Joey and Owen

Joey and Owen are only 13 months apart. Joey is very outgoing and Owen is a little more quiet. They often will wrestle and fight. They have different personalities but both are compassionate and have wonderful hearts. They will fight and then look for each other when the other is not around. When Owen does something funny, he wants to show Joey. They share a room and have bunk beds. They choose to sleep together in the same bed and at night Owen inches closer to Joey to make sure he is touching him. During the day, there at times they will drive me crazy! I can't lie about that. Then I hear them tell each other they love each other. To top it off, they come into the kitchen to tell me how they love their mommy, daddy, Ryley, TJ, and each other. Those Dargan boys are good boys. I am so proud of them. Sometimes I have some crazy days. Some days I say to myself, "I am doing a good job."

Girl time

Ryley and I went ice skating today. On Sundays, Joe and I usually take Ryley and Joey. (next time we go, we are trying out Owen - oh boy!)

Today, I had an hour and a half alone with my daughter. Every time she said "mommy, I want to hold your hand", I of course loved every second of it. Then, there were a few times where I heard "mommy, let go, I am going to try this on my own." I was proud of her and yet felt just a bit of sadness that she is growing up and will at some point do things on her own. I am teaching her to be a leader, to be confident and proud of herself. I tell her that she is strong and can try and do anything. I tell her to not give up if she doesn't get it at first. She has an amazing spirit and is such a wonderful little girl. She is so sweet and sincere. I look at her with her little braids in her hair and her big brown eyes and I just smile and feel such an overwhelming amount of love. That is my daughter. She is amazing.

Appreciate individual time

Having 4 kids is wonderful and at times can be very demanding. There is 1 me and 4 of them who all need me in different ways. It's nice sometimes for each of my kids to have their own mommy time.

On Saturday, Joe and I dropped Owen and TJ off at Grandmas house. They felt like they were doing something special and Joe and I had the opportunity to take Ryley and Joey ice skating. It was such a wonderful 2 hours. I really got to see Joey's excitement on learning how to skate with all his hockey gear on. He is getting better each time he goes. He is proud of himself and he should be. I am proud of him as well.

I watched Ryley learn how to skate. She is so determined and I just love her spirit. She will try anything and will keep practicing until she gets it. She is daring and fun and can laugh at herself. I see a lot of myself in her. At one point, Ryley and I skated holding hands. It's amazing. As we skated together, I saw Joey trying his best with a huge smile on his face.

Joe and I and the kids really appreciated that individual time.

Winter hike

In the winter on a cold Saturday, most families may head to the mall or run errands. We wake up, have breakfast together, and then at some point either have a plan or just get in the car with no destination. We always end up having fun whatever we do. It's Saturday and we are together. We took a ride to a place called Greenwood Lake, NJ. It's a really cute place tucked away that I think many people do not know about. We circled the town, saw people ice skating and just took a spontaneous hike on a beautiful trail. It was cold and snowy, but it didn't seem to bother us!

Like father, like son

It was very cute and sweet to see how proud daddy was to buy his son his first hockey stick. Joey is our first try. I have the feeling that some day I may be lacing up skates for 3 boys at 4am on the freezing cold mornings of winter. We figured now that Joey is 4, the time has come to put him on skates. Joe and Joey came home from a trip to "the rink" with a whole lot of gear. (skates, stick, puck, knee pads, elbow pads, pants, a cup!, a helmet and a jersey. They both had on huge smiles and were both filled with excitement. I could not really tell who was more excited but I think daddy was! He sure was proud. I could see the look on his face.

Joey's first practice went great. He is now at his second and I wait in anticipation to hear all about it.

TJ's snowy birthday

Well we celebrated TJ's birthday over the weekend with our family and cousins. His actual birthday fell on a Wednesday with a huge snowstorm arriving the night before. Schools were cancelled and daddy stayed home from work. It was a nice way to spend the day.

Ryley, Joey, Owen and TJ volunteered to go next door and shovel our neighbors driveway. They worked hard and were so sweet. Then they helped daddy. They were such great helpers. I think TJ enjoyed his party more then his snowy birthday. He did take a break in the car though which brought on more smiles!

Peaceful snowfall

Our home after a snowfall. I just think it looks so peaceful and beautiful.