This is Mia on her first day of art class.

And she actually begged me to let her take art lessons, I swear.

I sure am glad I knocked that other mother out to get the last of the six coveted spots in her age group ;)

Learning through osmosis

My kids are such geniuses. After they read their books in bed they tear the pages out of them and smash them on their faces. Watch out, Einstein, e=mc2 ain't got nothin' on this.

Ca-lue-less

This is just a 17 second clip of the life and times of Mia Reese.

Always. Performing.

Always.


Notice she never even looks to see if she knocked down any pins. She doesn't have time for such menial things.

Happiness is...

...a 4-year-old singing show tunes through the sun roof. Happiness is also me winning this.

Random Thoughts Thursday

My thoughts are so jumbled and mixed up today that I feel like I can barely function. I think I may even be in a partially vegetative state. I don't have a reason except that I am a normal person in charge of two little human beings, trying to keep it all together and do it all right.

Andy and I decided that we would do our family devotional at supper time instead of right before bed. Mia wants to zone in front of the boob tube right before bed, she doesn't want to get spiritual. And it was starting to make me feel weird, or bad, or whatever when she would throw a fit and beg to not hear a bible story. It just wasn't right. So now we are attempting to sit at the table and do it while supper is cooking. I guess we will have to eat supper together at least once a year for this to work properly.

It's just one of those days. I am thinking about supper and what I can cook that the kids will eat, and I am thinking about how awesome it would be to have little black hexagon tiles on our bathroom floors with white subway tiles in the shower, and I am thinking about my kids and how much I don't want Mia to go to school at all - ever, which leads me to think about friends and how much I hope and pray that my kids are surrounded by good influences.

It's all inside this head of mine just swirling around making me tired and giving me a headache, which makes me think about brain tumors.

I need to quit thinking.

And start praying.

My Mother makes my kids cool.

Check out this dress from the Gap: And this dress that my Mom made months before that little Gap thing even came out in stores:
And feast your eyes on this little fall coat she whipped us this past week:
Just look at the back of this coat. I want to marry the back of this coat. The woman has immaculate taste. And thank goodness she does because how awkward would it be if she showed up at my house all proud of something that was hideous? She even throws away things that she doesn't think are perfect.

I (well, technically Mia but really me because we all know a little girls clothing is really all about her mother) am the luckiest person in the world.

Bodester

Happy Birthday, Son. You complete our family (unless modern science fails us).

You are a paci sucking, ball throwing, drum playing, bible class screaming, women's shoe loving, pizza eating, big sister aggravating bundle of joy.

And I love you for all of it.Check out the "BODE" letter that Mia drew and cut all by herself. Better than I could ever do, I promise you that.And yes, I give whoopie cushions as party favors because I'm just immature enough to think they are hilarious.

The shirt says it all.

Bode's two, ya'll. Well, technically not until Monday but we partied tonight so as far as he's concerned he's the big 0-2.

Today was the big day. The day the paci was going bye-bye on a balloon or to the baby nursery at church or whatever. But I had this little melt-down thingy where I was all, "Andy we have got to pray about this paci situation." And he's all, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can keep a straight face and pray about a paci." And then I got all emotional about how this is a big deal to me and that next it will be a big-boy bed and then underwear and then life as we now know it will be over and I'm not ready and how can this really be it and once the paci is gone he may as well be moved out of the house 'cause he's not a baby anymore.....

And then Andy calmly reminded me that the kid doesn't even say his own name yet so we still have a long way to go.

And I stopped with the freak-out session and stuck a paci in his bed.


You are not going to believe who made this.

I will give you some clues:

1. She is a professional musician.

2. She takes her coffee with one pump mocha and a scant bit of cream (that's my new word: scant. I like it).

3. She is the best friend ever. Ever, ever, ever.

Yes, Gena pulled this out of nowhere. I already look like a complete domestic failure compared to her and now she goes and does this. She also breaks into my house and leaves me coffee which is why I almost love her more than my husband.

She's gonna be "Popular"

And before you ask, that dress is from my wedding candle lighting debut in 1994.

There's more than one way to eat a no-bake.

Thanks, Gena. You know how to make a family happy.

Great Wolf Lodge; it's pretty great

Henson was a trooper: Bode got to see huge train in downtown Grapevine. Apparently huge trains thrill almost-2-year-old boys to death:Good one, Dear.This is how Mia looked the entire trip:

The vacation is officially over.

Not five minutes after walking in the door Mia is in character. Great Wolf Lodge is amazing. I will post 57 pictures tomorrow. Must. Get. Sleep.

La, la, la-a-a-a, You'll be popular, just not quite as pop-u-lar as MEEEEEEEEE!

Kristin Chenoweth, eat your heart out.

This child is obsessed with Wicked. She just announced that she wants an Elphaba birthday party. I tried to explain that they don't print her face on many party supplies.

We are off to Great Wolf Lodge. I predict Bode will poop in his swim trunks at least five times. Here's to you, chlorine. We plan on giving you a run for your money.

Yep, it was just like I remembered it.

I ventured out to Frontier City Friday for the first time in about 25 years. We figured we needed to take advantage of Bode's mullet.

Thanks to the e-coli outbreak the crowds were virtually nonexistent (but then, is there ever a crowd at Frontier City?).

Life-threatening bacterias aside, the kids had a great time and I can mark this one off of my "things I will probably have to endure when I become a parent" list.

Thank you, Uncle Lucas, for the hook-up.