Superheroes, Insane Asylum, Sleepy Eater and a Dancing Toddler

Yup, that wraps up our family description..... haha. 

So.... just a few things to share with you today....

First of all, I am completely tired and thus, my new found hero is this:

Though I have had this Starbucks Espresso Machine for 3 1/2 years (thanks to my cousin for our wedding gift!), I have really only started to be able to enjoy it lately since I have either been pregnant or breastfeeding practically the whole time.....!!  But when we moved, I got to set it back up and re-learn how to use it.  And boy has it come in handy.... DAILY! 

And "why?", you may ask, am I so tired?  Well, lately, Hannah has been deciding that it's cool to wake up at 5am and be ready to start the day.... all bright eyed and bushy tailed!  Argh.  So, my espresso machine has been nothing but a superhero to me lately!

However...... this is what that whole "waking up early" thing did to her today.... haha.

I found this to be extremely hilarious and though I had better record it for her daddy to see when he gets home from work..... haha.  The poor girl.  I know I should have probably "helped" her, but it was just too funny.  Click HERE to enjoy

 And this is (or rather should be!) Hannah's superhero! (yes, this picture is a little old, but it just shows me that apparently he needs to be in some more pictures (by himself...)!  I will try to keep that in mind. :)

Last night was yet another superhero action from Daddy.  Yes.  He saved Hannah's life.  Again.  At this point, I believe we have lost count with how many times we have saved that little lady's life!  She went under the water in the tub (again) last night.  She is just SO clumsy and has NO balance whatsoever!  Shawn and I were both in the bathroom with the girls while they were taking a bath.  Shawn was sitting on the toilet (yes, the lid was down...), and I was stocking the toilet paper in the cupboard.  We were having a conversation, I was kneeling on the floor, with my upper half practically inside the cupboard trying to rearrange things to be able to FIT the toilet paper.....! I heard a big splash and jolted my head up to see Shawn yanking Hannah up by her arm.  We really don't have the water very deep.  It goes to her belly button.  But it is certainly deep enough to cause some damage! 

That girl is CRAZY!  She is a total destructive, clumsy, and careless girl!  She will, no doubtingly, break a bone by the age of three!  She gets a new bruise every day.  If you were looking at her as an outsider you may think that she is being abused (God forbid that thought should ever happen!).  I can totally see us in the ER someday though, trying to explain all her bruises and near death experiences. 

Shawn and I have talked several times about how God has saved her from death SO many times!  She nearly falls into the TV stand (which is glass!) every day.  When she twirls to dance, it is right next to the TV stand.  When KaeLee is chasing her, Hannah runs straight towards the TV stand.  When she trips over her own feet, she just happens to be right next to the TV stand 98% of the time.  And if it's not the TV stand, it is the brick on the fireplace (which we do have a rubber liner on!).  The only two dangerous places in the house and she manages to find them.  Every time.  Oh, and the little outlet plugs for the electrical sockets?  Nevermind those, she'll just unplug whatever is plugged in and play with that one!  Oh, and why not chew on the cord why we're at it? 

*SIGH*

So if you wonder why I may be checked into an insane asylum at any point in time, you can only imagine why, after chasing after this crazy girl 24/7! ;)

On the lighter side, if you would like to enjoy a video of KaeLee dancing, click HERE!  It's a little long, but SO worth it!  She is such a cutie! :)

Oh, and also some other GREAT news...... We started trying potty training again yesterday and so far between yesterday afternoon/evening and all day today, KaeLee has only had 1 1/2 accidents.  I big one (that luckily was on the hardwood floors....!) and the other one she stopped halfway through and finished on the toilet!  Great job KaeLee!  Keep it up!  If you happen to see her or talk to her anytime soon, please offer her some praise for being such a big girl!  I know THIS momma is PROUD of her! 

Well, that's all for now...... I have a million and one things to blog about, but this will have to do for now!  Have a great week and Happy birthday to my mother-in-law, Sue today!  :) See you all soon!

Pictures!

I have given up (for now) trying to upload the video.  It seems I may have to put it on youtube first.  It'd be much easier that way anyway.  So enjoy the other pictures for now.  :) 

KaeLee and grandma Sharon

Hannah loves to be set free and run as far as she can on the grass!

Konner blowing bubbles for the girls.... they are patiently waiting.... haha

KaeLee loves chasing the bubbles!

Hannah loving to run free again....

I love this picture!!  Too bad Konner's legs were in the background! haha

KaeLee found  a new friend...

The girls thought this was so fun! (Poor uncle Kory....)

LOVE Hannah's face in this one....!

So cute!

Uncle Kory and Hannah.....  really dark, but a good picture otherwise.

KaeLee has story time with all her dollies...

And has them all reading their own books too.

And yet, even MORE dollies reading...

She loves her books!

Shawn and the girls picking tulips for mommy on Mother's Day

Running the flowers to me..... it was SO cute!

KaeLee stopped to smell them before handing them over....

We went to the park Monday.... it was a GORGEOUS day! KaeLee went up the stairs, down the slide, then repeated about 50 times!  haha

Hannah found her shadow!

KaeLee looking through the hole in the rock wall

Headed home from the park.... they had a GREAT time!

So did Hannah! :)

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Well, Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful mamas out there!  I know it's a day late, but honestly, I just didn't feel like sitting down and writing a blog yesterday.  Today I feel like there are so many other things on my to-do list that I really shouldn't be sitting here today either.  But today I am not the least bit motivated to tackle that list.  Argh.  I want a lazy day.  A relaxing day that I don't have to do anything.  Kind of like I had yesterday!  (thanks to my amazing husband and kids!) I think maybe I want that kind of day today because I enjoyed it so much yesterday.  I guess stay at home moms dislike Mondays just as much as any other "working" mom! 

Yesterday, KaeLee woke up early which meant I was up early.  But she is so independent that once she is up, has her glass of milk and has snuggled for a few minutes, you hardly notice she's around.  She's off in no time, playing with her toys, her dollies, or reading books.  And little miss Hannah gave mommy the gift of sleeping in!  She slept until 8:45!  That NEVER happens!  She got up just in time for breakfast and then we got the girls dressed and were out the door to go to church. 

Church was good.  Though, I am curious to see what they talk about during Father's Day, because our sermon was about how to bring our children up.  Like it's only the mom's job or something..... haha. 

During worship, (randomness coming! sorry in advance) one of the songs we sang was "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord".  I have heard and sung along with this song countless times before, but while staring at the lyrics on the projected screen, my mind was wandering and I realized that this would make a great funeral song.  I know, not really what my mind should be focusing on during worship, but I couldn't help it.  More and more, I feel that I would love to work at a funeral home.  And I am tired of people telling me that it's a morbid thought or that I'm weird...... I don't see that as morbid or weird at all.  Get over it. 

When we got home from church, Shawn took the girls outside and they cut some fresh tulips for me for mother's day.  They are HUGE tulips!  They brought them back to me, but it wasn't so easy for them to give them up to me.  Especially Hannah.  She just wanted to play with and smell them all day.  After a bit of crying, we finally got them into a vase and I got to open a couple of gifts from the girls (some books and a card game) and then we made some lunch and put the girls down for a nap.  One of the best gifts was that they slept for 3 hours!!  Whoo-Hoo!  And Shawn left me alone to catch up on my Greys Anatomy, Private Practice and Say Yes to the Dress and he also took a nap.  It was a great 3 hours, let me tell you!  The girls woke up and played and had a snack, then we ran to the store for some diapers.  We ordered Olive Garden "to-go" and Shawn picked it up for us.  They messed up on the order and Shawn got something completely different then what he ordered.  He ordered the Braised Beef with Tortellini and got the chicken alfredo.... haha.  And we ended up with 2 dozen breadsticks and the wrong salad dressing.... so Shawn called them and they refunded his dinner and we have a gift card in the mail...... COOL! 

The girls took a bath after dinner and Hannah had another mother's day surprise.... Yup: She pooped in the tub.  Again.  Thank you sweet girl.  But as another mother's day gift, Shawn cleaned it up.  After the girls were in bed (which was way early: 7:45!) :) Shawn and I settled in and got to catch up on Parks and Rec and then watched the season finale of Amazing Race before heading to bead ourselves. 

In other news: 

We sold our house!  We are to close on Thursday!  Whoo-Hoo!! 

We got to take our washer and dryer with us!  I am so excited because the washer and dryer that they left are a lot smaller than the ones we had.  This means that I won't have to do as much laundry!  Well, as many loads, anyway..... haha  I suppose I will still have the same amount of clothes to wash....  Shawn is hooking them up right now for me.  Yay!

We went to Yakima for a couple of days.  We watched Konner's track meet (where he ran a 5:33 mile, his best time so far!  I'd say that's pretty good for an 8th grader!)  We spent Friday morning with my aunt and cousin and her new baby (they are up from California for a couple of weeks!).  Then we met my mom and all 7 of us girls had lunch together.  Saturday, my brother came home from WSU for the summer and we had a barbeque for Mother's Day and then we left after the barbeque and headed back home. 

This Saturday we are having a yard sale.  I am not looking forward to it a whole lot, other than getting rid of everything and making a little money.  Our goal is to make enough for a bed for the guest room.  It looks a little bare in there without one.... haha.  I hate pricing everything though.  It's so much work to have a yardsale!  But being an avid yardsaler myself, I know my own pet-peeves of yardsaling and WILL have everything priced and WILL have bright, legible signs that actually lead you to our house! 

KaeLee is getting so cute (well, yes, they both are....!) Her teacher at church said she loves to sing, and boy is she right!  I took a video yesterday of her singing along to her singing Elmo.  It is super cute but WAY long!  I am still debating whether I should upload it for you all or not.  I know it will take FORever to load, so I'm still pondering....

Other than that, there is nothing else to report.  I hope you all had a great weekend and an even better week. 

Oh yeah.  Osama is dead.  I guess that's a good thing?  My only concern is that there are plenty of people working with him and I have a feeling they are only going to want to retaliate in an even bigger way.  Scary.  Oh, and I am not the biggest Obama fan but try to stay respectful...... but I am NOT a fan of someone who takes all the credit for himself and says "I I I I I I ....."   Really Obama?  You didn't have any one else working with you or collaborating with you on this one?  Give me a break. 

Pictures to come later tonight hopefully.  I have about a gazillion of them.  Some super cute ones of course!

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day!!

So I told Shawn this morning as I turned the calendar page "It's May Day!" Then I said, "So do I get flowers today...?" (knowing my answer, I turned and gave him a playful smile....)  He said, "what do you mean?  Why?  What's May Day?  You're just making it up."  haha.  I told him what May Day is and the traditions of leaving flowers (whether paper or real) on the doorstep, ringing the doorbell, then running away before they can see who left them.  We would always do this as a kid.  Sometimes they would be paper flowers (or some other form of crafty fake flowers...), sometimes they would be flowers we picked from the garden, or sometimes they would be actual flowers that our dad bought for us to leave on the doorstep for our mom.  I do recall the tradition slowly fading though, as we my older brother and I got into high school.  I vaguely remember my younger brothers doing it after I left for college, and now, I am almost sure that the doorstep at my mom's house will be empty today. 

I googled the traditions of May Day and found just what I was hoping I wouldn't.  The traditions have faded and many youth no longer even know what May Day is.  Sadness.  This was another great way to do something nice for random people (when we lived in an actual neighborhood growing up (for the few months we did..... otherwise it was the country with only a couple of "neighbors" down their own long dirt roads....), we would also leave flowers on the doorstep of neighbor's homes.  We would also sometimes drive to our grandma's house and perform the ritual there as well.  But this interaction with our neighbors as stopped.  Do you know who your neighbors are?  Do you know their weekend plans, their kids' names, their occupations, their faith values?  We usually know what kind of car they drive, what day they typically mow their lawn, what time they leave in the morning for work, and occasionally we will get a glimpse into their garages to see how tidy they are...... haha.  But that's usually the extent of it. 

Last Saturday, for Easter, we brought all our surrounding neighbors Easter treats, much like we  have before in our previous neighborhood.  Except these neighbors were surprised.  Shocked really, that their neighbors were bringing them a treat?!?!?!  haha

So today, may you find someone to bless.  Whether it be with paper flowers, or fresh picked from your garden with a ribbon around them..... It will mean a lot.  But don't let the tradition of May Day die.  As much as a fan I am (not) of flowers, I love this day!!  And I can't till I can make paper flowers with the girls, make little bouquets and put them in Strawberry baskets to leave on neighbor's porches....!!

Happy May Day!