First GOAL

He shoots,
He scores,
Yeah!!!
The proud baby sister--

Visitors

This weekend Matt and Anna came to visit us! It was WONDERFUL to see them and spend time with them. The kids keep asking me 5 million times a day when we are going to see them again, hopefully soon. They are in the process of buying a house in Rhode Island and I think Lewis is just about ready to buy one down the street from them now. We couldn't talk them into moving in across the street from us, but we still had a great time with them.

Yesterday the new "AAMOS membership directory" came in the mail. It lists all of the oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the country and where they practice. This means hours of fun for Lewis. He takes the directory and looks at different places he would like to live. We can really go just about anywhere when we are finally out of residency, but some places don't really need another oral surgeon. I know we still have lots of time to decide, but so far choosing a place to live has been like choosing our children's names---not easy. Who knows where we will end up.

I heart giraffes

maybe it's the looooooooonnnnnnnnggggg neck.

(P.S. for Lewis because you didn't answer your phone and I know you check the blog:
Tonight is one of those "potential for severe weather" nights.
It is pouring so Georgia won't go to the bathroom.
She is in her crate.
I hope she doesn't make a big mess for me to clean up.)

(she is happy in this picture, laughing actually. and just sitting in her stroller happy to just sit and watch the kids ride their bikes around the parking lot)

I also adore 9 month old babies. Especially gentle, mild, sweet ones. Especially ones that are happy to be wherever we drag her. Especially ones that never cry or make life more stressful. We are blessed to have her in our family. She really is "the great".
Just try and tell me you don't want to smooch those cheeks!

Spring break in pictures

We had a great and busy week with Aiden home last week. She sure keeps us on our toes! However, I think she was brainwashing Brooks secretly because on the way home from dropping her off at school today he started crying and saying "I don't want to go to school next year when I'm four because I don't want to go to the office."







This scary tiger tried to attack my children who were standing RIGHT up against the glass at the time.

Did I hear someone say they were thinking about getting a dog?

Well, let me fix that for you my friend!! Today was the last straw for good old Jimmy. He bites Brooks every day and has been breaking the skin, so he had to go back. I hope a good family will adopt him. A good family with no little kids to bite. But don't worry my friends because we still have Georgia for me to clean up after. You see, Georgia bites I mean EATS holes through everything. I was thinking about starting a new blog to put pictures of the things she destroys every day but I'm too lazy. Here's from a few days ago. Usually I'm too mad to take a picture. The first picture is a basket she likes to eat. Next is a thing I made to keep the cold air from coming into our apartment in Conn. I used it here to keep the garage smell from taking over the basement. It was full of rice which is "super duper in the trooper" (as Brooks would say) fun to clean up. Oh yeah, and see that nice soft comfy blue pillow we put in her crate, it's been ripped to smithereens too.

Brooks is playing soccer this season too.

It's soccer season again....

go black panthers!! (that's the team name they chose, I swear)

Bye bye ivy!

(this is actually my neighbor's mailbox, but ours was really similar, not QUITE as overgrown however. you get the idea.)
This might surprise some of you, but when I get an idea in my head I can't let it go. I like to be always working on some project or another. I especially love to work in my yard. The other day I decided that I had had enough of the ivy all over my mailbox. I had trimmed it several times in the past year and a half or so, but have ALWAYS HATED IT. Why anyone would grow ivy on purpose is beyond me (unless of course you just plain old love ivy--or fake Christmas trees--which is totally fine. wink wink nudge nudge ;)). Anyway, I went out and started ripping it right out of the ground. It reminded me a bit of the time I came home from school and my mom was ripping the wood paneling down off the walls. I think she said "I just can't take it any more." So, I'm sorry ivy, but I just couldn't take it any more. For FHE on Monday night we put some bricks around the mailbox where the little fence stuff used to be, dug up lots and lots of roots, and planted some pretty flowers including pansies, violas (one of my personal faves), and marigolds. It looks approximately 5 million times better. Cate likes it. Or maybe she just likes licking the dirt off the hand shovel....

A beautiful Saturday

Note to self:

*Buy stock in whoever makes "nuk" pacifiers.*

We are keeping them in business. (thanks Georgia!)

And a BONUS shot of the prettiest baby on the block:

You know it's time for a nap...

...when you try to use your car door unlocker thing to open the door at Target.

Also, I gave Brooks a hair cut. His bangs were getting in his eyes and driving him crazy. He started the thing where you flick your head to get the hair out of your eyes and I had to cut it. I started out cutting the bangs and he looked like the guy from Dumb and Dumber. So I finished the job. It's terrible. I hope he forgives me and I hope, like my mom said, that it will be better in a week!

Snow Day!!

Look what we woke up to this morning! It might not look like much to you, but it was good enough to cancel church. And it was the first "measurable" snow here in a decade! The kids were thrilled and tried and tried to make a snowman. I finally felt bad and went out and helped them make one. He's almost gone now (the sun came out), and there is MUD everywhere thanks to the rain we had plus this snow. At least today with the snow there isn't a river in our basement like there was yesterday!!



Cate watched from inside.
The dogs. Lewis asked me to post a picture of Georgia. I guess so you could all see the dog that pooped in my basement playroom on the kids' tent and then stepped in it and tracked it all over the basement floor. That must be why. And see how DIRTY those dogs get that window? EVERY DAY I clean it. EVERY DAY!!!