Cherry Blossom Festival

A week ago the girls and I drove down to D.C. with some friends to see the Cherry Blossoms.

It was a great day.

 It started out cloudy, but was sunny by lunch time.

So beautiful to walk around the Tidal Basin and see all the blossoms!

The girls by the Jefferson Memorial.

 As soon as they notice I taking picture, the poses come out!

We had a picnic lunch under the trees.

It was a magically beautiful day!

Ashlyn

Here's some fun times with Ashlyn this past month!

 Lunch date at The Burger Joint

 She came downstairs dressed in Brian's High School cap and gown.

Cute.

 I started Insanity this month, and when I came down from taking a shower, I found Ashlyn had started the video again and was going at it!

 While at a Thrift Store with me one day, I come down the aisle to find her hanging there, saying:

"Look! I'm a shirt! Buy me!"

We had a nice one-on-one lunch at Panera Bread that day!

Love my Ashlyn girl!

Baptized!

Saturday March 17, 2012

Duncan chose to follow the example of the Savior Jesus Christ, and was baptized.

 It was a wonderful program.

He asked his Cub Scout Leader, and Hayden to give the talks.

During the talk, his leader would ask him questions,

and my friends, he WOULDN'T speak!

It was the quietest and stillest I have EVER seen this child!

Hayden gave a very nice heart felt talk, and let Duncan know how proud he

was of him. It was great!

Duncan had the idea, that since he was being baptized on St. Patrick's Day, 

we should make everything green.

So, the food we served after the baptism was all green.

                        

                        

We also had little spinach quiches, deli wraps, and Morgan cut out a bunch of green clovers to lay around the table. I realized once we got home that I never took a picture! In fact the photo of Duncan and Brian is the only photo I took there that day!

I was too busy enjoying the event, and just never pulled my camera out!

But it was a wonderful day, photos or not!

The End of an Era!

March 4, 1998-March 4, 2012

14 years

That's how long I've been changing diapers my friends.

To the day no less.

Madelyn is now potty trained!

Hooray!

She stepped into panties on Hayden's birthday, and never went back.

She did have some poo poo accidents the first 2 days.

So, I took her and Ashlyn to Tutti Fruitti to share a frozen yogurt.

 I told her that if she could go poo poo in the potty I would bring her back to get her very own!

That's all it took!

The very next day we were back, and she's been wonderful at the potty!

Crazy to think that I've had someone in diapers for the past 14 years!

I didn't realize just how excited I'd be that we are done with that!

Whoohoo!!!

Way to go Madelyn!!!

On a side note:

She wanted to help me put laundry away the other day.

I gave her some towels, and wash clothes and asked her to put them in the hall closet upstairs.

She excitedly ran off, and kept coming back for more.

I later found them here, on the bathroom floor.

This probably made more sense, I mean, when do we ever use a towel in a closet? But in the bathroom, that's were they belong!

14 YEARS OLD!

Hayden turned 14 this past month!

 It amazes me how much he's grown in the past year!

He now has surpassed me in both height and weight, and strength!

I still have more hair though....maybe just barely. (he, he, he)

 Hayden enjoys listening to music,

 talking on the phone,

 roller blading, 

reading,

hanging out with friends,

and playing 'Just Dance' on the Wii.

In fact, everyone loves that game.

It's always a favorite activity for Family Night.

And I love watching them do it!

Hayden was ordained a Teacher at church, and is enjoying the boys and leaders in the quorum.

He's excited to be able to attend dances now, and got to Youth Conference this summer. They are going up to Palmyra, NY! He will also get to attend a session of EFY!

And he will start High School this fall!

14 is going to be a BIG year!

Happy birthday my son!

Back up and running!

I haven't been posting for the past month, because I've had a slight problem with my iPhone.

I've been unable to download the photos to my computer. In fact, it hasn't been syncing at all really.

And so every time I'd get a moment to blog, I'd realize that the photos I wanted were on my phone!

Frustrating....

BUT, I finally took the time to go visit the nice people at the Apple store, and they gave me a new phone, got all my photos off my old one, and now I am free to blog again!

Which means I'll be doing a lot of it, because a lot has happened in the past month!

I will start with Duncan (since his birthday is where I left off).

Duncan finished up his Fencing class, which he LOVED!

He's the little guy in yellow.

Ronan & Morgan actually started the class with him, but lost interest really quickly.

I was able to get the money back for them, so they dropped out. But Duncan looked forward to the classes each week. He wanted to do it again, but had to choose between fencing and soccer, and soccer won out for this season.

He also participated in his very first Pinewood Derby race!

 He had a blast making the car with his dad.

And enjoyed being at the event with all his Cub Scout friends.

Duncan was a great sport!

As is the Mahaffey tradition it seems, his car came in LAST 

EVERY. SINGLE. Race.

 Hayden and Ronan had the exact same thing happen to them on ALL of there races.

We just are race winning car makers.

BUT we do have great sports about it!

And Duncan was cheering his buddies on, and happy for the winners.

So, all in all it was a great night!

Stay-At-Home-Mom

Once upon a time I had 4 children, 

all under the age of 7.

And I was a Stay-at-home-mom.

I had 1 child in school.

The other 3 and I would play out back,

make crafts, go to the park.

We would read stories, bake bread & cookies.

Once a week we would go shopping, and run a few errands.

But mostly, we were HOME.

I miss it.

Although I am still categorized as a "Stay-at-Home-Mom".

 I feel more like a "Run-everyone-everywhere-and-do-everything-away-from-the-home-Mom".

I now have 4 kids in school, 2 at home, and you'd think

that I'd have more time, with less at home, wouldn't you??

But I don't.

I go to the gym,

 grocery shop, 

run 'forgotten' items to said children at school,

ballet, 

drop off at pre-school,

 piano lessons,

 activity days,

 scouts,

 fencing lessons,

volleyball,

pick up prescriptions,

run kids to Dr. appointments at least twice a week,

drop off at the mall,

or skating,

orthodontist appts.,

dentist appts.,

meet with teachers,

visit teach,

pick up items for school projects,

go to the library,

pay the library every month for late fees,

and go to the park.

Then I need to make sure I keep track of things like

An Eagle project,

3 Faith in God books (are they working on them?),

1 Duty to God book,

3 Scouting books & requirements,

a French project,

2 Science projects,

a 'Transportation' project,

amount of time spent on TV/computer each day (for the children),

practicing piano??,

practicing flute??,

make sure to sign up for spring sports,

schedule yearly physicals (for the children of course),

haircuts.

Some days it's all just a little too much!

I know I am not the only mother with a lot on her plate 

(and that many more have their plates pilled even higher),

but some days I really miss the stay-at-home time

when I had toddlers, and pre-schoolers.

And I don't even have kids in High School YET!

Ahhh.....just had to get that off my chest.

Now I can go and do!