Hello, Charlie

OK, this is weird and wonderful all wrapped up in a receiving blanket--my baby sister had a BABY!!!! (Nancy, I hope you don't mind me showing you both off to all of my friends!) I am so thrilled for her, and as you can see for yourself a) he is stinkin' adorable, and b) Nancy looks fabulous. Congrats, sistah, I love you and can't wait to meet the little bambino myself!!!

Oh, and P.S. Nance, it is totally unfair that your labor lasted all of 1 hour. If that? My advice: Move closer to the hospital before Charlie's siblings arrive!!!

Lookie at Lukey

It's photo time!!! I love Cama! Love her! She is such a great person and friend. Yesterday we got together and the time went by way too fast. She managed to get some delightful pictures of Lukas (much to my surprise--he only looked at her about 10% of the time, and of that, his tongue was sticking out most of it!) that I had to share. If you are dying to see more, check it out!!! She always amazes me with her creativity and keen eye for unique photos. Her blog is full of amazing shots that will make you drool. :)

And yes, these boys are brothers!

"...and there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Does anyone out there think this "tithing" blessing pertains to zucchini? Call me crazy, but I'm a believer!!! You think I'm joking, but as Dan can attest, I most assuredly am not. Thanks to our gracious neighbors, we have been able to stretch our food budget when we needed it most. Did you know zucchini can be added to almost anything? Green specs have popped up in my cookies, breads, eggs, stir-fries, pasta dishes, and frittatas. My kids have gotten very supsicious, but now it's just a fact of life. Zucchini happens. Here's a little sampling of what they have dropped off just last week:I am so grateful for this blessing! When life gives you zucchini, make something out of it!!!
I'll try not to eat the whole loaf of my chocolate lime zucchini bread all my myself....

Say what?

Lukas to Sam this morning: "Sam, get your sword. And then you will die. Because we don't say kill."

Sam, upon running in on me in the bathroom: "Mom, you're smashing the toilet with your big, big, big, big, big, BIG bum."

OK, the first "big" was funny, then it was amusing, then Sam was banished from the bathroom.

Moldy Pits and Asslesop

Can anyone deny the beauty of canned fruit? Has anyone else out there experienced the blissful delirium of canning with a loved one at 2am? If not, you gotta try it! By the end, our minds were as mushy as the "asslesop" (a Katy spoonerism) and as fuzzy as the moldy peaches. But, "memories are made of this...." Yes, that is 20 pounds of apples in one pot. Yes, it scorched on the bottom, and yes, the apples on top were still, er, crispy. And yes, we learned our lesson!

Poor little Brocky boo just couldn't take it anymore! After Mike came home and relieved Katy, I had her strap me to her back to take a load off my aching feet! Her smile wasn't quite so big then.

It is finished. Well done, thou good and faithful canner and enter now into your bed.

But don't get too comfy because there's still 100 more pounds of apples to go!!!

Foozball Dance Party!!!

Here's a little glimpse into our private life behind closed doors:

It's all fun and games until someone gets hit in the head with a unicorn guitar....

How did we get to this point, you might ask? It's what you get when you have a few too many oreos for FHE treats and then put BJ in charge of the activity. He narrowed our options down to foozball or a dance party and we ended up doing both simultaneously! BJ was dancing with so much gusto I got a side ache from laughing so hard and I couldn't concentrate on my game. Argh, I hate losing to Dan! (But I've managed to get used to it these past 9 years....) When I tried mimicing his moves, I found myself sweating more profusely than I do after running in the morning! These shots were when we got down to "serious bidness" after the foozball game was over.

I'm telling ya, dat boy got moves you aint nevah seen befo!

Whatcha gonna do....

I was happily sitting on the couch at Katy's house, gabbing into oblivion when I happened to take a gander out the window and saw this speeding by:

"Dost mine eyes deceive me?" I thought. Could Adam really have bathed in mud? And if so, where the heck was my darling Sammy? A couple steps outside revealed his whereabouts....

He was truly stuck! The weird thing is, I don't know how long he had been there, because we never heard a peep. By the time I got there, his (one day old) shoes were buried deep in the muck and required my brute force to extract them.

The next 10 minutes were spent hosing the kids off with cold irrigation water. (Brings back memories of my dad dousing my sister and I with buckets full of cold water after we painted ourselves green from head to toe when we were supposed to be painting the barn fence, huh Mary?! At least, I now I know my parents' train of thought that fateful day: What were they thinking?!!!)

But, whatcha gonna do? Kids will be kids.

And they're back!!

P.S. to my last post:
I have to hand it to Dan--I went to pick the kids up off the bus hoping to get a "better" picture, and when I went to snap it, wouldn't you know, the SD card was still in my computer. Boy was I feeling sheepish....

When I asked the kids how school was, all Emily could talk about was lunch. How she needed to eat faster so she wouldn't miss recess tomorrow. How I packed her too much food. How she didn't even have time to finish what I packed her. How I made the sandwich wrong (tell me, how do you mess up a PBJ?!). I was actually starting to feel pretty awesome that my thrown together lunch was so satisfying. Meanwhile, I was carrying on a conversation with BJ at the same time, listening to her with my left ear. Moms are good at multi-tasking like that. When we get home about 10 minutes later, Em is still talking about how she was stuffed from lunch and her game plan for snarfing her lunch tomorrow so she'll have more time to play. Then she mentions how good the chicken nuggets were, so she ate those first. Huh? I didn't pack those. The cat was out of the bag. Yes, my little Emmers ate two lunches at school today, both hot and cold. I called her crazy, BJ just called her lucky. Note to self: be more specific with lunch directions to a first grader.

And they're off!!

No tears cried here this morning. Nope, we were ALL excited that this blessed day has finally arrived! Their bags were packed with clothes laid out before dinner last night. Family night was especially memorable with Father's blessings all the way around, making me grateful for Dan and all his fatherly qualities. It also reminded me those warm steady hands on my head every year--thanks Dad, for some of my most cherished memories. (Right up there with "school shopping" from mom's fabric cupboards and pattern bins.) Anyways--here's the kiddos out front. (To all you who know BJ, note that this is the first time he's worn jeans since he was size 2T! A breakthrough!) Dan begged me to be the one to take them to the bus (read between the lines: I drug him out of bed with one eye open, shoved the camera in his hand and told him to get a good picture of them getting on the bus or forget about a nice hot breakfast.) Here's the shot he got: I'll let you be the judge of whether or not he got a hot breakfast.

Lukas just couldn't be left out. Poor guy has to stay home with mommy playing with toys, watching movies, and making cookies for awholenuther year.

P.S. Cold cereal with powdered milk was on the menu. Better luck next year, babe.