Random pictures and one video of the kids....

This is from our 'popping party' when the kids popped the 7 million balloons left over from Gideon's birthday. I snapped this right as Dennis popped the balloon Lincoln was holding.

The boys at the Buffalo Zoo over Spring Break.

Moira at the zoo. She was yelling at me saying "No Mama! Not a picture of ME! A picture of the lizard!" She likes lizards for some reason. Weird.















This is Lincoln's latest funny trick. It makes us all laugh when he does it. You might catch him using his all-purpose word "Gnug Gnug" at the beginning of the video. He still doesn't say much, mostly "Mama, Dada, and Gnug gnug" although yesterday he did say "chocolate" very clearly. Any guesses on who taught him that one?

Sometimes I wish I was Dennis...

I really do. Everyone loves him. The kids do. The 'rents do. His co-workers do. Little old ladies, and perfect strangers do. Most importantly I do too. I mean, why wouldn't I want to be him, he's the best of guys. Pretty much pure perfection. And, because people love him, and he's such a great guy, good stuff happens to him. Like the other day at the library. Which, by the way, the librarians LOVE him, which is really unfair considering I read at least 4 times as many books as him. They've let him pick up books for me that I had put on hold on my card, which is is a big no-no. But, they love him so they let him do it. If I had tried to do that, they probably would have placed me under citizens arrest and beat me about the head with a book until the police arrived. And not a little wimpy paperback book....I'm talking a dictionary or a Stephen King book or something.Obviously they know that he is my husband or they wouldn't let him get my books. But I guess I'm not worthy enough for them to remember I'm his wife. Anyway, I was thinking about this as I went to the library today and I was getting checked out. The librarian, who I admit is always pleasant to me, said "Oh, it looks like you have a couple things still out" (*inner dialog* CRAP! I thought I brought back everything!) Then she tells me the titles of the two books (CRAP! I have no idea where those are!) and she says that she will renew them so I don't keep running up fines (Woohoo! Score!) but one of them has been renewed the maximum times so she can't renew it again. I tell her I will bring it in tomorrow but I'm thinking (CRAP CRAP CRAPPITY CRAP..I have no idea where that book is!) So, ok then she says "Oh, you also have a fine of $4.35...I just need to let you know" So I tell her I'll pay the fine next time I'm in (which may or may not be tomorrow, depending on if I can find that darn book!) Anyway, I got my books but as I was leaving I was thinking about the last time Dennis went to the library. He had a book from the boys that was lost AND he had a fine. The book was going to cost $5, and he had another $4 or $5 in fines. But he goes in, and all he has on him is a $5. And she erases the rest of the fine!! Let me repeat that: she erases the rest of the fine!!! So, Your Honor, I again say... Everyone loves Dennis. The Prosecution rests. Case Closed. Court dismissed.
And, yes, sometimes I do wish I were Dennis. But then I remember what a pain in the butt I can be, and I'm glad I don't have to live with me like he does. So, I'll stay being me...and try not to be smug about how much everyone loves my guy. 'Cause he's mine, all mine.

Blog Part 2: A 9 year old view on a stay-at-home-mom.
Gideon was home sick today, just a headache and sore throat. I had made him quasidillias for lunch, and he came down a little later and asked for another one. So, as I'm making it he says:
Booba: How come you spend so much time cooking for everyone?
me: It's my job.
Booba: But, isn't it boring to just spend all that time cooking?
me: Sometimes, but I do it because I love you guys.
Booba: What do you like to make the most?
me: I like baking cakes and cookies most.
Booba: Well, that's good because that's what I like the most too!
then as he was walking away he says: I'm glad you do all the other stuff even if it is boring for you.
me: sniff sniff
So, either he was delirious from his sore throat, or he had a moment of gratitude....
It is moments like that...and pictures like this one...that makes the endless dishes and unfun boring chores all worth it.
How funny is this?? He was just laying on the couch watching Spencer play Wii and put the Pooh ears on.
And, I will end with a quote from Moira: "Can you turn your TV down? It's bothering me. Just keep it down a little bit."
That makes no sense for ending this blog...but darn if it isn't cute!
(and where the heck is that library book anyway?! Crap)

The terror and excitement of my Saturday morning

It starts off with Moira and Lincoln running into our room like a herd of elephants, and coming over to my side of the bed (which is furthest from the door for a reason, not that they care). I tried to pretend like I was still asleep, but Lincoln starts saying "Mama, mama, MAAAAAAMMMMMMAAAAAA" in that super whiny voice. Then it hits me...why is Lincoln out of his crib? I blearily try to wake up (I believe I've mentioned I'm not a morning person) as Lincoln is trying to climb up on the bed. It is too tall for him, so he gets frustrated and grabs the TV remote off my nightstand and decides to start hitting me in the head with it instead. Meanwhile Moira is watching all this with a big smile saying "Silly Winkin!" yeah, silly Winkin my butt...that remote hurts! Obviously Dennis is doing a better job of pretending to be asleep then I am, so I shuffle the babies out of the room. Yes, my 'good wife' deed of the month is now completed. I bring the babies downstairs where I find the older boys playing Wii, and otherwise looking like amoebas. They have on shorts, socks, underwear and a shirt...unfortunately that is only 4 articles of clothing split between the three of them. I asked if they knew how Lincoln got out of his crib and Spencer said Moira woke him up (probably by climbing into his crib, she's been doing that this week) so Spencer got him out before he started crying and woke us up. AWWW, well, that cut through a bit of my normal morning grump, that was sweet of him to try to let us sleep in. I start my coffee brewing, get the boys to put on at least one or two more articles of clothing. I sit down to enjoy my coffee, and the boys have drifted back to the video game and their apparently boneless state. I take that first head clearing sip of my delicious coffee....and Moira starts screaming. And, I don't mean a wimpy "ahhhh" scream, I mean a full out blood curdling Freddy Krueger is behind me scream. Because I'm only human I think "darn it! not until after my coffee!" but because I'm the mama I put my cup down and run over to see what is wrong. Turns out there is a fly in the house which Moira insists is a bee. And it's hard to convince her otherwise. So she is absolutely terrified screaming whenever it gets within 10 feet of her. This prompts her intrepid older brothers to jump up, like ninjas, off the various horizontal surfaces they were sprawled out on. They then grab any and all weapons they can find, which isn't much since we don't allow them to play with toy weapons (or real ones either). So, Spencer has a pajama shirt, Gideon has a pajama bottom, and Bastian, my little warrior, has an empty wrapping paper roll. I grab a newspaper and we start hunting the fly. Should be easy, right? It's 4 humans against 1 little fly. Moira is the spotter. We can tell when she see's it by the way she screams, well, like a girl, and hops around flailing her arms yelling "It's right here! It's gonna get me! It's gonna get me!!" so we go running to where she is, and we're all jumping around like human sized Mexican jumping beans waving our various weapons around without hitting anything except each other. This continued for a good 10 minutes, until we couldn't find the fly anymore. I seriously believe it died from laughing at what goofballs we all looked like.

Meanwhile, as we were running around seeking the dastardly fly, Lincoln was sitting on the couch reading one of my cake decorating magazines laughing at us each time we went by. I do believe he was thinking "Yes, dance for me, monkeys! Dance for me!"

Booba's birthday, bowling, and billions of balloons!

Gideon is 9!

Dennis had the fantastic idea to surprise the boys on Thursday (Gideon's actual birthday) by filling their room with balloons. So, for 5 hours

he spent his day like this:

The result was this:

My kids have the coolest parents hahaha.

Here is a slideshow of the birthday festivities:

http://s212.photobucket.com/albums/cc98/luvmy5monkeys/April/?action=view&current=7a7048b6.pbw

We had Gideon's friend party yesterday at the bowling alley. We had never done a party there before, but I thought it was really nice. You gotta love a party where all you need to bring is the cake! Speaking of cake:

(that is a chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream frosting cake)

(are you drooling?)

And now, I'm a bit tired...so I bid you a fond adu from Jessi-land (it's bigger then Jessi-ville, but smaller then Jessi-town. Book your vacation packages soon!)

Well, hello Spring! Took ya long enough to get here!

Since the temperature has finally decided to creep above freezing, we took the kids to the playground today. We brought the big boys bikes and they were able to ride around for a bit too. Moira was a little scared of the big slide, but Spencer went up with her the first time and he was telling her "You can do it! You can do it!" He is such a great big brother! After that every time Moira went up the slide she would say "I can do it! I can do it!"


Dennis went down with Lincoln the first time. After that he was doing it by himself (with Dennis or I standing behind him on the stairs) but he climbed all the way up, sat down and slid down all by himself. Such a big boy!

Moira on the swings. She liked it, for about 2 minutes. Then she was done. Oh well. I got a cute picture, didn't I?

Spencer is getting so big and handsome isn't he?

Here is Gideon showing off his balancing 'skillz' on the teeter-totter. He is "so extreme!!!!"

Our other little dare-devil. He made sure he counted down for me and told me when he was jumping so I could take this picture. He says it looks like he is flying.

They look so innocent. But two seconds later they were tossing wet, muddy wood chips at each other. *sigh*






Dennis took this shot. Isn't it great? Maybe I'm over thinking it a bit (or possibly it is the pain pills I took earlier talking)...but to me this represents "The world through the eyes of a toddler". Lincoln is in a small space (like the minimal awareness of the world that an infant might have) but peeking out at the rest of the big world.
Plus, it doesn't hurt that he is a darn pretty baby and he takes a darn pretty picture. But that's just my opinion.

And this is my absolute favorite picture of the whole day. It is just perfect.





(the layout is all screwed up again. I'm sorry about that! I have no idea why it keeps doing that)