New Year

How many times I have I actually said I was going to keep this blog up.  I'm pretty sure that I have made it my new years resolution more than once too.  But here we are...beginning a new year again.  It comes faster and faster every year and my kids get bigger and bigger and I forget little things that I swore to myself I would never ever forget when they were little!  I didn't write down one single milestone for JOhnny...not one!  And I'm feeling really guilty about it.  So, here goes another attempt to write things down, keep a journal (or blog), get pictures off of my camera and out of my computer...just tell our story so that I can retell it again to the kids when they are older or to my grandkids! 

 

Our 2013 ended with a bang...or a bounce!  The kids got a trampoline from NOla and Gpaw and literally haven't stopped jumping in three weeks!  Of course I have spent some time on it too and definitely don't remember it being so tiring!  We also closed out the year celebrating Tanner's 35th birthday and our 10 year anniversary! We had a little staycation here in New Smyrna for our anniversary.  I can't believe that we have been married for 10 years!  He got me a photo session of the kids and our family as my gift, so I will post some of our pictures here as soon as we get them!  This is something I have been meaning to do every year since we had Annie 6 1/2 years ago.  I am so excited about this!!!

Happy 2014

The Jam Spot

Over the past few months, most of our time and energy has been put into my fifth child...The Jam Spot!  I thought it was time to blog about it!

Since quitting retiring from teaching, I have spend endless hours brainstorming ways to work from home.  In the beginning of this year, my friend came to me with this idea for an indoor play and learning center.  I thought it was a GREAT idea and didn't hesitate to become part of it with her.  Over the winter, spring, and summer we worked to create the vision for what the jam spot would be.  Tanner and her husband started the construction of the inside of our building in July and we opened our doors in September!  We are now in full swing and I LOVE it...everyday! 

Sure, it can be exhausting with the kids and a new business, but I'm so lucky that I can bring them to work with me. Some days we do our school at the Jam Spot.  Somedays that works great and others..well not so much!  I am learning so much and it feels good to work!  I'm so proud of Tanner and Jon for the job they did on the build out!  I hope and pray that this will be something NSB will love! 

I present The Jam Spot....

Moments

This evening, Annie had "observation day" at her dance class.  This is where all the parents get to sit in on their child's class and watch what they have learned so far this year.  As I sat there watching her, realizing how much she has grown, I decided it was time to start blogging again!  Not for anyone, but just for me (and maybe for my kids one day if they want to read this).

It was one of those moments, today, at dance class.  One of those moments when I had tears running down my face for no reason at all, except watching Annie dance.  One of those moments that lasted a whole 1/2 second before I got slammed back into reality by a screaming 1 year old, a 3 year old that needed to go to the bathroom (twice), and a 5 year old boy that CANNOT sit still for longer than 30 seconds! 

Rewind to 15 minutes earlier.  15 minutes earlier when we should have already been at dance class because that's when it started.  15 minutes earlier when we were just leaving piano lessons for Annie because the two activities that she does happen to fall back to back on the same day.  Rushing to get to dance, I was hoping to drop her off and run home and get dinner started.  We were supposed to try a new recipe tonight.  One that I got off a new blog that I found with tons of great clean eating meals.  Because this was going to be the week that I cooked "clean" meals every night.  Of course pulling up to dance and realizing it was observation day meant we stayed...we ALL stayed and no cooking for me, Mcdonalds it was going be!

Back to sitting in the dance studio.  I'm rummaging around for anything to give Johnny to eat because how else are you going to get a busy 1 year old to sit still and be happy for an hour (well, 45 minutes since we were late)?  Score...a 1/2 eaten bag of Cheetos in my purse!  We weren't eating "clean" tonight anyway, right!  And those Cheetos...those came from the vending machine at the laundry matt where were went for almost 2 hours to wash 5 loads of laundry today because our washing machine broke this weekend!  And of course what do you do at a laundry matt with 4 kids besides eat Cheetos from a vending machine, right! 

So, as I sat there in the tiny dance classroom, with a very messy cheesy faced baby, my Molly who just wants to wear dance shoes and go do class with Annie (and go to the bathroom too much) and Jesse who was now playing angry birds on my phone (because that's how we roll), I thought, I have got to start blogging again.  Because I wan to remember.....remember these moments that are so crazy, and yet fill my heart so much it could literally burst! 

So, before I sat down tonight to fold the 174645738394739 pieces of clothes that I have to fold from the laundry matt, I decided to blog. 

Growing again!

The Brock family is growing again!!! Baby #4 is on the way!
I know that most friends and family that read our Brock Family blog know this already, but I just realized that I haven't written anything about it!
This is how we announced it to the world (or the FB world!)

It is funny to me seeing people's reactions, already, when we tell them that we are expecting baby 4! Most people look at us like we are crazy! And maybe we are! I know raising 4 kids will NOT be easy, cheap, peaceful, quiet, calm or anything like that! I'm going to have my hands full...full of love and joy! And I cannot wait!!! I'm ready to take it on...I have prayer, an amazing husband, three big helpers, and awesome friends and family to help and encourage me along the way!

So far...

Wasn't it one of my new years resolutions to keep up with our personal/family blog? I'm really keeping up with that resolution...*sigh*
Well, since I do want to have this blog later on down the road for my kids to one day read or for me to go back and remember all these little details, I'm going to attempt to catch us up! So far, this year we have...
done a lot of grocery shopping, and sleeping...sometimes at the same time!
We have went to the park many many times..sometimes even getting to swing higher than NOnnie!

We had a real birthday party for Jesse's stuffed monkey, pop, with real cake invitations and guests!

We caught one too many lizards!

We have made a mess with shaving cream, and maybe practice writing our letters too!

Or just made a mess

We got to visit with Nola and Gpaw twice already!

We have been able to spend lots of time with our friends!

We went to our church's fair and had lots of fun as you can tell by Jesse's face!! ;-)

And got to do this...

We painted

We went to a snow festival equipped with a truck load of bags and bags and bags of ice blown onto the ground for the kids to slip around in!

We celebrated Valentine's day with these three LOVES!

We made homemade donuts!

We dressed up like princesses and fairies and painted our faces with fingernail polish!

We made St. Patty's Day cupcakes

And made more messes!

2012 is off to a great start...hopefully I will remember to update this blog more than every three months!

Girls Vs. Boy

I remember when we were pregnant for Molly and we didn't know if she was a girl or a boy...tanner kept saying that the only reason he was pulling for a boy was so Jesse wouldn't be sandwiched between two girls! Well, that's exactly what happened. And not only is he stuck in between these two girls but he is stuck between these two girly girls that LOVE playing with dolls and make up and princesses!
Its not so bad though! In fact there are some days or moments where their differences are almost unnoticeable! Those times when Annie convinces him to play babies with her and she is his "mommy." or those times when they play tag in the backyard and just run around like kids for hours (or minutes).
However, more and more I am starting to see the huge differences in girls and boys! Annie is such a mommy to her younger siblings. Jesse is such a typical big brother and little brother...frustrating his sisters to no end! Annie could play with her baby dolls dressed up as Belle or Cinderella all day, where as Jesse carries a nerf gun around with him at all times. Annie is so dramatic and Jesse is so active! Annie is so independent and Jesse is such a momma's boy! I love seeing these differences and watching my girls and boy grow!
Now Tanner is glad that MOlly ended up being a girl! Him and Jesse do "boy" things together like fishing and Tanner always says that he doesn't know if he could handle two boys out there! ;-) God knew what he was doing when he "sandwiched" Jesse in between his two sisters...and he looks ok with it!

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

Last night Tanner asked me what the best part of 2011 was! I had to think about this for awhile...the past 3 out of 4 years have been easy b/c I always said it was when one of our kids was born. This year there was no baby born in the Brock family. But there are three amazing kids that are growing and learning so much daily! So my answer to him is...
1. watching Annie learn to read and develop a love of books. This brings tears to my eyes!

2. watching Jesse turn from this little toddler into a full on boy. His love of all things boy...fishing, nerf guns, baseball, lizards, aggrivating his sisters to no end...I love him!

3. watching all of Molly's "firsts." This year she learned to walk, talk, color, feed herself and just grow into her hillarious personality!

Of course, I said all of these things after first saying that the best part of 2011 was going to see Kenny Chesney and Zack Brown! ;-)

We did so much in 2011 including going to Mardi Gras, going to NOrth Carolina twice and spending a week with just the 5 of us in Panama City! It was a great year!

And now onto 2012!!!

After spending a week at home, with Tanner home and not being in our normal routine, I have to say that I was ready for today...ready to get back into our routine...ready to really start 2012! I feel like our kids do better when they know what to expect and when I have things planned! When Tanner is home we spend too much time watching tv and just being lazy. (This is NOT Tanner's fault...its just what we do. We sit around and sip coffee in the morning before any of us get moving). I also don't take care of my chores the way that I do when Tanner is at work. I did 6 loads...yes 6, of laundry yesterday and still have three more to do today b/c I kept putting it off when he was home! Oh well, just being together was so nice!

My resolutions for this year are:
1. Plan ahead...I am such a procrastinator.
2. Do at least one creative thing a week...whether it is something for the house or scrapbooking or whatever! Pinterest helps with this so much! I have enough pins to do something creative each day for the whole year! ;-)
3. Be more organized! I say this every year and still I feel like everything is a mess! Idealy I would love to organize one thing...whether it is a room, a drawer, a closet etc each week. I probably won't stick to that though!
4. Be in the moment with my kids. Sometimes when we are playing I am sitting there thinking of the 20 zillion other things that need to get done instead of just realizing that playing with them is really the only thing that is important!
As I write this Annie is sitting next to me with a book waiting for me to read with her! ;-)

Happy 2012!
PS...I need to start blogging again so I can remember all the little moments that are happening right now!