Please Join Me

In wishing my husband a VERY HAPPY

30th Birthday!!

(It's not until Sunday, but I wanted to give everyone ample time to leave him a birthday comment.)

He was out of town last weekend, and while he was gone, some of his work buddies turned his work space into an early birthday present:

I'm not quite sure how to beat a naked mannequin swimming in his cubicle. Any ideas for topping this?

Happy Birthday, Love!

Bagel Love

I love, love, love bagels. If you do too, print up this coupon and get over to your closest Einstein's. My personal fave is the original bagel with Vegi-schmear. (Just a suggestion!)

Every once in a great while I'll have one of those days where I wish I was still renting an apartment rather than owning a home. It usually happens when I start to think about the drama involved in selling a house or the constant upkeep. But I am immediately brought back to reality when I think about my last apartment, where we lived above our landlords. Although I pretty much despised my time there, when I look back, I usually get a good laugh about how odd an experience it really was.

When we first signed our lease, we think our landlord knew our names. As the months went by, we noticed gradual changes of Rob's name on our rent receipts. The month we moved out, our receipt was for Ron Williamson.

We were told by the previous tenants of the apartment that our land-lady's name was Cling-on. They were wrong, but not too far off.

To get to our apartment, you would have to walk behind the house and up a metal staircase. The view from the staircase was of a large pile (I'm talking an entire backyard) of driftwood and animal bones. And a shed full of garbage.

We had poop-brown shag carpet, and for some reason our landlords seemed to cook a lot of potatoes and onions. Our apartment constantly smelled like food.

They decided not to take out some windows when putting an addition on the house. So when you pulled the blinds on some of our windows, you'd only see insulation.

Our landlady named her dog after her husband, and he found it flattering.

While walking to the car one day (I was pregnant with Maddie) Cling-on noticed my maternity pants. She said, "HEY! You found yerself some of those funny pants! I seen them at Sears, and got myself some too! Aren't they comfy?"

She used to feed the stray cats in the neighborhood, but never with cat food. We'd walk outside to see cats surrounding plates of cheerios, or spaghetti and meatballs.

Then there was THIS story.

We heard the phrase git-er-done on a daily basis. Usually as a goodbye. Example:

Me: I'm just headed to the store.

Him: Okay, well, git-er-done. (often said with a half salute)

Don't get me wrong, the lady was a hoot, and so was the husband. But man....living there sure was an interesting experience. I'm glad I have memories like these to help me appreciate my lack of landlords.

"I'm 1, 2, Free."

That's how old Jude turned yesterday. If you ask him, he can't tell you without counting it out on three fingers. Happy Birthday Juders! We love you so much!

The other day while walking past Maddie and Jude's room, I overheard the two of them playing house (aka, Maddie plays house, and narrates everything while Jude sits around playing with trains, mindlessly repeating whatever Maddie tells him to say). Anyway, I listened a little bit closer, and Maddie kept telling Jude that he'd better hurry up because they were going to be late for their wedding. I poked my head in and realized that they were already pretty late. I'd say like five or six months late.

Back to Mexico!!

We spent the first day of our vacation just lounging at the resort, playing in the pool, exploring the grounds, and eating fresh guacamole and Pico De Gallo. It was the daily 3pm snack. This may sound unbelievably dumb, but boy do those Mexicans really know how to make mexican food!! We also had Mexican hot chocolate with every breakfast and dinner. It's one of my new favorite treats, and since returning home, we've only found one place that even comes close to our Chef, Leopaldo's, version.

If I learned one thing in Mexico, it's that life is better with a personal chef.





The second day we went to a theme park called Xplor, It was located just outside of Playa del Carmen, which was about twenty minutes from our place. The park had four main activities: Zip-lining, swimming through caves, rafting through caves, and jungle buggy driving. The zip-lines were the biggest attraction. You actually cover almost two miles over eleven different lines. I had never been, and I was really nervous about going, but I somehow managed to get up there (I'm talking 1500 feet up-there) and found that zip-lining is awesome. We weren't able to get any pictures, but it was an amazing experience that I will definitely be doing again. Here are some shots of our day at Xplor.

Meet Laura (pronounced Lowda). We never really met her, but Rob and I watched this couple LITERALLY run into every single wall in the cave. We know her name because her poor embarrassed husband kept crying out, "Oy, Lowda!" when she would hit a wall. I couldn't understand all of the "encouraging" things this man was saying to Lowda, but Rob could...and he couldn't stop laughing. Rob and I ended up taking the longer route (supposedly twenty minutes longer) just to get out from behind these two. But about five minutes before the tour was over, the routes merged, and we found ourselves right back behind them. Oy. Lowda.

(While wrapping up this post, I was reminded that Xplor was NOT day 2, but day 3. Looks like I'm missing a lot of pictures of our day at Tulum. I'll try to get some from my family, and post about it soon !)

Do you watch House? We do. So I was intrigued the other day when Rob sent me a link and asked, "Is this the House song? Without the lyrics?" It's a cool theme song, but it's even better with the words. The video was mesmerizing. And weird. And then it got creepy. See for yourself.



I love my babies. I love being pregnant. But the thought of any of them putting on a music video, in utero, is a little much for me to handle.

Santa Was Kind

My brother Johnny and his wife Sierra joined us for Christmas morning, where good times, laughter and sugar were abundant. The kids made out like bandits, and have spent most of their time since playing with new toys rather than fighting over the TV or computer. A mom couldn't ask for more.

I was a little dismayed when Maddie looked at her new kitchen, and ran straight for her new $7 Tinkerbell Umbrella that Santa left in her stocking. But she has since taken a liking to the kitchen and is constantly bringing us food and catering parties for choo-choo-trains. (Ahhhh, kids)

Jude got exactly what he wanted. A choo-choo-train slide with Thomas and Percy. Those were his exact words. When we visited Santa and Jude asked for said toy, Santa looked at me and said, "I have no idea what he's talking about." He then told Jude, "You sure talk fast, son." Apparently Santa's helpers were able to translate. Jude won the award for Best Christmas Present Reaction.

Ella, received one of those ball-popper toys, and has spent very little time with it. The second she starts to play with it, Maddie and Jude come running and giggling, throwing elbows and tossing small children to get three seconds of action with this thing. There needs to be much more emphasis on the PLUS part of "12+ months."

Rob spent the morning laying around with the kids and enjoying his new Mario Brother's Wii game. He sure looks handsome in his new Avett Brothers and Radiohead Tees. (A couple of our favorite bands).

I spent the morning fretting over the turkey that refused to cook. But after eight hours in the oven (yes, really) we finally declared the bird done. (And by we, I'm referring to the evil "I've been starving myself all day," glares I was getting from my brother-in-law Aaron. He still denies it.) It never reached the appropriate internal temperature, and I was SURE we were all going to spend the rest of the weekend sick, but we ate it, and it was pretty tasty.

Enough with the talk - on to some pictures. I hope everyone enjoyed their day to the fullest extent.

Remember that time...

...that Ella turned one? No? Oh, that's probably because I'm a bad mom. Here's how the day went down. On November 14th we woke up at 6, threw some clothes on our kids, jumped in the car, and drove Ella straight to Rob's parents' house. We then left her there for eight days while we enjoyed sunny Mexico. I may have yelled, "Happy Birthday," as we drove off. Poor kid.

Happy Birthday, two months ago, Ella. I hope this staged scene makes you realize,when you're older, that we really DO love you. You've been an absolute joy this past year. You're adored by everyone you meet, and your Jude-like-grin (read: cute gap between your front teeth) makes everyone around you smile.