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Tonight I have a very special photo for you. It's Patrick! What's that...you don't know Patrick? Well, Ladies, if you ever need some magic done to your hair, he's your man. Funny thing about a blog that's posted on The WORLD WIDE WEB...anyone can find anything you write! Someone found this that I wrote over 2 years ago and let Patrick know about it. Then he emailed me and now you get to put a face with the name. What a nice guy he is to send me a picture! He's also great with hair, but I've mentioned that a few times already, so if you're ever in the vicinity of Lawton/Ft.Sill, OK, remember Patrick! (Seriously, if you're not a crazy person and really want a fabulous cut/color, let me know and I can get you his salon info. He's worth a drive. I'm trying to convince Bryan of that!)

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All 5 of us spent a little time at Addison's school this morning. Bryan had some time off he had to use, so we thought we'd go to Sea World today. But, Addi hopped out of school on Monday telling me she had a surprise to tell me when we got home. About 50 steps later, she said, "Okay, I'll tell you now! I got a Sparkle Award! And I got a sticker and a pencil and I got to go to Mrs. S's office and I get to go on stage at the assembly on Friday!" The Sparkle awards are given to students who are caught doing something kind. We are not surprised that our loving, considerate Addi received such an award, but we are proud that she shows kindness to those around her even when we are not there to remind her. Congratulations and good job, Addi!

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If you can't go outside to play, the garage is the next best thing! Libby spent most of Wednesday in the garage riding her bike in tiny circles. Sometimes she was in full pads (helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and an extra couple stuck where she felt they would be necessary) and sometimes she risked it as she did in the pictures. :) Levi was out there with her a lot. He sat on the tricycle, threw balls, walked around with Bryan's golf clubs, and got stuck in the wagon...over and over again! His little legs aren't quite long enough to pedal that tricycle, but he thinks he's way too big to scoot on his little push toys. How sad will they be when I finally finish that chest I've been working on for the past 87 months and our van takes up all their play room?

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It's raining, it's pouring...

Gentle, loving, sweet, and kind

(not) Gentle, loving?, (not really) sweet, and (not so) kind

(you didn't see moments before when she had him in a headlock and you can't hear his cries of protest!)

Sad

Happy

Goofy

Serious

Again, not-so-gentle...she has no idea of the monster she's creating!

Sweet!

We initially went outside to get fun pictures playing in the rain. I took some cute ones of Addi when she was around Levi's age and thought that would be fun to do today with my other 2 kids. Not so much. Libby just can't keep her hands off Levi and Levi's not really a frolick-in-the-rain kind of guy! He's more of a dig-in-the-mud-and-pull-found-worms-apart kind of guy, so maybe one day I'll gross you out with those pics. I'll end with a few of Addi's rain pictures. They were taken a few months after we moved to Raleigh and she was about 18 months old.

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Preview of Halloween :)

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Bounce-y Fun

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Groovin' to a little of her favorite music on Daddy's ipod! Can you guess what she's listening to?

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Addi entertained Levi's idea that he was as big as the 1st graders during her field trip this week. She held his hand and let him hang with the group. It made my heart glad.

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*If I could find this outfit in my size (and if I could look as adorable in it!), I'd totally wear it.

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We're going back a year to our pumpkin patch visit last October since we had to postpone our pumpkin patch trip originally planned for today due to the wet weather. Hopefully Friday's picture will be an updated pumpkin patch shot, minus Addi. :( (Unless I let her skip school...hmmm...oh, you know I'd never do that. I used to be a teacher. How, in good conscience, could I pull her out of school to go to a pumpkin patch? Besides, she's skipping next Friday to go to Sea World! I certainly would not entertain the idea of pulling her out two Fridays in a row!)

At least Levi has learned a NEW silly face in the past year!

Look how chubby my Libby Lu was! She's still got some chunk left on her, but I didn't realize she'd lost any! Another sign my baby's growing up and I'm in denial.

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1st Grade Safety Town Field Trip

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UPDATE: Levi's okay in this picture. Bryan wondered if he was crying. No tears...they're all making their best silly faces!

Problem, meet Solution.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been a tad irregular and inconsistent with the blog posts in the last few weeksmonths (years?). It just seems as though something always takes a higher priority. First, it was the nausea and exhaustion from my last pregnancy (but, hello!, that was 2 years ago). Then my excuse was our move. It was a big move, a 12oo+ mile move, but that also was 23 months ago. Lucky for me, (that is, if I believed in luck, it would have been lucky for me) we moved in early November, so then I had 4 family members' birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years taking up my time. And then, I was busy preparing for the arrival of Baby P. (Busy buying matching Christmas dresses for the next year when I was positive we'd have 3 girls!) Of course, Baby P/Our Bouncing Baby Boy/Levi was born and that really was an excuse. Many days he's still my excuse!

Clearly and rightly so, my family takes a higher priority than the blog. That is a problem when I wish I could document my childrens' growth and development and our family's adventures on here.

My solution is year-long posts of pictures. Only pictures. Well, if you've seen my Wordless Wednesdays, you know it won't always be only pictures, but, a picture a day for the next year. I think it will be fun to see how my children change over the next year!

The rules are:

1. I post a picture each day of the week for the next year.
2. It will mostly just be of the kids...one kid, two kids, three kids, our whole family, or some variation.
3. I may or may not add a description.
4. I will not beat myself up if I flake out and don't get to it one day.
5. I will not beat myself up if I flake out and never get past the first month.
6. I may or may not, but probably will post other things from time to time.
7. You will not expect stellar photography. It ain't gonna happen.

That's it. Pretty simple solution, don't you think?! And, it starts today or tomorrow...I'll leave you in suspense! :)

wordless wednesday

Rockin' the side pony! Ahh, memories...how I loved a side ponytail!

feels like home

Another reminder we're back in Texas was a story on the news this morning. A small school district nearby closed for the rest of the week to sanitize after lots of flu-y kids. BUT, the Friday night football game is still on!

private talk

Libby and I have had quite a few chats on the same topic lately. I think she gets it and then...

A few weeks ago, as we waited for the elevator at her preschool, she looked at a complete stranger and proceeded to tell her, "I pee-pee in my pants sometimes and then my Daddy spanks me." Then she started talking about when she poops in her pants! What could I do??! The other mom was very gracious and even gave me a little giggle the next time I saw her, but I could have crawled in a hole. Not to mention, she hasn't had an accident in I don't know how long. We went over the talk: some things are private and you don't share private things in public. For days after that, anytime we were in public Libby would whisper in my ear, "I'm not gonna talk about pee-pee and poo-poo 'cause we're not in our house or the car!" Great. We were on the right track.

Oh, but today. Today we went to the Athletic Center which is next to Sprouts. I was looking at the English muffins when Libby came up behind me and started rubbing my behind. (That's not really the "punch line" since I'm used to at least one child touching me inappropriately in public.) No, then she has to (loudly) say, "Mommy! Your bottom is all wet!" Me: [nervous giggle, eyeing the area to see who heard] "Well, sweetie, that's because I just exercised." [then on her level in a whisper] "Remember the things we aren't supposed to talk about in public? Mommy's sweaty bottom is another one!" I don't know if she's ever going to get it.

ww - Daddy's Home!