All dressed up and nowhere to go.....

I have wanted to blog about these pics since I took them well over a month ago, but alas I have not made the time, as indicated by the date of my last entry. And I have been hearing about this from my 'blogger upline', so now I'm going to play a little catch up!!

On this particular day, the kids and I and Nana Ida (who was visiting from Corvallis), were all going to go for a little walk around our neighborhood to check out the new spring flowers. It seriously took us about a half an hour to get organized to leave. In that time, Miss Reilly got into the winter wear, found Luke's old Spiderman mitts and Canada flag hat, her winter boots, and her old back pack from Presby nursery school (they don't use them this year at Kids' Korner), complete with a snack or two packed inside. I don't know how long she thought this walk was going to take, but I guess long enough to need nourishment along the way.

Just as we stepped outside, it started to drizzle, and by the time we got down the length of sidewalk in front of our house, it was clear that the drizzle was turning into full-on rain. Since the rest of us were not dressed as smartly as Reilly, we decided to bag the walk for that day.

I couldn't resist snapping a couple (OK 12) photos though before we came in.

(PS - I think it's so funny that the junior-sized backpack is as big as her whole body! The twins may be small for their age, but they must be growing.....when they started at Presby at barely age 3, the backpacks went down to their knees!)

ooooohhh......I am going to have SO much fun with this.....

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

The End of the Innocence

Well, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. Luke had a sleepover at a friend's house this past weekend, and the topic of where babies come from arose between he and his friend. Friend knew the basics of the birds and the bees, and thought it was a good idea to let Luke in on the secret. C.B. happened to run a couple things over to Luke that evening just shortly after it had happened, and the other parents gave him a heads up. Then he came home and gave me the heads up.

I had all that evening and the next morning to worry and fret about it. What do you tell a very innocent 7 year old? What exactly does he know already (as of the last 12 hours)?

Yikes, I just think 7 is a little young. But from the reading I was able to do while anxiously waiting for the new, worldly Luke to come home, age 7 might be a little young, but not worlds away from when we should be having a talk about some of the basics.

Still, there's just something that changes when your kid knows about sex. He of course does not want to discuss it at all, and we left the conversation pretty much at what he'd learned the night before. I guess we just confirmed his newfound knowledge, since I don't think he necessarily believed his buddy. I hope we did the right thing. I don't think it would have been right to ignore it. And we certainly couldn't deny it. But still I wonder if we could have handled it differently. What is it about this parenting thing that always has you second guessing yourself?

One January Night at Dinner

You just gotta love kids. Sometimes I just have to laugh at the goings on in our household. If I don't write these things down as they happen, I won't remember them for long.

Heard at the dinner table tonight:

Kelsey - "These carrots are bad for me."

Reilly - "Can I take my pants off?"

Kelsey - "I don't like the jello part of the tomatoes, or the seeds. I just like the crust."

Just a few random musings from the end of our day.
I love it here....

Auntie Rop, aka Nee-Nee

Today my sister Robyn joins the ranks of the 30-somethings. What a milestone -- your 20s are over my dear. On this significant birthday, I have been thinking about my dear sister and some of the things that make our relationship unique.

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Robyn is about the only person that I can talk to on the phone for more than 3 hours at a time, and still quite easily and quite possibly have another conversation with later that day. My husband stands in awe of this; he can't understand what two people could possibly have to talk about for that length of time. I couldn't tell you either, and probably neither could Robyn, but I do know that there is no silence on the line during that time, so we must be talking about something....

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I remember during university, crashing on the living room floor with Robyn; no mattress, no blanket, just a jacket each to cover us overnight because she had come to the city to help me pack up my place and move yet again, just as she'd always done at the end of each school year (except that particular year we packed up the bed and the blankets by mistake...).

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Or the time I had to drive to Tennessee for my 4-month internship, and she did not hesitate to make the 5-day trip across the country with me. (Of course it might not have been a 5-day trip if we didn't have to head due east toward the Great Lakes so SOMEONE could see Mt. Rushmore...).

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Since I've had children, Auntie Robyn (affectionately known as Auntie Rop to Luke and Nee-Nee to the twins) has given of herself consistently in ways that are far beyond the duties of a kid sister.

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When Luke's due date was approaching, and we thought he might be coming a little sooner than expected, who jumped in the car in Merritt, B.C. around 7 pm that evening and drove down to Corvallis, Oregon through the night, "just in case"? Yup, you guessed it.....Rop! (Turns out Luke was just trickin' us after all!).

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Now as a sleep-deprived mother of 3, when Nee-Nee comes to visit, mama gets to sleep in! And we're not talking about just one or two mornings here. We're talkin' EVERY SINGLE MORNING that she's with us! And we're not talking kids that get up at the crack of 9 or 10. We're talkin' EARLY RISERS here! This alone is such a huge gift! I so can not wait to return that favor to her someday, so she can really understand how huge it is!

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We are sad to live so far from Auntie Robyn now. Like a 9-hour drive wasn't far enough already. However, we do understand that the move up to the North Pole was definitely the right move to make for her at this point in her life. Thank goodness there's always those marathon phone sessions....

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Happy 30th Robbie-Dob!!

Breakfast with Kelsey

This morning I got a rare treat....one on one time with one of my girls. I was up early to workout, and before I could sneak into the shower, Kelsey was up and around. We sat at the kitchen table and ate Cheerios together before anyone else was up. It was calm and peaceful, and I couldn't help appreciating her addition of her new pink fuzzy fedora from the dollar store to her pajama ensemble...

The blog.

What is a busy mom to do?


Three beautiful children,
creating moments and
memories every day.


A love of photos and preserving
those memories, but little time
at the end of the day to do so.




Enter blogging.


A blog.

My blog.

A place where this busy mom can tuck away
little snippets of everyday life that make up
our memories and define our family.

Little things like the snow in Meacham being taller than Kelsey.

Or Reilly falling asleep in her pillowcase.

It's a new year, and my resolution is to celebrate
these small pieces of life that define our family of 5.