Sister Sue

Girlfriend's birthday is coming up on Friday so I've been a little nostalgic lately. I can't believe she's 3. Last night I had plans of getting her in bed and then hiking up the rocks around my house to take some panoramic pictures of the sunset, but when I got my tripod out and put on my photographer eyes, all I could see were little things that reminded me of her. So forget the sunset; I can grab that tomorrow night. My girl will only be this age once...
Goodnight little lady.

ravenous

Apparently the corn dogs were not microwaved fast enough for her. So I found her eating this one frozen.

this just in: father of the year awarded!

Jake gets it hands down.

Some of you ladies may know and share a common frustration of Mother's Day. Most of us just grit our teeth, brace ourselves, and plunge into our day with our young children. Yes, it can be joyful at times, but many days are filled with nothing more than me trying desperately to stay afloat in a sea of various messes, most of which involve some sort of bodily fluid. It's difficult to have a day which reminds us of all of the celebrated mothers who accomplished more than just barley keeping her head above water, as I do.

That being said, for Father's Day this morning, Jake woke up to a vomiting child at 4am, 5am, 6am, and 7am. And once that subsided, he was left to take care of both children and the large pile of soiled laundry from the night before, as I gradually became sick and was unable to emerge from my bed for most of the day.

It's true that I gripe about mother's day, but the poor man had to bake his own cookies this afternoon for crying out loud.

It was not an ideal day for any of us.

When I did finally have the strength to get up, this is what awaited me...

I was going to take a before and after shot, but all I could manage to accomplish was picking up the blocks. And for those of you who say, "wow Beka, you're so good, I never would have even bothered to clean up", yes you would have. I did not take a close up picture of the kitchen, but believe me, you would have at least tried.

And as for the poor dog...

That was him pretty much all afternoon.

So here's to a great husband and father who survived the Father's Day from you-know-where, and of course to better days ahead.

Happy Father's Day

We're having a quiet day at home with a few crafts and a sick little boy, but appreciating our dads and the great men they are. I'm so lucky that my kids have a dad who plays with them, reads them stories, feeds their horny toads (even though he pretends not to like them), and gets up 4 times with a sick boy and doesn't even complain. Jake is a champ and we love him so much!

I'm also so grateful for my own dad who always works hard but stays cheerful and has endless patience. I don't know how he got through all 7 of us without at least having some sort of psychiatric admission (that I know of), but he has taught me that life is what you make of it, and a great attitude makes for a great life. I love you Dad!

These are pictures

We wanted to see if Buster would have just as much fun with a water balloon.
Not that you have to twist our arms to mess with Buster...This is how Buster looks right after he's chased me up the street on a scooter. That's me riding a scooter, Buster chasing me on foot. Just to clarify. Incidentally, it's also how he looks right before Lily feeds him mushrooms off of our lawn. He is still alive in case you're worried.
But he did throw up, in case you were wondering.


This is Lily stopping my heart. It's the last time she gets to ride it for a while because she's wiggly. These are my children. This is Lily workin' the backpack. She thinks she's really big, but the diapers say otherwise. This is dinner Al fresco.This is Lily with Daisies.
Time to unpack more boxes. Goodbye.

I took him to two weeks of Safety Town and all I got was this picture

Of all of the pictures I got of Alex's graduation, this was by far the best. Due to bad lighting, far away seats, and not being able to pick him out of a group of huddled children, I didn't get any great ones of him. But this one of McKaty made me laugh out loud. Love it.

hello, Internet. You're looking well.

It's been a while.

But we've finally reached the point where everyone has a bed to sleep in and can find not only food to eat, but dishes to eat upon. And so a path has been cleared to the computer wherein Internet has been installed. And while I'm still unpacking and organizing, I won't go into the sordid details of my life right now which include questions such as, "Where should I put the extra toothpaste?" and "Why do I have so many shot glasses?"

So I'll just post some pictures of what we've been doing the last few weeks.

We let some lizards go. They are very happy living on our wall eating all the crickets they can eat...

And we made some new friends...Saw a beautiful rainbow...Played with friends (we don't have many neighbors...)And took a bath.

That's all for now. I have many many more pictures, but I'll spare you my plethora of horny toad images for another day.