the paper bib

sometimes you just have to...

sport the paper bib
embrace the old bay seasoning stuck in every little crack of your manicured finger nails
pop hush puppies even though you know they're just deep fried globs of corn meal
laugh at the seemingly misplaced sausage in your basket of seafood
eat your whole dinner with your fingers, including the red potatoes
fight to get every last little morsel of crab meat out of those darn legs

why? because life shouldn't always be neat and tidy.
hence, the bib.
thank you joe's crab shack, and my cute mom for choosing it.

newest tradition

So starts the time of year for family traditions. Well, we have traditions all year long, but the next few months seem to be jam-packed with them. Last year Allie and I attended the Clytie Adams production of the Nutcracker at Weber State University. Chloe and Blair danced in it last year and so we went to cheer for them and ended up having a most wonderful time! The whole time I was thinking how fun it would be to start a girls tradition of going to the Nutcracker with Grammy and all the girls. I proposed the idea and all were in, so this year began the newest tradition. We also took the opportunity to take mother/daughter pictures which everyone loved except Makenna but we still got her to smile.We had a wonderful time, the dancing was phenomenal as usual and hearing a live orchestra is always a treat. It was so cute to see Allie sitting in the middle of the two littlest girls explaining what was happening as the different dancers took their turns on stage. Last year that was the role that I played with her, but this year she was all grown up and made it her job. After the ballet we were all starving, most of us ditched breakfast to get there on time and our tummies were rumbling. We ate at one of our favorite places, Mimi's Cafe, if you haven't tried it, you definitely should. Their corn chowder served in a cute croc with a doile and a honey bran muffin, mmmmm, so good. The girls were just so cute, except Allie who was done having her picture taken. What a great day!

what sundays look like

Many a Sunday is spent eating dinner at my mom and dad's house, usually with the whole family in attendance. We try to take some Sunday's off just to have our own Sunday afternoon's occasionally, but family dinner is fun and I would miss it if we ever moved away. Sunday we celebrated Ethan's birthday, again (we always celebrate on the Sunday closest to whoever's birthday instead of trying to get together during the week). Since Ethan isn't old enough to have a favorite meal, or care that we're not having his favorite meal, we had my favorite meal which is my mom's homemade chicken noddle soup. I've tried to make it myself, it's never the same.Mmmmm, look at all that butter, no wonder I have so much junk in the trunk. This is how we all (except Rich) feel about mom's chicken soup... Rich likes it ok but is not big soup guy. And this is my cute mom who makes the chicken soup, seriously, don't I have the cutest mom? She is growing her hair a little longer these days and I love it! The crossword nerds, Rich and April look like this every Sunday...They are the only two in the family smart enough to do the crossword, with the occasional help from my dad. Later we had the real cake and ice cream since on his birthday we were all candied out from Halloween and so Ethan just got a cake wedge to himself. We sang to him again, and he blew out candles, again. And he loved it, again.I included this picture, because it just makes me laugh, could these two look any more alike?Sheesh, like father like son, same expression, same eyes, same lips, same EARS, oh my. No milk man's baby in this family. The only thing I didn't get a picture of is the dinner table itself with everyone sitting around talking too loudy and quoting movie lines and laughing, a lot. If I would've tried to get a picture of this, Jake would've flipped the camera the bird and Jason and Brandon would've made goofy faces. As it was, they were alreasy teasing me about the chicken noodle soup pictures. "are we going to see those on your blog on Monday?" No smart allecks, I didn't get around to blogging these pictures until Wednesday, so there. I love my loud obnoxious family and I love my mom's chicken soup. Good times.

saturday slaves

Just to be confusing, I worked on my SPT and now I'm documenting about the weekend before. Try to keep up k? Saturday the kids rocked raking leaves and doing chores. I did nothing but painting moulding the entire day, yuck. I should've taken pictures of my hands, and maybe the giant glob of white paint in my hair, but then my camera would've gotten all gross and you know, that wouldn't be good for business. Allie decided to get creative with the rake and came up with this state-of-the-art lounge chair with ottoman, pictures courtesy of Spencer, because again, my hands were covered in paint. He had a field day taking pictures of her and she isn't shy about posing, so these are just a few of the twenty or so that he actually took. After my kids slaved at our house for the entire morning and into the afternoon, they went to my mom's house to slave some more, only she gives them money for their sweat so they don't mind so much. My mom said they fought over who would get to use the leaf blower, honestly, I wish I had a picture of Taylor handling that bad boy, I'm sure it was quite a sight. As "part of their payment", my mom took them to Su Casa for dinner which they love, especially with Grandma, it's kind of our Grandma & sometimes Grandpa place to eat. One time she took them there and when the check came she pretended to the kids that she didn't have any money to pay for dinner. Really worried like she said, "you guys, I think we're going to have to wash dishes or something, I forgot my money". All the kids fell for it, bad, they were worried the cops were going to come and take her away. After a few minutes of worried torture she lets out her dr. evil laugh and the kids all roll their eyes. Does this sound like a sweet little old grandma to you? :) That's because she's not, which is why the kids love her.

sisterly love

It's been a fun but busy couple of days around here. Wednesday my mom took the day off work and we had a fun little "girls" lunch at Mimi's Cafe, if you haven't eaten there you need to, EVERYTHING is good, especially breakfast, and lunch, and well, everything is good. My favorite is their corn chowder soup and a bran muffin. Yes, I said bran muffin, they're super yummy especially when you don't spare the sweet butter. I neglected to get a picture at lunch, I always forget to have the waitress take a pic for me, and this time I really regret it because I'm sure we were quite a site! The highchairs/booster seats out numbered the adults, but it was a suprisingly uneventful lunch, thank you kids! I really am grateful to finally have sisters, I've waited a long time for them and I'm so lucky with the ones who've married in, my mom and I both agree on this point. I have actually lucked out on both sides of the family when it comes to sister-in-laws, I have the cream of the crop for real. It's so nice to finally have more than just boys to talk to and hang out with at family gatherings!This picture was taken Labor Day weekend at my mom's house, and although it's not the best picture of any of us, it's one of my recent faves because it reminds me that I'm no longer the only girl in the family (beside mom of course). We are all very different from each other and usually that is a great thing, we all bring something unique to the table although I'll admit that sometimes this has gotten in the way of our friendship. But, we know each other's intentions are always good and so in the end we always come back to being friends and sisters. I especially like that they are having babies with whom Ethan can grow up with since he's kind of a loner. The most important thing about having extended family though, is that my mom has the cutest grand kids, no ugly babies in this family! After lunch grammy entertained the babies while April ran with Makenna for a potty break. The grandkids LOVE their grammy, no doubt about it. You maybe can't tell from this picture, but both boys are squealing with laughter because of the "bumble bees" rhyme she does that always ends in some kind of tickling. What a fun day!

grammy time

Allie has been spending a ton of time at grammy's house for various reasons. She has been doing some cleaning for money for her the last several weekends but I think the real reason Allie loves to go doesn't have anything to do with cold hard cash. Grammy has a way of making you feel spoiled rotten and since Allie is the only granddaughter that's her age, she gets to do those grammy sleep-overs all by herself and really enjoys that one-on-one time with her. My mom loves Allie too, of course, it's fun now that she's getting old enough to be one of the girls. My mom called the other day to tell me that the last time they got together she understood clearly how much Allie respects the rules of Rich and I's home. I was surprised by this and asked her what she meant and she proceeded to tell me a story. She said they stopped at Classy Chassis for some hair stuff and while they were there, they checked out some of the hoop earrings. Grammy offered to give a set of large hoops to Allie (which Allie would love nothing more than to wear hoops as big as her ears if I let her) and without even blinking, she said "no, those are definitely too big and my mom would never go for that". My mom thought that was pretty great especially because if it had been me growing up, she knew I would've tried my darndest to push the envelope and get away with it, and she's right. She told me that she also tried to talk Allie into a practical joke of both of them showing up at the house wearing magnetic studs in their noses proclaiming to have both had their noses pierced just to see our reactions. Allie wouldn't even consider participating because she knew I wouldn't think that was funny, and Rich would think it was even less funny! (I actually feel kind of bad that she thinks I'm such a stick-in-the-mud, I would've laughed for sure!) I have to laugh because lately Allie and I are doing that adjusting to her new attitude thing mothers and daughter go through, so it makes me feel good that at least for the time being she isn't too tempted to push the boundaries. Of course I know that the key words in that sentence are, "for the time being" but I'll take it while I can get it. Funny girl.