"no meat. no whining."

family night.
swimming.
then some shredded pork taco salads.
after which we sat down for a spiritual lesson.
on daniel and king nebakaneezer from the old testament in the bible.
the part where daniel refuses the meat and wine from the king b/c he knows it's bad for him.
only vegetables and grains for daniel.
all hail daniel.
all i could think about was the amazing shredded pork soaked in coca cola we had at dinner.
so at the end of the story we asked brennan what the story was about.
and do you know what he said?
"no meat. no whining."

                     i particularly like the "no whining" part.

                          but the meat is another story...

                           for now, we'll just stick with

                                        "sparingly."

                               whatever that means.

KELVIS {a photo gallery}

auntie kelsey brought her new hubs Travis to our place for a visit this weekend.

we partied hard.

and they've declared our children were great birth control.

HA!

i beg to differ;)

how could you not want some of these???

max stood and watched kelsey do her hair for ten minutes.

didn't move a muscle.

and brennan followed travis around like a fly on meat.

we spent the next 48 hours outside.

no really, we almost did.

olympic park:

aerial ski jump show & the alpine slides.

max fell asleep on the ride up to park city.

no surprise.

brennan was ENTRANCED with the ski jumpers.

and declared he wanted to ski into the water too.

in fact,

he whined

and whined

and whined

and whined

and then whined some more about how much he wanted a turn,

that we picked up a flier and have marked our calendars for the summer after he turns 8.

 can you see the jumper?!?

i could have watched them do this all day.

i was really worried about my flip flops falling off on the chair lift.

seriously,

i was.

and relieved that brennan's had straps.

these are the things that were going through my mind.

and then brennan snapped me out of it by telling me,

"mom, this is so beautiful up here."

i really love him.

he said "whee" the entire mile down.

i didn't want it to end.

max was too short to ride.

so we took turns waiting with her at the bottom.

 it appears i went slower than sean.

according to brennan.

i followed the breaking signs.

i mean really,

i was not going to be the chick who flipped her seat off of the track with the lap riding toddler.

turns out i was the only one out of all of us to slow down in the "breaking" sections.

typical.

the next day we hit the pool.

and then had to say goodbye.

and now i feel like i could sleep for a week straight.

i loved having my sister in the room next to mine again.

getting opinions on outfits.

hair bows.

and sitting around straightening our hair.

we stayed up late eating cookie dough,

talking about making "mud pies" outside dad's 7-11 in san bruno,

and how adam and i used to make her drink the "mystery drinks" we concocted when the babysitter was over.

raw egg

ketchup

Tabasco sauce

mustard

salt

pepper

chocolate sauce.

dessert of champions!

man i hope brennan doesn't do that to max.

but it was really funny at the time.

and it is still pretty funny now:)

HA!!!

bon voyage kelsey and travis!

such a great trip.

another one of those father's day posts {from yours truly}

dear dad,
you are my hero.
i adore you.
i really believe you can do no wrong.
happy father's day.
and thank you again for letting me borrow your ski mask.
and goggles.
last time we skied.
even though you were probably cold.
i love your rosy cheeks.
baby blue eyes.
and silver hair.
i love you,
your baby em

....................................

dear sean,

and i was like

BABY, BABY, BABY OH!

like

BABY, BABY, BABY OH!

like

BABY, BABY, BABY OH!

i'm so glad you'll always be mine:)

watching you with our children takes my breath away.

every

single

time.

i love to see your smile in max's face.

your eyes in brennan's eyes.

and your melow sense of humor in everything you do.

you make me want to be a better mother.

you change diapers.

you get up with kids on sundays so i can sleep.

you jump on the tramp with both kids and keep them entertained when you can see i need a break.

you try your very hardest to keep max out of the kitchen when i'm trying to make dinner.

it is so cute.

you teach brennan how to do man things.

boxing,

mowing,

football games,

basketball,

being a gentlemen.

tools.

snow shoveling.

house cleaning.

and nose hair trimming.

you are a human jungle jim.

you show max how a woman should be loved.

you hold her.

you sing to her.

you rock her in the middle of the night.

you are wrapped around her teensy little finger.

and she loves you.

so

much.

you tell me i'm beautiful.

you tell me you adore me.

you make me feel like the most important person on the planet.

i am so lucky to have you.

but the kids are even luckier to have you as their dad.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

my love.

i love with you.

always and forever.

xoxo

...

{the first night you became a dad}

the day we brought brennan home from the hospital.

we video recorded the entire drive home.

and i made you pull over twice on the way home to check on brennan.

we were so cheesy.

{baby max below, born Super Bowl Sunday}

you held her the entire game.

i don't remember anything about the game.

or seeing any of the commercials.

just sitting in the room with you holding baby max.

watching football.

 ...

and last,

but

very

not

least,

a happy father's day to my

father in law WILD BILL,

grandfather ryan,

grandpa dick,

grandpa casper,

GPG,

and grandpa mehr.

i am so lucky to have so many amazing men in my life:)

and then we were all tired and grumpy

today brennan figured out that max will be his personal slave,
no questions asked,
whenever and for whatever he wants.
"max, i want my water."
max brings it over.
"max, i'm done with my water."
max takes it away.
"max, i want my water,"
max brings it again.
"max, i'm done."
max takes it away again.
and so on and so on.
this went on for ten minutes.
and no matter what she was doing she would turn around and walk over to give him his water and then carry it away for him.
it was pathetically cute.

i went to yell call at him to stop,
but she just seemed so happy bringing him his sippy cup of ice cold water.
...
my roses bloomed over night.
and while max took a nap brennan and i went on vacation in the backyard.
whereupon i learned he makes a fantastic laying out buddy.
i have never seen him so calm for such a long period of time.
and i quote,
"i like this mom. i warm."
when we got too hot we put our feet over the side of the pool and threw rocks in.
add it to the top ten favorite moments i've had with brennan.

 and then we were all tired and grumpy from being out in the sun all day.

and i declared to sean that i absolutely canNOT wipe max's nose one more time.

AND THEN

i told him

that i had to call poison control again

{weekly occurrence}

b/c when i called to ask the pediatrician how much allergy medicine max could have

{hoping this cold is just hay fever or whatever}

i found out that i've been doubling the dose brennan is supposed to get for the past two years.

so i've been double dosing him once a day for the entire time he's been taking it.

and when i joked with the nurse on the phone about him having that third arm and well,
"this would explain it,"
she didn't laugh.

she recited the poison control number.

to which i said,

"well, he's been fine this far, does it really matter?"

at which point she AGAIN did not think i was funny.

so i called my favorite number with all of the 2's in it,

and they took my name and number,

and told me to cut the dose.

but really,

he's been fine so far.

and all i really want is for max's runny nose to be allergies.

b/c i just cannot wipe her nose one more time.

but i can definitely put my feet in the baby pool.

for hours at a time.

it's a happy place:)