Whitney is 9!

Nine!  Our big girl is 9!  Some days I see a glimpse of a teenager walking around here!  But luckily she is still her sweet 9 year old self!  She has long beautiful hair and long lean legs.  Her go to is a ponytail and feminine sporty clothes.  On occasion she likes to accessorize with different earrings or a necklace but she mainly sticks with her best friend bracelet she shares with her group of BFF's.

Whitney has had a stellar year at school.  Reading and doing Math beyond her grade level.  She has a superb memory and most recently found a love of astronomy.  Ask her about our solar system and she can spew off cool facts!

This Spring, she and her 3 best friends sang in the Variety Show at school.  They were the opening act singing "True Friends" by Miley Cyrus.  We were super proud!

This softball season has been unbelievable.  Most of these girls have been together for three years and their growth has been tremendous!  They only had one loss at the end of the season (the other team did sort of cheat so we won't count that)  and we head into playoffs this week and can't wait to see the girls play their hearts out!

Whitney invited 6 sweet friends over for her birthday party.  We played Scattegories, had pizza, cake, sour patch kids and watched the movie Beezus and Ramona.  It was so fun!

Whitney is beautiful on the outside but we couldn't be more proud of how beautiful she is on the inside.  She is kind, patient, funny, hardworking and compassionate. We love you Whitney!



                                                                   Donuts for breakfast!

                                                            Lunch at school on her birthday!

                                                       Presents from siblings!

                                                             Scattegories!

                                                               
                                                       

Ryan is 2!

So hard to believe that Ryan is 2!  He continues to be a laid back, easy going guy who loves to keep up with his big siblings! 

He has loved Thomas the Train for a long time so we had a Thomas themed family party.  He was thrilled with the whole day of Thomas as well as his train cake.  He watched enthusiastically as we sang to him and without prompts tried to blow out the candle!  After a few attempts he did it!

He loves  trains, cars, trucks, and airplanes.  He loves to build things with wooden blocks or with Duplo legos.  He also likes to color along side the big kids!  He is happy serving up meals in the play kitchen to me or to a baby doll. He loves storytime and Look and Find books.  He is good at kicking the ball and wants to hold the bat like the big kids.

Ryan is still a man of few words.  He very selectively says about 25 words.  He knows most animal sounds and vehicle sounds.  He can point to his body parts and you can give him detailed instruction and he does it.  He laughs at funny parts in the movies and always is in on the joke around the house.  He is a funny and happy guy and we can't wait to see more of her personality as those words keep coming!

Ryan you have completed our family in ways I couldn't not have imagined.  We love you!

Colin is 6!

Colin is 6 and what a big kid he is!  Our chubby little toddler is now long and lean!  He still has his cute curls but we keep it somewhat short because they get wild and unruly and he does not let me style it!

Colin continues be to our arts and crafts lover.  His favorite past time drawing.  Some of his favorite creations lately are pokemon, minecraft and monsters.  It amazes me how he draws these things from memory or just creates his own creatures.  He is also constantly is asking to do a craft.  I am not super crafty but luckily we can hop on Pinterest and find something!  He also loves to give his creations as gifts.  He is always sliding pictures under his siblings doors!

Colin has had a fantastic kindergarten year! He is now reading and loves it!  He has mastered all his kindergarten sight words and reading level skills so for the last quarter will be in a group learning 1st grade stuff!  His teacher says he is quiet and doesn't speak up a lot but when he does it is always something interesting.  He is for sure a deep thinker.  You can always see his little mind working.  Usually coming up with something creative!

He is doing swimming lessons and I think this will be the summer he takes off swimming on his own!  He has started to enjoy doing some wiffle ball in the backyard and talks about basketball being his sport!

His best buddies at school are Cam, Johnny and Alaina.  These are his best friends from preschool and it is so fun to watch their friendship continue to grow.  He invited a few additional friends from school for his Minecraft party!

Colin we are so proud of your heart work, creative mind and tender heart.  We love you!

Lauren is Four!

Sugar and spice and everything nice may be what I say about this girl for the rest of her life!  She is so fun, so sweet, so full of energy and love and lots of spirit that is for sure!

Lauren has been looking forward to her birthday for months.  She decided probably back in November she wanted a My Little Pony party and so we did!  She was definitely felt like the queen of the ball that day.  So happy and cheerful.  So happy to have her first friend birthday party and soaked in every minute of it!

We did pin the tail on the pony. (A staple game at O'Neill birthdays)  She had little ponies for everyone to color on with washable markers.  They got to take the ponies home and you can wash them and color them over and over again.  Then we did cake and a pinata.  Opened presents and done in under an hour!

We then had a fun dinner and more cake with Aunt M, Matt and Auntie Ann.  That night she got to have a sleepover in Colin's room.

For her real birthday she got to bring in treats for school and then we celebrated again that evening giving her her gifts and enjoying the rice krispee treat cupcakes too!  The weather was nice and she even got to squeeze in a bike ride.  A perfect day for our sweet, sweet, and spicy girl!

We love you Lauren!

7 Years

This blog post has been looming in my mind for weeks.  I feel like each year something comes to me.  What did I learn, how has this impacted us, what has it improved in our lives.   Well, this year nothing profound has come to me.  And at first that bothered me.  Was my hurt not strong enough, was the experience not as traumatic as I remember, does it matter less because I had three more kids after her.  Of course, the answer is a resounding no.

This fall, a new acquaintance of mine lost her baby soon after birth.  Though our stories were dramatically different, it brought up raw emotions I had not felt in years.   Though that week was painful in ways, it was also another part of this healing process.  No matter how happy I am now, no matter how blessed I am to have 4 healthy babies here in my arms, that pain was hard.  It was life changing. Life changing for the better.

We all go through hardships in our lives, and most people we pass every day don't know ours.  Just as we don't know theirs.  And some people haven't been through theirs yet.  I have realized the importance of not comparing myself to others, because one, we don't know what other people's story is.  Two, we don't know what it is like to walk in their shoes.  Lastly, someone will always have it better or worse than you.  And maybe I feel a little sensitive to this because this is a presumption I have dealt with many times in my life.  Isn't she lucky...whatever that reason may be in their head. 

I am not lucky to have these 4 amazing kids.  I am so blessed and I am humbled and grateful for them every single day. 

Ryan is ONE!

I can't believe my baby is one.  It is so exciting.  Its is about to get a whole lot crazier I think!  Once this guy starts walking, he will be stirring up trouble all over!

He weighed in at over 24 lbs and over 31 inches.  Around 90%!

Ryan is so sweet.  He has the most contagious smile and likes to play bashful and nestle his smiley little face into my shoulder when people talk to him.   He likes to keep busy and discover new things around the house and take all the toys out of their bins.  He can play independently very well but he also likes to be where his siblings are playing.

He loves being pushed in the swing or pushed down the street in his hand-me-down pink car.  He is good running errands, he likes a stroller walk and happy to be carted around to any activity.

Ryan's big siblings love him.  They all want to kiss and hug him. Say good night to him.  Hold him though now he quickly wiggles away.  Help him walk.  Put him on a pillow and push him around.  Pretty much anything he is up for and he happily plays along.  He is in full throws of loving a good game of peek a boo.  I just love his little belly laugh.

Thinking back on the last two years gets me a little choked up.  Thinking we were set with our trio and very content with that.  To the shock and roller coaster of emotions about being pregnant again and having four kids!  To being super excited to finding out it was a boy!  For the kids to be so excited and ask so many questions about this baby that was coming and to feel him move in my belly.

Ryan coming at 38 weeks was such a treat!  And there is one small, but amazing detail that slipped through the cracks when Ryan was born.  When the baby nurse came in to check him out and measure him, she was sitting next to me on the bed, and her name tag said Christine.  At that time it didn't throw me, I felt this quick moment of serenity.  Our Christine walked with me through every step during this pregnancy and that's why I think I wasn't more taken back.  I knew she was with us and had something to do with this little boy joining our family.  Exactly why he shares the middle name of Townsend with her.   When I think of it now, my mind is a little blown.

Ryan completes us in a way I only had dreamed of and every day am grateful I am living this reality.  It makes me find calmness (most of the time) even during the really hard days.  In years to come I will long to go back to these little baby fingers, giggles and snuggles.  So, I am truly soaking up every second.

Ryan we love you more than you will ever know!

 A small family party.

 First he just smashed the cupcake, no idea what to do with it.  Then Tim gave him a taste and he devoured it!

 Hand me down winnie the pooh and eeyore.  

 Super excited about his mower, and even took a few steps with it!

Colin is FIVE

Wow, five.  Five is a really big kid.  But yet he is still so little and so full of wonder.  My favorite thing is to watch him draw with passion, focus and creativity!  And see him roar like a dinosaur.  Those are my two favorite things right now.  And I will soak in every second of it.

He still likes to snuggle.  He gives me pictures he draws and says he made it for me because he loves me.  The sparkle in his eye he had as a newborn gets stronger every day.  He will forever be my little prince.

Colin is a terrific brother.  He loves Whitney to pieces and I love their friendship.  They play together endlessly with very little conflict.  They spend the night together every weekend and holiday.  He has learned how to be a great big brother from her.  He has taken Lauren under his wing and leads her in great play time.  These two can fight within minutes or play for hours harmoniously.  Just never know what you are going to get!  He loves his little brother and I have not doubt will teach him many fun and mischievous things.

Colin has thrived at school.  His teachers are impressed with his extreme concentration on all school projects.  He is well behaved and plays well with all of his classmates.  When Colin finishes his work he helps the other kids at his table.  His teacher told me how he has taken to a little boy in class whom has speech difficulty.  Colin is very patient with him and helps to figure out what he is trying to say.  We could not be more proud of his kind and gentle heart.

Colin just started coloring and drawing one year ago.  And colors every day for a minimum of two hours.  He colors before school, during his rest time (he gave up naps in December), after his rest time, waiting for dinner, and just about any time he may need to!  He seems to have superb talent for a 5 year old, he is very detailed and creative with his drawings.

Colin is one fun and cool little kid.  We love you Colin!

Dinosaur Birthday Party!

Lauren and the other kids were blind folded Pinning the Horn of the Triceratops.

 Colin didn't want to be blindfolded.

 Super excited about this birthday gift.  We also got him Star Wars legos and books.  And a dinosaur bone excavator game.

Some of his latest creations.