lawdhavemercy/Reunion Weekend

This is going to be short and picture heavy because it's been a loooooooooooong day. (Chet walked through the door about 20 minutes ago and when he tried to hug me hello I informed him that I reached my "touch capacity" about 7 hours ago. Poor guy.) Part of the reason I'm so tired and "done" is because I'm still in the process of unpacking and getting back into the swing of things after mine and Ruthie's trip to Annapolis this past weekend.

Why were we in Annapolis?  It was my 10-year reunion! We had a good time, but I'll talk specifics later. In the meantime...

On the plane:

FaceTiming:

My dear friend Paige, who let us stay with her and drove me all over town:

Beautiful weather:

Lunch date:

Obligatory Bill the Goat picture:

Friends:

Travel solutions:

Beanie weather for a little someone who dislikes beanies (but it's a candy corn beanie!!!):

Happy Tuesday, y'all! More later, I promise.

Happy 5, Lorelei

Lorelei Ann. It's hard to believe you've been with us for five years already. But then again, I feel like you've been with us forever. Happy 5th birthday!

Here's what you've taught me: how to really hug; that leopard print goes with everything (even other leopard prints); that there's no such thing as too much perfume or too many accessories; that there truly is such thing as a sweet soul (because you are one).

Here's how we've celebrated your birthday so far (hopefully more pictures to come):

With Papa John:

With Grammy and Papa Greg (love from afar):

With Didi and Papa Dave:

Have the BEST birthday, Lorelei! We love you!

Another week flew by!

Did everyone else have an "off" week because of the Monday holiday? It felt extra off for me, because the kids didn't have school, but Chet did. Thankfully, my dad was in town visiting to help keep everyone entertained! We, of course, went to Target:

Rare Mommy Sighting

...where we tried on Halloween costume paraphernalia:

I'm going to share a series of photos with you real quick (or really quickly):

Please raise your hand if you taught Ford to smile like this (extra cheesy, with cheese on top, and a dollop of canned squirt cheese on top of that), because I'm coming for you.

If you're thinking, "Oh, that's just his 'quick cheese' face that you happened to capture four different times," the answer is no, no it's not. That 3rd picture in Target? He was frozen in that very position for at least 20 seconds. My dad and I kept waiting for him to make a more natural face, but it never happened. Family Pictures 2016, here we come!

Back to Papa John's visit, we had a great time. He spoiled us, as usual, and really earned his Grandpa badge this visit by babysitting Ford and Ruthie while I was at the dentist, bathing Ford Monday night, pushing Prince Ford in the stroller several times around the block in the still-hot Austin weather, and changing TWO dirty diapers within the span of one hour. I realize this means he may never visit again, ha!

(As you can see, I took TONS of pictures.)

And a picture of my girls (Syd and Lor are wearing Primary clothing -- I wish they made clothes in my size):

Happy Friday and weekend, everyone!

Fridone

Fridone -- When Friday has arrived, but you are DONE, and barely have the energy left to veg out on the couch in front of a 9-year old episode of "NCIS."  You also may or may not be making this face:

Please tell me we're not the only family that limps across the finish line at the end of each week.  And this wasn't even a hard week for us!  Everyone is just so tired and done for come Friday, and there are inevitably emotional meltdowns being had by people I won't name (me, Sydney, Lorelei).

I honestly have nothing more to say.  I'm thankful it's the weekend, and that tomorrow is the first Saturday in months we haven't had ballet to attend, or some other Saturday morning event.  Hooray!

More soon about our "Day Out with Thomas" (the Tank Engine) that we attended last Saturday.  In the meantime, HAPPY WEEKEND!

OCTOBER!!!

I'm still here, and it's OCTOBER!!!  I've always loved October, and I feel like I'm extra allowed to love it since we have an October birthday in the family (Lorelei).  She'll be five in a couple of weeks!

This is going to be super quick and super random; I just want to post something so as not to fall out of the habit of regular blogging!

We don't waste any time wearing Halloween garb:

(Ford has been taking smiling lessons from Sydney, apparently.)

You can kind of see Ruthie's Halloween clothing in this picture:

I got this baby swing FO FREE this past weekend:

And apparently one of the girls hijacked my phone again, because I've never seen this picture before:

My guess at the culprit is Lorelei, because Ruthie looks like she just woke up.  I usually pass Ruthie off on Lorelei in the mornings while she (Ruthie) is in a good mood and so that I can get Ford out of bed, fed, breakfast dishes cleared, etc.  Ruthie's look says, "I'm pretty sure you're supposed to ask before touching that thing, Sister."

Happy Tuesday/October!

Mid-Week Madness

Actually, there's not much madness around here, just every day life.

I'll hit the highlights of the week so far:

Monday: I drove to Round Rock early in the morning for a doctor appointment (I'm getting the terrible varicose veins in my legs fixed in the near future!).  The kids and I went to Walmart and the Walmart McDonald's in the evening while Chet was in class.  We're nothing if not classy.

Tuesday: Lorelei tried out a gymnastics class and loved it, so we signed up.  There's a playground (shaded!) where Ford can play while he, Ruthie, and I wait for Lorelei's class to end.  Also, we got our van back from the body shop!  I always miss my van (even though they provide us with a rental van).  I missed it so much I decided it needed the ultimate treatment before putting all of the carseats back in it, which means that Chet detailed the inside at 8 p.m. (My love language is "clean carseats and detail interior of car.")  I may or may not have said these exact words to Chet: "I want that console so clean I can eat off of it." #yikes

Wednesday: Nothing much to report about today.  Sydney went to her weekly piano lesson.  We ate leftovers for dinner (tacos).  Ruthie refused an afternoon nap.  Ford refused to eat dinner.  The usual.

Random picture time:

This is significant because it was the first time Ruthie took a bottle (Monday!).  I snuck in from my doctor appointment to find them like this and took a strangely angled picture so that she wouldn't see me and thus break the spell:

Ford playing at the gymnastics playground.  I told him to smile, and he held this smile/pose for at least 20 seconds.  Reminded me of Kate Winslet on the bow of the Titanic:

The gymnast:

Dinner shenanigans:

Ruthie was in a spunky mood the other day while Ford napped:

One of her new "things" is to have her mouth wide open in this exact position:

It's hilarious/weird.

Aaaaaaaand she's done.