Eclipse of the Belly

My sister, her family and my brother are all in town for the week.  My brother-in-law, Shane was taking a picture of Annie and Colson and look what he caught on her shirt.  We were apart of the craze of solar eclipse onlookers, even if we were all already jammied up.  Thanks go to the reflection of his ipad for accidentally catching this one.  Of course this picture was taking as everyone else was looking through the pinhole camera and Annie and Colson were, well, being Annie and Colson.

Going Out With a Bang!

Things I learned for my 32nd birthday this year:

1.  Always carry a cell phone, especially in large crowds.

2.  Drunk guys make for a memorable birthday.

3.  There is NOTHING better than a hug for your birthday!

The beginning of our date took us to Old Town for the  Cinco De Mayo celebration.  I was the one wanting to go.  Poor Will couldn’t find a parking spot so he told me to hop out.  I told him I would wait for him, only he never heard me.  My phone had fallen out of my pocket at the house so there was no way for me to call him.  So I waited on the steps for about 45 minutes before he finally found me.  By then we had to push back our dinner reservation and it was time to go.  Maybe next year:)

Dinner was delightful.  I love Lou and Mickey’s.  This time it even came with a random drunk guy that crashed our table during dinner.  He sat down kind of next to me and we thought he was waiting for someone.  Then he left, came back and sat across from me, next to Will.  Then he started talking to me…like 10 minutes talking to me, about a whole lot of nothing.  I finally told him I had 3 kids and was planning on having more and he was gone.  If only I had mentioned that earlier.  The table was crickets and we heaved a sigh of relief as he stomped off.

Thank you to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthday!  What a wonderful weekend.  I feel so blessed to have you all in my life!

Would You Like a Button? Here Take a Button!

We had another great day at Disneyland.  Gracie was the only one looking cute in the pictures so she gets the spotlight above.    And no, we didn’t go on my birthday.  I see you eyeing the button.  My disneyland pass was stolen and as I was trying to get a new one, the lady at the counter got a little button crazy(birthday button, 1st visit button, honorary citizen button, happily ever after button…do you get the idea?). This was even after I insisted that it wasn’t my birthday and that this was in fact NOT Gracie’s first visit(We are at least at visit 15 for her).  I finally just smiled, took the stack and assumed she had a button quota she had to fill.  Regardless, it was the day we have all been waiting for.  Guess who was finally tall enough for Indiana Jones?!  Oh and Annie owned it!  Buoyed by her new found confidence, her love for Space Mountain was once again kindled – becoming awesome in her eyes once more.

The Art of Raising…

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.”  “We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply.  “We’re raising boys.”   ~Harmon Killebrew

I have a 4 Poster Canopy that Will bought me our first Christmas together.  I woke yesterday to a scratchity, scratching sound.  Several scratches later I realize that they are coming from the floor by my bed and they sound quite damaging.  Rolling over to the edge, I see Annie with needle-nose pliers scraping lines down the side of my bed.  My audible gasp and stern look said it all as Annie dropped the evidence and rolled under my bed.  I know 30 years from now, I will be making the bed and lovingly trace over those scratches thinking about Annie and how much I loved having her little, squealing self at home in all her pigtailed glory and sassiness.

In other thoughts, I was contemplating my less than immaculate house yesterday and had a happy little thought to myself.  I have 18 years to spend as much time with my kids as possible, teach them, guide them and hopefully help them become self-sustaining, spiritually strong, intelligent adults.  Then I have the next 20-30 years after that…or I suppose more to keep a house and have all the “me” time I want.  I’m wondering if by then a clean house won’t  seem all that important anyway and I might even reminisce about the tiny little socks left under the couch or all of the legos, Barbies and books I pull out of the kids beds long after I have put them to sleep and I will miss the craziness and the mess.

What’s in a Name?

On our way to the beach over the Ski holiday.

Annie  Well my name means, loving.

Hudson  What does your name mean, Mom?

Me  It means wealthy one.

Hudson  What does wealthy mean?

Me Rich.

Hudson  Oh, what does Dad’s name mean?  Construction worker?

Me  What?!

Hudson  Well he knows how to make wet sand-dirt.  He’s really good at that and he likes gears.

Me  Nope, it means protector, but that was a good guess.