The Many Looks of Madie

The "OK Mom, are you ready yet?" look.


The "I'm easily distracted and can't look at the camera long enough for Mom to take a picture" look.


The "I know I'm cute and want to please Mom while maintaining a little bit of Independence and control by not looking at the camera" look.


The "Am I being laughed at, or am I just so darn cute I make people giggle?" look. (my favorite)


The "Ya, I think I'm just cute" look.


The "What is my silly mom doing?" look.


The "Alright mom, if you keep acting that way it's going to be time to go inside" look.

Crazy Cool!

Half my friends think I'm crazy, for wanting to hang these on my wall, and the other half want to know where they can get their own.



My friend and her husband are slowly replacing the old wood framed windows in their house and I saw these precious babies callously discarded in their dump pile.

Ok, they're not babies and it wasn't callous and they were technically garbage and therefore the dump pile was a good place for them to be. But I think they'll find a better home on my wall.



I hosed them down and was going to clean them up better the next day, but then it got cold and rainy and I'm a bit of a wuss, so I'm waiting until it is slightly warmer to get outside and clean them up properly. I did consider washing them in the bath tub...but then who wants to have to clean dirt out of the tub when I'm done? Not me. Plus the windows will probably have to wait until I paint my wall to be hung, so there's no rush.

Plus my bushes have taken quite a liking to them. They look good together don't they?



Look at that old peeling paint. I love it!

Hello Kinda-Sorta Spring

I admit it.

I am, at times, a terrible mother who will not take her kids outside to play because it's too darn COLD!

I seem to be able to get bundled up and go out to play in the snow, but to go out in the damp foggy air right in my own front yard chills me to the bone! And my kids suffer for it.

Ok, the suffer part might be a bit of an exaggeration. In fact, spring is starting to tease us a bit here and on a very nice day I tried to get my kids to go outside and play. And do you know what they told me? Of all things? No, Mom, we'd rather stay inside.

Insane! Insane, I tell ya!!!

So I pulled out my secret weapon that I could likely lure my kids to all corners of the earth with.

Bubbles.

That's right, a little soap, water and glycerin and I have complete control over my children.










Jeesh, I never realized how flesh colored my house is.





The kids quadruple checked I got some pictures of the bubbles that landed on the plants.

Hmm. That brings back memories of The Gnome-Mobile.


I'm not sure I like the fact that you can see my back door from my front door...something to keep in mind if we ever buy another house.


This is Madie's favorite place to be in the front yard.

Probably because it's the only place in the front yard that has had any work done to it so far. Yay for grass we will probably have in the spring!











Ya, we definitely match the house. Weird.

Bring on the spring and the sun and the suntans so we're no longer those weird people down the street that match their house.

Abby's New Ride

I'd like to freeze time for a few months and keep Abby right at this age. She's so sweet and happy and playful.

But that wasn't really the point of this post. The point is, she got her big girl car seat. And look how happy she is about it!


Major enthusiasm here.




By by, y'all.

Surprise!

Jared LOVES school, but he does not love discussing the every day happenings of classroom life. I only get small bits of info here and there.

So I was totally surprised when he jumped in the car with a blue backpack full of this.


This is Brown Bear. She goes home with a student every weekend in a backpack full of clothes, a bear story, a book put together by all the students, and a notebook to record your weekend at home with Brown Bear.

I asked him why he's never mentioned Brown Bear before.

He said he wanted it to be a surprise.

I told him if he never tells me about anything at school, it's not a surprise, it's just a mystery.

He's ok with mysteries.





But at least I got to meet Brown Bear.

Fun Dip

Fun to eat.

Fun to spread across the table.

Fun to draw pictures and designs in.

Fun to lick off the table.







Also, super uber fun to smush into the cracks of the table with a rolling pin.

Meltdown

So I guess sometime in the past, before I knew him, when he was a kid, or a teenager, Nathan knew of someone making or made himself, a hot air balloon out of a garbage bag, or maybe a plastic shopping bag, candles and straws.

You clear on that?

He saw that plastic bag that protects the Sunday paper from the rain and was inspired.





But as it turns out, those plastic paper covering bags are very narrow, and very thin, and melt into nothingness when they are within five feet of flame.

But still lots of fun for the kids...


...and Nathan too.

Movie Time

Time for a movie with some friends.

It's a Sign

This is Abby eating her goldfish. The cracker that is.


This is Abby asking for "more". It's baby sign. And it's so darn cute!




And this is Abby wondering why mom is taking pictures when she's already asked nicely for more food.


Fine then, Mom, whatever...

Not really. Can you imagine a one year old with that kind of attitude. Imagine the terrible twos!

If mom won't put down that silly camera and feed me, I'll just drink my milk.

The Bribe

This year I actually planned ahead and took some Valentine's Day/Abby's first birthday pictures. And I didn't take a few...







Madie wasn't into the rocking chairs, so just my oldest and youngest...


Outtake...


I found these heart shaped lollipops in the dollar bin at Target. They were my bribe to get the kids to pose for me.








And the craziest thing of all...

...I did this ALL BY MYSELF!

No help from any other grown up and I managed to get all three of my kids to sit still long enough to snap a few.

Yay me!