What We're Into Right Now

Right now Doc Mcstuffins is all the rage at our house, so we all get checkups every day.  

 I don't mind one bit because it means some time for me to lay down!  Even Sadie doesn't protest.

 Shane wants us all to play Superheroes every day still, and Marissa is really into hide and go seek.

 Sadie heard them in the closet and crawled in to join them.  Usually she helps me find everyone and squeals the second I start counting because she knows what is coming.

 And since Peter Parker is into science, so are we:)  Science Central has become that much cooler to them now.  We went with their little friend Sammie today and they had a blast.

Shane has suddenly become very interested in space too.  We checked out a big book about it from the library and he has all kinds of questions, most of which I don't have answers for!  "Mom, where does the universe stop?  Can anybody get out of it? (sidenote- he is also intrigued by infinity and thinks it is a trickster that just won't let anybody catch him, because he has tried several times to count to it. "Mom can't we just grab infinity and pull him back behind zero?")  And after we talked about Earth being the only planet with food on it, he asked me "Mom, does Jesus have food in heaven?"- I said I sure hope so!  Looks like that old telescope Josh insisted on lugging around through all these moves because Shane would want it someday will come in handy!  

 And you can also see in the photo above that Marissa is into wearing dresses right now.  Every morning when I ask her what she wants to wear she shouts "a dress!" and then after she puts it on it she tells me "Say you're a pretty princess Peter Parker!"  Sadie is into stairs right now but we don't have any in our house so she loves to practice when she gets the chance.

And she is still very much into eating:)  Yesterday morning I had to go out and dig a spot in the driveway for Josh to be able to pull in when he came home from work (he is working nights) and I told Shane to keep Sadie happy and feed her some yogurt.  I think he definitely accomplished the first task, though I'm not sure how well the second task was achieved ha ha.

 Josh has been leaving for work at 5:30 pm and comes home around 7:30 am so he doesn't have a whole lot of time for much right now but he takes Shane to the Y every afternoon to play basketball with him.  I have gotten into running (I guess I always was) but I have been trying to increase my speed and have even had several fellow gym-goers comment that I am fast??  That makes me feel good considering my old nick name was "one gear Nebeker" ha ha. Now I need to find a race I want to do.  And cheesy as it will sound, Josh and I are still into each other:) We kept our Valentines fancy-dinner-at-home-after-the-kids-go-to-bed tradition alive and I made these oven-baked ribs that words cannot describe.

 And Josh made a delicious peach cobbler for dessert.

That's about it right now, I'm sure next month it will be a completely different set of things- hopefully lots of things involving being outside!  It is supposed to get up to 50 degrees tomorrow so we may be busting out our shorts and flip flops ha ha.

Snow and Such

This was the view out our door on Sunday (and pretty much still now).  We got more snow Saturday into Sunday, and church was cancelled for the fourth time in two months.  Josh usually does the shoveling but I told him I wanted to do it because I wanted to get out of the house for a bit!  And you know, I realized I actually kind of like shoveling, it is certainly a good workout and a little therapeutic like lawnmowing is for me.    

 We have definitely had our share of snow this year (everyone keeps telling me this is NOT normal) and it is easy to get into complain mode, but you know, when I get out in it, especially playing with the kids, I can see the magic through their eyes and remind myself that it's not all bad.  There is a season to everything and spring will come soon enough (right??) but for now I am willing myself to enjoy the good things about it while it's here.

 Like how the kids love it.  And that it is pretty darn beautiful to look at, especially because the sun has been shining most days.  And seeing little bunny footprints in it and watching the kids try to find Peter Cottontail. And looking out the kitchen window at night while I'm doing dishes and seeing all their little tracks telling stories about where they went and the fun they had.  And spotting bright red cardinals looking so pretty against the white snow and looking like a crazy lady trying to catch a shot of them without making them fly away.

And that cold temps mean a chubby baby that looks even squishier with two pairs of feetie fleece pajamas on.  (This is our first one to actually fall asleep on me without any effort) 

 And lots of good reading time for my bookworms.

Don't get me wrong though, I would be certifiably insane if we didn't have the Y to get our energy out every day too!

The Big 3-0

Josh turned 30 last week!!  I kind of tease him that he is a "birthday scrooge", he is not the biggest fan of birthday parties generally, so I didn't throw him a big surprise party or anything (though I did want to surprise him with a Pacers game or something but Sadie is not quite ready to be away from me for that long).  But we did have fun celebrating him.  After work we took him to Red Robin where they have gluten free hamburger buns, (and free birthday burgers).  Sadie loves her daddy.  And man the girl loves to eat, she is happy at a restaurant as long as you keep the food coming!

 And here's what going to a restaurant with small children looks like at times

 I made a banner saying "Kiss your 20's goodbye!" and the kids helped me hide 30 Hershey kisses around the house for him with little notes for him to find.  (Sidenote:  when Josh asked the kids, "Did you make me a banner??"  Marissa said, "It's Bruce Banner!!!"- he is the guy who turns into Hulk, of course she would know that and think of it)  

 I made his moms famous chocolate cake (gluten free of course) and I think it turned out the best yet.  Marissa was SO excited that it was his birthday and to sing happy birthday to him (she asks me almost daily if it's her birthday)

A few things that make Josh awesome:
-He is genuinely friendly and nice and says hi to EVERYONE.  I am pretty sure he is a favorite of the nurses and patients for this, and one of the cafeteria ladies even told him, "You know, I don't usually like doctors.  But I like you."
-He loves spending time with his kids and cares about what is going on with them.
-I know he honestly thinks I am beautiful at every weight.
-He is what we jokingly call "thorough"- if he wants to buy something, or do something big, he will research it out and have 20 different tabs open on his computer about it.  For his gift I got him a card that said he could pick out a new tent because I knew that him getting to research tents would be half the gift for him ha ha.
-He has somehow turned the tides from the early days of our marriage and pretty much beats me every single time we play Scrabble.
-Rarely complains about his diet and when he sees or gets something that looks good that he can't have he brings it home to me:)

We love you Josh!

Behind The Scenes

If ever you see a good picture of all three of my kids together, I want you to know what kind of work it took to get it.  The kids all looked so cute on Sunday and we were ready for church with time to spare so I decided to take a few pictures of them.  Didn't get any money shots but I didn't want to deprive you all of the chuckles I got from looking through the attempts.  And yes, these were all results of our legitimate attempts to get a good picture.  

There may be hope for us on the solo shoot horizon though, Shane is getting a lot better!

 Marissa's words as I was taking her picture: "Say, 'you look so pretty Peter Parker!!' "

 "Mom, would you stop trying to put that dumb headband on me, I'm trying to pull all the books off the bookshelf!"