You may have to prop your eyelids open for this post.

It's just your run-of-the-mill family stuff that I want to document.  I am sure I will forget to even go to Bode's first Thanksgiving meal at school but the first-born gets an entire album of it.  

That's just how I roll.

Mia's lovely school provided a lovely family feast for all the lovely Oakdale families. 

Mia literally hopped all over the place she was so excited to have us there.

I had do redeem myself after committing the mortal sin of missing the Halloween party.

I thought I had a valid excuse, what with the vampire baby and all.

But according to Mia, "Everyone's mommies were there.  Please don't ever do that to me again."

After I removed the dagger from my heart, I silently cursed every mother that ever attended a school Halloween party vowed to never miss another school event, no matter how insignificant.
If Mia is the dad-gum line leader I will be there, camera in hand.

And then Andy called me a Psycho-Mom.
And I snapped back in to reality and agreed to leave the line-leader thing alone.
For now.

A blessed day

Our little orphan child for the Thanksgiving weekend, Abigail.  

I would totally adopt her if I could.

The unsuspecting students who were roped into participating in Thanksgiving Day in the City with us.  If you ever want to find my family on Thanksgiving, this is where we will be.  It is so much fun and is always a wonderful experience (even in the freezing cold).

Bode was in rare form today.

He took a sword and a double-barrel Nerf shotgun with him everywhere he went the entire day, including into all the apartments where we delivered meals.  

I love that he will barge right into a strangers apartment and take off down their hall before we have even had a chance to say a word to them.  At least he was armed.

 Getting ready to make our meal deliveries:

 Yet another awkward family picture.  I look constipated, but what's new.

 Mia and Raegan seeing their first movie together, Tangled.  

I would call the day an overwhelming success.

She may not be following in her mother's footsteps

A while back Mia participated in her very first Rocket Run at Oakdale.  

Notice her class 50 feet ahead of her....

Apparently she was the class leper that day.  Maybe it was those two barrettes she insisted on wearing in her hair.

Much to my dismay she was less than enthusiastic about the one-mile run.

Finally, after much weeping and gnashing of teeth I told her if she would finish the race with me with a good attitude she could get some ice cream afterwards.

That changed everything.

Bode was a champ and jumped right in there with the big kids and ran like the wind.

I may have to give up on my dream of Mia someday running with me every morning at 6 AM unless I plan to feed her ice cream for breakfast.

Don't put it past me.

I see their true colors shining through

And they're not afraid to let them show.

It's beginning to look a lot like Disney.

"Hello, my name is Summer and I am one of those annoying, freaky, obnoxious Disney people."

"Hello, Summer."

We have all 14 of our spreadsheets with every possible disney park scenario updated and ready to go (of course I'm kidding, we only have 13).

And Bode has been a good little boy and actually gets to join us this time.

For a long time he was convinced that Disney World was a huge park filled with millions of different drum sets, because he couldn't imagine anything better than that.

As an added bonus, we have convinced our BFFs to sign their souls over to the Disney gods and join us.

I can't wait for this, and this, and this, and this, and lots of mediocre food!

Baby Daddy

I realize that not everyone wants to hear me gush about my man, and if that is you, simply click that little x at the top of the page.  No offense taken.

When I left for college I told my mom that I was going to find a man with brains and background.  I lucked out and got that plus much, much more.

Spiritual Leader - check

Hands-on Father who volunteers for lunch-room duty - check

Provider - check

Funniest person ever - check

Eats Taco Bell at midnight - check

Loves the Old 97's as much as me - check

Teaches our kids to read - check

Vacuums and cleans toilets every Thursday - check

So I suppose you are wondering what there is to complain about?  

And the answer, of course, is absolutely nothing.

But because I'm a woman I have searched, evaluated, and nitpicked to death in order to find that one thing that I need from him that he is not currently mastering.  

I'm just trying to make him the best he can be.  I like to look out for those I love.  

And here it is:  Andy isn't a runner.  In fact, he hates running and prefers to not walk unless absolutely necessary.  

I have been demanding begging patiently asking him to run with me for the past couple of years.  

To no avail.  

So, I started praying that one day he would be open to the idea of running in a race with me. 

And wonder of wonders, the other day, with witnesses present, he agreed to train for the Memorial Marathon Relay!  (I secretly took that to mean "I am ready to commit my life to running multiple marathons with you" because I am sure that is what he meant.)

I could not wait to get this monumental event documented.  And I plan to incessantly remind him, at least 50 times a day, how much he is going to love it when we start our training schedule because that is totally motivating and not annoying at all.

I. Love. This. Man. Period.

I really have no words...

...to express my adoration and love for my Oakdale Rocket and my Buzz Lightyear.  

They make my heart sing.

So I guess I did have a few words after all, but you get the point.

This is an obnoxious amount of pictures for an event that lasted less than three minutes.

Don't say you weren't warned.

This little stud-muffin was the crown bearer at OC's Homecoming today.

We were a just a little bit proud.

 Mia graciously allowed Bode to have a sliver of the spotlight.

She's mature like that.

 Just a few members of Bode' entourage.  They're a wild bunch, lemmetellya.

I don't know why I am including this picture...

Oh yah, they happen to be two of my favorite students of all time.

 "Well hello there, Little Lady."

 Typical woman: Making sure her man is looking his best.

Typical man: Clueless.

 Bode's hero:

This is just about the time Bode reconsidered his original agreement to do this.

"You can make me go out there but you can't make me smile about it."

 "You can wave and jump up and down at me all you want, I already told you - I'm not smiling."

 Try and tell me that's not the cutest, nonsmiley kid you've ever seen.

 The bribery: A sword from Wal-Mart.

 And it worked like a charm.

He's always been a sucker for violence.

The Satisfaction of a Job Well Done