What We've Been Up To...

Maybe you noticed? But I haven't hit ye olde orange publish button in almost three months. I think this is where I say "whoops." {Not "sorry," though - I'm unapologetic this year, remember?} It's hard to explain why I suddenly dropped off the map, blog-wise. Some insecurity, I think, along with my complete inability to do anything consistently probably contributed. And once I went away, it became harder and harder to come back. I needed a break, though - time to sort everything out in my head and be at peace with myself. I know this is all very vague and weird; that's actually how it felt as it was happening, so I'm afraid I don't have better words to explain. Again, whoops.

BUT now that I'm back, I thought I'd give a little rundown of what we've been up to.

4/12 - Christian and I celebrated our fifth anniversary. And by "celebrated," I mean that we ended up in the Urgent Care because Christian was feeling terrible; it turns out he had strep. It kind of sucks that the first time I left Lucy with the in-laws {and cried the whole way home, by the way} so my husband and I could have a evening alone, I ended up watching TV by myself while Christian took a nap upstairs.

4/28 - I turned the big 2-7 and had the worst birthday ever. {Sorry to be such a downer, but there it is.} The fact is that Sundays are just hard; wrestling three kids through church feels like a workout and often leaves me with a headache. And since it was Sunday, that meant no breaking the sabbath for us - no going out for birthday dinner, or birthday doughnut runs.

5/12 - Christian let me sleep in for Mother's Day and made me breakfast; he also gave me the sweetest card of all time. The guy has a way with words when he wants to, I'm telling you. We got to talk to his brother Daniel, who's currently serving a two-year mission in Uruguay, that evening. Overall it was a good day; Mother's Day hasn't always been my favorite, but I sure do love my little family.

5/20 - Our baby Lucy turned one whole years old. {More pictures of her party to come; they're too adorable not to share.} She's growing up into the sweetest little girl, taking tentative steps and talking in her soft voice every chance she gets. I miss her tiny baby self and nursing her to sleep, but she's still got a chubby belly and I love the big girl she's turning into.

6/8 - As has become tradition in Christian's family, we all {all 20 of us, including my then eight-and-a-half-months-pregnant sister-in-law} walked the Komen Race for the Cure together. My amazing mother-in-law has been cancer-free for three years, and we couldn't be more proud of her.

6/16 - I meant to get up with the kids on Father's Day, I really did. But it was only after Christian got out of bed that I woke up. I followed him and sent him back upstairs right away, but he couldn't fall back asleep. {Father's Day fail.} I did make him breakfast, let him take a long nap, and helped the kids give him a card and presents. {On the other hand, I forgot to call my own dad until 10:30 pm. Facepalms all around.}

6/21 - Our darling niece Tabitha was born. We haven't met her in person yet, but if pictures and videos are anything to go on, she is the most adorably squishy thing. I can't wait to smell her head and kiss some of those neck rolls.

I hope there are still a few people out there who care that I'm back. :) Either way, I plan on posting more often from now on.



P.S. These pictures were taken one morning when I asked my kiddos during breakfast, "What should we do today?" and Maggie promptly responded, "Paint... outside?" It was such a good idea, so I obliged. We had fun painting for a while, and then when they got bored, I turned on the hose to wash them off and that turned into an activity of its own. Max especially loved the mud puddle that all the water created at the edge of the driveway.

The Pigeon Wants...

Currently we're having the siding replaced on our house. We got our tax return and realized that for the first time, we needed to act like adults and use that money responsibly instead of getting to splurge on something fun. I'm a little bit excited about the getting-our-house-painted part, but I'm also completely over-thinking the picking-out-paint-colors process. {Warm gray? Taupey gray? Greige?? How does one make such an important decision?}

AND I've been packing up my kids and taking them to my mother-in-law's every day so they can nap in peace. Even though my mother-in-law is wonderful and feeds me cake at every opportunity, it's a huge ordeal, but I prefer it to my kids not napping at all. I mean, can you imagine?

It's causing me to have control issues a little bit. This morning after breakfast I suddenly decided "HAIRCUTS FOR EVERYONE!" and put Lucy in her highchair with a towel around her neck. {Don't worry, she wasn't putting up with my nonsense and the scissors never even touched her hair.} Then Maggie got all her hair shaved off. {Just kidding, kind of.} Max was only spared because our clippers weren't charged.

And don't you feel lucky YOU weren't at our house this morning? Five minutes after you walked in the door and I would have been saying "at least it will grow out in a few weeks." {I'm not that good at cutting hair.}

It's a special kind of crazy I've got going on right now. I keep coming up with all of these ideas where I'm like, "Do you know what would be totally awesome?" If we took a trip to Boston! If we got a dog! If I took the kids to the park for a picnic! If we got a dog! If our kids had their own mini backpacks! No really, we should get a dog! I remind myself of the pigeon in The Pigeon Wants a Puppy.

I think Christian hates it. He did enjoy watching this baby bulldog video with me last night, though, so... yeah, I think getting a dog is a real possibility for us.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday. Here's how ours went down:

- I went to Target last night under the guise of getting Robitussin and mango sorbet {I've been fighting off a nasty cold/possible sinus infection for the past week}, and came home with bags of Easter basket fillings. {No actual Easter baskets, though - those were all gone.}

- Max and Maggie had fun going through all their plastic eggs this morning, eating the yogurt-covered raisins and fruit snacks inside, and ignoring everything else in the buckets we used instead of baskets. Lucy enjoyed playing with the plastic egg halves and immediately pulling a flower headband off her noggin every time we tried to sneak it on.

- Christian took the twins to church while Lucy and I stayed home. We played fun games like "watch Mama fix her hair" and "go through the bathroom cabinets" and "discover the pregnancy test that first told Mama you existed." {Yes, I still have it.}

- After church, we all went over to Christian's parents house and had dinner with his family. It was a party. Two of his siblings and their families had traveled to be in town, which meant six of his eight siblings and their families were there. I was lucky enough to get the above shot of my in-laws with their six grandchildren.

It was such a wonderful day. And the weather was obligingly warm, which I very much appreciated. Here's hoping the wonderfulness transfers into this upcoming week!

Important Thoughts 29.0 + Our Life in Pictures

29.1: Lucy has recently started talking. A couple weeks ago, out of the blue, she started saying "uh-oh" - the softest, sweetest little "uh-oh" you ever did hear. A little while later she started holding things {remotes, green beans, etc.} up to her ear and saying "eh-wohw," which was surprising because I wouldn't have thought we answered the phone in front of her that much. Her newest official word is "ah dah!" which she says promptly whenever the TV is turned off, whenever we're done reading a book, whenever she's ready to get down after a meal, pretty much any time anything is over, she says "ah dah!" like a champ. And all this is mostly to say, when did she get so big? Where did my newbaby go? I thought that when she started walking, or when she turned one, that would be the moment that she wouldn't seem like my baby-baby anymore. Silly me, for thinking I had a couple more months. {Also, admittedly I am bragging on my Looska a little bit. She's a genius baby and I just wanted everyone to recognize.}

29.2: This morning, after putting Lucy down for a nap, Max and Maggie were so content playing by themselves that I decided to try and clean the kitchen. Usually their brains follow a protocol that states: If Mom is in the living room, then all is well and we are safe and we can be happy and go play wherever we like. BUT if Mom is somewhere else, and especially if she is in the kitchen, then we must all crowd around her and cling to her legs crying or the world will end. But today was different. They left me alone, and I got so much done. Eventually Max did wander in, and he helped me finish loading the dishwasher, and then while I washed a few dishes by hand I let him climb up on a chair so he could play with the running water. And that turned into Max and Maggie playing in the sink with measuring cups {because measuring cups are the coolest, so clanky and water-holdy and good for pouring}, soaking their clothes, and flooding the kitchen floor. It made for a pretty stellar morning.

29.3: I recently started listening to the Bossypants audiobook. It is amazing. If you're the one person in the world who hasn't read/listened to it yet, what are you waiting for? It's like listening to Tina Fey do stand-up, if stand-up comedy was also very moving and sometimes made you cry. Even though I want to listen to it all the time, mostly I save it for when I'm at the gym, which means that while I'm on the elliptical machine I occasionally grin like an idiot. And even though I said before that I love Tina Fey, I'm not sure if I really meant it then. BUT I DO NOW. Tina Fey is an incredible person and I absolutely adore her. {Still not as much as Amy Poehler, though. Christian was recently reading this article and said, slowly turning the computer screen toward me, "What if thiiiiiiis person were to replace Jimmy Fallon?" And a big smile popped onto my face that I couldn't get rid of. Amy Poehler just makes me happy, what can I say?}

Five Years Old

{ lovely image via }

My little blog is five years old today, you guys.

It's totally not a big deal. I didn't even realize that it was coming until yesterday. Last year, on my blog's fourth birthday, I was similarly oblivious and just posted this cookie recipe.

I'm not going to recite any stats for you {mine are kind of pathetic anyway}, or ask you to fill out a survey {I tried to make one, but I didn't know what to ask and I kept tying "survery" for some reason}, or do an awesome giveaway {although I've got one in the works for later this month - stay tuned}.

I will say that I'm grateful to have this place to write and work my thoughts out and record some of the things that happen in my life. It might seem silly, but this blog is important to me. Thank you, my sweet readers, for being a part of it. I'm grateful for you, too.


P.S. My blog has its own Facebook page now, if you'd like to like it. No pressure or anything. ;)