bits of this weekend :)

a continuation of this post.

 Watching "Wreck-It Ralph" (I just had to own it!) whilst enjoying a little tea party on Friday night.

Being a girl/teenager-in-training (*bites knuckle*)

Then on Saturday, the girls chose the most darling outfits to wear!

sweet little ice cream details :)

Girly gamer. :)

Playing the family's new video-game we got for Easter! 

Driving the Lorax around in her Barbie car... 

I just crack up looking at this picture...

My bed-side table's sick-day accoutrement...

 Made a thank-you post-card for Sadie's grandmas using the fabulous Postography app (she's big enough to get $$$ for her birthday now, so she had to show off her spoils!)

 Just before bedtime, the Lorax started delivering notes right to my bed!

kids today!

The scene: "Peter Pan" on television. Meggie (in braided piggies, neon tank top, tie-dye shorts, and ripped fishnets) sewing yellow polka-dotted fabric for a back-pack for Sadie while Nick watches and eats out of a giant shoebox collection of candy.

I mean, come on.

sweet, sick saturday

So, R and I have both been sick all week with a crummy cold that likes to remind you it's still lingering just when you think you're on the Up-and-Up. We're talking 12-hour nights of sleep, nasty tastes, glands the size of grapefruits, lost voices... all that fun stuff! But in spite of ourselves, we've manage to have a lovely date-night (fresh ravioli, thankyouverymuch!), be super productive (grad school stuff! bills! major paperwork!), and make each other laugh (at... each other's laugh... we're that couple).

I haven't been completely worthless today, but I woke up feeling terrible and I've felt completely worthless (I mean, R3 actually asked me, "Can you put on pants and play outside with me?" and I had to live with myself saying, "No..."). I've still manage to get many computer-y things done and have fun little moments with the kiddos and take naps. And then there's Richard, who just shuts me up with awe while he goes and gets me groceries, does all of our laundry, cleans the kitchen, takes the littles out to dinner, and goes and gets me Chipotle all while he's sick, too.

Oh, and I also should mention that we finally became "Facebook Official" today, all because he initiated it this morning. What else can make you feel like a Queen in this day and age? ;P

just hanging

After coming home from the Easter party, we caught Emmy just hanging, watching TV with her giant balloon hat on--no big deal!

When we told her how awesome she looked, she joked that the show she was watching "needed more entertainment!" Always willing to oblige in a reenactment of her own brilliance, this video was made...

(Richard just had to get in on the video action--siblings! ;P)

and "big sister" of the year goes to...

So, when we were at the Easter party, there was a suuuper long line for face painting. Both Emily and Sadie really wanted to do it, but we knew if we let them wait in line they would miss out on the Easter egg hunt. Ugh, life is so hard!

And then Meggie--sweet, adorable Meggie--told the girls that she instead would paint their faces when we got home after the party. (She's been into "Face Off" lately, and it hasn't been unusual to see her slathering all kinds of make-up and paint on Nick's face at random times during the week.) Be still my heart!

I present to you a mermaid and a faerie!

Meggie did a "good side/evil side," and also scared the shit out of us by making Sadie look 10 years older.

(Notice the criss-cross scarf styling. I have no idea.)

Meggie even used some old fishnet stockings to create a scaling effect.

Taking pictures of her own...

Oh, these girly-girls! I love them ever so. :)

easter party!

We had all the kittens on Easter weekend this year, which is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing: celebrating holidays as a whole family is the best! Curse: I usually have to work Sundays. Ugh!

Fortunately, we live in a wonderful apartment community that hosted a family party this Good Friday and we were all able to make it. It was so much fun! There were bounce-houses, basketball, balloons, and even an Easter egg hunt all for free. I mean, hello! Count us in!

Look at the sweet little man!

She was getting pretty good by the end of her turn!

Emily is so not afraid of making big creative statements.

!!! 

So excited for the Easter egg hunt to begin!

That field was clean in less than 2 minutes. 

 If you need any further proof we had a great time, here it is: pictures of Meggie smiling. That's right, we had so much fun as a family, these pictures happened without complaint. Can't ask for more than that! ;P

I'm always so amazed how often little opportunities like this come our way just when we need them, and I'm so blessed that Richard is just as appreciative as I am to go-and-do when we get the chance. Planning holiday stuff that's both affordable and fun for everyone around visitation can be so hard, but we always seem to manage to do something that's adventurous. :) And thank goodness for those iPhone cameras!

sadie's birthday groupon

For Sadie's birthday, I got her a flower arrangement (always--all the girls will always get flowers on their birthday!) and an appointment via Groupon at Sweet & Sassy, which is a cute little "make-over" place for girls. She was so excited about it! If Sadie enjoys one thing in this whole world, it's being super girly. (She also enjoys a "good deal," so she was all about the word "Groupon" when she told anyone about it!)

So after singing along to Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake in the car, we went to get her hair, make-up, and nails did!

It certainly wasn't much, but I guess the whole thing went over well because this note was hanging on my bedroom door later that evening... ;P

"just once a year, I like to show everyone that my heart isn't completely as black as they think it is."

Say, girl, who's that's sweet Easter Bunny at Whole Foods Market today?

Oh, just my boyfriend!

sadie is seven

Sadie's 7th birthday was this past weekend and oh my goodness, she's 7, and I could cry. My sweet little Sadie who loves being a girl and curling hair and wearing pink and having her nails painted and coordinating the perfect outfit. My sweet little Sadie-bug who is always willing to try new food and loves to help with everything even when she's sick and tired. My sweet little Buggins who's Cuddle Tank is never full, who cries when her daddy's tummy is sour, and who gets so excited when "Sweet Home Alabama" is on the radio.

Our sweet little Buggins been quite the busy 6-year-old this year! She's learned to write and spell big-kid words. She's mastered hilarious impressions of me and her daddy, as well as the "I'm Elmo and I Know It!" dance. She's cleaned her plate 98% of the time so eager to tell you, "I didn't like it, but I ate all of it!" She's learned how to hula-hoop and swim by herself!

Right now she's super into Ballerina Buns, the color pink, and singing along with Top 40 Radio. She walks with me to get the mail all the time, likes pajamas in theory (they never stay on the whole night), and will occasionally choose a banana over a sweet dessert because she "wants to eat healthy!" She'll proudly sport my lipstick kisses on her cheek and slyly show her older siblings she knows how to hold her own in this family, too. And at the end of the day when you need a hug, she's right there needing one, too, and she'll never stop reminding you with her sassy attitude that she's just like Meggie.

Top Sadie Quotes this year include...
"I can't eat any more... Daddy put in too much looove!"
"Nobody listens to little kids! The only people who listens to little kids... are babies!"
"I'm a Baby Ballerina Princess Puppy-Dog, and you're a Step-Mom Ballerina Mermaid Princess Queen."
"I love you so much, and we'll never be apart, except for only sometimes."
"You're the Dollar, and we're the Cents!"
"Uhhhh... Cheeeese Zombieee! I need more cheeese!"
"Thanks for letting Bob come over...!"

We didn't get to see her, but we had a little birthday bash on Tuesday when we saw a the kittens on our weekly Tuesday visit. She got all kinds of swag, and let's just say that swag comes really natural to this little lady. 

Sadie, you're seven now. You're starting to give really awesome bathtub concerts, and on Tuesday you gave me a "... really?" look after I patted your bum and told you how sweet your heiney is. (You'll soon realize that I don't care.) I love watching you open and close the gates to the pool (you insist on doing it yourself), and I love when you ask if you can pick-out my outfits. You're still small enough to pick-up when you just can't stand it anymore, and you say the most hilarious things about people you're unsure of. I can start crying when I think about not being able to get you into a ballet class right now, but I promise I'll always do the girliest things with you whenever I can. You're our sweet Sadie-bug, and I can't wait to see all the shit you get into next. :)

saint patty's day parade

This Saturday, Richard skated again in Dallas's annual parade with all of his roller derby dudes! We live so close to the parade line that Meggie, Nick, and I were able to walk to sidelines (love it!) and get a good standing spot to see Daddy-Man when he came rolling through. It was certainly different this year just the three of us instead of the giant crew we were with last year (all 4 kittens, Aunt D, Nancy, Nery, Matt, Ioana...!), but it was nice moseying at our own pace and walking back the apartment whenever we felt like it. :)

The parade certainly can be a mess of 20&30-somethings have a real good time, but it's always fun to see all the different groups in the parades (doggies! unicycles! kids playing rock-and-roll music!) as I'm waiting for my favorite person to stop and give me a kiss right in the middle of everything. :)

Meggie died her hair green just for the occasion (it was a highlighter green, but my photo-editing skills are still not quite there!) | Plus, I'm really proud of myself for wearing this lovely breezy tank.

Finally saw my sweet man (covered in silly string and marshmallows!), and forever obsessed with how handsome he looks when he's doing his thing.

Meggie, Nick, and I stopped in Krispy Kreme on the way home... such a treat!

she love ev'rything jay says, jay does

Me: When did Nick's car alarm go off?

R: Like 10 minutes ago.

Me: Oh, I was listening to Mariah then!

R: I understand. When I listen to Mariah, it's just me, Mariah, and nothing else.

you'll get it soon enough, meggie!

"Okay, I'm onto you, alright? I know when you say you're a 'boring couple,' what you mean is that you are the luckiest and happiest couple ever." 

"No, it's not that great--I mean, we climb into sweats and watch Netflix every night." 

"Uh, that's insufferable, and you two are a bunch of scum-bags."

"The Mindy Project" Harry & Sally 

One afternoon, Meggie came into our room and said (with that "insightful," confused disgust that teenagers pull off so well), "All you guys do is watch TV together!," whiiich is equal parts true and not true. We also have our fair-share emotional/neurotic freak-outs, make kick-ass dinners, have nights where the TV doesn't come on because we just keep finding things to talk about, and take pictures/videos of the littles blowing our minds and being adorable.

However, I did tell Meggie later that her line totally cracked me up, because that's the goal, teenager! I know the goal with she and Nick is to go everywhere and do everything, but maaannnn, R and I go too many grown-up places and do too many grown-up things every day that yes, I get really excited and protective over our codependent TV time. Where the only tough decision is "Which comfy pants do I want to wear?" and "What what the last episode we watched?" Maybe it's because I grew up an only child and R always has The Lion's Share of Chaos in his life, but "boring" is the best. We always temper it with a night out with friends or a trip to King's Spa (and bless the littles for getting us moving every time we see them!), but I think the amount of joy I get from staying at home and watching a movie with my man is enough to chloroform a gorilla or two.

Basically, this is all to justify yesterday. :) We watched two movies that suuucked ("Just Go With It" and "Hick") (like, bad enough to motivate me to finish unpacking and bad enough that we turned it off without finishing it, kinda sucked) but the night still ended with me French-braiding R's hair and laughing at Louis CK, so I'll call Monday a win!

And as much I am always thinking of other stuff I "need" to be doing (working on my new blog! getting grad school stuff together! planning balanced meals!), I always find that I look back at the "worthless" night before so personally satisfied and in love with my sweet man that it totally clears my mind of all my neurosis. At least for a second. :) Because all the important stuff ends up getting done and all the unimportant things fall-off eventually, and there's very few things that are more worthwhile than doing the most boring things with the man I love most.

"I know you're tired, but just think how good you're going to feel tomorrow when you wake up and we have all new shelf paper!" 

"I wish I didn't get what you were talking about, but I do. I just do!"

"Modern Family," Best Men

tennes-seein' is tenne-believin'!

(via)

This past weekend, Richard and I drove up to Tennessee with Darrah to see their ma, Mary. The entire trip was that perfect mix of gluttonous, relaxing and productive (eating cookies! sleeping all day! dusting ceiling fans!), and it was so nice to get away for a hot-minute (even if it only was for a hot-minute... 2 full days there, sandwiched by two full days of driving). And the Moores are always so hilarious together! This was the second time Mary and I had ever talked in person, so it was so much fun to get to hang-out and get to know one another. :)

Throughout the days, Richard pulled out all the old family photos and documents that Mary still has in her house, and oh man, that was such a treat! Everyone was so cute! There is this one childhood picture of Darrah that I can.not. get over. (It has everything: cute hair-cut, floral shirt, tilted head pose with unnatural hand-placement...) The most common captions of the photographs were D going, "Ugh, he was such a shit head!" and R exclaiming, "Bam! I still look exactly the same!" Thank goodness for modern technology, because I made sure to take lots of pictures of pictures with my iPhone so we can show the kittens the next time we see them...

Richard, perusing an old family Bible...

Annnd, let's just talk about food for a minute. The first night we were there, we ordered out from Fino Villa, and I may have had the best eggplant parmesan of my life. Like, we're talking "Screw an Actual Dinner Plate, I'm eating this out of the styrofoam box right now!" kinda good. The last night we were there, we had a perfect home-made dinner that included steaks for the Moores, CJ's famous shrimp salad for me, roasted asparagus with garlic and lemon, and crunchy roast potatoes. We may have burnt a loaf of bread in the process, but it's a small price to pay for such a yummy culinary composition!

Then there was Justin Timberlake on SNL. Can we just collectively stop and appreciate that for a minute? I know I could have watched that anywhere, but I watched it in Tennessee, so it's relevant. I kinda freaked out with Jay-Z started performing with him. And when Tom Hanks stopped by at the beginning. Who would have ever guessed this JT would have the star-pulling-power Justin Timberlake can pull now? Just goes to show you can never assume too much about anyone! 

Finally, after a long trip home (traffic! construction! rain!), R and I made the best decision ever, which was to not unpack but to continue eating all the cookies and cake that Mary sent home with us, order an epic pizza from Whole Foods, pass out watching "Parks and Rec," and buffer it all with popcorn and kettle-corn. Is it any wonder why I'm so crazy about this dude? The whole trip was wonderful, but I was exceptionally satisfied with all of our worthless gluttony when we got home. What else are long-term relationships for?!

"morning devotionals"

I'm in that place where I'm watching Beyonce videos every morning and crying sporadically while I do so. Just throwin' that out there.

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