a super pumpkin birthday

This past weekend we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday.  Seriously, he's 60!  For some reason, this big birthday of my dad's actually makes me feel older.  Anyway, my mom had a very special surprise planned for him - a hot-air balloon ride with one of his kids (who would be picked randomly since it wouldn't be fair for him just to take me because I'm his favorite..), but unfortunately since it had rained so much the days before, it was cancelled because of the muddy conditions.  We were all so bummed, except dad since he had no idea he was going to get to go up anyway.  So we made the most of the day and had a really great time despite being "grounded."

We did a little pumpkin carving/decorating.

Kaiden's pumpkin

Lydia's, er... I mean...Ruby's pumpkin

Emilia's pumpkin (okay, so she had a little help too...)

Clara's pumpkin (yes, we're all a little concerned about the very psychotic nature of this creation, but she was VERY proud)  ;)

Adeline's pumpkin (complete with curly hair on top to make sure it looked girly)

Time for a party!

Dad and his cake.  He was very excited.  Must've been because of the pumpkins Addie added to make it beautiful!

One of my favorite parts... Millie actually fell asleep in my arms!  I can't even remember the last time that happened!

So, despite the fact that we missed out on a hot air balloon ride (which my mom did make up to us by giving us each a nice surprise...) we had a great Saturday with family!

Now I'm home today with a sick little girl.  Addie had a fever of 103 yesterday!  It went down with tylenol and a lukewarm bath, but got up to 102.4 in the night again so she ended up sleeping in our room... which meant a total of 2 1/2 hours of sleep for me.  Her fever is down this morning on its own, so I think she's on the mend.  Now I'm just praying the other two don't get it. I'm actually glad its a rainy day today - perfect for watching cartoons and hopefully sleeping!

photo session

Tate had his first photo session yesterday with the girls.  Let me warn you that the following pictures aren't the best.  Addie can't seem to give us her real smile for pictures these days.  It's either closed-mouth or trying to show ALL of her teeth.  Millie has become VERY clingy to mommy when strangers are around, so she wasn't about to show Angela (the photographer and my friend from high school) her smile.  And Tate, well, he did pretty good.  He just didn't want to smile until after the flash.  Nonetheless, they are my babies and I think they still look pretty darn cute.  Enjoy!

The only way to get a real smile out of Addie was to get her to laugh by tickling her:

"I just dare you to make me smile."

And this one is very "tongue in cheek."  ha ha

my little pumpkins

Yesterday we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed out to Center Grove Orchard.  The kids loved it and mommy did too!

Addie got to feed the horses some hay!  Not actually sure if she was really supposed to, but hey, why not?!

Little pig, little pig, let me in!

Millie and her cousin Ruby hid inside the house of sticks.

Cousin Clara taught us all a lesson on how to pick the perfect pumpkin.

We tailgated our lunch.

Awww... aren't they cute... (if I do say so myself!)

Everyone says how much Tate looks like Addie's baby pictures.  So I dressed him in the same outfit Addie wore to the pumpkin patch when she was little and tried to pose him the same.  

You be the judge.

Here's Tate:

And here's Addie:

Well, maybe this picture of Tate looks a little more like Addie: 

It's the worried eyebrow look that does it.  Don't worry, honey, mommy won't let you fall over!

family fun

Last night we were blessed with a visit from these guys:

This is Chad's Aunt Angie, Uncle Tim and cousin Ben from Michigan.  They were on their way back from Colorado, so they decided to stop in and see us for a short while and we're really glad they did!  They are such a great family and we had a good time with them, although it was way too short!

Seeing them made me miss their daughter, Betsy, who is now living in Paris.  I actually live vicariously through her on her blog, Qu'est-ce que c'est? (which means "what's that?")  For those of you who don't know, I was a French teacher before being a stay-at-home mom and yearn to go back to France someday.  Betsy is an "au pair" (or nanny) for a family in Paris, which would be my dream job if I were single.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I want to be single again, I LOVE being married to Chad and being a mommy.  I'm just saying that if I never would've met Chad (which I'm EXTREMELY glad that I did), being a nanny in Paris would be awesome.

Of course, thinking of Betsy also made me remember the fun times we had at Mardi Gras back in 2003.  I don't know how many times we were mistaken for sisters.  I'll take that as a complement.  Chad's parents live outside New Orleans, and one year Chad's spring break was the same week as Mardi Gras, so we got to "Laissez les bons temps rouler!"  Enjoy these old Mardi Gras photos!  (Hope you don't mind, Betsy!  Even if you do, it's too late now... I don't know how to delete pictures...)

And no, I promise you that we did NOTHING immoral to get these beads!  I guess we're just so stinkin' cool that they couldn't help but throw them to us.  :)

Chad's brother Mark came down too.  And Chad's dad even got into the fun by dressing all crazy.  (He had his heart boxers on over his pants)...  I'm sure he'll love knowing I put this on the internet for the whole world to see.

Au revoir!

a slap in the face

I'm assuming you've all seen this ad:

and hopefully thought the same thing I did..

*gasp* "How could Ralph Lauren hire someone so FAT to model his fancy-schmancy clothes?!  Surely this must be a plus size ad!"

Okay, so hopefully you weren't really thinking that... and to cure your curiosity, YES this picture was photo-shopped.  You've probably seen this all on tv already, but apparently this model was too FAT to show what she really looked like in this outfit.  She was actually fired for being too big.  Yes, I guess being 5'10" and weighing 120 pounds is now considered overweight.  We're all doomed.

So I was thinking... what's the best way to combat this Ralph Lauren insanity?  Here are the ideas I came up with...

• Burn every RL item I own?  No, burning these clothes would just be a waste of money and not really teach anyone anything except that cotton is flammable.

• Stop buying RL clothes?  HA!  That would really teach them, right?!  Oh, wait a second, I don't BUY expensive clothes!  The only RL items I own came from garage sales or were 90% off on the clearance rack.

• March around Younkers in the RL department carrying "Ban Ralph Lauren" signs?  Well, as fun as that sounds, I don't really want to be banned from the mall, it's kinda my only way to get out of the house with these 3 youngun's in the cold months... plus, It's hard to carry anything, let alone large signs while pushing 3 kids in a stroller.

So... instead I decided on this:

That's RIGHT, Mr. Lauren!  Not your typical anorexic baby in this RL romper! (there really is a polo symbol hiding in the fold of fabric)  But my adorable, very CHUBBY little guy.

(This outfit, by the way, was bought at a garage sale of course...)

So, TAKE THAT!

they're baaack

I'm sorry it has taken me forever to update this.  It's just so hard to type with a baby in one arm.  And I know you're all just DYING to know how the girls' trip went (all two of you, that is).


Of course, they had a BLAST.  They were so busy at the Disney parks during the day and in the pool in the evenings, that they didn't even have time to miss us!  Which is great, because I don't know how I would've handled hearing my babies crying for mommy on the phone and not being able to hold them.  It made my week much easier knowing they were having fun.


Following are some pictures they would like to share with you.  These first ones are of the princess lunch they had with 5 of the princesses (that was Addie's favorite part)!

And Millie's favorite part was meeting Minnie Mouse:

These girls were treated to an extra special treat too... After standing in line to meet Alice (from Wonderland, of course), and having a nice conversation with her, she invited them to come back an hour later so she could personally take them on the Teacups!  Wow!  That's pretty special!  So, an hour later they met up with her and she took their hands and walked them right up to the front of the line.  Addie was really excited that Alice let her pick which color teacup she wanted to ride in and that she let her steer it too.

Addie also got picked by this cute fella' to dance with him in the street party.

And this, of course, was my favorite part:

Finally back home!!!

 
Thanks Nana and Papa for such a great time!!!

And for those of you who are wondering how the garage sale went... it was pretty decent for being such a c-c-c-cold day!  We both did fairly well, but not nearly as good as the spring sale.  We had to cancel it on Saturday morning because it was so cold and rainy.

Hope you're all having a lovely week!  I know I am with having all my kiddos back together again!

a lonely silence

It's quiet here today.  That's not normal in this house.


My girls are gone.


Yup, gone.  For 6 whole days!  (insert sad sigh and frowny face)  Chad's parents flew here from New Orleans Saturday and then flew to Orlando with our girls on Sunday.  They took Adeline and Emilia to Disney for a whole week!  Needless to say, the girls are very excited about their trip.  And I'm excited for them because I know they're having a ton of fun.  But it was VERY hard to let them go.  I've never been away from them for more than one night!


Here's my very cute little grown-up girl pulling her own carry-on.

So, yes, it's very quiet here this week.  Except of course for Tate's grunting.  He grunts a lot.  Especially during church - or maybe it just seems louder in church.


Although I miss my girls like CRAZY, it is nice having some alone time with Tate.  I'm pretty sure he's enjoying it too.  He's been giving me a lot of smiles.  It's nearly impossible to capture them on camera, of course, but here's my attempt:

Come on, Tate.  Give mama a smile.  Pleeease!

There it is!  It's not his BIG smile, but a cute one none the less.

I forgot to mention that this was Papa Brooks' first time meeting his only grandson.  It was pretty special.  

And because our only complete family photo was taken in the hospital in my nursing gown, we had Chad's parents take one of us all together before the girls left:

I'm afraid Tate may be getting a little spoiled to all this alone time with mama.  But I'm pretty sure he misses his sisters too.  Especially when Millie shares all of her toys with him:

Luckily, I have plenty to keep me busy this week so I don't get too lonely.  I'm having a garage sale this Friday and Saturday (in 50 degree weather - Brrrr!) and you all know how insane I am about having a perfect garage sale!  So, it's off to labeling more clothes...

Hopefully the girls will call again soon...