Mooo!

 I have to do a better job of using my real camera for pictures.  While I do Groovebook to have prints from the cell phone made, the pictures are nowhere near as good.  I usually am reminded of that when I try to make photo gifts at Christmastime.

We took a trip to a friend's farm.

 

The girls were excited to see the cows up close.

 They were afraid to touch them, though.

March madness.

 March means birthdays--one which Wes and my mom share.  Happy 42, Big Man.

And we had lots of recent visits from Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandpa got to enjoy a weekend with the kids, without Grandma.  Usually, he's second fiddle to Grandma, but when she's not around, he is lavished with attention.  Snuggles on the couch.

 Snuggles after dinner.

 And then Grandma came, and more fun was had.  Tea parties.

 Trips to the park.

 More tea parties.

 Finger painting--I think Grandma enjoyed it more than the kids!

 And, somebody lost another tooth!  This time it was just in time for family photos.

 

We're trying to teach Dani and Tori about money, and the tooth fairy deposits are helping with that.  A month or so ago, I opened savings accounts for the kids.  Since Dani was born, we've been throwing change into a large baby bottle bank.  The kids are always asking for coins to put in it.  It was finally full so Dani, Tori and I went to the bank to feed the coins into the machine to deposit into their accounts.  (the net was almost $150!).  If you enter my house, they will shake you down for more coins for the bank. 

And, I broke down and bought a minivan.  There's just no making that cool.  But it's practical...woo hoo!

 

And, in funny things my kids have said lately:

 

"Mommy, nobody's perfect; not even astronauts." (Dani)

"But Mommy, I'm not littering, I want to give the birds some stickers to play with."  (A disappointed Tori when I wouldn't let her throw stickers out of the car window.)

 

During a dinner, I had made a roast beef on the rotisserie.  Dani pointed out that the meat was the same color as Daddy, "brown and pink".  I suggested to the kids that perhaps that meant that Daddy was perfectly cooked and ready to eat.  Tori's response was, "NO!  We can't eat Daddy, because he would be too hard to chew."



Christmas time is here!

 Two weeks before Christmas we got SNOW!  Lots of it.  It was light and powdery, and no good for snowman making, but the kids had a blast.  Tommy was too little to really go out in the snow last year, so this was his first time in a snowsuit playing.  The snow was up to his waist, and he really couldn't move around too easily.  Once we convinced him to stop taking off his gloves, he had a pretty good time.

Tori decided that slides and swings are even more fun in winter!

 And then it was Christmas.  This was the first year we stayed home.  I was really kind of bummed about it at first-we have some local family that we always spend Christmas with, and we decided that a 3 hour round trip with the kids wasn't going to work this year.  I told Wes we still needed to dress up and do Christmas dinner right.  So, we did, and it was lovely.  I made a turkey, prime rib, mashed potatoes, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, veggies, bread, stuffing, and a cheesecake.  Needles to say we were eating leftovers for days!

The kids had fun--Tommy's old enough this year to understand the concept of presents, and we watched all the Christmas shows together--Hoops and Yoyo Ruin Christmas being the favorite of everyone (except Wes).

 Wrapping each kid's presents in different wrapping paper makes life a million times easier.

 Tablets for everyone.  Totally cheap Droid tablets ($59 each) that will keep their grubby mitts off my Nexus.

 Santa did not have a goddamn clue  appreciate quite how large the playhouse was going to be--it is two rooms and takes up almost the entire playroom.

 We put on our Christmas dresses and had a lovely dinner.

It was a great day.

As we move into 2014, I'm feeling a bit inspired.

I lost another classmate last week--this time to a heart attack.  And another close friend has cancer.

As Gru would say, "Light bulb."

I'd like to start doing a better job of appreciating what I have--of making better use of my time--paying more attention to Wes and the kids when I'm home and drawing a better line between work and family, and taking better care of myself in the process.

Cheers. 

Weeeeekend!

I tried to make up for lost time this weekend, as I was working far too early and far too late most of last week to deal with computer network crisis after crisis.  We painted, and made crafts, and shopped, and I tried to have special alone time with each kiddo.

 Tori, our budding artist.

 I swear, this Gillibrand t-shirt is on of about a million she has, but she keeps choosing it with not even the slightest suggestion from me!

 After a trip to Target with Tommy (while the girls were napping and Wes had yard work to do) we pulled into the driveway, and the minute Tommy got out of the car, he yelled, "Daddy!"  Moments later, he was helping to mow.

 "In a few years, you'll curse me when this is really your job," said Daddy.

They are all at the perfect age--everyone loves to play (and fight, and push, and shriek, and yell, etc.) together!

Memorial Day Weekend.

I haven't taken a weekend off since I started my business in 2010. 

This weekend, I was home on Saturday and Monday.  It was pretty awesome.  Dani has gotten into the habit every day of asking whether it is a work day for me....time to spend some quality family time.  Grillin' and Chillin'.

 Lunch picnics, and backyard fun.

 City parks and slides and running and swinging.

 Sweet shadow photos as the day starts to end.

 Nothing like recharging your batteries with family.

So nice to have a weekend with Big Man and the kiddos.

Spring has sprung.

No time to post much as SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

  It's warm, there's no snow on the ground and the kids want to be outside!

This will be Tommy's first real summer where he can walk around and enjoy it.

It was a beautiful day Saturday, and we took the kids out to play--running and blowing bubbles, riding bikes and sliding on slides--it was like there was 4 months of outdoor energy that had been trapped since Christmastime.  They had a blast.

 Tori made it her goal to pop every bubble Dani blew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And then it was Easter.

 Another failed attempt at a family photo!  Took a dozen--this was the best!

 We had a big ol' Easter egg hunt today.  I took the girls to one in the city yesterday, and it was mayhem.  Kids of all ages running and swooping in to grab eggs.  Dani and Tori each got 2; and that was with me, literally standing over each one so they could pick it up. I didn't care if they got a lot--but they needed something!

 Today, we had about 50 eggs, just for the three kids.  Much to Dani and Tori's delight, Tommy had only a passing interest at egg hunting.

 He did, however, just rock his awesome white trashy tuxedo tee!

Happy spring!  Happy Easter!

One day. Two parks.

We took the kids to the Sassafras Park at the old Bacon School Saturday.  Sadly, now that the school has closed, the park isn't terribly well maintained; in fact, there were parts that didn't even seem that safe.  It always always surprises and disappoints me when people litter, especially when there are garbage cans around.

 The kids had a blast, however.

Tommy needed a nap, so we brought the kiddos home, but Dani and Tori still wanted to play outside, so I took the girls to the park down the street.  What a difference a neighborhood can make.  Here's Tori in the slide--good thing she can't read, or appreciate pictures of penises.

Not to mention the swearing, smoking teens paying no attention to the children in their care, who basically pushed and ran my kids over until I decided it was time to go.  Kind of a bummer.

We'd been to that park before and never quite had such a bad crowd there.

Funny words of the week.
Big Man and I are going to celebrate our 8th anniversary in a few weeks.  Dani is just getting the hang of dates and days and times and such.  A few days ago, she looked at him and said, "Daddy, you don't look that happy.  You haven't looked happy in eight years."  He chuckled and asked if she was sure it had been that long.  "Yes, Daddy, you haven't been happy for eight years."  Big Man erupted in laughter.

Lies, Lies, Lies!

So, little Dani is going throught the toddler phase of lying.  She just tells you what she wants the truth to be.  It can be as simple as she asks me for a snack and tells me Daddy said yes to the request (when he didn't) to last night's whopper.  At 2 months, Dani found her thumb and gave up the pacifier.  She was a comfort thumb sucker until about 3, and now only sucks it in her sleep.  Her two front teeth stick out, and  the dentist mentioned that we should do all we can to get her to stop.  It really never happens during waking hours, but lots of night when I check on her while sleeping, she is sucking it.  So, I bought a thumb-buster.  It's just a soft velcro-fastening thumb glove to put her in at night. Supposedly it changes the texture of the thumb and makes them not want to suck it.  I bought it in her favorite color (pink) and last week when it arrived she declared her love for it and asked if she could wear it during dinner.  Each night at bedtime last week she offered her thumb and happily let me put it on.  Last night (six days later) I'm putting it on her in front of Big Man, and he says "That's not the thumb she sucks."  Dani insists that it is, and starts to cry.  When I put the thumbbuster on her left thumb she is wailing and insisting she sucks the other one.  Busted.  Mommy got PLAYED!

The girls and I braved temps in the mid-90s on Saturday to attend a picnic.  It was good photo op, but brutally hot.  Tori really struggled with the heat.  Some of you may recall that two years ago, Big Man and I took Dani and infant Tori to the same picnic at a thoroughbred farm for an SPCA event.  I got some amazing pictures of Dani that day.  (Refresh your memory here: http://betsyboothhill.blogspot.com/2010/08/family-time.html )
Here's Dani, two years later, at the same tree:

And I couldn't leave out little dude...who will turn ONE next week.  He's been crying it out at night, and I'm slowly catching up on 12 months of sleep deprivation, but heck, my baby's turning one.

Now I just need to get him to call me "mama"!  He only does "dada".  Everyone's "dada".

Sisters picnic.

It's finally feeling like summer!  We're opening the pool.  Dani and Tori enjoyed a fruity lunch plate on the deck this afternoon.

They've been as thick as thieves lately.  It is so neat to watch them just become friends.  Like any siblings, there's still a ton of rivalry.  Once I do something with one, the other is always headed my way saying "my turn". 

But these two have what I remember having with my brother, Todd, a built-in playmate.  And it's pretty awesome.  Someone to be silly with, to tattle on, to blame when you get caught, and to stay up past bedtime talking to.

And just someone to chill with when you need to relax.

Tommy looks at them with the biggest smiles.  I know he can't wait to join the posse.

Outside, Outside! Outside everybody, Outside!

Poor Tommy--he had his first two trips outside this weekend; Saturday was windy and cold, and I put him on the swing to get some fresh air.  He was not a fan of being bundled up and swung.

 

Fast forward one day.  It's 60 degrees and we don't even need coats.  So we take the posse to the playground.  At 12:45pm, we step onto the playground and are the only 5 people there.  Literally, within 5 minutes, there were 15 kids who showed up with their families and the place was hopping.

 We swung. We ran.  We played.  Even Big Man chatted with other parents. 

The only awkward moment was when Tori walked up to someone else's daddy and hugged his leg and wouldn't let go.  I was standing there telling her it wasn't daddy and we needed to go, but she was clinging on to this tall man.  He was there with his kids so seemed used to random toddler attention.  Tommy just chilled in his carseat, and when he got bored, I walked him around and he loved watching Dani and Tori.

We had to drag them off the playground for lunch and naps.  It's nice that it's only a few blocks away so we can go back a lot!