Look who's 3!

I can't believe my baby is now 3 years old. She is full of life and laughter and brings so much joy to our family. We can't imagine life without our sweet Rachel.

Opening Nana's present; trying on one of the cute dresses Nana sent

Her Mickey Mouse cake. Hmmm...I don't think those are my fingerprints.

Unwrapping presents; Ni Hao Kai Lan sunglasses

Blowing out the candles

Working Girls and Cutie Pies

Because life around here was becoming really slow-paced, I decided to find a job in the evenings. My place of employment:

Yes, I have joined the ranks of the working class again and am feeling good about it. They don't pay me in hugs and kisses, but cash is always nice. It makes for hectic evenings around here, or so I'm told; but we're making it work.
Hey, it's BOGO time til May 3rd, so get on in there and buy some cute summer sandals. You know you want to.

You know I was kidding about the slow-paced part, right?

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Greg and I went on a double date last night with our awesome neighbors, the May's, and had a great time. We ate at 25 Main (though the guys said it was a chick's restaurant) and went and saw Date Night, with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey. If you are married and have kids, you will think this is hilarious. There is a little swearing and a sequence in a strip club that might make some uncomfortable (no nudity), but all in all, really funny.

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Kids keep growing, even though we tell them to stop it. Since Easter was Conference weekend, we got dressed up the weekend before. As I've gone back and looked at pictures from Easter's past, I can't believe how much they've changed and how lucky I am to be their Mom.

Alive and Well

We've been busy living, freaking out at life, and laughing along the way. Mainly freaking out, but we'll paint a pretty picture for posterity.

Uncle Kevin was in town for a night on business and we had so much fun with him. We introduced him to Rockband, and the kids loved showing off for him. We wish we saw he and his beautiful family more, but we take what we can get!

The girls cut their hair. Hailey got hightlights and a trim, while Elise cut off three inches! I may be biased, but I think they look pretty cute.

Our Spring Break was really early (March 8-12), and it rained most of the week. Greg decided to whisk Hailey and Trent off to Vegas for the day towards the end, they were so bored. They toured the Forum Shoppes, and even got their picture taken in a Ferrari. (It turned out really grainy when I scanned it, so you'll have to take my word for it.) Here are some highlights:

Nana was here for a few days towards the end of break, too. It was so great to have her here, the kids adore her, and she them. She took us girls to get our nails done and the boys to buy a treat. She took the kids to their traditional breakfast at McDonald's, and all of us out to eat at Red Robin. Of course I didn't take pictures of the fun stuff, but did I managed to grab one of she and Hailey before she left, though.

Trent had his Pinewood Derby again and had fun. I don't know why I didn't get one of him with his car, but I have one of him getting his Bear rank that night and while he's waiting for his car to come down the track. The orange one is his.

OK, I'll save Easter for another post. I've been on here so long Rachel has forgotten who I am.

Heart attacks, singing chipmunks and refined Englishmen

I hope you all had a good President's Day weekend. Thanks for your kind words after my last post, but I felt bad. I didn't mean for it to sound pitty-pottish, and I'm sorry if it did. I just feel like I've rounded a corner and wanted to share my new perspective.

We've had a fun weekend. Saturday found us cheering on my beautiful niece Abby at her soccer game, then we went bowling. Greg barely squeeked out a win, and that was after heckling me for being in the lead the entire game. That's never happened before; I am the world's worst bowler. Maybe it's because I was competing against children??? Then that night I was up until 2 am doing this to the kids' doors:

It was so much fun to see their reactions. I wrote inside jokes and nicknames on them, and had the kids write love notes to each other on the blank ones the next day. Valentine's Day was pretty low-key, since it was a Sunday. The kids ate way too much chocolate and complained about being bored after church, so it was a pretty typical day here. :)

Today found us having a picnic and playing at the park with our fun neighbors the May's. After that I took Trent, Elise and Seth to see the Chipmunk's 'sqeakquel'. It was my turn to take the kids to the movies, and I was dreading having to spend 90 minutes watching it. But I was happily surprised. I actually liked it a lot more than the first one. I'm not a huge fan of Jason Lee, and he wasn't in this one very much; so that was an improvement.

Have any of you been watching Masterpiece Classic on PBS? Some of you know that I am a Jane Austen nerd. I love all of her work, and have reread each book at least twice. The BBC has done a new version of "Emma", and I think it's the best one I've seen. I could go on and on about movie versions of the books, which ones are good, which ones got certain characters right, etc. but then you'd all know what a true geek I really am. You can watch 'Emma' online until March 9th; so plug in the headphones, snuggle up with a blanket and enjoy!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/index.html

Life is good, even when it sucks

I know that's an oxymoron, but I've had an epiphany the last few days. I've been MIA the last month, and it's because I couldn't see that life was still good. I've been isolating myself, which is soooo not what I need to do when I'm down. I was only seeing the negative in my life; and I know that was making Satan happy. Even when I knew that in my heart, I couldn't pull myself up.
Then last week I read Rachel's post 'truth'
http://rachelandcompany.blogspot.com/2010/01/truth.html. As always, she is filled with insight and wisdom, and I knew God was speaking to my heart through her eloquent words. After I stopped crying, things started to become clear again.

My life is not perfect. It's not meant to be. It's never going to be. Kids are going to yell, the house is going to be a mess, money is going to be an issue. I need to learn to deal with these things and not let my entire perspective be skewed by the bad things. I have so many good things in my life. I have a husband that loves me, children whom I love so much it hurts. Extended family that cares about me, as well as friends that do too, even if it does seem like I've disappeared. I live in a beautiful home, we have food, clothes, and more toys than could ever be played with. I live in the greatest country on earth, my children are receiving an eduction, we have medicine when we're sick. But most importantly, I know that God loves me.

So even when it sucks, life is still good.

I am officially loosing my mind

How was your Christmas? Did you eat too much and spend way too much time in the kitchen? Do you think Back to School is a beautiful term? Are you ready for a long awaited break yourself? If you answered yes to any of the above, you are not alone. School doesn't start until tomorrow, but you can bet I'll be doing a Happy-Dance once they are out the door. Not that I don't love them and enjoy their laughter. It's just that over the last week, namely since Christmas has been done, they've been fighting a lot. "Santa's watching you" isn't working anymore for some reason. If I hear one more whiny, "Mom! She's looking at me!", I think I will throw a fit myself.

Enough negativity. It's a new year and with it comes new goals and trying not to feel bad about the ones you might not have accomplished last year. I try not to dwell on those, because then I become Ticked-Off Mommy, and the kids don't like her very much. I don't either, for that matter. So I like to focus on what I'm going to do right this year, and for once, I don't have a list a mile long. I've decided to focus on two areas and that's all. The rest can be worked on if I have the time or energy. And frankly, I kind-of doubt I will have either, so then I won't feel guilty for even more things. Does that make sense? I haven't had much adult interaction over the last few weeks, so forgive me if it doesn't.

We had a great Christmas, by the way. I would post pictures, but I can't find the camera and am frankly feeling too tired to go look for it right now. I'll post more later, as well as my Top 10 (or close to it) things I learned, discovered, etc. in 2009.

December is flying by

We've been keeping busy, as I'm sure all of you are, too. We've baked a ton of cookies, gone to fun parties and loved getting Christmas cards in the mail. We've shopped and danced to our favorite holiday tunes in a kitchen that can actually fit us all!
Trent started basketball and he's on the Bull's. They've had a rough start to the season, but we're hoping it gets better after the break.

He's in the blue shorts.

Elise turned 7 on the ninth, and unfortunately came home from school early not feeling so well. Here's how we started the day, with her opening presents:

Here's how we ended the day, with her cake:

I took her to the doctor the next day and she had strep throat. She was miserable, and I was so happy the antibiotics started working right away. I am always so thankful for modern medicine when my kids are sick. I don't know how those pioneer women did it.
Here we are baking gingerbread men on Sunday. I've tried lots of new recipes this Christmas, some winners and some 'thanks, but don't make those again, mom.' I think we'll pass on these next year, but the kids had a great time. Rachel just thought it was playdough. Hailey was at a youth activity, so she missed all the fun.

I'm excited for my brother Kristopher to come down on Thursday and spend Christmas with us. It will just be us this year, which is a little weird, but it'll be good. To say the kids are looking forward to Christmas morning is a huge understatement, and I can't wait to see their faces that morning.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and I hope you enjoy your holiday, like I know I will mine.

And here's a little extra I had to throw in. Rachel has been coming up with the best fashion statements lately, and here is what she treated us to tonight: