Happy Mother's Day

Having a child does not make you a mother, raising one does.

We are truly indebted to all the incredible women in our lives who work so hard to take care of us each and every day, whether they gave birth to us or not. I am very lucky to know and love quite a few amazing women and feel so blessed that they love me in return.

Happy Mother's Day.

Ice Ice Birthday

So Tom's birthday has come and gone and I never did a post for him, I feel terrible about that. It is just so hard to find the motivation to blog about the things happening in our lives when we are spending so much time apart. I promise to try and do better.

Tom and I have been talking about taking the kids ice-skating for awhile, so we decided his birthday would be a great time to do it. He even bought a pair of ice-skates as a gift to himself. The kids and I got him a new wallet and a DVD set of the Zatoichi movies (the coolest samurai movies ever!) Here are some pictures from our super-fun day.

Tom, we hope you had a great birthday.

Tom and I sharing a quiet moment. I have pictures of our feet together from most of our vacations. I don't know why, but they make me smile.

My boys

Our future gold medal figure skater.

Eric needed a little help with his balance at first, but soon he was off and cruising on his own. We are very proud of how quickly the kids caught on and are so glad they had such a good time. Every time Tom comes home the kids want to go skating now.

On This Day, I Thee Wed

Happy Anniversary Tom

You are my everything.

Sugarplum Ladies

I have been trying to take Arianna to the Ballet West production of The Nutcracker for the last three years and something has always gotten in the way so Tom took the initiative this year and bought the tickets for us. I managed to keep it secret from Anna until we got to Capital Theatre and even then, she was not certain that we were actually going to see the ballet. She was mesmerized from the very first moment. It was such an amazing thing to share and experience with her, it was like seeing it for the first time all over again. I am the luckiest woman in the world as I get to help Tom raise these kids and see the world through them.

During the intermission all of the children that had been in the first half of the show were walking around the lobby taking pictures and talking with anyone who was interested. Anna thought they all looked so pretty and tiny, until she realized they were taller than she is, so we decided to take her picture with the nutcracker instead. Our beautiful girl is just never going to be very tall.

I am so glad that Arianna really loved the ballet, I love it and am so happy that it is something we will be able to share. We are going to make it an annual tradition for the two of us to get all dressed up and have a girls night with the Nutcracker.

Our thanks to Clara and her Nutcracker Prince for the wonderful show and evening without the boys.

Merry Chrismouth and Dryer Fluff

Austin got the bottom half of his braces on about a month ago and wanted to show everyone his new tin grin. He's still not sure he likes them, but its getting better. We hope to have the top half put on sometime after the first of the year. They are still manipulating his jaw to try and fix his under bite and Jay Leno chin. He's been so good through this process, but the poor guy doesn't realize its a long way from over.

Austin wanted to make me laugh the other day when I was feeling down, so he set out to do the weirdest thing he could.... Our boy folded himself into my dryer. I think he also wanted to prove that he could fit in there in spite of how tall he's gotten. Thanks Austin for the laughs!

I am saving this picture to display the first time he brings a girl home.

** Editor's note - No teenagers were harmed during the performance of this stunt. He was under close parental guidance at all times. **

Animal the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Isn't he the cutest little reindeer you've ever seen? I love that my dog will let me do these things to him.

Belated Birthday

I feel terrible for not having gotten Eric's birthday post done yet, so here it is. First off, I apologize to Little Man for being a slacker, we have just been so busy there isn't time to do all the things we should. We went on a family vacation to Vegas the weekend before his birthday, so he had a super special day this year. He got to ride his new bike while Tom and I made the other two help us pack the car. He loved every second of playing while we worked. He even got two birthday treats this year. We tried to make his birthday extra memorable, I truly hope we succeeded.

Eric is a great kid with an incredible sense of humor and imagination. We are lucky to have him liven up our lives.

Happy Bithday Eric!