frances kate

sweet jill brannon took some sweet shots of miss f,

who will be six months old in just a week....

and i can definitely say, we are in love!!

sometimes

i take pictures every single day, more than you can imagine...and sometimes, just sometimes, i get a little something great. like:

a little man and his best friend....his football.

or these three beauties. yep, that's something, alright!!

the sprinkler.

we have a neighbor who puts his yard waste on our sprinkler head. i have asked him to stop. clif has asked him to stop. we have both asked him to stop, multiple times. he puts his yard waste on top of the sprinkler head, anyway. in his defense, it is VERY hard to see, and on the property line...but still, those things are a pain to replace, not to mention expensive. so about a month ago, i drive home and what do i see? a LARGE bag of grass, where?! on the sprinkler head!

it had been a challenging day, and it was the straw that broker this camel's back. i pulled up in the car, got out and heaved the bag way into the middle of his yard. i was MAD! aaargh....but then....as i pulled into the garage and took a big deep breath i remembered i was somebody's mother. and furthermore, those somebodies were all in the backseat watching my ugly behavior. uh-oh...this made me sad.

i unbuckled all three sweaty, tired kids (at this point it was still over 100 outside) and said, "mommy acted ugly, and i need to go make it right." so we all hauled ourselves up the hill to ring the neighbor's doorbell.
as i stood on the porch, holding frances in my arms and vivian by the hand, i thought of what i would say (i decided on the nice\innocent\happy approach). finally, he came to the door and i said, "hello. i'm sorry to bother you, but i think your yard waste is on our sprinkler head. it is right on the line and VERY hard to see." he replied, "really? why haven't you mentioned it before? (what?!) would you show it to me?" i said, "sure."

so i put on my happy face and started walking toward the spot to show him (again), i hear vivian, "ohhhhh BAUER!" i turn, and what do i see? my son. pants around his ankles. underwear around his ankles. peeing all over the neighbor's front porch and flower bed. a different kind of sprinkler problem altogether!
seriously. words cannot describe.

"bauer!! sir, i am so sorry, he is recently potty trained! bauer, bauer..."
to which my beautiful son replies, "what?! when you gotta go....you gotta go!"
want to make a bet that man remembers we had a conversation about the sprinkler?! ;)

belly buddies

frances has really been enjoying some tummy time lately, or is it her belly buddies?!

trippers

i think i have mentioned it before, but our sweet friend trip has recently been diagnosed with juvenile dermatomyositis. this means trips to chicago to see a specialist, and weekly visits to ach for port infusions of chemo and steroids. HOWEVER, the great news is....the treatments seem to be working!! he has regained some muscle strength in his neck, the night sweats are gone, and the gottron's papules...they are history! we even had a little pretreatment play date at the very cool outdoor ach playground today. PRAISE GOD! please continue to keep sweet trip and his entire family in your prayers. to read his full story you can click here.

soccer star

tonight was picture night for fall soccer. we sure are mighty proud of our soccer star.

for that matter, we sure our proud of our soccer TEAM!! it truly is the BEST group of kids and parents.

our first game was a real breakthrough for vivian. she dribbled like a champ, and then scored her first goal of the season (one of FOUR that game!). she immediately turned to the crowd to see if i had seen it, and folks, the look on her face i will remember until my dying day. proud, elated, shocked....they don't even begin to cover it. but THIS is why i love this team, because not only was i cheering and screaming and SO excited, so were all the other parents and her teammates. clif ran up, picked her up over his head...and everyone let out another loud cheer. a soccer star is born...i doubt i'll be more proud the day she graduates harvard!!

pj wednesdays and latkes

every single day someone has an activity...sometimes multiple activities. so during the school year we have adopted pj wednesday. and i like it. A LOT!

so do these folks. this week we have also discovered a new cartoon series. it is by hbo, and it teaches basic morality using old school fairy tales with a mutli-cultural, modern day twist. yesterday's cartoon was rip van winkle, but was really more about his wife vanna van and was narrated by gloria steinem. i'll take that over max and ruby ANYDAY!! today's had a judaic spin, so as i was about to start preparing lunch vivian asks...

"mom can we have potato latkes?" ummm....YES! so i found and recipe online and...

VOILA!! served with sour cream and blueberry applesauce. (this is b's he wanted plain). this afternoon we are reading chapter books, and finishing v's math workbook. then we are ALL napping!! :) don't you just love hump day?!

something...

yep. i'm almost ready. i'm about to jump head first...

into something i've dreamt of doing for a LONG time.

so stay tuned....more info, and free stuff coming soon!!

and yep, i AM as excited as a superhero!! :)

photos by the fab miss whit.

switcheroo

almost every single day the kids play dress up. vivian ALWAYS dresses bauer, sometimes as batman, sometimes as a princess. so the other day after she dressed him as....well, as vivian. i said, "maybe you should let your brother dress you up for a change." i ASSUMED (rookie parent mistake) that she would come back dressed as a princess or something the like. WRONG. she came back dressed....as bauer! and the funny part? the clothes fit. perfectly! seriously folks, i couldn't make this stuff up if i tried.

ba-na-na-s.

really. no words are necessary.

she tries it.

she likes it.

she wants more.

silly girl! :)

stinkers.

yep....they are....but i LOVE 'em!!

a visit from uncle srini

this is uncle srini. many years ago he was one of mother's internal med docs at the hospital. we became friends and the rest is history. well, sort of....five years ago...two days before vivian was born, srini moved to denver. it was for a wonderful position as a "real" doctor, and i was very happy for him. we have remained friends via phone, email, etc...and every year he sends a enormous box of wrapped presents to my children at christmas, but has never actually met any of them! so imagine my surprise when i got a phone call, almost five years to the day from when he left, explaining he was in town!! what a great surprise...

he was a natural with baby frances.

and then big kids thought he was awesome, teaching them how to use chopsticks.

what a great time...please don't wait another five years, uncle srini...we had a blast!

vivian is 5!!

it is hard to type, even harder to believe...my first born is FIVE!!! it was a school day, but we managed a quick picture beforehand. (vivian is obsessed with jeans, so in her honor it was jean day...even frances and i participated!)

after school we made a quick stop by the whitehead's to meet new baby anthony, and have chocolate chip muffins and open birthday presents.

vivian adored her new happy birthday barbie! next, we quickly rushed home and got ready for our first soccer game of the season, only to discover it had been called due to rain. oh well....

it's nothing a little heart shaped strawberry cake with sprinkles can't fix.

that and a whole heard of your crazy teammates singing in your honor! we love you big girl, and are so incredibly proud of you....happy birthday!

fall soccer

it is that time of year again....soccer time. coach clif is busy whipping his team into shape for their two games a week for six straight weeks. and yeah, in case you were wondering.....we are the cutest team EVER!!! (photo of course by the fab miss whit.)

frances five months

this big beautiful baby is five months old.

what?! i know...time is FLYING by!!

her little personality is beginning to develop, and thankfully so are her sleeping habits! ;)

generally she is a good and easy going girl. she loves her brother and sister, eating, and standing. that's right...i said standing. she will stand on your legs and coo and talk for as long as you'll let her. she also rolls over (both ways), loves sitting in her bumbo, holding her toys and shaking them, and laughs out loud when vivian or bauer put on any "dance show".

i was once told by a mother of three that her third child was "the icing on her cake", and i couldn't agree more! :)

big boy b is 3!!

in addition to his first day of school monday, august 30th, was bauer's third birthday. it is our tradition to let the b-day kid pick our dinner location, but when we asked all he would say was, "popa and dotdot's!!!" so i called dottie and she quickly put together a little celebration.

he was so proud of his very own mcdonald's happy meal (a very rare treat, indeed), his toy story card, and his very own cake!!

after a quick bath, it was time for our annual football photograph. has grown SO much (look here and here.) happy, happy birthday to our sweet son....we love you!!

dance starts back...

i just love this picture of my sweet girl, and her dance instructor, miss elizabeth. incidentally, i took dance from elizabeth's mother...and you all know how i love to carry on old traditions!! this year vivian was asked to move to the 6-8 year old class because she did so well last year...we are VERY excited...stay tuned for lots more dance updates, i'm sure.

first day of school 2010

after much prayer and discussion we decided to send vivian to pre-k again this year. (her birthday is funny, and the school district recently changed the cut-off date...it's complicated.) it was really nice to see a lot of familiar faces and bauer was very excited to start his 2 year old class as well!

vivian loves her new jessie backpack she got from her popa and dotdot for her birthday.

my big girl was ready to go on her first day. she walked right in, hung up her backpack and lunch, and said to the teacher, "are we going to do any math today? i really like subtraction best!" :)

the whole crew ready to go.

bauer was so funny, he very sweetly explained to baby frances that he would just be gone a little while and not to be sad, because mommy would take good care of her while he was at school. ;)

all in all, it went very smoothly (why do i always worry?!) and everyone,

including the very happy parents, had a good first day.