it's been piling up...

We have excellent intentions - every day, every week, every year.  We plan and scheme to make our lives go a bit smoother. We make resolutions to spend more time with family, with each other.  To exercise, to keep up with blogs (wink wink), to visit local churches, and - nobly - to keep up with the laundry.  

daddy's home!

At 6:30 on Tuesday night Daddy came home - sporting a new haircut no less!  (Thanks for the peer pressure applied in South Dakota!)  I wish I could have videoed the kids faces when they saw him for the first time after a week... their eyes lit up their grins stretched wide... they looked like they got a personal visit from a disney princess - and then they tackled him to the ground.  Daddy had an equally giddy grin on his face.  His ultimate hugs, kisses, and patience of a saint lasted until about 5 am the next morning.  (I lost the bet - I thought the whining would wear him down by tubs).

Daddy's Helper

It's one of the greatest mysteries on Rosebud Street.  The child who covers his ears if the conversation gets too loud - yet screams the loudest also runs terrified of the Vacuum - but insists on pushing the dust buster.  Each time the garbage disposal is turned on the little man runs to your side, looks up, eyes wide and says "dada okay? okay dada?"  The same situation with the hair dryer.  And he absolutely will not leave your side until the sound has abated and he is assured of your well being.  He cries at loud horns.  Runs for your arms when neighbors cut their grass... so why is it that when Tony cut the grass this weekend, Jackson followed along until daddy had no choice but to let Jack help too.

Flower

When Bella was a baby she called flowers Mamu... I can't really say where it came from - Tony and I used to think it was a combination of Flower and Mommy because she knew that I had painted the flowers on her bathroom wall.  We still laugh about the night when we had both girls in the tub.  They were about 1 1/2 years old.  Emma pointed to one of the flowers on the shower curtain and said "flow-wuh".  Belle smiled and clapped:  "Mamu!"

Watching Daddy Go

I so wish that I could have snapped this particular photo with a high res. camera and that I could have recorded the boys voices as they called bye bye to Daddy on this morning. It could have been any morning really. They do this nearly every day as Daddy goes to work - pad to the door after him and then get a bit teary as they press their noses to the window and call for their favorite guy to come back.  They wave and cry and yell bye bye for a few moments and their Nono comes to the rescue.  He lifts them up high so they can watch Daddy's work truck dive away and then cleverly distracts them by pointing out trucks and cars on the street, birds in the front yard, and clouds in the sky.

Do Over...

So that happened... and by that I mean a ridiculous mess and by a ridiculous mess I mean the newly arranged closet organizer that my husband so kindly put back for me a few weeks ago during a particularly keen melt down pulled completely out of the wall.  I'd say it happened round about 4 am.  last Thursday.  One part of my brain heard the thundering crash and thought - that gosh darn closet organizer fell out of the wall again.  The other part of my brain heard the crash and yelled - clumsy intruder!  SCREAM! So I did what both parts of my brain said and then listened to Tony as he swore under his breath, rolled over and said, "well I'm not fixing it now..."  And so we wend back to sleep, hoping it was a dream.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Alex on April 2

Alex on April 7

 Alex's hair has been on my to do list for the better part of a month now.  He has beautiful blond hair that grows faster than Rapunzle's and is straighter then a pin.  This means that within a day and a half, he has a section in the back that stands up like a little fan.

I was bugging Tony to take Alex to the barber - but as Tony doesn't really go to the barber, like ever, that seemed like it wasn't going to happen.  So I was quite surprised to return from the grocery store on Saturday mornings and see this:

A Night Out

Originally posted on Sunday, March 25, 2012

Sometimes you take the days when you can get them!  Generally, after a week like I just had the ideal thing to do would be sleep for two days straight - but that’s not really possible with kids anyway - so when Matt and Jeanine asked if we wanted to join them to see the Berks Jazz Fest sponsored Bella Fleck concert at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center we agreed - happily!  

Collapse

Originally posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012

This morning while getting dressed in a bleary state of desperation - the closet collapsed around me.  The organizers ripped right out of the wall, leaving me covered in a mountain of often unused clothes.  I sat amidst the rubble for a moment or two, lip quivering, not sure which way to turn. 

Easy Like Sunday Mornings

Originally posted on Sunday, March 11, 2012

Out treat at the end of a long week is Sunday mornings.... the only day that neither Tony or I work, is Sunday Mornings... No one has to get dressed by 7:30, no one has to rush out the door, or log on anywhere and we all LOVE it.  Daddy, in particular, has taken ownership of the Sunday Morning and has now perfected the waffle.  Each Sunday we all gather round to eat his creations  everyone of us consuming far more then we should, in all rights, be able too.  Everyone has their particular syrup/butter quotient and individual eating style...