The pain went away after a few days, and within a few weeks the fingertip really had grown back! Three months later, only a tiny scar remains. Although she doesn't have much feeling in that fingertip, it doesn't even look like anything ever happened to it!
Lily declared she would never use another pair of scissors as long as she lives, but of course, was back to crafting with scissors the following day. And when she returned to school and was asked what she did over the Summer, she told everyone that she cut off her fingertip! I guess it really is a memorable story! (A story I hope I never have to relive again.)
DISCLOSURE: I received some of the party supplies shown in this post complimentary.
Lily and Liam's birthdays are just two weeks apart, so every year we throw them a big combined birthday party! This year, we only had one free Saturday in a 3 month span, so we had to scale things down a bit. On Saturday, we hosted two very small birthday parties to celebrate Liam's 4th Birthday and Lily's 6th Birthday!
A combined birthday party doesn't work for every family, but Lily is still agreeable, so we stick with it! I'm sure our family and friends appreciate the fact that they don't have to come to two birthday parties in August, too. We go big for actual birthdays, so both Lily and Liam still have their extra special days.
Usually, we have one big combined birthday party for Lily and Liam, but the timing was off this year. Thanks to school starting a week earlier than usual, which is the week we go to the beach, we had to adjust our schedule. We only had one available Saturday in July, August or September to celebrate Lily and Liam's birthdays with our family and friends.
Instead of the big party that we usually host, we only invited immediate family members to an afternoon party and our closest friends to an evening party. The party happened less than a week after we returned from vacation and two days after school started, so planning had to be minimal. Since there was a very limited guest list, we skipped the individual themes this year and just went with festive, gender neutral party decor!
Although the party was a lot different from what we usually host, Lily and Liam didn't even seem to notice the difference. They both had a great day with family and friends!
The first birthday party was in the afternoon. Our immediate family members joined us so we could all celebrate Liam and Lily's birthdays together!
We kicked off the party with presents! Lily and Liam took turns opening their awesome gifts, and they loved everything. Since we celebrated Liam's 4th Birthday at the beach, we could only give him small gifts that could travel easily with us. We saved his two big gifts for the party!
(Just look at those dirty little feet holding his present!)
The kids ran off to play while the adults talked, then we finished the party with the Happy Birthday Song and some cake and ice cream! It's always Liam's favorite part!
The first round of guests headed out just before dinner, so we had a few hours in between parties. I straightened up the house while the girls played with their cousin, who was spending the night, and Dylan hung out with a friend. Liam happily dug into his new gifts with his new best buddy!
Meanwhile, the older kids found an awesome friend outside!
Finally, it was time for round two! I really slacked with pictures this year, but for good reason. After two birthdays, three photoshoots, a family reunion, our beach vacation and the first day of school, I literally have a painful callus on my thumb from taking so many pictures! (Plus, I wanted to enjoy the party instead of documenting every second!
We did the usual presents and cake routine, but since our best friends were here, the kids spent more time playing, so I didn't chase them with the camera. I can assure you that they had lots of fun!
Our friends stayed very late, and the party concluded with a sleepover. A cousin and two friends spent the night, so the fun continued until the wee hours of the morning!
Even though the party was much smaller than usual, it turned out so well! I was so worried that the kids would miss their themes and all the guests, but the gender neutral decor was just fine and they had so much fun with the family and friends who were there.
The paper table runner, paper placemats and treat cups are from All In The Cards. Their affordable line of party supplies can be found at Target. (And you all know how much I love Target!) I loved the fun, festive colors and prints, and at the end of the party, I just rolled everything up and threw it away!
We kept the food simple, too. The parties fell before and after dinner, so we had snacks and appetizers. Lots of chips and dips, cut vegetables, and cheese and crackers. And no party would be complete without one of the kids favorite snacks: Teddy Graham Trail Mix! It's just Teddy Grahams, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips, and kids love it!
My mom usually makes each child a cake, but didn't have enough time this year. A small combined birthday cake (with Down syndrome awareness balloons) and mini cupcakes was plenty!
Saturday's simple combined birthday party proved that parties don't have to be big and fancy in order to be fun! Lily and Liam had so much fun celebrating their 6th and 4th birthdays with a few of the people they love most!
I had my evening perfectly planned out. A friend offered to take Dylan to basketball so I didn't have to take three other kids. A night at home is rare and I was thoroughly looking forward to it! I put on my pajamas and cooked a delicious dinner. While I cooked, I also worked on my planned blog post for tonight on fun Halloween play activities. I wanted to finish it early so my husband and I could spend more time together after the kids went to bed and so I could go to bed before midnight. Grant even made it home from the office earlier than usual. We were just getting ready to sit down to eat dinner when one of my parenting fears came true...
First came the thud, then the bloodcurdling scream. I turned around to see Lily face down on the floor at Grant's feet. Blood was spraying everywhere. The moment that I dread every single time one of my children falls face first actually happened. There was no sigh of relief this time. There was only Lily shrieking, "MY TOOTH IS GONE!"
I scooped Lily up off the floor and as we ran toward the bathroom, I noticed it. I immediately thought her other loose tooth had been knocked out. WRONG. She was missing her top front tooth which wasn't even loose at all.
I yelled out to Grant that her tooth was knocked out and he ran in to take over. I'm a wimp. I can't handle blood and I can't handle tooth gore. Even wiggly teeth make me cringe. As I dialed Lily's pediatric dentist's emergency number I kept reminding myself that it was just a baby tooth and that it would have fallen out in a year or so anyway. But still...to have it come out that way is so awful!
Our plans for the evening changed completely. Instead of enjoying a relaxing evening at home, we spent hours in the ER. The truth is, nothing goes as planned when you have four kids and there's literally never a dull moment! Accidents happen. Lexie and Lily were just playing and Lexie bumped Lily and sent her flying to the floor. Lily's tooth got knocked out and Lexie felt awful. It was just one of those things that I always feared would happen but honestly didn't really expect it to!
Dylan was coming home from basketball just as Lily and I were running out the door so he came along to help. Thank goodness because we couldn't get the blood to stop and Lily was panicking! He was able to hold the towel on her mouth and calm her down while I drove the short distance to the ER.
We made it into a room quickly and by that point the bleeding slowed a bit. The wait to see a doctor, however, was unusually long and it resulted in one little girl who was exhausted from the traumatic incident.
The doctor finally came in and said that everything looked okay. The tooth somehow came out with the roots still intact. There weren't any tooth fragments left behind, her jaw wasn't broken and the cuts in her mouth and on and around her lips would heal quickly. It was such a relief to hear that! The only lasting effect would be the fact that she quite possibly will have a hole in her mouth for over a year before her adult tooth finally comes in. That definitely made me a bit sad, but I was relieved she was okay. It could have been much worse!
Just in time for Halloween, Lily has a Jack O' Lantern smile! (And a swollen nose and lips!)
As soon as she was discharged, I took her straight to the convenience store and bought her a slushie. It was the least I could do! Rumor has it that the tooth fairy also needed to get some cash back...
By the time we got home, Lily was back to her vibrant, outgoing self! She's definitely tougher than I am. Most adults can't even handle getting a tooth pulled without pain, but she was acting like nothing ever happened!
That baby tooth was bound to come out in a year or so. It just came out (much) sooner than expected. At least she has an exciting story to tell one day and the word on the street is that the tooth fairy is going to leave her a larger amount than usual tonight. That tooth is a BEAST with those roots still attached. (EWWWW!) Those knocked out teeth just deserve more money!
Ironically, my friend came over for dinner on Monday night and we started reminiscing over the time when 11 month old Lily hit her face off of a ceramic floor while on vacation. As we ran toward her, we both expected her top two baby teeth to be gone. They weren't, but since that moment, I panic every time my kids fall face first.
Seeing one of my kids get a tooth knocked out has always been one of my top parenting fears and it was every bit as brutal as I expected. There was just SO MUCH BLOOD. I keep reliving that moment over and over again and it makes me cringe every time. We were just lucky up until tonight. I guess we are technically still lucky because only a baby tooth that would have come out in about a year got knocked out. It would have been much worse if it was Liam, Lexie or Dylan's tooth! And Lily took it like a champ!
Farewell, cute little baby smile that was still there just a few hours ago...
...and hello, toothless!
Stay tuned for my Halloween content tomorrow! My blog is just about more than Pinterest-worthy content and sponsored posts. I started it to document my life with my kids 8+ years ago and I'll never give that up. Sometimes life happens and scheduled blog posts have to be pushed aside for real updates. I plan on sharing my family as much as I can from the good to the bad to the downright disgusting moments!
Here's to a MUCH calmer weekend! (I hope.) (Fingers and toes crossed.) (Please?)
Turning 5 years old was a big deal for Lily! Not only was she officially "one whole hand old" on her last birthday, but that magic number brought so many changes into her life. From starting Kindergarten to starting dance to being just hours away from losing her first tooth, this little girl is rocking life at 5 years old!
Lily is one of those kids who is incredibly loving, sweet and kind, but she also has a HUGE personality. She is truly the funniest kid I know! We always joked that she was going to be the class clown and that's playing out exactly as we expected! She is an extrovert who has no problem making friends wherever she goes and she loves to entertain. Considering she has two thespian parents it's very likely that she's going to end up on stage!
Just a few weeks after turning 5, Lily started Kindergarten. We were on the fence about sending her because her birthday was just before the Kindergarten cutoff date, but we are so happy we went ahead with it. She LOVES school and is so excited to go every day. Math is her favorite and she thinks it's so cool that she's learning how to read. This little girl is thriving in Kindergarten and I don't regret our decision one bit. Her only struggle is the fact that she gets warned once or twice a week about talking in the hallway or during class! (I'm not surprised!)
Right after she started school, Lily also started dance. She was torn between gymnastics or ballet but dance ultimately won. Instead of just taking ballet, she is learning ballet, tap, jazz and acro. I had a feeling she would like it but I'm honestly surprised by just how much she loves it. I foresee many years of dance ahead of us!
Just before Lily turned 5, one of her teeth started to get wiggly. Now she has two loose teeth and the one is just hours away from falling out. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't already, but her first visit from the tooth fairy is so near. Lily's going to reach that big milestone this week! That toothless grin is always a big change and definitely a sign of how quickly they grow up!
It may be almost 2 1/2 months late, but Lily and I sat down tonight to finish her birthday interview! I took her photos on her birthday but never got the chance to share the pictures or her yearly interview. It's just a testament to how fast-paced life is these days. But better late than never!
Lily's 5 Year Interview:
LILIANA KATHRYN
"Lily"
Age: 5
Stats: 37 lbs and 45 inches
1.
FAVORITE COLOR? Blue!
2. FAVORITE TOY? My Barbies.
3. FAVORITE CHARACTER? Elsa!
4. FAVORITE SUPERHERO? The one with the pink hair. In Wonder Woman.
5. FAVORITE FRUIT? Tomatoes. Never mind...Apples.
6. FAVORITE VEGETABLE? Tomatoes!
7. FAVORITE BREAKFAST? Eggs.
8. FAVORITE CEREAL? Froot Loops.
9. FAVORITE LUNCH? Mac and cheese!
10. FAVORITE DINNER? Hamburger Helper! 11.
FAVORITE DRINK? Lemonade. 12. FAVORITE SNACK?Granola Bar. 13. FAVORITE RESTAURANT? The restaurant at Virginia Beach. (The Raven.) 14. FAVORITE TV SHOW?Spongebob! 15. FAVORITE MOVIE?My Little Pony. 16. FAVORITE ACTOR/ACTRESS?Jessie 17. FAVORITE SONG?Let It Go from Frozen. 18. FAVORITE SINGER/BAND?Christina Perri. She sings Jar of Hearts and Lonely! 19. FAVORITE BOOKS?Princesses. All the books with princesses.
20.
FAVORITE BOOK SERIES? Ummmm...Little Charmers! 21.
FAVORITE OUTFIT?My little pony shirt and colorful tutu. (From her 4 Year Interview.) 22. FAVORITE GAME?Operation. 23. FAVORITE SPORT?Penguins. (Hockey.) 24. FAVORITE ANIMAL? A panda. And a koala, too. They are both SOOOO CUTE!
They are cuties. 25. FAVORITE PLACE TO GO?The zoo! 26. FAVORITE THINGS TO DO? Go play with my friends. 27. FAVORITE SUBJECT? Doing math. 28. FAVORITE STUFFED ANIMAL?My little panda. 29. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK?Friday! It's Friday, Friday, Friday, yeah! 30. FAVORITE MONTH?June!
31.
FAVORITE SEASON?Winter! Snowing! We get to make snow angels and snowman. 32. FAVORITE HOLIDAY?Christmas. 33. WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND? Charlie! And Victoria and Lily. 34. WHO DO YOU LIKE TO PLAY WITH?I like to play with Charlie! 35. WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?Doing a funny face. It's so funny. *giggles* 36. WHAT SCARES YOU? Someone in a costume with a pretend zombie mask. 37. WHAT MAKES YOU SAD?When best friends doesn't let me play with them. 38. WHAT DO YOU WISH FOR?I wish to drive! 39. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY?I remember going to the beach! 40. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? When I grow up, I want to be a pet doctor...a
vet! 41. DISLIKES? I don't like to eat ice cream cones for breakfast. NO! *giggles*
As Lily curled up on my lap tonight while I asked her the questions for her birthday interview, I couldn't help but squeeze her tight. She's growing up far too quickly for my liking. I just want to protect her innocence and sweetness, and shield her from the world. Although she may look and act so grown up these days, she will ALWAYS be my baby!
Hi! Welcome to Our Five Ring Circus! I'm Stefanie, co-ringleader with my husband, Grant. We live in Pittsburgh with our five kids - Dylan is 15, Alexandria is 13, Liliana is 8, Liam, who is rocking an extra chromosome, is 6, and Coen, our bonus baby, is 12 months old - plus an English Mastiff, two indoor rabbits, and a kitten! In addition to blogging for 12+ years, I'm a photographer, and I volunteer daily for The Down Syndrome Diagnosis Network. You'll also (occasionally) find me on Pittsburgh Mom's Blog! When I'm not too busy wrangling the chaos, you'll see posts about life with littles, what life with Down syndrome is REALLY like, big family living, fashion, recipes, lifestyle, and more! Thank you for stopping by. I look forward to getting to know you!
