We're all grown up and havin' babies...

...and boy, o, boy, is it FUN!

I wish I could write captions for each of these. Feel free to write your own in the comments! Taking a picture with 4 babies is hard enough - doing it with your camera on self-timer? Yeah.

Sebastian: Whoa, this camera is the funniest thing I've ever seen!
Katharina: I guess I'll just sit here. I wonder when they'll realize I'm not even in the picture?
Ralphie and Mama: Let's blink at the same time so we look like idiots together.
Angela: O, I'm just so happy to be a mother!

Ashlee and Angela: Let's smile and act crazy for the camera, even though the kids aren't even looking at us!
Philippa: Boy, I've never seen Auntie open her mouth so big...

Ralphie: These stupid amber beads are choking me again...
Katharina: Uhm, this is getting kind of scary guys...

Ralphie: Who do you think has a better deer in the headlights stare - me? Or Auntie?
Ashlee: Let's all shout like we're on The Wiggles!

Katharina: Really, guys, I don't like this one bit.
Ralphie: I solemnly swear I did not take one sip of Uncle's scotch.
Sebastian: I could just do this all day!
Auntie: Can you smile THIS big, children?

Ralphie: I may, perhaps, have inhaled some of that cigar, though.
Philippa: I just love my mama soooo much.

:-D :-D

Really, the fun never ends.

These Days...

...Ralphie is all over the place, 

playing with all sorts of things, 

especially anything that wasn't made for a baby.

 It's so cute to see him use all his effort 

to army crawl across the room. 

It's even cuter when he sees something that he just has to have. Boy, can he really go then!

Cords are especially entertaining. 

Cords when indoors, leaves when outdoors.

Soon enough he'll be off, and O, the places he'll go then! 

Loving every minute of this boy's life.

Birthday Wish List

Eleven years and four days ago Daniel turned 16. Always a character, this is the list he compiled, printed, and distributed to his parents. 

Take a looksie, and laugh. I did.:D

Daniel Franklin Wells III List of Expected Gifts in Celebration of his Sweet Sixteen Year on Planet Earth

(C) 2001 Daniel Franklin Wells III List of Expected Gifts in Celebration of his Sweet Sixteen Year on

Planet Earth PRODUCTIONS! Associated with Simply the Best Cheeseburgers at McDonalds!

"What you want is what you get! At Mcdonalds today!" :)

1.Tuba Mouth Piece

2.Tuba or Band t-shirts

3.Clothes (Yellow and black)

4.Christian Books (Non-Fictional)

5.Left Behind Kids Series books

6.Christian CDs (Praise and Worship Albums)

7.Skittles and Coke

8.Custom Made Football Jersey

NAME: Little Red

Number: 7

Bucs Jersey

9.REAL NFL Jerseys

-Kurt Warner

-Peyton Manning

-New Alstott jersey

Finding lists like these is a plus to packing up boxes in his childhood home. :)

Mr. Flexible

Yes, that is his big toe lodged between his gum and upper lip.

 ... and now the whole heel in the mouth.

 ...but that big toe is just the best!

Uh-mazed at the flexibility of babies!

p.s. the bottom half of his body is cropped out, because this is generally what every diaper change looks like. I don't need to bother keeping his feet out of the way. He does it all for me! ;)

Now that I've found my toes...

... Naptime is much more interesting!

Two times out of five, Mama finds me like this when she comes to see how my nap is coming along.

I tell Mama, it's simple: why take a nap when you can chew on your toes?

Blonde Moment #263

For my birthday this year my sweet Mother-in-Law gave me a TJMaxx gift card. Fun, right? Right. For the past month I have been pondering carefully over what I wanted to use it on, and when I wanted to spend it.

This weekend Daniel's gone. It rained all afternoon. And inside the house was just gloomy and lonesome (except for sweet Baby's coos, of course.) Perfect day to use that gift card, I thought. So we headed out.

Inside the store, I begin my search. Cute little undergarments I've been in need of, a pretty long sweater and new leggings for the fall on clearance, a new leather bound journal, a skinny belt for $2, a super happy orange yoga mat. All things I'd been wanting, at fabulous prices.

I added it all up and I was $8 short of my gift card total. I hate having gift cards with just a little bit left on them, so we circled the store again. Shoes? No. Sunglasses? No. Nail polish? No. Finally, there it was. This beautiful porcelain blue-and-white soap dispenser. Perfect color for my kitchen. Turned it over - clearance for $3.99! I still needed a couple more dollars worth, when I spotted a matched stemmed cup, exactly what I could use to hold my scrubbing brush. 

Goodness, I was a happy woman.

We made it to the check out in high spirits. Excited about every item, and eager to get it all home to enjoy.

The cashier rang me up. $1.25 over my gift card total - pretty darn close! I was happy.

I handed her my gift card and she looked at me strangely.

"Do I need to swipe it, or do you scan it?" I asked, totally ignorant.

She just looked at me again. She was probably thinking, "Is this girl for real?" 

Finally she said, "Honey, you're at Ross, not TJMaxx."

It was a slo-mo kind of moment. A seriously-really-are-you-SURE  kind of moment. 

She turned around and pointed to the big, blue sign hanging from the ceiling. She looked down at the item she was holding, marked with a small blue tag. There it was plain as day, ROSS.

My heart just sunk. I laughed. Covered my face with my hands. Probably blushed crimson, too. I apologized a hundred times, and watched as she sadly canceled each special item on my receipt...

... at least, in my favor, TJMaxx was the next store over. I just hadn't walked far enough.

But really, no excuse. I seriously spent over an hour in a store and didn't even notice it was the wrong one!

Daniel thinks this is worse than the famous Adios! story... Whadya think?

Three's Company

Cousins!

I'll be playing catch-up here in this little space for at least a week. The last two weeks have been full and fun! Chronologically, first thing first.

______________________________________________________________________________

Ralphie met his cousins Sebastian and Katharina!

For those of you who have sisters you understand. The bond between sisters is different than any other. So naturally, sharing the joys of motherhood with your sister is especially sweet. Seeing our little ones "play together" was delightful.

The black and white photos are from Wednesday, May 30th, when they met for the first time. The other shots are from sometime last week while we were all at Grammy and Grandpa's house in Michigan.

Katharina is a doll. She took one look at Ralphie and exploded in smiles and grins. Ralphie loved her, too! 

Sebastian thought his little cousin was pretty cool, too. He definitely knew he wasn't his sister. He tried to be "gentle" and give some sweet lovin's to Ralphie's face, but ended up poking him in the eye instead. Someday when they're rough and tough boys, Sebastian will tease Ralphie that he wasn't man enough to take a little poke in the eye. ;)

<3

Their faces in this crack me up!

"Excuse me, cous, I need to get through."

"Yeah, no problem, man, just use my back as a bridge. I don't mind."

Zoe Girl

Zoe girl has been MIA in the blogosphere for awhile, eh? But she's still around in reality, be sure of that. She keeps us on our toes.

We're embarrassed to say that we refer to ourselves as "daddy" and "mommy" and have a gazillion nicknames for our little mutt.

She's ten months old now.

When we come home - from anywhere - church, Bible study, a day out, work, it doesn't matter, no matter how long we were gone she greets us with the same enthusiasm and excitement. We like to laugh, "Happy Birthday! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Easter! Happy Valentine's Day!" because she's so darn excited it's like all the holidays in one split second. She also has this adorable little wiggle she does, that has earned her the nickname "Wiggle"

Sometimes she gets random bursts of (higher than normal) energy and will rampage around the house - the whole house, or sometimes just a particular room. She'll run around full speed ahead and then screech to a stop and look around to see if we're watching her. This has earned her the nickname "Kramer" ;)

She's not very lady like. Not one bit. Look at these pictures she posed for this morning!

She likes to be comfortable, for sure.

She has a lot of strange fears, too. At the top of the list is the vacuum cleaner, but following close behind is Daniel playing Wii, my big silver exercise ball, and plastic bags. Sad, strange little thing.

But boy she loves peanut butter. She will do just about anything for her kong full of peanut butter. All we have to do is whisper "home" with that peanut butter in our hands and she races to her crate.

I guess we're glad we kept her. She's a good guard dog, too. Keeps an eye out for me when Daniel's not home (or even when he is). She's not a barker, thank goodness, but she will occasionally when she hears something that puts her in guard-dog mode - like the doorbell, or loud voices outside at night.

watching out the window