On the road again

On the way to the airport I told the kids they had to do ONE THING while I was gone: teach Luke to say MAMA! So imagine my surprise when I got in the car and he said, "DADA!" WHAT?? At least I'm off on another trip, so they have one last chance.

As much as it kills me, Dustin and I are headed off to Hawaii Saturday at 8 am. OK, it doesn't kill me, but it is hard to come home, see the kids and take off again. Plus I have been SLAMMED trying to get caught up, plus ready to leave for a week again including getting the house ready for parents to inspect every nook and cranny. Three days is not enough.

I want to call everyone and catch up, read blogs (so no one post anything for a few days since I'm already behind on commenting), waste time on facebook. . . but I'm short on chunks of time. I have done some really dumb things lately in an effort to do everything as quick as possible.

Tuesday night on the way home from the airport I ran into Fry's to pick up ice cream for Nate's Valentine's Day party (and ketchup--it was an eclectic trip which explains why I was back the next day to spend even more money). I just ran in and grabbed the first thing of vanilla I saw. As I'm walking back to the car I realize I have not bought ice cream, but instead some "lactose-free dessert product." Thank heavens for toppings to disguise imitation ice cream.

Can't wait to come back and settle into life, although, what will I look forward to? Oh, and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

BABY and It's Cold Outside

Well I may be freezing my butt off, but I'm sure I'll put it back on with all the food I'm eating. I am currently baking two desserts for us to eat after dinner tonight. Or maybe before. Or maybe in lieu of. . .

Friday I flew out to the bitter cold of Virginia to visit my sister and her new baby: Miss Olivia Skinner -- just 2 weeks old. Despite my sister promising me that the snowageddon destined to hit the East Coast would not reach Williamsburg, it was snowing when I landed. Kathleen had to make an unexpected trip to the pediatrician, so Jill (my fantastic old neighbor) picked me up from the airport and took me back to her place. It was so fun to catch up, see their apartment, play games with the kids, force Ronan to like me, see Noah, meet some of their new friends & disrupt her Bunco preparation before Miss Olivia showed up (oh yeah, her parents came too) in all her adorableness.Olivia let me sit in the back of the car with her and even hold her during dinner. I know she happened to smile at me ON PURPOSE a few time. And she fell asleep on my chest -- something Luke has refused to do for 5 months.

Saturday Jill braved the snow storm to come up and spend the day with us. While most of the city stayed inside due to the snow we didn't let it slow us down. Luckily for Kathleen and me, Jill, the native Arizona girl, was willing to drive around in the snow. We went shopping at the outlets (where I bought shorts and t-shirts in the middle of a blizzard), out to lunch at The Blue Talon (where the hot chocolate tasted like they had just taken a candy bar and melted it -- yummmm), to the movies (where we saw When in Rome), and then back home (where Jill made us her famous homemade salsa for our nachos). It pretty much snowed the entire time and when it was time for Jill to head home the roads were iced over and she ended up spending the night so we turned on Food Network and broke out Guesstures and Pictionary Man. I'm so glad I got to see her as much as I did. I miss that girl!
Today I cuddled sweet Livy some more and then we bundled her up and headed down to Colonial Williamsburg to take some pictures with my nephew's Flat Stanley. Currently the last of our cookies and baking and we're debating whether we should watch the Superbowl just for the commercials or not. Also, I may be going through Olivia withdrawals as we speak.

Colonials are less than enthused about Flat Stanley projects at this point

I'm SUPER enthused on the other hand

The awesome snowman we totally made for Nate (or the snowman we were too cold to make and just posed with instead)

My kids have been totally hilarious about the entire trip. Sadie has probably been the most supportive. Thursday night Ellie and Nate were sobbing about me leaving and Sadie pipes up, "I can't wait for Mom to leave!" And then on the way to the airport (with the kids yet again crying) I mentioned that they would have way more fun with Dad and he is so much nicer than I am and Sadie adds, "And me too. I'm nicer than Mom too."

Thanks to my fantastic husband for taking on all 4 kids for 5 days without me, and to all my amazing friends who have pitched in to help out. I miss you guys all so much!!