December 6 = AWANA Day

First this:

 Tonight, in AWANA, Liam got to play some drums.  His helper sent me these pictures she took :)

September 16 = Chickfila Saturday

Today was an awesome Saturday- there's nothing like a man and his dog...

And there's nothing like this mom and her chickfila.

Also- we've got our gator fan ready for college football Saturday!

Oh and the highlight of the kids' day... I found a kitchen for sale on Facebook marketplace.  When we got to their house- they said to keep our money and gave it to us for free!  It was so sweet.  I've been looking for a kitchen for years and finally found one- I was so excited for them and their reaction didn't disappoint.

Malia decided to share her stuffed animals with Kayleigh- actually- the black and white and grey animal- I can't remember what it's called- but it's the animal I got her when I was pregnant and at the Jacksonville zoo when we went down for the Navy/Notre Dame game.

Also, check out this dinner my hubby made me.  What an awesome day!

June 20 = First Bath Day

Grandma and Daps had to leave us this morning but we were so glad to have them over the weekend!

 Kayleigh got her first bath today- she did pretty well!

Rosie is continuing her role as Kayleigh's protector:

Joey wants to get in on the action too:

We had a respite care provider come today so Zachary and I took Kayleigh and Rosie to downtown Annapolis and had dinner- here was my yummy drink:

Rosie was a hit:

Also, I saw this and laughed:

December 10 = Army/Navy Game Day

Well it's January 19th so I'm over a month behind again... so I'm going to speed through these.  Main memory from Army/Navy game day?  It was cold.  And we lost.  But we had Park Tavern for dinner afterwards and that was delicious.

August 17 = Stubborn Girl Day

I'm working so hard on this yoga challenge- 24 times in 42 days.  Malia is giving it her all to keep from completing it by sitting in the gym parking lot refusing to move.

During yoga, my teacher referenced this poem that she uses a lot- it's so good and I don't think I've shared it on here before so here we go!

 Also, here's a random picture of dinner tonight- Liam loved it.  Malia and I weren't as big of fans.

July 14 = Amy's Birthday

First, I got this for Liam at Target today.  Zachary had some NBA sheets growing up and I've heard him talk about them several times- I know he wishes he still had them!  So I did the next best thing and got Liam some NFL sheets.

Also today was my friend Amy's birthday!  We took the kids to Amy's house where the babysitter was and she watched Liam, Malia and Evie for us so we could go have a nice dinner at Blackwell Hitch.  I got a juicy bacon cheeseburger and yummy rosemary fries.  Oh and some sangria.  Yum.

No pictures of the kids today- weird!!

February 28 = Holding Hands Day

In my last post I shared a picture with a quote that made me think of Malia... today's is one for adults. 

I've had this exact thought before when I make the kids a beautiful plate for breakfast with strawberries, blueberries, cheese, oranges, bananas... and then I grab a pack of crackers on the way out.  This was a good reminder that I need to take care of myself too in order to take the best care of my babies.

So yesterday I worked on my yoga teacher training.  I'm doing a "distance learning" program so that, unlike last time I attempted this, I don't have to devote a full weekend each month- it's just not realistic for us.  So Zachary took the kids to the gym so that I would be able to concentrate.  On the way out, he learned how unmanageable they can be when you're by yourself.  So he did something super smart- told them they had to hold hands.  And they did!  He took a video of it and showed me because he knew I'd have to see it to believe it.  But today I snapped this picture of my three loves holding hands- how sweet!

Later, we had some senior midshipmen over for dinner- lasagna.  We played Apples to Apples which made me really happy.  It was really fun- the kids were great- the midshipmen are so good with them.  It was a great day!

December 2 = Beef Lo Mein Day

I've been looking forward to making this meal all week.  I'm pretty sure it's my absolute favorite and it's a great way to get me to eat vegetables- zucchini, carrots, onion, sometimes snow peas- so so good!  Malia enjoyed her beef lo mein- well the noodles at least!

December 1 = Pour Your Dinner on Your Head Day

I'm not going to lie- Malia gave me a rough time today.  This is going to be a rough week.  Zachary has a basketball tournament this week so he had a game last night and will have games Wednesday and Thursday but tonight, as always on Tuesday, he had class.  So serving dinner to two toddlers by oneself can sometimes be a challenge.  Tonight was one of those times that it was very challenging.  Liam has also been going through one of his phases where he only speaks in whine and there's very little that makes him happy.  So I was allowing him to eat his dinner on a picnic blanket in front of the tv and as I was sitting with him making sure he was as happy as he would allow himself to be, Malia got busy with her dinner that, before I walked away from her, she was eating like a perfectly sane being.  I came back and found this:

I laughed because what else do you do?  And then I stripped her down and took her up to the bathtub.  My method for cleaning them is to keep them out of the bathtub and wash them down with a wash cloth and then put them in when they're clean for them to enjoy the water and bubbles.  I don't know how one would be able to lift them up in the tub and clean them at the same time so that's what I do.  Well, I noticed the wash cloths in the tub had been used for a few days so I went to switch them and as I walked to the linin closet to get a new clean wash cloth, Malia peed on the floor.  I laughed again because, again, what else can you do?  I moved her away from her puddle, cleaned her up, put her in the bath and cleaned up the puddle.  She got her bath and eventually she was ready to get out.  I put her on the changing table and dried her off.  I walked over to her closet to get a diaper and she peed on the changing table.  Now how she had enough in her to go twice in twenty minutes is beyond me but she did.  So I laughed again and got her dressed and then proceeded to count down the minutes until Zachary got home!

November 8 = Grandma's Birthday!

Malia started the morning by stealing Pops' slippers and putting them on her hands.  Not sure how she got in his room but she has a thing for shoes.

She tried Daddy's shoes on too...

We headed to church where Zachary and I got to enjoy a service together and the kids were entertained in the nursery.

Then we came home and had a yummy lunch- hamburgers and hotdogs- but Liam wasn't into waiting until they were done so he snacked on some yogurt.  These yogurt cups have Mickey on them so they were a hit.

Then we had naps- I didn't think Liam would sleep but he did and he slept hard.  When it was time for him to get up I found this:

Then it was time for dinner... chili!  But before dinner, there was time for some Grandma birthday snuggles.  Liam went for a kiss.

I got a shirt for Malia that says "It's a nice day for visiting Grandma."  

The birthday cake was delicious- Malia agreed.

Zachary found this as a great opportunity to play around with Malia.  He kept sneaking up on her and she was a huge fan.

And here's a picture of Liam tricking Pops.  Liam ate a bag of fruit snacks and then grabbed another.  He took it to Zachary and Zachary said no.  So he brought it to me and I said, "What did Daddy say?" and he said no.  So then he took it to Pops who had been distracted by the iPad.  Pops immediately opened it and handed it to him while the rest of us looked on and laughed.  Gotta give Liam credit for being resourceful.

November 1 = Midshipmen Dinner Day

We've hosted a few midshipmen dinners at this point but today was exciting because Zachary's chief hosted it at his house- we were just responsible for a dessert.  So we enjoyed watching football and relaxing on this beautiful Sunday.  The cats had a good day too:

When we did head to Chief Sawyer's house, were greeted at the door by Rex and Malia was in heaven.

Then Emily and Ty helped entertain Malia- she loved this bean bag/couch thing.

And they had a chalkboard wall which both kids loved.

Soon after the midshipmen got there, Malia made it very clear that she was mad.  Mad about what, I do not know but she and I went to the car and I ate the dessert we made and she ended up falling asleep.  She gets tired when she's mad.  Once we got home, it was bedtime and Zachary and I enjoyed a night of catching up on some tv in our "adult cave" downstairs.

October 27 = New Recipe Day

First I need to share a picture of Liam.  I got him up from his nap and he had gone to sleep with his Redskins jersey on under a thermal gray shirt.  Well, he's been obsessed with this "football shirt" so during his nap, he wriggled that thermal shirt off as well as he could.  He didn't get it all the way off- he took the bottom of the front of his shirt and got it over his head.

Today was a late class day for Zachary so we had dinner on our own.  I try to pick easy dinners for Tuesday nights for this reason and I had recently watched a Pioneer Woman episode with a recipe on hamburger soup.  We had leftover taco meat from the midshipmen dinner so I just had to pick up some beef broth and veggies and made this delicious recipe.

I heated some up for Zachary when he got home and he was a fan!

October 25 = Rugby Day

Zachary has a couple girls in his company on the rugby team.  We went to the guys' rugby match yesterday but we got the times mixed up and ended up going to a match that none of his guys were playing in.  But we got this one right and we had lots of fun.  I tried to get Malia to wear a headband- she wasn't happy about it.

We packed lunch and grabbed some lunch in case the packed lunches didn't work- which they didn't- and brought the picnic blanket out.  I'm telling you- this picnic blanket has been such a great investment. 

Later, we came home and hosted the next midshipmen dinner!  Malia found her a guy willing to hold on to her.

And Liam found some gals to hang out with.