

Sometimes crazy, stressful, slightly mundane...but ALWAYS filled with a whole lotta love, learning, and laughter
...as I put my screaming, tantrum-throwing, overtired son down for his nap, my sleeping daughter woke up and started to cry. I closed the doors to both rooms and sat on the stairs to shed a few tears myself. It felt really good. My daughter had fallen back asleep by the time I was done, so I went in to hug and kiss my son and sing him a few songs. He fell asleep easily after that. I had about 20 minutes to myself (eat lunch and mop the floors - you know, real exciting "me" time :) ) until Kelly woke up and was ready to eat. But, you know, those 20 minutes were just what I needed to like being a mom again. I am grateful to be a mom - to be their mom. Sometimes 2o minutes and a good mopping session is all you need. I think naps are Heavenly Father's gift to moms. I'm ready to love on my kids again.












This morning Max and his dad have been watching basketball. Max just came upstairs and said, "Need headband!" He went to the drawer where I have the cloth headbands I wear when I wash my face, put one on and then announced he needed to go downstairs and "shoop the basketball". Ty started laughing when he came down because Max had obviously seen all of the players wearing them and that's why he decided he needed one for himself. Forget Mike, Max wants to be like Lebron!

Man, Max is on a roll this morning. He must know that I'm blogging about his cuteness. I'm sitting here doing this post and I hear Max say, "Kelly's bath - Max have a bath!" I went in and found this:




...that you can't keep from smiling when you look at these pictures (especially the last one)! I had Ty take pictures while I got a smile out of her since every time I tried holding the camera to the side of my head - or above - while coaxing out a smile she would stop. Here you see the whole process, but we've spared you from having to listen or see me and all of the crazy things that I do to get such a cute look on her face. Man, we love this little lady!




Kelly is smiling now - not every time we try to get her to, but she is smiling in reaction to us every now and again! It takes a lot of work and patience sometimes, but the result is totally worth it! You can see the end of a smile here...


Ty has been a basketball ref for over a year now. Max thinks it's really cool. One day Ty was dressed and ready to head out to a game and he showed Max one of the calls - "hold", I think. This was about 6 months ago. Anyway, a week or so later Max did the call on his own. We were really surprised he remembered it with such precision and thought it was really cute, so of course Ty taught him more of the calls. Here he is performing them for us. We FINALLY got it on video. He loves to blow his little whistle we gave him and run around like he's reffing a game.
