today i sat on the stand at church in my regular spot, hiding behind the piano and organ, appearing when the music began and disappearing once it ended. i love this calling. i love catching the eye of friends who make me smile. i love watching families arrive together i love watching my friends with their families, i love watching the primary kids copy my movements and get embarrassed when i smile at them. and, most of all i love watching my husband with my babies. today georgia sat on his lap, snuggled in close with her soft and bo. andrew was on his right side snuggled in, coloring in his star wars activity book. dylan was asleep in the aisle in his car seat. what a sweet picture i have in my mind from today. i don't know how to even express the emotions that swelled up in my mommy heart but i was totally overcome. it's a powerful thing, this family business. we started as young sweethearts, madly in love with each other with huge dreams and empty wallets. slowly that love grew and we added so much of our dreams to our reality. we added one tiny person, then another and now our third. while our wallets aren't much fuller, (thanks in part to three rapidly growing children) our home is and our hearts are. a young couple blessed their baby boy today, they named him andrew. this took me back eight years to a snowy morning in utah. i remembered blessing our andrew, how it seemed like such a miracle, this little tiny baby, that he was really ours. i watched him today, from behind the piano, he's turned out to be such a handsome boy. full of joy and energy topped off with a faux-hawk. (he made me do his hair that way today)   i can't believe he will be baptised this year. and that sassy georgia, what can i say, she has stolen our hearts. and i can't wait to see what our laid back go with the flow dylan has in store for us. what a gift to be a mother, to have a beautiful family and to have so much love around me. there are a few snapshots of life i carry with me, this will always be there, in my mind. a father and his three babies, snuggled together on a church bench. maybe next time i could come out from hiding behind the organ and piano to join them. hmm, maybe not, then i'd have to play finger puppets and color star wars guys and search for binkis for dylan.

georgia's vice

you know we all have one, georgia's just happens to be sugar. not just any sugar, the marshmallows from the lucky charms box. she begs daily and nightly for this sweet little fix and this morning she found the box all by herself and i walked in just in time to have her turn and say the shmeshmellows are all gone!

getting ready for easter

found this little hat at target today, couldn't resist! and yes, i love to kiss on those cheeks all day!

trapped

do you ever sit and wonder about life around you moving on? i mean in a strange and foreign way that as you sit inside the four protective walls of your home that life goes on? hmm, i suppose this thought would seem odd if you had not been on my sofa with me for the past few days. this thought has haunted me as i have been tending to sick babies. three of them, all at the same time, crammed on the couch coughing, sneezing, sniffing and wheezing all over me. don't get me wrong, i love to cuddle, hold and make feel better but we have had so much of it this year it's becoming quite ridiculous. with andrew in school full day and georgia at preschool we have liquidated our savings and have opened a walgreens on our kitchen counter. well, maybe that was a little exaggerated but, you get the point. it surprises me when friends are out and about, grocery shopping, having lunch and not wiping noses, holding sad feverish babies and measuring out yellow cough syrup. i am so looking forward to this winter season being taken over by spring. to allow warm breezes in through open windows, let my kids run around barefoot and breathe warm air deep into their weakened lungs. countless doctors visits, a few specialists lined up and a 3 am hospital visit have trapped me in my home. there is a rumor the sun will shine on this rain soaked desert this weekend and my heart is full of hope that a warm breeze might take away some of this sickness, and some of my cabin fever. either that or i'm going to have to look into tenting the house and lysol bombs.

it has been a lifetime ago since i last pressed the "new post" button. or, at least it seems that way to me. i guess you could say life has been a whirlwind. not a scary tornado where everything is chaos, just a happy whirlwind in which everything i was used to was turned upside down and mixed into something completely different. different meaning i can't find where i left my brain, my organization button or the part of me that can handle anything past 6 pm. for instance, my day started at 5am when dylan (oh, that's another story - where we came up with that name) decided to gag, cough and spit up all of his yummy milk. all. over. the. place. so a nice cleanup took place in the morning light and just as i snuggled back into slumber a georgia kate decided to come snuggle and then the alarm. it seems like the hours of the morning fly by when you just want to sleep. so, now we are all showered and somewhat dressed. i say somewhat because i have learned, the hard way, to not put on nice clothes until just before i leave the house. my son, dylan, has been given the nickname of seagull. but even amid the fog of tiredness, i have accomplished a few things this morning. i have snuggled my georgia (she seems to need a lot of that these days), i have paid my bills - with my trusty tinkerbell pen, georgia has covered my left arm with stickers from her sticker book, and i am contemplating the removal of the barbie sticker she kindly left on the top of the desk. as eric reminded me the other day, i am lucky. lucky to be home, to be covered in stickers and spit up, to play pizza parlor with georgia a million times, to watch disney and snuggle my babies. three is turning out to be nice. a little crazy but can't we all use a little crazy at times?

monday?

i'm nervous, apprehensive, scared to death and yet very excited all at the same time. today i sat alone, half dressed, on the table in the doctors office, tears freely welling up in my eyes. strange place to be, i know.  i have not been a good pregnant person this time around. i have been tired beyond anything i have ever experienced. i have had wild mood swings and plain and simply stated, my moods were not easy to control. i have felt immensely ornery and aggravated with everything and everyone. i have not always been kind and those who i love and care for the most have born the brunt of me. so today as i sat alone, exposed, and feeling quite isolated i processed the words my doctor had just used. if not by this weekend, we'll see you monday. what does that mean? that my moods will mellow out? that my aches and pains will be replaced by new and foreign pains of the after? the thing i do know is that the world is going to drastically change for me and my family. we will have a new child in our lives. a sweet, squishy squirmy little baby who will keep us up all night long! my simple afternoons are now looking uncertain, my life will be much busier and my children will need to shift their roles as we welcome this new being into our lives. crazy as it sounds, eric and i don't even have a name chosen for this child. georgia may win the battle as we bring home cake eric marshall.  we'll keep posted. any advice on a name?

three years old today

how do you celebrate your life when you only have three years to call your own? well, you wake up super early and immediately request chockie mok and a show. fill your morning hours playing with your brother and yelling at anyone who disrupts your flow of imagination play. have lunch out with the family and eat all of dad's lunch, not your own. have an afternoon snooze and wake up super grumpy, the kind of grumpy that only some serious snuggles from dad can cure. you eat your favorite dinner of mac and cheese and broccoli, and mid eating you decide to play dog and have dad feed the puppy the rest of your dinner. after dishes, you sit with mom and help her decorate your tinker cake the way you want. purple and pink! don't forget to tell mom to put the frosting on your finger so you can taste each color of icing. oh, and you tell your mom the cake is perfect after she places the little yellow flowers around the edge of the frosting masterpiece. and, to top off the day, when the cousins come to help eat cupcakes and open presents, you are showered with gifts that only a three year old would love. jewelry, horse and carriage for a princess, books and all the tinker things you could want. the night is topped off with your favorite night cap, a sip cup of chockie mok, two books and snuggles from mom and dad. i'd say that's a pretty fabulous way to celebrate three years of life. happy birthday georgia kate!