momma's boy

he's here...

Andrew and Laura welcomed their precious little Jude last night.

8 pounds 14 ounces

21 1/2 inches

pinkalicious

It's a snowy day. Too wet to go outside and play. Mommy said, "Let's make cupcakes! What color do you want?"

Pink! Pink! Pink!

Because the book Pinkalicious is a part of almost everyday, I thought it would be fun to make our own pink (and green) cupcakes. I ran across a new cupcake recipe that is Embry-friendly. It's a keeper!

Yummy for my tummy!

party hard or go home

Hayes' school had a birthday bash tonight. In other words... games, trinkets, jupiter jump and kids everywhere. Thanks Andrew and Laura for coming along for the ride!

See those cafeteria chairs behind Hayes? This is the room he will coming into NEXT YEAR to eat his lunch as a kindergartner. I'm having a hard time with this, to say the least.

There were some oreos involved.

One little lady got a manicure in pink.

And here, we have precisely the reason I get irritated when taking pictures of my kids. The cheesy smiles. The eyes looking in every direction but mine. Come on boys, give me one smile while simultaneously looking at the camera and that's it. We're done. You're happy. I'm happy. We move on.

And this is how things usually go down when you stay a little longer than you should.

share and share alike, or not

"Can I have just one of those toys to play with?"

"No Ellie. It's very important that I carry these with me at all times. I'm a hoarder. I hoard. It's what I do."

"Mommy!"

"Fine. I'll just stand here and look pretty."

"And then when he least expects it, I'll snatch those toys and they will be mine! All mine!"

sound good?

One of my favorite things Embry says lately... "Sound good, Mom?"

One of my least favorite things... "Not fair, Mom!"

i got grillz

Got me some grillz and some pimp joke skillz...

knock, knock
who's there?
x-ray vision
x-ray vision who?
man

why did the nose cross the road?
why?
to get to the chicken on the other side of the road

knock, knock
who's there?
bunk bed
bunk bed who?
bunk bed, it's just a bunk bed

why did the tank cross the road?
why?
to get to the battle on the other side of the road

Jokes are a funny thing. They can be funny on many levels... Hayes being on the first level. :) He gets the idea of jokes but doesn't fully understand the whole punchline concept. It cracks me up. Hopefully, he will be able to shake the genetics on the joke-telling. Kyle and I are tied for the worst joke-teller ever award.

needing to escape

I've been thinking lately about what it is that draws me to the computer. Why am I always trying to sneak away and steal some time to myself? Why is there this longing to escape?

I realized that when I'm sitting in front of the computer, reality just sort of fades into the background. I don't have to worry about everything that's going wrong at home, I can just 'check out' for minutes throughout the day and 'check in' to the lives of friends.

Staying at home and being a wife and mommy is the place where I have always wanted to be. So why is it so hard? So hard to enjoy sometimes? It's what I've always wanted to do and yet, I feel like I am unhappy more than I should be. Yeah, there's the obvious reasons of kids not getting along, residency, finances. But then there are other things that I pray will change. And they don't. And my heart continues to ache.

And then I remind myself that I was not made for this world. Life is supposed to hurt. Many more failures are sure to come. More disappointments. My heart will break once again. So I wipe away the tears and move on.

God, soften my heart so it's you I run to as my escape... every time. I know that sneaking away and spending time with you is what I need. Help me to see the beauty when all I see is negative. Amen.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

storytime

no rest for the weary

One of Kyle's projects this week was the front door. Like the new look?

This week really wasn't much of a vacation for the poor guy. He knocked out a lot of projects around the house that have been accumulating on the to-do list. But we'll go ahead and chalk it up as a success. We even got to go on a date last night... dinner, but no movie. We couldn't decide on a movie we both wanted to watch. And I said no to separate theaters. So we went to Target and went to separate parts of the store.

Thanks babe for working so hard this week. Let's just hope you don't get home too late in the evenings this week because there's a front door that needs some attention.

who loves etsy?

I do! I do! I like totally get all my bows there. Like totally.

Seriously, if you aren't shopping etsy, you are missing out! You can find just about anything you could ever want. Cute clothes, bows, art, baby goodies, jewelry. I love that it is handmade and unique.

And I could pounce for hours.

Some of my favorites:

courtneycourtney

babypop

mountain aven baby

big girl bed

The pink room was a hit with Miss Elle. She was so excited to see her big girl bed. Both Embry and Ellie have done really well with the change... there have been the several occassions where I catch them sneaking out of their beds. They will see me and will go flying back into bed. It's hard not to laugh.

Ellie also made a trip to the dentist yesterday. See her little brown tooth in front? If it doesn't tighten up in a month, it will most likely have to be pulled. :(

airing my dirty laundry

So it appears if you give your full time and attention to one project, other projects tend to fall to the wayside. Especially ones that typically require daily attention. I was hoping the laundry would magically wash, dry and put itself away. No such luck.

big boy bed

Look at this big boy in his new bed.

Last night we set up the boys' bunkbed. Hayes was extremely excited all day about finally getting to share a room with his brother. He's been anxiously awaiting the bunkbed.

Embry made the switch really well (so far anyway). Hayes is actually the one who got into trouble because he was still awake at midnight... the excitement still had not ceased.

Stay tuned for big girl's bed. I will post pics of both rooms once they are finished.

Ellie Bells, here's a peek at your new room when you get home.

Pinkaboo!

backyard bounce