Smiley girls

This is a blurry picture (kids move a LOT), but it is so stinkin' sweet! We were messing around with the camera yesterday. My sunshine.
Lance surprised me with these gorgeous roses. :) I am one lucky girl.
(more fun photo editing!) ...Indulgent/Token self-shot. :D

:(

Today I received a disturbing phone call from my sister Sarah, who told me that my niece Tessa (Rachael's daughter) was taken to the ER by ambulance because of a seizure -turning blue, etc. I burst into tears. I had no idea that my children's illness would affect everyone so severely. The girls were practically over it by the time we had the Easter party, so I didn't figure there would be any harm.

*Please see the comments from yesterday's blog post. :( Everyone has it. I won't post the scathing email from a very disappointed Dave, who's family is in the throes of illness as well. To each of you, I'm so sorry. Certainly this wasn't on purpose, but I feel terrible just the same. All I can say is -hey- at least you're not camping in CA, right?

My turn

Oh maaaaaaan. I thought I'd skid by on this whole sick-kid crap. No such luck. This morning about 1 hour after Lance went to bed, I felt like CRAP!!!

I had the full-on body aches, and I was absolutely freezing. I had perma-goose-bumps, and couldn't justify touching the heater again! GOOD THING I DIDN'T SHAVE THIS MORNING!

There have been other unpleasant aspects to the day, but the deets are unnecessary! I called my mom and promptly began to cry. Bless her heart, she brought me a huge crystal light from Mooches (my PEEPS! LOVE that gas station!) and took Ella to school for me! She even picked her up and brought her back, which meant that my day really was spent on the couch (and bathroom) feeling cold and sad -trying to deal with 3 little girls. Mia took a decent nap, as did Sabrina, however. They love their mom, and I truly think they could tell I was in misery.

I'm feeling a little better this evening, and hope that tomorrow brings some freakin' ENERGY (thus the super-tired Sat & Sun explanation) so that my kids don't think I've abandon them! Sick moms are no fun.


*Thank you to MY mom who wins the award for 'cares about Becca the most today'! You're the best, Mom.

Le' NFEE/ (unofficial)SFEE!!!

Okay, since my last name isn't as secure as it used to be on this blog, and my "give a crap" is broken, it's the NOLAN FAMILY EASTER "EGG"STRAVAGANZA!!!

This weekend has been JAM-Packed with all kinds of sugary-excitement and festivities. Okay, so when I downloaded pix, I had 96 for the weekend alone. I will try to keep it to the minimum, and not blog-shop my family and steal theirs! :D

Following is the (unofficial)SFEE for my in-laws. Mo' Easter Madness.

This picture SCREAMS Easter to me!!! It's the duckie that Granny painted, who comes out EVERY year to the delight of me and my siblings... How cute is that?! It's pretty much the beginning and end for the Easter-ness for my generation, but we've expanded for youngster-enjoyment; see following.

Funny shot of me in Mom's mirror! :)

Cute Ella with sugar-faced joy.

This is the kiddo-luncheon that Rachael put together.

Complete with bunny-desserts!!!

Mia loved it.

...So much that she sat in the fruity-marshmallow salad. CLASSIC.

After lunch, the kids headed out doors for the hunt!

Mia found lots of eggs, and towed her sippy-cup in her bucket to boot! That girl is hydrated!

Egg.

Left to Right: Phoebes, Noah, Tessa, Ella, Lily, Mia, Benny.

...And Sabrina slept. Her cheek was naturally that rosy. Sweet!

Me with Mia in the back.

Kids doing more crafties.

It was mayhem. There was a LOT planned, and a LOT of effort (from every adult involved!) that went into the occasion. I was pooped (you can see it on my forehead!) and took a royal load of crap for not being able to keep my eyes open in the late afternoon. We did have a lunch earlier for which I'd provided my yumo-breakfast casserole. We had dinner at my parent's house too. By then, Mia's napless day had taken its toll on every blessed soul in the house, and we left in as big of a flurry as we came in, minus one Mia-shoe.

Where was Lance, you ask? He'd taken off before 2pm for golf and was asleep (screening my calls). It was ruff ruff ruff!

SFEE!!

The Sortors had a fabulous Sunday planned.

Here's Ella mid-sugar bite.

Chaedon decorated some fantastic-lookin' cookies.

Sabrina mowed on a plain sugar-cookie.

My messy Mia!

Candace looked graceful as she helped kiddos decorate cookies and eggs!

Left to right: Chaston, Chaedon, Candace, Aneesa.

Egg mess.

HAPPY WEEK-BEFORE-EASTER!

Sick kiddos!

Here's my little Mia- on the mend. She's doing much better now.

This spantatic picture was taken around 2 AM, when Ella had barfed in her bed, and we were up in the middle of the night waiting for laundry and playing Super Mario Brothers (Wii)!
Ella got the camera and snapped one of me and Bri. ...That's the game on the TV in the background.
Ella spent the day on the couch, just like Mia had the previous day. Poor kid!
Token self-portrait! :D You gotta love 'em!

Poor Mia

Yeah, we seem to have a pretty nasty little bug hanging around our house. It's mostly lethargy/ the runs/ puking up knee-caps. Mia has been lounging on the couch for the weekend, but finally perked it up today. Seems to be a bit of a 48-hr. bug.

So sweet.

Messing Around

HP Image Zone is something on my computer that I haven't ever messed with until lately... It's a LOT of fun! This picture started as something I'd never post in a bazillion years -and here it is, posted for the world to see! Thank you, HP.

For Mary- I KNOW I need to snaggle picnic, but you need to help meeeee! I need tutelage!

Leprechauns? Seriously???

This is Mia, wishing you all a Happy St. Patty's!

I did her hair today! We had green french toast to celebrate the holiday.This is one of Ella's favorite breakfasts!
Lovely green finger.

Ella's hair masterpiece for the day!

Okay, so Ella came home yesterday all stoked about the Leprechauns that the Kindergarten class set traps for. I’m not impressed. I told her “Ella, there’s no such thing as Leprechauns.” To which she replied “Teacher says they’re real… They’re not real? We can’t catch them? They don’t bring you chocolate?” ARE YOU KIDDING MEEEE???

SO! I told her I’d need to ask Daddy “Because Daddy knows everything, huh, Mommy?”. “Yes, Ella, most things.” ---I didn’t wanna give him everything.

Lance made a quickie run to Lee’s and got a little bag o’ chocolate coins. She’d made a “trap” with her little friend Preston earlier in the day, so I found some green decorating sugar that I sprinkled on her trap (outside the front door). This way she’d know he’d been there, but escaped.

Freakin’ Leprechauns. Where does the lying to kids stop??? I’m no innocent when it comes to telling a minor whopper here or there to keep peace (or keep my chocolate to myself), but seriously!

My Mom was very adamant that we were to never believe in Santa Claus. She didn’t want us questioning whether she’d been lying about God too -plus she was pretty keen on getting the Christmas credit herself (don’t blame her - you wanna coordinate Christmas for 6 kids from Panguitch, Utah and give someone else a pat on the back???)! Lance’s family does the whole Santa bit. I’m okay with it, because I’m not passionate about not having Santa, so that’s what we do. …The Easter Bunny has found his way in, and now we have another totally mythical creature infiltrating our lives where we perpetuate a lie and create some “magic” for a very innocent child. Does this hurt them?

I don’t know, because I wasn’t ever lied to like this. I feel ambushed by the school and am not so happy about that one… I wish I were a whole lot easier-going about these things… That I were that mom who created “fairy tea parties” for her little ladies, and encouraged wishes and princess dreams; I’m not. I’m no where near her, and to fake being her for these little things feels foreign to me. I believe in hard work, in making your own dreams come true, and more importantly, in GOD: which to me, is NOT a lie.

Lots of analysis. Too much for a Tuesday night. Happy St. Patty’s, my friends.

today...

Today I put some blue in my eye-makeup. What do you think? Hello, 80's? :D

Tonight -on the fly- I called my dear friend Betsy-Babes. I talked her into some Papa Murph-leys pizza and an evening of kids running wild. She was game. :)
Here are Mia and her little girl Teagan in the wagon. We went to the school playground and turned the kiddos loose.

Sabrina enjoyed the stroller!

Ella found pine cones!

She REALLY liked the pine cones!

Great group shot, eh?

*Thanks for the fun Betsy!!!

33

Yes, that's a bit of a ghetto candel siz-nich-u-ation for my darling Lance's 33rd birthday, however, it does the job. Yes, that's my sad hand looking very un-girly. *Meant to do my nails. Probably time for fakies again. I can't seem to keep up.

REGARDLESS, Happy Birthday Lance! Don't you love how it all becomes about ME so quickly?! Hey, it's my blog!

We went to his parent's house last night and had a wonderful dinner (seafood cocktail, and home-cooked ribs -mmmmm). Here's Lance and me.

*I have NOT mastered the closed-mouth smile. These braces are freakin' killing me. I'm gonna look scary in pictures from now on, just as a warning.

Sabrina-babes is just the happiest ray of sunshine you'd ever meet. She's awesome at pictures!
For his birthday, Lance got some fun stuff -here he's holding a golfing punch card from his parents! 20 rounds of golf for the lucky birthday boy.

Lance and Bri.

Mia, mid-chocolate-cake-ecstasy.

It's a funny story... This pic was taken too late, but apparently just before that, she'd set her fork down gently, taken a deep breath, and leaned back with her eyes closed -a VERY smug and satisfied smile on her face. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen (I just caught the smile, not the whole production). She's SUCH a character!

BTW- that shirt is sitting in a bowl of hot water/ OxiClean as I type.

Here's our boy Chaedon. His teeth are already looking SO good, I'm impressed with good ole Dr. H!!! Chaedon has been an absolute doll to have this weekend. Ella was too busy sliding on the floor and playing with Tootsie (the dog), and be-boppin' all over Grandma and Papa's that there are no pix of her to post!

I am the self-proclaimed cookie-whisperer, and as such, Lance requested a batch to take into work to share for his (and a boss-chick's) birthdays. Issue: THOUGHT I bought 2 bags of butterscotch chippies, but the 2nd was in the wrong place, so I have a random bag of peanutbutter/milk chocolate chippies. USELESS!!! Didn't make 2 batches, so no cookies left around here, man. They all went to work. Hopefully Lance comes back with many more satisfactory compliments for my ego.

:)

Sometimes when I write, it comes out the same way I speak. It's not the easiest thing to read, but hopefully you get the gist of how truly sarcastic I really am. My ego actually isn't out of check, I just dive into my alter-realtity from time to time and pretend I'm an amazingly confident cookie-maker (among other things!). Above, dough.

Peek into the tupperware o' looooove.

For Lance-

Happy Birthday hunny. Sorry I didn't even shower today, but the bummin' was nice! Hope you liked your fluffy waffles this morning and cookies tonight. 33 and goin' strong!

Love you.