Grass stained knees

a weekend full of cousins...

We shared some cousin love for the July 4th weekend.

Boy were people excited!

Saturday morning the big kids were up a few minutes before 6 AM. Here they are wrapped up in a blanket on the front porch steps after I threw them out considering their inability to find and maintain their "inside voices".  Nothing like a room full of loud, over-excited little boys to start the day off right!

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 Look at that little face, I could just gobble that up. Yes sir, little Josie is certainly a cutie and man is she ever loved by one certain little boy who just can't seem to smother her with enough kisses.

That's right, anyone who's met him knows that Caleb has always been quite the ladies man but his love for Josie is something special. Just look at that face, it positively lights up like that every single time he gets close to her. It's so stinkin cute.

And look at this bunch of sweetness. I can't get over these little people. They really had fun together, not like toddlers, but like little kids. Booo, where did our babies go? 

There was so much cousin lovin all weekend long.

Snuggling, wrestling, laughing, giggling, story telling, joking fun.

Camp fires and smores...

fireworks and sparklers...

Cousin love is a sweet thing to behold.

It was such a super great weekend. Everyone keeps asking when the cousins will be coming back to play again...not soon enough I can tell ya that!

a dozen

Earlier this month Jon and I celebrated our 12th anniversary.

Twelve years.

One dozen.

A decade plus two.

Any way you slice it, to me, twelve sounds long. But somehow it has felt short, and busy and good, and full and blessed beyond measure. Don't get me wrong, it's not all roses, all the time, but mostly we balance each other in the very best of ways. And we are still buddies. And that feels like a victory for two kids who were a product of divorced families. 

(Photo credit: Will Kerner, Charlottesville, VA)

Look at how young we looked and so very happy. Our wedding day was such a wonderful one. It was not large, it was not grand, but we were surrounded by our very best of friends and family and the weather that June day was nothing short of exquisite!

Who would have guessed that a dozen years later we would still reside in North Carolina and be the proud parents of 4 amazing little boys, including a set of twins no less. If someone would have pulled me aside that day and whispered that little fortune in my ear I never would have believed them. Not in a million years!

And take a peek at this little bit of extravagance given to me by my sweetie. I have never even held real pearls much less felt their weight around my neck. It's enough to make a girl feel like a queen.

So if you happen upon me weeding the garden, don't be surprised to find them gracing my neckline, complimenting my muddy knees and dirty fingers, because let's be honest, I just don't have too many legitimate excuses to wear such things out into the world these days. Maybe sometime in the next twelve years my days and adventures will be more "strand of pearls" worthy, maybe not. I just hope that my buddy and I are still enjoying life's adventure, wherever it takes us next!

exhale

It has only been in the last 24 hours that I feel like we have entered into the recovery phase from the excitement of the last 6 weeks.

Please don't misunderstand, it was a really great holiday season, probably one of the best in recent memory, but boy was it busy.

My goodness, it was So Busy.

There was our trip home for Thanksgiving, followed by Samuel's Birthday which included a weekend visit from Aunt Emily, a weekend visit from Nan, our co-op Winter's Solstice celebration, a last minute, additional trip home for Christmas, the babies very 1st Birthday Celebration, and then returning home just in time for New Years.

Along the way there was continued sickness among the children, and quite a few Christmas gifts sewn late, late into the night. 

 

New Years Eve ended up being a really lovely, quiet evening, just us and Uncle Eggies, enjoying a relaxed dinner, some football and the rare treat of a late night viewing of The Chronicles of Narnia for Samuel after all the little brothers were tucked into bed. He stayed up until midnight and watched the ball drop in Times Square, I was pretty impressed.

 

The house felt really warm and festive, but in the quietest of ways. The big brothers had spent two whole days making paper chains. I originally thought the task would amuse them for about 20 minutes or so, but they really took to it, turning the kitchen into a "paper chain factory". Isn't it funny how the strangest things take on a life of their own? Honestly, the result was pretty stupendous.

I walked around, camera in hand, trying to capture the warmth and calm on the very last evening of 2009, a year that was anything but for our family.

 

It has only been in the last few days that we have been finding our rhythm again. 

It feels a bit like holiday detox.

We are slowly reclaiming our schedule and regaining our household's normal.

 

And while we certainly enjoyed all the visiting and celebrating that was had, it feels awfully nice to have the chance to find a cozy spot and soak up some January sunshine with the people I love best. 

Happy New Year!

It feels like it's going to be a good one, don't ya think?

xoxo

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In an effort to catch this space up, I have posted a good number of wordless photo posts with the intention to ammend them as my free time allows over the course of the next week or so. In the mean time, enjoy a glimpse of what we have been up to all this time!

Halloween was...

unseasonably warm and humid this year.

 

 

"Anakin" and the "crypt master"

 

babies who did not dress up, am I a loser or what?

 

They did manage to dump our treats and explore some wrappers

 

Overall, Halloween was a little lack luster this year.

Samuel still had a touch of the fever that had been hanging on for the previous 5 days...

We trick or treated briefly before he ran out of steam. It actually worked out though because we made it home about 5 minutes before the skies opened up. Oh goodness, the rain that fell. It was an absolute deluge. So the boys and I sat on the front porch steps in the rain and munched treats from our big bucket until it was time to blow the jack-o-lantern candles out and head in for bed.

Ya know what? Sitting on the porch with two of my favorite people in the rain, indulging in copious amounts of chocolate...I guess Halloween wasn't so bad after all.

Signs of the season

Here we are at the very end of October. How did that happen?

I keep being struck by how different things are this year compared to last year at this very same time. How alive and happy and great the energy in our house feels now versus then.

 

Of course, the pace of our days now doesn't even begin to compare to our days one year ago. I'm telling you, it feels like I am running a complete marathon. every. single. day. But despite the physical exhaustion that washes over me at random moments, I couldn't be any happier to be living this incredibly blessed and busy life.

 

Yesterday was a really fun and productive one.

The boys and I mixed cookie dough and had it chilling in the fridge by 9:30.

Around 10:00 we had scratch-made pumpkin pie baking in the oven so that while we did our morning schoolwork the house smelled all warm and thanksgiving-y.

After lunch, the cookie baking began and went on and on and on. Amid the usual interruptions, start to finish, the process took about 4 hours, which felt ridiculous.

We successfully decorated the front porch for Halloween, cobwebs everywhere, bat hanging in the corner, while our ghost and rubber vulture found their way to the tree branches. The boys were very pleased with their work.

I was pleased that we got the job done.

I've got to say that Halloween was never a favorite for me, but as we return to all of these silly little traditions and watching the kids swell with excitement, well this crazy holiday has begun to win a place in my heart. 

 

The baby boys had their first experience with homemade sugar cookies after lunch...

 

I'd say that face says it all.

I thought I would include a shot of each of them just to capture their sweet faces right now.

All of a sudden they seem to be growing so fast, and looking less and less like babies and more and more like little boys. Is it the hair that makes the difference? I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it.

They are such sweet little guys.  We sure feel lucky to have them.

 

Happy Halloween wishes from our house to yours!

35

Yesterday I turned thirty-five...or as one of my best girlfriend's says....yesterday was the 6th anniversary of my 29th birthday.

However you want to slice it, I'm feeling a bit conflicted about this one. I really don't feel any older than two days ago, and most of the time I feel about the same as I did when I was about 18... well in my mind anyway.

But for some reason, 35 sounds like the opposite of young ( I will not say old ). It also isn't too far from 40 and for reasons I can not articulate, 40 is a number that I have always dreaded. Not that 40 is bad, I'm sure it really is the new 20, but in the crazy recesses of my mind, I have just always imagined if you could equate a smell with 40 it would be something like stale cheese. You know, you can still cut off the moldy, crusty edges but it is Definitely past it's prime, and by prime I mean that firm, well rested 26 year old we all were, once upon a time...

Anyway reaching this milestone has made me realize that the ominous 40 is indeed creeping, slowly but surely closer and closer. I know I need to snap out of it, really, I am a 35 year old mother of 4, words like firm and well rested simply don't apply to girls like me. But there's the rub, because I still feel like a girl, certainly not a grown up, although I'm pretty sure most people would say I probably qualified about a decade ago.

Somehow, I forgot to notice.

Well, 35, Bring It!

I welcome you and all that you signify. I'm reasonably sure when I am 75, I will look back on 35 and feel like it was actually the uphill slope rather than the down hill slope of my life.

And if life is indeed measured in seasons, I'd say that 35 feels like mid-summer, Bright and fragrantly full of life!  Yes, that's exactly like what this life of mine feels like right now!