Holy 2011 Batman!

This would be a picture of my Leia's foot from last night!

So far 2011 has given me several new opportunities to hone my mothering/waiting room waiting/staying calm and composed in a difficult situation skills.

I'm not loving it!

The whole year CAN'T keep going this way, can it?!

Welcome to The Second Installment of "Weird Womens Wear"

I was going to link this entry to one I put on sometime last year that featured a maternity unitard. But I couldn't find it, in fact I couldn't even find the unitard online anymore (apparently not a big seller?!?). Anywho, this is what I found for sale on the web today for the low, low price of $13.99!!! Don't all go logging on to Modcloth at once! Happy Friday and Your Welcome!

A Prayer From a Four Year Old

"Dear Lord,

Thank you for my mommy.

Thank you for my daddy.

Thank you for myself. *giggle*

Thank you for Xavy.

Thank you for Leia.

Thank you for Rooie (the dog).

Thank you for Shoshannah.

Thank you for Shoshannah's *something I couldn't understand* *giggle*

Thank you for my stuffed animals. Amen."

Daily Nuggets:

• Shoshannah finds slap-stick humor HILARIOUS!
• Leia can be bribed with Frosties! I sent her to bed with a tissue and the drive to get her loose tooth out. (It looks completely disgusting right now, because it's so loose it's sticking straight out).
• My kids came up with a game tonight. It's called "Dance Tag". It's kind of genius! Move over Bieber!
• I'm so over winter! Here comes another snow storm.
• Xavier started the Hardy Boys series. Eighty-plus books should keep him busy for a while...one would think.
• Chub has brought back to "the pack" a whole deer spine and a head. It's gross.

The Party!

Happy *late* Birthday Gaius!

Speaking of a blast from the past...

I think this coat used to be a favorite of my brother's and his friends (dare I say their wardrobe staple!?) when they were teens. It's now for sale in the women's department at Old Navy.

The old becomes new????

Back to the Bullets

• Shoshannah rolled from her belly to her back and then to belly again tonight. It only took the lure of a pair of scissors and a roll of packing tape to get her all the way over. *Don't worry, Xavier picked it all up before she got there*
• I feel like I'm too busy lately, like my life is running me instead of the other way around.
• Marc has been working crazy hours, which is good for our bank account but not good for our family. :-(
• I'm still waiting for my camera...
• I watched my first live runway show from fashion week today!...via youtube. It was still exciting! It was Naeem Khan, and I actually liked some of his stuff.
• Xavier wrote a paper for school about why he likes to read books. "I like to read because it fills my head." I like to read because of that too! I think he's read 4 books this past week!
• I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but I cut almost all of our TV time down to nothing (4 hours per week). I LOVE it! My kids read books and play with their toys now! I didn't think I was letting them watch THAT much before. But they hadn't been playing like they do now.
• Today Paulie and Gaius came down the stairs dressed in Leia's tutus. They wouldn't let me take a picture.
• Gaius really wants to name a baby "Mean-O". I told him someday he could when he was a daddy, his reply was "But daddy's dont' have babies." Yeah! I kind of doubt any woman is going to let him name a child she is carrying that name either. Sorry buddy!
• We had to reschedule the birthday party last week because of the funeral. So now it's this week. I need to make a cake.
• Leia is finally getting more confident about her reading. Before this week she wouldn't even try to read by herself. Now she's sounding out everything she sees. It's so weird how kids do that. Xavier was the same way, suddenly something just clicked! And thank goodness, I was seriously starting to doubt my reading teacher skills.
• Today was beautiful!!! Please please please let spring be here soon. I'm itching to get out there and pound the pavement. Right now I couldn't even if I wanted to because the snowbanks are taller then me and the people from my town have a hard enough time not running me over when they can see me. *seriously! I've almost been hit 3 times. And I'm following the pedestrian safety rules!!*
• Last but not least, I think I'm close to halfway through the youth group pictures! I scanned some of my favorite ones today! They were of a canoe trip we took on the reservoir. I have a lot of crazy memories from that trip! Like when Marc was basically picked up by a girl in our youth group and shoved through this 6 ft. tall man-made twine web to no one waiting hands, like there was supposed to be. And how my best friend got hypothermia because her sleeping bag got soaked during a rain storm, I guess she ended up sleeping in a tent with Marc (which i guess he felt very uncomfortable about). But I stayed up and played cards with a bunch of guys, and one of them told me I had pretty eyes. Which I'll never forget even though it freaked me out then and still does a little today. Crazy, teenage memories!

And here it is way past my bedtime again. Well g'night and pleasant dreams!

"What have you been doing with your life" you ask?

My former youth pastor just brought us up a whole bag of old pictures. So I've been working on scanning and uploading them to facebook. It's been super fun seeing everyone's reactions to their old, younger, sometimes skinnier selves. Now I'm remembering things that I haven't thought about in years. It makes my heart happy!

Yup! It's February.

Hello mounds and mounds of white fluffy stuff.

The playhouse is buried (you should see the roof)

**All photos courtesy X.S.**

We had sad news yesterday. I man at our church passed away very unexpectedly. It's times like these that I am reminded just how much I consider my church family a real family. For some reason God keeps showing that to me over and over lately.

I honestly do care deeply about every single member of our congregation.

I don't know if it's just this church, or the part of the country we live in, or if people feel this way and just don't talk about it. But I do think feeling close to 150+ people is rare.

This man was actually a founding member of our church, which is kind of amazing in itself.

And he will most definitely be missed, but by no means can I begrudge him his early place in paradise.

See you soon Uncle Tom!

Happy 4th Birthday Gaius!

Here's a sneak peek into Gaius' birthday celebration this weekend (because lets face it who knows if I'll actually get any good shots at the event)!

***Note: These are all actual things he requested to have at his party.***

Costumes

Checkers

no he doesn't know how to play

Chocolate Cake

with mint chip ice cream, and strawberry ice cream, and chocolate ice cream, and...

Chocolate

any kind, he's not picky!

Gummy Bears

And away we go...

Leia and Xavier *in tag-team fashion*- "Gaius! You have to be a Christian to get to heaven....don't you want to go to heaven someday? Don't ya? Don't ya?..." (etc.)

Gaius *while looking at me like a deer in headlights*- "I don't want to be a Christian. I want to be a Mama's boy."

Multi-tasker By Nature

As far as I know this was not a taught skill!

I've also never seen any of my boys trying to feed "Sho-ey" this way.

Hey! It works!

The Tale of Two Conversations

Me-"So Gaius what do you want for your birthday?"

Gaius- "Underwear!!"

Me- "What? You just want underwear?"

Gaius- "Yes, Cookie Monster underwear and lots and lots of toys!"

**************************************************************

Leia- Mom why do you make me take care of the dishes?

Me- Because it's good for you. Plus, someday when you have your own house you'll already know how to do it.

Leia- Yeah, but I think I'll just make my kids do it like you do.