“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.”

―Phyllis Diller

Please forgive me for not updating the blog. Things have been pretty hectic in our casa llena. I do have some fun pictures I'd like to share with you...if I ever get my household clean and organized!

My Birthday

My birthday was on the same day as my sister's bachelorette party and the best gift (two, in fact) was that I didn't have to worry about my kids for the day/evening. Kevin's parents generously took our boys to Columbus and my fabulous friend Stephanie came over and stayed with Meredith while the girls were out on the town.

On Sunday, Kevin's parents not only brought the boys back for us, but came with a wonderful dinner and cake that the boys helped make!

For some reason, Louie is attempting to be mad here (I can't remember why), but overall the three of them were very proud of their finished product, and I couldn't agree more!

Here, Benny "accidentally" put his fist into the icing. I love how kids do that. They're so quick to say "I'm sorry!" right afterward, but so excited to lick the icing right off. And don't doubt for one minute that the other two were having similar "accidents" as soon as they saw that Benny wasn't read the riot act for doing such a thing.


"Birthdays" may be the boys' favorite holiday. They don't care whose it is, just give them cake and candles and they're in heaven. Good thing we're all family because there is quite a bit o' spit on that cake.

Mere is just taking it all in with Grandpa. I imagine that soon enough she'll be mixing it up with her big brothers, but for now, she loves any and all of the attention she gets.

New Friends

How great is it when your new friend not only gets along with you, but also with your three siblings? From a mom's standpoint, it's great when this friend comes over! Jake is so good with all the kids--even Charlie and Meredith. He has a 13 month old sister, so he probably has some practice with the little ones.

In this picture they were showing me their vampire teeth made out of candy corn, so that kind of explains what Louie is doing. They all get excited when Jake comes over, whom they call by his proper name of Jakob. It's pretty cute.