Things that made me happy today...

The full service gas station I filled up at this morning.  Such a treat not to smell like gas when you get to the office.

A phone call from a friend this morning.

These pictures that caught my attention as I was scanning My Documents for an electrical box photo for a client.  Oldies but goodies.

Scrapping my "packed" lunch for a salad with tuna on it from the Weis salad bar.  And imagine my smile when it ended up being a 5 point lunch.  And I was stuffed.

Thinking about how Lauren is 18 months old today.  Goodness, that time has gone by awfully quickly.  She makes my heart smile.

A few pics from the weekend!

 It was a bit of a crazy weekend.  Not crazy by the standards of having more fun than should be allowed, but more like running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  Saturday was the annual United Way Board retreat, and since I'm the president of that board, it was sort of important for me to be there.  So I trucked off at 7:30 am to spend a day with our board.  Jason was on duty on the homefront, and by all accounts, they had a great time.

The retreat ended at 1 (I actually left at 1:30) and raced home to get Joshua picked up.  We had to be to a birthday party at 2.  And for anyone doing the math, add my 22 minute drive to the 1:30 departure time, and factor back in the carseat buckling and present loading time plus the 10 minute ride back to Milton.  We were late.  Not a prayer of being there on time.  But when we did finally arrive, it was totally worth it.  Joshua had a great time playing with his friends.  This mom, in my opinion, is on to something in the realm of birthday party rules.  It was a party for his family, but he was allowed to choose two friends from school to invite.  So the birthday boy felt like he had friends there to play with, and the family wasn't totally overwhelmed with 20 kids and their parents.  Smart thinking.

Sunday we all made it to church, and thank goodness for that.  In another moment of small miracles, Lauren behaved herself so well during church that I got to stay in the service all the way to the beginning of the sermon.  I was amazed.  We had reached the end of her shelf life when she dug a Sesame Street coloring book out of the diaper bag and began to scream, "ELMO!"  At which point we had to make our exit.  But it was a good run for sure.  I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen cooking dinner for Sunday night and Monday night, as well as getting a few other things put together. 

And before we knew it, it was Monday.

The End.

 Lauren's new favorite spot at the island.  And whatever you do, don't try to stand by her so she won't fall.  If Joshua can do it, so can she.  In her opinion, at least.

And here they were before church on Sunday.  Joshua willingly cooperated in a picture with his sister.  And you can tell by the look on Lauren's face that this is not a frequent experience.

Leave it to the professionals.

I only needed one second to look at these pictures that my cousin, Stacie, took of the kids last weekend to realize that some things are best left to the pros.

Like managing photo opportunities of two kiddos.

And editing what little cooperation she got from Lauren and turning it into art.

My heart is about to burst with how much I love these photos.  Stacie, you have a gift.

Welcome Spring! (Eh hem!)

It's not looking much like Spring around here...with the mix of snow and ice yesterday morning and today's flying flakes, I'm beginning to think it was a mistake to break out my green Vera Bradley spring purse!  But I will truck on, pretending that we WILL actually be able to enjoy some beautiful spring weather at some point soon.  I can tell you that I am fresh out of any good ideas to keep the kids occupied indoors after the seemingly long, extra cold winter we've had.  Suffice it to say that we're all more than ready to be outside.

We made a trip home to Lewistown last weekend to give Daddy some quiet time at home to prep for his exam that he's taking tomorrow morning.  So the kids and I packed up on Friday afternoon and arrived at Nana and Pap's mid-afternoon.  There was a rumor that Mom was going to make a yummy pot-pie supper, and I have to tell you that it was EXCELLENT!  The kids gobbled up their plates full as well, and they aren't doing much gobbling these days unless it's something like Oreo cookies.  I decided not to even attempt to enter the pot pie supper into my Weight Watchers calculator because let's face it...sometimes ignorance is bliss.  Joshua and Lauren enjoyed some play time with Brooke and some visiting time with the gang for sure.

Saturday morning we got up and went to Stacie's house to let her experiment with the kids as she enters into a photography business.  Joshua should have won a prize for his compliance because he literally did everything Stacie asked him to do.  And then there was Lauren.  I declared to Stacie that if she can get a good picture of an 18 month old, then she had found her true calling because they're tough!  The attention span is all of a second at a time, and they're not likely to listen to what you're asking them to do.  But remarkably, Stacie got some beautiful pictures.  She has shared a few on Facebook, but I'll upload a few here as well once I get the CD with the pictures on it.  Her work with a mirror is stunning.  I'm sure I'm not the slightest bit biased about the subjects, either.  Sure.

Saturday afternoon was a party for Grandma Shirley's birthday, so lots of Richards descended upon Mom and Dad's house for food and fun.  The kids had fun playing with Nana's new kitchen and I don't believe there were more than a few squabbles that needed refereeing.  That's saying something.  Dad made a delicious batch of homemade ice cream that we all loved.  I paid the piper on the scale for my weigh in this morning, so we won't talk about it, but I will say that it was 100% worth it!

We returned home on Sunday morning.  I had grand ideas of leaving Lewistown in enough time to get home for church at First Baptist, but quickly realized that I was lacking the motivation to make that happen.  Instead, we got home in time to eat some lunch, start some laundry, unpack the bags and then go outside to enjoy the pretty day.  We met a few more neighbors and everyone is sooooo nice.  It's been a long inside spell, so we were beginning to think everyone just kind of keeps to themselves, but it appears not to be the case now that we're starting to warm up a little.  Joshua made friends with the two boys who live behind us.  They're 10 and 8 and were pretty patient with him.  They rode bikes and played a very boy-ish game of chasing each other with guns and swords for about 2 hours.  During this time I realized that I am going to have my work cut out for me with Lauren outside this summer.  She has no sense of boundaries, roads or property lines.  Both of our outside experiences have ended with her throwing herself down in the middle of the street screaming bloody murder.  Now there's a great first impression with the neighborhood.  Geesh.

Hope you enjoy a few pictures until next time!

Lauren mixing up some food in Nana's new toy kitchen!  The kids adored this!

Lauren and Brooke scheming about something.  Lauren has no idea that she isn't as old as Brooke and Joshua, so she was always RIGHT with the big kids all weekend. 

Joshua taking his turn with the guys churning the homemade ice cream.

It's hard work, but the payoff is totally worth it!  He ate two bowls.  And had a great conversation with Pap in the process I think.

 

We attempted to take the kids out to blow off some steam with a walk around the neighborhood.  A little fresh air didn't hurt anyone.

And my noodle-faced girl to round out the set.

Them

I love everything about them.  And I love having had the opportunity to spend our surprise snow day with them yesterday.

I love how, by 11:00, Joshua had pretended to be every Disney character he could think of.  And he had convinced me to be Cruella DeVille.

I love how Joshua creeps down the stairs in the morning and, with a huge grin on his face, asked "Mommy, is it a SNOW DAY today?"  Somehow I get the feeling he won't always be so thrilled to spend a day with me although my heart hopes he is.

I love how Lauren has learned to say "all done" and is so greatly enjoying her ability to exert her independence with her words.

I love that she wears Joshua's underpants on her head as a hat and socks as gloves and is the happiest when doing so.

I love how Joshua sings, all the time.  He reminds me of Pappy Fred in that way.  He makes up songs.  Sings songs from his super hero shows.  Sings songs from church and school.  Sings songs from commercials.

I love how he's so grown up these days, watching more Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk than anything else.  But when he doesn't know you're looking, he's totally engrossed in Handy Manny like he was yesterday when I snapped this picture.

And I love that he was riding his sister's pink car while doing so.

I love that Lauren has learned to feed herself in the past couple of months.  And I love the look of concentration on her face as she tries to keep her Noodle O's on the spoon instead of in her lap.

I love that, by the end of lunch, Lauren's pants contained a whole road map of her morning activities.  She had blue crayon, Kix, Noodle Soup and red jello on her white pants.  And she didn't mind one bit.

I love that I still get to cuddle Lauren to sleep.  And I love that her purple blanket still smells of her baby-ness.  And that I can still soak up every single ounce that's left of her being little before she grows even more than she already has. 

Time is going by so quickly.  But I love every single thing about them.

A few little things...

I get the feeling as I sit looking out the window at the mess of ice and snow that fell last night, that winter is mocking me.  Just this weekend, we decided to officially embrace spring and take the snowman off of the front door and put away all of his friends who had been decorating the rest of the house.  And now this.  I can't say I'm heartbroken about a day to spend at home in my sweats with the kiddos, but I would love it even more if it had been a declared hooky day that we were spending at the park enjoying the sunshine and warm spring air.  I know it's coming, but I can only say, "Spring......stick a nickel in it!"



If I were the artistic type, I would title this piece of photographic art "Little Girl.  Big Chair."  Really I was just taking a picture because I loved Lauren's pajamas.  And at the rate she's growing lately, she might only wear them once before they're too small.

On Saturday night, we were so excited to get together with the Bingamans for some fun.  I'm embarrassed to tell you that the last time the eight of us were together was pre-Lauren and Daphney.  And if anyone's keeping track, they're now 17 months old.  I did spend a small amount of time with them at the Harvest Festival parade in September.  September.  Ridiculous.  So, we had a very fancy pizza party and got the chance to visit and enjoy the kids on Saturday evening.  I had to catch a few pictures of the chaos.  Since Joshua and Sydney are only 5 months apart, and the little girls only 3 weeks, we decided this was what it would be like to have two sets of twins.  And then we said a prayer and thanked the Good Lord for not making that be so for either of us. 



Joshua and Sydney graced us with a puppet show.  Although I would use the term loosely since the puppets really only bounced around behind the "stage".  At one point Sydney announced that the puppets were  broken because they didn't talk.  Cracked us right up.  With these malfunctioning puppets, Joshua decided to break the ice by doing a few magic tricks.  For his grand finale he said he would make Jeremy disappear.  Sadly, he had reached the end of his magical skills because Jeremy did not go any further than the step he was sitting on for the show.

Here are the little girls doing some coloring.  Daphney got one good bite of crayon, and I think that explains the look on her face.  Lauren wasn't sure what to think about another little one her own size, but she warmed up pretty well and seemed to like the commotion of having 4 kids around the house.  Lauren is a definite observer, but she seemed to open up about half way through the evening and played with Daphney and danced with the big kids a little bit.

Here were Joshua and Sydney playing a game of "Go Spidey"...his favorite.  It boggles my mind that it seems like just yesterday that Darla and I were hauling our pregnant selves around Rolling Ridge just hoping to finish our walk before someone had to go to the bathroom.  And now here we are with 4 year olds....and 1 year olds.  I felt like I was in a time warp.t

Before long, just about all four of the kids were beginning to melt.  It was probably a bad combination of pizza, the sugar high from the "special" Sprite we let them have since it was a special occasion, running around for 2 hours straight, the Oreo cookie dessert that we rounded out our low calorie meal with and the spirited game of Duck, Duck, Goose that ended our fun.  Well that and the fact that it was 9 pm and Lauren had no nap.  I bet you wish you could have been here to see it, huh?   We did speed baths before a total calamity ensued and tried to get the kids into bed before they spontaneously combusted.

Sunday was a good day.  We finally made it back to church after being gone for two weeks.  Somehow that felt like an eternity and proves to me just how much I love our church and all of the people there.  Two weeks was too long to be gone.  It's a good thing we went, too, because it turns out that we were on nursery duty.  I got to hold a little baby for a while, which Lauren protested to the extent that her little lungs would yell.  Reinforcements were quickly called in to prevent a coup.  But we had fun anyway.  And yes, holding a baby made me want another one.  That's an issue I'm really working hard to push from my mind these days.  :o)

We spent the afternoon at home working in the kitchen to make supper for Sunday and Monday (with hopeful leftovers on Tuesday).  It was a mess, but a blessing that I don't have to fight with cooking before leaving for the office for a few days this week.  While all of this was going on, the kids actually curled up on the couch together and watched a movie.  I was so proud of Joshua for being patient with Lauren.  He let her share his blanket and was just generally a great kid all afternoon.  Don't you especially love the way they both smiled nicely for me when I asked to take their picture?

I hope that, if you are home today because of the snow, you enjoy your day.  I know that I am looking forward to getting done with this March nonsense.  But if it has, in fact, come in like a lion, can we now get onto the going out like a lamb part?

A waaaaaay delayed posting.

I had really good intentions about actually getting back to a regular posting habit.  I'll not offer excuses (mostly because I don't have any) and instead give you a quick rundown of the past week.

What I had intended to post about originally was the beautiful day that I had for my ride along Rt 522 to Lewistown on Tuesday to be in town for my Dad's 20th anniversary celebration at his office.  The ride there was glorious--- not a cloud in the sky, no kid DVD's playing in the backseat, and I could turn my music up and sing as loud as I wanted.  It was an hour and 15 minutes that was good for my soul!  It was so wonderful to be there for a couple of hours to watch as people came in to offer their congratulations and to share a whole bunch of memories with Dad.  My Pap was there too, making it a pretty special 3 generation State Farm gathering.  But mostly it was a day about my Dad and how special he is to so many people.  I also snuck in a little bit of one on one Brooke time, which truly made my day.  So often, when we have a chance to be together, I'm juggling Joshua and Lauren and I feel like I don't get to just sit on the floor and play with Brooke.  But on Tuesday, I did.  And if I could have put her in my purse and brought her back home with me I would have.  What a sweet little girl she is.  I'm so lucky to be her Aunt Meg.

In other news, I can say with confidence that Lauren is no longer a horrible sleeper.  Amen and hallelujah to that, right?  I'm sure you all are as sick of hearing about as I am of talking about the all nighters with my sweet baby girl in my arms.  But, after 2+ weeks of letting her cry it out, we're now down to pretty much only a few minutes of fussing before she lays down and closes her eyes.  She usually wakes once during the night and cries for a few minutes, but then settles back down.  I have slept more in the past almost three weeks than I have in years.  And it's amazing what that will do for your mood, energy level and ability to construct a coherent sentence.  It's been a beautiful transformation around here.  Naps are still a little tricky, but let's face it...if you're getting a full night's sleep, naps aren't really that big of a deal.  Yesterday she fought her nap and after 45 minutes was still awake and crying upstairs.  So we bagged the idea of a nap altogether and packed up for a trip to Target.  She caught about 10 minutes of a power nap on the way home, and that was enough to hold her over.

More to come...