Done. For Now...

Remember this post about my late-night online picture-ordering fiasco? Yeah, that one... Well, I finally finished my order the other day quite uneventfully with another round of free shipping for Labor Day. (saved $38.00!)

To my delight, there was a box on the front porch when I came down from putting the kids to bed tonight. I whipped the door open and dead-lifted the what-seemed-like 50-pound box into the kitchen.

{Just to be super-cool for my blog, I actually lugged the box upstairs to the bathroom to weigh it on the scale. 23.2 pounds. That's it?! I swear it felt heavier than both big kids put together!}

Anyways... Here's what almost 3.5 years worth and 2,102 pictures look like when you order them all at once.

{54 envelopes, 2,102 pictures, 23.2 pounds, 3.5 years}

What's that you say? How long will it take me to put them into albums now?

We're not even going to go there... Let me bask in the glory of this accomplished task for a bit.

Wordless Wednesday

A Few of My Favorite Things

I thought it would be fun to do something different and show you some of my {favorite} things that I can't.live.without. This is quite a wide variety, but what I could come up with today! {And truly my favorites}

1) Dr. Pepper

Oh, how I love Dr. Pepper! Any of you that really know me know that I don't "drink", but would just always rather have a soda. It's my sweet potion to relaxation... My "Calgon, take me away"...

2) Target

What would I do without Target!? Well, for starters I or our children would never be wearing any cute yet cheap shoes, clothes, or have good quality generic toilet paper! {Or as Mark would say, "spend way less money..." No, not on toilet paper, the other fun stuff I get there, Silly!} I have to go at least once or twice a week or I don't feel right. I always "joke" that wherever we move, there has to be a Target nearby. Notice I put "joke" in quotes. I'm being serious. Dead.Serious.

3) Burt's Bees "Baby Bees" Products

I'm in love with the scent of these products. I'm fully convinced that this is what God intended babies to smell like. The groovy people at Burt's Bees are onto something I tell you. I can't take my nose off of my children's hair after bathtime. {Heaven} And it's natural too. Perfection.

4) Chipotle Restaurant

Again, Mark can verify this. I'm addicted to Chipotle. Really their chips, but the other food is smokin' good too. But back to the chips... Crispy perfection with real lime juice and large-flaked salt. Oh mama! I need two bags. One for dinner and the other to snack on for breakfast the next morning. Again, no joke. And I've got the kids hooked too. {Bad mommy!} I've never been happier then when Chipotle came to town last spring. {Okay, just maybe when Target opened 5 minutes from my house... But it's a tie!}

5) Clorox Wipes

I know, I know... This isn't the most "green" of my choices. I'm not proud of it, but these things are seriously convenient. I always have a few tubs. They're the perfect counter-wiping, toilet-wiping, mess-wiping wipe. I use them every.single.day. {Unless I'm rebelling against cleaning for a bit, but they're always on stand-by...}

So, there you have it. My first "Favorite Things" list! I'd love to hear who else loves these things with me. And of course, I want to know your favs too! :)

We Let Her Go...

Well, we did it. We let go of Bella just long enough for her to escape into the wonderful world they call Kindergarten. Her first day was last Wednesday, and honestly it was a day that I've been dreading for a long time. I mean, just look how upset utterly excited she looks about going...

She did great! She has been excited about it for a long time and always loved preschool. We knew she'd do great. It's just that she's our baby and still so young and in a bigger school and what if he gets lost and all new friends and all new teachers and recess where she could get hurt and what if kids are mean to her andandand...

She picked out a new pink and purple backpack, had her dress picked out for weeks, and wanted me to do a braid in her hair. We took pictures in front of the house in the same spot that we have every year. Doesn't she look SO old!? {sigh}

Daddy did great for the most part. He was sad and had many second thoughts like I did, but knew (like I did) that it was the best thing for her right now. {Just look at how she adores her Daddy!}

And then there's Mommy... I may look fine here, but I was running on adrenaline to get her to school at this point. I even made the comment to Mark on the way that I couldn't believe that I was doing so well. Of course that was all ruined by pulling into the school's parking lot.

{Dunt. Dunt. Duh.}

I thought that maybe, just maybe I had gotten it all out the night before when I laid with her as she slept in bed. Not so. Of course you still need to act excited and happy for your child, so I wasn't going to cry until after she got out of the truck. Well, long story still long but shorter now, after walking her to her classroom (which I was NOT expecting to do...), I got in the truck and cried. A little, and then a lot when nursing the baby to sleep after getting home. (Thank goodness I put on my waterproof mascara that gets applied, oh, maybe twice a year!)

Now a week later, she's still doing great and loving it! I haven't been sad since the first day either. It was just a matter of getting through it. Isn't that always the case with the many milestones and firsts of your child's life?

Believe!

If anybody doesn't believe that Brigham's really one (it's still hard for me!), just check out this picture. Proof enough, huh!? He hangs around the fireplace approximately half the day. I have to pluck him down from standing on it approximately 400 times a day. I believe that this is classic one-year-old behavior at its best.  Maybe it's the genes, or maybe I just have to stop putting that crazy "little monster" pj shirt on him. I think the idea is starting to seep into his brain, and we all know that he's nowhere near a little monster. Quite the opposite really. So, there you have it... Proof. Now please excuse my while I go do some monster plucking off my hearth. No joke.

To-Do Tuesday

I haven't done a To-Do Tuesday in a long time, so I guess it's time for one! Nothing is really exciting this week, as it's more of the usual. I do really need to get the kids' closets organized, though, so I can pack up some of last season's clothes to make way for fall and winter clothes. I love the freshness of the closets with the new season's clothes but loathe yanking out bins from our old-house-tiny-crazy-shaped closets. This is one of my most dreaded jobs as a mama! Bella and I are also on a mission to get her thank-yous out from her friend party 2 1/2 weeks ago. (I know... tsk, tsk!) Then just some la, la, la, la, la, la not thinking about it... school paperwork to do for the kids. What are you doing this week!?

Blueberry Birthday

Ah, sweet Brigham... Just like the berries from your morning pancakes today, your love oozes all over us. With a lot of sweet and just the right amount of tart, you've been the perfect addition to our brood since the day you were born.

I don't think words can describe how special of a little boy you are. We all adore you and can't wait to explore, discover, and teach you more new things this year. And just for the record, even though you're technically now a toddler and no longer a baby, you'll always be my Baby Briggs...

Happy 1st Birthday, Brigham Isaac!

{We love you!}

Ingenious

The kids were sporting their bed blankets capes the other day while playing outside, and this is what I found when I peeked out the window to check on them.

Superman's gotta fly, you know!

Leave it to our Lincoln to figure this out. I know that I'm partial, but I dare you to disagree that this is the most imaginative young-three-year-old that you've ever seen! ;) This is our child that weed whips with a stick every.single.day.

{Oh, and check out #2 on the playlist below to see what Lincoln's favorite song is now. How he loves his tractors!}

Mother of All Forts

The kids wanted me to build a house {Fort} this morning. Yippe! It's been a while since I've built one, as I think they've forgotten just how good mommy is at building them. ;) (I'll have to remember to add "master fort builder" to my mommy resume...)

{Insert chest puffing}

Bella had the request for me to build not only a house, but a school too. I sent the little rascals outside to play so I could surprise them when I was done. "It's huge!", Bella squealed with delight. Yes, yes it is.

{Insert proud head nodding}



Mark and I also have a friendly little competition going on when it comes to constructing forts. He dares to think that he can even keep up with me. Silly. I have just one question... So, Honey, how do you like me now?!

Not So Snappy

Here I sit at the computer. {11:32 P.M.} I'm tired and want to go to bed but can't. You see I'm uploading as many as I can of my quadzillion old pictures onto Snapfish before 12 midnight to take advantage of the free shipping offer. A quadzillion pictures would cost a lot to ship, you know. I've been meaning to do this for a.long.time. (Remember many, many posts ago??) I'm not very good at keeping my pictures organized. Ahem. It's not going smoothly either to say the least. The computers are freezing up (yes, both the desktop & laptop), the baby's been awake twice in the last ten minutes, and I'm trying to type this now as my last pictures are downloading and the letter "m" is sticking. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm {See.} Ah, Brigham's crying again...

{Insert minimal sleep}

Okay, now it's morning. {9:34 A.M.} As you can see, I didn't get my post done last night when I started it. Long story. When I went to submit my final order of 2102 prints at 11:59 P.M. an error occurred. Needless to say, my cart was messed up, my prepaids messed up, and I now have approximately 0 prints shipping to me at this point. This is after spending hours on this project. {Lovely} I am not happy tosaytheleast. Snapfish, no. Snailfish, better. (I must say that I've never had a problem with them until last night. Just this one minor problem... Rolleyes.)

Off to try again. Pray for me.