Introducing: Phoebe

It's been incredibly difficult to get a picture of Phoebe because she usually appears on camera to be a black blob. Phoebe is a 10 week old Cockapoo and Abbi Kate absolutely adores her. I think the only time they're separated at all is at night. Oh, and my son of few words, Liam, calls her "Pee-bee", which is the cutest thing ever.

Would You Like Some Mud With That?

After lunch, we went back outside. After, of course, we changed out of our nice outfits. Abbi Kate and Liam helped Papa and Daddy with the fence. They also made quite a few mud-holes to play in.

As you can see, Liam is dressed in his Star Wars shirt, a diaper and sandles. Abbi Kate is in an outfit picked out entirely on her own- a St. Patrick's t-shirt and yellow gingham shorts.

They're both napping right now, but suffice it to say we had to have a mid-day bath. Who knew mud could be so much fun?

Attack of the Matching Outfits...

As per our yearly torturous tradition, the kiddos were dressed in matching outfits today. In fact, Liam looks proper and sweet. But don't be fooled. When it was time to come back inside for lunch, he literally took a handful of my hair in protest.

Easter Baskets.

Every year I try not to go overboard, but I've found that much harder now that there are two kiddos to buy for. You would think it would be easier, since in theory you'd be sticking to a budget, but the tricky part lies in making sure that each basket or stocking, etc.. looks equal to the other. And there goes the budget!

With that in mind, I still think I did well this year...

It should be noted that Liam's favorite thing in the world right now is to kick a ball in the back yard. He has even tried to kick a baseball he found out there (presumably belonging to the little boy next door.) Abbi Kate, on the other hand, is always easy to buy for- she loves to read and all things "girly"...

Busy, Busy.

It's been an exhausting couple of days- and even that's putting it lightly. Shawn and his dad have been hard at work putting up a new fence in the back yard. The posts were set yesterday and the sun came out to dry the concrete. Today they've been hard at work putting up the boards and it's really coming together.

Meanwhile, Nana and I have been busy keeping the kids busy and we've managed to end every day just as exhausted as the boys. I'm not sure why since every day hasn't been too out of the ordinary for a typical day with the kiddos, but without fail Shawn and I have gone to sleep right after tucking Abbi Kate and Liam in at night. Abbi Kate hasn't even been using her usual 20 excuses to come downstairs and delay the inevitable bed time, so the kids have been just as exhausted.

And what have we done?

Well, Friday was spent running errands. On Saturday we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at a Presbyterian church a few blocks away. Liam found a ton of eggs, while Abbi Kate (not nearly as aggressive) collected her fair share. The SWEETEST thing was that she brought an egg with a sticker to the egg hunt with her for the sole purpose of gifting to someone. Needless to say, everyone there was talking about the sweet little girl that brought a gift for someone else. Liam may be my little hooligan, but Abbi Kate is my sweet little girl with the big heart.

Here she is presenting her gift to one of the egg-hunt organizers at the church.

I'll save the other pictures for the next post, but here are some more from Saturday!

Hello Sunshine.

Well, we finally got haircuts this past week. And by "we", I mean Abbi Kate and Liam. I have to scan the picture of them sitting in their chairs disguised as firetrucks and taxis. Liam was unimpressed, by the way.

Apart from that, we've spent the week trying to enjoy as much of the beautiful weather as possible.

Before:

After:

I also didn't realize it until getting her hair cut that she has apparently been cutting her hair when doing craft projects with her scissors. awesome.

Hair Talk

We're all very much in need of a haircut. Liam's hair is out of control. I've personally given him trims in the past because I'm just not sure how well he will sit down for a proper haircut. We don't call him our "little hooligan" and our "tiny viking" for nothing, yanno.

Shawn is in need of a cut too. I cut his hair as well, but he likes his hair long so it doesn't get cut very often. Luckily for Shawn, his hair is not as thick as Liam's is (though he would argue he'd rather have thick hair). The poor child has really thick hair and lots of it, and combined with his large forehead (courtesy of me, thankyouverymuch), well, he's beginning to look like he's wearing a football helmet made of hair. Apologies to Liam for talking so much about his massive amounts of hair and his pronounced forehead, but I speak the truth.

As for me and Abbi Kate, our hair is just getting longer and longer. So, we're in needs of trims ourselves.

Kitchen Update.

Almost a full year has passed since we first bought new cabinets and counter tops and began our kitchen re-model. A few weeks ago we FINALLY bought some glass tile for the back-splash and while my mom was here we began putting it up. We're currently at the hard part- finding time to finish cutting the pieces to fit in the odd places. We hope to finish it this weekend. Until then, here is a small picture update of the glass tile so far.

It should also be noted that I painted a few pieces for my own house. This is an accomplishment since I always mean to, but never seem to actually do it. I'd intended for them (it was a set of 3 16x16) to go in the dining room, but when they were finished I thought it made the space too busy and opted for the living room instead.

I Dare You Not to Laugh...

This is an old picture, taken sometime last year, but it is absolutely hilarious. Randomly, I'll come back to my computer and Shawn will have brought it up on the screen. It makes us laugh every.single.time. In fact, I'd say it's impossible to look at this picture and not crack a smile. I mean LOOK at that face!

Backstory: Abbi Kate had been jumping on me and we were being a little too rowdy for Liam's liking. He thought Abbi Kate was hurting me so he just kept poking that lip out, hugging me and randomly bursting into tears. And, of course, since it was so cute we continued playing and took pictures.

Also, as a disclaimer, Abbi Kate's room is an obvious mess- as always.

Smithsonian: National Museum of Natural History

I learned a lesson on President's Day weekend: Don't visit DC. Wow, were there tons of people there! It was almost like Disney World. We didn't even realize it was a holiday weekend until after we got there and were completely baffled by the crowds.

We met up with Shawn's cousin Mike, who lives in DC, and he escorted us in his car to our destination(s). We love seeing Mike, we just wish we were able to get together more often. Somehow, having two kids makes the days go by too fast and organization for the organizationally impaired pretty much impossible. This results in much fewer trips than we'd like.

Clean Slate.

Yikes! So much for posting in a timely manner, eh?

It's been a...challenging couple of months for me, though I suppose it's most likely been challenging for those around me too. A week after my birthday- on Oct. 6th- my Hannah passed away. It was ridiculously unexpected, despite her age. And while I knew it would hit me hard, I was still unprepared.

A month later, my nephew Ryan passed away. It feels just as weird to write that he was my nephew as it does to write that he's not here. He's 9 years younger and he and his older brother Mack have always been more like brothers; I don't think of them as "nephews" at all.

Enter the holidays and 14 hour car rides, and here I am. I don't know where to begin, so I will consider this post my "clean slate."

I also want to thank everyone who sent messages and reached out to me. I've always been the type to talk and talk about nothing at all, but when it comes to actually talking about the thoughts bouncing around in my head, I struggle. It's one part 'not wanting to burden people' and one part 'hate being vulnerable.' But I appreciated every thought, every prayer, every call and message. I have great friends, despite my emotional short-comings, and I love you all.