Amazing what a shower (or 2) can do for you on a hot sweaty day.
 Refreshing.
 Rejuvenating.
 Beautiful.

Want to know what else I think is beautiful?

These guys.

Regarding Weaning

After a year and then some of dedicated nursing, I am finally ready to have my bo...dy back.
My current challenge is figuring out how to convince this child that breast is no longer best.

He'll eat almost anything you put in front of him, but he still wants his Ja momma shake at the end of it all...You give him a sippy cup full of whole milk and he looks at it like it's a joke.

My friend teases that I'm going to be that woman on the cover of the recent TIME magazine.,,"Are you Mom Enough?"  (You know the one.)
I'm beginning to think she may be right.  But if I do end up breastfeeding my child until he is 3, I would most definitely have to set some ground rules.

Look Buddy, There will be no step stools.  You want a piece of this, you get under the blanket and lay down  like all of the other good breastfeeding children.  If you bite me with those molars, so help me you are standing in the corner.  You cannot take off my clothes whenever you are thirsty, and trust me when I say, it would be better for you if your friends didn't know we did this, so if we end up posing for the cover of some magazine you should probably turn your head the other way.
Just thinking about your future social life is all.

To every mom their own.
But as for me (and my house) ;)  I just hope and pray it doesn't come to this.

Once upon a sunny Sunday,

we decided to finally try out our upstairs deck.  I found these green chairs at a yard sale the day before for a dollar a piece.  J laughed as he looked in the rear view mirror and saw me hauling these puppies to the car. (He stays in the car while I shop.)  The stack of chairs was so tall, I couldn't even see where I was going, and all he saw was a stack of chairs with a pair of legs.  I was laughing so hard I almost dropped them all over the street.  But anyway...

Look at this face.

 I can't get enough.

  

Whenever you say "Bird!"  Ty shoots his head up and looks into the sky.  

Guess who got her scriptures in the mail today.  The look on her face when she saw the package was priceless.  When I went in her room tonight to see if she was still breathing (I will probably do that until they move out), I saw her sound asleep clutching her scriptures to her heart.  I had to run downstairs to grab the camera...then right when I pushed the button to take the picture she opened her eyes.  

I was really bummed that I missed such a great photo opportunity.

So, I made her re-enact it.

"Now you have to pretend like you're sleeping again."  I said.

"How was that one, Mom?"

Not too bad, but this time, hold the scriptures like you were, and pretend like you're sleeping.

Hon, you don't SMILE when you're sleeping.  Re-do.

By this point we were both laughing too much to make it look realistic.

I hope she always treasures her scriptures as much as she does today.

These are what my girls find on their desks when they come home from school.

Today, I wrote the word 'Supper' because I wanted to see if they even knew what that word meant.  I laughed to myself as I wrote it, because I don't even know if I've used that word once in my entire life...except for maybe when I read 'The Little House on the Prairie.'

And sure enough when Tia was reading through her list, she said, "Mom, what does 'Supper' mean?" 

Hahaha. 

I guess I have failed in teaching my kids all things proper.

But at least they are cute :)

Today...

we had a princess party all up in here.

Behold the transformation, from a normal home

 

into a pinkalicious princess dwelling place.

                                       

(These are gems hot glued onto a streamer to decorate our stair railing) (Very royal)

We made bracelets.  Painted nails.  Got letters from Disney princesses..danced, and went on a real treasure hunt.

How lucky am I to have a man who is down with helping out at a princess party?  He was so great.

Here are the princesses finally finding their treasure.

They had such a great time.

You've gotta love the aftermath of a good party.

Everything pink went in the trash.

And this guy plopped down on the couch, exhausted from pretending he was excited about girly things.  

Looked like a good idea, so I jumped on top of him and we laid there for 5 peaceful minutes watching soccer...before 

THIS little girl skipped into the living room and said.

"Hey mom,wanna-do-a fitness test outside with me on the tennis courts?"

She had me jumping and running in my skirt and flip flops.  It was ridiculous. 

Prince Charming slept through almost the entire party, and then for an hour afterward. Here are a couple quick videos of his new skills.

The first one is to prove that he can do it.

The second one is to remind us all that when we fall down, we've just gotta pick ourselves up.  Again and again and again. 

(and that your kids really shouldn't be standing 3 inches from the tv screen when they're playing video games.)

First birthday

He loved the frosting once it was in his mouth...but definitely did not appreciate having to get messy. 

And this was the big birthday gift.

 Here he is having a moment with his teddy bear...in some hand-me-down sponge bob pajamas.

This past year has flown by I tell you.  Every day with this child has been filled with joy.

Happy Birthday Bud!

Remember always that you like Mom the best.

Blogger.

A couple of months ago a friend said to me , "I found your blog the other day! You're like.... a real blogger."
My initial internal reaction was totally defensive, like being called a blogger was a negative thing."No I am NOT!"  I thought. I maybe post every once in a while..but I'm not a blogger.  It's not like I do it a LOT, or write long stories about the meaningless events in our lives, or gush about my husband, or talk all about my kids, or overshare like real bloggers do.
Oh wait,
I do all of those things,
So apparently it's just a label I'm going to have to accept. ;)

It's been forever since I last posted, (like 4 days) so...lots to catch up on. Lots to discuss.

Here are my little crazies...

 Little Miss lost her first tooth!  

The toothfairy cut it super close and remembered to sneak the money in JUST before Tia woke up.

 I took a picture of what the girls room looks like prior to Ty's entrance every morning.

 This is 'upon' his entrance.

 And this is just prior to his exit.

Ty playing with a little friend.  You can't tell by this picture, but these two are quite fascinated with each other.  A lot of times when they 'play'  they end up sitting right on top of each other.

  

 All on her own, Tia decided to make a paper house.  Every day she adds a little more to it, and soon she plans to take it into her classroom and give it to her teacher to display.  I wish you could see the detail that went into this.  It really is pretty awesome.

 Just a picture of the big smile he gives everyone, wherever we go.  

 Exhaustion.  I know a little something about that.

 I put on my swimsuit and got into the bath with Ty the other morning just for fun.  He got a kick out of it.   I just thought this picture was kind of sweet.

This little boy turned one last week and as a matter of fact, he's walking now! 

Lots of excitement.

Lots of joy.

Need a leash.