It’s wrap up season. Awana is ending, school is getting close to ending. The days are getting longer and the weather is (in theory) getting warmer. 😉

I woke up Saturday to these two standing right by my bed like this. Apparently, they got cold when they woke up so they had to put on some sweatshirts. And Parker has looked at Nathan like this since he was about two weeks old. Case in point:

Oh my heart. Just kills me – THIS JUST HAPPENED. What is happening to time??!

Eisley was a big fan of using the cookie dough covered beater as a teether the other day. I think I got a few extra Mom points. 😉

And Sparkies is officially over!! I can’t believe he only has one year left – I feel like I was just taking him to Cubbies for the first time. 🙁

Baby girl has to be EXACTLY like her brothers in all things.

And accessorized. Always, always accessorized. The other day, I got her up in the morning and discovered she’d hidden a bracelet under her jammies for the entire night. Stinker.

These two were chefs and made me a big batch of “pickle and tomato popcorn salad”. It was quite delicious.

We were waiting for our dear pediatrician to come in for Eisley’s well-child check and she was entertaining herself by digging through my purse. Told you. Always accessorized. 😉

This is why I get up early and do my quiet time and get at least a cup of coffee in me. The second they get up, this is what the rest of my “quiet time” looks like. Sometimes, I feel like I had small baby octopuses (octopi? Octo-moosen?) with how many hands and arms and legs end up piled on me first thing in the morning.

I was rocking her to sleep the other day and just started thinking. She holds bunny, I hold her, He holds us.

Saturday morning Mickey Mouse Clubhouse time is the best. 😉 We got rid of cable about six years ago, but we still love our Disney cartoons with the app. 😉

Seriously, guys. She’s my mini-me. We had some money on a Starbucks card and needed shampoo, so obviously, we had to go get ourselves a Frappucino. She easily drank half of it, if not more. I got decaf, don’t worry. 😉

I left my coffee unattended for all of about .03 seconds one day when I was in the playroom. I turned around from helping Parker and found her holding my cup in her rocking chair. Teach them while they’re young, right? 😉

This day has been an ETERNITY to get here, according to my oldest. 😉 He has been dying to lose a tooth for about two years now.

And today, it happened.

His tooth started getting loose about three weeks ago and so all he’s done for the entirety of the last three weeks is wiggle his tooth. He’s wiggled it in the outfield during games, he’s wiggled it at school, he’s wiggled it and done his home days. He’s even wiggled it in between bites at dinner.

We were on our way to Bryant and Nicole’s gender reveal (it’s another boy!! We are so excited!!) and his tooth was seriously hanging by a thread, so Jon offered to pull it out. He tried a couple of times and just couldn’t get a good grip on it but by this point, Nathan was ready.

IMG_4212 from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

Oh my goodness. I could not stop crying. I was so excited for him, but looking at that tiny little tooth in his hand, I was just immediately back to when I was rocking him endlessly in the middle of the nights as he was cutting that tooth. I remember thinking those nights would NEVER end and what, seventeen minutes later, here we are.

Precious face. He was SO happy!

Guess who is now obsessed with teeth falling out? 😉

I don’t know why we bothered with this. 😉 As he got into bed, he said, “I know the tooth fairy isn’t real. People can’t fly and only God can be everywhere at the same time.” 😉 He’ll still be excited about the money underneath his pillow in the morning!!!

I can’t believe we are already at this stage!!

I’ve sort of decided that this entire household must just be scared of sitting still. I think if we ever stopped moving, we would probably just sort of fall over and sleep for like eight months.

So, I guess it’s best to keep on going. 😉

On Tuesday morning, we went to go see The Cat in the Hat play and ran into our dear friends Miss Jamie, Joel and Julia! We were so excited! We all crammed in their row and it was just the best time. The play was SO cute and Parker just laughed through the whole thing.

Nathan had to write a sentence on Tuesday using a couple of spelling words, so he picked “him” and “her”. I said, “Okay, what’s a sentence with those two?” He said, “I saw him and I saw her.” So, I asked him if there was any way he could make that more exciting and he immediately yells, “HEY! I SAW HIM! I SAW HER!” Ha!

Also, I picked him up from school on Wednesday this child had the audacity to knock his bottom tooth loose on the apple I packed for him for lunch. I could have cried! He’s getting so old! All he’s done for the last three days is wiggle that tooth so it will fall out and I keep threatening him to go to the store and buy some super glue so he has to keep it forever. 😉

If I had to venture a guess, I’d say Eisley spends a good 80% of her time inside these days following me around the house with her shoes. The second I turn to look at her, she plops to the floor and sticks her feet out so I can put her shoes on and then she just bangs on the back door until I let her outside. The O’Brien children require a lot of fresh air and sunshine to survive. 😉

And graham crackers. LOTS and lots of graham crackers. And bananas. Sometimes together. 😉

So proud of this kid. He’s been a little terrified of catching from the pitching machine ever since his first year playing T-ball because one of the boy’s on his team had a big brother who played rookies and got his arm broken from a ball off the machine while playing catcher. But on Wednesday, Nathan faced his fear, suited up and then caught for two innings! You could tell he was still a little nervous but I thought he did fantastic.

Thursday, our plans for the morning got canceled so for some reason, I thought, well, this is probably a good time to cut Parker’s hair. Oh my goodness. Almost an hour later after much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I FINALLY finished cutting it and in the meantime, Eisley ate breakfast and Nathan got her dressed for me, so I came out to find her like this. Ha! And that curl – I think she looks exactly like Cindy Lou Who.

Post haircut. This child. I didn’t stop hyperventilating until early that afternoon. There is no fear like holding the sharpest pair of scissors in the house next to your wiggliest child’s head and ears. I about cut my own hand off like four times.

Thursday night, this little guy graduated from Puggles. I just can’t believe the whole year has already happened!! He was SO proud to walk up there and get his award. He’s always been so introverted and not super excited for these kinds of things and he totally blossomed this year! I know a huge part of that was his sweet teacher at Puggles. Such a fun year for our Parker Bear!

And just because I like to make myself cry…

He looks SO old now!! I cannot believe the difference in my baby since last August – he turned into a big kid over the school year. If you need me, I’ll just be here weeping in the corner.

 

(And in case you have been following this blog for awhile, I would just like to make this huge announcement…. I AM OFFICIALLY CAUGHT UP!!!!! Oh my goodness, there were times I did not think it would happen but HURRAY! Ha!!)

This year, I had two kids who could NOT wait for Good Friday and Easter. This is all we heard about for weeks leading up to the weekend and all we did is count down to “Easter Day”. 😉

On Friday, we had our Seder meal. I love this! We didn’t get to do it last year because Jon was in a class, but we did it two years ago and loved it. Parker didn’t remember it at all, but Nathan remembered it a little bit and so he was so excited to do it again. We sat in the dining room and Nathan made everyone place cards so they knew where to sit. Love that. 🙂

The kids were so cute. They LOVED it. And we had such a great discussion over dinner about why Jesus died for us!

Eisley was a huge fan of the Haroset (basically, it’s chopped apples and we subbed raisins for the walnuts) and the “New Life” dessert (aka dirt cups). 😉 And notice Kody has long since figure out that wherever that high chair goes is his best chance for some crumbs.

Saturday, our dear friends Eric, Shannon and Baby James came over and the men and Nathan cut down and then dug out the giant, dead tree in our yard. SO thankful for them!! It looks like an asteroid hit our backyard, but we were so thankful for his help. Jon was moving so slowly that night – ha! It was hard work!

And then….it was Easter Day!! We got up early and went to the sunrise service at the football stadium. We ate donuts and sang songs and it was really good. Then we came home and changed out of our sweatshirts and into our Easter clothes.

Every year our Easter baskets get a little bit simpler… 😉 Ha! This year, we primarily gave books and chocolate. The boys each got a little Lego thing and Eisley got some bracelets.

We hosted an Easter brunch again and it was so much fun!! I love this new little tradition.

The whole family. 🙂 We didn’t get one of the entire group!

Eisley’s first egg hunt was hilarious – we were laughing so hard. She was all about that basket and those eggs. And every time she bent down to get an egg, all the other ones would fall out of the basket because she was not going to set that basket down. So funny!

We spent basically the entire day outside. After everyone left, we did a few things in the yard and then we went on a little bike ride down one of the paths by our house. The kids took turns racing each other and doing tricks and it was just such a fun time!

Notice the pinky up – ha! She’s so girly and I love it so much!! But at the same time, as soon as we got back home, she parked her skirt right in the dirt and just dug around in there for the rest of the night.

Such a fun Easter!! He is risen!!

I feel like we are in this big countdown now to summer, and that might be partly because extra activities are wrapping up and every week, Nathan’s teacher is always like “FIVE MORE WEEKS OF SCHOOL” in her newsletters to the parents. Ha! Poor kinder teachers at this time of year with all these hyper kids who just want to be outside – we need to get her a nice gift. 😉

The chain link always gets in the way, but there’s my cute little outfielder for Saturday’s game. The kids all play different positions and I don’t think Nathan has a favorite yet, but he’s got a pretty good arm so I’m curious where he’ll end up liking the most.

Saturday’s game hit right smack in the middle of nap time (always), so I looked down after cheering for Nathan and saw this:

Sweet little one. She tried so hard to stay awake. She slept the rest of the game, even with all the commotion from the stands and her brother. And bless Parker’s heart – he’s a pretty good little trooper considering he gets constantly dragged around to his brother’s activities.

Nathan’s team went to the batting cages on Sunday afternoon so I stayed home with the little ones. I got them up from naps and Parker requested to watch PJ Masks. I guess this is the preferred way to watch it. 😉 Good thing neither of them has a space bubble.

I love this view! Jon sold another house!! I’m so proud of him and so excited for the sellers. He’s been working crazy hours lately to get this thing ready to close at the end of the month. Anyone need an excellent, hardworking realtor? 😉

Last night was our last regular Awana night for the year – next week, Parker has his graduation from Puggles (cannot believe it) and Nathan’s is the next week. We did a couple of Easter errands and then took this one to get a chocolate chip cookie. In the fall, when Awana started, Eisley used to just sob when we would drop the boys off, but now, she knows she’ll get Mom and Dad to herself, so she just happily baby-talks away as soon as we get back in the car without the boys. Ha! I know someone who is going to miss date night. 😉

Friday started just a normal day and then just turned into one of those special, wonderful days where nothing extra exciting happened but we just genuinely got to enjoy each other. 🙂 We started at a trampoline park with Nathan’s best friend at school and then ran by Old Navy and stocked up on some super cheap flip flops and a new hat for this one:

She LOVES her new hat and she LOVES being outside! 😉 As soon as nap was over, we all put on our shoes and headed outside to soak in the sunshine. I played basketball with Nathan and then Jon got home from work and they played catch for awhile.

He’s getting to be a good little baseball player!

Side note, but I love when Parker wears his bike helmet around. I think he looks so cute. He rides around and around and around the yard on his bike and scooter all day! They caught a lizard and Jon put it to “sleep” for the boys. Such a weird trick.

We were all so disgusting by this point that I just decided we were going to eat dinner outside. And then the weather was so nice that we thought maybe it was time to use those s’mores ingredients I’d been saving in the pantry. 😉

The boys helped Jon build a fire.

Parker kept asking all kinds of questions about everything and we finally realized that this was his first s’mores experience!! The last time we used the fire pit, he was just too little, so we put him in bed first. He was SO excited!

Cheesing with my best girl. 🙂 We let the boys handle the s’mores for awhile. 😉

First s’more ever ever ever and he loved loved loved it. 😉 At least half of it. Then he was kind of all, eh. The roasting of the marshmallows is more fun. Parker’s not really a dessert kid. Wish I was more like that, except not really. 😉

I think Nathan looks older every day and it’s just killing me.

Eisley was a HUGE fan of s’mores. She would have sat out there all night and threw the absolute biggest fit when we announced it was time for a much needed shower for everyone. Eisley is hands down my dessert girl. She totally inherited her mama’s love of chocolate. 😉

We got our tired kids bathed and in bed, took showers ourselves and snuggled down on the couch to watch a late Friday night movie. It was just the best day ever. I love days like this!!

We have been in a little bit of recuperation after our crazy spring break, so we’ve been laying a little low. Plus, baseball and practice schedules and end-of-the-school year stuff has taken over everywhere and I’m feeling a little like we are just holding onto this ship until May. 😉

Wednesday, we dropped Nathan off at school and the other two and I hit up Trader Joe’s, which is always such a happy day because then we get a natural (read disgusting but the kids seem to like them) sucker on our way out from the nice register people. I opened the door to get him out at home and Parker looked at me like this and said, “Hey, look Mom!! I’m a narwhal!”

I couldn’t even tell Jon the story that night after everyone went to bed because I was laughing so hard I was crying for at least ten minutes. That kid. I don’t know what to do with him.

Crazy hair night is always a little bit of a stretch with boys’ hair, but luckily, both boys are in pretty severe need of a haircut so we had a little more to work with than usual. 😉 Ha! They both looked like they got their fingers stuck in a socket and they were both so happy with it.

Next week is Parker’s last normal week of Puggles!! I just can’t even believe it!

Baseball season is officially here! Nathan’s team has been doing practices for a few weeks now, but this last Saturday was “Opening Day”. They do a little ceremony, introduce all the teams from t-ball all the way up to seniors, they sing the National Anthem, they throw the first pitch…it’s a big deal.

My cute little rookie! This is Nathan’s first year doing pitching machine and he alternates between really excited about it and really freaked out. 😉 I can’t blame him. His first year playing t-ball, one of his teammate’s brothers had his arm broken by the pitching machine, so Nathan (and I) have been on the nervous side since then.

We didn’t have a game Opening Day, which was for the best, because despite the mid-80s we’d been having for a few weeks, Saturday dawned cold, raining and halfway through the ceremony, we started getting some snow flurries.

The joy of being the sibling. 😉

Our first game was Monday and we got to play three innings before we got rained out by freezing, pelting rain that soaked us all the way down to the undies. Oy. Really hoping this isn’t the sign of what is to come for this year!!

On Sunday, after spring break, my parents asked if we wanted to meet for brunch after church and in walked none other than this girl:

Another fun surprise!! I was so excited to see her! And the kids went nuts.

Three girls at lunch. 🙂 We spent the rest of the long weekend shopping and playing and having the best time hanging out!!

Eisley is head over heels in love with her bunny. And Bunny is the BEST bunny in the whole wide world. She is perfectly floppy and so so soft. We searched a long time and sent back a lot of bunnies that didn’t make the cut before we discovered her. And I’m so glad we did. They are basically inseparable. 😉

On March 30, this little dude finally decided to make his long-awaited appearance and I became an auntie again!! Little Campbell put my poor sister-in-law through the wringer, but he’s here and he’s adorable. We cannot wait until this summer when we will get to meet him!!

I think spring break this year became, in a lot of ways, our fall back response to things.

“We should build the kid’s a playhouse.” “Yeah, let’s do it spring break.”

“We should work on pulling out more of the backyard stuff.” “Yeah, let’s do it spring break.”

“We should organize the garage and build a work bench.” “Yeah, let’s do it spring break.”

Needless to say, spring break ended up being a on the heavy side of insanity. 😉

I cannot get over how beautiful this baby girl is. Such a sweet little blessing in our lives!! Those cheeks – if I’ve learned anything over my years as a mother, it’s to kiss those baby cheeks as MUCH as you can as OFTEN as you can because far, far, far too quickly they melt away and become big kid cheeks. So she gets smooched a lot. 😉

When we sold our house, the kids were just devastated to leave our old playhouse behind. And for this entire time since we moved, the kids will randomly talk about our old playhouse. Right before Christmas time, I told the kids we were going to be home for Christmas and Parker immediately said, “YAY!! Nathan! Did you hear that? We are going back to our home with the playhouse for Christmas!” And basically, I just burst into tears. 😉

We had been saving for other things, but we re-routed some stuff, re-prioritized some other stuff, lived as cheaply as we could and started setting aside all mine and Jon’s birthday and Christmas money and right at the end of February, we finally reached our goal and bought the kids the exact same playhouse we had before. It was delivered on the Tuesday before spring break, we started getting things ready on Friday, got it all laid out and a few things built on Saturday and finished it Monday after the LONGEST three days ever. So worth it though. The boys woke up early that Tuesday and were out there playing by 7:45 in the morning and they’ve been out there every day since!

We had a freak few days that were in the mid-80s over spring break, so we had to pull out some of the adorable summer hand-me-downs from our dear friends. LOVE this!

I was walking my friend Shannon out the door one night and the door opened before I got there and Nama walked in! I was so shocked, I’m pretty sure I just stared at her for a good 30 seconds before my tired brain finally computed everything. Ha! We were all so surprised!! We had the best few days with her in the midst of all our spring break insanity!

The Saturday of spring break we had Parker’s friend birthday party. I think he is likely the only three year old on the planet who wants a Where’s Waldo party so we had to get creative with the decorations, but we did our best. We did a birthday brunch, which is now our new favorite thing. Parker had the best time! Such a wonderful day – we had so many sweet friends come celebrate our boy and it just meant so much to us!

Naked baby before pizza night…it’s the only way I’m not spraying a bottle’s worth of Oxy-clean on her clothes afterward. 😉

I love this picture so much!! The boys’ favorite thing right now is “Family Waldo Night” where we put the book on the floor and everyone just kind of lays around it and we all look for the different things. Parker got a Waldo blanket from Gammy and Pops and that just upped the game a ton. 😉

Such a crazy, wonderful, exhausting spring break!!