See what I mean?!

They want one (see previous post) too! The ol' jogging stroller, in which they were sitting when this picture was taken yesterday, just isn't good enough anymore. A scowl, the likes of which I've never seen before, clouded Baby Sister's face. (Alright, alright. The dirty looks were not because the Girls saw pictures of the Taga bike and were drooling over them, that was all me, but rather because they were disgusted with the delay in our walk when I fumbled through all of the storage compartments looking for my camera and made them pose for a picture.)

All I want for Christmas...

is one (or two) of these!!
I saw them last night, Tori and Dean were taking a ride through the park with Liam and Stella on their reality show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. Afterwards I hopped off the couch and went to my trusty friend - the internet. After a quick search I found them here. After checking out the website I am even more in love. They have so many variations from a single, to a double, to one that is even compatible with certain infant seats. Not to mention that they easily go from bike to stroller with ease! Move over, double jogging stroller this could easily replace the soft spot I held in my heart for you. Can't you just picture it - me, Baby Sister and New Addition on the double with J and the Girl on the single?! Ah, bliss. I wonder if they come with the blue skies and sunshine as an option too. I'll take one in green...and another in orange.

Papa's Girl

My parents were here visiting this past weekend. And man-oh-man is Baby Sister a Papa's Girl. When she sees him, whether they are just arriving, she is waking from a nap or he enters a room after having been out of her sight for a few minutes, her reaction is always the same. Up go her outstretched arms in his direction. They are buds and no wonder...could it be the three cookies he let her have after dinner on Saturday night. Or the cookie he tried to give her before breakfast on Sunday morning. Sorry Dad, I know that they have oats, dried cranberries and wheat flour in them but I have to draw the line somewhere.

A League of Their Own

Move over Rockford Peaches there's a new team in town, the Lions. Yesterday at the Girl's t-ball game there was a poor roster turnout. Wouldn't you know that all the girls showed up and only one boy out of the seven on the team (Who says that guys have a fear of commitment?!) was in attendance. Unfortunately, that one boy is quite a bit younger and doesn't seem to care too much for t-ball yet.

Watching those sweeties out there with their locks peaking out from underneath helmets, I couldn't help but think of A League of

Their Own. As for J, he was right at home coaching all girls. Nothing new for him. He is after all, outnumbered 3 to 1 at home as well.

F.I.T.

Fashionista in Training.
This morning the Girl ran into Baby Sister's room upon hearing that she was awake. By the time I got in there the Girl was holding several articles of clothing in her hand asking Baby Sister, "This one, or this one?" To which Baby Sister, standing in the corner of her crib, would point and say, "kay," while nodding her head up and down. By the time this highly structured process was over, the Girl was holding a complete outfit in her hand and proclaimed, "Ok Mom, she's ready to get dressed and she picked it all out herself." You could see that the Girl delighted in this little exchange with her Baby Sis and she seemed quite proud of the resulting outfit. Admittedly, it was pretty cute and definitely tamer than the Girl's standards.

I'm Back!

And with a new header to boot!! Most (or all) of you may have noticed that new posts have popped up on my blog but that they are far from new, with dates that may go back a few weeks. To those of you who don't blog, blogger allows you to save unfinished drafts of posts and my post list has been backlogged for quite some time now. Thanks in large part to Baby #3 and the bouts of exhaustion he or she has brought with them. On most days (Except for the ones where I was able to get 9+ hours of sleep the night before - right, like that ever happens with small children!) of the past few months, mid-afternoon would roll around and I would find myself on the couch drained of energy. It was all I could do to form a complete sentence and keep my eyes from glazing over. On several occasions I fell asleep with the Girls playing in the next room. Not that I should or am complaining, for me being pregnant is and has been life as normal with the exception of an ever expanding belly...no nausea, no morning sickness, no water retention, etc. But this exhaustion is not something I experienced with either of my other pregnancies. Hence the delay in my blog posting as most of it is done 'after hours' when the Girls are peacefully asleep in their beds. Lately, I've fallen asleep in the Girl's bed after we finish our bedtime routine of stories and prayer, sometimes not waking until morning. But, I'm happy to proclaim that in my 16th week I am feeling less tired, more energized and ready to get some things in order. Let's just say that this blog isn't the only thing in my household that has been neglected over the past few months. So yesterday I busted my tail during Baby Sister's naptime to get my posting current when I should've been thinking about what I was going to fix for dinner or a whole host of other things (dishes, laundry, cleaning toilets). I have every intention of keeping things up-to-date from here on out and composing and completing entire posts in one sitting rather than clicking the 'New Post' button, formulating a title and then hitting the 'Save Now' button only to abandon the computer for the warmth and comfort of my bed. Wish me luck!

A good day.

I woke up this morning dreading the main task on my morning agenda...a trip to the Department of Licensing. I braced myself for the worst-case scenario and made arrangements for my friend to pick the Girl up from preschool were I to spend the entire morning in the inevitably long lines that are such a familiar circumstance of the DOL. Not to mention the certainty of my impending incarceration due to driving for 26 days with an expired license and having never registered my new address with the DOL per their strict 10-day change-of-address- notification policy after we moved out of J's parents' basement and into our house over four years ago. Which may I add, is why I never received a reminder in the mail notifying me that my license would be expiring soon. It was only when J received his notification in the mail on Friday that I realized mine had expired on my birthday. Anyhow, after dropping the Girl off at preschool this morning, Baby Sister and I headed straight to the nearest DOL. We arrived an hour after it had opened and as I retrieved Baby Sister from her carseat and grabbed my bag laden-full of snacks I was already anticipating the line that was surely weaving out the door. But there was no such line and we passed through the breezeway of the building straight to the ticket counter to pluck our number from the machine...number 28. Imagine my surprise when we took our seat among a nearly empty waiting room and noticed that number 26 was currently at the counter and that there were four counters open! What luck! But that didn't give me much time to formulate all the excuses I would surely need for letting my license expire and not having changed my address. While a monotone voice droned, "Number 27 now being served at counter number four," over the loudspeaker I resolved to rely on Baby Sister's cuteness to get me out of my jam. As it turns out, I wouldn't need it. The only sna-fu that I encountered was the vision test where I recited off the letters listed on line number three when the woman behind the counter had asked me to read the letters from line two. Nothing wrong with my vision, I just don't know my number recognition. She didn't seem to care, or even notice that my license had expired nor did she seem concerned that my address had changed. She didn't even ask how long I'd been at my new address. In two short minutes it was all over. No jail time. Not even any fines or additional charges for having let my license expire. Baby Sister and I were in and out of there in ten minutes. It was seriously the least amount of time I've ever spent in the Department of Licensing and the least hassle as well. I'm getting worked up even thinking about my last two trips, once in Denver right after J and I had gotten married to change my name on my license and the last time when we got new licenses after having moved back from Colorado. Both of which involved long wait times and serious hoop-jumping. To say the least I was very pleasantly surprised to be pulling out of the parking lot less than 15 minutes after I had arrived. And so it was a good day. A day in which, instead of being hauled off to lock-up after an extended wait in the DOL, I found myself in the grocery store following Baby Sister around as she toted a two pound block of cheddar through the dairy aisle.

A day in which, my friend picked the Girl up from preschool anyway as we both knew she'd be less than thrilled to see me after the possibility of being picked up by my friend was made known to her. Which brings us to this. I left Baby Sister playing contentedly downstairs while I ran some clean laundry upstairs and gathered some more dirty laundry. After a few minutes I became keenly aware that it had suddenly

gotten too quiet downstairs. We all know what that means. I crept quietly down the first flight of stairs and as I rounded the landing I saw this...Baby Sister playing on the computer. She had abandoned the Little People in favor of pushing the chair over to the counter, climbing up and clicking away on the keys of my laptop. She knew she'd been caught red-handed but she was pleased as punch with herself for accomplishing such a picture-worthy feat. A good day indeed!

At least there were the ice cream sandwiches...

This weekend we learned that bleak, chilly, rainy weather and a holiday weekend do not a successful garage sale make. But at least there were the ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream sandwiches that put the exclamation point on the end of our three-day weekend after dinner last night. As for the garage sale, my friend and I along with the Girls did it together and while it was not a rip-roaring success it was

not a total flop either. My friend made close to $100 and I walked away with $160. All for stuff that was in our homes (or attics) not being used and destined for the Goodwill. The Girl and Miss A didn't fare too badly either, raking in $34.50 for the lemonade and baked goods they were selling. Not too shabby considering that selling lemonade with the weather that we had was like trying to sell ice to an eskimo. Thanks to all

the strangers with dear souls, gracious hearts and a few extra quarters in their pockets who bought a cool, refreshing glass of lemonade on a cold, wet day just to put

wide smiles on the faces of a couple of eager (sometimes bordering on pushy) 4-year old entrepreneurs (and one 20-month old who tried to get in on the action). It was so wet that even this guy seemed to be looking for somewhere dry and he nearly hopped right on into the garage to browse the sale himself.