This Weekend

I went to Ally Condie's book signing.  In case you're wondering, she's just as nice as she looks.  In fact, she's pretty awesome.  And since she has the misfortune of not living in the South I brought her some Bone Suckin' Sauce (aka bbq sauce made in Raleigh).  In my copy of MATCHED she wrote "do not go gentle."  If you've read it, you'd understand.  

This is Herman the Whale.  He was originally my parents' and then somehow ended up belonging to me in my tween years.  As you can see Lily, Skyler, and "their father" *ahem* were running around when "their father" said, "look Heather!  It's a whale and we're sharks swimming around it.  Maybe you could lie down with it."  And that was the first whale joke I've had in a long time.  And no, they're still not funny as you can see.  Yeah, Hubby, I hope you read this.  :P

The newest game invented by the genius minds of Lily and Skyler.  Seriously, brilliant.  They dump all of their blocks on the floor, turn the thing upside down, and keep themselves happy long enough for me to make dinner.  My favorite part is how Skyler has to brace himself for the big jump.  :)

Ben and I went on a date to see Harry Potter today.  Yes, I realize that I'm always way behind on movies.  I'm cheapo.  I don't go see them until they're in the dollar theater or on Redbox.  So sue me.  Anyhoo, I've decided that I will always love Harry Potter.  And yes, I grew up with the kid and I still think the whole series is BRILLIANT, but let me make one thing clear.  No, I did not name my LILY Jane and Skyler JAMES after Harry's parents.  That would just be stupid.  In fact, we almost named Little Handsome James, but we purposely didn't so that people wouldn't go, "Oh my gosh.  You named your kids after Harry Potter characters."  Although, confession:  I swore to myself in Elementary School when the books were new, that if I ever had twin boys their middle names would be Fred and George (aka the best 2 characters in ANY book) and I still hold true to that promise.  So I better not have twin boys.  Because I seriously will break my don't-name-any-kids-after-Harry-Potter-characters promise.  Sorry, Ben.  A promise is a promise, even if it was to myself in 5th(ish) grade.

The Parable of Captain Handsome Pants

Are y'all ready for a walk down memory lane?  Some of y'all didn't even know me when I was pregnant with Skyler.  Let me make this brief.  When I was about 6 weeks along with him his bloodstream (O+) somehow mixed into mine (O-).  I had 2 types of blood flowing through my body and I was sicker than I could ever imagine.  I can't even describe what that even feels like.  So I had to start seeing specialists.  I had doctor appointments multiple times a week and blood work was a given.  They told me not to expect any more children after Skyler.

I kept going to appointments, dragging Lily's car seat along with me.  I was determined to make everything right.  That pregnancy was HARD.  But it all paid off.  I ended up with a healthy baby boy (although the few months of colic weren't all too fabulous) and my specialists told me that they thought that my body had somehow miraculously healed itself.  Although, I'm too spiritual to believe in coincidences.  I don't think my body did anything on its own without the Lord's intervention.

So fast forward to the present.

Now, I'm not exactly the most graceful person in the world.  In fact, I would probably say that I'm pretty clumsy.  Mix that with the fact that I have super-low blood pressure and I just about pass out every single day of my life and it results in one very drunk-looking Heather.  But I digress, back to my story.  So about a week ago, Skyler was mad at me and pushed a chair at me.  It somehow toppled over on its side and landed on my foot.  Doesn't sound too painful in writing but it KILLED in reality.  It still kills, even though the bruise is hardly noticeable.  Then yesterday, as I was opening the fridge to grab some eggs, Skyler (as usual) tried to grab something out of one of the lower cubbies.  It was a glass jar of jam.  See where I'm going with this???  

So I'm calmly chasing Skyler and right as he sees me coming for him he lifts it over his head and slams it on the kitchen floor, shattering it into 5 bazillion pieces.  I moved him and Lily, and in the process, got a nice skinny sliver of glass jammed up my heel.  Luckily I have an awesome husband, who, after the kids were in bed, put Orajel on my foot (brilliant!!!) and proceeded to DIG it out.  

So now my right foot is injured on top and on bottom, and if I looked like an Alcoholics Anonymous candidate before, I definitely look like one now.  

Little Handsome has taken his toll on me.  I've mentioned before how he is the worst example of how a child should sleep through the night.  He never wants to do anything without me, which is soooo difficult when I really need to accomplish anything around the house.  He cries over EVERYTHING.

But you know what?  That kid loves me more than anything in the world.  He is more than happy to snuggle on the couch with me for hours at a whack.  He's more than happy to let me kiss his cheeks til they're raw.  He's more than happy to let me squeeze his chubby thighs until my finger prints have left red marks on them.  

Sometimes it's the really really really hard things in life that make each day worth it.  I can't imagine how boring my life would be if I didn't hear Captain Handsome Pants' giggles all over the house everyday.  

I would imagine that my life is much like yours: awesome, evil, funny, sad, up, down, boring, busy, exhausting, and unique.  But I think we each have a Skyler in our lives that makes us stronger and makes us happier. 

Hopefully yours doesn't make you look like an AA candidate like me, though....

Spaghetti

The cutest spaghetti eater in the history of spaghetti eating.  Or maybe I'm slightly biased...

We are all officially over the flu.  And Skyler had croup at the same time and he's over that, too.  And it's warm here.  76 yesterday to be exact.  We had the windows open and had lots of outside time.  And while we were outside I learned the coolest thing ever.  So at the end of our street (maybe 100 or 200 yards down)  we have a mini lake and so we can hear ducks from our house!!!!  How cool is that?!?!  I mean, I realize that some of y'all may not think that's awesome, but I do.  Seriously, that's the cherry on top of a perfect house.  I'm in love.

And one thing I forgot to add to the Valentines Day post.  Of course we were all sick, it was pretty miserable.  But the kids gave me the BEST present ever!!!  We all fell asleep on the couch for an hour.  That has NEVER happened to me.  It was one of the most surreal experiences to wake up and see my kids passed out with me on the sofa.  I think that has to go into my better memories file.  It was AWESOME.

Life is good.

A Girly Post

Lily just handed these to me and said, "Look Mommy!  I unwrapped presents!"

Flu and Fondue

I know that there are a lot of people out there who have a vendetta against V-Day.  I'm not one of them.  I {heart} all holidays.  Why do I love holidays?  Because I hate anything that's the norm.  I hate repetitive weather, radio stations, outfits, schedules, basically anything that always stays the same.  I always embrace change.  So Valentines Day is my time to have an excuse to eat all the yummy food I want, all for the sake of having a special day with my fam.  :)

 They were each other's valentines this year.  I think they look quite adorable together.  

P.S.  This is not staged.  They LOVE hugging each other.  I've got to take pics while it lasts.

 On Friday Miss Lil was diagnosed with both types of flu and she looked like this for HOURS on Thursday.  Those of you who know Lily well know that she makes the Energizer Bunny look like a snail.  Lily is nonstop go, go, go, so when she collapsed on the couch I knew something was wrong.  Unfortunately I then got  the flu, and now Skyler has it.  So much for flu shots working.  :(

I'm going to let you in on a secret:  this was the 5th Valentines Day that Ben and I have shared.  It was also the 5th time that we stayed at home.  We have NEVER ONCE gone out on Valentines Day and I LOVE it.  So despite having the flu, I really tried my best to make it a fun day.  We didn't have enough time to do chocolate fondue with the kids before bedtime so it looks like we'll just have to do that tonight.  Oh darn!  ;)  

I love Liller's imagination.  She cracks me up.  And Captain Handsome Pants LOVES bubbles more than almost anything.

Lil's Quote of the Day:  "Daddy's on a horse going shopping!"   OK?????????

Bragging Rights

This little Beauty had her 6 month speech therapy evaluation today.

Did she pass?

Not only did she pass but they tested her at a 3 1/2 year level and she passed THAT with flying colors!!!!  

Woohoo!!!!

They told us she's ahead on her articulation, colors, numbers, and letters.

In other words Lily has grown a TON considering 6 months ago when she started she could probably only say about 10-15 words that weren't animals or animal noises.

AND she wasn't really combining ANY words.  Now she says 4 word sentences.  

Sounds good to me!

I'm thinking we'll be celebrating tonight.  

Molten chocolate cakes maybe????

Or maybe a super rare trip to McDonald's to get some french fries????

Or maybe both.....

YAY LILY!!!!!!!  We're so proud of you!!!!

Randomitis (my official disease of randomness)

All y'all know by now that we love cooking/baking around here.  When we have a rough day we don't make lemonade.  We make cookies.  And then I eat half of them during nap time and give myself a pep talk.  :)

Ta daaaa!!!!!  

Lily's Quote of the Week (sorry this was posted on facebook, too)

We were at Wal-Mart and we saw a lady with a huge fro, and Lily, being loudest person on planet Earth screamed, "NICE HAIR!!!!!"

Just a few random reading things......

• I officially assign you to read Matched, by Ally Condie.  She's a Mormon author and if I were a betting lady I would say that she is the new Stephenie Meyer, except WAY better.  Hey, lay off me Twilight fans.  There was a day when I loved Twilight, too. The book is about a Dystopia in the near future (think Lois Lowry's The Giver except WAY better) where the government decides who you marry, what your occupation is, and when you die.  It's the first in a trilogy so if you're one of those people who can't handle waiting forever you may want to wait until the fall of next year to read the complete set.  Ally Condie is coming to Raleigh this month and I'm soooooo going to her book-signing.  Anyone want to come along?
• I'm not sure how I feel about James Dashner's The Maze Runner. Since I haven't decided yet I'm going to read the sequel and see if that can make up my mind.  Did you read it?  What did you think? (And is it just me or are there about 4839 billion famous Mormon authors?!?!)

Have a fabulous week y'all!!!  Are you gearing up for Valentines Day?!?!