Thank You For This Day

There are days that I have to make a conscious effort to remember that my children are a divine gift and not a cosmic punishment (can you hear my mother's evil laugh at that statement also?).

"What could I have possibly done to deserve these little kids?"

It is an ambiguous question.

I asked myself that at the park today, but in the "good" way.

It was a cool, breezy morning and I totally enjoyed my little girls and nephews.

We played in the sandbox, swang on the swings, played "bears" in the tunnels and watched Mia cross the monkey bars all by herself! Eva had a picnic of pear baby food while sitting in her stroller. It was great. I love those days.

Aren't they cute?

You can't even tell that a couple days ago, they got in trouble for tackling each other over the blocks at preschool.

Such a good baby.

We monopolized the swings. Didn't mean to be unfair, we just have lots of kids.

Isn't James cute? Wait - that's Pierce!

Go Mia, go!!

Waitress!

"The bananas were great. The rice cereal was edible. But you can send the peas back."

M.I.A.

Have you been wondering where I've been?

Like maybe I cracked under the pressure of all that I do and gave up blogging?

NEVER!

I have been here friends:

With this gem of a girlfriend:

Doing crazy stuff like this:

Spending way too much time in the sun doing this:

And I'll admit, a little of this:

Okay, you got me. A lot of that.

And eating delicious food:

And catching up with one of the best roommates a girl ever had:

Preschool Again!!

Mia is now in the Bear's Class! Yay for preschool! She was very excited to start school this week - and even more excited to share her school with cousin James (who is also a Bear)!

And since this blog is all about Mia -

Let's sit back and enjoy a short performance by one of our favorite Cuties,

The Girl With The Yellow Hair

Spokane

We went on a trip! Well, Ali, Eva and I did. Mia stayed home to "take care of Daddy". We went to "make lemonaide" - you know, out of life's lemons? Yes, and then we added some tequila and happily enjoyed margaritas! Take that, life!!

Anyway.. it was a very busy vacation. Lots of people packed in to a very short amount of time. Here are a few highlights...

We landed at the Spokane airport and looking out the window, Ali yelled, "Look Mom! Snow trees!" My daughter had never seen a pine tree that she could remember. Tragic.

Laying by the pool and chatting with Auntie Gwen.

Watching oodles of second cousins play together.

Seeing Gi Gi Mommy and Nana.

Pop Pop told his mom (Nana) that she was like "an old bag of dried chicken bones". Yes, he did. Oye.

Okay, there were more highlights, but let me tell you about one MAJOR low point..
We boarded our 6 am flight for home only to sit at the gate for maintenence issues for 30 minutes. We pull away from the gate and some lady gets sick. We taxi back to the gate and let her off and try again.. The guy behind Grandma dashes for the bathroom and tosses his cookies. We taxi back to the gate. We get in the air and land in Denver just in time to MISS our connection. Frontier rebooks us on a 3pm flight and gives us each $50 vouchers. We spend 5 hours in the airport and as boarding time draws near... the flight is delayed another hour. We finally arrive at DFW at 7pm. Thanks for that, Frontier. I'll be sure to fly with you again the next time I want to spend an entire day in the airport with a sleep-deprived 5 month old...