"You don't know you're beautiful!"

My newest niece, AJ, was born yesterday. I am posting to the blog and Facebook simultaneously so that no one is left out. She is beautiful and perfect and small. She is a girl. The first girl in 7 years after 6 boys in a row (1 a year between 3 families)...

AJ and her family

 

"I have KIDS!" 

Big brother trying to eat Daddy's hamburger!

 

"I'm at a payphone, trying to call home"

We haven't fallen off the Earth. The boys were sick - stomach flu - and they had it BAD. Two of our darlings continue to have it "not so bad." Also, my job as Kindergarden "auction mom" has begun to need actual attention. Let's just say that it's been a rough few weeks. I remembered why I haven't volunteered for anything since H-P was born. Speaking of which, he'll be ONE in less than a month. ONE. I just can't believe it.

So, true to form, I just took the boys to Disneyland today. Buck had a dentist appointment, so he was out of school at noon anyway. Disneyland seemed to be a good option with no backyard to run around in. Also, I wanted to completely exhaust my boys.

Buck and Thunder wanted to meet Woody. So cute.
I am teasing you with no pictures of the backyard. I wanted there to be a dramatic change. Come back tomorrow :)

"Hey I heard you were a wild one"

I know, I have fallen off the blogging wagon again. It was Holy Week. It was Easter. We went to Reno to see the Joads and my Gma J. I had to organize and then run a woman's brunch this morning. RKZ was gone all weekend. Excuses. Excuses. Excuses. 

 H-P was a little sick last week. Here we are looking fuzzy. 

 Thunder had his first SKATING lesson!! He loved falling down the most. Did it on purpose after awhile

Some of our closest Canadian friends came down to visit. Here, the husbands celebrate having a friend again (yes,  I mean the beer). We had such a good visit. We didn't see Buck or Thunder all weekend. 

This is a picture of our boys. They have all decided that they are best friends now. They have a 6 and 3 year old. Really amazing friends. 

"In too deep - can't think about giving it up"

Just checking in. We had friends (Barbie and Ken H and their children, Brother and Clarke-bar) from Canada come to visit this weekend. It was awesome, actually. "Easy" was the way we all described it in the end. The H's have a 6 year old and a 3 year old boy. Our boys had some weird simpatico with each other. The 4 of them got along wonderfully all weekend and there wasn't one time that we had to intervene. That is a modern-day miracle around here. H-P is still a bit sick but Barbie is a nurse, so that actually helped with medicine administering. This morning, Buck cried as he said good-bye. It was tough to watch because when Buck said, "I just don't have any friends like him" we both knew it is painfully true.

The backyard is coming along but I will only post so many pictures of dirt. Some rebar has been installed just to make our backyard completely unsafe - and some pipes have been put into giant trenches.

Back to life!