Pictures for Steve

 Our fun, crazy, beautiful little girl!

Brother and Sister

When I was pregnant, everyone told me, "your kids are going to be best friends because they are so close in age".  Well maybe this will come to fruition in time, but right now, they don't play like best friends they play like brother and sister.  .  .
Milo steals Taya's baby, Taya screams, Milo runs around the house laughing, "you'll never ever ever see her again".
Mom interjects makes Milo return baby. Has the talk about being on the "good boy team" and peace is restored. . .
For 5 seconds.
Taya wants Milo's drink.  Even though it's water (just like hers), and it's in an identical cup, she is thrashing and clawing for it.  I tell her, "no", and she pretends not to understand me.  Even though when I ask what color popsicle she wants she can tell me, "blue, now please".  The idea that she can't have everything brother has cannot make sense to her.  Milo yells and climbs up on the couch, tips his drink upside down and makes it "rain" on Taya.
Mom interjects, thinks of something to say about being kind......
Then mom really wants a nap.
Nap time isn't for four more hours.
I have actually heard of moms who make cookies while their children are awake, or work on a little craft, or even work out! 
I am always so confused why I am the only mom shimmying my way up the oh so tiny tubes at McDonalds to fish my screaming child out.  Why are they always at the very top?
I always thought that I would be one of those Pinterest moms, but honestly I don't know how people have time for that. I can't even find time to re-pin the good ideas on how to raise children. 
You'd think I would be terrified to add number three to this mix, but honestly I'm so used to it, that if I were able to just sit and eat my Big Mac in peace, I would be fat and bored.  My kids are chaos.  but they are also really fun.  I hope I'm doing things right, and sometimes I'm sure I'm not.
As a mother, the only emotion that caps exhaustion is happiness. 
There are always small moments in every day that make all efforts worth it.  Like when I catch them cuddling while they watch "Tangled"  or they dress each other up and run around holding hands.  Or when Milo saves some of his cookie for Taya "because he loves her so much".  The challenging thing is, that these moments are blended among mac and cheese mess and wiping runny noses.  I often miss how adorable they are being because I'm too busy cleaning up life.  This stage may be slightly difficult, but I'm positive that it will also be one of my favorites.  I love these sweet kids even if they remind me of jungle monkeys some days.

Things I've already learned about baby #3

Things I've already learned about baby #3
-He (I think it's a boy)  is pretty angry right now and is making me sick as a dog.
-He must be funny.  I usually prefer drama to comedy, but lately I think every joke is extra hilarious (Even my dad's jokes). Watching "Revenge" makes me physically sick. . . Watching "The Office" re-runs sounds like a great idea even at 3 in the morning when I get up to pee for the 100th time.
-He must also find it funny to hear me say stupid things all of the time, because wow the things that keep spilling out of my mouth.  I keep blaming it on exhaustion, but really I think he's just messing with me.  Seriously the things I said at my Dr.'s appointment the other day. . . wow.  I kept prefacing with, "I promise I'm not one of those crazy pregnant ladies, but. . . "  Pretty sure my Dr. booked a trip on my due date after I left the office.
-He must be a salt addict like his mama.  I keep making yummy sweets and then not touching them, but you stick a hot pocket in the microwave and I salivate.   If I get put on a low sodium diet again, I am screwed.
-This little guy is going to get the best of me.  I have so many emotions about this baby.  I am anxious, nervous, excited all of time.  It feels more and more real every day (as my stomach starts popping out ALREADY).  I hope he's getting out all of his angrys right now and is going to be a sweet baby.  Already counting down the days until we get to meet him. 

P.S. little baby if you end up being a girl, I am super sorry I called you a he for nine months.

Hillbilly Delux

 Until I married Chris, I never recognized that we live in the stix.  Guess we do--and I love it.

 Papa and the little tractor man, discovered a way to make the best of the Massey during the winter. 

 Milo was so excited to drive the tractor with papa.  I kept telling him that he could ride in the sled too, but he just wanted to be a tractor man like papa. 

 See those mountains in the background, that's were normal people go to sled, but not us, we got creative. 

 Grandpa is trying to convince Grandma that we need a four wheeler for next years sledding, but look at all those happy faces.  The tractor worked just fine.

 My sister's cute family.  Her girls are fearless. 

 Unlike Taya, who really just wanted to eat snow pancakes and have grandma hold her.

Milo finally jumped in the sled near the end.  He loved it too.  He is the luckiest little boy.  He kind of has grandma and grandpa wrapped around his little finger.  They put on this whole production because they knew that he would love it.  And at the end of the day he is just so darn happy and cute you'd do anything to repeat it.  .   .   . 

Christmas 2013

Favorite things about Christmas:

Watching Milo get all jazzed up about seeing Santa.

We went to a Christmas breakfast and all of the kids were standing together, waiting for "the big man" to make an appearance.  When Santa walked in, Milo jumped up and down yelling, "Santa.  It's Santa".  All of the other kids just stood there, but Milo definitely put on a show.

 Taya poking Santa in the eye.  Tay hated the mall Santa.  She realized that he was handing out coloring books, and wanted nothing to do with him.  However, Santa at breakfast, gave out candy canes. . . Taya was all about that.  She would snuggle him and then point to the basket of treats--she's a smart one.  And yes, that is a fork that she is holding in the picture.  For a couple of days we couldn't get her to part with it.

 Getting to put Taya in her Christmas dress.  The little stinker wouldn't take a good picture, but she looked like a princess.  She was absolutely adorable. (Thanks Grandma Vicky).

 Christmas morning with the kids.  It was so fun to see Taya and Milo freak out over their new toys. 

 Taya was a little confused, and kind of scared when she first got up and came into the room.  Milo was an awesome big brother and showed her that new toys are nothing to be scared of. 

 Check out that great big brother promptly running little sister into a wall.

 The snoopy dogs were kind of a joke.  I was short purchase money at Kohl's, so I threw them in, with every intention of returning them.  Good thing that I didn't.  The kids loved them.

The kids were such a fun age this year.  We carted them around from party to party.  They were on extreme overload for days. Kids make Christmas a million times more fun.  They loved spending time with grandparents and cousins- the gifts didn't hurt either:)

Tis the Season

I love the whole month of December.  So many fun things to get the kids all hyped up for Christmas.  Last Sunday we got to experience gingerbread houses... well gingerbread tractors, thanks to Grandma Bird.

Taya just stuffed her face with handfuls of candy.  She never actually touched her house, but she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Milo obviously enjoyed it too. 

Look at that smile!  Priceless.  Aunt Ellie was singing the gummy bear dance and cracking him up.

Milo is so big this year.  He gets to experience all of these fun festivities for the first time and it makes me so happy to get to watch him!

Vegas Baby

We took our first vacation without our kids. 
We went to a couple of shows

Walked the strip (in the pouring rain).














Played in the arcade.




We gambled. . . Not like boring slots gambled, we fell in love with roulette.  Chris was awesome at winning... and I was awesome at losing all of his winnings:).

It was amazingly fun to have some time together.  I couldn't believe how relaxed I was from the moment we took off.  I have never been away from the kids like that, and I was worried that my anxiety would outweigh our vacation fun-but it didn't.  Probably because the kids were having the time of their lives with grandma.  A couple days after we were home Milo looked at me with those killer brown eyes and asked, "are you going to leave me at grandma's?"  I felt this twinge of guilt, "No, buddy Mommy is staying with you.  I'm not going anywhere."  In the middle of the smothering hug (given by me), he says, "Ah man, Grandma's fun.  You go to the airport and Grandma can sleep over".  .   .   .  .  .  .  He obviously missed us lots.