randoms at home.

little mama.

every time there is a kitchen towel hanging over the oven handle, logan pulls it down and uses it to swaddle her babies.   love our girly girl.

the post i'm nervous to hit publish about.

blogs have a way of making life seem almost "better" than it is.   i can't handle fake and never want to appear that i'm putting a false impression of myself or our family.

so...here is where i say it, i don't do it all.

we're not always in good moods.   in fact, quite often LITTLE things get the best of us.   when i slammed the car door this morning and my son said, "that scares me when you do that" or raise our voices...it does no good.   life isn't always sweet tender words...and i don't like that but we are human.

we don't buy (everything) organic.  i know, gasp!!!  we really are healthy eaters and limit the amount of processed foods but organic foods aren't always in the budget of things.  so wrong of me, especially since i live in the mecca of crazy colorado foodies.   for right now in our lives, this is how we have to be.

our library books are always a few days late....oops.

it can be VERY hard for me to actually get down and PLAY with my children.   do other stay at home moms feel this way?!  its so hard for me to ignore the little chores that need to be done.   sometimes even when i am driving cars with them my mind is only thinking of the pile of dirty dishes on the counter.   or how often do i say "in just a minute sweetie" and then move onto my next little project.  this is actually something i pray about daily.

getting in and out of the car every.single.time is a battle.   every time!   but seriously, when was the last time you had a 4, 2, & 1 year in car seats?   its a work out...and i break a finger nail every time.

our house isn't spotless.   picked up?  yes, very picked up.   i don't handle clutter well.   i am constantly picking up throughout the day but that doesn't say our front door doesn't have handprints that are actually dried on food.

some weeks bible study hasn't been done till the night before.  eeks!

vance and i don't go on many dates.   if any.   not having family around is really really hard and who else loves our kids to even close to as much as we do?  only our families.  a dear friend of mine has been a blessing to us on this, so thankful.  

for right now, we currently have lane enrolled in kindergarten for next year.   this is a big one and brings tears to my eyes.   i don't know if i can homeschool.   so many people homeschool.    do i want to?!  in a heartbeat, yes.  but again, i don't know if i can do it all.   i'm not sure i can be a "good" mama, a "good" wife, a "good" housekeeper, a "good" chef, and be a "good" teacher.   my thoughts run wild...

so thats a glimpse at life.   is it wonderful?  heck yes!  is it hard?  oh yeah!  but everyday there is grace in motherhood and in a being person, wife, & friend.   so thankful his mercies are new everyday.   morning by morning new mercies i see.    

post-birthday birthday party.

angel food cake.   ((my favorite))  what we always had for our birthdays growing up.   

playing with some birthday gifts.

gage had a dr's appointment friday morning so we all ventured out...they had a kitchen in the waiting room.   she was in girl heaven.

nordstrom cafe.   eating mass amounts of fresh cauliflower.

playing in the snow before the sun goes down for the day.

not sure i should share pretty much the most unflattering picture of myself but we had quite the night.... i was sitting on the floor, grandpa's boots were in one of our child's hands, and the next think you know he swung that thing and clocked me directly in the nose.   i passed out cold, like, gone!   on facebook i said, "we've always known one of our kids has a really good arm and that was confirmed when one of our kids swung a cowboy boot and knocked me out.   so, if you see me and my swollen nose,  feel free to laugh because we sure are."   yep, a big ol' swollen black & blue nose.   crazy.   after we assessed it wasn't broken and no teeth were missing we started laughing...  man, it hurt but now we have an absolute hilarious story and when we makes it in the big leagues he can say he knocked his mom out when he was little.  

saturday we decided to throw nap times out the window & head to downtown denver.   we took the train, light rail, down for the kids to experience it.   we all had fun:)  it was seriously one of the best days we've had in a long time!!

3 generations of red hair.

downtown denver!

((love this picture!))

on the way home we stopped at ted's montana grill for supper.   yuuuummy!  we did it up, appetizers, meals, special drinks, and dessert.  

getting back on the train latte at night.

sporting his own little rockmount shirt that grandpa got him downtown.   so handsome!

gage found someone matching his new birthday pants :)

and that concludes gage's birthday week...i guess that means you're officially three!