I wish I could bottle you up!

My friend Janna took this picture of Sean 2 1/2 years ago. Seany had the BEST smiles for pictures! It hangs in my kitchen. I LOVE IT. We call it "Seany in a pot." Well I decided I wanted one similar of Addison to put up in the kitchen, too. I got to thinking what I have, and this morning I had a sudden burst of inspiration: I decided to use all my canning stuff!


Here is what I came up with. I took this picture today. I call it "I wish I could bottle you up!"

Addison will shortly be joining Sean on the wall in my kitchen. I love my boys!!!

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Okay, maybe not, but remember this post? I finally got around to taking pictures of my new table, and here to introduce it to you is Emily... and the rest of the Meredith children.

I had a little bit of a rough day today and it really made my day when Ms. Kristen brought me these beautiful flowers (tulips are my favorite!!!) and my friend Kim brought me these cookies (she makes THE BEST cookies). Thank you so much! You guys are so wonderful!

Addison fell asleep on the floor while he was playing during my piano lessons today. I love this age where he just sits up and plays... and then passes out. LOVE him!

Here is Addison stealing the remote while watching American Idol. Why am I posting this you may ask? Because I thought it was cute. Why else?!

Yeah, this one too.

Whatever person said that 4th babies don't have as many pictures as first babies never met this camera happy mom. :)

Addison is 8 months old!

Oh I just want to kiss those cheeks!!!

I can't believe how old my little Addison is now! Only 4 more months and he will be 1! It makes me sad how fast he's growing up and that he won't be a baby too much longer! It goes too fast!!!

...but at the same time, as he grows up, he starts doing more and more things. Some of my favorites are:

• he sits up by himself! Yay! Now he can sit and play, and his bald spot can actually grow back in!
• he loves to be silly with his brother and sisters (oh man! don't corrupt my baby!)
• yesterday, I'm sure he waved at me. It was so cute!
• my absolute favorite: he reaches f0r me now when he wants me. He gets this huge smile on his face and reaches out his arms for me. It melts my heart!
  
  

I included this picture today because it cracks me up. Emily fell asleep on the couch yesterday afternoon, and Sean covered her up with my workout mat. I promise my children have blankets.

Well I can't believe it, but Addison has now had his second haircut. He is only 8 months! Not as dramatic of a transformation as this one, but he still needed it.

before

after

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

These guys will not get pinched today. Well, at least not for the lack of wearing green...

p.s. Thoughts on pinching? Could there really be any worse thing for a child's self esteem than not wearing green to school on St. Patrick's day? How I despise that tradition... (the pinching part, that is...)

I feel like...

Liah feels like kicking back with a good book. Today's pick: Dazzle's First Day of the Butterfly Meadow chapter book series by Olivia Moss.

I feel like this:
Why, you may ask? Tax return arrived this weekend, and today GONE is my student loan! Yeah!!! My college is officially paid for! Hooray!!!

How my 6 year old describes ice cream...

For dessert after dinner today, we had ice cream left over from Sean's birthday party. You know the phrase "lighting your mouth on fire" in reference to hot food? Well Liah informed us that her ice cream was "catching her mouth on snow." I about died.

"Wow, Mom, this ice cream is really catching my mouth on... snow!"

p.s. Jeremy and Sean went to the monster truck rally today at the TRAC. Oh, man, were they ever both in heaven. You know, as far as trucks destroying other cars goes.

3 years ago today...

3 years ago today, I was:

• sitting right here.

• watching my brand-new baby breathe through a ventilator and fight for his life.
• wishing I could hold my baby.

Today I am:

• celebrating 3 years with this little guy.
  
  

Happy Birthday Sean!!! I love you and I'm so glad you're mine!

My day today

Today I helped out at Liah's school's book fair. Our car got a flat tire last night, so I had to walk to the school. I realized about half way there that it was really COLD outside. It took me a solid half hour to dethaw once I got there. I don't know why it is so fun for me, but I love scanning those books that the little kids decide to get and seeing how fast I can figure out how much change they need before the machine actually tells me. Okay, I warned you I was a nerd. But it's fun.

I hear a lot of funny things while helping at these because, well, it's a bunch of kids. But my all-time favorite definitely comes from when I helped last fall.

girl: "How much is this?"

me: "It's $6.99"

girl: "Okay."

*two minutes later, same girl*

girl: "How much is this book?" (same book by the way)

me: "It's still $6.99"

girl: "$6.99 is a lot. Can I give you 5?"

*clearly this girl does a lot of yard saling with her parents*

The cool thing about helping out is that you get a certain amount of credits towards free stuff, and the spring book fair is a buy one get one free. So I got $20 in credit for working the book fair (between last time and this time), so I got $40 worth of stuff for free! Yay me! One of the things I got is a Children's Dictionary. I've wanted one of these for my kids, specifically Liah, ever since she asked me the following question:

"What does tangy mean?"

Uhhhh, I had no response to that. Tangy means tangy, right? I had to look it up! I really wanted to tell her to just go look it up. Now she can. I made sure this dictionary had that word in it today before I got it, too. For all you out there that don't know the definition of this word, it means "Having a distinct odor or taste." Yeah, I didn't know that either.

Today my girls had their ballet pictures. I love doing their hair. They always feel so beautiful.

Also today, I met with a prospective piano student and his dad. One of the biggest compliments I get as a teacher is when parents of my other students refer people to me. It was so flattering to hear today that "I really want him to start taking from you because, well, I've heard [this student], and she's a smart girl, but a lot of that must also be from the quality of teacher." It basically made my whole day.

We need a large!

Rhonda is having a contest on her blog where you have to post a funny travel story. I think I have a shot because I think this is the funniest travel story EV.ER. Hopefully it counts. My brother is going to thank me for this. Not that he reads my blog...

I grew up in the middle of nowhere in California. Lived there all my life until I left for college. It's really in the middle of NO.WHERE. Don't believe me? Look up Ridgecrest, CA on a map and I dare you to find anything worth talking about anywhere near it. Consequently, we had to drive a looooong way to get to anywhere. Every summer for one reason or another, we would travel to Utah. Of course there were LOOONG stretches of road with absolutely NOTHING along the way. No restaurants, gas, bathrooms for miles and miles in between.... you get the idea.

One summer, we were taking our annual trip to Utah. We had stopped for lunch at one of the actual few stops along the way. We always stopped at Wendy's if we could because it was the one time we actually got to eat out, and we loved getting Frosties. Yum! Of course my mom had everyone use the bathroom before we took off. Sadly, for some less fortunate siblings, being able to "hold it" isn't really one of their best skills. A few miles down the road, and of course, in the middle of nowhere, "I have to pee!!!!" Sorry, Gavin, you're just going to have to hold it because there is nothing for miles. "I can't hold it!!!"

What is clearly the most logical route here??? Gavin must now pee into a cup because, sorry, we're not stopping. My, oh, so fortunate brother, Ian, gets to be the designated cup holder. Lucky guy...

So here is poor Gavin relieving himself and poor Ian holding the cup, and it is getting more and more full... dangerously full... Ian groans "EEEWWWW! It's WAAAARM!!!" All of us onlookers are feeling thankful that we're not Ian. Next is heard "We need a LARGE!!!" "It IS a large!!!" "We need a BIGGIE!"

Thankfully, a disaster was diverted. Talk about your close call. Sadly, I think we're all scarred for life!

Liah's first email

Last year I taught Liah how to read. She is amazing for a kindergartener. As a reward for doing so well, I set her up her own email account to write letters to her grandmas and her aunt. She was SOOO excited. She could read all the emails by herself, and then I would type her response as she said it. Today I decided to let her try writing the email all by herself. I think she did a really good job and I thought it was so cute!

Here is the actual email:

hi lorie i love you i love the tooth box you gave me . im seding a leter. a packij to the kids? for saits pachrickx day? i dot knoe. lorie its seas brithay. im seding sana clos a leter. what are you doing ritnwo? i dote knoe. love liah.

(She even made it pink)... Translation:

Hi Lorie! I love you. I love the tooth box you gave me. I'm sending a letter. [are you sending] a package to the kids for St. Patrick's day? I don't know. Lorie, it's Sean's birthday. I'm sending Santa Claus a letter. What are you doing right now? I don't know. Love, Liah

It cracks me up how she views the actual words she says, like paCHrickx day, packij and sana clos. I don't think I would have ever come up with that. Anyway, I thought it was cute.

Speaking of cute... here are a couple pictures from this week. Sean LOVES to hold Addison and often will say "I want hold Add. Pleeeee??" They are such sweet brothers. Emily also loves her brothers. Yesterday, she wanted to hold both of them at the same time.

Emily has decided the last 3 weeks for church that she wants her hair curled. (She has to tell me all throughout the process that her hair looks weird, and I have to keep telling her: I'm not leaving it that way... I'll let you know when I'm actually done!) I think she looks adorable.

This is awesome!

My sister-in-law sent me this in an email today and I just had to share it with the world. Jeremy and I got the biggest kick out of this.