Life goes fast!

Too fast... Do you ever just want to stand up and scream STOP !!! Everything STOP! Everyone STOP!!! And just take it in? I feel like I haven't done enough of that lately! There aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week. But. You know how it goes...

We celebrated Sami's 4th birthday this weekend!! Can't believe my little man is four already. (See what I mean about time flying!?)
He was quite excited for this Spiderman cake...

His auntie bought him a spiderman SKATEBOARD! And can we say "EXCITED"?! (I'm thankful she also got him all the safety gear to go with it! Because... lets' face it.. Sami is not a world class skateboarder!) safety first!
I'm also thankful this is how he's starting out. Won't have to worry too much about injuries this way!! ha!

Today was a gorgeous day which the kids spent outside , running, jumping, playing, screaming. Great fun.


I even took some artsy fartsy pictures of Maya!
Don't you just want to eat her up?!!? I do ! I do !

This is just what I mean about time going too fast! I can remember when ALL the kids were this small. And it's fleeting. TOO fleeting. It makes me all emotional and sentimental. Husam can't stand it. He caught me looking at newborn photos this morning and loudly complained! Jesus hun! Look at you!!! I'ts like porn for you! Looking at all those babies!!!! "Aww they are so cute!" I know what's going through your head! Stop looking at them! Next thing I know you'll be pregnant again!"

But I digress... No more babies !!!! I swear!!!! My hands (And my heart) are quite full with four. But I will forever love the baby stage. The first year of their lives is by far my favorite. I'm a caretaker ... It's my nature. I love to be so needed. Perhaps something is wrong with me! ha!

Anyways. I've spent most of the week packing for our DISNEY TRIP! Kids are SO excited to head back (And to see Grandma who will be meeting us there! yay!) But seriously...

Packing for six people...... sucks.... ass.... There is SO much to remember. And need I go into the mountain of laundry I'm going to have to do upon return! UGH! I don't even want to THINK about it!!!! However the smiles the kids will have while we are there are all worth it. It's our very favorite vacation spot!

But the packing. yuck.

I've finished *I think* all four of the kids.. And have only scratched the surface on Husam and I...

Oh. And other big news on the Shahin front? We have decided since it's going to be damm near impossible to sell our house to even pay off what we owe being as we bought at a horrible time, we're going to rent it and buy a new house. A house we love! A house we can fit into ! ! ! When we bought this house we had Nadia. That's it. Just Nadia... (Some of you who've been reading since I was on xanga may remember...)

Anyways. We've outgrown it... It's not awful, we do have 3 bedrooms, but with the four kids we need at LEAST four... So here's to upgrading! We plan on going full steam ahead with this undertaking after we get back from Disney!

I'm actually terrified of the process, I remember buying this house was more stressful than getting married and having kids all rolled into one! And moving!? Let's not even GO there! AHHHH!

Hopefully it will be worth it... Nothing worth it is ever easy right?

That's all that's going on here... I'm not sure if I will be able to blog before I leave for our trip (We are leaving really early am on Friday) So if not, You will hear back from me after our return!!!!

We're back!

We are back from Disney! Exhausted but we had an AWESOME time!! The kids LOVED it. Esp. Sami... It was just great. When I'm not so tired I'll update with more... Pictures and all that jazz. But I'll leave you with this shot from our character breakfast with Pooh and friends!

I'm such a bad blogger.

I never used to be! I swear! I used to blog almost everyday. Sometimes more than once a day. I don't know what happened between then and now.. Maybe it's all the children I've had? Maybe I don't have as many interesting things to say? Maybe I just have less to rant about.. I'm not sure...

My mind is always going a million miles a minute too. So my blog is never consistent. I'm over here... then I'm over there! That's partly my personality though. It's just me. how I am..

And now... The holidays are quickly approaching.. Nadia's 5th birthday.. Our trip to Disney.. There is so much to do that I can barely think straight! And it's essential I spend most of my time keeping it together here. Because if I don't... Who will???

The kids are all doing well... Meerkat turns 1 in January. I can't believe it... I really can't. Where is the time going? i say that about all of the kids though.

I'm still on the fence about baby #4. But I am on birth control until we make some type of final decision.. Wonder if I'll ever really know for sure. I love birth, babies, and pregnancy so much.. I must repeat my mantra "Newborns turn into 2 year olds" ...

Anyways, I'll try to be a better blogger... I promise promise promise!

Guess I should update huh?

So I've enlisted the help of some pictures to update everyone on where I've been.. Hmmm. With the nice weather around we spend a lot of time at the park and on playdates! After an entire winter of being trapped inside, we were all anxious to get outside and enjoy the SUNSHINE! We even do a picnic lunch out on our deck most days. The kids love this.

There are Nadia and Sami's crafting projects! They love to do them. And I've found "The Christmas Tree Shops" has some very cute crafts that are really reasonable prices! Nadia's also been working on her reading and writing. She's doing beautifully, I'm so proud of her. Her determination to learn is amazing. She certainly got this from her father LOL. After consulting with Nadia's pediatrician they felt Nadia would do best in Kindergarten. (She misses the cutoff date) And she suggested we fight the school to get her early entrance. They had tested Nadia and found cognitively, she functioned at the level of a 6 year old. So putting her back in pre-k really became something that wasn't an option for her. The school pretended to entertain us, but really I think they had no intentions of even entertaining the idea. At any rate, we got our answer "no" and moved along to private schools. I spent much of the end of April looking for a school that would suit her. We found one not far from our home that we liked. So she's enrolled and ready to go to Kindergarten! Woo! And she gets to wear a cute little uniform! So what beats that!?

Ahh MOTHERS DAY! How fantastic was that? The kids ALL slept until 8. Which really is amazing because none of them have EVER done that in their entire lives! Let alone all 3 of them at once! It was a great treat.. Hubby got a serger for me from them which I was SUPER excited about!! (A serger is a type of sewing machine!) Nadia made me that beautiful pot you see above with the lovely flowers. It brought tears, I am not going to lie. lol. The poem was precious and my kids and husband made me feel very special and appreciated. It was a wonderful day!

Mrs Meerkitty! She's doing GREAT! 4 and a half months now! I can't believe it. She's so beautiful and I'm so head over heels in love with her! She is a fantastic little baby and ever so cute. I love being her Mom and I feel so lucky to hold that title! She's a great little nurser and growing wonderfully! I'm still nursing Sami too. The tandem Nursing is going fine. It can be tiresome on certain days, but I have always committed to doing what's best for them, and not for me! So I continue. And I wouldn't have it any other way. If I ever feel weary, all I need to do is look at their precious little faces, and that's all the encouragement I need to continue on with what I'm doing!

I had my hair cut! As you can see!!! It was WAY too long (Even thougH I love my long hair!) I really needed to part with it. Just too hard to maintain with so many children to take care of LOL. I went to my cousin's salon (pink comb salon) www.pinkcombsalon.com in Nutley NJ. And as you can see- She did an AWESOME job, evening out my color and giving me a bit of a style! IT's fantastic! I will definitely be going back to her in the future. Not that I didn't know my cousin was awesome, but my Mom is also a hair stylist so she is the only person who's ever really cut my hair. But she lives in Florida now so it really was about time to find someone else!

We are leaving on our first vacation of the year shortly. We're going to Ocean City Maryland for a week! Anyone familiar with the area? Any good tips of where I should hit up? The kids and my husband are SO looking forward to this!!! Which makes me excited as well. I really need to start on my list of things to pack for everyone since I'm the sole person in charge of this! It's a bit overwhelming. Esp to have to pack for an entire week! Our other vacation is in November. to Disney- The kids and I are SUPER excited for that one! Disney was my favorite place growing up! I used to go 1 or 2 times every year until I was 18!! And I hold such good memories from my trips there!

That's about all that's going on here. I will try and update more regularly!