Like father like son

I'm referring to Brad and his dad for now. Although, who knows... it may also apply to Kilian and Brad in the future. If Kilian chooses to get married one day, I'll be ready to offer my apologies to his future wife.

At a church function last weekend Brad introduced me to someone like this:

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Friend: Hey Brad.

Brad: Hi. How are you? Oh - I guess you haven't met. This is my first wife, Lael.

Friend: (half-smile and a confused look while shaking my hand)

Me: (rolling my eyes, shaking my head and hoping this friend knows Brad's sense of humor enough to find this funny...) Nice to meet you.

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I have seen my father-in-law do this to my mother-in-law (his first and only wife...of 40 years) in person, and I've heard this was not an isolated event. I knew what I was getting into when I married this jokester - and I know there is a lot more to come. That is ok with me, though.

I guess the "my first wife" joke is better than the "my baby-mama" joke he could be using!

*We have been married 10 1/2 years, a first marriage for both of us in case anyone does not know.

The Circus

and I actually mean a real one, not just the way our house seems some days.

We scored 5 free passes to the big show last week and took the kids for the first time. They loved it! Brad and I think we were each only 6 or 7 years old when we last went to one, so we didn't really know what to expect. I guess we should not have been surprised by how pricey the cotton candy was. Kilian brought some of his own money in, but there was nothing he could afford. I helped him buy the cotton candy that automatically came with a hat. Kilian is showing you how much those two things cost below.

yep. $10.
Lucy is modeling the hat.
Camille is trying out that fancy sugar...turns out she didn't even like it!

Thank goodness no one even asked for the $18 light up spinner toy or the $35 stuffed elephant. Wow.

Baby Stuff

This was me (and #4) at 36 weeks - I'm one week bigger now.

- I finally bought some Dreft and am planning to wash all of our gender neutral clothes, socks, blankets, burp clothes, etc. tomorrow. Funny how much I love doing tiny little, sweet smelling baby laundry, but am never so excited about folding everyone else's clothes. If Dreft was not so ridiculously expensive I might try using that for everyone's laundry. mmmmm I love that smell.


- In addition to the already clean yellow, white and green items, I will have one bag labeled "boy" and one labeled "girl" here ready and waiting for someone to wash while we're in the hospital. We also have 1 new 'going home' outfit for each scenario and will return the "not applicable" one.




- We have not agreed on a name for either boy or girl. I thought we had decided on one for a boy, but Brad has been spending lots of time shopping around for others. Girls' names.....we are all over the place. Here are the kids' suggestions:


Kilian
Girl - Gabby
Boy - Brute


Lucy
Girl - Sunny, Fern or Genevieve
Boy - Wilbur or Oliver


Camille
Girl - Annie
Boy - Zachary

Isn't she starting to look like a big sister?

I'm all for encouraging scientific learning...but this crosses the line.

Dear Kilian,

Next time you casually mention that you caught some earthworms and leave the bucket on the kitchen counter, please find a way to cover it. Or at least mention to me that those worms are sharing their new home with about 10 slugs. Slugs that can easily escape. Slugs that might find their way to an open granola bar and other places that *surprised* me all day.

Thanks.

Love,
Mom

Easter pics

As I looked through the handful of pictures we took on Easter weekend, I was definitely reminded of how neither Brad or I are photographers and our kids are not always the most photogenic. These are actually the best I came up with, but they at least give the general idea of how it went.

We decorated eggs on Saturday

Then we put on our comfy shoes and hunted eggs in the front yard on Sunday after a delicious lunch with my parents.

The bright sun came out for the first time as we attempted this picture...it hurt their eyes and I gave up and went inside.

Here they are with "Noni and G-Pa". I think the kids had already had enough of cameras - maybe I can switch this for a better one off my mom's camera? We'll see!

Rain, glorious music at Easter Mass, chocolate, great company and great food....it was a wonderful Easter!

The Arts

Drawing

Kilian presents his version of the spring floor puzzle we all put together on Easter Sunday.

Acting

Lucy presents her version of "Sleeping Beauty".

Singing

Camille presents "Hard Knock Life" with Kilian interrupting by running in the house saying that it is sprinkling.

4-4-4

1. Choose the fourth folder where you store pictures on your computer.
2. Choose the fourth picture.
3. Explain that picture.
4. Tag 4 other people.

My picture is of Lucy, our friend Mary Kate, and Camille in the background. They are in Mary Kate's front yard in Dallas in December. I think Lucy is holding a big leaf she found - which might still be in our car. We stopped by their house on our way to Houston to see Mary Kate, her sister Caroline and their parents before their move to London.

I tag Mary Kate's mom (Jody), Angela, Jen, and Mandy (must create a blog first)!

Happy Easter from Jamesnia!

Blue and Gold

A couple of weeks ago, we attended our first "Blue and Gold Banquet" as a cub scout family. Each scout made place mats for their family. The only rule was that both blue and gold should be used.

Here's our handsome Tiger Cub.

Here is a close-up of the tiger cub paw detail he thought of on his own. He punched out stars, then punched the paw out of the middle of the star, then pushed it down over paint to make it stick.


Kilian was a part of the color guard, carrying the Texas flag.
Those flags are heavier than they look!

He received his "most inventive" award for the pine car derby race

and got some stripes painted on his face. I have quite a bit to learn about these ceremonies if he decides to stick with scouts.

and finally - cupcake time. (Although this was obviously taken before the stripes were painted!)
Congratulations to Kilian and Brad (den leader) on a successful first year of scouting!

West Texas Wind...

will wear you out if you choose to play in it for hours and hours. Camille cried on Thursday when we made her come inside as the sun started going down. About 2 minutes into her protest....she zonked.

Cousin Love

What do we think about our 6 month old cousin/my niece Avery? Well, I asked each of our kids and here are the results:

Kilian: "I reeaallllyyy like her"

Lucy: "Ooohh she is too strong"


Camille*: "Avery is my best friend"



Baby #4: "I hope they are gonna give me as much attention as they do Avery!"

Avery usually does smile a lot (when she is left on the floor to play or when her parents hold her). We might have made her a little nervous.

* Note that 2.75 year old Camille is holding .5 year old Avery with only about 1.5 lbs difference between them.

More Camille Funnies

Our Camilli (as I call her lately) has a "new do". We can now make pig tails, and she'll leave them in for more than 3 minutes....she just doesn't want them documented in pictures. This is the best I could do.

Wannabe butterly catcher (see post about her brother below)


We have entered the Band-aid phase. They fix anything and everything in about 10 minutes. How did she get this serious finger boo boo?


Probably from all this manual labor we made her do.

Other phrases of note:

As she walks around, sniffing: "I snell somefing."

To her daddy every evening when he gets home: "Now we're going to play hide and spy. You go count on the couch and I will hide behind the chair."