Yes, it really was that funny.

Feel free to thank me for not accurately representing the volume that accompanied these pictures. Between spitting and laughing loudly, it escalated quickly. :)

Excuses

Shortly after my last post my laptop became a desktop. The cord falls apart in three pieces at the connection point, which is unstable at best, which feeds energy through the battery, which has no potential of retaining a charge. Furthermore, if I tilt my screen, I lose all visual of the object that used to be visible on the said screen. It is replaced with a black background and sparkly green lines that flicker across the screen. It is amusing, but you might add it all up to understand why I have not blogged as often. Add that to my first time of sitting on our kids alone for a week while Jon had a business trip, followed by 10 days in Minneapolis partnering with a church to lead our youth group and others through a mission to the city with them, encompassing Jon's birthday, ending on Father's day, and leading into London's first birthday, all coming on the bitter dregs of a typical zonked first trimester with the new little one cooking, and you might get the rest of the hazy picture that I have been trying to pin a blame in. During that time I also decided it would be a great idea to become a Pampered Chef consultant, and backed with Jon's blessing and enthusiasm we embarked on the adventure of cooking shows. As I sit here and write to you all, my dear readers, I am secretly wishing I could discreetly tell you that Jack is officially potty-trained, and proud of himself, London has eight teeth and two more on their way, my in-laws are arriving for a visit tomorrow night, and my parents are leaving early Thursday morning to fly to my sister's side in Taiwan as she welcomes my next neice into the world.  

Moving on.

We expect one of two things to happen. Either life will slow down a bit, or we will eventually get a new laptop. Either way, I plan on tossing a whole boatload of pictures on here very soon. :)

P.S. These two gooses were blasting Christmas music when I took this picture. London isn't in it because he was "sleeping," right. I have "slept" through their music sessions. 

The Dentist's kids have all the cavities

The doctor's kids are always sick. The adages go on. In this case, the photographer's family has bad shots in frames. I have a fresh determination to have good quality pictures of my kids and family. I mean, I love taking them of other people, but it makes it really hard to be satisfied with Sears for our family picture. Thanks to my friend Amelia, and some recent shots I took of the boys, these are the pictures I fully love and endorse that I just hung in our house this afternoon.

 I took this one on Mother's Day

 Amelia took these next three last week

 I love this one (above) it is so purely London.

I got this one while I was supposed to be setting up for our garage sale in April

Mother's Day!

My mother's day greeted me with breakfast in bed and an enormous bunch of wildflowers from our yard. Lovely. At church we had a good service and the boys presented me with a rose.

Afterwards we went hunting for a park that had parking spaces available to have our traditional mother's day lunch picnic. This one had a twist. Stephen took the menu under his brilliant little chef's hat and made a 5 course wonder. He took a poll on what I felt like eating since the new baby has been pretty picky, and ruled out all meat, weird combinations, garlic, mixing food groups, and eggplant. When I look at that list I come up with a menu of cereal and ice cream. When he looked at that list he came up with this - (not pictured is whole grain chips and guacamole)

Fresh tomato salad (with not too much zing), toasted demi loaf lightly spread with olive oil topped with herb-flavored goat's cheese, smoked salmon, and a perfect curl of lemon zest.

Focaccia bread with argula, marinated tomato, and fresh, fresh, fresh mozzarella. 

Carob pudding with fresh fruit

and this amazing zingy citrus drink that had a lot of lemons and oranges floating in it. 

Needless to say, we were impressed, stuffed, and baby loved it. Thanks Stephen :)

The little boys tried to sleep through lunch and somehow managed to wake up just in time for dessert being served. That's talent.

We watched this bug for a while. Jack probably named it. I forget.

Jon introduced London to tree climbing. 

And Jack joined him to give me a token cheesy grin.

Add this to our list of classic family picture flops that I love.

Aren't they the prettiest flowers you have ever seen?

We left from the picnic to go to Wamego to spend a couple of days with some good friends. That deserves a whole post of its own. More to come!

Happy Mother's Day!

...and their classy cars

 They both max out around the same speed and are a bit reluctant to start at times, but for some weird reason, Stephen and Jack still seem to like them a lot!

We live outside...

 One door cars are meant for one kid.

 Our local entertainment! Jack loves it when our neighbors and their friends come over.

busy boys

 Jack is growing in his love of art - drawing, coloring, using chalk or markers all make him really happy.

 London is growing in his collecting skills. He almost always has some random object in his right hand. His hairbrush and this small plastic half circle thing are two of his favorites.

 He also has 5 teeth that he uses with great frequency and, to my dismay, much amusement.

 I mean, look at all of Jack's teeth. He has tons more and he has never bitten me...(oh rosy memory that forgets those two painful times...)

Jon has a better understanding of Jack right now. This is the day planner he made for Jack. The bricks each represent and event - White = breakfast, blue = bathtime, beige = lunch, grey = naptime, the yellow brick = a candy for daddy, and the red brick = a candy for Jack. Jack carried this all through the day reminding himself and anyone else that would listen. This brought peace to me because Jack stopped asking for a candy every few seconds once he had a scheduled plan.

Happy April is past, Happy May!