This morning I opened up the cupboard to throw some peach skins in the garbage, and what did I see?
This lovely picture of the day is a lucky save. It’s always good to find money, but even better to rescue money that would have otherwise gone to waste. John accidentally threw it away this morning when he was cleaning out his pockets, but I was glad to rescue it.
Today I fed the kids blueberries, and afterwards their hands were completely stained. It reminded me of when I was a kid and getting that kool-aid moustache (rare, since my mom didn’t really buy kool-aid).
Kids always seem to have their hands, face, or tongue stained. I guess it’s part of being a kid.
Here is a picture of my lame spinach. I bought some spinach for dinner, the triple washed and organic kind no less, and I went to put it in my salad and realized the spinach smelled like rotten fish. Fabulous! I can’t wait to grow my own spinach again, where I know it won’t smell like rotten fish.
Today I put together a little project I’ve been working on all summer. Our old babysitter is going to college, so I wanted to find a creative gift. I remembered that when I was in college, I was always short on quarters. It seemed like I always needed a quarter for the Laundromat, so I would go around trying to dig up quarters. This was something I thought might be useful to her when she leaves for college.
This picture is simply a tragedy. Our power went out for a few hours on Saturday night, so all the food John had purchased for Sunday dinner, i.e. bacon for BLT’s, milk, eggs, and yogurt spoiled. He got up early on Sunday morning and replaced it all, so this is the sad food we had to throw out. It looks so good—what a waste!
This is a picture of the first official items we purchased for this baby. We had to give away our old car seat because it was too old, and the bouncy broke after much use, so this is what I had John buy at Wal-Mart on Saturday. 
The kids love to be creative, and set up these little book tents. This was actually Gavin’s project during quiet time, so when I came in to get him he had made little tents for all his dinosaurs. The kids are definitely funny.
The kids played “duck, duck goose” today. I guess the babysitter taught them how, but it was pretty funny that they played with so few people. They ended up having the 2 people that were it running around the one person who was left.
The kids told me today that I gave them the “best snack ever!” It’s basically just a strawberry orange smoothie with wheat thins and 2 cherries, but for future reference—that’s the best snack ever.
Today was the official day that I broke out the grabby. This is a tool used by disabled or lazy people, and I guess I might qualify as both as this point. It allows me to pick things up without having to bend down—how fantastic!
The kids had to clean up the playroom from the Lego mess yesterday, and I looked over and saw them exhibiting real live team work. They were all trying to help lift this lego box, and it was pretty heavy, but they kept at it.
Here is everyone playing together on Sunday. John got out the legos and they all built some really fun things.
Today I saw Hadley and Gavin giving each other a hug—by choice. This is a miracle! They fight like crazy, all day long, every day. I’m glad to see they still appreciate each other in spite of all their conflict.
Today I walked in to Gavin’s room and noticed that he had “made” his bed. He is very particular with certain things (sheets and blankets being straight is not one of them). He wrapped a red fuzzy around the top of his bed, and had his frog sitting watching out over the room. The salamander just looks like he’s perched atop a nice sleeping spot. I love how he put his decorative pillow on the bed. The way kids think always makes me laugh.
Today the girls sat and played “Memory” for quite a while. I remember playing games with my sisters when I was a kid, and it’s so great to have a constant playmate to run around with. I think it makes life a lot more fun when you have someone to hang out with—the twins are very lucky.
The kids love to make smiley faces out of their food, so no matter what I give them to eat, they’re pretty creative at making it into a smiley face, whether it’s made from cherry pits or mini wheats. This is a picture of Hadley with her masterpiece.
Today was a stressful day, so I decided to sit down and eat ice cream, which I don’t do much lately because I’m trying to be careful with my sugar intake while I wait for my gestational diabetes test. I added a bit of milk to it and stirred it up, which is what I did all the time when I was a kid. It’s amazing how something simple like a food can totally take you back to your childhood in a sense.
I couldn’t resist using this picture for today. These purple shorts Emma is wearing are shorts that they literally have been wearing since the summer after they turned 2. Then, their legs were much shorter and chubbier, so the shorts went down to their knee, but they just keep wearing them, summer after summer. Now, they are very short, and they actually still don’t fit them in the waist, and they’re 6. It’s so funny!
This is a picture of my things-to-do list. It is 8 pages long, although I have crossed off about 90% of the things on each page, so I finally decided to consolidate it into 1 list. It’s just how I work—I have to write things down on my list or they don’t get done, and I usually just staple the lists together until they get unbearably long.
John told Gavin he would take him out to see the dinosaur exhibit at the zoo this weekend because he had to stay home from the aquarium last week because he had a cough. He was pretty excited to go this morning, and I had to smile as he was waiting by the door to go, holding the huge gatorade, and wearing mismatch socks. He’s so funny! I got this picture when he came home, after he had visited the exhibit, got a new dinosaur, and been to Chik-fil-A with John. What a great day for Gavin.
Today the kids were all sitting watching Donald Duck. The music reminded me so much of being a kid, and they were laughing at the show, and so completely content. It made me smile because it reminded me how carefree being a kid is. It’s such a wonderful feeling.
I spent a few minutes with each kid today having a “special time,” which is basically where they choose an activity they want to do. Emma wanted to do a puzzle, so I had her take it down on the coffee table because I figured that was long enough. Nope, it wasn’t. The puzzle is over 4 feet in length, so we had to improvise to get it to all fit. It ended up working great, thankfully, and we even did it again the next day using this same method of stacking pillows for height and using the boxes to create a hard surface.
I had each kid come down this morning while I was making oatmeal and hand me a picture they had drawn. It’s so funny how they are all so creative, and before breakfast had already created some masterpiece. The girls are obsessed with Christmas and making lists for Santa lately, which is why Emma chose a Christmas theme.
I had to take a picture of the kids eating their nightly cereal. It reminded me tonight of all the routines we get into, especially as kids. I never had the whole eating cereal before going to bed routine, but this is what my kids do every night. I’m not even sure how it started, but I think we all like knowing what we’re doing each night, because everything else is usually pretty random.
I think some of the best moments in life are spent with family, and some of my saddest are the ones when we say goodbye. This has been much harder in Texas when I know that I am not able to see them as often. We were so glad that Charlene and her family came to visit us. It was crazy with all those kids, but a very fun time. They were able to stay for a few days, and in all, it was a fantastic trip. This picture reminds me of all the fun we had.
Today was the 4th of July, and what a great day it always is. I love barbecue food. I also love that John is great with the grill and can create near-perfect burgers. He makes a special hot sauce to go with them, grills onions, and they’re just fantastic. 
The above face is his “my wife is driving me crazy and wants to take a picture of everything” face.
Emma and Hadley got some strollers for Christmas when they are only about 2, and they loved them. They have used them constantly since, and have lately taken to running up and down the hall with them in a type of race. Finally, after nearly 5 years, the strollers have had enough and are starting to fall apart. But, Emma patiently keeps trying to put them back together. She is actually pretty good at it, and I admire her tenacity.
Today we found out we’re having a boy—hooray! The kids were enthralled by the ultrasound pictures. I snapped this picture of the kids showing John all the details. It was a funny little moment because I’m not sure they really get it, but they are definitely getting excited.
Today was a crazy day with Charlene and Trevor coming to visit with their kids. I was checking on the kids before I went to bed, and I saw that Gavin had taken his little frog and put it on his leg. This frog has little magnets in his hands and feet so you can stick it so something magnetic and it looks like it’s crawling up the object. Instead, Gavin stuck the hands and legs together around his foot. It was so funny to go in at 11 p.m. and see a frog on his foot.
Today the picture of the day certainly had to be dishes. I’ve been doing dishes non-stop for 2 days. It’s a combination of cooking 2 big meals, the normal day-to-day, and a mishap with emptying dirty dishes on accident that required many to be rewashed (and the surrounding dishes, since the dirty dishes in question were raw ground beef dishes, so everything had to get cleaned).
Today Gavin was using these dinosaurs and saying “which way should I go?” I would say, go left, now go right, and he would actually move the dinosaurs in the correct direction along his books. I think these books were supposed to represent a cliff or something and I was supposed to be keeping them from falling off the edge, but we never really communicated about the actual rules.
I’m amazed at how smart he is. He grasps concepts very quickly, and many things I don’t even explain to him and he just catches on. Hooray for smartness!
Another food picture . . . you might think this was a food blog, but it’s not. This is a picture of the shortbread that my kids got for snack today. They are spoiled. Honestly though, they are really lucky that we cook from scratch and take pride in what we feed them. How can boxed cake mix and cool whip possibly compare with homemade shortbread, fresh berries and whipped cream?
