A Happy Weekend



We had a great weekend- lots of fun things going on.  I managed to do a better job than normal of catching at least a few of them on the camera!  And also decided to START the day with a blog post instead of waiting until the end of the day, since that always seems to roll around long before I've reached the end of the list of things that need to be done.  We'll see if I can get a streak rolling here under this new program.

 

Saturday morning we headed to Joshua's 6th Upward basketball game of the 8 game season.  Most of our Saturdays have been spent wrangling children, buying hot dogs and swedish fish at the concession stand and finding ways to pass the hour with Mara without her running off, disturbing the rest of the spectators, or having a fit.  This particular week was a special one, because Grandma, Aunt Sheri and Jai, and Gage came to watch Joshua play.  So with a few extra hands to occupy the girls, I was able to snap a few pictures.  Joshua has been having such a great time playing this year, and he really has made a lot of improvements.  He is dribbling much better, taking smarter shots and making a few baskets each week.  It's so much fun to watch him enjoy himself so much.  On most weeks, I also get a little bit of social time with Emily and their girls as well, so that's never a bad thing.

 

 

Saturday evening, Jason and I went to the annual banquet for the fire department where Jason has been volunteering for the past 8 months or so, and had a nice time.  I was so proud of him when he was named the Rookie of the Year for the department!  He's donated a lot of time for training and classes he has needed to take, as well as for the few calls there have been in recent months, so I was glad to see him be recognized for the time he has volunteered.  And it was really nice for me to get to meet some of the guys that he has been talking about working with.

We muddled through the whole "spring forward" disaster on Saturday night, and all of us woke up grouchy and tired on Sunday morning.  I opted to let the bad attitudes resolve themselves at home rather than in front of an audience at Sunday School, and we went just for church this week.  I think that proved the right choice.  All three kids woke up on the wrong side of the bed for sure.  I'm convinced that the people responsible for Daylight Savings Time do not have small children.

We pushed through our Sunday afternoon with a special visit from my parents.  The kids were thrilled to have Nana and Pap come to see them.  Mara was especially outgoing with them- she always seems to be more so in our house rather than at theirs, but her very quickly growing vocabulary has given her a lot more confidence to say what she wants to say.  I honestly don't think she stopped jabbering the whole time they were there.  She's starting to now string two or three sentences together-- they're choppy, but if you pay close attention you can totally get what she's saying.  I think Mom and Dad got a kick out of her.  She certainly isn't lacking in the personality department, that's for sure.

After Mom and Dad left, we all decided that we were going to celebrate spring, whether it is here or not.  When the temperature hit 38 on Saturday afternoon, I said to Jason that I thought we should bag the plan I had for dinner on Sunday night and get some steaks to grill.  So I made a trip to Byerly's and we had a delicious steak dinner last night with some homemade apple crisp.  Oh how it made me ready for warm nights of grilling and being outside.  The kids spent the afternoon running around in the driveway playing basketball and writing with sidewalk chalk.  I think the fresh air did them all a lot of good.  But Mara quickly crashed when we came back inside.  I wouldn't normally encourage a nap at 4:00 in the afternoon, but she couldn't help herself and slept from then until it was time for dinner.  Because she was all wacked out by Daylight Savings Time, she didn't have any trouble falling asleep at bedtime (nor did I as I rocked MYSELF to sleep from about 9:00-11:00 in her room last night).

In other news, I was thrilled in the past few weeks to have reached my 40 pound weight loss goal.  When I really started working on this in January 2013, my goal was to lost 40 by the time we left for Disney World LAST MAY.  Needless to say, it's been a bit more of a project than that.  But about two weeks ago, I finally saw that goal to completion and can start to focus on getting to the final goal I have-- only about 19 pounds to go.  I was thrilled on Saturday morning to finally fit into a pair of jeans that I haven't been able to get into since before I got pregnant with Joshua.  This highlights a few things--- 1. Wow, I haven't cleaned out my drawers in a long time!  and 2. I'm a hopeful person.  I KNEW I'd get back there eventually!  It felt great to comfortably wear those jeans.  Everyone else probably thought I was just way out of style in my 2006 jeans, but it was a moment of pride for me.  Sadly that steak dinner and apple crisp probably set me back a bit, but life goes on.  And since I don't weigh in until Friday morning again, hopefully I'll be able to undo any damage by then!

And just for fun, here are my two favorite girls from this morning before I took Lauren to school.  So sweet- both of them.

Camera Dump

I feel like I should start this post with a disclaimer, so here goes.  I have no idea where I'm going with this post.  This is what happens when I go weeks in between posts.  I am at the mercy of my camera and whatever things might happen to be captured therein.  And then, when I start to write about what I find there, it's hard to tell which rabbit trail I'm going to get going down.  So brace yourselves.

 

For the dead of winter, I honestly expect to be more bored than we are.  You know, the winter dread of just being stuck at home, wanting desperately to get out and do something.  But there has been no such cabin fever for us lately.  I feel like we're spinning at an even more feverish pace than normal.  And folks, that's not good.  Thankfully, although we've had a tough winter with little annoying snow storms, there haven't been too many big ones that have slowed us down or wrecked any major plans.

 



 

On Friday the 24th, Jason and I got to spend the morning observing Lauren's nursery school class.  While the big kids do their parent visitation day in one big (chaotic) mess early in the year, the preschool classes do it in a more organized fashion, assigning one or two sets of parents to attend class with their child later in the year.  This apparently helps with separation anxiety issues and crowd control issues.  And let's face it, with 3 and 4 year olds, anything you can do to mitigate those two problems is well worth it.  So it was just us and one other set of parents, and we got a chance to watch Lauren in action.  She was so proud of herself, and so happy that we were there.  I left with a great appreciation for how well she's doing, how kind she is to the other kids, and how much of a saint her teachers are to do the things that they do every day.

I could probably do a whole post about this fire truck tent and the millions and millions of things it has been over the years that we've owned it.  If I were smarter, I would link back to some pictures of the kids doing things with it.  But lately it has been making it's appearance over and over and over again.  On this particular day, Mara had turned it into her own little home for her babies.  Mara's obsession with her baby dolls is really something to see.  She wakes up looking for "purple baby" and plays with her for the majority of the day and night.  She gives her tubs, walks her around in the stroller, feeds her, changes her and wraps her up over and over again in her blanket.  It makes me so excited to see her as a Mom herself one day.  She's so maternal, and so caring.  (Seems odd to say given her intense nature, but she is so loving and sweet to her baby dolls.)

 Joshua's favorite time of the year has finally come--- BASKETBALL!  He has been so excited to get back to playing again, especially after practicing literally for hours on end all spring/summer/fall at home.  Josh has been doing pretty well, and the improvement since the beginning of last season is remarkable.  It's still tough for kids this age to work together as a team, so there is a whole lot of dribbling and shooting by one person rather than passing to teammates in any kind of an organized fashion, but it's still fun to watch.  Joshua has made a few baskets in each of his games so far, and his dribbling has really improved.  Jason is coaching his team again this year, and seems to be having a great time sharing this with Joshua again.  The girls and I love watching the games on Saturdays--- well, I do.  Lauren and Mara mostly like getting a snack from the concession stand and making a complete mess of the stage area while the game is going on.

Here we are with the baby again.  This time, she was showing Daddy how she helps her purple baby go to sleep.  I'm telling you.  All. Day. Long.

The last few weeks of January, Jason has been taking a course for his Haz Mat certification for the fire department during quite a few evenings.  It's forced the kids and I to get pretty creative with our evening time, which is typically the most challenging of the day.  On one night, the kids got really excited about having a movie night and quickly got into their pajamas and toted their sleeping bags downstairs.  We made popcorn and had a relatively calm night.  And this mama counts it a success.  Needless to say, we're thrilled that Daddy's all done with that class and that our long nights without him are done at least for now.

And we're back to the baby.  I took this picture to send to my Mom because I thought it was funny that Mara carries purple baby around in a Longaberger basket.  I'm pretty sure that's not its intended use, but it works for Mara and it works for Purple Baby.  And I guess that's all that matters.

 

 

And that's the end of the camera dump for today.  If the past is any kind of a predictor of the future, we'll meet here again for the same kind of post in a week or so.  Or longer than that.  I always have such a good intentions and then life gets nuts.

 

See you all soon!

A "Real" Ballerina

 

For at least six months, Lauren has had a dream.  To attend "ballet school" as she called it.  I feel I need to admit to a moment of motherhood failure here, because in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that it would pass.  Frankly, I believe I had been scarred for life by the one lone ballet recital that I attended BC (before children) for four sweet little girls that I used to babysit.  After enduring the hours long event in which all manner of uncoordinated children dressed up in frills and makeup with their hair pulled way too tight and their cheeks way too pink, I swore I would never again sit through one of those.  And if ever I was blessed with a daughter, she most certainly wouldn't be a dancer.

 

So as Lauren begged and pleaded for her turn to do something that she wanted to do, after hours upon hours of sitting through basketball games and soccer games and school events for Joshua, I kept thinking that if I stalled, it would pass.  But after the new year, when she looked at me so sweetly and said, "Mommy, can I pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease be a real ballerina now?" something inside of my iron-clad heart must have melted because I replied, "Of course you can."

 

And so began the search to find a ballet class for a sweet little four year old to try.  To say I was overwhelmed would be an extreme understatement.  I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at or looking for, for that matter.  When one path led me to purchase all of our necessary supplies (leotards, tights and a specific kind of ballet slipper), I thought I was on the right track, only to get a call that the class had been cancelled.  And so I put out a few feelers to clients I knew had little ballerinas of their own, and one just happened to lead me to a studio called Downtown Dance in Lewisburg, where there is a class called "Baby Ballet" on Tuesday afternoons from 3:30-4:15.

 

This is one of those times that I thank the good Lord for the flexibility of my job, although it sometimes feels like I am more of a mom than a State Farm Agent.  But after picking Joshua up from school, we all headed to Lauren's very first ballet class.  She was so adorable.  The picture I posted above was from Sunday when we did a dry run of making sure her leotard actually would fit.  She actually was dressed head to toe in pink, and was the most adorable thing I've seen in a long time.  She felt so grown up because she had some yoga pants and a little zip up sweatshirt to wear over her leotard.

 

She marched into her class like a champ, never giving a second thought to the big heavy door that would separate us while she tried something completely new.  I love how fearless she is, and how independent.  From where Joshua and I sat in the waiting room, we could overhear music from the Imagination Movers, the Fresh Beat Band and Bubble Guppies as part of their work for the day.  She was measured for her recital costume, which I am sure is going to be all kinds of sparkly sweetness.  (So much for "I'm never doing THAT again!"  She came out of her class all smiles, and asking when she could go back again.  Good thing for her, the teacher, Miss Christine, said she did just fine and would make a great addition to the class.

 

A real ballerina she is.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Mara Kate!

Yesterday marked Mara's 2nd birthday.  Honestly, the best piece of motherhood wisdom anyone ever gave me was the client who told me that the days are long, but the years are short when your kids are little.  How true that is--- the long days kick my tail on many occasions, and the quickness with which the years pass leaves me standing in the wake, just shaking my head. 

 

Anyone who has ever met Mara can understand that this girl is really something special.  She exhausts us all with her constant exploring, her incessant need to have things HER WAY....RIGHT NOW, her insatiable spirit that just has to find something new to conquer.  I can't wait to look back on this in another 20 years and see what kinds of things she is doing with her life.  My earnest prayer is that God will make me the kind of parent that can help her point all of that zest for life in the proper direction for her to be able to be make the kind of difference that she has the potential to make.  She has been my biggest challenge so far into this parenting journey, but I have to tell you that I not-so-secretly adore getting to watch her learn and grow.

 

She's talking up a storm these days, making me laugh about how much we were beginning to worry about her.  I swear she has learned 50+ new words in the past two weeks.  Yesterday I was rocking her for her nap, enjoying what I know is going to be a fleeting few last moments of her smallness, and I had to shhhhh her because she wouldn't stop talking long enough to fall asleep.  Sometime in the course of her sleep on Saturday night, I transformed from "Mama" into "Mommy"...a sure sign that my little baby isn't much of one anymore.  I remember when that happened with Josh and Lauren, and it marked the quick ending to any little sliver of baby-ness that remained.  But my oh my is it ever cute.

 

Mara's birthday celebration was appropriate for a few reasons.  I am learning what it's like to deal with a winter birthday, and let me tell you (for what it's worth), I'm not a fan.  I never like that all plans between the months of December and late March are tentative, left up only to whatever nature throws our way in terms of weather.  I'm not good at relinquishing control over my plans to anyone, and certainly not the weather.  But, as I was transferring Mara's newly decorated purple Dora cake to the kitchen table, my phone went off with a severe weather advisory for the hours of noon to 5 pm Sunday...the exact time that everyone would be on the road or at our house for the party we had planned on Sunday.  A quick call from Emily made me think that it might be a good idea to try to throw the party on Saturday night instead.  Mind you, it was 3:45.  But the Mowrys were game.  And where the Mowrys and Dugans are is a pretty good start to a party.  When the Lewistown crew said they could make it, and Jason's parents and sister were able to get there, we opted to add a pizza to our dips and munchies menu and do this in the next hour.  And so we did.  And it was wonderful.  I was sweating and still in my sweats up until 5 minutes before the first partiers arrived, but we managed decorations, goodie bags, party setup and food displays in one hour.  I even was sitting on the couch, with a whiskey slush in my hand (well, deserved...) as the doorbell was ringing.  I have never been accused of being spontaneous.  Not even close.  Actually, whatever the polar opposite of spontaneous is, that's what I am.  But it was fun, and I wouldn't have missed the chance to celebrate sweet Mara with our friends and family because of a silly ice storm.  I had to laugh when I thought back to the night that Mara was born.  I was sailing along, planning for a planned, scheduled c-section delivery on the 12th of January, but Mara had other plans.  Dr. Miller gave me one hour notice to go home, say goodbye to the big kids, and pack my bag for the hospital before I needed to meet him back there for surgery following my check up that afternoon.  And here we were again, scrambling in an hour to prep for another birthday celebration. 

 

Enjoy a few pictures of the chaos and confusion.  I know I sure have!

 

Our sincerest thanks to everyone who literally dropped what they were doing to make the trip to be with us.  It meant so much to us.  And although Mara might not remember her 2nd birthday party, I always will, and with the fondest memories of hustling to get things ready and the sheer joy that, quite frankly, we all needed after the tough way 2013 ended for our family.  I love how life hands us little snippets of joy (and sometimes big handfuls of it) when we're willing to receive it.  Mara certainly has provided lots of that for us, and this weekend was no exception.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  I can't even begin to tell you how I love you.  But I do.  So very much. 

Snowy morning...

The view from here this morning. Applesauce oatmeal muffins (thank you, Pinterest), pretty snow out the window and happy kids who don't have to go to school. Lauren in mismatched pajamas because that's just what she does lately. And Mara still fast asleep in her crib. She must know she has a birthday this weekend that she needs to rest up for. 

I am hoping to (finally) post our Christmas pictures today. I think I only took 200 so I will hope to find a few good ones. 

Christmas Part I



 

We had a great weekend celebrating the beginning of Christmas with our Lewistown family.  Stacie and Noah were our gracious hosts on Saturday for the day.  The kids all had a great time playing together, and occupied themselves very well.  Brooke, Anna and Lauren seemed to be three peas in a pod all day, even putting on a show for us at one point with full costumes.  The only dispute seemed to be who was in charge.  I'm sure you're shocked to hear that three little girls, all with Richard blood coursing through their sweet little selves, would have a disagreement about who the boss was.  We all ate way too much, did some adorable crafts (including home made snow globes and Santa handprint ornaments out of salt dough), sang together, and missed my Pap so much that it was palpable.  This was his day-- one of his absolute favorites-- and we all had a Pap sized hole in our hearts.  One thing was for sure, sad or not, there was nowhere we would have been besides together.  And although Richard family Christmases from here on out without Pap there in the physical sense are bound to be different, they'll still always be a major part of my Christmas.  I can just feel the flood of childhood memories come back when our family is together at Christmas-- everything reminds me of why I love the holidays so much.  And this year was certainly no different.

 

 

 

We stayed at Mom and Dad's on Saturday evening so that we could go to church with them and then spend the day with them to have our family Christmas together.  Ever since the kids have been born, we've made it a priority not to be travelling on Christmas Day.  So, although it has changed the tradition a bit, we wanted to have the time to create family traditions of our own, and make memories that would mean a lot to the kids as they grew older.  So, we settled in for a special day with Nana and Pap, Aunt Libby and Uncle Zig and the girls, and Pappy Ray.

 

Nana and Pap outdid themselves with gifts for the kids.  I thought Joshua would jump out of his skin when he opened his PSU home jersey (Christian Hackenberg, in case you were wondering).  He literally jumped up and down and squealed.  It was adorable.  And for all of the girls (minus only poor Hayden), Nana picked out their very first American Girl Bitty Babies with some very cute accessories.  I'm not the least bit shocked to have heard Lauren say on no less than a hundred occasions today that her baby is her new best friend, and her favorite present ever.  She loves changing her clothes, and wearing her in the sweet little Bitty Baby carrier.  Mara loves her baby too, although doesn't seem to grasp the special-ness of this particular baby.  But since all the girls do together is play babies, I think she'll quickly become a favorite for our littlest as well.

 

We ate a delicious lasagna dinner and played the night away with Brooke and Hayden before it was time to call it a night for all of us.  We headed home today and have embarked on the "get unpacked" mission most of the afternoon.  Add to that the need to clean out the playroom to make room for Santa's anticipated drop off here tomorrow evening and it's been quite a busy day here.  I am pleased to report that all of the kids are tucked safely in their beds, while I have unloaded the first of two loads of gifts that need to be brought home from the office.  I find it ridiculous that I loaded them into the van at the office, then took them to our basement, only to need to bring them back up again tomorrow night.  Santa's work is exhausting.  I don't know how those elves do it.

 

 

 

To say the kids are excited about tomorrow being Christmas Eve would be waaaay understating it.  I'll work for a while in the morning, and then head home early in the afternoon to start cooking for Sunday and prepare for an enjoyable night with the kids.  I think we are opting not to go to church.  Although I hate that we have to make that choice, I have been working really hard to make choices this Christmas season that will eliminate stress.  And I don't know what defines stress more exactly for me right now other than occupying Mara in a quiet, darkened (beautiful, might I add) church service during the hours that are usually the most difficult for her each day.  Add to that that there is no nursery (and the last time we tried this with Lauren at this age, there was also no light and no heat on in the nursery) and I just think we're going to be far better off to stay here, tuck into our pj's and just be together.

 

Lots of fun to be had here in the next few days.  We can't wait!

Let it snow!

I think that today's snow storm was a bit of a gift.  Instead of running all over the place trying to get last minute things done for the holiday, we've been given a great excuse to tuck in, stay in our comfies all day, BAKE BAKE BAKE, and just be together.  Although this day hasn't been used to check a single thing off of my list of things to do, I have enjoyed it so much.

 

Please don't anyone tell Mara, but while she was napping, the big kids got to spend some time romping in the snow.  They were so excited.  By the grace of God, I found enough pieces of snow clothing to fit the both of them.  I was short one glove for Josh, but managed to locate it.  They were outside for about a half hour, and then deemed it long enough to qualify for a cup of hot chocolate.  So they brought their rosy cheeks inside and we sugared them up pretty well.

 

Next on the list of things to do today is prepping some cute crafts for the kids in Wee Worship tomorrow.  Pray for me.  I'm breaking out paint.  To put on their hands.  Yikes!  I've already packed the paint shirt and have a strategy.  Although tomorrow around noon I'll likely be questioning my sanity for even thinking that it was a good idea. 

And if that wasn't fun enough, we have a dead string of lights on the tree that is driving us all nuts.  So (preferably before the little tornado awakes), I've got to do something about that.  After that, our stuffed  shells need to go into the oven and we'll tuck in for the rest of the night here together.

Hope your snow day has been awesome too!

A likely "ectomy".

Much to report on...again.

 

You'd think I could soon get it together.  But I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

I owe Lauren a post like this from her doctor's appointment in....oh I don't know....the beginning of October.  Maybe I should just summarize and say that she's perfect.  Grew well, gained the right amount of weight, etc.  All around a great visit for our little princess.

 

I took Joshua yesterday for his seven year checkup.  I was astonished to hear that it had been six months since Joshua was there for a sick visit.  I honestly expected a band to start playing and fireworks to start going off at the sheer wonder of it all.  But no.  Only in my own head.  The doctor assured me that we'd likely be seeing more of them agian as the winter months wore on- a realization I didn't need a reminder about.  Josh did great, too-- grew 3" over the past year and gained 7 pounds.  We knew he was growing and had put (a little) meat on his bones, but that confirmed it.  Our only hiccup seemed to be the exam of Joshua's throat, when (just like every other doctor who has ever looked at him) Dr. Baca marvelled at the size of his tonsils.  Although I had asked about them when he was having his apnea problems as a toddler, no one seemed too concerned at the time.  But they're thinking that it might be a good idea to consult with an ENT doctor to take a look at whether or not those tonsils would be better out than in.  I have to tell you, I'd rather do ANYTHING besides consider surgery, but we'll check this out and see what needs to be done.  The doctor is pretty sure his adenoids are an issue as well.  So stay tuned for the first possible "ectomy" of the Dugan family.  We see the ENT on 12/4 and will go from there.  Poor Josh is more than a little worried.

 

This week has buzzed past as most seem to do lately, but I thought I would include a few pictures from last weekend.  Jason had been away on a trip to California on Wednesday-Friday, so the kids and I were on our own Friday evening.  We decided to go to "almost" midnight madness at the kids' school and had a fun time.  Joshua loved seeing the big kids playing basketball.  Although Daddy was home on Saturday morning, he was off to the PSU game with clients on Saturday, so we had a day together at home.  I cooked up a storm- chicken corn soup, 2 pumpkin pies, oatmeal raisin cookies-- the house smelled amazing!  And then, after the hard work was done (and by that, I am referring to getting Mara down for her nap), the big kids and I headed outside for some fun in what may be turning out to be the last nice weekend before the cold chill sets in.  We played soccer and football and rode bikes and shot baskets.  It was awesome.  And there were pictures.  There are always pictures.



 

I had to laugh about this picture.  I think the kids were all very happy to have Daddy home from the game on Saturday afternoon.  There was much giggling!

Whoa.

Since my last post, I can report a whole bunch of good things that happened.  I don't think we sat down for longer than five minutes all weekend (and our "weekend" started last Thursday afternoon).  The kids were off from school on Thursday and Friday because of parent/teacher conferences at school, which they were thrilled about.  Jason and I were thrilled that we had an awesome report from Joshua's teacher.  We're so proud of him.

 

After the meeting with Mrs. Nornhold, I packed up the troops and headed for Lewistown.  I believe Mara started asking for Nana as soon as she woke up on Thursday morning, and didn't stop until we pulled into the driveway at my parents' house.  We spent the evening with Nana and Papa and Brooke and Hayden and had a yummy dinner and some fun tubs until Uncle Zig was done working and could pick up the girls.  Too bad Aunt Libby missed out on the fun, but we'll get her double time the next trip.  She was holding conferences of her own until late Thursday night.

 

Friday morning we got up and headed to Stacie's for some pictures of the kids.  My plan was completely shot when we woke up to howling winds and temperatures in the low 30's.  So much for my plan of outside pictures this year.  (When, WHEN, will I learn to do this in October instead of November?)  So we took a few outside shots, but spent most of our time indoors with Stacie.  I figured we had a better chance of seeing smiles if the kids could feel their cheeks.  Here's hoping that's how it works out.

 

We had a very fancy lunch of McDonalds...because I'll be honest and tell you that I totally bribed the kids with a milkshake if they behaved themselves with Stacie and cooperated without a bad attitude about the pictures.  That was mostly directed for Joshua, who has declared that he hates having his picture taken.  But it didn't hurt for Lauren to hear it either since she tends to get "hoooooooooot" when she's annoyed with something, and I didn't want to have to beat any children in front of Stacie.  Although I'm sure she would have understood.  But all was well and everyone got to have a milkshake, except me because there are like 30+ points in even a small milkshake and I get 32 all day long.  Sad, isn't it? 

 

After lunch we hooked up with Freda and headed back to Turbotville to get ready for round 2 of the day.  Jen was headed to our house for 4:30 so that Freda and I could jump back in the car and head for Williamsport to meet up with Jason to go and see "Hello Dolly" at the Community Arts Center.  His business sponsored the show and hosted a group of clients, and with one extra ticket, we asked Freda to be our collective date for the night.  We had so much fun.  We even got to talk to Sally Struthers (who played Dolly)...albeit from a distance...but at least we got to hear her answer some questions from the group.  It wasn't quite the same as the photo op that we had with Martina McBride last year, but it was still fun.  By the time we got home it was 11:00 and we were beat.  Off to bed it was.

 

Saturday was our "at home" day....a misnomer because we spent the morning at the grocery store and the afternoon doing laundry and putting things away from the trip on Thursday/Friday and trying to pretend that the Penn State game didn't really happen.  I won't dwell on that, but really....a little defense shouldn't be too much to ask.  I believe I crashed hard sometime around 11 pm that night too.

 

And then....on Sunday morning we were up and at 'em again and on our way back to Lewistown around 10 am.  There was a special little lady who was celebrating turning ONE and we wouldn't have missed her lady bug bash for the world.  The kids had a blast at Hayden's party, playing lady bug ping pong and making crafts and eating yummy cupcakes.  I find it impossible to believe that Hayden is really going to turn one on Thursday, but I guess it's true.  We returned home, shoveled some pizza into our tummies and then started the "get ready for the week" routine.  I fell into bed early due to not being able to keep my eyes open.

 

It was a very very full weekend, but a good one!



 

 This picture was from last weekend, but I love it.  Please don't miss Lauren's ballerina costume that she has been wearing over just about everything all the time, as well as Mara's pink ball cap that is turned backwards.  I don't know whether these girls are on the edge of fashion, or whether we're really in for it during their teenage years, but I guess time will tell.

 

 I love these cousins pictures--- all tubbed up and enjoying a snack before bedtime at Nana's the other night.  I have a bad feeling that the expression on Mara's face is likely the one we're going to see on every single picture Stacie took of the kids.  Oh my word.

 

 I dare you to find a cuter baby.  Seriously....isn't she adorable?

 

 Hayden and Pap....she has a serious thing for her Pap.  And I think he shares it for her!

 

And these were party craft time pictures.  Mara loved that glue stick- found it necessary to put it on everything.  And I do mean everything.