Jessie James and the Outlaws: April 2009

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Happy Easter

Foot in Face. Can you tell who's the youngest? I love this picture!

This is our First TIE-LESS Easter. Each year I take pictures of my kids and hang them on the "Easter Wall" and it is so much fun to see what they look like exactly a year later...every year. Well, every year so far, the boys have a new shirt and tie on. I love boys in ties. Our Easter pictures are late this year because I had to wait for the clothes to go on sale. Naomi's dress was actually purchased for $3.99 two years ago before I even knew I was having a girl. Luckily it fit. The boys already had their pants. I just needed shirts and ties. The Children's Place. Great sales. However, by the time it got down to 50% off already reduced prices, these were the only shirts I could find. The ties were gone. I found some ties that I loved at Kohl's but they were $14 dollars each. I bought them. When I showed James later that night, he confessed that he was worried about my spending judgement. His words, "Can you just try to explain what you were thinking?" I agreed to drive twenty five minutes back to Kohl's to take them back. Suffice it to say, we have a tie-less Easter.
James just looked over my shoulder at the new Easter pictures I took today. His first comment: "what's wrong with their shirts? They're all fuzzy." My response: "They were ON SALE! I've waited three weeks to buy shirts and these were the only ones they had! It's gingham!" I know, I know. It's a gingham disaster, but hey, we got Easter pictures for our wall...ties or not. Sub-total=$12 for the gingham shirts. At least Naomi has a bow.

My favorite picture of my Bugaboo. He is getting so big. Luckily, still so innocent.

My favorite picture of my Smooch. I love his pensive look, and his bright red lips.

Notice mud on Jake's pants. I could photoshop this out, but why? It happened the minute he stepped out of the car. I laughed. I love boys.
Plus, how could I get mad at this face? That would almost be inhumane.

My favorite one of Scout. I love her happy personality.

Heaven-sent. She Loves being a part of the party.

William ran in front of me as fast as he could to the car. I could tell he was hiding something behind his back. I slipped into the drivers seat. I found a fresh picked boquet of flowers placed lovingly on my dashboard...my favorite color. Oh...I hope these days never end.

I love being a mom.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Very Good Morning

I woke up at 3:00 A.M. last week with a terrible headache. I took two Tylenol. I again woke up at 6:00 A.M. with an even worse headache. I was nauseated. I stumbled down the stairs and opened a can of Coke. I made my way back up the stairs and opened the bottle of Excedrin Migraine. Jake had made his way into our bed at about the same time. I needed some space. I grabbed an ice pack and cuddled up in Jake's abandoned covers. It was perfect. Peaceful. About an hour later William awoke and found me in his brother's bed. He crawled inside my peaceful abode. There we lay. Me and my bugaboo. It was early morning. The light shining through the windows. William cuddled close to my aching body and kept me warm. He looked up on the wall. The wall with a map of the World duct taped on it. He popped out of bed and described to me the Tropic of Cancer. He returned to his snuggling position under the covers. We talked about the World. He popped up again. This time describing just where Europe ends and Asia begins. I was enthralled. Each time he popped up to show me something, he dropped right back to his position of his little legs curled over mine. His soft face against my chest. With each pop of ideas that streamed into his mind, my pain dimmed just a little bit. We did this for about an hour. I was in heaven. So much so, that I had to force us both out of bed so that he wouldn't be late for school. I toyed with the idea of letting him snuggle with me as long as he wanted. I enjoyed learning about our World through his 5 year old eyes.

It was 8:00 A.M. It was over. My all too rational side told me to get up and send him to school. I didn't want to. But I did. I should have kept him home. Oh, well. I did feel better though.

Much, much better.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

SPRING BREAK IN UTAH

We decided to fly into Vegas and stay at the Green Valley condo for a few nights. This is a classic picture of 5 boy cousins seeing each other for the first time in nine months. Grandma had NO control. I was in the corner laughing and Lindsey was in the back room talking to her husband. It was hilarious watching my mom try to intervene with all the excitement/fighting/cousin bonding/ hitting/laughing even the forbidden potty talk. It was so fun!

We all decided to head over to the pool. My mom was the martyr and said she would stay with Naomi and let her finish her nap in the van. I just wish Naomi would have been kind enough to let my mom finish her nap too.

Swimming at the Green Valley pool with all of my cousuins is one of my all time favorite memories as a child. It made me emotional to see my own children swim in the exact same swimming pool with their cousins...the same raquetball and tennis courts...the same air hockey table. They even slept on the same old, gross, brocken pull-out beds that we slept in. oh...those were the days.

David flew in to Vegas with his boys to enjoy the excitement. It was awesome.

O.K. So I always buy my kids clothes "kindof big" hoping to get a couple years out of them. It worked great with the boys because it's "in" to be baggy. Not so much with girls. I'm still learning. I bought Naomi this 2T swimsuit. (she's not even a year old yet) and it was literally hanging off her. Dave made fun of it. I told him I was saving money.