Hi! I’m Alida and I’m so incredibly excited to be contributing here at ’3 boys and a dog’. I live in the beautiful state of Kansas, in a suburb of Kansas City, with my fantastic husband and 6 children….plus we have one on the way! I enjoy being a stay at home mommy to my chaotic clan but in a former life I got a degree in Legal Studies and worked as a paralegal for 5 years. While I enjoy the legal world nothing beats dancing around my kitchen and singing at the top of my lungs with my kiddos following close behind. Most of them still think I’m pretty cool….
ASHY (Ashlynne) my beautiful daughter is 12 years old and truly an amazing child. She loves singing, dancing, cheerleading (both competitive and school), drawing, writing, (she gets that from me) and she actually LOVES MATH!! (She doesn’t get that from me, at. all) She is a great student, a wonderful daughter, a huge helper, a good big sister and a great example to everyone she knows.
BRINTON is my son and he is 10 almost 11 years old. I don’t even know how to begin with Brinton….amazing does not suffice. Brinton was born with a Congenital birth defect which caused a lymphatic malformation also known as Cystic Hygroma. From that has stemmed many other issues including a pre-cancerous tumor on his tounge and a spinal instability known as OS Odontoideum. In his short 10 years he has endured 9 surgeries and too many procedures to count. He recently completed his final (*cross your fingers*) surgery and hopefully he doesn’t have to worry about any more for a long, long while. He is the bravest, coolest, funniest boy I know. He loves life, cartoons, drawing, reading, anything Star Wars and anything Legos. He’s brilliant but doesn’t love school, luckily he somehow pulls good grades so I can’t complain much.
LISEY (Elise) is kiddo #3 and she is 9 years old. Elise is a bundle of sunshine! Her eyes literally sparkle and she has the cutest giggle. She is the sweetest, kindest most empathetic girl. She loves to read and read and read. She enjoys singing, musical theater, drawing and school. Her favorite subjects are science and math (like her sister, she definitely gets that from her dad).
NANNA also known as Julianna is my sweet little 6 year old who thinks she is about 12! She is in Kindergarten and learning how to read and write. She has the NEATEST handwriting I’ve ever seen in a Kindergartner. Ask me for a sample…I promise you’ll be AMAZED! She is a little sassafrass and has tons of spunk. Her favorite color is PINK and SPARKLE. She loves to dance and recently competed in her first competition with her dance team. They won first and second in their division, maybe I’m biased but I think she had a lot to do with that.
LIAM more formally William (but I can count on one hand how many times in his 4 years of life that I’ve called him that) is an 3 almost 4 year old ball of energy! This kid is ALL BOY! He jumps, he climbs, he is a Mighty Morphin Teenage Mutant He-man Warrior Super Hero from the Planet Krypton. Let’s just say he keeps me on my toes. Lucky for him he was born with the cutest curly hair and the most darling puppy dog brown eyes that look like two junior mints in his eyes. All he has to do is shoot me a look with those beautiful eyes and I melt in to a heap of “okay do whatever you want to do” goo. True. Story.
AIDAN is my baby boy and 19 months old. He is much like Liam, all boy, into everything, keeps me on my toes, doesn’t let me sit for more than a minute at a time and don’t let him out of your sight! This kid LOVES to eat and eat. He eats EVERYTHING! Raw onions, salad, pizza, rice, SUSHI!! If you put it in front of him he’ll likely eat it. The funniest thing is he doesn’t like MASHED POTATOES! Seriously, who east sushi but hates mashed potatoes? Aidan. That’s who.
Lastly, there is Baby #7. A little girl expected to make her arrival some time slightly before, on, or a little after August 15, 2012. We are super excited to welcome another little girl into our home. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a baby girl in the house and maybe she’ll be a calming force for Thing 1 and Thing 2 (also known as Liam and Aidan, the cutest little boys on the block).
My husband, Jeremiah, is my very best friend. He works for an engineering firm as the BIM Division Manager. BIM is Building Information Modeling and he is a leader in the industry. He has trained clients all over the United States and internationally but I’m glad to have him working in one spot now with minimal travel. He is a great provider, a wonderful husband and a super dad. I love being around him and there is no one in the world I want to spend eternity with. He is truly my “soul mate” (insert ‘awwwwwwwwww” here) AS a family we love to travel but we aren’t huge planners. We usually decide days or minutes before going somewhere. We like to just hop in the car and drive hours and hours and hours to our destination. My kids are AWESOME road trippers. Seriously, they are pros.
So now that you know a little about all the people in my family let me tell you a little about more myself. Where do I start?? I’m all sorts of interesting….sort of. My favorite foods are Japanese Hibachi style steak and shrimp, Greek salad and Pasteles from Puerto Rico (where my parents are from). I love to sing and I used to love to dance but now I leave that to my girls. I love everything Broadway and I love Reality TV shows about dancing and singing and toddlers wearing tiaras. For me it’s an escape at the end of a long day. I craft (I mean I PIN crafts of Pinterest), I read (pretty much anything, love historical fiction), I blog (LOVE writing about my family), I’m a horrific cook (no, seriously) and I talk way too much(couldn’t you tell??). I’m always on the go and I never know what to do with myself during “down time”. My mother passed away 3 years ago after a long battle with cancer and sometimes I’m uber jealous of people that can just call their moms when they need to vent or have a question. She was a wonderful woman and was an incredible example to me. As a mom I’m a home birthing, co-sleeping, baby wearing momma but I’m not overly “granola”. I guess that’s me in a nutshell….or a short novel….however you want to look at it.
Alida
Check me out at on my blog: www.bowlizzlefamdizzle.blogspot.com
or at Instagram : abowlesfam
