It is not always about the chores, the tasks or the errands.

Sorry this post does not contain any pictures. Just wanted to drop a note on the great day that we had. Nothing ultra fantastic or astounding, just one of those nice at home days. NO hitting, no timeouts, no mom freaking out. (I have been tired due to Dylan's teething molars the past week and not much sleep) So with that said I think that may be why it was an extra nice day, because inside I felt I might be cranky at the drop of a hat and I wasn't! The boys were up at 7am alot on the early side, they aren't usually up until after 8am! So our day started early. Beck came at 8am, and shortly after that I had my upstairs bathrooms cleaned, Dylan down for a nap, and the big boys and I were, "crafting" as Clayton calls it, all before 9am. A mix of paints, stamps and the fave of Clay's the cricut machine! Today the boys choose the letter S to talk about. So we cut out space-ships and large S's, did some Stamping etc. It was fun, and nice to finally do something with them, since D was asleep. (So I just looked around the dining room and it is a mess still but o'well there is always tomorrow, I am trying to adapt that less stress philosophy.) We ran a quick errand with the hopes that naps would happen on the way home (getting 3 boys down for nap is a chore most days) no luck with that one so we all shared strawberry shakes from burgerville the rest of the way home. mmmm! Nap was great and I snuck one in too. I felt much better after words! Aric and I made it to the gym, and even had a great well balanced dinner. BBQ chicken, broccoli, texas toast, orange jello, and home-made mac n cheese. (but we ate on paper plates because I didn't want any more dishes!)
Bath and the evening routine went without a hitch, and while snuggling with Clayton the best part of my day happened: I was rubbing his arm and he asked me if I wanted him to rub my arm. So he did, his little hands reached out of the covers and started stroking my arm in the gentlest little motions. He said, "I love you Mom" That is why I love being a mom. What more can you ask for at the end of the day, especially when you are questioning what did I really 'get done'. It is not always about the chores, the tasks or the errands. It is the little fingers on your arm, the reminder of what we really are as mothers.

Finally, pictures from Clayton's birthday party in April

This was the first activity I had the kids do when they came in, an ice breaker of sorts. I took sheets of the foam "paper" and had piles of foam letter stickers (because we are really into the alphabet right now) and they made license plates for their trikes. Then the kids were able to ride around the gym and have fun. Very low stress, fun for the kids party!




I finally got copies of the pictures my dad took at Clayton's birthday party. I know it is a little after the fact, but it was a really cute trike/bike themed party. So I wanted to show off some of the cute pics. The girls goody bags were bike baskets and the boys got sport top water bottles. They were cute.

Dylan's "friends" birthday party

This morning we had Dylan's birthday at the firstenberg center. Last Sunday he had a bbq with the Clayton family and than on Tuesday we did pizza with the Jeffries Family. And because we have barely any kids in the family, we wanted to do a little something that was just for the little guys. We invited a hand-full of friends that had little ones, 1 or younger, and their older siblings (clayton's friends) to join us for the play gym at the firstenberg community center, and then we rented a party room to have dino-shaped jelly sandwiches, cheese its, applesauce, juice boxes and dino-sugar cookies for dessert. The parents ate more sophisticated snacks of hummus and artichoke dip oh and lots of diet-coke! It ended up being the perfect little get together, not too much screaming or chasing of toddlers. I enjoyed the company of friends as well, thanks!
Ps: Dylan is snotty and red eyed because he has been unhappy the last few days, we are getting our one year molars already, no joke, adding to the 8 teeth he already has. Poor guy has been miserable, but he put on a good show for the party. What a trooper.

Picture day at flash

So I decided what better way for a baby to spend his first birthday than listening to his mother bribe his older brother with suckers and bubbles, so that he would co-operate for pictures! Yes that is what we did this afternoon. I took the boys to the mall and we had photos done. Thankfully in the pictures you can never tell that they didn't want to be there, or how much work it was for the 2 photographers, my mom and myself! Check them out they are super cute of course. Go to flashportraits.com. The password is Dylan1. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday baby D

Today is Dylan's 1st birthday. What a fast year this has been! Dylan says 5 words, but is always babbling something of his own language. He also uses 2 sign language signs frequently. (poor guy, clay used alot more by now, but i have been slacking this time) His verbal words are: dog, mom, dad, uh-oh, bye-bye. He signs: more, come here/ want, and is really good at all-gone! He is still crawling, but no complaints here!! This is new to us as well because Big brother Clayton never crawled and was walking at 10 months. Argh! So we chase Dylan up the stairs and he is constantly making a mess all around the house. But he is so cute who could really stay mad at him. We don't!

Invites for my cousin's bridal shower

So I volunteered, ok demanded to make the invitations for my cousin's bridal shower. I am after all her older cousin and in the bridal party, and since I am not the host of the shower I felt I should at least make some sort of substantial contribution... and I don't cook so that left me with paper!! So here is a peak of the invites that I did. The 'S' is for shower and her soon to be last name of Shaw!

I wasn't sleeping, but they were

I took this picture last week one night while I was suffering from some serious insomnia/way too hot of bedroom. I thought my boys were the cutest things ever so grabbed my camera and dared to take a few pictures without waking them.

Just being boys

Wednesday Lyndsey and her two boys joined us for the afternoon. The goal was to put together her babies first birthday invitation. I have a cricut machine and we wanted to use that, so over she came! I have Beck mon-wed so in total we had 5 boys 3 and under in my house. We trapped the big guys in the kitchen for a while with play dough, and stuck the little beasts in the pack and play, only lasting a few minutes. 4 hours later we figured out the layout and had one complete invitation. Successful ? Of course!

Just a few pictures from this last week

Included in this mayhem: Dylan deciding he know how to climb the stairs, Clayton lounging in his PB Kids "big boy" chair, Clay and Colby last saturday enjoying sidewalk chalk in between rain showers, and Dylan trying to EAT his way out of the pack and play while i finished his birthday invitations!
Enjoy!

Dylan's birthday invitation

I just wanted to show off my cute invites for Dylan's little baby birthday party. Mind you the poor guy has like 2 pages in his scrapbook, but his birthday invite is a tri-fold. Sorry this time hallmark wouldn't do. I think they actually turned out super cute, surprise!

I just happened to find this article on Yahoo news

I wanted to post this very amusing article from yahoo, about breast feeding. I have never read an article with this approach. I laughed several times, though it is on a serious subject. Please if you have a second take a peak. http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080507/sc_livescience/breastfeedingratesupalongwithguilt