drawing

that's me

Right side: "you are special to me " (that's a dress on a hanger made for me!)

Left side: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty

Gotta love her phonics!!

Lately Taylor's been into spirals and hearts and cats and colors and shapes and "I love you mom". I get these drawings all the time. I am quite fond of them and usually have at least one hanging on the fridge.

Their life cycle is like this: 1. Taylor creates them 2. gives them to me 3. they go on the fridge for a week 4. and finally, they go in the garbage (OK, AJ, not all of them...I do have a "special box" for the lucky ones). Short (but sweet) lives.

chop, chop, chop

I got my hair cut on Halloween and that lady was SCISSOR HAPPY!

I'll show you a picture later...you'll see.

Scissor happy.

I might start liking it in a month or so.

yum

One of the greatest assets to our home is our neighbors. We have the best neighbors. We have a great relationship with lots of people in our neighborhood, and we've never had this before. It's fantastic.
Well, one of my fun and crazy neighbors wanted to do something nice for us after we had the baby. She kept offering to clean my house, or to make us a meal. So finally I told her she could.

She comes to my house with a box full of who-knows-what, kicks us out in the back yard for about twenty minutes, and we come back inside to find this...wow.

She brought everything from her home, even the tablecloths!

she took a picture of us...

The kids ate at a separate table and her daughter came to serve them while Spence and I ate in the other room.

The food was delish.

Thank you, neighbor!

what I'm thankful for at the moment

Bringing in a new family member is a BIG adjustment....

Last Saturday I went to Taylor's soccer game with all 4 kids.

Just me. And four kids under 6.

I'm not gonna lie: it was NOT FUN.

It was really stressful.

I don't get much sleep anymore.

I'm grouchy...just ask Spencer.

I cry a lot more frequently.

I am craving adult conversation more than ever.

Sometimes I feel like a dis-functional robot going from one thing to the next.

But I know that this is temporary. I'm adjusting more and more each day.

So I am thankful that infants sleep a lot...

so that somewhere in all of this chaos I can take a moment for myself and remember how grateful I am to have a family that brings joy in complete abundance each and every day.

And life is so so good.

another day with Dad

I love this park.

I love my husband.

I love my kids.

I love to get breaks from mothering occasionally. Thank you, honey.

One of the most attractive things that a husband can do for his wife is to play with, teach, and help with the children. Talk about a "turn-on"!