Catching my breath

Whew. What a week. We didn't stop from Sunday morning to right now, 7:42 on Saturday night. One of those weeks that makes you count your blessings...but also makes you wish it were over. The kind of week where I was gone from the house for 14 hours at a time, coming home only to put the kids and myself in bed. Lots of good memories. Lots of blessings counted. Lots of lost moments where I missed my little girls, or my big kids, or both. Where I wished for a quiet day at home, and then realized that the mess would make it impossible to relax. But finally, it's over. And it ended on a high....sorta. The highlights...

We learned to crawl! Just a few "steps" at a time, but still. Big news!

(The girls say that Charlotte looks like Dopey in this picture, and I have to admit that they're right. Dopey always was the cutest, and my favorite!)

Monday night, Maddy had a chorus concert. What a great show. Here she is before the concert in her "uniform." I love how photogenic my girl is!
And here she is singing her solo--by far the best one!

Wednesday, we celebrated...the last regular meeting of AWANA and Hannah's 4th birthday!

Here she is blowing out the candles in her chocolate donuts.

Hannah and one of the twelve Barbies she got for her birthday.

Hannah's new toy...her new leapster from Grandma. She is slowly but surely learning to do it herself. She won't let us turn it on for her anymore!

(And yes, by this time, I was as tired as I look in this picture!)

Thursday and Friday found us staying at school from 7:15 am until after 9:00 pm. The big girls were in the school's production of "The Wizard of Oz." Maddy was the mayor of Muchkin City, and Sarah was Tibia, the wicked witch's assistant and Tree #1. Of course, in true Lisa fashion, I did NOT bring the camera. (But many people who are much more put together than I am did and have posted pictures on Facebook, so I am trying to figure out how to get those here!)

Which brings us to today...Saturday. Our day of rest. HAHAHAHA! Today, as it is yearly, was Hannah's birthday party. The house was a wreck. A total and complete wreck. No one had clothes to wear or dishes to eat or drink out of. Piles of things everywhere. Birthday party trash everywhere. Piles of laundry everywhere. And 25 people coming over to the house at 5:00.

But that was OK, because my wonderful husband didn't have to work. We would divide and conquer. He'd take the outside, I'd take the inside. He'd ice the cake, I'd decorate. He'd go get Hannah's presents and I'd go get the food for the cookout. I'd begin to clean the living room, and he'd vomit uncontrollably and writhe in pain in the bed.

Ok, so that last part...NOT part of the plan. But as with all things "us," it's pretty much par for the course. Poor thing suffered with gall stones all day, all through the party, and pretty much, still. So my wonderful children helped with the cleaning, the picking up of balloons, the grilling, the baby watching, the pacifying of Hannah, the icing of the cake. And it all got done with about 20 minutes to spare.

The breakfast room, in all it's Disney princess glory.

The Barbie cake--made by Daryl last night and iced by Josh this afternoon while I made a mad dash to Toys R Us!

Blowing out the candles...

Ready for presents...with her two best buds--Wilberta and Reilly (otherwise known as Prince Reilly in our bedtime stories)

Opening her presents...

I had "the talk" with her before the party--open each one slowly, look at it, thank the person who gave it to you, and no matter what you think, if you like it or not, pretend that you do. To which she replied, "It's a present mom, of course I will like it!" But all memory of that talk was forgotten as she tore through the presents.

Daryl did manage to join us for presents...bless his heart.

And then he went back downstairs, pain pills in hand, with only a short stop to check to see if the pilot light was lit on the water heater. (Did I mention we had no hot water today?) Turns out, we have a leak, and probably a hot water heater that needs replacing, but in his words, "I really don't care right now." And I can't say that I blame him.

Off to relax in my clean living room, and try to forget the fact that my mother in law, without my knowledge, went downstairs to check on her baby. In my bedroom. Which means she had to walk through the hallways filled with laundry baskets and trash bags, and into our bedroom which really is just a big room in which everyone undresses in and drops their clothes in that just happens to have a bed in it. Romantic and peaceful, eh?