Oscar Stew

Aren’t spring snow storms great? Everyone else in Colorado is sick to death of snow, but we are quite enjoying ourselves! The only reason I’m allowed to say that without getting lynched is because of our 4 month hiatus to Sunny St. George. We welcomed the first big snow storm with hats, gloves and lots of hot chocolate!

We were excited that the snow was wet enough to make a snow man, or a snow woman in Brinley’s case.  And for anyone waiting to see our humble new abode…here she is! This is what we waited for for 4 months. And it was worth it. totally.

An exasperating search of the disaster area formerly known as the basement did not yield a snowsuit that was Rowan’s current size. Hey Ro-sausage, how does last winter’s suit feel?

Drew & Brinley rolled snow boulders so big Ryan could barely pick them up. He did manage to stack them on top of each other to create a monstrous snow castle of danger.

With all the snow used up in castles and snowmen, it was time to move on. The previous owners left this rusty old swing set behind, which is a shame because the kids don’t really use it much…

Soggy Dog had enough of the winter games and wanted to tap into her artistic self. Behold, the masterpiece!

A few weeks ago Grandma F sent the kids some craft supplies. We saved them for a snowy day, and when school was cancelled due to weather, they did not disappoint!

Brinley was excited to learn that when you mix red and white you get PINK!

Ever patient Drew achieving quick dry results. He goes through the craft supplies a lot faster this way.

Rowan tired of her artistic talent being limited to just a canvas, and experimented in body art as well. If she only knew that later that day she’d be adding some painful art to her right eye…

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:

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.

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

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

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…

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!

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

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?

Aww, what a good Ro-mama!

Yes Rowan, being the mommy is exhausting!

Apparently sorting laundry is all it takes for Brinley…

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!

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

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

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?

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

Happy Birthday Drew! Big #7!

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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

Exqueeze me, I have one more thing to say…

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