Nothing like a surprise package of clothes in the mail to bring smiles to the girls faces and provide an impromptu photo opp.
(the boys appreciated it too, but not to the same extent)
Thanks cousins Ben and Eli!
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I think 4 is a great age for a lot of reasons… one of which is the funny little things 4 year olds say…
Today we were walking to the van and she was carrying her coat, Kit, and her baby. I said, “If you wear your coat you’ll have more hands.” to which she said, “No, Mom, I’ll still only have 2 hands.”
Last week before she went into her gymnastics class I told her to work hard and have fun. “Oh Mom, that won’t be a problem at all… when I’m doing my back hip circle and I swing back from the bar and flip around, it’s just like I am flying through the air.” The look of pure joy on her face as she described flying through the air is one I want to remember forever.
A few weeks ago I served split pea soup for dinner. While my husband and sons both enjoyed it, my girls did not. AT ALL. I suppose somewhere during the dinner I said something about how I worked hard to make that meal for them and I didn’t appreciate their disgusted faces and comments about the food. And I suppose it sunk in a little even though they didn’t really eat it all that well. Because a whole week later out of the blue she says to me, “Mom, remember when you made that soup last week that I didn’t like?” “Well, it wasn’t that I didn’t like that you made it for me, it’s just that when it was in my mouth… pause… well…. when it was in my mouth it just made me feel like I had to cough.” (essentially she said, “Mom it’s not that I didn’t appreciate your cooking me food, it’s just your food made me want to gag).
Seriously, I love this girl and am not at all eager for her to grow up anytime soon.
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This afternoon my smiley, mild mannered, easy going baby suddenly channeled his inner Dennis the Menace and went all toddler boy on me for 30 minutes.
First I looked over and found him standing on his tool bench (oops look who forgot to put away the advent calendar with her Christmas decorations)
I got him down and shortly after realized things had been mighty quiet for awhile and went searching for him. Found him in the master bathroom STANDING on the toilet.
After shutting all the doors in the hallway we headed back out to the kitchen/living room. He attempted to get water from the fridge dispenser but thankfully it was locked. So, instead he opted for emptying my clean dishes from the dish washer into the dog bowl. 
I didn’t get them out right away b/c I figured the harm had already been done, and I would go ahead and finish emptying the dishwasher before he got into more mischief.
But, that plan was thwarted when he then decided to DRINK FROM THE DOG BOWL! While I moved the bowl onto the counter and the dirty cups into the sink, I turn around to find him standing in the dishwasher reaching for my leftover pizza from lunch.
At this point, I decide that this has TRULY BEEN THE CRAZIEST HALF HOUR OF HIS LIFE and strap him into his booster seat with my pizza in hopes of keeping him safe and me sane!
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Every now and then, when I peek in on my oldest daughter before going to sleep, I’ll see something which instantly takes me back to her infancy. 
And even though she’ll be 6 in a few short weeks, I see her as this sweet little 8 month old in her crib, sleeping folded in half.
I’ll remember how she used to sleep like this every.single night… and suddenly all these pictures of her sleeping like this pass through my mind like a slide show.
Pack-n-play, hospital hooked up to IVs, crib, toddler bed, bottom bunk, top bunk… she’s done it ever where. It’s her classic sleeping position. And it makes me smile every.single.time. Sweet dreams my little girl!
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We had some trees and branches cut down in our yard yesterday. Thus far I think it was worth every penny as I love the new look of our yard, the feeling of safety knowing those dead branches aren’t going to come down in the next storm, AND the free babysitting it provided yesterday afternoon.
The tree in front of our living room window provided the most excitement. Even my 18 mth old was so intrigued, he kept looking out the window and then he’d yell, “Hey Mama” and a whole bunch of gibberish followed by “Hey Mama”… I swear with that gibberish, he was telling me “there’s a man flying outside our window!”
I didn’t get quite as much done as I would have liked b/c the kids kept calling me into the room, “Mom… quick, you gotta see this, Mom look, take a picture for Dad.”
After cutting off all the branches, he then cut the trunk into four chunks and pushed them over. The kids were concerned that Dad would be upset about the holes they left in the yard when they hit the ground, but they went back and filled them in with dirt.
The kids wondered if perhaps Brett Keisel cut down trees when he wasn’t playing football. Notice the resemblance?
While watching them climb around in the trees using ropes and pulleys, my son remarked, “This is like the original Cut the Rope.”
He also told me, “You’d never let Dad up that high!” Followed by, “Are you holding the phone dialing the 9 and the 1?” (Ahem..This MIGHT be b/c whenever Scott goes on the roof to hang or take down Christmas lights, I am always out side holding the phone ready to dial 911 in case he falls). When I explained that I wasn’t holding the phone b/c these guys know what they are doing he responded with, “Well Dad knows what he’s doing and you still do it for him.”
We really did have a great time watching the men work in our yard. There was a never ending amount of excitement to watch, between the bucket truck, men swinging from trees, branches the size of trees swinging out the kitchen window, fork lifts carrying trunks from the back to the front, stump grinders and wood chippers…. we most definitely did not get through all of our homeschool assignments and are pulling double duty today.
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