closing the gap

Everyday 5 Comments »

The blog has become a lot like Drew’s smile: Full of gaps. The difference is while the gaps on the blog are getting smaller, the gaps in Drew’s smile are getting bigger!

Drew went to bed the other night only to come out of his room 5 minutes later beaming (and bleeding) with this tiny nugget of guaranteed income. Here’s the evidence:

toof

Alright, time to get going on this gap-closing business. Way back when we were still in St. George we had a baby that needed blankets, since all of ours were in storage. Drew was more than happy to help.

ownmachine

And of course, anything your brother can do, you must do better.

binniesew

Nice work dude! Grandma was so impressed the kids inherited their own sewing machine.

drewsblanket

We’ve had bad luck with vacuums lately. After our vacuum broke, we stumbled across an almost new vacuum at a thrift store that we thought needed a little cleaning and some TLC. It worked great…for two weeks, and then suffered from the same problem as our other vacuum. So, Bissell.com…$37 later we are waiting for parts. just lovely…

stupidvacuum

Having 4 kids can be challenging at times.  This is the only way to keep this little “helper” from being underfoot. She looks pretty happy for a poorly paid slave!

slave

Ryan is learning the art of multi-tasking. Atta boy!

daddyoftheyear

Once Daddy’s back started to ache, it was apparent that what our 21-month-old child really needed was more responsibility. Would she be up to the task?

romama

Aww, what a good Ro-mama!

romamafeeing

Yes Rowan, being the mommy is exhausting!

tired

Apparently sorting laundry is all it takes for Brinley…

exhausted

Drew was super excited to make new friends at his third school this school year. It just so happened that his first day of school was also his birthday! He started off the day right, with a nutritious peanut butter & chocolate birthday banana. Nummy!

bdaybanana

Drew’s St. George class made sure that his new school would be properly notified of the rock star in their midst.

bdayletter

You’re new here. It’s your birthday. And your mom brought cupcakes?! You’re my new best friend!

bdayfirstday

Since Drew’s birthday was kind of swallowed up in the move & new baby, he took matters into his own hands and made his own birthday cake. He  looks pretty upset about it, don’t you think?

makeyourowndangcake

Yeah, yeah it’s a cake mix. And it goes against everything I believe in. So shoot me!

cakemixsoshootme

Happy Birthday Drew! Big #7!

bdaycake

I don’t know if it was the toothless smile or the lucky Batman shirt, but those candles went from flaming to smoking in milliseconds.

bdayblow

We celebrated St. Patty’s day in style when a friend brought us a delicious & festive green dinner.  I’m  totally incapable of creating gourmet meals like this right now. Maybe someday I’ll get my groove back.

stpatties

Sometimes being the middle child can be hard. Especially when you jump on a bean bag without knowing the corner of the bed is lurking underneath it.

blackeye1

Day 2 revealed a mean looking bruise. It goes along with the loose piggies, and the popcorn remnants in her hair. Never a dull moment (or clean carpet) around here. ever…

blackeye

elea-grow

Eleanor 9 Comments »

Things are getting close to normal around here, so we’ve served up a big bowl of ketchup soup for you to slurp on while we keep on attacking the boxes of mystery that are lurking in the basement. Normally we wouldn’t bother, but we still can’t find some items that are hard to live without!

Here is Eleanor at 6 weeks, her first big smile! She’s doing well and growing fast. But wait! This looks like the end of the movie!? Ellie hasn’t gotten much face time on the blog, so we thought we would dedicate a whole post to her and her rapidly growing self.

first smile

Is the tape all the way rewound? Alrighty, here we go. Here is the first cloth diaper E ever wore. Can you do the Can Can? She can!

veryfirstdiaper

Let the freak flag fly! We’ve never talked about it much, but we’ve been solely cloth diapering since Ro-dawg was born. We’ve built up quite the stash. This is just Eleanor’s!

stash

Many of the diapers we have (like this one) are homemade.

rosediaper

We made boy diapers, we made girl diapers. We made some diapers out of bamboo, and others out of T-shirts. Fly Worlando!

dipes

It makes a lot of sense to us to diaper this way. Have you seen the price of disposables at Costco these days? It’ll make your face do this!

duh

To fix your face, we recommend going to the spa. Soak away all that anxiety with Burt’s Bees aromatherapy.

bath time

Then when you’re ready, get a massage from the elite staff. They’re trained to please!

kids in charge

After your soak, warm up in a nice toasty wrap while you get your hair did.

snug

Don’t take too long though; you don’t want to miss the show! We’ve had this swing since Drew was born. We thought this bad boy had given up, but it looks like its back for another round. The music still doesn’t play, the lights don’t flash, and the mobile doesn’t rotate anymore, but it still swings! Curse the day it dies for good!

shwing

When it’s all said and done, scoot on home in your sweet ride, complete with a custom heavy contrast paint job.

chariot

So E, how was your day at the spa?

First I was stripped naked, then I got soaking wet, and then three hairless pink monkeys started rubbing their hands all over me!

urrrr

That sounds crazy! Are you sure?

That’s not the half of it! After they attacked me, they rolled me up in a carpet and put me on some creaky old roller coaster! I must have blacked out from all the g’s, cuz when I woke up all I could see was a bunch of crazy circles and stripes!

derrr

I swear it’s true! (It’s hard to doubt a face like this!)

yo

Exqueeze me, I have one more thing to say…

exqueeze me

…but it will have to wait till later…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

yawn

we’re here…kinda

Everyday 9 Comments »

pic

This picture pretty much sums up the last three weeks.  So much to do, so little time. We are home, but it doesn’t feel like home yet. It feels like our stuff got dumped in an empty shell of a house, and we’ve been struggling to find things ever since. Of course, having a newborn doesn’t help. Then the baby swing decided to give up the ghost, as did the vacuum and the laptop. Then there was the shattered glass shower door incident. And did I mention the mouse nest in the dryer? oh yes…fun times!

But don’t read this like we’re whining! We are ecstatic to finally be in our own home, to reconnect with old friends, and for the new friends we’ve made in the last 3 weeks. But why do we have so much junk? And where are the toaster and the rocking chair? Oh how I miss the rocking chair…how does such an important piece of furniture just evaporate? Especially when there are two babies in this house!

Then there are the big dreams. Paint samples, DIY magazines, furniture on craigslist, oh MY!