A Little Bit Sleepy

So here's something weird about me, almost from the moment that I met Dan I started taking asleep pictures of him.  That's weird right?  Weird or not, it's the truth.  I sort of love having photos of him sleeping.  And its been a pleasure to see him sleeping while cuddling our babies.  Here's a small smattering of sleeping photos.

Last night I was listening to the sounds of my house sleeping which has become a common occurrence these days.  I was thinking about my propensity to photograph my husband asleep and my mind wandered to when I first dated and was engaged to him.  The funny thing (at least to me) was my complete inability to stay awake during that time. I'm serious about this inability.  I think it must have been my parents and his parents prayers answered.  We spent so very much time alone together and nothing happened.  Nothing.  And why was that?  Every time we did I was afflicted with narcolepsy.  I'm surprised that Dan never raised concerns about my health because I fell asleep everywhere all over the place.  Then I'd have to wake up and Dan would drive me home and somehow steer me to my bed.  At some point in the middle of the night I'd wake up uncomfortable because I was fully clothed beneath my sheets, shoes and all.  (Usually he did take my shoes off for me though.)  So I guess the tables have turned.  Now instead of me falling asleep everywhere it's him.  All over the place.

Because I Said I Would

For all of you hoping to get a photo of Charlotte riding her first bull here it is.  She loved that thing.  Luckily for her there was a very understanding high school youth running the machine and it went really slowly for a long time before she was thrown off.

Today we're home sick from church.  Charlotte has a cough which wouldn't normally keep us home from church, but when you combine that with the raccoon eyes that both she and her Daddy get when they're not feeling well and her propensity toward cough induced vomit I thought it would be better safe than sorry.

This means that Dan and Greg went to church alone.  And also that Dan will have to not only teach his Sunday School class to the adults, but my primary class of 4 year old boys.  At least we know he wont fall asleep!  What a great guy I've got.

Another post without photos!

Last night after the oldest child in the family finally fell asleep I decided that it would be fun for the kids to wake up to a room with hearts in it.  I envisioned tons of hearts, but then decided that they didn't need that many, but mostly that I didn't want to make that many.  So I cut them out and then sneaked (notice I didn't snuck because my grandma always says, "The only thing you snuck is snot." There see, some things do stick.) into their room and did acrobatics getting hearts at just the right places so they would see them right when they woke up.

Which reminds me about how when I was little I thought my Dad got me valentines every year.  Ha!  That was totally my mom and she never got credit.  Which ties into my story perfectly because the kids did wake up in the morning and they did discover the hearts! And it was a magical moment because they were thrilled by the hearts.  Then I hear Greg ask Charlotte, "Who made them?"  And Charlotte, with the confidence and authority that only comes from being the oldest says, "The Valentine's Day Fairies."  Which is totally enough proof for Greg and so the morning was made even more magical by the magical visit from the night before and I just couldn't take that magic away because today is about love and I love that they can see magic in everything.  So I do the work and the fairies get the credit, but that's ok because I'm Mom and that's how I show them I love them.

So after discovering all the hearts from the fairies we go to the kitchen and discover candies and notes that Daddy has left for us to tell us how much he loves each of us individually and the happiness in our house sort of bursts forth and splashes over everything.

Did you know that I never really understood Valentine's Day?  If you love someone then you shouldn't wait to tell them.  They should already know.  But today I totally get it.  Today we took extra time to tell each other we loved each other and basked in the happiness and goodwill that it produced.  So here's hoping that the Valentine's Day Fairies make it to your house too.

Best Commercial Ever

This evening I gave Lee a bath by himself.  As a third child that is actually pretty rare.  Or maybe I'm weird, but at any rate the baby by himself in the tub is rare.  So there he is moving around nearly drowning himself trying to reach the faucet and then flopping down on his back and nearly drowning the rest of the bathroom as he joyously kicks his legs in the water.  It reminded me of all the baby baths for Charlotte and then for Greg.

Did you know that we went back to school shopping for the kids over the weekend.  My sister reminded me that the after Christmas, end of season combination makes for some pretty great deals on clothing.  So I forced Dan to come with us on his one day actually off in a month (and I am not even exaggerating there) to go shopping with me.  He is actually quite a good shopper, I think it must have to do with all his experience looking through fabric and yarn shops growing up. At any rate, he went, and it was a good thing too because he is so good at keeping me within reason.  You see my way to avoid overspending is to never go in a store that I like things in if I can avoid it.  Once in the store I have a very hard time saying no to anything.

So anyway, back to the bath.  There is my baby flopping and splashing around the tub and I'm folding size 7 and 5 clothing.  My babies!  On the one hand, I love who they have become.  They get to be so much more interesting every day.  Charlotte and I can talk about topics other than sparkles and she understands so much about human emotions and Greg has gone well beyond simple facts (although he can tell you many facts about monster trucks and animals) to relationships between them.

But seeing my baby just reminds me of how much I loved them as babies.  I do miss it.  And strangely, part of me already misses Lee's baby time.  Pretty soon he'll decide that walking and running and talking are more interesting and then where will we be?  Oh, we'll be in love so I can't worry too much I suppose.

It all makes me realize how hard it is that grandmas have to live so far from their grandchildren.  Grandpas too I'm sure, but as I'm a mother I can only speak from my view.  You're done having babies, and you wait and wait and then when the grand babies come they're miles and miles away.

Which brings me to my point.  Ha!  You thought I didn't have one, but I do!  And here it is!  Tonight Charlotte, Greg, Lee and I were watching AFV and the win a free Disney Cruise portion of the show came on.  Charlotte said, "I wish we could just go on that.  I don't want to have to win it or anything I just want to go."  So that's an idea *wink wink*

Monday Morning Moments

It snowed a bit again last night.  It was also 7 degrees this morning.  Both of those combined made for a beautiful sunrise.  Charlotte said that the snow looked like "God's glitter" the other day and she was certainly right about that this morning.

Then I got grumpy because I had to go out and shovel the glitter.  That is not fun.  While trying to keep myself in a good mood I decided to think of positive thoughts about living in the upper mid-west.  That led me to think of the other day at bounce world.

Bounce world is an indoor play area with tons of those blow up bounce house things inside.  It also contains a lot of blow up slides, a mechanical bull (I have pictures I'll put up of Charlotte on that thing soon) and face painting.  One of the activities set up was a miniature football goal with nerf footballs and a stand to set them on so you can kick a field goal.  Greg wanted to give it a try, but sadly, and perhaps embarassingly, I couldn't remember how to put the ball on the stand so as to kick it.  I say embarassing because if you knew my dad you would know that I really should have paid a bit more attention to him growing up.  Anyway, I looked around and saw a dad there with three of his own kids.  I interrupted the fun he was having with them to ask him how the stand thing works.  Not only did he stop what he was doing to show me how it worked, he took a few minutes to "coach" Greg on how you should kick the ball.  It was amazing and I thought to myself that right there is why I love living here.

So there you have it, we have glittery snow (which by the way was so cold that the sidewalk underneath the snow was completely dry while I was shoveling it) and complete strangers willing to stop and help out.

Happy Monday.