Pajamas, bagels, curls, pool time

How this picture did not make it onto the last post is beyond me-

Will wears footie pajamas very often these days. Sometimes (ok, more often than not) as actual clothes. In my own pathetic self defense, socks will not stay up on his thick, muscular (hehe) calves and shoes fall off and pants ride up, exposing that sweet sweet baby skin to negative degree temps, so the all-in-one clothing option that footie pajamas offer is just too much to resist some days. Anyways, Molly has cute little penguin footie pajamas and every time she wears them, she goes on and on about how she has FEET and how warm she is, etc. Sam was feeling a little left out and mentioned how he wished he had footie pajamas like Will and Molly. Say no more, child. Thanks to Carters, I have the ability to match my children ranging from size 24 months to size 6 and beyond. Ten thumbs WAY up.

Molly slept til NINE THIRTY one morning. Magical pajamas, for sure. Well, for Molly at least. Will was up at his usual 5am. *yawn*

Bedtime seems to be well documented lately as it is my MOST favorite time of day. Sometimes the little ones need some convincing though. Or to be carried to their beds.

The Korea stick is finally up! Slowly but surely we are putting nails in the walls.

-25* and a two hour school delay. The kids were excited. I made waffles but used the wrong recipe. They were well received but didn't fluff up like they usually do. I need to get my "winner" recipes off Pinterest and write them down on recipe cards like any normal person from 1990 would do.

Sweet little church in a nearby town. It's on the corner of the main street and once I googled, I saw that it was being sold for $29k and suggested to tear it down and build a new storefront! Great location! Makes me wanna cry. Obviously it would cost and arm and a leg or four to restore but who in good conscience can tear this down?! Am I the only one who thinks that front door/window combo is worth about $29k? Bueller?

We were at this neighboring town to meet Steve for lunch at Subway (you know it's been a minute since you've been out to eat when you get genuinely excited for some Subway) because he had just been offered a job with a local company! He is starting Wednesday and while I'm excited for him (he is definitely well suited for this job, based on the description), I am sad to be losing him around the house with me. Parenting is way more fun when you get to do it together.

Will tearing up a ham and cheese sandwich

We had a belated Christmas gift exchange with Rick's dad and wife. When I heard that our kids were included in this exchange, I was worried- what would we exchange with them?! These people have everything. They raise their own beef and chickens, can their own fruits and veggies, and just generally have what they need! I don't know them well enough to get them a gag gift, so I did what needed to be done. I made some bagels.

And I tried to make a brown paper bag and red twine look like some sort of country chic packaging. lolz

Steve and the big kids made a run to the hardware store in a neighboring town so once Willie woke up from his nap, we (I) got a little bored and I decided his curls needed some proper documentation.

His sweet little neck- I could just plant 1,000 kisses on it

A rare cheese shot from the one person who cannot be coerced into smiling for me.

THOSE EYES

As much as I lament about how my children look nothing like me, I look at their big blue eyes and beautiful red hair and can't be mad. Not even a little bit. I do believe I added some of the chub to their cheeks though.

And the curls. I claim the curls 100%.

Eyelashes are 100% Steve though. Sometimes he complains to me that they're so long that they impede his vision. WOE IS HE. Molly sure is benefiting from his troubles.

Chubby fingers and big cheeks and baby blues *swoon*

deep in thought

Probably wondering how he can get me to put more goldfish on his tray

Times like those are when I wish I had put him in real clothes. Then we go have our belated Christmas exchange and he starts fake-chugging root beer like Bubba Brown and the camo pajamas seem much more appropriate.

Each child received a gift and a stocking full of fun little prizes. Everyone is very anxious for the outdoors to thaw out a bit so they can use their squirt guns.

Sam took his squirt gun to church apparently but informed us afterwards that he left it in his pocket the entire time. Way to go with that super concealed carry, I guess? Our first visit to church was as great as I envisioned it to be. The purple haired lady who massacred Steve's head just a week before sat directly in front of us, we met a neighbor, the neighbor's sister who works at the grocery store, Mrs Mary Lou who just moved to town after 60 years of living on the farm, and at least a dozen other people who seemed to know more about us than we knew about them. The priest gave them all lollipops and they are still being fought over today. Sunday school starts next week and I'm curious to see what they think about it.

Later that afternoon we visited the community center in a nearby town. They have an indoor walking track, fitness center, library, and pool. We were most interested in the pool, of course. Sam and Molly didn't hesitate to jump right in and I was so happy to see they are no longer terrified of water!!! Will tolerated it, although since it was his naptime, he wasn't particularly thrilled to be sitting in lukewarm water with a bunch of maniacs splashing water all around him.

Trying to psych each other up to jump in to no one

Will refused to look at me no matter how many ridiculous sounds I made.

Didn't seem to have any problems looking at himself though. HUH.

Two hours of nonstop swimming really wiped everyone out and we did a quick dinner and showers before chucking everyone in bed by 6:30. (Glorious!!!!)

This gave Steve and I so much time for activities!! Steve finished painting the washroom, I washed diapers, another load of clothes, tidied up the house, washed dinner dishes, and then decided we should celebrate Steve's job (and the early bedtime) with some brownies. I plopped some Nutella in them because why the hell not. Holiday weekend and all!

After I plopped it in there, I realized that I probably needed a smaller pan so the batter would be thicker and the Nutella plops could be covered. Rookie mistake! No matter! Nutella is bound to be good no matter how it makes its way into brownies.

TRULY unfortunate looking but oh my gestational diabetes. They were delicious. I rationalized eating one by arguing that if my body can process this, the orange koolaid would be no match for me in a few weeks. IT'S A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT, PEOPLE, OKAY. Just building up my tolerance for the sugar. Trust me, I'm a veteran, according to everyone at my OB's office. Not sure if they all meant that as a compliment or some sort of vaginal diss but it's out there.

Today was kinda slow. We hung out with some neighbor friends, played in the snow, observed The Most Holy And Sacred Nap Schedule, washed a lot of clothes, and got ready for the upcoming week.

Will has his own rituals to prepare for the start of the work week, I suppose.

Sam came home from school last week and asked if I knew Junior King. I scratched my head and assumed it must be some show his friends were talking about on the bus. He then proceeded to tell me that his teacher says Junior King was shot. He was shot dead. At this point, I was disturbed but still could not figure out what on earth he was talking about. He continued talking about it with Steve, who was also trying to decode this message. He eventually said, Marky Lube Junior King and Steve guessed it- Martin Luther King Jr. WHY ON EARTH the teacher felt the need to go any deeper than what he stood for and explain HOW HE DIED to KINDERGARTENERS is completely beyond me. But apparently that is the takeaway message most of them got from the lesson, as Monica called me that night and asked if I'd heard what the boys had learned in school that day. I told her I am a little too new in town to be calling up this teacher who's been teaching kindergarten for 40-something years and bless her out, but if Monica wants to do it, "I've got your back, girl." Tonight at dinner we were talking about why there was no school today. Sam knew it was MLK Day and I said, "You know, the reason we have a holiday is because of the things he stood for, right? Not the way he died." Sam replied that he knew that MLK wanted things to be fair and for people to not fight. He went on to explain in detail as to what MLK stood for and how we should follow his advice today. Seeing that up until this point, the only thing I'd heard from Sam's mouth was about his death, I was pleasantly surprised (and completely relieved) to hear that he had learned the important parts about why we honor today as a holiday. Hearing those things from such a young mouth made the message that much sweeter too.