Love This Little Guy

I'm sure you have been following my camera dilemma with baited breath so you are wondering where I got these fantastic photos. I still haven't found the camera but Heidi found the time in her busy schedule to get me these. Obviously I'm committed to using them in this forum now. Good thing they are super cute.

Meet Harper.

He is so adorable. Forehead wrinkling down on nose and all.

His big sister loves him so much. Even if she doesn't know it yet. Marley is the center of the world in Quincy, IL and having to share the spotlight is not sitting well with her. She will get over it judging by this sweet photo. But judging by her actions, it may take awhile :) I didn't have the heart to tell Heidi that I saw her throw a baby doll down the stairs so she will have to read it here.

His cousins love him a lot too. Izzy even told me that we are going to try and steal him. But I'm not supposed to tell Heidi.

Cambri loves not being the baby in the family anymore. In fact, she no longer allows me to reference her as a baby at all. She sticks her little finger in my face and says, "No, No, No baby."

The cousins had such a good time. Izzy wants me to call Heidi and ask her if we can move into her house permanently because it's fun being "company."

We went bowling and naturally the girls had a blast. Izzy even beat me!

We seriously didn't want to come home. Five days wasn't enough for us though I'm sure Heidi and Josh were ready for to us to leave as 4 additional people is a lot of stress. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to go and meet my little nephew at just two days old. He's definitely somewhere on the top two list of favorite nephews.

Bug Juice in my Coach Bag Excludes Me From Being a Terroist

 You know that fairy tale version of the story where you single handily travel across the country via plane with two small children and everything goes beautifully?

Where people congratulate you on "what wonderful children you have" as they deboard the plan.

The one where they sit quietly looking out the window the whole time you are in the air.

Well this happened to me last week.

Just kidding peeps.

Really just kidding.

What you don't see in this picture is that the kids mouths' have been covered with duct tape by the other patrons on the plane.

When Izzy, Cambri and I left for Quincy, it got off to a beautiful start. My dad kept the girls the night before so that I would be well rested. I left from Idaho Falls which requires arriving at the airport 1 hour prior to departure and checked in while my sweet children played tag with nonparticipating TSA workers. I just pretended to be shocked at people who randomly let their children run around unsupervised. But it's nice to be in a airport that only has a small handful of people instead of an international airport that is jammed packed.

It quickly went downhill. Every time I recount the story, my blood pressure starts to rise. Let's just say there was a ton of crying and screaming. And from the kids too!

There was fighting. And fit throwing. And a general throwing of items including but not limited to crayons, suckers, tangerines, Toy Story figurines and anything else I tried to give them in a feeble attempt to buy some silence.

Cam Cam got her head stuck between the seats. The poor sleeping guy that lifted his arm to see a smiling baby in his armpit, with her head completely jammed, jumped a mile out of his chair. When it takes two flight attendants and individually wrapped butter servings to save your child, it makes for a long day.

The absolute highlight of the airplane trip was when Isabelle stuck her arm up through my sleeve and accused me on not wearing a bra.

Very loudly.

Just in case you were wondering, I did have a bra on. Not that I planned on standing up to announce that or that anyone would have believed me. Awkward moment peeps. Very awkward.

You would think that this couldn't get any worse. But it kind of did. On the way home Cambri spilled Bug Juice on the man in the Gucci suit seating next to me. Ironically you really aren't supposed to bring your own beverages through security but the TSA worker let the Bug Juice go instead of making me throw it away because "no terrorist would dare put bottles of Bug Juice in their Coach purse, only a desperate mom." I guess I can have my airplane seat neighbor send his dry cleaning bill to her.

Chase knew of my horrible experience traveling to St. Louis so because we were all flying back together, he volunteered to do my a "favor" and let me have his first class seat.

And he would sacrifice himself and fly coach with Izzy. As long as I took Cambri.

Just so that you can all keep up, Chase volunteered to take 50% of our children (and trust me when I say he left me with the wild card) and do me a "favor."

For the love, this isn't a favor. It's called PARENTING. I chose to throw him a bone and not call him out in the airport because it was obviously a lapse in judgement in an overall very good person . I was secretly (& unsecretly being that I told him at least three times) hoping that he would volunteer to take both of them. But because Franklin Covery taught me it's only official if you keep score, I'm going to jot down the facts here.

Katie- Extremely Bad Trip Out
           Extremely Bad Trip Home

Chase- Wonderful Trip Out (He came straight from work two days after we arrived.)
            Average to Ok Trip Home (Izzy was very good for the most part. He claimed he didn't hear any of Cam Cam's 20 minute screaming tirade. Insert eye roll here.)

Chasey loves me more than anything so I know he really didn't think things would go so bad so quickly.

Who got screwed? ME! Yes I was in first class which is SO nice. But call me crazy, I got the vibe that if you actually pay to ride in first class, you REALLY hate it when you have a young child screaming in your ear. In fact, you openly complain about it to anyone who will listen.

Especially when you get Bug Juice spilled down your extremely expensive suit. I have to tell you that the man who took the orange  shower was extremely gracious and I was humbled by his understanding. I suspected it was a very nice suit but it was confirmed when he said "it's only Gucci." Needless to say I was very glad to get off the plane and run for the cover of my home.

Seriously next time you are in a airplane and you hear a desperate voice over the loudspeaker, letting you know she is in fact wearing a bra, we are probably on the same flight. Give yourself an early birthday present and sit far, very far, away from my children. Maybe I'll join you.

Harper Thomas Lanier

My little nephew is scheduled to be born today. Isn't that funny to say a baby can be scheduled? Yes, my sister is like freaking Britney Spears with scheduled births. What a diva.

Well actually she is being induced and I believe B.S had both of her babies via C-seciton so Heidi will have to search for another kind of connection. I hope she finds it because I love me some Britney.

Anyway that officially means my mom will have a grandchild here on Earth that she has never met. And that is a very sad thought. But something happened yesterday.

I didn't cry. And I haven't cried today yet either.

Am I getting "over it"? NO!  But is there a tiny (and I'm mean MICROSCOPIC) part of me who realizes that my mom is free of sin and struggle. And that isn't a bad thing.

Ok I'm crying. So much for that.

But little Harper is a perfect person as of right now. A perfect person in a very imperfect world. I can't wait to meet him.

Last night my sister called to tell me she was in labor.

My heart started pounding and I was shakey. I was ready to throw up.

And then she said, "Just kidding!"

I'm going to kick her next time I see her. Which will be this weekend. Me and the ladies are flying out this Friday for five days of quaility Marley and Harper time. Josh and Heidi we don't really care about but those babies are sure sweet. I'm excited to get there. But not for the two flights and three hours in a rental car that it's going to take me to get there. Wish me luck.

Especially after Izzy told me that she KNOWS Cam Cam is going to be naughty and she is just going to laugh instead of help. I took it as a bad omen for the trip. I will let you know how it goes.

The Bucket List is Done

I really don't have a bucket list. But if I did, becoming a published writer would definitely be on it. But like I said, there really is no list so I can't be sure.

But I did have something published in a local magazine. And best yet, it was on one of my favorite topics, Montessori schooling. So now I should feel complete with life.

Well maybe after I go on a cruise. After a cruise, I would definitely feel complete.

Hint hint Chasey.

P.S. My camera is still MIA. I don't know if I should blog without pictures or not because without photos this would really be boring. What do you think?

Don't Shoot!

I haven't forgotten about my blog. It only seems this way because I have been on vacation.

Well if you call six people traveling in one car across the country a vacation. But I don't have one picture to show of our good time because I lost my camera. I was freaking out the day we left because I didn't want to leave without it. So Chase and I ran around and finally located the camera.

 Guess what? I left without it. And now I really CAN'T find it. I have torn the house apart at least a dozen times since I have been home and it is nowhere to be found.

This is pretty much the story of my life, so I'm not concerned.

But I have no photo documentation of any of the trip. And I don't want to bore you with the details. The point of the matter is that we drove through eight states and had a great time.

We got to spend Christmas with Heidi, Josh & Marley which was naturally awesome. I saw my Missouri family and spent New Year's with my aunt.

I even got to see my nephew who recently moved to Denver. Izzy and  I were over the moon excited. Cam Cam came along out of requirement. That is the story of her life.

The one time on the trip I really REALLY wished I had my camera was when Braxton gave Izzy a controller to his new PS3 to teach her how to play. Cambri grabbed one to and sat on her knees, just like the big kids. It was very sweet, but you will have to take my word for it.

While visiting Braxton, we went to the Butterfly Emporium of Denver. It was neat.

And while I don't have any pictures, I have a 19 second video clip on why 18 month old babies shouldn't be allowed to visit.

Please ignore my dirty shoes. I had just walked through an unplowed parking lot.

I was mortified.

And five minutes after this was taken, Cam Cam took a leap off the top of a three step stepladder. And I reached out to grab her and caught her by the tips of four fingers on a single hand.

And pulled the elbow right out of the socket. We spent 2 hours in an urgent care center.

Now all of you can rest easily at night knowing that the poor butterfly was vindicated. And Cambri got her first lesson in what we like to refer to as "what goes around, comes around."

Too bad it didn't register.