pyramids

I think I've established on my blog before that my kids love all things Egyptian. Last Christmas, when I got them this pyramid puzzle, they were totally thrilled. It is so much fun to build (even for grown-ups), it even has a little mummy to put inside, and you build the whole pyramid structure, including the secret passageways, etc. Seriously cool.

They built it last night, and had a blast as usual.
(It was complete except for the mummy, which was confiscated by Miles.
It is orange, and hence, he must have it.
Because in our house, all orange things belong to Miles. Apparently. He slept with it.)

Today, Audrey was bored and so we got out the pictures from the cruise we took with my family to the Mediterranean in 2000. We came to this picture of Neal and me at the Great Pyramid, and she had to run and get Parker to show him how teeny we were at the base of it. Then I started telling Audrey about how her Daddy almost had himself confiscated from us at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo because he inadvertently took a picture of King Tut with his flash on. Ooops. Audrey was so concerned.

we are way down here, in the center, a little teeny bit taller than the stones at the base level. amazing. see us?

Well, imagine how excited we become every time we see an advertisement for this exhibit, making its way to a nearby museum this fall.

One day we hope to get them to the real Egypt. They will freak out.

more pictures of us in egypt, in this post, here.

Grateful Sunday

A darkish photo by the window. It was very impromptu, but there is minimal glasses glare on Audrey, so it's a keeper. Any of you photo experts have any tips for that?

This week, I'm grateful for:

• the pool we found and paid good money to use this week. We'll be back; the kids can't stop talking about it.
• the 17 hours we got to have Neal as part of our family this week. He hopped up from Houston for a visit yesterday. Blast that darn endo program for keeping him 2 more days!
• family reunion numero uno, starting this week.
• my kids who are happy, healthy, intact and loving. I feel so blessed that they're all mine.
  

mornings of late

We're having a weird summer so far, in many ways, but one of the most altering (besides the single parentness and the new environs) has been the way our mornings are going. Miles wakes up anywhere between 530 and 7. I can usually convince him to snuggle with me for about half an hour before he starts asking for food. Then we hang out in our PJs for a couple of hours waiting for something exciting to happen. That's usually around 9 or 930 when Audrey or Parker appear at the top of the stairs. Yes, you heard me, my kids sleep until 9 or 930. I am certainly not complaining about that, except I kind of am, because I'd really like to get the day going, and I prefer not to serve breakfast until 11:00. I could wake them, I suppose, but that's about the worst mom task ever: waking sleeping children.

At least it makes for quiet mornings and those are nice. This morning, before Parker graced us with his presence, Audrey insisted that Miles wanted to look at the Encyclopedia of Animals with her. At least babies can rack up minutes for the library's summer reading program, too. He's well on his way to a free circus ticket (the grand prize for 25 hours of reading.)

The book they're reading here has been a hit, it's called The Day the Babies Crawled Away.
Very silly indeed.

more house

Steph requested more house photos . . .

et voilà.

Master bedroom: pretty much the same as it was in our other house, except for a few Ikea additions (artwork, lamps). I'm only slightly obsessed with the whole black/white/green color scheme. The bed, we purchased in Houston, the nightstands, we refinished ourselves when we were newlyweds. Do you think I need something over the nightstands? Help?

The always fascinating breakfast room, which is impossible to get a good picture of. I have my vintage orange crate labels on one wall and vintage large letter postcards on the other. To your right would be the pet bird and the silver collection, and out the window,
we can see horses!
(Please ignore the hideous off-center lighting fixture on which we hit our heads every day. Or did I just call attention to it? We're renting. We have no recourse.)

We have a grand playroom upstairs, which is our new idea of heaven. We're pretty much done "decorating" this room. Playrooms don't need much, right? Kind of sensory overload anyway? I love the reading nook, which houses about 1/3 of our children's books.

Audrey lives in a rainbow. She wanted to be sure she could see out the window while she's lying in bed. Nice life she has, that Audrey Mae. To the right of her bed is her little map of Unicornia, and a box in which she can deposit her glasses at bedtime. Below, there's a basket for her current reads. The new dollies stay at the end of her bed, in a perfect little corner. The large dollhouse bookshelf was made by Neal's dad when Audrey was a toddler.

She picked out this pretty piece (dark teal!) at Pier One the other day. We had fun organizing her chapter books in the bottom and her prettier belongings on the open shelves. Audrey will sleep in this current bed until Miles leaves the crib, after which she will inherit an incredible antique half-tester (TEE-ster) bed (similar to this one), which currently lives in Kansas City. And which will hopefully fit in our next house.

Up next (in a few days at least), the Study & perhaps the Music Room (aka, the piano takes over the dining room), which still need major help . . .
Neal! Come back to me!

Slightly obsessed

That's what we all are with this little dude. How could I be anything but smitten? Last night, while I was rocking and singing him to sleep, he made up a little song about me. (First we had to sing the haircut song, the Audrey & Parker song, itsy bitsy song, and the orange song.) I said, "Oh, that makes me so happy when you sing about mama." He comes back with, "mama appy?" and a little kiss on my shoulder. Sigh, I love this boy.

pardon the haircut, mom! it'll come back.
and it will still be orange, just the way he likes it.
ps, he does not grow hair on the sides.
we didn't cut it like that intentionally.

Ode to Our Baby TV

our little, teensy tv in a big, gargantuan space

The time has come for a new TV at our house. We've had this little nineteen-inch baby since we first moved to Texas 8 years ago. We were newlyweds, and about to start dental school. We found it at K-mart, spent about a hundred bucks, and even found a mini entertainment center to house it. Now we don't spend a lot of time in front of the TV in our family, so it has definitely served us well (besides the fact that you have to unplug it to turn it off). We don't watch sports, so we haven't needed anything too fancy for the Big Games. See all those DVDs underneath the TV? Hardly ever opened. My kids would just rather do something else most of the time. Fine by me, I like it that way.

But, we found a good deal on a new TV (and Neal really wanted it). A bigger, fancier TV. It's arriving tomorrow and this old set will be put or given away (we really don't need 2 TVs). Our little old TV makes me proud, though. Kind of like Neal's car. They're both visual proof to me of how we made it through 10 years of marriage/school without going overboard. We've restrained our wants in favor of our needs (most of the time).

So long, baby TV!

Requisites for Happiness in a New Town

We found two of our soon-to-be regular hot spots today. In each town where we live, these are some of the first things we find.
{We'll add "best Mexican & Japanese restaurants in town" once Neal is here to help us.}

Requirement number one: a nearby donut shop. Unfortunately, the quality of the donuts has only diminished since our beloved walk-to Primo's in West LA. My kids' pictures were on the wall in that little place. The shop we found today wasn't too bad. It'll do for now.

Requirement number two: free books

::on the way in::

::on the way out::

Yes, Miles is wearing a Wiggles shirt. He loves those silly guys.

Grateful Sunday

This week, I have no picture. But I am grateful today.

• For two days with Neal. He had to go back to Houston again this week, and I'm totally not liking this weekend husband thing. Is that a back-handed grateful item or what?!
  
• For dinner out with two brothers-in-law last night. A good time, yummy food, and gelato to boot!
• For sweet kids who love to talk while laying in bed at night. I heard about every. single. funny. thing. that happened in primary today. (A stack of chairs fell over right when a song started! THEN someone made a tooting sound during the prayer! {proceed to collapse into giggles})
• For my new desk. An actual DESK for my computer!! It has drawers! Never had one of those. Did I mention my half-bath? :)
  

small successes

Here are a few of the things my mom and I accomplished the past few days. Keep in mind, this is our rental home, so we're still pretty much making do with what we've got. I think it's turning out nicely, though. Thanks, Mom!

.entry way.

.master bedroom window.

.guest room.

.boys' room.
enlarge to see actual boys

.wall o'silver in the kitchen.

more to come!

for Daddy

we miss you neal!
(my back hurts and i'm really lame at ikea furniture assembly.)

dollies

While unpacking, we came upon my and Julianne's old American Girl dolls, which have been saved for Audrey (lucky girl). I could have been smart like my other sister, Stephanie, and waited until Audrey's birthday to give her the dolls, but she needed something to do, and I wanted to see if she'd like them. Because I wasn't ever sure that my animal-loving girl would have any interest in the dolls. I kind of worried about it, in fact. My sisters and I had so much fun with them when we were young. But Audrey? More of a Webkinz kind of girl, unfortch. She has read several of the books, though, and I've told her about the dolls for a couple of years, but we wanted to wait until she had her own room to get them out.

And oh how she loved them. We girls have been having fun with Felicity and Kirsten.

Anybody want to come play dollies?

we're here!

Well, most of us. Neal had to go back to Houston to wrap up his thesis and finish out his clinic requirement. The kids and I are busy unpacking and getting used to our new town. We still have lots of room arranging to do; I'm hoping my mom will help me make some decisions so it will seem more like home when Neal comes back on Friday. We attended our new church congregation yesterday and really liked it. Lots of smiles and friendly faces, we hope to get to know some people soon.

The kids and I drove by their new elementary school last night, they got really excited and I'm glad they'll be going together this year. Miles and I will be able to walk there and back pretty easily to pick them up. It's a nice, quiet place we've found up here, the roads are a bit hillier and the air's a bit drier. Our house is nice and spacious, we're kind of bouncing around in it. It's so very nice to have a study and a playroom upstairs! Oh, and my very first half-bath. We're close to the things we need and we're excited about finding a more permanent house. Although the thought of that right now makes me really tired!

I can tell the kids are in an adjustment time, though, they'll miss their friends so much. We had some very tearful goodbyes on Friday evening. I almost couldn't bear the sight of the kids' faces when they knew that was goodbye. But it's not far, we keep saying. Texas is a big place, but old home and new home aren't too far away. At least they have each other, right?

a blog post for the road

The kidlets, searching for treasures outside, on their last day here. Treasure-hunting is a veritable past-time on our street. Today, Audrey found the pretty mockingbird egg, above.

Have I mentioned that Miles' favorite color is anch (orange)?
It helps explain the shirt & balloon.
Does it explain the hair color? Perhaps.

I'll be back . . . who knows when! Wish us luck!

chatting over cupcakes

Some of my girlfriends put together one last girls' night to send me off. We had a lovely time, and there were cupcakes involved. I was happy and sad all at the same time. Thanks, girls!

this needs to be over

I have a moving headache. Baby steps till next week . . .

image from flickr

Grateful Sunday

my primary class, today, my last day as their teacher

This week, I'm grateful for:

• my mom, who has decided to fly into town and help me two days after we move into our house. Neal has to come back down & live in our empty house for a week or two, so I'm going to need all the help I can get. My plan: she reads books to Miles, I unpack. Audrey & Parker tend to keep themselves pretty occupied.
  
• great friends here and the hope of friends in our new town, too.
• Miles and his semi-fear of the pool. It was nice to be able to chat with grown-ups at our little party and know that Miles wouldn't wander away. He doesn't really like swimming, yet. (Don't worry, though, we definitely had our eye on him.)
• a trip to the movie theater (Kung Fu Panda) with the kids and their friends. I just love to hear kids crack up during movies.
  
• Neal, who voluntarily cleaned out the garage yesterday. Never mind the sunstroke, the 2 mice nests, and the frogs hiding in corners. The garage will be spotless for the new owners.

Countdown to move-out: 5 days

Party Time!

We put down our tape guns and Sharpie pens for a few hours and had a party for Neal's graduation this weekend. It was a good chance to get our friends together, feed them gobs of pizza, and let them all know how much we'll miss them.
We held the party was at the pool because it's become that time of year in Houston when you can't be outside unless you're in the water.

Sam's Club pulled through for me and made this yummy cake.
(They didn't smear the name, though, I asked Natalie to do that for me.)

My wet family.

The men, discussing manly topics.

Our glamorous friends.

Thanks for coming everyone! I wish you all could have been there, too.
We had plenty of pizza for you!

monster berries

We picked some blackberries from our little patch out back this evening. They were monstrously huge and pretty, about the size of plums!

We sat them in a bowl on the counter (after the kids snuck a few) , trying to decide how best to eat them. Brilliant Me decided to make up a pie recipe. At 9:30 pm. Because you KNOW I have tons of extra energy these days. It's not like I'm packing up my life all the while trying to mother three children. Oh wait.

switching places

Today, Parker played at a friend's house, so it was Audrey, Miles & me, instead of Parker, Miles & me running errands. We went to Sam's Club and the box store, because apparently 8 million boxes is not enough for all of our stuff. While we were eating lunch at Subway, Audrey looked at me and said,
"Mama, is this what it's like to be Parkie while I'm at school?"

Grateful Sunday

Audrey and her best friend, Callie, at their last riding lesson. Sadness. :(

"Mercies and blessings come in different forms--sometimes as hard things. Yet the Lord said, 'Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things' (D&C 59:7). All things means just that: good things, difficult things--not just some things. He has commanded us to be grateful because He knows being grateful will make us happy. This is another evidence of His love." Bonnie D. Parkin

I know that the above statement is true. I'm so glad I started my grateful Sunday posts! They really enrich my life.
This week, I'm grateful for my wonderful husband and family, for the adventure we're finishing up and for the one we're about to start. Today at church, we talked about how we get to be families forever and about how much Jesus loves little children. I felt so strongly that these things are true; the Holy Spirit helped me feel it and teach it to the kids in my class. I can't imagine my life any other way.
I love my family!