Dylan and his likeness :)

Every year about this time, Bloomy's best caricaturist (Karen Kovich) comes to our preschool and artfully sketches our kiddos. It's always a highlight for me to see what my kids will tell her is important to them and how she'll draw them. This is what Dylan came home with today :) Shelby was NOT happy that he is trying to claim her bunkbed! Sounds like he admires his almost 6 year old sister very much! :) haha But, I love the picture of him on his bike...she even included the one mole he has on his face :) He's such a handsome guy!

P is for....

...PEEPS!

Have you ever seen so many little pink bunnies in all your life?!

Kev was in sugar-covered-marshmallow-heaven when she saw this awesome surprise box of goodies from Awesome Aunt Sue! She sure knows the way to his heart! :) (and also to the kids' hearts with a ginormous bag of probably a 1000+ jelly beans...which are gone, by the way!)

Ya' can't have Easter w/o peeps. Ok, so that's not true for me...I can do w/o them, but I sure need my choc. egg Reeses! I hope the E.B. brings me that!

Quick Weekend Recap! :)

Busy, busy, busy...that's the regular pace of the Steg house as usual! :) This weekend was probably even busier due to a few extra fun things going on....mainly: 1. Hailey's "Going Vertical" Rock Climbing b-day party with her "old" friends (fyi: there will be 2 b-day parties this year..."old" friends and "new" friends...yes, crazy, I know....but since this was a transitional year with changing schools and making new friends, we thought this would work best and be worth the extra effort...it was a good choice, I think)...anyway...here's the "Scaling the Wall" cake we made for Hailey. You know Kev and I...we're a team with our cake making "skills"! haha! I will not be making (m)any more b-day party cakes though (please hold me to that!), cuz it's hard enough getting a party planned and invites out and getting all the other misc. stuff done (plus having 4 kids!) and then adding making a cakethe entire night before...well, all I can say is: EXHAUSTING! We are crazy! :) And even though my "old fondant climber lady" (who was supposed to be Hailey) gave me a few gray hairs, all in all the cake was a cute one and a big success among the rock climbing b-day partiers :)
I love this pic of my oldest and youngest girls all in blue...they really do look a lot alike. They are best buds and make this mama smile so much :)
Hailey showing off her awesome rock-climbing skills!
All the girls scaling the wall at once! (Well, minus Shelby...she was slightly timid about it :))
And after the party Hailey and I high-tailed it to the spring ballet! It was AWESOME! We especially loved Rodeo. Great music, amazing choreography and a beautiful ballet! I feel so blessed to live in a town where we can enjoy the arts! My only wish: That Nina in FL lived closer to enjoy it too!
AND....the kids meet Madi--the new bunk! They LOVE her! Isn't she perty!? She's a great new addition!
And since I kinda left my Dilly boy out of the weekend recap...here he is....today waving his palm frond at church (for Palm Sunday). He's my handsome man!

Busy weekend, but such fun times. More pics to come of the party and whatnot...but for now this mama is tired and off to bed!

Quick 10th B-day Recap!

I've realized lately that much to my dismay I will never be caught up on picture-posting on the blog. As much as this aggravates me, there is just not enough time in the day. I am going to have to be ok with just never being "up to par" as far as that goes. But, I do want to get in a better habit of posting current pics even it's just a few every couple days....so with that in mind, here's a few of our "double digit" girl on her big St. Paddy's Day b-day last Wed. :) Above is her with her "Chocolate Bliss" cake. Can you tell what it is? Her fav. winter treat! :)
And one of her FAV gifts...the blue i-pod nano! Thanks, Nina and Pops G. and Aunt Mary and Great-Grandma! Can you tell how excited she was?! Cross one of those 3 b-day wishes off the list (she's still waiting on the orange kitty and laptop!) :) But, she loves jammin' to this new gift!
My 4 St. Patty's Day kiddos going green :) (ummm, I notice here that Hailey didn't take the tag of her shirt..hee hee :))...Dylan perked up this day for some reason only to plummet the next day and be diagnosed with pneumonia....
And look at my beautiful 10-year-old. I love this girl. Even her eyes are green to go with her St. Pat's B-day!
And a lil' candle-action :) Wow, she's needing a lot of hot air to blow ALL those out!

More pics to come as time permits. But, for now I will just say I'm glad our "sicko spring break" is over. Yesterday came along with even more bad news. Daddy missed Hailey's family celebration in Indy at the Children's Museum. He got called into work right before we left and worked til after midnight. STINKY! :( We had to celebrate with his family w/o him (I was not happy and I do admit I shed a few tears yesterday). I'm tired of our string of bad luck....

Meet Madeline...

...the newest addition to our family! :) After all the bummers of our spring break, we finally had a bit of good luck pass our way! Today, we are the proud owners of this beautiful bunkbed pictured above. Long story short, Kev and I went furniture shopping 2 weeks ago. We've been doing this every few weeks trying to narrow down our choices and find the best options for Dylan and "the girls'" room (by girls I mean Ash and Shelb who will both be in the same room soon). Anyway...I've had my heart set on the above Pottery Barn Kids furniture for over a year now. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. I can just picture my two littlest girls in it every time I see it. And it's truly beautiful furniture...well made, very sturdy and just so girly and pretty, but unfortunately very expensive. So....after shopping in Indy for a few hours 2 weeks ago we ended up back at PBK and wonder of wonders the floor model (seen above) was on clearance. I was very tempted to buy it then, but for some reason I just felt at peace waiting. Well, today I knew would be the day it would be marked down again if someone still hadn't purchased it (you know me, the bargain hunter :)). Honestly I knew it was a long shot that it'd still be there since we'd waited so long. I almost didn't call. But, at 10 a.m. when the store opened I took a chance. The girl seemed to know who I was right away and she said "yes, it's here and please buy it...I think it's meant to be yours" :) I felt the same. Not only was it still there, but it was now 50% off. Unheard of for this bed which is apparently their best seller. So, I ok'd it with Kev and we bought it. And on Tuesday it will be in our home! I am sooooo excited to see Shelby's face light up to finally get her own bunk bed and to finally have the TOP bunk! :) She and Pops in FL might have a few fights about that! haha :) And sweet lil' Ash can move into her new big girl bottom bunk this summer. YAY! I'm sooooooooooooooooooo excited. Finally a bit of good news for us in the midst of our spring break sickness/hassles (fyi...Dylan vomited yesterday all over our couch and between that clean-up and the big bowl of spaghettios I spilled all over our dining room carpet....well, it's been a "great" few days of messes to clean-up).....so....some happy news was in store for us, I think :) Can't wait to see the girls sitting on their new bed maybe next weekend! And can't wait to see their new room all situated with the new dresser we ordered to match...and the trundle to go under (then even Hailey can sleep in there...or our next daughter...JUST KIDDING...wanted to catch your attention :)) And special thanks to Nina and Poppy Stegs who are gifting the girls with this awesome furniture. Don't know what we would do w/o awesome, giving grandparents. We are blessed! :)

(p.s....the bedding on the bottom of the bed (Darci quilt) is Ashley's new bedding (the colors match Shelby's bedding)...it's so cute with cupcakes and birds :))

Dejavu turns into reality :(

Well, sad but true...our sweet little boy has pneumonia :(

He is thankfully not dehydrated and doesn't need hospitalization, but he is one sad looking little boy right now....

All I can say is this is just too coincidental....1 year ago today (on THIS day 3/18) was the day Shelby went into the doc's office lethargic and with a 107 temp and they sent us to the hospital. It was very strange to be in the same routine exactly one year later....with another very sick 4 year old of ours....really, really strange. But I guess I am at least thankful our boy can recover at home (on his zithromax and inhalers). It's a good thing he really LOVES juice cuz that's been his saving grace from getting dehydrated! :) And it's a good thing we never had any spring break plans...apparently we are destined for a week's worth of sickness every mid-March :(

Ho hum :( Such is life in the sicko Steg house.....

10 Years Ago....

...I became a mother for the first time...to the most beautiful baby girl I had ever laid eyes on....and 10 years later she has not only become more beautiful, but she is truly the smartest and sweetest oldest daughter a mother could ever have.....

I truly am speechless today. The words just aren't there...to say how I feel to have been blessed to be a mom to this girl for a decade...to have seen my baby girl grow up into this lovely young lady...to see how she has touched so many lives and made me a better person....how she has just been this amazing blessing from the very start...

I, of course, have many more pics and sentiments to share, but for now I want to spend time with my decade-old girl on her big day. Happy Birthday to the BEST oldest daughter I know! :) Mama loves you, Hailey Nicole!

Spring Break-Steg Style :(

Well, in sticking with our spring break tradition, Dylan is down and out this spring break with some mysterious fever bug. He came home from church yesterday, basically fell asleep eating his cinnamon toast and after he and mama woke up from their nice Sunday nap he had a nice toasty 105.4 fever. It's better today, but he's pretty lethargic. Thanks goodness for scooby doo movies who are keeping our boy happy. This is way too "dejavu" of last year and our trip to the hospital with Shelby's 107 fever/pneumonia the day after Hailey's b-day. I don't like this Spring Break tradition we've started :( We were so hoping to surprise the kids and take them someplace fun early this week before we are kid-less at the end of the week. This stinks. Bahumbug to "bugs"! :(

Sisters

There are many "I feel blessed moments" in the course of each of my days, but this was one of the sweeter ones I witnessed a couple weeks ago of my two girls--youngest and oldest--having a little sister bonding time. I must tell you that this is not an odd thing to see on a daily basis and it often amazes me that there could be such a strong bond between sisters 8 1/2 years apart in age...but this is proof that it can happen. I love my girls...I feel blessed that they have sisters to share their lives with...and I just cherish moments like these :)
Of course, I also cherish moments like these where Ash saw Hailey practicing a ballet stretch and had to try it herself! Ha! :)

Oh Happy Weekend...and VERY Happy Spring Break to all the Bloomy folk! YAY! And Double YAY for the Steg bunch who has pretty much NOTHING to do this Spring Break! Unheard of, but so exciting to not be traveling and running our rears off like normal! What will we do with our peaceful selves?!

Floam+Toddler=:(

Ok, I'll put this out there first off...I'm not a big "worry about child safety" crazed mom. I keep the best eye I can on my kiddos, but I'm not over the top with baby proofing and barring all choking hazards from the home...and so far we've not had any major incidents (knock on wood). But, Ash might very well make me a crazed safety fanatic.

Case in Point: She's been fussy for the last 24 hours. Not unusual. I thought nothing of it considering she's been teething (getting molars). Last night she was extra fussy. I had to hold her twice before she finally went to sleep around 11pm (that is unusual). Today has been much of the same. She cried herself to sleep twice. She hasn't wanted to eat much (aside from half a cantaloupe at church last night that she devoured). Anyway...she did her daily dirty diaper just now and as I was throwing it in the diaper pail I noticed tiny blue and white dots mixed in with the "brown stuff". Guess what the girl apparently ate (probably a whole cup of) yesterday? Floam. Ya' know the colored play-doh like stuff that is made of small balls. I have no idea when she stuffed that much of it in her mouth, but it must have been when we had Shelby's friend over and I was otherwise occupied watching them. Nice. So.....in case any of you negligent moms (like myself) let your babies play with floam (or play doh)...beware...it's not great for the digestive system. But, on a positive note it did come out looking the same! :) Leave it up to our Ash! :)

She's one of a kind...

Well, today I feel moved to just pour praise over our eldest girl...
From the time she was a young child there was no denying she was different...a little shining star in the midst of our otherwise normal family :) And through the years she's just gotten more so. She is what I call "one of a kind". In the last week I've actually had 3 different people (teachers) tell me what a gem she is. Kev and I, of course, love comments like this as we wholeheartedly agree. Our Hailey is true gem. But, I think the comment I liked most this last week was from an "old school" teacher. He stopped me in the halls at Shelby's school and said, "ya know what I think is great about Hailey...she's not only a good student (there are lots of those), but she makes others in the class feel good about themselves". I just got goosebumps again as I wrote that....because I couldn't have said it better myself. That's who our girl is. Yes, she's brilliant and talented in so many ways, but what's even better than that is that she's a good person and is good to all those around her. She is always conscious of how people feel and I think that's a rarity in this day and age. And honestly she makes me want to be a better person by the example she leads. I am so proud of who she is and who she is becoming. God did a good thing almost 10 years ago when he blessed us with our one-of-a-kind girl. So, with that I'd like to quick show off a few talented ballerina poses of our girl from last week....
These first few pics are of her pointe class last Saturday. It was parent visitation day so I was thrilled to see it all firsthand. They are actually allowed off the barre now while on pointe and with this comes a lot more pain and hard work....Hailey did awesome...but if you look close she is grimacing (boy, do I remember those days...hence why my ballet career came to close!) :)
(Hailey's on the far right, second one in)
And here is another shining moment.....it might look like a simple move, but apparently how Hailey is doing this pointe routine is tough. She was singled out by her teacher as the only one who was doing this correctly in the entire class (with creases in her pointe shoes to prove it). Her teacher said that Hailey will improve 10 times faster than the other girls doing it this way :) She is a beautiful ballerina to watch...
Here is her regular class last Tuesday night....
Love the legwarmers, new leotard and bright pink belt...all courtesy of wonderful Aunt Sue! :)
Check out the height in her leg-lifting? Can you kinda compare it to the other students seen behind her. She has worked very hard in being this flexible/strong.

And she is awesome at "the splits"...ouch! I could never do those when I danced...
Again...check out the height in her leg!
And this above pic is for Nina in FL....this picture is for you to keep eventually, Nina. Hailey is doing art related to music now at school and she drew this violin (Nina G. used to play violin back in the day...) Hailey also made the artwork below...maybe I should send this to my dear friend, Nathalie, in France :)
We are so proud of you, our dear sweet Hailey. We knew you were special from the day we laid eyes on you and you never cease to amaze us with your big heart and generous spirit. You are a true gift!

On vacation?

Well, did you think I went on vacation after that last post almost 2 weeks ago. I wish! Nope, just crazy busy (more than normal)...and no down time to blog. I've missed it and have about a dozen posts now that I've started and not completed. Anyone else feeling very behind on life like me? Ugh. This weekend will be no better....aside from the fact that there is warmer weather on the way...and Spring Break is right around the corner (1 more week!). So, for now just a quick "hi" and a couple cute pics from a month ago/V-day (yes, that was the last time we downloaded pics off our camera...have I mentioned I've so behind on life?). More "catch-up blogs" to come hopefully next week. Oh Happy Weekend....