Friday with Ca-fee-dan

On Friday the girls and I met up with my friend Cathy aka "Ca-fee-Dan" NO IDEA where Minnie came up with that one... and we headed to Trader J0e's and to have some fun in the sun. Seriously.. get some warm-ish, SUNNY weather and I tell yah, Northern New Englanders just come OUT of the wood-work!!! We promised Minnie lunch at the park and there were TWO school buses there from neighboring towns. 

It was kids GALORE and my kid was in HEAVEN! Makin' friends all over the place, asking for a turn on things "when you are done" and the "big kids" just slid over and made room for her right then. They were all SO SO sweet to her! When they all were headed back to their buses a few of them stood on the top of the rock wall yelling down... "BYE MINNIE!!!" (except they used her real name :) 

She is her father's daughter.. that is for sure! Little Miss Mayor Jr. 

Cathy has two girls of her own... except they are a Sr. and Sophomore in high school... I think she likes to soak up the babies and know that she gets to go home and SLEEP.ALL.NIGHT. At least that's what I tell myself in my mind :)

By far, Minnie's favorite part of the park! 

All about scaling the rock wall :) 

Miss B was just psyched to be outside in the sunshine playing with her toys and smiling for her Mama :)

After the park I was still not quite done with being in the "big city" so we headed downtown for ice cream. Of course someone fell asleep so I manned the car and sleeping baby while Cathy and Minnie ventured off for sweet treats... 

My view wasn't bad :) 

The girls and I finished the day laying on a blanket and jumping on the pole vault mat at Daddy's practice. As I laid in the grass soaking up the sunshine and listening to Husband coach behind me (those that know him, KNOW his voice just projects :) with my baby playing in my lap and my "big girl" getting her wiggles out I just thanked the Lord OVER and OVER for my life, for the fact that we feel like we are on the other side of the "c" trial and for the part where we get to dream and plan and think about a future... watching our babies grow up and soaking up the sun and SON shine.

Saturday Night

Doesn't EVERYONE pick a pose from the Athleta magazine to master? 

Or at least TRY to master? :)

Hauling in the "big" guns!

It was all worth it for the giggles :)

Fun? Friday NO SLEEP

My girl does.not.sleep. Never has and I fear... never will. I have tried the books, the advice, the feeding, the not feeding, me getting up, Husband getting up....feels like EVERYTHING... 

We do run into a bit of a pickle when it comes to "crying it out" in the middle of the night... she shares a room with big sister. I don't know about you... but for me... I'd rather deal with cranky baby... even one that is up in the middle of the night... than a cranky 3 year old. Especially MINE. :) NO.THANK.YOU. 

Can you see her??

add in being sick... and we have been in a world of HURT as CountryDad would say... 

Now for ME... babies in MY bed just doesn't work...I admire people who can...but I am SO not a snugly girl EXCEPT with Husband and I need my SPACE so... "as for me and my house..." (just a little Jesus humor for yah) we don't have babies in our bed... 

You can see how well that's working out for us... 

Now... disclaimer to say... I'll take babies anytime AFTER 5AM in my bed if it means I get MORE SLEEP and so do THEY... and Saturday/Sunday AM's all snuggled up as a family... totally different... 

 but... we are just rolling with what is working and for two morning in a row... this is what I woke up to... good thing she's cute.

Distraction...

As expected Monday AM the words that came out of Minnie's mouth as Daddy was packing his truck... "I just want Daddy to stay home with ME on "bay-cation"...." Good thing I had a trick up my "sweeve" :) All four of our girls had been working through the spring cold so T and I figured it would be fine to just mix up the germs. The big girls were all better by Monday... 

and the little girls... you wouldn't know they both had a MISERABLE Monday night by this pic would you?

It was SO much fun watching them interact with each other... trying to figure out "soft and gentle" touch and practicing "sharing" toys :) 

The big girls had fun doing crafts, one of them playing dress up...:)

while the babies just smiled for me...

and giggled :) Her face KILLS me in this pic. I mean seriously how cute!

This pic is for your Hubs T... I just want him to see how HAPPY his hard work made FIVE girls all at ONE time :) Everyone is smiling... mostly :) 

Yep... it's official...this one loves the swing just as much as her big sis...full on belly laughs and smiles galore!

Speaking of smiles! :) 

A GREAT day of distraction with our friends TRYING to forget that Daddy was back at work... Thanks W Family for sharing with us!

Wordless Wednesday With Captions: Cousins

DONUTS!

Me: Let's do cheek to cheek... we haven't done that in a while... CJ: OK

CJ: now let's do cheek to cheek with GRAMPA! Me: OK!

CJ: Miss B...I SAID LOOK AT THE CAMERA! (just kidding he didn't say that but his hand cracks me up)

The question is...

Who's going to have the HARDEST time with Daddy/Husband going back to work? AND... that it is now officially TRACK season with 15 hour days and some that these girls don't even SEE him if he leaves before they get up in the AM and they sleep before he gets home...

I think it's pretty much a four way tie :) We sure love our Daddy/Husband :)

April Vacation

As promised, the overload of pictures and what has been goin' on... I don't typically blog about "real life" as in tragedy, news ~ we never even WATCH the news and most of the time avoid the bad that happens outside my bubble but this week has been so horrific that I can't NOT.

A b0mbing at the B0ston Marath0n...an explosion in Texas... honestly... as if I wasn't praying "Jesus come quickly" with Husband's cancer diagnosis... I'm just ramped up... I'm so done...Do YOU know where you are going when you die? Have YOU accepted Christ as your PERSONAL Savior and LORD of your LIFE? What do YOU think about the end times? Be ENCOURAGED.

... back to the fluff... the stuff that has been going on... On Monday the redheads and I FINALLY connected. One of us had cancer...one of our Husbands had cancer... one of our Husbands lost their job... we've been through some pretty major life events and it was really nice to connect... even in the midst of trying to figure out what the heck happened at the marathon...

and why there were SO many women all pouring over boxes at "I shouldha bought it when I saw-ed it..." Turns out.. it was discounted Vera... and heck yah I dug through... didn't buy anything but fun looking...

On Wednesday I took the little ladies for a ride... Northern New England and we still have snow covered mountains...

and we went animal hunting with the cousins!!!!

Fun times with MY cousin and her little girls with MY little girl...

Husband has some track girls who's grandparents have race horses and happen to be related to MY cousins... I tell yah... someone is always related huh? :)

They graciously invited us to see the piglets and the race horses...

Somebody get this girl a horse...

or at the least a baby that will GROW into a horse :)

seriously I have a gorgeous cousin...

In the MEANTIME...guess who's been here doing wood with Husband ALL.WEEK.LONG? (Yeah, nice lookin' truck huh? :) Thank YOU COUNTRY DAD!!

On Thursday the boys tennis team... our school has been doing a "Coaches for Cancer" community service program and the tennis coach thought...who better to bless with our community service than a COACH WHO HAS CANCER?

now YOUR job is to find the little girl in the pink coat in the following pictures...she left the house at 8:45 on Thursday AM and other than coming in ONCE to go potty... I didn't see her again INSIDE until 5PM...

See her?

How 'bout now?

Hint...she's in the back of the little black pick-up truck but she's blocked by all the big boys :)

Think she had fun? if DIRT is any indicator she had a FAN-TAS-TIC day... I'm gonna have to have some fun things planned for next week when Daddy goes back to school... she ALREADY told me this morning... "Daddy has to go back to school on Monday... that STINKS." She has been in Husband's back pocket ALL.WEEK.LONG. Next week is gonna be rough I think :)

Speaking of rough... Little Miss B got a NASTY cold this week. Just the spring fever, boogery nose, post-nasal drip cough which has made for some ROUGH nights and whiney days...

Daddy stuck her in the basket and she was happy so we ran with it :)

I did end up taking her into the docs just to make sure it wasn't settling into her ears or anything and thank goodness it is JUST a cold. Brutal for the little one though...

therefore... brutal for Mom and Dad... never know whatcha'll need in the middle of the night... not that any of it actually WORKED to make her feel better or stop the crying... :(

Not quite the week we had anticipated but I really do feel like the Lord is teaching me all KINDS of things about releasing CONTROL... phew this is a tough lesson...