Siblings.

Hallie:

Henry:

do you see it? good grief, I forgot how fat hallie's cheeks were!

Back By Popular Demand.

Here's Hallie making another video. A very short video, but it makes me laugh. The girl sings something ALL. THE. TIME. It's usually a made-up something that she sings over and over again.

This particular "i'm gonna SHINE!" is from the Disney movie, Sharpay's adventure or something like that. There's a whole song that Hallie sings, but apparently she just wanted to emphasize, i'm gonna SHINE!

So, a short video, but it made me laugh, because it's so very hallie.

and then here's Henry:

Man, I love these kids!

Hallie and Keller, sitting in a tree!

better not be k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

hallie has a boyfriend. he is a darling blonde-haired, blue-eyed little boy. she talks about him allllll the time. keller, keller, keller.

i mentioned him to the teacher this morning at drop off and she laughed. apparently they are the first romance in their class.

i'm so proud.

she said they talk about marriage - whoa, whoa, whoa. let's get at least to first grade before we start picking out rings!

daveshomedaveshomedaveshomedaveshome!

dave

is

home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beauty School Drop Out.

yesterday we played beauty shop. i did french braid piggy-tails on hallie and she did...this, to me:

i love it when she directs our photoshoots - mom, hey mom, close your mouth!

now, let's get our whole bodies. good, good.

okay, now put the fan down and show our teeth. okay, great job.

like, the other day she wanted me to pose with tinkerbelle while she took the pictures.

and now, henry too!

tg(oodness)if

i'm in a funk. a pretty big one. so i'm posting a picture that always makes me smile. hallie wanted to play beauty shop and spent almost an hour brushing and messing with my hair - heaven!

i looked...well, you can see:

yes, those are pigtails. and hallie matches, oh yes she does.

and then henry always makes me smile.

oh he loves his bath soooo much. he just kicks and smiles and wants to talk - mom, i love my bath sooooo much!!! MOM! hey mom! baths are aweeeesome! it actually sounds like - oooh, oh, ooo, bubbles, bubbles, more bubbles, goo goo goooooo, squeal!

see how blury the picture is? because he won't stop squirming and kicking!  

okay, i feel better now.

very disappointing.

last night the district 117 school board voted to close north elementary aka hallie's school. i'm extremely disappointed with their decision. i feel like this was a very political decision, rather than a rational one.

and that is disappointing. very.

they are keeping open a school that is in disrepair. they are closing a school that is well maintained.

they are keeping open a school that has not had adequate yearly progress for two years in a row. they are closing a school that is known for academic achievement.

how much sense does that make? i mean, really?!

it seems as though the decision is set in stone and when the closure will take place, i don't know. but for now i'll just keep letting hallie make friends with kids that she will get split up with in the upcoming years and fall in love with a school that is closing.

how nice. HAPPY THURSDAY. BLAH.

Dear Dave: happy anniversary! 8!

dear dave,

does it make you feel old to know that we have been married for eight years? dang, that just sounds like a long time!

i would say our greatest accomplishments (other than not killing each other - haha) are these little rascals:

oh, yes. i'd say we've done pretty good.

here's to many more years with our rascals and each other. i sure do love you.

love,

your wifey-poo

Dear Dave: this is what we did yesterday.

wake up - oh too early. hallie is still (blessedly) sleeping, so we hang out with toys on my bed. henry is always so happy and smiles so much in the morning. okay, he actually smiles all day long, but his sleepy smiles are the best.

alrighty, now Hallie is up and it's the mad dash to get ready in time for church. we were up pretty early this sunday so we were out the door in plenty of time.

and then we got stopped at a train and were late anyways. you just can't win.

church and sunday school is all done! time to go to barbs.

lunch at granny grandma's and papa's house.

now home so henry can nap and we can color!

henry wakes up and it's time to head to youth group! (do you love his shirt?!) 

henry gets passed around, which means i get a break! 

 a quick stop by grandma lucille's (not pictured) and then home for bath, bed and NURSING (also not pictured).

the end.

today i feel like this.

a sucky milestone. literally.

henry has his first cold.

how sad.

he is taking it like a man, with lots of smiles and coo-ing. of course.

we had to use the booger sucker at 4am this morning, which let me tell you what...that is not a fun thing to do EVER - but especially less fun at 4am. king henry was not amused, but he certainly was able to breath better afterwards.

poor little tiger (name that family member).

in other news, I made him wear a little newborn beanie to irma's today. he looked like a weiner and hallie laughed at him.

routine, routine, routine.

dave is gone again. blah.

we make it work by having a good routine. i love a good, consistent routine. don't mess with my routine.

5:25am - alarm goes off - snooze.

5:45am - up for the day - suck.

6:15am - get hallie up for the day - this is no easy task. the girl likes to sleep as much as i do.

6:30am - get mr. henry up for the day - oh the smiles.

7:05am - out the door to Irma's to drop henry off.

7:30am - drop hallie off at school.

7:40am - work.

4:30pm - off work, pick up henry.

5:00pm - home

5:30pm - supper

6:45pm - henry bath, bed (hallie takes a bath while i'm nursing henry)

7:30pm - henry asleep, time for hallie to bed.

7:45pm  - hallie in bed

7:45-bedtime - washing bottles, preparing bottles, pump bag together, my lunch made, hallie's lunch made, clean, clean, clean.

bedtime - ??? - as early as possible!

and that's how we get things done.

now, here's henry.

i think this is really cute.

hallie has figured out how to take pictures on my camera. she also figured out instagram too. she'll want to take a picture, so i'll pull up the usual "camera."

no mommy, i want the one where you pick the shoes! (that's instagram)

here are some photos, courtesy of miss hallie mason.

 do you see the matching necklaces? precious.

aaaand, creepy.

Burg-to-the-oo

it's burgoo time up in these here parts!

we didn't really "do it up" the way we normally do. henry was a total and complete angel, but i didn't to push our luck by staying out all day and all night.

so we rolled into arenzville around 11-ish. played a few games, painted the face, layered sand in a necklace. you know, the usual.

then we ate some hotdogs and porkchops, cursed the late start of the ferris wheel (didn't open until 2pm?! rude!), wandered down to the tractor pull with friends and then landed at a friend's house for some nursing and playing.

all-in-all a successful burgoo.

most evenings look like this.

we spend a lot of our free time with grandma lucille. i would go so far to say that she is currently my bff. we get along famously.

truthfully, i don't know what i would do without her. and at 87-years-old i am dreading the day i find out. we are each other's company. she is lonely. i am many times lonely. she loves me kids. so do i (duh). she has lots of popsicles and well, that is just awesome.

i think i was at her house almost every, single day of my maternity leave. i hate that now we are so busy with our evening routines and we don't get to hang out as much. but we start baths at 6:30pm and that doesn't give much time for visiting. it's hard being back at work.

this was last sunday night. a typical scene. she loves to hold henry and he loves to be held by great-grandma lucille. miss jealous has to be close by and usually perches on the chair while watching cartoons.

it's sweet, isn't it?

the circus was in town and boy did it suck.

this was no ringling brothers, i'll tell you what.

i think the pictures make it look cooler than it was, but please believe me that the lame-o-meter was spinning out of control. the kids liked it though - and that's all that was important.

plus, it was a total money pit. these circus people know how to get your cash-money-dollars.

here is their business plan:

1. give away a million kids tickets -  make parents think, oh what a great deal!

2. charge $16 for one adult ticket - aha.

3. have a man selling cotton candy for $4 as soon as you walk in the tent.

4. make it super hot so the kids are dying of thirst and then have a man selling soda for $3 walking around constantly.

5. sell circus peanuts at a specific time (and this time only!) for $2 and put a slip of paper for a free circus balloon in a few of them. kids will line up in droves for a chance to win a free circus balloon.

6. now that the kids are all crying because they didn't win a circus balloon, send around a man SELLING the circus balloons for $6 - YES, SIX DOLLARS FOR A BALLOON.

7. intermission - sell rides on an elephant with a sign that says $2 so that the parents get excited (stupid parents) and get their kids excited to ride the elephant.

8. have fine print on the signs that it is $2 PER COUPON and the rides are THREE COUPONS.

9. have a man with a python snake available for pictures. tell the kids they can touch the snake for $7. FOR SEVEN DOLLARS - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?



poor henry.



Oh my good golly. i managed to only spend $23. yep - $23 for about an hour of....fun? excitement? dogs doing tricks, really.

henry slept, the angel. the girls were fantastic and seemed to enjoy themselves.



i spy some serious butt cheeks.



sure, i'll go again.

when elephants fly.

neck fat.

couldn't you just eat those rolls?

this hit me harder than kindergarten.

hallie lost her first tooth. i may or may not have cried.

what a big thing to do. what a BIG GIRL thing to do. she looks precious with that gap in her mouth. and she was so ridiculously excited. she kept saying - mom look at me! i feel soooo happy. our living room mirror was worn out by the end of the night.

she pulled it herself, by the way. she let me work on it and her cousin eli did some sweet wiggling too. but in the end, she gave a final yank and out it came.

sob.