1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

12 years ago, tonight, I won't tell you what I was doin'... hehehe


But I WILL tell you it's been one heck of a ride!


12 anniversaries

11 how old we were when we met

10 jobs Matt's had and I've supported him through

9  the number of kids we swore we'd never have

8  apartments we've shared

7  cars we've owned

6  years of living in Wyoming

5  lay-offs we've survived

4  kids we DID have

3  states we've lived in

2  houses we've owned

1  happy marriage


I love you, Matt! Here's to 12 more! (Actually, you're stuck with this chica forEVer! hahahaha!)

Ten. It's the new thirteen.

My son.

*sigh*

He's enough to make a person reconsider having kids.

He's already spouting unfairness about his parents "getting whatever they want" (HA).

Oh, the demanding.  The attitude.  And, yes, the tantrums. 

He insists he follow what I said, say, 37 days ago, verses the new restriction I doled out 37 seconds ago (due to a decline in behavior on his part, but that doesn't count, apparently).  To change my mind in such a way makes me not only a promise breaker, but a liar.

Indeed.

He wants to be like other "normal kids".

*normal:  adjective:  To sit and play video games all day, every day.  To have a cell phone that is paid for by the parents.  To not have a reasonable bedtime.  To do whatever one wants, whenever one wants to do it.

I "pawn off" my chores on to him simply so I don't have to do them. 

I give him the opportunity to play my new XBOX 360 w/Kinect with me and he complains that he never gets to play by himself (on MY game system) and he never gets to choose what he gets to play (on MY game system) and he never gets enough time to play (on MY game system) and it's SO NOT FAIR.

He claims he's going to save up his money and buy his OWN game system so he can play it whenever he wants and I can't say a thing about it because it's HIS.  (He forgot about the part where he uses my TV, my electricity, in my house, but I'll let him dream.)

Yesterday, I decided to let him earn some alone time on MY game system.  A time when no one else gets to play with him and he gets to choose to play whatever he wants for a whole hour. 

In exchange, I get out of doing the dishes. 

So, he's looking forward to it all day yesterday and this morning, re-verifying that he gets to play alone for a whole hour, because "You said, Mom."

His time finally arrives.  A fight breaks out between two of my kids for reasons not worth mentioning, but it leaves his sister crying in the kitchen.  I go to shower, not wanting to deal with anything, anymore.  I come back down to find

they're playing together.

Hmm...

I fully expect my smart aleck son to inform me that this doesn't count against his "alone" time.

Instead, I inform him that it DOES count against it.

He says, "I know.  But she was in the kitchen, crying, so I let her come play with me."

I have to admit:  it doesn't take much for that kid to totally melt my heart and make me forget about how much he's like his stubborn, willful, unrelenting mother before she learned how to make that work for her.  ;)

Instead, I'm reminded of what he'll become and that I need to nourish that.

Heart attacks and six packs. Oh, and flan.

I've seen my sister get so mad she passes out.  I've heard about nieces and/or nephews hitting their heads and passing out.  I've even almost passed out, once.

But I never saw my own kid do it.  Wait, I take that back.  Quin choked to non-breathing, once.  That was fun.

Natalie missed the bench when she tried to alley-oop onto the tramp and instead rammed her ribs into the bars. 

Fortunately, she was somehow able to make it to the back door where she stood sort of gasping.  In a matter of blurred milliseconds, I somehow made it from the stove, where I was standing, to the back door, a good 15 ft. away.  In this amount of time, I watched my daughter stumble backwards a step or two, then completely topple over.  Not a sort of crumple to the ground fall, a standing tall to a great big flat-out fall.  I heard her head hit the ground. 

Before I knew it, I was holding her, assessing her breathing, watching her eyes roll back into her head, and sort of frantically asking her if she could breath (she was starting to make sounds) getting ready to put all of my years of first aid training to the test.  Her head was floppy for a minute but then she started crying and asking me what happened.

In that short amount of time, she said she had a dream.  She said she thought what was happening wasn't real, that she thought she was thinking it would suck if that DID happen, and that she was late for a bus or something.  Guess the mind does funny things when it takes over for a person.

She's got a nice goose egg, and upon examining her rib area, realized my little girl's got abs any female would envy.  Six pack envy.  Not kidding.  Sheesh.

Oh, and I'm making flan for the first time, hence the standing by the stove. 

It's been quite an eventful last couple hours.  ;)

Natalie, the fearless:

You remind me of the babe...

I'm a little sad, tonight.

I just issued my last first haircut. 

*sniff*

Matt said he was going to mop my kitchen floor with Owen's head. 

Though, tempting as it was to get my floor cleaned, I chose option B.

And we went from this:

"Ladies Man"

To this:

"What on earth did you do to me, woman?!"

(If you look real close, you can see his first little toothie on the right.)

It looks darker in pictures than it does in real life - I fear he's going to be a blondie, afterall.

I loved having two brownies!

*sniff*

Oh, well.  I guess we'll have to see how it grows back out.

And for the record, I opted to not keep any of his hair.  Why? Because I was thinking about it last night, and really, that's just gross.  Might as well keep his first toe nail clippings or his first booger.  hahaha

I found Andur's first lost tooth and I have to say - EW.  So, no more hair-keeping.  That's just weird, if you think about it.  And I did.  So I'm not gonna.  ;)

Bright

My son, my oldest son, is a smart kid. 

This boggles my mind when he does something like give his little brother a wipe to, you know, do his bidness in the bathroom... and comes out of the bathroom with the LYSOL wipes in his hand asking if I only give him one.

It's then that I find myself saying things like, "Are you kidding me? Really??"

Sheesh.

Grammar check

This is for those who refuse to "speak the Queen's english".  You know who you are.  ;)

Slippin' and a-slidin'

Did you have one of these when you were a kid? I did... before the pool at the end or all the funky stuff they've added since.  Good times.  ;)

The Picnic - Andur & Natalie

Sulking...

The rare "just a smile!" (no open mouth full of food... no goofy face...): 

The dogpile... because there's plenty of room among the plates and food and people: 

This one's just funny - make it bigger to see all the facial expressions: 

Nice: 

I thought this one was funny... it was an accidental one, I was actually trying to catch Quin but he was too fast for me: 

It was a fun day.  Later, they tried out our new slip & slide thingy - so someday soon I'll have to post pictures of that.  ;)

The Picnic - Quin

Eatin' a samwich:

I told him he had to hurry and eat before the bugs did... 

"I can't eat this... the bugs will be sad!" 

Poor cowlicked kid - could use a serious haircut: 

He was running in circles around our blanket... I caught this picture by following him with my camera.  Not too shabby: 

As long as Owen doesn't cry, I allow the lovin' to continue, three year old style: 

One more... Andur and Natalie's turn!

The Picnic - Owen

Today, we found the most perfect place for a picnic... it was perfectly grassy, perfectly shady, perfectly close... it was... my backyard.  ;)

Owen was perfectly content.  He's totally in his element when out-of-doors, as I'm sure most babies are.

Ahh, the thumb: 

It was strongly recommended that I take a picture of the fly on his head: 

Achoo! 

Bless you!

Achoo! 

Bless you!

Whoa... thanks... 

Happy baby! 

Stay tuned for more on "The Picnic"...