Jack.

Will invited to Jack to his birthday dinner (big stuff!) and this morning I asked him how it went.

And my Jack says, "Oh mom! There was a party pooper!"

"A party pooper? Who was it?"

"No mom...a party pooper! Waiting for us by our plate!"

Party favor, perhaps?

We spent the weekend in....

Narnia. (at least that's what Jack calls it)

I have a whole post to do about our winter paradise but I don't have time to sort through the hundred pictures yet, so for now the short version is that we did a whole lot of:

sitting by the fire

shoveling ourselves out the door

sketching

playing on the furniture

and hanging out nice and cozy.

Today

Today a certain someone turns eight. eight.

She is beautiful, she is thoughtful,

she is interesting and interested,

and most of all, she has a kind heart.

Right now she is soaking in a bubble bath, chatting to herself, getting ready to celebrate tonight.

Right now, eight years ago, I was working so hard to get her here and I thought she was never going to make it. I was seriously ready to call it a day and go home. But after one more (long) hour, she arrived. And made us parents. And we've been unbelievably blessed every day since.

Happy Birthday Ava Blythe!

Five months old!

And so darn cute!

Hey, who's behind the camera?

Oh, it's my mom!

Jemma.

I posted a few weeks ago with some of Jemma's favorite sayings but I forgot the very best one! The one she says 20 times a day...."I cuddle you." This can be a question, a statement, or a demand. In fact she's gotten in trouble several times already this week for yelling it at some one (usually Jack). Hah, she's actually saying it right now!

The party begins...

Ava's birthday is in the middle of a 4-day weekend so she brought her treats to school today. This year she chose flower cookies (just like kindergarten). I used Sarah's awesome sugar cookie recipe--it was easy peasy which was a good thing because, thanks to some croup, I had two sad babies all night. Poor Ava and Jack want to her room to read while I rolled, baked, and frosted and Jemma and Henry cried their little pink eyes out!

The sort of night that makes me glad I enforce strict bedtimes around here, you know?

Ahhh, she is growing up.

Don't even get me started.

1st grade.

kindergarten.

Jack.

Ed's out of town (thus the outbreak of pink eye and some nasty, scary croup) so Jack's pitching in. I caught him unloading the dishwasher...nice but not too safe!

And speaking of Jack, last night he says, "Mom, I'm going to explore the world....can I get you anything while I'm out?"

Let me preface this

by saying that my kids love medicine. So when I told Jemma she had pink eye after days of watching Jack get his medicine, she clapped her hands and said, "pink eye! eye drops for Jemma!" She was in for quite the disappointment when she realized eye drops are a whole different ballgame then some cherry flavored tylenol!

This was the night before these two woke up with pink eye. Any wonder how we pass these germs back and forth?

Some sad tulips

The sun came out and my tulips keeled over. A little extra loving from the girl probably didn't help.

Big boy!

Tried out the exersaucer. Not really a fan.

I heart these two.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jemma says, "FUN!"

I like this holiday...lots of fun and happiness for very little work.

Give these kids some markers and a heart cookie and it's like the.best.day.ever.

Man enough

to look good in a pink bumbo.

mmm....he is cute.

He's famous!

Ed's on the cover of this month's Wheat Life...and just in case you don't subscribe to Wheat Life, here's the headline:

The NeXt Generation: An introduction to some of today's young leaders who are stepping up to the challenge.

Jemma's been carrying the magazine around all day!

stupid pink eye strikes again

This time it got my Jack.

He has been a very brave boy....he handles the eye drops with less whining than me...but he has been sad, sad. He's a little lover and going days without being able to rub his head on Henry's or cuddle Jemma in bed or rub our faces with his little hands and nose has about done him in.

Poor bud.

Coug Fan?

ya think?

"Look at me!"

"I color a picture of Henry!"

Superbowl.

You already know I'm a big football fan and this year two of my top five teams were in the big game so it was a good day for me. Even better, my kids love Superbowl Sunday and helped get ready.... Ava made cute name cards for all the food and other various signs around the house and my Jack had his own contribution to the decorations:

Seriously.

No one said a word to him, he just got out his gear and lined it up the dining room just so.

The cutest sheep I've seen

Ava's class play was "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"....very cute!

And I forgot the spelling bee update...she got sixth after spelling "daily" like this: d-a-i-l-well. She said, "Mom! Well is not even a letter! I don't know what I was thinking!" That's what happens after concentrating for an hour and a half. Yet another reason I'm glad I'm out of school!

When I got home from the gym last night,

Jack met me at the door and hollered, "How was spin class?? Are you dizzy??"

He's a goob but we like him anyway!

Pure Torture!

Ava's class spelling bee is today and they sent home a letter saying parents could watch--this wasn't allowed in 1st grade so I hadn't planned on going this year either for one main reason....I hate watching kids perform. I mean it. I get stressed out at high school plays, last week at the kindergarten assembly I almost cried when a little five year old couldn't remember her line, I'm even nervous at the Nutcracker that one of the professionals might screw up! But Ava really wanted me there and so I went. And I almost threw up when the first couple kids got out and their eyes were all big and teary. Aacck, makes me sick to even think about it! I had to leave after a half hour and then I took the kids to Starbucks and picked up a pink donut to leave in Ava's locker and when I dropped it off, I peeked in the window and she was still in the mix so I won't know till after school how she did but either way I'm just so proud of her for doing it...and I'm already dreading next year!

Do we look alike?

Jack asks me this on a regular basis!

Showing his buddy how to play Ninja. And, as you can see, Henry has entered the drooling phase of his little life.

Fourth time's the charm!

We can't let a perfectly good January go by without a paint project, so we decided to paint our room again after we got back from Seattle. This is the fourth time in five years so Ed's getting it down to a science in there...I bought the paint at naptime and by bedtime, we were all moved in!

Goodbye turquoise, hello gray.

Probably our best yet.

Not exactly springy but very zen. My favorite part is the furry throw and the birdie mirrors.

A little Jem, hard at work

It does my heart good

I have at least ten different pictures like this...different times, different chairs, but same little boys, so happy to be brothers!

Me and the little bud.

Jack was dying to take a picture of me and Henry the other day (when we were supposed to be loading up for school!). This happened to be one of the 14 days that I had pink eye, Henry's still in his pjs and half asleep, and the angle is more than a bit skewed but it's me with my beebe and it might be the only one I have so here it is!

Seattle.

Ed was going to be in Seattle last week for meetings and I decided to join him and since I was already taking Henry, I thought I would take Ava too. I knew she'd love it but even more, I knew I'd love to have her. Ava is the most enthusiastic, cheerful person I know. She's a bit of a Pollyanna when it comes to finding the good in things and when traveling with a baby (who hates to leave his home!) it's nice to have a little sunshine by your side!

She wanted this picture to show her class since they've recently been talking about the Statue of Liberty!

We did a lot of shopping. IKEA was her favorite since they had kid carts. And yes, she's in a tank and flip-flops....it was 50 degrees when we got there and we think that's summertime!

I also brought her for this:

to be my nanny.

The meetings were at the Embassy Suites--one of my favorite places to stay with the kids! Separate rooms, huge breakfast, and free drinks at night.
That's a mai tai for me, shirley temple for Ava.

We got to see Ed for about 3 hours the entire time we were there and we spent it at dinner at Bahama Breeze (a place we went to in Atlanta!) and then Ed and Ava hit the pool (the best part of the trip for both of them!)

Henry was out of sorts about 90% of the time. He's a serious homebody (just like the rest of mine at this age) and he was not happy in the hotel, not happy shopping, and not happy eating out (except the one night we ate with Ed and he slept through the whole thing). He was fantastic in the car--both ways with just a little peep and he slept great all night but when he was awake he was a stinker....most of the time anyway:

hard to be annoyed with this cute face!