happy 172

172. happy birthday to my newest nephew weighing in at 6'5 & 18 inches long. he is perfection. congratulations jake & hillary!

happy 171

171. the girls in my ward. this is just a handful of an amazing group of sisters.

"under the sea" world!

miss dianne's class had its annual sea world field trip. the day went something like this...

we met hillary at lowe's. i got to her car & could't find her, because she was laying flat on her back on the ground of the car trying to feel "edward charles maxwell the 1st" kick. no luck. so, we went to the obgyn. everything was fine.... off to sea world, finally. we got there with 1 minute to spare (thanks to hillary's 89 mph driving) before they closed the back gates. hillary brought 2 double strollers which i had to assemble. given my allergy to almost any stroller (especially doubles), this was not easy. we finally met up with the group only to lose them moments later. we lost frelly at the flamingos, then found her holding miss dianne's hand stripped of her bright red sea world sweatshirt. we saw the sharks, we held the starfish, we smelled the penguins, we went in another exhibit, came out & found ourselves in the middle of a

typhoon.

i can honestly say that it was one of the worst rainstorms i had ever seen. it was raining & hailing sideways & the wind was howling! being the resourceful mom that i am =) i had trash bags for makeshift ponchos. instead of the praise i expected/deserved i got "you hate me!" from my 7-going-on-17-year-old. then i made my 8 month pregnant baby sister buy a sea world poncho, which instead of being all black turned out to be a giant shamu costume. as we rushed toward the exit on the exact opposite end of the park, her back was hurting so i took charge of the 2 double strollers and encouraged her progress, or lack thereof. 45 minutes later, we found an abandoned & sopping wet cotton candy stand, so we took some. wet cotton candy in hillary's brand new car made jake not too thrilled with us. another 30 minutes of trying to disassemble the strollers, get 5 kids undressed & redressed, transport 50 pounds of wet blankets and snacks left us chilled to the bone & literally sopping. my jeans felt like i had pulled them out of a bucket of ice-water. we were 7 drowned rats! the car hydroplaned twice so we decided to wait out the storm at claim jumper where our kids: set off the emergency exit alarm, neither henry nor hank wore pants & i somehow i ended up with spaghetti stuck to my hair.

i love these babies

breakfast on the beach

dear haiti,

you are in my heart & i pray for you & your children each day.

love, me.

happy 170

170. fine art.

2010

love

the other night while out at dinner, michael walked in to the restaurant a little late. when hank saw him, he turned to henry & said...

"that's my daddy".

if someone had told me a year ago that i could share this sweet moment, i would not have believed them. but, i have learned that a daddy can earn that name. michael, in every way, has earned it with our children. the proof? in the eyes, the smile & the words of a two year old boy.

the 12 hours of christmas

we were blessed this year to have kim, ken & my five new nieces & nephew stay with us for the holidays! so.... christmas morning was a first. the whole big-ham family came over in their pj's for laughing, unwrapping & sooo much fun. then we went to nanni's for breakfast & more:

12 stockings stuffed

11 giant trash bags

10 (thousand) presents

9 pairs of scissors

8 anxious children

7 in the morning

6 dozen orange rolls

5 cameras snapping...

4 presents missing

3 more cousins joined us

2 grandparents

& a puppy hiding under a bed!