My Mother's Day Bouquet

Natalie strikes again.

Megan, my angel child will hopefully never do such
things when she turns three.


...and the day gets even better.

A mere 5 hours later, this is what Natalie did to her hair...


I'm still too mad to post a picture of what she now looks like.

Trust me - since this happened a few months ago, I put ALL of the scissors up high, but alas, she somehow continues finding scissors in our house. Grrr.


Okay, I've had a couple of hours to cool off and my neighbor came and trimmed her hair.
This is the end result.


She may be smiling, but I'm definitely not. Give me a few days.
On second thought, I might need even longer.

Sigh. I am Gushing over Our New Digs...

Okay, just keep in mind that the bathroom is not 100% finished...


But...after surviving the last 7 months sharing a bathroom with 3 young girls, John and I are ecstatic to finally be back into our very own bathroom. Oh, how I have missed clean counter tops with absolutely NO toothpaste droplets anywhere in sight.

We (what am I thinking talking about WE...John has done 99% percent of the work - I come in at the painting parts) are still fine tuning a few things like staining the cabinet doors, some crown molding and other woodwork, at which point we can start painting. A door for the shower and the new curtains have been ordered and should arrive in a couple weeks.

It is beautiful. John does such gorgeous work that it makes it worth living in construction zone for a time. I wish I had taken a few before shots to go with these. The construction photos will have to do.

BEFORE:

This is a view looking through the bathroom door at where the shower and tub used to be.

This is the old tub on it's side - you can even see the wall that separated the shower and tub and even see a small sliver of the old shower.

AFTER:






Next up, the bedroom. Wait, that might be on hold though while we move outside for some of those projects while the weather is still nice.

Milestones

I am giddy at the moment because John and I have a date tonight sans kids - and I do mean, all of the kids this time - no almost dates with Megan in tow. We have not been on a date without all 4 since Megan was born 7 months ago. It is due time. Over-due actually.

The reason we can now finally leave Megan with a sitter? Actually two - 1) I have finally overcome my paranoia of leaving her with someone new and ultimately...2) She now takes a BOTTLE!! That was truly a day of celebration when she accepted her fate.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

John returned home from the hospital last week with strict instructions to rest and take it easy. So we did just that and took a weekend trip up to Ashton, Idaho with friends for some cabin relaxation time away from reality. Some might say that 10 adults and 17 kids would not count as a relaxing weekend, but the cabin belonging to our friends' dad had many different places for the kids to play, so it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared.

Like...

The toy room down in the basement off of the family room
and...

The Loft with wii adventures and many a movie to keep kids quiet (or at least attempted to anyway)

The large living room also turned into a dance area for the kids, but this meant they slept well at night because they were exhausted!

The cabin itself was absolutely beautiful. Thanks to our friends who let us stay with them!!




We also went out to see some falls nearby. It started out as nice weather, but mid-sight seeing, the clouds unleashed a snow dumping.


All in all, a very fun and very relaxing getaway for the weekend.

Birthday Festivities ala Hospital Style

Apparently John's body figured out how many coughs it takes to land himself in the hospital due to lack of oxygen. John's pneumonia continued getting worse, so he was admitted to the hospital last Friday. The docs got him all patched up with breathing treatments, iv medication, and of course, lots of oxygen. He is home now trying not to overdue it. This is of course a very difficult task for him. He informed me that he has been lying around for two weeks too long, so he's incredibly bored.

The only glitch in John's hospital stay was my birthday landed smack dab on one of the days he was stuck in the dreaded place, so we made the best of the situation with a lovely visit sans kids in the visitor's lounge overlooking the lake. Blessed Quiet - now that is what I'm talking about as a lovely birthday present.

Counting Coughs

How many times can you cough before your body says it's time to stop coughing? We are still counting as John has been coughing up his lungs for 11 days now. It started out as a cold last week, then turned into pneumonia. Yuck. The poor guy can't get any sleep at night because he spends the entire time coughing. The antibiotics the doctor put him on seem to be helping the fever, but as for the coughs, still no improvement.

In the meantime while taking care of sick hubby, I made massive amounts of frozen strawberry jam. A year's supply. At least I have a year's supply of something. It will taste good with all the wheat we have lying around if ever we need it.

Sending Birthday Wishes Your Way Dad

It's my dad's Birthday Today!! He would have been 59.

We decided to celebrate by sending him some special wishes.

We had to act fast because I bought the balloons last night
and by this morning they were sinking rapidly.

Here they go...

Oops. Several balloons got caught in our tree.

Heaven Bound Balloons

I decided I wanted to start a tradition on my dad's birthday celebrating his life. Someone told me that it's okay to celebrate with tears, so that is what we did. I think this will be a fun way for my kids to remember grandpa and be able to send their love too.

It sounds like the rest of my family had similar ideas. My dad loved eating pancakes, especially blueberry ones. So Shannon made pancakes for breakfast this morning to celebrate his birthday.

My brother planted a rose bush and some blueberries in memory of my dad as well. Christy and her family are making a cake.

My mom and dad loved spending time together on the Oregon Coast beach, so mom and my brother went down to the beach house to celebrate this weekend of my dad's birth and life with us.

I think the goal was the same for all of us; we wanted to make this a happy day filled with celebration. Goal accomplished. Except for the fact that my brother called on speaker phone so I could hear the waves. Remember I've told you how much I love the beach. Sigh. He even sent a picture to my phone. I love the beach. Can't wait to be on the beach again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's some other fun pictures from the last couple of days. It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that I haven't taken any pictures of Megan for quite some time. So, I pulled out the camera the other day to get some fun shots. Thought I'd share with you. ...and of course remind you all of how cute and adorable she is. (I know, I know...all babies are cute...don't you just want to pinch their little cheekies?)




Alicia also had her Choral Collection concert.
Here she is looking all glamorous.

(it was not my idea for the makeup - it was recommended by the concert people to help their faces stand out on the light I guess. I'm not really a fan of make-up on 7-year-olds)