It has been forever since I have updated this blog. I was surprised I was still able to log in. 2011 has been an extremely busy year. Geez where do I start. Not much happened the first few months of the year. I was pretty sick with the pregnancy and it wasn't until spring arrived that I began to feel better. Caroline celebrated her 8th birthday in April. It is hard to believe she is 8! Time flies and they grow up so fast :( .
We celebrated with her annual luau.
Carson and Caroline are buddies! Aren't they sweet??
Caroline participated in the spring special olympics on her actual birthday. This is a picture of us with her classmates.
We celebrated on her birthday with Ammie, Poppie, and Cal. We ate dinner at Golden Corrall and then went bowling.
Every Mother's Day weekend we head up to Busch Gardens
for a weekend of fun.
Below is Jeremy and Jake coming off of Grover's roller coaster.
He used to be terrified of it. I had to force him to ride. I just knew someone was gonna call child protective services on me that day!! But wait till you see what rides he has graduated to!! That comes later in the blog!
for a weekend of fun.
Below is Jeremy and Jake coming off of Grover's roller coaster.
He used to be terrified of it. I had to force him to ride. I just knew someone was gonna call child protective services on me that day!! But wait till you see what rides he has graduated to!! That comes later in the blog!
We also have to take our pictures with as many
Sesame Street characters as possible! I think Caroline took a few feathers as souvenirs!! Sorry Big Bird!
Sesame Street characters as possible! I think Caroline took a few feathers as souvenirs!! Sorry Big Bird!
Poor daddy had to ride everything with them this trip because I was pregnant. He was a good sport though.
This is part of Land of Dragons.
Caroline loves the water play areas here and in Sesame Street Land.
Caroline loves the water play areas here and in Sesame Street Land.
Jeremy, Caroline and Jake on Grover's coaster!
Sesame Street Land also has a kid drop zone. 
Caroline loves anything that throws her around!!!
We try hard to wear them out before going back to the hotel!!!
This is by far Caroline's favorite ride in the entire park!
The Lady Bugs!
In May (I think) I took my Jake and his friend Jake to see Cars 2.
They were amazed to see the Cars 2 cars in the parking lot.
They kept trying to get them to talk!
Are they cool or what?
In June we went to Emerald Isle with Jeremy's family. We had a blast as usual.
I had not been able to lay on my stomach since I began showing and I looked like a pepermint stick - tan on the front and white as a ghost on the back. So I dug a hole in the sand and stuck my belly in it!
Do you see the similarity in these 2 pictures??? I kept waiting for someone to come by and try to roll me back into the ocean :(
Poppie and Ammie relaxing on the beach with all the grandkids. Well...not REALLY relaxing!
Here is Poppie trying to relax. Its hard to do when you have 4 little people fighting for your attention. Sorry Poppie! You know there is no relaxing on vacation with our kids and Kee's kids!
Our family camped at the campground while Ammie, Poppie, and Kee's family stayed in a house down the street.
They came and played in the pool with us almost everyday.
Like mother like daughter...you never catch her off guard for a picture!!!
Carson hasn't caught on quite yet but I'm sure it won't be long!
I took Jake and Addison to play mini golf one afternoon because in spite of the fact that we had toys, a pool, the beach, each other, video games, bikes, and golf carts.....
they were BORED!
they were BORED!
Miss Hollywood!!
We played a lot on the campground playground.
We celebrated Addison's and Ammie's birthday while we were there.
Here we all are on the porch of the beach house. Don't Ammie and Poppie do a good job of pretending that our kids have not
stressed them to death???
These two really don't cooperate very often! Can you tell?
We all went out to dinner for seafood and
then bowling on one of our last nights there.
After bowling we hit mini golf again.
These two are best friends one minute and enemies the next. I tried to get them to pretend to be angry at each other. I was surprised they could not do it without smiling! It seems to come so easy and naturally the rest of the time!!!
I'm thinking I will order this book before the next vacation!!
When we got back from the beach our kids had a lot of activities and award ceremonies going on at school. Here is Jake with his Kindergarten teacher. She was always soooooo bubbly.
Here is Caroline with two of her best teachers, CeCe and Paula. They are great with Caroline.
Caroline had water day which you can imagine was her favorite!
Her class also went horseback riding.
In June, I had my first baby shower. My friends Mary, Tammy, and Jennifer threw it for me. This is me with Mary.
This was the cake. Isn't it awesome?? The baby on top is edible!
Tammy, me, and Jennifer
I had my second shower in July. That one was given by my mom, Jeremy's mom, Jeremy's grandmother, and Jeremy's sister. I didn't have any pictures from that one!
On Fourth of July we went out on Jeremy's boat. I hate riding in it because Jeremy goes so fast!! He swears you have to go fast to keep it on plane??? Whatever! I was really hoping all the bouncing would put me into labor but no such luck!! Jeremy and Jake fished some and we stopped and swam a little. On top of being a little freiked out knowing that there were critters lurking in the water, I couldn't get back in the boat. Bass boats have no freiking ladder!!!! Whomever came up with that brilliant idea is an idiot!!! Jeremy had to drag my big tale up the side of the boat! I was 8 months pregnant!! He almost fell in with me!!!!! Had anyone been there with a video camera we'd all be rich because it certainly would have won on America's Funniest Videos!!
In July we celebrated Jake's 6th birthday. He decided to have the waterslide again. I think everyone had fun. I was bummed because I couldn't slide this year due to being pregnant!
Last year we had one party and had so many kids on the slide that I was really afraid someone was going to get hurt. Luckily nobody did. This year I split the guests up and had 2 parties so I wouldn't have to worry about that. I could not believe that we ended the day with
2 black eyes and several scrapes and bruises!!
2 black eyes and several scrapes and bruises!!
On July 31 we drove to Busch Gardens for the day. We had tickets to Miranda Cosgrove's concert and backstage passes to meet her! For those of you who don't know her she is Carly from the show I Carly on nickelodeon.
Jake was so excited!!!!
Caroline could not have cared less about I Carly! But we took their picture anyway! Jeremy enjoyed this way more than Caroline did!!!
She put on a good show. Jeremy and Jake stayed for the show and Caroline and I walked around for a while before ending up in the van watching the wiggles. It was really loud in the concert and Caroline did not like it.
For those of you who have been to Busch Gardens you know how many hills you must go up and down to walk around. I was 39 weeks pregnant and pushing Carolines big tale around! I was about dead when we got to the van.
For those of you who have been to Busch Gardens you know how many hills you must go up and down to walk around. I was 39 weeks pregnant and pushing Carolines big tale around! I was about dead when we got to the van.
We did not get home until midnight and had to get up the next morning for their first day of school! Needless to say it was a rough week. Jake was starting a new school and was not real excited about it and we were all exhausted!!
On August 13th at 12:38am the fifth member of our family arrived!!
Olivia Claire Phan,
8lbs 9oz and 21 inches
We couldn't be happier!! She is precious!
With Caroline, I had to have a c section but I was able to deliver Jake and Olivia. Recovery is SOOOOOOOO much easier with regular delivery than with a c section. I got up Saturday morning and took a shower and put on some makeup. Jeremy's family can get camera happy and many of them do facebook!!! There was no way I was going to be posted on facebook with no shower or makeup!!!
This is Dr. Bruton. She is an awesome doctor! She was so supportive during the rough times of my pregnancy.
Pictures of my sweet Olivia.
I am a little bit tired...just a little!
This was right after olivia was born. Daddy was so proud of his little girl! Her nickname is peanut because she was so tiny at first!
We had lots of visitors on Saturday. Ammie and Ma wanted to stay and be there when she was born but Poppie was falling asleep and we had no idea if baby would come quickly or if it would be all night. They left and a few hours later she arrived!! But they were there bright and early the next morning!!!
Olivia meets Aunt Kee for the first time. Poor Keesha, everytime she gets the baby somebody else takes her and holds her!
I don't think Jake knew what to do with this whole new baby thing. He really didn't want to hold the baby at the hospital. He was more interested in playing with Addison. But now he wants to do everything for her!
Olivia is grandbaby # 7 for Amma and Granddaddy and # 5
for Ammie and Poppie!
Addison is a very good babysitter!!
Here is Olivia ready to go home!
Olivia arriving home for the first time!
Jake was more interested in holding her once she was at home!
Pookie meets Olivia.
Poor Pookie, she just keeps moving down the todem pole!
First family photo!!!! OMG I am huge!!! Hitting the diet hard now!!
Olivia loves to hang out with Amma! My mom has been a Godsend! She has come over and kept the baby and cleaned up for me a bunch!! Thanks mom. I don't know what I would do without you!
I'd probably be a lot crazier than I am now!!
Olivia meets "uncle Cal"! I promise Cal, she won't break!
Olivia meets Uncle Roger and Aunt Missy!
Caroline was glad to see uncle Roger too!!!
Mommy enjoying some mommy and baby time.
First bath
Big brother is a huge help....when he wants to be!
He feeds her for me and bounces her seat when she is fussing and I am busy!
She is growing so fast already:(
Forget it Jeremy, this one is going to be mommy's girl.
You have stolen the other 2!
She gets this (posing for the camera) from Aunt Keesha!!
The next 2 pictures are of friends of mine, Oliva and Claire. They were the inspiration for her name! They are 2 of the sweetest girls I know!!!
Please...no more pictures!
Life with 3 kids has really not been any harder. I see why couples who have 3 kids often have more. The third one is the easiest! The first one is hard because you don't know what you are doing. It was especially hard for us because of Caroline's diagnosis. The second one is really stressful because adding the second is like adding tripple the work! And you stress over giving equal attention and you feel guilty for spending time with the baby because you don't want the other child to feel left out! With the third, there is no stress. Jeremy and I have just enjoyed her! And Jake and Caroline have also.
At the end of August, We celebrated Jeremy's birthday. I gave him a little surprise party with his friends from his fishing clubs.
I got him an awesome cake!
After things settled down, we took a trip up to Busch Gardens. We took Caroline, Olivia, Jake and his friend Noah. We have been told we are glutten for punishment! It was a busy trip, don't get me wrong, but we had fun.
Olivia was good for the most part. She slept a lot.
The boys rode lots of rides. Now Jake usually will only ride the kid rides but this time he rode the Pirate Ship,
the Lochness Monster,
and Mach Tower.
I could not believe it! Check out the video of Mach Tower.
Its the tallest drop tower on the east coast...240 ft! Even Jeremy didn't really want to ride it! I can't believe my child and his friend are on this!! Sorry the video is sideways.
They all rode all the rides several times and played on the playground in Sesame Street land. It was really chilly the second day so I had Olivia bundled up in the sling Keesha gave me. It came in very handy!
We all had a great time!!
Last sunday Jake, Caroline, me, and Olivia surprised
Amma and Granddaddy with breakfast!
Olivia and Granddaddy
Below is Max and Jake. Max loves for Jake to come because my child is as wild as Max is and Jake will take him outside and run laps around the house with him!
Amma trying to get Peanut to take a nap!
This past weekend we got together with Keesha, Addison, and Carson and painted pumpkins and decorated a haunted house.
while the rest of us made a giant mess with paint in the kitchen!
After pumpkins it was time to decorate the haunted house. Carson and Caroline were more interested in eating the icing than decorating with it!!!
It was yummy!
What a beautiful house!
It has been a busy year! And things have changed drastically at the Phan house! Jeremy is now "Mr. Mom"! He is staying home with the kids and doing the cooking and cleaning.
I never want him to go back to work. I can actually get to work early and get everything done instead of having to rush, rush, rush all the time! We will see how it goes! So far so good.
I have decided life is too short to be stressed all the time. We have decided to simplify things and be able to spend more time with the kids doing fun stuff. We are selling the camper and Jeremy's truck. The truck was a money pit anyway. We bought him a new one that was less expensive and reliable. The camper costs so much in gas to pull we haven't used it in a long time. Plus Jake is at the age where he wants to take a friend when we go places and with 5 of us in the truck there is no room for anyone else. If we take the van it is cheaper and we have more room. Jeremy is even seriously considering selling the big boat and only fishing in the jon boat club. We would rather have the money than the stuff and be able to do more with the kids. Life goes by so fast and I want to enjoy it all I can and not be so rushed all the time. Before I know it they will all be grown up and Jeremy and I will be sitting here wondering where did the time go????
Well that is all for now. Hopefully it won't be 10 months before I update again!
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