To Spring or not to Spring

So called "Spring" is such an odd time of year.  One day it is balmy-almost summerish and the next day it is snowy and windy and colder than December.  It is amazing we survive all the teasing the Weatherman brings.  Yet those warmish days seem to make it all worth it for me.  And honestly, the few random snow flurries we have had in March have been welcomed by us, because it is really the only snow we have seen all winter.

One of the only snowy days we got in February, we decided to up hop to Keith's parents house and take our boys on a little sledding adventure (also we both wanted Tiny Spicy Chicken from our fav. Chinese place).  I was certainly shocked at how brave the boys were (minus Leo, he was pretty wimpy).  Benson went full on and loved every second of it.  Griffin did not stop eating snow or sucking on his mittens for a minute, nay, second.  It was oh so glorious.

Getting ready for the big excursion-Griffin in size 3T snow bibs (when he put them on, he said, "Hey I look like Mario!) and Benson in rain boots.  I didn't exactly purchase snow gear this year and has it turns out, we didn't really need it!

Griffin's good Grandma giving him a pull to the sledding hill (which happens to be a cemetery just next door).

Keith slipped into his old farming carharts and looked like a real stud if you ask me.

Benson's boots didn't do so well in the snow and he slipped a lot, but didn't complain about it once.  He loved it and was really brave.

Keith was his normal insane self, laying down in the middle of the sledding hill as a jump and  acting crazy-please note  Griffin is sucking his glove.  He would literally grab snow while going down the hill and eat it.

I even went a few times and left Leo to cry-the whole trip he bawled unless I was holding him.  It was ridiculous.

Mary and Maggie going for a ride on the saucer.  We love that they live so close to Grandma and Grandpa!

Sucking snow once again.

Libby and I!  I sure love those girls!

Benson going crazy on the saucer.

Again.

We sure had a fun time.
But now we are ready for warm weather all of the time!  Aren't you?

"Tagged"

A few blogs I follow have been doing the whole "tagged" thing lately...something I thought had died approximately around the same time I started a blog (I am a tad behind I guess).  Anyway,  I was recently tagged and decided why not?  So here goes, my answers are in pink.

1. What is your dream Job? I am doing it, being a mom.  Is that cheating?  Once I worked for Coca Cola and virtually got paid with soda, that was pretty sweet.  

2. If you had to give yourself a nickname what would it be? My name "Lisa" is technically a nickname since my real name is something else.  My mom calls me "Lou" and I love that.  If you know me super well, than you are allowed to call me "Lis," but pretty much nothing bugs me more than someone I barely know calling me that like we are old chums or something.  I am also thinking hot stuff would be a pretty good one.

3. If they let you pick, who would you go on "Wife Swap" with?  Um, no one? Hahahaha.  I pretty much only want to be married to Keith.  But I have always liked Johnny Depp...

4. What is something you spent too much money on and never use?  Our downstairs bathroom.  It cost a pretty penny to put in and I pretty much use the restroom upstairs exclusively.  Other people use it (mostly visitors), so I guess it wasn't a total waste.

5. What is the first song that comes to mind? Pocketful of sunshine.  Have you seen Easy A?  At least youtube pocketful full of sunshine Easy A for me.  Maybe if I am feeling super motivated I will put it on this post.

6. What are you favorite toppings for pizza?  Cheese and pineapple, and like one tiny piece of ham.

7. What is one thing you love to do in your free time?  Be alone!  Shopping, swimming, exercising, singing.  Crap, the question said "one."  I love to go to the spa and get pampered.  Getting a facial is my absolute favorite thing.

8. Who would play you in a movie? Someone super hot.  Or a camel, I kinda look like a camel.

9. What do you wish was closer to where you live?  The beach, duh.

10. What type of milk do you have in your refrigerator right now? Whole for the baby and 1% for the rest.

11. Do you give directions via roads or landmarks?  I don't give directions, doesn't everyone have a smart phone?!  Definitely landmarks.

As promised...you're welcome.

Have fun singing that one all day!

Baby Leo at 16 months...

Our little Leo just recently passed the 16 month mark.  He decided to officially start walking on his 16 month birthday (March 5).  He is most definitely my latest walker and I am so grateful because now life is even busier and crazier and more mischievous for sure.  He is kind of attempting to put on weight, but I swear some days he does nothing but drink milk from a sippy (at least he does that I guess).  I weighed him tonight and our scale says he weighs 18.8 lbs.  What a chunk.  I am sure he still isn't on the charts but at least he is growing a little bit!

Here are some pictures and a list about Leo and his current interests/antics/talents/skills/etc.

Leo at church.

Messing around with Dad and the priests.

Cheering on his brothers playing xbox.

A walking man!

He loves animals and has absolutely no fear.

He literally giggles and squeals the whole time he rides the horses at the farm.

He will fall asleep on you if you hold him as tight as possible and do your best not to make eye contact. :)

• He loves to get into the toilet and/or toilet paper.  I am on constant toilet patrol and with three other males in the house who are not super awesome at shutting the toilet-it is a very busy job.
• His nose is constantly runny.
• He is a master of stairs and climbing on furniture.  Sometimes he goes downstairs all by himself and I will finding him playing with toys in the playroom.
• He does not watch t.v. for longer than .25 seconds.  Unless strapped in a carseat-then he is mesmerized by it.  He loves to watch his older brothers play on the Kinect though, the other day he watched them and stood in the same spot for 45 minutes.
• He thinks he is old.  Like ride a bike old.  It's ridiculous.
• He is super consistent saying two words: Dad and cheese.  Whenever he sees Keith he says "dad" in this lovesick puppy sort of way.  And he says cheese when he sees, well, cheese.  He also says "bobo" which is code for peek-a-boo.  He will say Mom, but only when is distress.  He also says shoes.  He says hi and bye and waves.  He gives the best open mouth kisses ever.  He claps for himself on a regular basis and will yell "yeah" when he is excited.
• Going to church and sitting with him for a few hours has now reached "impossible" status, but just like my other boys he will generally sleep for at least an hour of it.
• He is currently deciding between taking two naps and one nap a day-mostly because life is busy and he doesn't always get as much sleep when I need.  For the record, I super love him when he is asleep.
• He hates going to bed and generally puts up a pretty decent fight.  Like now for instance.
• He is super protective of me.  If his brothers or dad are touching me, he will come and shove them off of me.  When we are around other people, he whines if I leave the room or if I am not right next to him.
• He thinks everything is a ball-my iPhone, all food, shoes, toys, utensils, clothes.  You name it-he throws it.
• He is adorable and we all love him.

Benson loses his first tooth

One day I noticed that Benson's perfectly straight teeth looked a little off.  I nearly passed out when I saw that his little bottom tooth was loose.  After about a month of wiggling, it felt like it was finally ready to come out.  For the record, I did not really partake in the tooth wiggling-that was all Keith.  Teeth kind of give me the willies.  Anyway, one night I was afraid Benson was going to swallow his tooth if we didn't pull it out, so I called Keith to come do the job.  We also had a house full of company at the time.

He was pretty nervous.

Having blood in his mouth downright freaked him out.

Keith thought it was funny.

The poor kid was so shook up about it.

Pretty soon he thought it was pretty cool.

And now, we can't get him to NOT tell people...our cashier at the grocery store, EVERYONE at church, the pediatrician.  He also looks super old now.  And don't worry, the tooth fairy did indeed leave him a dollar under his pillow (should the tooth fairy pay more? ya know due to inflation!) and he is saving that money to play soccer in the spring.  Griffin and Benson both have to earn $40.00 each to play soccer by doing jobs around the house without complaining-it is pretty much awesome.

Uh...The End.  Haha.  Stay tuned for more!

February was a blur...

For some reason, the month of February seems to fly by every year.  Even though it got a bonus day this year, it still went by super fast.  Funny how that happens.  Our February was super fun (if you consider everyone in your family getting strep throat fun).  Benson is actually the only one who didn't get strep, but I got to visit the Dr. five times in February.  Super awesome!  On top of the sickness, Keith got strep throat for the very first time in his life, Griffin had a crazy reaction to amoxicillin, Griffin and Leo both got strep infections on their face (FACE!) and my parents who visited us and my sister also got strep.  It was nasty.  Oh yeah, and I chose to get a shot in the bum instead of having to take the antibiotic, causing my backside to hurt worse than my throat. All in all, we had a pretty eventful month.

Oh yeah, and Valentine's Day was in there somewhere.

My present from Keith-chocolate coupons.  The top one says "good for a make-out session."  And for the record, we totally made out.

I made pink heart pancakes for breakfast.  The boys were totally ticked that they were a girl color.  Why do I even try?

Benson's shirt says "Heartbreaker."  I fear this statement to be true.

Getting the boys to all cooperate for a picture is well, impossible these days.

My sweet heart hair/roots.  Didn't you know it was cool to have roots these days?  Literally I paid money for my hair to look like this.  Also, if I had any girls they would have had this hair too.

My heart beats for mom.  It could also say, My heart beats for . . . taking the toilet paper off the roll or  for chewing food and then spitting it out or for throwing every item placed in my hand.  Let's stick with mom.

Is this a normal picture of Griffin?  Someone must be growing up!

For V-day we went to Chubby's and ate fried food with our cousins.  It was awesome, especially our waitress who wore a white shirt with lingerie over it.  No joke.

Opening their presents, huge caramel chocolate hearts from Russell Stovers.  Keith got packets of tissues from me.  Romantic?  Yes.

I am a super lucky lady, if only I could get them to sit still.

I should get a shirt made that says, "my heart beats for Leo."  

Did you think I was going to leave out pictures of the rash?  There was literally  thousands of red bumps on his entire body for a few days.

Griff was super happy about it.

Lucky for us, it didn't seem to bother him or itch, it just looked terrible.  

And that was February!  Luckily March hasn't been filled with Doctor appointments, yet.  Although, Leo still has strep on his face.  Yikes.