for a brief moment.... my laundry baskets are empty. this moment will only last another couple of hours, but it is a small victory for me.

Picture Backlog (Part 6)

The actual birthday day..January 9th. We had a little family party with presents at breakfast and cupcakes after dinner. I'm not joking... January is a total birthday festival month. Gregor is trying to lose weight for this bet... somehow he is succeeding even though we've had parties and cake in our fridge for over 2 weeks now!

I love this picture... I don't know why, but it totally captures the chaotic but wonderful moment for me.

MORE CAKE PLEASE!

Picture Backlog (Part 5)

I'm making a dent! Here is Hudson's Climbing Party! Apparently, the boys were in charge of the camera, so there were a lot of interesting pictures to choose from... lots of karate moves, insides of mouths and other things that I couldn't (didn't want to) recognize. It looks like they all had a blast! Lots of good climbing moves by all the boys apparently. It feels so good to get all this out there and off my to do list! Sorry for the posting overload, but I'm on a roll!

A fun day of exploring

Picture Backlog (Part 4)

Hud was so cute today. Larkin and Brooke were having a tea party with friends this morning, so Hudson wanted to go to the park and take cute pictures "Hudson and Nellie" pictures for their scrapbooks. It was too cute how involved he was in it. These were the favs.

Picture Backlog (Part 3)

Pictures from Nellie's First!

Picture Backlog (Part 2)

Pictures from Brooke's Yoga Party! She felt like such a big girl with all her friends there. It was her first solo party (not as a tag-along to hud's party). I still can't believe she's 3

Picture Backlog (Part 1)

Ok... I'm finally on the computer trying to get some of these pictures sorted out. Here are a few from our belated Christmas with Opa and Auntie Eve. We were sad that Oma couldn't make it because she was sick. Everyone had a great time.

happy birthday nellie!

Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you!! Happy birthday to Nellie...happy birthday to YOU! I can't believe my baby girl is one year old today!!! It seems impossible. We had a fantastic little party for Nellie tonight with her special peeps to eat cake and open presents (thus ending our birthdaypalooza for this month). I promise I will put up pics tomorrow of my sweet baby girl stuffing her face with cake and pushing around her little walking cart tomorrow...this one armed one eared mama can't even find the energy to open my laptop so I am actually typing on my phone (yes...I am that tired)...but I couldn't let this day go without a shout out! Yay nellie! You are 17.5 lbs of solid energy. You've still got an infectious laugh and love to be part of the action...although you do get a little shy sometimes and bury you face in my neck (I love that)...you can also shoot the death stare to anyone that ticks you off (usually by taking something out of your hand that you are not supposed to have (I see a lot of my genes in those laser beam eyes).You aren't walking yet but you get everywhere you want to go. We all adore you Nellie...more tomorrow (I'll edit out all the spelling errors then too) xoxoxoxox

How old is the Earth?

This was the question posed in the minivan as I drove four 7-year old boys to Hudson's birthday party. (This is Gregor posting). I'm not sure how the question came up, but the following conversation was very entertaining. Normally, I might have joined in or at least corrected any blatant fallacies, but this time I intentionality remained silent.

Hudson: How old is the earth?

Morris: The earth is about 10 thousand years old.

All: WOAH!

Luke: Well, I know dinosaurs are at least 60 million years old. So earth is at least 60 million years old.

All: WOAH, 60 MILLION!

Aiden: Well, I know for a fact, that there will be a meteor that hits every million years.

Morris: Yeah, but the meteor will burn up because earth has an atmosphere.

Aiden: No, this meteor will be huge.

Morris: So we're all going to die before we're adults.

All: COOL!

Aiden: No, a million years is like a really long time from now.

Hudson: Well, how do you know that?

Aiden: Because someone told me.

Hudson: Well, how does that person know?

Aiden: Because he's in eighth grade.

Hudson: Well, maybe he lied to you.

Aiden: No, eighth graders don't lie.

Hudson: How do you know they don't lie?

Aiden: Well this one doesn't lie. Trust me.

Hudson: Dad, how old is the planet?

I quickly google it on my phone: 4.54 billion years old.

All: WOAH!!!!!

Hudson: Dad, is there a meteor coming in a million years, or do they just come whenever they want?

Me: I don't know Hud, I'm not sure they are on a schedule.

Hudson: Well if seeing is believing and this kid hasn't seen it, then how could he know?

From this point the conversation descended back to poop and penises, but I must say I was proud of my little skeptic.

We finally did it!!

Catching up a bit... We finally painted Nellie's Room! Yay! I have literally had this paint for over a year. After some indecisiveness over the color, we just went for it. Gregor and I painted on New Years Eve... given the fact that we were drinking wine while we did it, it actually looks fantastic! Nellie loves it, and her room finally looks put together, warm and inviting. Now I have all these plans to paint every other room. It's amazing what a difference it makes!

Nellie's First Ride in the Big Girl Cart

Nellie finally got behind the wheel at the grocery store to pick out cake and icing for the triple birthday week! She LOVED it... Brooke loved showing her how it all worked... and Larkin loved being in charge of putting things in the cart. Hudson loved being a goof ball as usual and making Nellie laugh.

Happy Birthdays

Happy birthday Brooke and Hudson.

I can NOT believe you are 3 and 7!!!

I am so so thankful to my husband and my friends who helped pull off the double birthday parties yesterday... I honestly could not have done it without you. Hudson and four of his friends went rock climbing and then to the local pizza place with the all important video game room and had a blast. Brooke had a yoga/hello kitty party at Bend (our local kids yoga place.. miss kelly, we love you). Today, for the actual birthdays I once again had to lean on gregor and friends to make the day special, but I did rally for cake tonight. All in all I think both of the kids had a wonderful day!

Yesterday Brooke got special "Birthday Girl" hair while Hudson got a haircut. She is loving it (somehow I need to convince her that it can't stay forever, and she does need to wash it eventually).

These are the only pictures I have right now. I thought I could get some off of the camera, but I don't have the energy to get the cord... I will try to put more pictures on soon.