Annabelle was here

The other day I walked into the room and saw a long trail of toilet paper coming out of the bathroom and turning the corner. I followed it like breadcrumbs and it lead me to the dog who was lying down blanketed in the Quilted Northern. Annabelle was right there with more TP gently laying it on our defeated dog, patting her head and saying, "nigh, nigh." I wish I had a picture of that but the dog got up and shook off the meticulously placed toilet paper before I could get back with my camera. But since then, I have caught a few other snaps of her nurturing nature. You may notice a pattern.
In this last picture, Kyle was feeling a little sick and he laid down on the sofa in my office.  While he was waiting for me to finish on the computer, he fell asleep.  Annabelle came in saw him sleeping and ran to the living room, and then returned with a blanket and Minnie.  She put Minnie beside him and pushed the blanket up as far as she could reach.  She turned to me and put her finger over her lips and softly said, "shhh", then patted sleeping Kyle gently.

a little story

My mom, a.k.a. Gigi, was watching the kids one night for date night. The boys were really into their movie, but it was bedtime. She gave them a 2 minute warning and Barrett protested. Gigi heard him say he really wanted to watch the Padres. She was very confused because she knows that the Rangers are this family's team. Barrett said, "No, the Padres part of this movie." She said he could have 5 more minutes so he could see that part, but she still was very confused. They were watching Star Wars and she didn't think that had anything to do with baseball. A couple minutes later, Barrett said, "See, Gigi, the Padres!" She looked up and saw a kid flying around in a little thing and STILL it did not register with her what Barrett was saying. As she was telling me about it she still did not get it, thinking it was POD RAYS. Later, she was retelling the story and mentioned the flying pods racing around and that's when it finally clicked...POD RACE.

All I want for Mother's Day...

...is for my kids to sit together so I can get a good pic of all three of my little loves. You would think that would be a cheap and easy gift for them to give me. ha. I took about 50 snaps of them all togther and this is the ONLY decent one and I had to swap a head from another picture to get one of all three looking at the camera with a reasonable expression! Annabelle isn't even the most difficult to photograph. She knows she's supposed to sit in the middle and look at the camera and smile. She does that...only problem is that she hops up and runs to hug me every 10 seconds. Then she goes back and assumes her position with a smile. It's a sweet problem.

Paris...Oooh la la

OUI! That's right, Cody and I recently traveled to Paris and Amsterdam. His company sent him to Holland and so I met him there after his work portion of the trip for some leisure travel. We took the bullet train from Amsterdam to Paris and spent a few days in Paris before returning to Amsterdam for a couple days. I think one our favorite parts of the trip was watching the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower. Since we have been back, I have attempeted to make Boeuf Bourguignon and failed miserably. (Note to self: don't try to cook foods you cant pronounce.)

Sleeping beauty

I can't think of anything sweeter than a sleeping child. Whether they are sleeping contentedlly in their beds after a long day, or snuggled cozily in my arms, or a newborn who will sleep through anything.

Lego Angels

I try not to say no ALL the time...but I do say it a lot. I guess I was in a yes mood when Kyle said, Wouldn't it be fun to swim in Legos?" Visions from the scene in Patch Adams (with Robin Williams) went through my head. You know, where he fills a pool with spaghetti so the elderly lady can swim in it and die happy. So, like a crazy person, I dumped out a bunch of the Legos on the floor and told Kyle to go for it. He didn't want to at first because he thought I would make him clean them all up...smart kid. I promised to clean them up myself so he got in and did the backstroke!
I took a picture of his Lego Angel and then spent the next 5 years cleaning up my huge mess! Because as Kyle (too) cheerfully reminded me, "When you make a mess, you clean it up!"

Freckles!