On the agenda.

If anybody wants to know what's in my book club...



And once I hammer out how to get a handle on Jacob, I will be tackling Mason's problem: Leisurely eating meals, five hours at a time. Ain't no one got time for that pace.

*funny to think that authors write books for people with kids--given our extreme lack of free time. Even funnier that I actually think I will find time to read past the cover of any of these books...

We went on "vacation."

And it started out at a hotel under a boil order and public restrooms with biohazard needle boxes. Jealous?


















You should be because it was actually way more awesome than it sounds. Phew!!! We met Caleb's family and the cousins at Fun City in Iowa for some kiddie fun. At the hotel was what can only be described as a McDonald's play place on crack (hence the need for the needle boxes?!) Seriously, though, this indoor playground was several stories high with the fastest slides ever. Think Olympic bobsled fast, minus the snow and sled. I was so excited to use the kiddos as a decoy to play!

And it had balls. Literally a room full of balls. Balls to shoot out of air guns. Balls to suck up in vacuums. Balls to collect in a large box that tips over causing an incredible downpour. It was fun. Fun. Fun. Fun!

 

The boys had an absolute blast, and even gave go-karting a shot. My little Jacob navigated his own kart--when did he get so big?!-- while Mason rode shotgun with Caleb.
Camryn was a trooper and blew me away with her rock star go-with-the-flow attitude. And, OMG, she slept in the hotel better than she sleeps at home. Best. Baby. Ever.
Then we headed west to Caleb's parents' house where the boys got to test out a new set of freshly built bunk beds. They loved it so much that we had to put ours together when we got home. In the basement. And when I decide to trust the boys to sleep in, and not jump from, the beds we will move them in to their room.
Getaways are fun. Especially when your kids are having so much fun with family that they forget you exist and you can sink in to the couch and watch more tv then you will ever admit to!
And now the lyrics "back to life, back to reality" are playing on repeat in my mind. I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

Yowzas.

This is the face you make when your two front teeth, which appear to be the size of femur bones, are trying to poke their way through your gums. No fun for anyone.

All I Wanna be is DONE!

…with winter! We have recorded the fifth snowiest winter with roughly 75 inches of snow. 38 days of this winter have had snowfall (as compared to 16 days last year). The snow is taking over our space. And winter’s not over, folks!

I snuck this picture halfway through today’s seven-inch snow dump. It’s Sadie, whose 60 pound body barely peaks over the backyard snow. I’m not going out there to measure, but I would say the snow is easily knee deep along our fence. Ay, yi, yi.

Happy V-Day

What does this mean, and when did I get so old that I can't decode the lingo on these darn candy hearts?

My bobsled team.

In honor of the Olympics, we hit the slopes for some sledding fun.

Jacob loved going down fast, hated dragging the sled back up, and almost always did a five foot dive off his sled at the bottom of the hill. Maniac! We went down once together and completely crashed. He got up, dusted off, and announced: “That sure did a number on my bones.” Exactly what his much older momma was thinking about her old bones. That kid cracks me up.

Mason preferred to roll down the hill. No sled. Just body. Weirdo.

And this is one of the reasons I love having kids: I get to go sledding while pretending that I’m doing it for my boys. I secretly love using them as an excuse to tear down the hill!

Today this happened.

Of course I will miss these moppy curls. But the time spent washing, drying, and managing? Not so much.
Mason touched Jacob's hair about a dozen times this evening and said "oohhhh, I like your hair." It's a hit!

Perspective.

Just to give you an idea of how much snow has been dumped on us this winter. We are one snow storm away from burying the mailbox. Talk about an eternal winter!

Lesson Learned.

I asked Mason to “please decorate the ‘squares’ on the Valentine’s cards.” He took one look at the cards and said in a rather annoyed tone (think teenager rolling eyes at parent) : Uh, you mean the hexagons?

I am clearly not smarter than a 3-year-old. I know they aren’t squares, but are those hexagons? Too tired to Google that shape.

Fact.

I love this face. Right down to her signature nonstop goopy, crusty, runny eyeballs. Speaking of eyeballs: Green, blue, or brown? That’s a million dollar question.

Countdown to summer is on.

Going sledding is all fun and games until your kids get stuck mid-step while trudging through waist-high snow en route to the hill. And then you have to drag their heavy, no-help selves the rest of the way. One kid under each arm while kicking the sleds as you go. Until your brain freeze wears off and you realize that you can toss them on the sled and pull them behind you like the sled dog you are. No pictures. Obviously. But probably a laugh from any witnesses. OMG, mother nature, knock off the snow already!

A sign of the times.

My Mason is a tech-junkie. He's known to ask my mom to "pause the tv" so he can go to the bathroom. He makes me "pause the phone videos" when he needs a tissue. So at breakfast time it really didn't surprise me when he demanded that I "pause the toaster" so he could go potty. Talk about not being able to live in the moment. But funny, nonetheless.