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sailor & i are sitting outside together enjoying spring. she is reading a helen keller biography - completely taken at the thought of being both deaf & blind. she comments every now & then things like 'you couldn't even talk to her' & 'i can't even begin to imagine not hearing' & 'can you imagine what it would be like to only know what your parents looked like for only a year & a half?'
molly is shouting from the tree 'i'm robin hood of locksley!!'
i'm over-watering my zinnias.
the boys just got back from violin. i asked ben if he played his best & he said 'not my best, my bettER est!!'
we say this under our breath - but we almost wish it were hotter & we'd go swimming at moms. we don't quite 100% say that though, 'cause we know summer's coming & days like today with incredibly beautiful weather will be missed.
i am blogging, in case you're wondering : )
if you go back 10/11 pages in photobucket you'll find these pictures. i don't know why it's taken nearly a month to post them ...
it's probably better, though. i think had i written in the moment i would have not had kind things to say about our spontaneous overnight beach trip : )
why is it when you're very nearly at the end of whining & ready to vow never to take your kids anywhere ever again - the lady behind the counter asks if one of them wants fries & said child replies with 'yes please, thank you.' which in turn causes the people behind you in line to give gushing complements on how well behaved & polite your kids are -
and you look at each other with a 'really! seriously!'
family vacations are so fun 
nobody is ever cold or too sandy or too hot. nothing is ever too heavy to carry. there is always enough room. individual space in the car is always respected. menu items are always desirable. etc. etc. etc.
i went so far as to mumble to rex i was over my itch to go to disneyland : ) but we've never not gone places 'cause taking the kids is too much work & life lessons are learned best when you're living life ....
so now looking back these are good memories. not that we're glossing over the 'we ran out of diapers', 'we didn't bring underwear' & 'oh my goodness you must stop now!'
all that said we love the beach -
they always bring a shovel & a dump truck. the shovel is used regularly, the dump truck just sits by the blanket.
sailor tried out a wet suit for the 1st time this trip .... less sand in awkward places is a good thing : )
they play & play & play for hours -
the beach beauty herself -
not sure what he saw w/o putting in the quarters but he enjoyed looking -
he liked the beach too .... he kinda has to : )
where we stayed!!
good night & good morning -
enjoying the spa -
chady liked it too -
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yep, we'll remember the good times & we'll do it again : )
there is a tear rolling down my cheek - i had just read sailor's mothers day card. last night she told me how 'all the cards daddy gets you are fancy & they start with a sentence on the front & then finish it on the inside & then he writes something to you' - she made her own.
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i just laid my baby down. he is truly the baby. there's a good breeze blowing through the open windows in our room. i covered him up with a well used old yellow blanket that has covered every one of the kids when they slept in the cradle in our room. he is sound asleep.
i'm eating chocolate cake. no we didn't get the one in the last post. but rex & chad went back later and bought one. i'm looking through pictures. there is music playing. and i want to remember mothers day 2012.
jack told me this morning all i had to do was get dressed & feed the baby. they would do everything else -
in theory it was a sweet thought ; )
i forgot one quote from the last post - it went something like this ..... 'mom all the time, everywhere we go now, people are always counting us' - jack commented after the 3rd someone said something in costco in the first 7 minutes we'd been in the store.
there are six. we're over the surprise of that now : )
i look at them in these pictures & just marvel, seriously at how sweetly generous Jesus is.
they made their own wrapping paper -
a rare sunday morning breakfast together & thanks to jacks photography we have a picture of it : )
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my mom is beautiful. she has lived love & selflessness & gentleness over and over, again and again my whole life.
we went to mom's after church today -
it was chad's first afternoon poolside & he did it in style : )
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and we're going to keep counting our blessings ....
we invited her to dinner last night. she cried, not because our dinner was that bad but because she loves us. i never had a grammy & a grandma that lived in the same town
how beautiful that they are growing up thinking that's normal -
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mom sent me this video & being its mothers day i thought it worth the post. happy mothers day to you all!
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mothers day 2012 ~
all week long i've wanted to write a post in real time .... and here it is saturday morning at 6:30 and i'm getting my chance : )
there was this far away time when my children slept till nine a.m. i know crazy, huh. but they did, they really did. certain children in this family truly like sleep & they need it. other children in this family don't like it as much .... yet still need it.
my children don't sleep till nine a.m. anymore. except for ben, he would & does when he can.
the little girls however not so much, at all, ever .....
so good morning : )
right now, molly is reading library books to regan. everyone else is still sleeping as that's the logical thing to do on a cool spring saturday morning.
or at least i think anyways!
these pictures come from a morning earlier this week where they all got up during the 6 o'clock hour, got dressed, made their beds & came out chanting they wanted donuts for breakfast - you can tell ben is up & happy but still looks like he should be sleeping : )
we did not get donuts that morning.
i've been collecting a few lines from the kids this week -
we were in the car & molly was talking to chad. she'd clap & cheer & say -
'yay! chady that's a good good smile!! yay chady! that's another good.good smile!'
the boys were talking one night before bed about rex's job & making money & what he does with his money & jack said -
'he probably makes like $20 dollars and gives 19 to mom.'
benny walked up to chad & stamped his hand with a little stamp & said -
'sweet brother benny gave you a little bunny stamp on your hand'
'i can't believe it! babies can smile & they don't even have any teeth!' - jack
i thanked ben for showing good brotherly love to regan at sailor's piano recital this week & he says -
'well mom, its pretty easy to take care of yagen with a bag of candy. i'd just told the bag and say here yagan & since dad and you weren't there i pretended to be the dad but i always knew where you were at the table.'
chad was getting his diaper changed and jack was keeping him company -
'you are too little to ride a bike, even with training wheels. but! you are not too little to have an elephant on your head.' then he smiled & put the little stuffed elephant on chads head & chad smiled too.
all week ben has called avocados artichokes.
ben apologized for almost stepping on my phone climbing out of the car and said -
'but i didn't step on marcy, mom' took me awhile to figure out that he calls suri marcy : )
we were going over jacks spelling words in school. never was the first word & without skipping a beat he spouts off this sentence -
'never trust a plastic hippo!'
the next word was girl & he said -
'you're a girl ... well a lady girl!'
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well, everyone is up now .... except benny, who hasn't quite hit his 12 hours of sleep yet. and chad is up too .... he's just started rolling over and that is really messing up his sleep. he's sitting with rex now with this look on his face like why am i awake?? jack's telling him all about star wars legos. the girls are cutting out paper dolls.
its saturday & we have a nice weekend planned. i'm going to make a red velvet cake, among other nice weekend-y things.
rex likes this picture. he took it, while he was sitting in the car waiting for me. it was sunday morning & probably my 4th trip back inside. trip one - 'did you get chad's blanket?' no, but i got chad. trip two - 'where's my phone?' probably inside. trip three - i don't even remember. trip four - 'mom can you get the action bible, please!!!' so there i was - their action bible clutched under my right arm, lotion in my left hand that i'd remembered while inside & my rings in the other hand & he took my picture & we weren't late for church : )
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iphoto has been arranging my photos in a different order lately (i'm thinking regan clicked some button ... ) anyway the most recent events are back in the 2009 section - so from 3 years ago ... here's a little look back from may 6, '09
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the tragic part of this picture is i honestly forget what they called themselves. i looked out & saw them all huddled up and knew it was a memory to save ..... so we have the picture, but we forget who they were : )
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this is the 4th or 5th night i've started this post .... we'll see if it actually gets done.
one night it just kinda got late & i wanted to go to bed.
one night i actually went to a concert. i know, huh, (by myself [with chad]) be surprised, i'm not the biggest concert goer.
last night we were on our way home from napa & i was telling you how crazy beautiful the moon was & how i didn't get a starbucks & then the laptop had 3% battery left .... which was not enough %-age to post with.
now it's tonight and little chad is breathing in my ear. he's not little enough anymore to lay from my shoulder to the keyboard ... so he's on a funky angle, kinda twisted a little.
and tonight we're just mostly going to put up some pictures from last week & call it good.
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here's a dreamy topic -
i couldn't pick just one : )
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i'm in love with this 4 year old girl. she's worn the same egyptian style bracelet on her wrist all week & she found some old red shoes that used to be sailor's out in the garage & she been wearing those pretty solid, too.
this outfit included the beauty parlor apron 'cause you never know when you'll need to paint someones toes or apply eye shadow and the classic headband worn in the style of 1987.
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benny took pictures at the park -
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here's to a new week.
here's to regan sleeping past 6am.
here's to loving our kids .... like Jesus does.
here's to an old 'normal' schedule.
here's to going to bed & not eating chocolate.
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well it's been awhile, hasn't it? not for lack of trying or want to. or pictures or things to talk about.
i just don't have tiMe : )
ok, that isn't entirely true ... you always find time for what you really want to do. i don't know why typing one handed has seemed to have gotten harder & feeding chad is the only time i sit down anymore ....
so hello. welcome back to our life.
he had thee greatest line today -
he wanted some sort of bag with a handle for whatever it was he needed it for outside. he thought of using a ziploc & making a string handle but it ziplocs are see through & that wasn't going to work .... so he says,
'mom, i wish i had a magic wand, i'd just wand it.
wand! i'm 18 years old.
wand! i go to jake's house and we play legos.
wand!
wand!'
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speaking of wands : )
she seriously told me she was wonder-woman. i gave rex this double take like what! where did she get that?? and he was all i know, i know.
so i shamelessly asked if i could take her picture -
she asked if i thought the shoes worked okay with the outfit. i said they were perfect.
and 8 1/2 year old little girls are just that .... little girls - xoxo
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who knew but the low hanging tree branch in the back yard can actually be a swing!!
and sister friends make good cushions. i love these two. i love how they giggle with each other in bed at night, i love how their hair is so opposite - straight & brown vs blond with curl.
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we did this photo op last week for my dad.
the behind the scenes .....
you ask ben to be in a picture and 87.9% of the time it never quite works out, but when ben himself decides he wants to be in the picture - he picks out his own clothes, he does his own hair, he smiles his own smile & he could be photographed for hours
and well, slay me .....
and when we were finally done, he got his shot with his grandpa.
so did the other kids -
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chad's little babysitter -
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april 28th made it official, he's three months old. he's not a newborn anymore ....
and instead of me telling you about what it's like to be a 3 month old in our family i thought i'd just let him tell you -
click here - since xanga & i aren't doing well at uploading videos [grrr!]
but then come back for the rest : )
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and since we're in the movie making mode .....
one of the things i've absolutely loved about the kids co-op class is the presentations they do every week - how they stand up in front of their class & give their own little speech, share their own little story, show their own little something. we've brought it home & it's now apart of the new school room. we have different topics throughout the week. i love seeing their personalities ..... last week i recorded ben on my phone.
here it is -
if you didn't already watch it when you saw chad : )
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and that's all for now - hopefully more before another 2 weeks goes by!
but no promises : )
its saturday : )
he's another week older & if you put them all together, its been 12 of them.
had chicken pox - check.
smiles for mom - check.
finally been to grammy's house - check.
got the flu - check.
outgrown my elephant 'jammies - check.
take a bath with my brothers - check.
gone to the beach - check.
out of newborn diapers - check.
suck my fist & not a pacifier - check.
take naps in my crib in the boys room - check.
still dreamy - check.
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90 degrees is hot the first time we have it after going all winter without it : )
we spent the afternoon poolside. they giggled & laughed & jumped & splashed.
chady & the little girls slept - it's probably how a lot of this summer's saturday afternoons will go ....
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& by now we all know these are our ph0ne pictures from the week -
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hello red shoes that made me feel like i got dressed today.
(it appears no amount of color boost helped the pale winter white look of my legs : ) so we left it as is!)
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this is my go at a hello monday post.
it's late, i should be in bed ... or at least picking up the kitchen.
are you tired of hearing about us being sick? i am! my one sick day was yesterday & even that included a sick 2 year old & a baby who eats every 3 hours. so today we had to be up & going .... or at least giving a go at faking it : ) we will be done talking about sick.
switching topics -
there's this article going around, i've seen it re-posted again & again on facebook ... your children want you.
it was actually really good & i'm not usually a link-clicker. ha, link-clicker .... that's my new made up word of the day : )
ok so here we go, now that we're practically ready to say hello to tuesday, hello monday.
all pictures taken this afternoon.
hello work van & a little boy whose getting big -
hello back to school & making sentences from new spelling words -
hello sailor jane -
hello flowers on the back porch that survived thanks to last weeks rain & not thanks to regan pulling them all up -
hello laundry .... that wasn't done all weekend, there's a load in the washer & dryer & one waiting to be folded, too -
hello bed that was made for the first time in 5??? days -
hello open front door, 'cause the weather feels like spring -
hello work boots that were used again for reals today -
hello rega-roo, who was off the couch for the first time today -
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you say hello, i say good-bye .... skipping the shower, going to bed!
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