Pinterest a.k.a. my latest obsession

I love blogging.

I love reading blogs of people I know and love.

I love reading blogs of people I don't know, but still love.

I love reading blogs of people who do awesome crafty stuff.

I love reading blogs of people who take amazing pictures.

I love reading blogs of people who do super creative stuff with their kids.

I love reading blogs of people who enjoy life.

Since I started reading blogs, I have been keeping track of things I love in my favorites folder. I have dozens of folders that I sort with...crafty stuff, girly stuff, kids activities, parties, decor, etc. But the problem is...despite my best attempt to label the link...I can never quite remember exactly which flower tutorial is the one I am looking for.

Enter PINTEREST. If you haven't heard of it and you like to look for ideas/inspiration/fun stuff online, you seriously need to check it out! Now, from any site I am on, I can click a quick button and "pin" an image to one of my inspiration boards or make a new board. It saves the link for the site I am pinning from, so I can go back and read the tutorial or whatever, but it shows me the image, so I can find what I want literally at a glance! Then there is the whole community of pinterest and the ability to follow people and the things they are pinning and it can become a serious (but awesomely inspiring) time suck! You have to request an invite (or email me and I will send you one) and wait until you get one right now because it is still in its infant stages, but it is so fun! And then you have to make sure you let me know you are on there so I can follow you and gawk at the awesome stuff you find! If you want to check out my boards, you can do so here: http://pinterest.com/smileabunch/

 

And, if you are wondering why I have fallen off the face of the earth, it is because I am busy pinning!

pandora's box

Today, I picked Morgan up from school and as we were leaving the parking lot, my phone rang. I missed the call, but when I saw that it was Seth, I called right back...until I realized that I was Seth at our home number. Um, last time I checked, nobody was at home. Turns out it was Morgan calling me from the backseat from the home (cell) phone which he had taken with him to school. A few things followed...

1. I laughed...really hard.

2. I tried to compose myself...unsuccessfully...and laughed some more.

3. Finally got a grip and told Morgan that he is NEVER ever EVER allowed to take the home phone to school. The reason it is called a home phone is because it is supposed to stay at home. Clever, right?

4. Asked him if the phone rang while he was at school...thankfully it didn't, but he 

told me that his teacher said that the rule about phones is they can't go out to recess.

5. Realized that this meant his teacher had seen the phone...and then turned beet red thinking that 

now she thinks I am the kind of parent that gives my child a cell phone in Kindergarten.

6. Started composing the email in  my head that I would have to send to her explaining (and apologizing).

7. Call Seth and tell him how hilarious our children are.

Hope you had a good laugh...I need to go type the email to his teacher...

CHD Awareness Week

This week is CHD awareness week. My dear friends have a little boy who was born with CHD and I wanted to help them spread the word, so I have posted his story and some info about CHD on my photography blog.

Please go over and read about it! Awareness spreads one individual at a time!

random thoughts at 23 weeks

Monday will mark 23 weeks in my pregnancy...more than halfway!

I am not sure what is so different this time around, but the whole thing just doesn't seem real to me.

Yes...I feel giant and have to wear maternity clothes. 

Yes...It is super uncomfortable to sleep and I wake up at least 10 times a night to reposition.

Yes...the sight/feel/smell of raw meat makes me gag.

Yes...I have crazy bad heartburn every.single.night (could this be a sign of a baby girl with hair? hoping!)

And yes...my sciatic nerve is pinched and forces me to stand up while still bent over and then straighten incrementally from there (Seth laughs at me...I am sure I look like a 95 year old trying to stand up)

But...otherwise, I feel really great! I have energy and I feel productive most days.

I can eat just about anything (except meat that I touched when raw and Dr. Pepper).

I don't need to take naps every afternoon just to make it through the day.

I no longer feel inclined to go to bed at 8:30 pm (most nights anyway).

We have no idea what to name this baby girl...and that DOESN'T stress me out.

I am not tempted to buy adorable outfits for her when we are out and about.

I am not feeling stressed that we have no idea where we will be living when this baby gets here.

I don't worry that we are supposed to be listing our house in less than 2 months (although I probably should).

I am not overwhelmed at the idea of hauling 4 kids to Dr. appointments and soccer games and swimming lessons and dance classes (ok...maybe a little overwhelmed, but it isn't keeping me up at night).

Usually when I am pregnant this is not the case.

I have come to the conclusion that all of this is a tender mercy from my Heavenly Father. 

A reminder that my little family is being watched over and cared for and that whether I worry or not, 

it will all work out...and more importantly, that His plan is better than mine anyway! 

A reminder that this road we are on right now, though it is difficult, is the one that we should be on.

A reminder that the long days and the sacrifices are all worth it. 

A reminder that I don't need to know all the answers or understand the whole plan to continue on in faith.
A reminder that I am known to Him...and He wants me to be happy.

Today has been a hard day: kids fighting, Seth gone to work for what seems like the 20th day in a row with no end in sight, messes in every room of the house, feeling lonely and depleted and impatient, and wishing there were something I could do to get everyone out of the house, but not having the energy for an outing alone on a Saturday...and then, the sun (literally) came out from behind the clouds, my house went from gray and bleak to sunny and happy and I could walk outside without a jacket and not freeze...and I knew that it was all going to be ok. I took a deep breath, made some lunch, and we all went outside and rode bikes and enjoyed the fresh air for 30 minutes before the clouds came back and we started to shiver,
and it was just what we needed. 

I am so glad for reminders like these that give me the strength to carry on.

And now...if you made it through my ramblings...some randomness in the form of pictures.

self-portrait of my 23 week belly (taken yesterday)
I am about the same weight as my pre-pregnancy weight before Chloe. Weird.

Another self-portrait of my belly...from a different perspective...taken today


and the more exciting stuff...
kids playing in the fleeting February sunshine this afternoon












Footnotes:

1. Morgan and Chloe got the matching monkey rainboots for Christmas...
Brynn's size was not available...
they are obsessed and wear them almost every day!

2. Chloe's blue striped jacket is from Old Navy's clearance rack yesterday...
time will tell if she is obsessed, but I can definitely tell you that I am!

3. You may have noticed that most of us are sporting some shades of pink or red...
the Valentine's day countdown has begun!

4. While I completely ADORE my new zoom lens, I am officially getting lazy when I shoot.
I am used to running toward/away from the subject to get the shot I want, but twisting the zoom is so.much.easier! Sadly, there goes my plan to lose the baby weight! lol!

5. I have determined that sunshine makes people happy...look at those great big smiles on their faces!

6. Yes...that is my car INSIDE of our garage. Both Seth and I park in the garage! I never thought the day would come that we would have a garage we park in, but I am so glad it has! You may also notice the completely open driveway...we said goodbye to Seth's mercedes a few weeks ago.
A little sad, but a lot of happy (and a lot more room to play on days like today)!

telephone

Morgan has known our phone number (and by that I mean my cell phone number) for a long time now, 

but yesterday I decided it was time to actually teach him how to dial  the number and what to say 

when someone answers and all that fun little phone etiquette stuff. He is going to a birthday party 

for someone in his class whose parents I don't know well tonight, so the timing seemed appropriate. 

He is super excited, but I might send him with our home cell phone. Worry much?

(Speaking of which, what age do you all think is acceptable for sleepover birthday parties? I am a paranoid mom and I am not ready to let my 5 year old sleepover anywhere but grandma's house...am I crazy?)

So, I had him dial my phone number and hit the send key...and then he giggled like a crazy 

man when he heard my phone ring from across the room and I answered it. 

We practiced it a few more times...and every time he giggled like crazy. It was so fun! 

Then he called Grandma Becky and left a message....

"Hi Grandma, it's Morgan. I am learning how to call people on the phone. Okay, bye!"

And then he dialed Uncle Michael and chatted for a while. And then I made him give 

me the phone to make sure Uncle Michael knew that he was indeed being supervised.

And then he went in the living room and dialed my number again. 

"Hello?"

"Hi Mom, it's me, Morgan. Will you please give the phone to Chloe?"

"Sure!" I said as I handed the phone to Chloe.

"Hi," Chloe said, "This is Chloe...we are eating our dinner right now. My mommy made us tacos. I don't know what Dad is going to eat though. We are trying to figure that out." And then she moved the phone away from her ear and said to me, "Mom, who is this girl that I am talking to on the phone?"

Apparently our next life skill should be monitoring the information we share with strangers. 

This morning my phone rang. Who is calling me at 7:45 am while I am 

trying to get kids ready and out the door to school, I thought. 

Oh, right, it is Morgan...practicing. Thank goodness for free mobile to mobile calling!

Happy Birthday Brynn!

Little miss B had a birthday on the 21st of January and it was so fun to celebrate her! 

This year we are all about the ultra simple birthdays around here. 

We got super lucky that Seth ended up having Brynn's birthday off of work and clinicals...and being the amazingly wonderful man that he is, his first priority for his first day off in weeks was taking Brynnie on her birthday date with daddy. They went to the children's museum and got lunch at McDonalds.

Then, when Morgan got home from school, we opened presents...

she thought that was super cool!

She picked McDonalds...again...for her birthday dinner.
And since I wanted to make it to girls night out, I thought an early dinner at McDonalds sounded perfect!



She was having a blast on the slide! What a little princess!




Then we all headed home and Daddy did bedtime...
all in all, I think it was her perfect birthday!

On Sunday we had the whole family over for a birthday party for her...
we decided to have ice cream sundae's instead of cake...



So we popped the candles into her scoops of ice cream and sang happy birthday!
She was just happy about the cherry on top!

Thanks to everyone there for loving her and spoiling her!
She knew that all the fuss was about her and she loved every second!

clementines

Yesterday my girls wanted to eat clementine oranges, so they sat at the table together, each with an orange in front of them. Brynn ripped right into her clementine, peeled the entire thing herself, and started to eat it. Chloe asked me to peel hers for her. I told her that she could do it (because she can and has many many many times before). Then I headed in the other room, and this is what I overheard...

C: "Brynn, could you peel my clementine for me?"

B: "Yeah."

C: "Thanks! You can have a tax."

(Seth and I take an orange tax when the kids have us peel their orange for them...one segment from each half. It started out as a way to encourage their independence and now they think it is super cool to pay taxes! lol!)

So my just-barely-2-year-old peeled the clementine for my almost-4-year-old.

And then the two of them proceeded to eat 3 lbs. of clementines in one sitting while I paid bills...

Thank heavens for costco!

Ice Skating

I have so much to update from Brynn's birthday, but since I haven't even looked through those pictures yet, I thought I would skip ahead a bit and get back to that later.

Morgan's kindergarten class went ice skating for their field trip yesterday. It was pretty funny to see all these little 5 and 6 year olds try to stay standing (mostly unsuccessfully) on the ice, 

but within a few minutes, Morgan had figured it out and was getting around the rink like a little pro.

I was extremely daring and brought my camera out onto the ice, pregnant belly and all...moving subject+moving shooter skating backwards=not the sharpest images, but it was so worth it to capture the determination on Morgan's cute little face!

 

He certainly spent a little bit of time like this...

But we sure had a lot of fun!