New additions

The Callahan Clan has expanded!  Patrick is now the proud owner of two crabs.  Feisty and Robin Crab-Callahan.

I cleaned their bowl last week and rearranged their house.  Nobody sent me the memo about the crabs' wanderlust.  Their plant was a little high and Feisty crawled out, jumped off the counter, spent most of the day under the couch and reappeared just in time to freak me out.  I spent the entire day telling Patrick to find his crab and tiptoeing all over the house.
Crunching crabs is not my idea of a good time.  Neither is having crabs climb over my bare feet while I am sitting on the couch.

Lesson learned.

I like to move it move it!

 Hello!  It is official, Lauren is crawling (all over the place).  This quickly progressed to pulling herself up on her knees (usually to play Legos!).  She tried to pull herself up to standing today, it didn't turn out so well.  She is pretty strong and really coordinated but not coordinated enough to climb the couch.

 And she can make it across the room to the tile.  She can follow me across the room too. 

And she can climb on the coffee table and bookcase. 

So things are now being put away beyond her reach.... and so it begins.

I heart....

PINWHEELS!!!!  

I don't know why I love them, I just do!~

I made these for Lauren's dedication brunch a couple of weeks ago.  Look!  You could do a whole pinwheel party!

I love the scalloping (that's a word right?) on these featured on Hostess With The Mostess

When I was looking for a cake pop cake inspiration I found this awesome party on Amy Atlas.  Love it. 

Maybe LoLo needs a Pinwheel Birthday Party!

7 Months Old! Whoa baby.

Lauren is seven months old.  Our amazing and beautiful baby is changing and growing every day.  I haven't weighed her lately but I know she outweighs a lot of her baby friends who are a year old.  18 lbs or so?

She wants to crawl, walk and dance.  She learned how to not just grab her feet but suck on her big toe.  She likes to eat avocados and bananas (especially if she can feed herself).  She is finally starting to establish a schedule (it still includes nursing every 3 hours though).  She sleeps in her own crib for a few hours every night.  She loves her daddy.  She loves watching her brothers and her dogs.

best. baby. ever.
edited to say that my baby loves the water.  She can play in the tub forever.  Kevin's baby loves her football and is super coordinated!

a peak at my morning

I will be completely honest with you.... Motherhood is hard!  Really, really hard.  I've had a few Mommy Dearest/Ms. Hannigan/Bad Mommy moments this week. 

But this morning we had some pretty awesome moments (unfortunately for you, I don't usually take pictures when my head is spinning around in the bad moments. or as my brother Benjamin used to call them "B.M.'s".).  So here is your glimpse at our awesome moments:

Patrick enjoying his morning paper (he went out to get it), Eggos and "coffee" (warm milk with a sprinkle of cinnamon)

Keith after dropping off Patrick at school.  The GIS to Patrick, "Is that your crazy brother?" So it begins.

LoLo on the move.  Ok, this is awesome and devastating.  Girlfriend is freakishly strong though.  just saying.

Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day is an interesting holiday.  I have come to appreciate my darling husband's attitude about Mother's Day: every day is Mother's Day.  In other words he doesn't wait until one day in May to tell me he appreciates me.  And for that, I am thankful.

This year, Mother's Day weekend happened to fall on the first weekend that Kevin went back to work.  This is the life we chose, no complaints.  We had a fabulous month of vacation together.  Point is, Kevin was working.  I went into the weekend with two hopes: 1) to enjoy the little bit of special time that we had together at the races (and it was special and fabulous: happy mother's day) and 2) God grant me the patience to enjoy my children instead of wanting to strangle them (ahem, you can't win them all).

As naughty as my boys were this weekend (both had precious toys taken away. both cried rivers.), I did get some special moments with them.  Kevin going back to work was a lot tougher than we realized.  Wow.  On Friday Keith snuck into bed with me.  On Saturday it was Patrick's turn.  So we got extra cuddles.  Nice gift.

We also had an extended conversation about my job.  According to Patrick my job includes: feeding Lauren, cleaning the house, doing laundry and telling them what to do.  Neither one thinks that I have a "real" job.  Patrick says that I used to but not anymore.  My kids' perspective: great gift.

I also got to close my eyes for a few minutes this afternoon.  I probably could have slept for an hour but a boy needed me.  A nap is an awesome gift.

To end our day, the boys and I screened Episode 3.  I love bonding with my boys over Star Wars. Jedi gift.

Now the house is quiet and I'm thinking about all of the Sunday chores that I have to do before I go to bed.  And such is life, good thing I love it.

A Great Day at the Races

We have been so blessed to find some awesome friends in our new neighborhood.  Great Christian families with nice kids, wonderful mamas and some pretty decent dads too.  Case in point, Cory and Josh.  We love their kids and have become fast friends with them.  They were kind enough to invite us to join them for La Feliz Guild's Derby Down event.  It was so fun.  Bravo to the Guild, they put on an excellent event!

Unfortunately, Kevin had to go back to work yesterday.  He loves me Josh a lot so he took a quick nap and joined in on the fun.  We had fried chicken, mint juleps (ok, not a huge fan of the mint julep), yummy desserts and we bet on the horse races.  True confessions: I don't get out much and therefore had never wagered on the ponies!  We didn't win any money but it was a lot of fun.