Kami's Baby Shower

On Saturday, I threw a baby shower for my dear friend Kami. I am always happy to throw a party, but this one was especially fun because I love Kami and because I got to do it with my friend Stephanie and Kelly helped, too. Everything was pink and black and white.
Kelly helped with the cake a lot. She's a pro! (Really, it was more like I helped Kelly with the cake a little.) And Stephanie made the chocolate dipped pretzel sticks, which if you look closely you can see have "BABY" stamped on them. So cute!,
I used my Cricut to make a pink and black banner.

We had a onesie decorating station where people freehanded or stamped on onesies of varying sizes using fabric paint pens.
Kami works in a veterinary clinic, so one guest got super creative and made an adorable onesie with a stethoscope. I love it!
I made a diaper cake which you can see in this next picture. And that's Kami opening presents.
It was a great party. And most importantly, Kami felt loved. And little Madelynn will come into the world with plenty of adorable clothes.

I really do love throwing a party.

Kelly and Roko

I haven't blogged in nearly a week! Since that sunny, bloggy day, we've had a snow day. Yep. I told you Mother Nature was a tease. Also since I last blogged, Kelly and Roko arrived! (My kids have two Aunt Kelly's so I always feel like I need to clarify that I am talking about Kelly from Cali.) Roko is 2. We've just been hanging out and playing with the kids. Kelly is also helping me get ready for the baby shower that I'm throwing this weekend. I've never had a real chance to spend some good amount of time with Kelly, so it's been extra fun for me. Plus, she's been a big help. This morning the boys were a little restless so we took them to the bounce house place and let them literally bounce off the walls for an hour. Tomorrow's big plans are hitting a yarn shop (Kelly is an avid knitter) and then Ruth is coming to play in the evening. Saturday afternoon is the baby shower. Ruth and Kelly will take the kids to the Air and Space Museum during the shower.

Here, Aunt Kelly teaches Naomi how to knit.

I always miss Richard, but there's a special feeling in the house when it's just full of kids and Mama's. A special womanly feeling. I am quite positive that I am not putting it into words adequately. But take my words for it, it's cool.

Sunshine

It has been unseasonably warm here the last few days. Today it is a whopping 74 degrees! If only the warm weather was here to stay. But, alas, I am positive that this is just a cruel tease by Mother Nature. I'm sure she has several more weeks of frigid temps in the planning before the real onset of Spring. ...But I'm off topic. Today! Today we will enjoy it!

So look who made his first trip out to the backyard and onto the swing set?
Sweet Sammy seemed totally overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of it all at first. But he quickly warmed up to it.
And before we knew it he was squealing in delight.
Unfortunately, we are now a swing short. It may be time to get rid of the clunker, Craiglist swing set and invest in a nicer and bigger one. Too bad our stinkin' HOA gets a say in just HOW big... It may also be time to attempt some grass or else give up on grass entirely and go for rocks or something.

Isaiah's Speech Update

I was browsing through my old blog posts recently from a year ago and I came across this video of Isaiah talking. I started thinking about how much he's learned in the past year. He can make almost any sound now - although some combinations still elude him. But now he's learned to just drop the sounds that are hard for him to say. So in last years video you'll hear him saying some thing incorrectly (no-bibby instead of nobody), where in this year's video you'll hear him just drop the middle and/or end of the word (no-by instead of nobody). Also in this years video, you'll notice a dramatic uptick in attitude. That boy is straight up sassy!

Sorry for the messy faces, this was filmed in the middle of lunch.

Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful, fun, but low-key Valentine's Day. The kids and I made their Valentine's to take to school the week before. Asher went for dinosaurs, Isaiah space ships, and Naomi had little notepads with various designs. Naomi was great and did all of hers all by herself. The boys, however, helped for about 3 seconds and then bailed. Oh well.
That morning we had pink milk to get the fun started, then the kids headed off to school for parties there. Here they are after school, examining their piles of loot. This lasted at least an hour.
I made a dinner just for Richard - lasagna and pistachio salad, then we just played together for the rest of the evening. The kids were pretty hoped up on sugar, so we mostly just let them be crazy. Here they are all piled on top of each other. See that bit of hair by Naomi's hand? That's Isaiah!
It was exactly the kind of day it was supposed to be - a day to celebrate our love for each other.

Swing!

Richard and I went to a church swing dance last night. We danced for hours - until we literally limped to the car with sore feet. We have never had such a great chance to just dance and dance and dance together before. It was such a blast! We both really love to swing. Neither of us is technically great, we just enjoy it. Richard loves to twirl me around until I'm ready to fall over. Plus, it was fun to have a reason to dress up and go out together. We felt a little like we did in our youth, heading to a Stake dance on Saturday night.

This little video is Daddy teaching Naomi how to swing. She actually picked it up pretty well, in my opinion!

World: Three

Today it feels like I'm loosing. The score is World: three, Nancy: zero.

I went pants shopping. That was my first mistake. And I tried on pants that never had any chance of fitting because I had totally blocked out the real number that is on the tag of the pants I am currently wearing. I left the store nearly in tears. World: one

Then I went shoe shopping. How can you go wrong there? I had seen the perfect shoes online and they were even on sale, but I wanted them right away so I went to the store. And they were NOT ON SALE in the store. So I went home to buy them online, and their website has been down all day. World: two

Then I took a nap during nap time, because clearly I needed it. And as I slept blissfully, Asher snuck into my room, where Isaiah has his nap time, and the two of them painted their nails and put on makeup. Ruining the carpet, my vanity stool, and their clothes in the process. I am so mad that I can hardly punish the boys - I'm afraid I'd go too far. World: three

Sad and mad are a bad combo. I need a re-do. This day just needs to end and never come back. So I have turned on a movie for the kids - and when it ends I just might turn on another one. And while they watch, I mope. That's right. I'm moping. I am allowing myself this one day of moping.

****************
Ha! Take that, World! I finally ordered my shoes. And a sweet, sweet friend dropped by tonight and stayed to chat for a few minutes. The score is now World: two, Nancy: two. ...But somehow it still doesn't seem quite even.

Foiled

We had big plans today to go to the huge aquarium in Baltimore. We bought the tickets last night so that we'd be sure to be able to get in at the time we wanted.
And then Isaiah started puking.
And then I started feeling sick, too.
And the next morning the poor kids' hearts were broken when we told them that nobody was going to the aquarium.

Now we're just really hoping that this all ends with Isaiah and I. Richard is out of town next week so it would be bad if he got sick. And since he'll be out of town, it would be bad if I was still sick. Or if several kids were sick simultaneously. Or if little Sammy got this and ended up in the hospital.

We've been lucky so far this winter as far as being pretty healthy. I guess all I'm saying is, couldn't that luck last another week?

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Snow Day Olympics

Yesterday was another snow day. (Don't ask me why since there was no more snow than the day before when there had been school, and the expected ice storm never arrived!) So in desperation, I decided to embrace the chaos. I called a neighbor and invited her and her five children over for Snow Day Olympics. Then the kids and I spent an hour preparing games.

We made a score card (which they used to check off each activity after they did it - no winning and loosing)
We got out Twister and this awesome Tic Tac Toe floor game that my sister-in-law, Chelsea, made for us:
We set up the dining room for a ball bounce game and a boat blowing race:

And then we let the fun/chaos begin!
Oh, and we made this bean bag toss game: (Which this little slugger promptly broke to bits with his softball pitches)
It was a fun way to kill 3 hours. The kids just ran around from activity to activity - sometimes in packs and sometimes solo. We also did a limbo competition, hula hooped and played Bingo.

And the kids were tired and ready for naps - which is quite a feat on a snow day.