AAAAAAGAIN. {leprechaun trap}

guess what?!

TOMORROW

is

st patty's day;)

in case you got confused.

he wanted to eat one of each of the things the leprechaun 

was going to find in the trap he made tonight.

needless to say,

it was an extended going to be process.

max fell asleep in her crib by 7:45pm while she was waiting for brennan to brush his teeth.

{yes, my 3 yr old still sleeps in a crib, and so does my almost 1 year old baby. don't judge. i love cribs. 

i only wish they could sleep in them until they were 18, but that would be weird.}

we are serious about st patty's day over here.

{so serious, that sometimes we forget when it's march 10th and not march 17th}.

green paint, food coloring, and glitter ready...

AGAIN.

have mercy.

;)

don't tell me it's not june, i won't believe you:)

last night the air smelled like summer.

the most delicious smell!

i pulled out the baby pools from the basement and slathered on the sunscreen.

i should have slathered on a second coat though 

b/c max's cheeks and shoulders are bright red this morning.

whoops.

brooke drove down from park city at the last minute and it felt like it really was summer.

when we went to fill up the smaller blue pool, 

two spiders went running across the floor of the blue plastic.

so i grabbed a red lightening mcqueen cup and scooped them up,

and brooke identified our spiders on the internet.

she likes doing stuff like that.

a daring jumping spider.

that's what we had.

and here i thought i was being paranoid when i just didn't feel right about getting up close to this one.

the white spot on his back freaked me out.

call it intuition {or paranoia}, but i tell ya,

my inner self knew he was a jumper.

anyway, the dramatics were unnecessary as usual 

b/c it turns out the things are harmless to humans.

except for the part where they bite you if they feel threatened,

but even then their venom will only be dangerous if you are allergic to venom.

after 4 hours of having him swim for his life in the little mcqueen cup 

while the kids played in the water and ate the season's first round of Popsicles,

i finally decided to set him free in the garden strip along the fence.

the sun has put me into a good mood of epic proportions.

don't tell me it's not june.

i won't believe you:)

.....

it's a jungle over here.

to the left of my kitchen sink.

 i'm am always so amazed at how a tiny little seed 

can push its way up through the dirt to find the light.

never

gets

old.

can't wait for the peas to pop out in the garden.

conviction

the thermastat in my car said 70* at 3:30pm today on our way to the family yard.

chase and i both had red faces tonight at dinner.

it was cloudy, i swear.

i even thought about how it surely didn't feel hot enough today to get a sunburn.

brennan spent 5 minutes telling johnny how to spell "brennan" in the sand this afternoon.

when brennan writes his "n"s they look more like "h"s, 

so he was all put out that johnny was writing real "n"s that looked like actual "n"s.

finally, he just took matters into his own hands and used his finger to write it for himself,

proudly declaring, "this is what my name looks like usually."

he's got conviction.

that's for sure.

johnny and i just laughed.

max begged everyone to push her on the swings the entire time we were there.

and every time a new cousin would walk out,

she would run up to them,

give them a hug,

and with a big smile ask, 

"you PAY wit me?! you swing me?!"

how can you say no to that?

no one said no.

but one by one they all got tired,

so she eventually settled for getting her feet buried in the sand.

chase ate about a bucket of sand,

and washed it down with his very first bottle of ice cold cow's milk.

he threw the sand behind him and crawled all over the entire yard like a Tasmanian devil.

at some point, i am just going to start calling him Taz.

i love my little carrot top.

everyone was asleep in about 2.5 seconds tonight. 

it was great, great, great.

i think we finally have that ol' daylight savings switch beat.

i vow to go into the basement and dig out the sunscreen bag tomorrow.

promise.

mustaches and nocTURTLE.

"we need cameras around this place so dad can see how mean you are to me!"

-brennan {after i made him go back and wash his hands after going pee.}

...

a few nights ago brennan went through the friend magazine 

and gave everyone mustaches.

no idea where he got this idea from.

then he went through and "X'd" all of the girls.

b/c he said girls are not his friends.

and he doesn't like them.

"girls are X!!!"

i laughed and asked him if i was a girl?

max?

eden?

hailey?

miss kim?

grandma gibson?

grandma carol?

grandma sandie?

GiGi?

andrea?

audrey?

mary?

ashley?

aren't they all girls?

"those girls are all ok, just not ALL girls. ALL girls are X!"

and then he re-X'd all of the girls in the magazine a second time.

THEN....

last week when i was putting him to bed he said to me,
"mom, i wish cade was my bother so he could stay all night and sleep here. i wish that cade was my brother so i could have two brothers. cade and chaser. so we could all be brothers together."

AND THEN...

with his friend cade yesterday the following coversation occurred:

cade: "mom's aren't scared of aliens OR monsters."

brennan: "especially NOT monsters."

cade: "and they can hear and see all the stuff we do."

brennan: "yea, they see behind them because of he glass in the van. 

they just look in the glass and they see us."

AND THENNNNNN...

cade said this to his mom,

"mom, i wish i could be nocturtle {nocturnal}."

cade's mom: "why?"

cade: "cause then i could stay up in the night. 

And brennan could be nocturtle too.

Me and Brennan could be nocturtle together 

and play all night together! 

that would be so fun!"

....

don't know where they come up with their material,

but man, 

these two boys are funny FUNNY guys.

MFEO!!!

{cade and brennan last june in the backyard.}

characters i tell ya {muscle man chase ray}

{max refused to change out of her Ariel pajama top, 

so she wore it the entire day. worked out great.}

... 

chase's new favorite activity:

getting pushed around on the mcqueen car.

i pushed him up and down the sidewalk for twenty minutes today.

back and forth.

back and forth.

then he hurled himself off into the grass,

max jumped on,

and he grabbed the back handle and pushed HER up and down the sidewalk.

who new the baby man was a muscle man?!

i couldn't believe he was strong enough.

the entire time he babbled and squawked at max.

i was bursting i was so happy.

i had to take off my shoes it was so hot.

and then chase ate chalk.

max peed her pants.

dad came home early,

and brennan came home from cade's.

just another tuesday.

 characters i tell ya.

the meanest mom on the block {seeds}

 over the weekend my little seeds started sprouting.

the saran wrap must have done the trick b/c i have never had seeds sprout in 4 days.

so exciting to watch them all POP!

.....

i am convinced that my kids think that i am the meanest mom.

and their friends too.

it was like pulling teeth to keep them outside with me today.

and brennan was the worst.

every time i turned around he was convincing the other kids to come inside with him to watch a show.

i kept shooing them back outside to play in what felt like the warmest weather 

of the new season that is upon us.

my lips and face were sunburned by the end of the night.

i always think i don't need sunscreen in the spring,

and then i always get sunburned.

when will my fair irish skin and i learn???

for two hours they ran inside, and i chased them out.

they played pirate ship,

swung on the swings,

invited more friends in,

rode bikes,

drew with chalk,

filled up the dump trucks in the sandbox,

relentlessly teased the girls,

ate grapes and marshmallows,

drank chocolate milks,

and even helped me plant one seed each.

although,

after one turn of planting the peas they were all over it.

i was shocked.

the baby man cruised around the yard exploring is brand new big outside world.

i don't think i've had him out in the grass like that since last november.

he loved it.

the freedom of the big open space,

and the wind in his pretty red hair.

i love the way the sun makes his blonde eyelashes and blue eyes shine.

the bite in the air is gone.

there is still a chill,

but the bite is gone.

even in the mornings:)

no coat,

no shoes,

no problem.

GLORY BE!!!

...

p.s.

my kids are crazy for hours after bedtime right now.

enough to make a person want to move to arizona.

or hawaii i guess.

but man i love that it's still light out at 7pm.

BUSTED.

get your hands off of my samoas!

BUSTED.

i had to give him one b/c this turkey is just too cute.

happy monday:)

i thought today was st. patty's day

last night i set up my entire house for st. patrick's day.

i was SO EXCITED:)

sean and i went to see les miz for the evening, 

and on the way home i told him we needed to stop by the store to get some st patty's day things for the kids to wear to church in the morning, and some other leprechaun garb i wanted to set out for the breakfast table.

we searched the dollar section at target for half an hour trying to find just the right things.

all the while i was thinking about how i am always such a procrastinator.

so we got home and i rushed to the cupboard to make sure we had green food coloring. 

then i dyed all of the toilet bowl water in the house and the milk green.

i proceeded to set out an elaborate leprechaun's scavenger hunt through the house, 

and sent pictures of it all to my family.

i even had sean and my in laws help me figure out the best spots to hide all of the clues and gold coins.

at 10:35pm we said goodbye and thank you to sean's parents, 

and sean and i sat around the table talking about how fun it was going to be the next morning.

at 11:09pm sean went up to brush his teeth, and i stayed down to tidy up the last few things downstairs. 

i saw a text from linsey asking why i was getting ready so early,

and i was so confused, but i was still trying to wash a few bottles and load a few dishes into the dishwasher, so i just skimmed the first and last message of her text.

i was all "hahaha all prepped for tomorrow!"

thinking, man, i guess getting ready the night before isn't so on top of things in linsey's book.

and then i was all, "man, i love that girl. always making me feel so put together."

so i went off to pick up a few toys that hadn't been put away, 

check all of the house locks,

grab some underwear from the dryer,

and fill up my water.

twenty minutes later i gave my work one last look, and plugged in my phone,

and finally went back to read through all of my texts one last time before bed, 

knowing i had skimmed and been in a rush before.

and 

then

i

saw 

this:

and my eyes got REALLY big,
and i pulled up my calendar on my phone,
and then i saw it.
MARCH 8TH.
and then i GASPED and yelled up to sean.

"SEAN!!!!! ST PATRICK'S DAY ISN'T TOMORROW!!!!! IT'S NEXT WEEK!!!!"

and then i was all,

"you're parents probably think i'm crazy!!! my parents KNOW i'm crazy!!! i can't believe no one said anything!!!!!"

all the while we were both laughing hysterically and how silly it all was,

and how embarrassed i would have been if we had made it all the way through the entire morning and to church wearing all of our green, and cooking our corned beef and cabbage a week early.

and then i texted this back to linsey,

knowing she had already gone to bed 

and would be reading it at some time during the wee hours of the night 

b/c she always gets up in the middle of the night at least once:

 and then this morning my mother in law texted me this:

and linsey texted me this:

and i just can't stop laughing about how i thought st. patrick's day was today.

and then i thought about how i can try to find that green bow tie and suspenders for the boys,

and a green footprint stamp for the leprechaun.

who knew procrastinating could be so great?!

have mercy,

i'm too tired.