Recipe for a Perfect Mother's Day

3 beautiful children
3 pandora beads (picked by beautiful children)
1 hour at park in sunshine
5 delicious butcher's block kabobs
1 bruster's ice cream cake
1 game of monopoly
8 mile run
1 thoughtful husband

add all ingredients and a dash of tlc for mom. bake for 24 hours. serves one mom for entire year's worth of appreciation for services rendered. ;)

hope your day was as nice as mine.

Easter pics

Enjoy!

Today

It's been a long week... a really, really long week. Puking kids, working hard and late dad, stir crazy mom, and lots and lots and lots of rain.

But today things are looking up. Today I'm glad it's just puke and not something serious. Today I'm glad it's raining and things are so green and beautiful, and I look forward to a spring bbq with wonderful (and I mean wonderful!) friends next weekend in the sunshine. Today I am glad that I have a treadmill and can sweat it out at home when I can't get to the gym, because it certainly lifts my spirits and makes all things seem more tolerable. Today I'm happy it's almost April... because there are just so many good things to look forward to here shortly. Today I'm glad it's Friday, because I made it through this long week no worse for the wear.

Hope you have a great day today too.

Winter Break

We had a fantastic winter break... tagging along with Josh on a business trip to Columbus so we could see my family, and then stopping at Great Wolf Lodge for a mini-vacation on our way home.

Even better, it's almost March and the forecast is looking good. Yay Spring!

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of my favorite things about being a mom and having my own family is creating traditions, which sometimes means borrowing from traditions that either Josh or I had with our own families as children. One of my favorite holidays growing up was Valentine's Day. My mom always had a card, a yummy breakfast treat (sometimes petit fours - not sure if I spelled that right - or doughnuts with red sprinkles, and then a small gift). I vividly remember getting zinc pink lipstick one year in high school. I thought that made her super cool. We have done the same for our children. We always get them something little just to show them that they are all OUR Valentines. They are really the loves of our life. Today I had so much fun picking a new book out for each of them and cd's for Conor and Riley, and a dvd for Quinn... I know it's nothing big, but I also know they'll love feeling that they are loved tomorrow morning.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Riley

In just three weeks, Riley will celebrate her 7th birthday. As the middle child, I'm sure that her birthdays may somehow seem "less" like milestones to me, if only because Conor celebrates each birthday "first" and Quinn celebrates each birthday "last". But for some reason, this impending birthday is hard for me. Riley is such a unique and wonderful person. She is so smart and creative and FUNNY and self-possessed. She is so much cooler than I could ever hope to be.

I've been thinking about all the little Riley-isms we've encountered over the year. All the times she set up tea parties for umpteen stuffed animals and dolls, her love for accessories and clothes and boots and all things fashionable and how she loves to show it all off, her true and deep friendship with Max - which I always thought was just the sweetest thing, how she's genuinely adoring of BOTH of her brothers and would do anything for them, the special place she has in her heart for my mom, her Gigi. She's been through a lot, my Riley... if you can catch it, she will somehow. She's had dozens of painful laser treatments on her birthmark, scary allergic reactions, minor oral surgery, a dog bite to her face that left her two and riddled with stitches. She's beyond a tough cookie. She's more special than I could possibly put into words.

These last couple years we've enjoyed a little more girl time... we go to get our nails done together, we've seen High School Musical on Ice together, for her birthday this year we are taking a couple friends to have a girls night at The Jonas Brothers 3-D in concert movie, and I so look forward to all the girl times to come. And so as much as I feel sad about how my sweet girl is growing up, I am also truly embracing our mother-daughter future together.

What a difference a week makes

As many of you know, Josh resigned from his position with AIG one week ago to begin an entirely new division of a smaller company. This week was an adjustment, as he went from crazy-busy and gone from 6am to 6pm at least to just hanging out at home, but next week he'll be actually working again. :) The kids have loved having him around. At first, I was a little off from my normal routine, but he was able to stay with Quinn while I ran outside (such a treat when I'm usually a slave to the treadmill), went and stood in line for preschool registration for next year, and today I'm getting a haircut. He's like my built in "manny". He helped the kids with homework every night, helped around the house... I think actually got a little spoiled. The best part has been seeing the complete relief wash over him as he moves past the stress and drama that working for AIG has brought this year. Wish us both luck as we move forward to a new chapter...

10 years!

This weekend, Josh and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary!!! Conor took this pic for us before we went out to celebrate!

Partners in crime

I know most of my pictures and posts tend to revolve around Quinn, because the "big" kids are in school during the day... but he does have two other partners in crime (and I'm not talking about Conor and Riley)... I'll let you be the judge.

Trouble

Today is laundry day... three kids, LOTS of laundry. I had piles of dirty laundry on my freshly stripped bed, sorted and ready to rock and roll...

Gast forward a couple hours and Quinn who has been so nicely and quietly playing blocks in his room (or so I thought)... time to throw in a new load...

Not quite so neat and tidy and sorted anymore.... but look at this face. Can't get mad.

Thankful Monday

(just to mix it up a bit!)

* HOPE
* good books, good discussions, good friends - what more could you ask for out of a book club
* that report cards are celebrated in our house
* healthy and happy children who laugh and sing and dance and thrive
* appreciating the (rare) sounds of a quiet house because it rarely is quiet... who would want a quiet house all the time?
* getting past the winter hump, it will be spring before we know it
* how much bigger and cleaner my house looks after it has been de-Christmased and the fact that I won't care about that come next November when I'm ready to do it all again
* THE SUN
* that it's almost lunchtime (boy am I hungry!)

Geography 101

At dinner tonight, discussing skate night.

Riley: Miguel is going to skate night.
Conor: Miguel who?
Riley: Miguel Vasquez
Conor: What is he? Irish?
Riley: No, he's from Puerto Rico.
Conor: Is Puerto Rico in South Carolina?
Riley: Yea, I think so.

Ummmm... thankfully they are only in first and second grade. Perhaps we need more maps and globes around the house.

Blog-over

New format and colors... just to keep you on your toes. ;)

Wacky Wednesday - take 2

And just a few short hours later... in full race car mode (note that HE is wearing a helmit while using a remote control car)... safety first!?!

Wacky Wednesday

... otherwise known as what your 2 year old might look like after playing in the playroom by himself while you are running on the treadmill a mere 5 feet away... and just for clarification that would be a clear bucket on his head, a golf club and tea kettle in his hands, and a wiggles guitar and one of Riley's hairbows on the floor (he put them down in order to properly pose for the pic!)...

Beautiful

Ran across this today... fell in love with it... want it up on my walls, engraved on lockets for each of my children and my husband, tattoed in their hearts...

"If there is ever a tomorrow when we are not together, there is something you must always remember: you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem
and smarter than you think, but most important of all, even if we are apart, I'll always be with you"
~A.A. Milne ~

Happy New Year!

It's TECHNICALLY January 2nd, but who's counting...

Happy New Year!

Ours is off to a great start. Christmas decorations down, house clean, hanging with good friends on NYE... though Riley is sick with strep throat now and it's a rainy day to boot... oh well, could always be worse!

I am always happy for the new year. I like all things fresh and new - babies, change of seasons, beginning of a school year, fresh paint, a new haircut... you get the picture. It's somehow comforting to think that even though it's really only the difference of a day, there is a world of promise with the changing of a year. Last year I actually kept my resolution - which was to not go more than 2 days without running at least a mile. I have more for this year, but I'm not talking... I tend to do best when I'm my own critic, judge, and coach.

2008 was a roller coaster. We had great times - Hilton Head with friends, Conor won his spring baseball tournament, Quinn started school and learned to go on the potty and got a big boy bed, Riley continues to keep us on our toes with her wisecracks and dry humor... but also the stress involved with Josh's company (AIG), changing positions as of December 1, seeing our stocks well, let's not go there.

I hope that 2009 brings us ALL a sense of peace, the calm after the storm. I hope we all do more of what we enjoy, what is comforting and inspiring and useful... and less of what tears us down and apart.

Happy New Year!