we got to spend the day with my brother’s family a couple weekends ago.  it was a pretty near perfect day. we brought a rocket. and we launched it. four times. and no one got their eye poked out. “ready my son?  begin the countdown.” “4… 3… 2…” the arguably smarter half of the group stayed a safe distance away.  my brother also reasoned it would  be much easier to claim they weren’t with us should any law enforcement officer type persons arrive to haul us away.  “1!”  …  …  “did you push the button?” … “push it again.” … “huh.” [please standby.  we are experiencing technical difficulties.  thank you…

during the christmas vacation, phil, ‘uncle’ james, and mikey went off for a boys’ night out.  i could see allie was wanting to go too, so thinking off the top of my head, i told her that the boys leaving means we get to have Girls Night In. she wasn’t quite sold. yet. so i continued that Girls Night In involved doing everything Girls Like To Do without any boys around to bother us. she was listening. [the boys slipped out]. i listed off a few of her favorite things to do and suddenly, Girls Night In sounded waaay better than boys’ night out. whew. so while the boys went…

once upon a time, exactly four weeks ago to be exact… there was a not-so-little little boy whose tooth came loose! and exactly four weeks and one day ago, the mom who was helping the not-so-little little boy brush his teeth before bedtime, thought to herself that the wiggly, waggly tooth was going to pop out at any minute and resolved in her mind to take a picture of the crazily angled loose tooth first thing the next morning before it popped out. but alas, early the next morning, while the mom’s sleepy head and half-closed eyes were still reposing on her pillow, the not-so-little little boy sat down on…

the kids had two weeks off for christmas vacation.  two whole weeks.  we stayed home.  we (i) slept in.  we ate a lot.  we napped.  we had a verrrry loose structure to our days.  and these are the pictures of little moments in those two weeks that i kinda want to have back.  especially the sleeping in part. allie’s school christmas program.  allie’s class were all angels.  she’s in the front row. (mikey had his school program the following evening, but since phil had to work late, it was just me and the girls in a packed auditorium and not really any chance of taking any pictures.  boo.) getting photo…

phil was home this past weekend which was, in and of itself, a special treat.  and being that saturday was the first day of the new year and all, i decided to start us off with homemade cinnamon rolls. and it would’ve been all the more awesome if i had remembered to let the rolls rise long enough, too.  but i was too hungry to wait.  maybe next time. after leisurely taking our time getting ready in the morning, the afternoon found us at the zoo.  we had been debating whether or not to get the yearlong zoo membership, until the zoo sent us an offer we couldn’t refuse.  a…