There Was This One Time In February When I Got My Camera Out

Hey! did you know that when you have more than two children, odds are at least one of them is crying/whining/having a complete mental and pysical breakdown at any given moment?Also chances are good that one or more of them can simultaneously be found making faces/laughing/saying something that is hilarious and totally whack. Many times children will sit to allow for love and adoration to fully set in. Asleep is one preferable example. Sitting in the snow is another.It goes: one emotion then another.Children of all emotions must be played with in the snow. Fathers are especially good at this, regardless of the catastrophe that is getting children robed/disrobed for such ocasion. Mothers are especially "good" at this. Can you feel the love?

The Hearts, Do You Mind?

As I scrapped the plates at dinner tonight I was disappointed at the large piles of peas and lasagna that remained on plates. The bread was consumed and water spilled and the baby mimicked a ready tea kettle all evening long and every child managed to sit by daddy at dinner. Now I finally sit in my pregnancy state of exhaustion. Cue the tea kettle upstairs! Did you know today was Full-Throttle Thursday? It's where I drive and feed and pick up and drop off and the diet coke sits on the counter and gets warm and I don't sit down till after the children have been laid to rest...in their beds. 
Remind me to tell you about the time I went to Phoenix last weekend by myself for my grandparent's 50 year wedding anniversary but actually traveled for more time than I was there. Rude!
Tired tired tired! And, lazy blogger! But, before my next trick (unloading all my instagram photos upon you) I thought what better way to start off this month of love and Valentines than with some heart warming Lena Booth:

She is extra Yin and heavy on the Yang.

I am just tired

and happy.

There's Always A Birthday In January

This year we experienced our first with-invitations-and-friends-legititamately themed-birthday party:

 
Fun (synonyms for fun: loud, busy, germ infested) place of his choosing for Sime and his friends to burn some wintertime steam? Check
Friends and Balloons? Check
Food and Cupcakes? Check
Presents? Check!
Goodie Bags*? Check
*and as an added special bonus (to their parents delight?) everyone went home with a hand crafted lightsaber that doubles as a summertime pool saber!


Simon woke up that Saturday morning his sweet and easy to please self (whew) and he proceeded to gasp at everything he laid his eyes on all day, from the balloons to the cupcakes, to the birthday banners and the plates and napkins.
Sometimes I wonder why I go to any trouble for birthdays, but Simon reminded me all day. 
He had so much fun and was so happy all morning. It was birthdaytastic;)
I was on the ball this year with the pre-party buying and most of the best things came from etsy (r2d2 cupcake tops, banners, lightsaber candies, darth vader t-shirt) I think the most I did was spray paint the mini waters with left over gold paint to look like c3pO (this four year old's got a thing for droids) and instruct BabaJuje how to assemble the lightsabers with trusty duct and electrical tape while we were busy jumping in bouncy houses.


The moral of the story is next year, who knows if these children will have their birthdays remembered. I'm trying to be prepared, so when the disappointment comes pouring in we can look at all theses pictures and say, 
"Remember how much fun your 4th birthday was?!"
and we will remember it was goooood and fun. Then the new baby will cry or something like that.
  I rest my case. And I LOVE that four year old. Really really really love him.

Well Here They Are:

the THREE BOYS!!!

No Better Than The Rest

My family on Instagram(kvaisey): You're lucky day!?
A repeat overload for the 2 whole people who follow me on instagram...

It's the best I can do really for pictures to provide you with because I haven't picked up my real camera since Christmas morning. I have picked up loads of toys, food off the ground, many articles of clothing, even a crying baby off of the kitchen floor that was kicking and flailing on his back. Why just yesterday I picked Simon up after the poor thing fell out of the car and face-planted on my friend's driveway. I've even picked up the phone and called some people, like Rebekah for example when we talked for something like 3 or 4 hours the other day. But the camera phone and those filtered square boxes are just too easy. Picture, caption, done. It gives me an opportunity to work on my one liners. This year will most likely be filled with the easy way out. I can do hard things, but I prefer not to. Such a great lesson for the kiddies, no?

The past two weeks have been filled with preschool applications(it's seriously like college), midwife appointments, school volunteering, preschool co op helping, and planning for Simon's 4th birthday party on Saturday. It will be Star Wars themed and there will be other four year olds. You say, "Kelly, why do it to yourself?" I say, I'm not, I bought everything this year and will make nothing short of boxed cupcakes and maybe some lightsabers that take under 5 minutes to produce. I'm just trying to be consistent with this year's family theme: If you can buy it so it's easier, buy it. If you can hire someone so it's easier, hire them. If t.v. helps, watch it.

I like to think it's the more realistic approach instead of underachievement. I would be totally flattered if you followed suit. 
Keep them alive and happy and don't yell and be discouraged, take the pressures off everyday life and buy, hire and watch instead:)
Stay tuned for more inspiration coming your way! (are you appalled or laughing) And try your best to ignore the glaring downslope my parenting ideals have taken since 2006.

You Should Know, I'm Blogging About Christmas Right About....Now

Christmas feasting/junk hangover, sick children (because of candy canes for breakfast?), my mom and brother's visit the entire week following Christmas (!) and a general lack of motivation: these are the things that have kept me from posting. 

I know posting about Christmas in January is like totally ew (right Bek?) but...

nope...I got nothin'.

It was a lovely Christmas this year, aside from the tense 30 minutes we spent looking unsuccessfully for the camera flash on Christmas morning. Calvin stole the show this Christmas and the lalas (vaisey children pacifiers) he got in his stocking and a certain raccoon puppet were his favorites. All morning it went: eat candy cane, lala, eat candy cane, lala, eat candy cane. 

Staying up late Santa-ing watching Christmas Vacation wrapping till my fingers bled, sipping on Pittsford Dairy eggnog while Jeff finished the over 7000 lego labor of love for his Star Wars-crazed son was for sure a highlight. Then the low light was when I followed through with getting Jeff nothing and he getting me all sorts of cool and/or thoughtful gifts. 

Here are the rest of the highlights:

And a Happy New Year to you.

I have just two items on my to do list for 2012: have a baby and keep 4 children alive and happish. The rest I'm going to totally wing it.

Wish me luck;)

The 3 Hours Lena Was An Only Child And Other Things of Importance

Last Saturday Lena got to do her favorite thing: pretend she doesn't have brothers and go on a date with Jeff and me.
We ate treats and saw a Christmas Carol at Geva. It had some scary parts. She liked that.
Then a short 3 hours later she fell asleep on the way home and we were a family of 5 again. She didn't like that.
We celebrated our 7th anniversary this year like the true parents we are and attended a lights celebration at Lena's kindergarten. After the kids sang they played a slideshow of them doing various things in their classroom and it was accompanied by a very sentimental country song that made me cry right there in my seat in the dark. Cue the lights! Then we talked about how it feels like we've been parents longer than we've been married. I love being a parent. Being married is ok too. 
And since Christmas isn't for the schools we have to supplement at home with forgetting to water our Christmas tree and eating too many Christmas treats and hastily opening the door to about 30 neighborhood Christmas carolers the other night. I think 2 out of the three children were crying and dinner was burning and I was probably wearing something awesome. Then they sang the figgy pudding part and I smiled and shut the door. I'm a good neighbor like that.

Aside from 3 sick children and a dying tree this week I think we're ready for action on Sunday. And to think I found myself complaining we had to go to church on Christmas! I'm pretty sure that is NOT honoring the true meaning of Christmas. I plan on starting now, after I get Lena's teacher a gift card and get dressed and make a dent in the laundry and vacuum up pine needles and wrap all the presents that are scattered in the basement. Why do I always wait to do that? Next year I'm going to do more true meaning stuff and wrap all my presents as they arrive. 
Or maybe we'll just buy a goat for a family in need instead of it all.


And weather report states it will be 40 and sunny this Christmas day and that is truly a Christmas miracle. 
And the truth is, I am so grateful for the birth of our Savior and the birth of my three sweet children and hard working husband. 
Especially during country songs and Christmastime.

It's Like This

Today I prepared a snack for my children that consisted of carrots and hummus and milk.

Then I went to the living room and ate 3 rice crispy treats and a diet coke.

When we were at the Christmas tree lot, no matter how I begged and pleaded, Lena insisted on a short fat crooked one and cried until it was tied onto the roof of the car.

I sulked like a 5 year old.

Even though I know Jeff usually goes to bed much later than I do because he stays up to finish work I lay in bed most mornings at 6:30 pretending I don't hear Calvin down the hallway crying.

It always worked until now.

At least three times last week I didn't get dressed until after Lena got on the school bus at 11:50.

At least three times last week I napped instead of folding mountains of laundry.

At least three times last week I went unshowered.

For the first time in our married life, I was all ready to send out Christmas cards this year.

I picked layouts and designed them online then when I came back to the computer hours later, the designs were lost so I gave up and decided not to send Christmas cards this year.

When my in-laws have plans, I would rather stay home than try to find someone to watch my children for most any sort of event.

On any given day I am excited, overwhelmed, exhausted, glad, mad, energized, unfriendly, very enjoyable company, asleep or up till 2 am. It's a grab bag of emotions and actions and I'm always surprised to wake up and see who I will be that day.

Sometimes I forget I am 15 weeks pregnant and then I'm reminded when I yell at someone for something like a pillow on the ground and/or fall asleep at 8p.m.

Then there was a certain day I was home alone with Calvin and gave him and bath and suddenly I found myself soaking wet kneeing on tile floor and discovered he is more than just a pretty head of red hair. And I was entranced by his roundy cheeks and funny faces, bucky teeth and wet curls. I was caught in a moment with my third born I had hope for the future. Another one of these?! 
Children are the best!

Then he got mad and slipped and then tried to climb out of the bathtub and I was snapped back to reality and suddenly found myself very hungry and annoyed at all the messes around me. I tripped over a toy left at the top of the stairs and thought about the movie Ghost Dad where he actually died from that very thing. I found three pairs of dirty undies in Lena's closet and an opened box of frosted mini wheats on her bed. I wondered then, to myself, if I should make her sleep in shredded wheat.

Children are also the worst

and I probably won't shower today.


Yeah, it's like that.

My Dog Ate My Keyboard But Actually It Was Other Reasons Altogether

Roughly the last pictures I took when it was still fall outside and still November

I'm not sure how it happened. A 5 weeks hiatus. Record lows. 

I appreciate the comments and emails in my absence, although I must say my personal favorite came from Chelsey who said she looked me up on Facebook to make sure she didn't see any "RIP Kelly". HA! 
Because if it's been 5 weeks and I haven't uttered so much as a single inter web posted word I must be dead. 
Or pregnant.
with a baby...
for the fourth time.
May the heavens open up and send us the best they've got! And if that doesn't solicit at least 20 comments of "hang in theres" and "everything will be great" or "sanity is over rated anyway" maybe one or two, "who needs cleanliness and order?" then I'm leaving forever.
And If you saw this coming, you should have anonymously phoned in your warning. 
That's what friends do;)

We Made October Count At the Last Second

It was down to the pumpkin picking wire but we made it.

So in the shivering 45 degree cold, late Saturday afternoon, we trekked through the soft mudded grounds at Powers Farm Market.

A tradition(<-click) if we ever had one(<-click). (and here!)

The focus this year went to the haunted tepees.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

Back in,

back out.

Then one more time and we called it a day because we couldn't feel our fingers.

So we carved on Sunday and trick-or-treated on Monday and just like that October 2011 vanished into thin air.