Flat Branch Kinda Day

Today was a fantastic day. Marty and I dropped the kids off at our wonderful sitter's house and got to have a whole day to ourselves! We had breakfast at Cafe Berlin, stopped at our favorite gardening store, test drove a car (WTH!?), shopped for Easter goodies, caught a movie and wound up on the patio at Flat Branch Pub & Brewing for a cold pint or two. With three little peeps, we never get much time to ourselves and we learned a long time ago (nine years to be exact) that we must make sure we get that time together. Today's photo represents the glorious day we shared together and I hope there's another one of these pints waiting for me tomorrow after we get done moving the truck load of mulch we ordered today from the garden store...UGG!

Birthday Girl

Nine years ago today, my life was changed in the most amazing way. My daughter, Natalie, was born. She is a smart, beautiful, crafty, helpful, kind person. She grows up more and more every day. It's hard to remember the tiny little thing she was when she was born. We were so scared of her! She is an amazing big sister and a wonderful daughter and granddaughter. It's hard for me to believe that she is already nine. It seems like just yesterday she arrived in our world. Now I can't imagine my world without her. I love you, Natalie. Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Max in Motion (March 28)

We had Natalie's birthday party today at Empire Roller Rink. Natalie hadn't skated since she was in Kindergarten and Max and Ella have never skated before. Natalie was off to a rough start and couldn't quite get the hang of it. We kept Ella on the carpeted area where we could keep an eye on her. Max took off like a rocket! In fact, here's a picture of him racing around the rink! I was playing with some of the settings on the camera and captured this cool shot. He barely sat down long enough to watch Natalie open her presents and he refused a cupcake for the chance to skate some more. Since he never stops moving - he's a natural at skating!

Sleeping Beauty

Natalie and I were busy making some cards this afternoon and I had called for Ella a few times to see if she wanted to play with us. I didn't hear much from her and didn't think much about it until about 30 minutes later. She was awful quiet. Quiet is not always good when you're three years old and left to your own devices. I decided I'd better go take a look. Walking up the stairs, I still didn't hear anything. Usually she's singing or talking while she plays, but I didn't hear a peep. I walked into her room and almost hollered her name again before I saw this. Look inside the box. She pulled all the dress-up clothes out and climbed in for a nap. I ran to get my camera as quietly as I could and then snapped about 20 shots. She slept through the whole thing and for another hour and a half!

Smiling Doggie (March 26)

People who don't think that animals have a soul are sorely mistaken. Bilbo Baggins smiles, laughs, worries, cries, protects his humans and toots with the rest of 'em. On this night, this particular smile was captured as Bilbo was trying to charm Ms. Natalie out of her ice cream. He sat directly in front of her and smiled and whispered to her that he really needed a bite of her Bunny Tracks. She didn't fall for it, however, and all his attempts were in vain. It still cracks me up that this guy will go so crazy for a little taste of ice cream. For an almost 13-year-old dog, he's still got it!

The Reader (March 25)

Today Natalie received a box of presents from Aunt Orsi and Uncle Scott for her upcoming 9th birthday. After much pleading, we finally let her open them. She got a bunch of great stuff including this a super cool book about mummies that has a three-dimensional model that is embedded in the center of the book. She spent the rest of the evening in this position reading and reading and probably even tried to turn on her bedside lamp to read more after lights out! Thanks, Aunt Orsi and Uncle Scott! You pick the best presents!!

The Titanic

Max is utterly fascinated by the Titanic. He has read book after book about the tragic luxury liner. He has watched the James Cameron "Titanic" movie - twice. And we've checked out two DVDs from the library about the sinking of the ship. The boy is obsessed. He recently came home from school with the above drawing of the fated vessel. This is actually one in a series that he has created. He even has inspired others in his first grade class to draw similar pictures. Do I have a future historian on my hands? Engineer? Artist? Only time will tell. It is certain that this summer, we will be making a trip to see the Titanic museum in Branson, MO. I think that will just send him over the edge!

Spring in Action (March 23)

After our snow this past weekend, I didn't know if anything that had started to come up would actually still be alive, but thankfully, it didn't get cold enough to kill the hyacinth. They are starting poke their little heads out of the ground and one of them was actually blooming. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. I love watching how quickly everything changes from being dead and dying to suddenly turning green and starting all over again. It helps to motivate me to do the same thing in other aspects of my existence. I feel like shaking off the winter doldrums and walking around the block. Or gutting that closet that's full of sweaters that I'm sick of wearing. Or just sitting down on the new green grass and thinking about how lucky I am for the things I have around me. Spring is finally here and I am so glad to see it.

What the? (March 22)

I have a son. A loving, funny, smart, wild, limber, goofy, sweet son. He is very much into waiting until the exact moment that I am going to take an award winning photo of him an then he makes "the face." Actually, there isn't just one face, there are probably at least 5 of them. This is a highly honed skill that takes a lot of practice and since I take so many pictures of the kids, he is well versed. This is another genetic code that was passed to him courtesy of his uncle Scott, my brother. I remember my mom shrieking at him when he would do the exact same thing during any pictures she attempted to take of him. I just sit back and take it all in because someday, when he's a loving, funny, smart, wild, limber (?), goofy, sweet man, I want him to see what a dork he was when he was seven years old.

Motley Crew

Tonya and Miles pose with our kiddos - and live to tell about it! We love you, Tonya and Miles.

Spring Snow (March 20)

We woke up on Saturday, the first day of Spring, with snow falling! Bilbo was not that excited about the prospect of going outside in the snow and was even more upset when I made him pose before I let him come back in the house. It continued to snow all day long, but the streets and sidewalks stayed clear. This was not the way I really want to start Spring, but if it means this is the last snow storm for awhile, I'm fine with that!

Good Friends (March 19)

There's not much better in life than spending the weekend with some great friends. Tonya and Miles came all the way from Denver to hang out with our family. We had a wonderful time just chillin' out. They even cooked several meals for us - in our own kitchen! The food was amazing and the company was even better. We're so happy that they are a part of our lives.

Pea Soup (March 18)

Woke up to some pea soup this morning on the way to work. There were so many great photo ops this morning, but I decided to keep my eyes on the road instead. These are the smoke stacks across the street from my office.

My Wee Lil' Leprechauns

Okay, so I have some Irish heritage. I have always been proud of this and I especially enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day with my family. I always raise a pint, make corned beef and cabbage for dinner and bask in my good Irish blessings. Ever since the kids were born, I have bought them goofy St. Patty's day shirts from Old Navy and I take a bunch of pictures of them. So here's this year's picture of my lil' leprechauns in full leprechaun naughtiness. To get this one shot, I took about 50 pictures. Well, it's hard to catch a leprechaun, ya know!

Book Shelf Blocks

When we had our third kiddo, we hired a cleaning service called Casa Bonita. We love them. They come in every other week and do the stuff we hate to do like vacuum, mop, clean toilets, etc. One of my favorite things is coming home to the house after they've been here. It smells so nice and everything is shiny and clean. Sometimes I keep track of the time to see how long it will stay nice and tidy. Today, it lasted about 10 minutes. I had no sooner put down my purse and hung up my jacket when Ms. Ella Grace had already dumped out the basket of blocks that lives on our bookshelf in the living room. When her short attention span led her quickly to another activity, I asked her to please put her blocks away to help keep our clean living room nice and neat. To my surprise, she complied without the usual three-year-old argument. Later this evening after everyone was in bed, I went back to the living room and noticed that she missed a few. I also enjoyed the contrast of having kids' blocks stacked in front of my Stephen King collection.

Civic Duty

We've been counted! Got our census form today and filled that bad boy out. It took all of five minutes. For all the hype and the millions of dollars that were spent on the advertising campaign for this, it was a little disappointing. Boring.

Zonked Out (March 14)

When you are the youngest of three kiddos and you spend the weekend at your cousins' house trying to keep up with everyone, sometimes it can wear a girl out. The only way to catch up on your beauty sleep is on the two-hour ride home. We didn't even get on the highway before this little woman was out cold. I woke her up when we got to Columbia at 6 p.m. because I was worried she wouldn't go to sleep that night, but she did. What a trooper!

Baby Love (March 13)

I have been working on a lot of baby blankets lately...I've got friends popping out kids left and right. This is for a special little girl named Caroline. I am really pleased with how this came out and the yarn is super soft. I have now made a few blankets, scarves and hats. I just might be ready to make someone a sweater now. Now that it is almost Spring and will be too warm for sweaters soon. Of course, at the rate I crochet, starting one now just might mean I would get it done before Winter rolls around again!

Kermit the Phone (March 12)

After suffering with an all but dead Motorola Razr for over 3 years, I finally broke down and ordered something new. Meet Kermit the Phone - a Samsung Reclaim. It's actually made of 40% bio-plastic (biodegradable) that is made from corn. I guess that means if I get really hungry, I could chew on it. I really just like it because it doesn't suck like my other phone did. I also really loved the color. Marty went for the gray one, but I think mine is much cooler. My favorite feature is the slide out QWERTY keyboard. I still am pretty slow at typing text messages, but at least I have keys to do it on.

What the Hellebore! (March 11)

This little beauty is called a Hellebore. I could see its white bloom from the window of my bedroom three stories above the shady area of the back yard where it poked its head out of the rotting autumn leaves. What a sight for sore eyes! I thought Spring would never get here. And all though it isn't officially here yet, this is a great sign that warmer weather will be on its way soon. Can't. Wait.

Storm Brewing

Although it is considerably lighter at 5 p.m. now that we've entered the month of March, such was not the scene as I walked out the office this evening. The clouds were rolling in and the bright sunny day was quickly replaced by ominous clouds. I was able to make it to the sitters just before it ripped open and it had settled down a bit by the time I got to school to pick up the older kids. Now, as I post this, it's raining cats and dogs. Spring has definitely sprung in Missouri.

Shape Up or Ship Out

Working on trying to get some more movement into my day. Since sometimes it is hard to carve a large amount of time out of the day to get some quality exercise, I decided to maximize the time I do have. I had read a few articles about these Shape-ups from Skechers so I bought a pair today. The curved bottoms of the shoes are supposed to help strengthen core muscles which is exactly what I need. I wore them around the house this evening to make sure they fit correctly and I have to say, I could feel it! I'm sure this won't make me a super model any time soon, but every little bit helps. At least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.

Bumper Stinker

I think bumper stickers are funny. I usually try to read them while I'm sitting in traffic. Sometimes there are some great ones and I try to remember them to tell Marty when I get home, but I always forget. This particular one cracked me right up today AND my trusty camera was sitting right next to me on the car seat. Made for a great finale to my Monday.

Nature Is Mean

Got to spend some time outside today and enjoyed poking around to see what I could see. I can't remember the name of this plant, but I always liked its spiny, cruel appearance. It dares the birds and squirrels to just try and get these seeds - try without getting an eye poked out! Mother Nature can be a mean, mean, woman!

Holding It Together (March 6)

Went for a walk to on the Bearcreek Trail to get some fresh air and exercise. On one of the footbridges, these rusty bolts appear on the handrail. I'm sure they serve a very important function to hold the bridge together. Thought they made an interesting pictures lined up in a row.