Transmission of Nonsense...

I got nadda.

Actually, I got lots but they are all trickling little fleeting thoughts of "OOoh I MUST share this on le blog" and then I forget to type the ever important phone note so I remember and then it's gone except for maybe one little lame thesis sentence.  Blasphemy.

SOOO... here is a bunch of "stuff" in no particular order with no real rhyme or reason and yet there are a couple of golden nuggets, aka gems, from RyGar and the littles.  It's a regular rare jewel mine around here.

Oooo.K.
Let's begin now with RyGar.
When you hear the chime ring like this, turn the page.
{And how was that for a walk down memory lane?}

RyGar:
"How lame are you being right now?
Geez, I just left and you didn't even know.
What if I ran away?  (trying not to smile)
Well, really I thought about it, but then I realized, well, no one would ever know, anyway.
So the point was moot."

Amber:
<Staring bewildered and absolutely clueless at this little rant from the romantic glow of the computer screen at the semi-joking, semi-serious Ryno>
It seems that perhaps RyGar needs a dose of lovin.  Poor baby.  I am on it because I really do adore that boy and life would be ever so boring without him.  Facebook be damned.  I don't contribute a thing anyway because, hello, I need, like, a good four paragraphs before I even get close to making a point let alone a joke.  WHO can make things funny on there in one to three sentences?  And I have turned into a voyeur of sorts and since I've been feeling guilty about that I have checked out.  I just don't really get you Facebook.  Sorry Zuckerberg.

Next, and almost as important... We are out of Grapefruits.  Like, OUT.  And Lawd knows that grapefruits have become a massive part of my caloric intake every day.  I guess you could say I'm on a "grapefruit diet" but its laced with Cadbury cream eggs?  And No lie, I buy them in bulk at my Costco and then I have been known to eat THREE entire grapefruits with my fancy-dancy serrated grapefruit spoons in the course of the day.  I am on a citrus high.  I probably smell zesty.  Which is better than a lot of alternatives, no?

Speaking of citrus, I am in the process of lemon oiling every piece of solid wood furniture we own.  Probably because I am parched from this dry winter air, so I can only imagine the state of my dressers.  But mainly because every single piece of nice furniture we own has teeth marks on it.  Like, I am convinced that laminate furniture must taste like crap, because ONLY the good stuff has been sampled by my little varmints.  Pure pine, amazing alder, marvelous maple - that's where it's at y'all.

Let's fully exhaust the citrus theme and throw a big shout out to UNCLE RAY & AUNT VICKIE.  Hey There!  Love you!  Where's our fetchin' lemons?  :)  Please don't tell me they fell victim to your unseasonably cold Mesa winter?  And they blame everything on global warning these days.  The nerve.

Pressing on... While visiting "the dog store" which is actually Old Navy, the place where my kiddos saddle up and ride the poor little plastic pup, my Daximus announced "ever so tactfully" as we waited in line behind a very sad little babe, "Mommy, that baby is 'fweakin out'!" "Yep, he is sad, huh?  He probably wants to go home." I tried to convince.  "Nope, he needs to sit at da waw.  He is fweakin' out."  "Go find a sucker buddy.  Pretty please, go peruse the candy aisle.."  No judgement mama of the sad baby - we have SO been there.  :)

How about the fact that I did a little mad scientist experiment with the big littles today and they ate it up?  I put baking soda in muffin tins, some with drops of food coloring and gave them a bowl and syringes of vinegar and if that wasn't the best thing those little boys had ever witnessed.  Did you hear that?  That was the roar of the crowd... and the neon VICTORY light above this mama's head.  Again, pinterest is kind of rocking my world right now and since the little rascals don't know these aren't my original ideas I just soak in all the credit like a big old credit hog.

Lastly, I have been on a "get it organized" kick that was "kick started" by my need to type out schedules for our kiddos so RyGar and I can go celebrate our ten-year wedding Anniversary just a few years late... (Weird, I mean, what were we so busy doing these last three years?)  I asked my sister to come over, walk through the entire house like a potential buyer and lay out my "to-do" list.  Nope, not selling.  Yep, probably gonna have family come stay with a couple of kiddos.  And Yep, mild to moderate case of OCD.  Any whootie, turns out sis has a bright future in "Dude, this looks like crap at your house" consulting work.  No, for real, I asked her not to sugar coat it and, well, she took my request seriously.  She is the next big thing. Like, Super Nanny for super naughty kids?  She is the super honest home consultant for your cluttered areas.  I have guilt over my junk drawer & I'm just sweatin' at the possibility that she is gonna find it and smack me with a ruler or something.  Thanks, Lou.  :)

And THAT, is a complete transmission of nonsense as we wind down the month o' love.  Seriously I need to go powder my nose after that one.  Kudos if you stuck with me.  SERIOUS kudos.  

The Anatomy of a Bath for a Croupy Baby...

Acey laid HIMSELF down for a second nap this weekend.  Yep, he sure did.  My baby, the one who thinks he is at least two, and will not be convinced under any circumstances to take two naps or even one and a bonus rest, laid himself down for a second nap.  Fell right asleep on the couch.  And that was about our weekend in a nutshell.  The respiratory bug that bites at least one babe in the house for no good reason except that it is winter decided to come for an unscheduled visit.  I guess the only good part about it is Acers is a snuggly little love as his body rests and fevers and aches.  That coupled with the fact that I know this bout of sickness will drop us off on the other side shortly and little man's eyes will be clear and full of glee again .  But, you know, I can still stick my tongue out at it if I want to. 

So There.

Like a Boss...

In the event that you too are fighting off croup and coughs and slaying boredom a la another winter snow storm, allow us to teach you how to chillax like a boss.

See there?

That'd be a Moby wrap that we done wrapped around our kitchen table to form our own personal hammock.  Please don't think any of this is my own original idea.... Props Pinterest.

Anywho, the only downside of this little swing of ours, is that we have to take turns.  It's a one-man dealio.  Which means we have had to set up a "wait in line" situation and, geez, if that isn't the hardest dang thing to sit, and watch, and wait for the timer to beep.

Buuuutttt - you should see how much laundry a mama can fold while her littles are occupied with the newest ride in this amusement park.

And between laundry, administering doses of meds, shoveling snow with my little snow removal crew and asking everyone to keep their arms and legs inside the ride at all times...

That's a full day o' fun.

Insert emoticon with flying hearts coming out of its head.

Bedtime Sap...

Is there any wonder at all why most of our pictures involve bathing, bejammied or sleeping babies?

At the end of a day, I get sentimental.  Always.  Perhaps its because I realize another day has gone and these babies of ours are just gonna be older tomorrow... {tears}... Perhaps its because I replay in my head all the oops moments of the day, you know, the ones where you admonish yourself to "mom up" & do better next time.  Perhaps its because they smell of Johnson's baby products, and that smell, oh, that smell will do something to your heart... There must be scientific proof of that somewhere.

Or perhaps its because they have jammies like these.  

That just hug and bunch in the perfect spots and the little fleshy man legs beneath them look so flawlessly toddler-esque all tied with a bow in the form of a cheeky little message.  And every night I  turn into a bowl full of mush despite the mad dash to brush & read & pray & clean up all so I can prep to do it all over again.  

And don't even get me started about how this all gets taken to the next level when they choose to accessorize with their little man boots... or a Superman Cape...

Holy Moly...  I am a bedtime sap.

Sappy n' Happy.  Just how I like it.

A Dash of Staycation...

This past weekend I was supposed to be enjoying warmer weather and sunnier skies on my annual girls trip to the home show.  For a myriad of reasons it didn't work out.  And when I was finally big enough to admit it just wasn't in the cards this year, I whined a little to RyGar and then we quickly decided we just needed a little out of the ordinary flare to enhance a weekend at home. 

RyGar, whom I will refer to as my gypsy lover :), the one who likes to see the sun set on new landscapes and wake to the possibility of self guided tours through uncharted streets, was quick to agree, and he used his Marriott status to get us a free room in the big city away from our usual weekend antics.  And he smiled like the cat that ate the canary when he realized he wouldn't be the Lone Ranger with the boys all weekend.  He must be livin' right.

Turns out - the littles have inherited the Gypsy gene as well.  Little guys love 'em some change of scenery and the Concierge Lounge.  Not that I can blame them.

They were stoked to pull their little monogrammed suitcases through the hallways and up and down the elevators.  There were endless button pushes on every single elevator ride.  And several pit stops at the ice machines.  I get it... I thought hotels were pretty much Heaven when I was little and there's still something about not having to empty your own garbage cans, right?



They were a little confused at all of this "trip" talk.  We have been prepping them for our first extended departure sans kids which is circled, highlighted, "hearted" and exclamation-pointed on the calendar in the coming weeks and part of those conversations have been about "Mom & Dad taking a trip while you stay at Grandma & Grandpa's house..."  well, they were mystified as to when Grandma & Grandpa were coming to take them swimming and when they would get to ride Grandpa's four-wheelers and when Mommy was leaving, but "she will always come back and get me." Oh, it was silliness all the way around, but good to hear that some of this prep work is sticking... maybe?

The littlest little thinks he is the cleverest lad in the world.

I mean, playing peek-a-boo in the curtains?  Silliness x 20 minutes.

And here, you can see why dread was the overarching emotion of the parents as we looked toward impending bed time.  But alas, turns out swimming is our BFF when it comes to hotel stays.  

Little tired soldiers cured their massive case of the munchies and then zonked out with not a single problem much to our amazement.

 And, oh, my little fish x four.



 I can't even describe the affinity they have for the water. 

Mermen... every last one of 'em.

Wait, is that too unmanly?

I meant, deep sea explorers or Michael Phelps Jrs. or Navy Seals.

Yeah.  That will do.

And THAT is a wrap.
Although, if you've got a free stay you're just dying to put to good use... you know who to call.  We're givers like that.  We just give n' give n' give n' give.

:)
Thanks my boys.  You showed your mama a great time.
And I loved every single minute of it!

Whittling - Not my Forte...

Sometimes the bubble bath Gods smile down upon us.

And on nights like these, after everyone is tucked in bed, I get to relive it all through a million pixels that form pictures that I download and drool over.

Which leads me to my lack of editing skills.

No, not the photo editing ones, Lawd knows I have none of those.

But editing, as in, whittling down from the mass of pictures that make me swoon to just a few images that capture the essence of a moment to share in our family journal.  

Will someone shed some light on the secret there?  I mean, I can't do it.  I just can't seem to trim the fat here.  It would be downright rude to not show multiples of this little mug, right?

And my Mama taught me NOT to be rude.

So there.

Let It Be Known...

Did you hear the latest?

Kaelster has a girlfriend.

Fuzzy Picture - Priceless Expression...

And I've gotta hand it to Big K.... she's a cutie pie.  I don't blame him a bit.  He got to celebrate his 1/2 Birthday at Preschool since he's a summer babe, so he was the man of the hour six months earlier than his actual celebration.  He brought treats and he wore the Birthday hat and the class sang to him and wrote him birthday notes.  It was rad and he ate it up.

When he came running out to the car toting all his Birthday goods in his typical vortex/speed demon style I asked him about his day.  He smiled and said in his new found quiet & shy voice, 

"I gave Sa-Banna a treat".

"Oh, Savanna!  Did she like it?  Do you like her?"

"She wubbed it Mommy.  I wike Sa-Banna."

And there it was.  The proclamation of his very first crush.

Soooo cute I just grinned like a lunatic at my little blonde lova boy.

The next preschool day Savanna's Mom stopped to tell me that Miss Savanna came home gushing about Kael and the special treat he gave her for his Birthday.  Try as she might she could not convince little love-struck Savanna that ALL the kids got a special treat from Kael for his birthday.  She said little Miss Thang held out her hand in the official stop sign and said, "Mom, I know he likes me."

P.S. All the cool kids are wearing their jackets upside-down these days.

And so it begins.

:)

And THAT is the end of a week full o' love.

Who do You Love...

Love is patient.

Like this man, who puts up with my involuntary stress reaction to excessive messes & yet my inability to clean up in the kitchen as I go... (Hey, I'm a clean it all up at the end kinda gal).  At my need to decorate, redecorate, hang, rehang sickness & yet my physical dismay at filing my receipts on a regular basis.  At my strange haphazard, "this isn't how I pictured this activity going in my head" syndrome that can cause friction with the real life version of said activity & yet my sometimes, fly by the seat of my pants, go with the flow, this is better than anything I could have planned sentiments.

Poor guy.  How can one man keep up with that?

Love is kind.

Like kind enough to send your wife on the occasional weekend away even when that means you get stuck at home with THREE toddlers of the male variety doing things you never ever dreamt you would be doing on any given weekend.   If anyone can make changing stinky diapers look good - it's him.  And for the record, all my heros change diapers, have dimples and wrestle with giggling babies.  Period.

Love never fails.

Ever.  I can always count on RyGar to take care of me and our little family.  It may not be perfect.  But I'll go with perfectly imperfect.  He thinks of the little details that I can overlook.  He just grins and bears it when I show him the darling Valentine gift "he got me" in the form of burlap pillows on our bed.  He anchors me to the earth when I am out in la la land in my head with big ideas & he does so in the best possible way without taking the wind out of my sails.  And he always, always gives me all Target and Cafe Rio gift cards that ever cross his desk... without fail.

And one might say, I love him.