oh my goodness, i'm lame

I am the lamest blogger ever! since I got pregnant with my third (and final!! ok, if you ask me right now I say final... take deep breaths mom ;) baby I haven't been able to lift my head off the pillow long enough to do anything with this blog. All of my blogging efforts have been diverted elsewhere. 

BUT. I. NEED. TO. BE. BETTER! 

a lot has happened since I last posted... so I will give you a quick rundown...

here are the "about to(s)":

• Dan is about to graduate from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School

• we are about to have a little baby boy (July 16th)

• and we are about to move to Newport Beach, California...

here are the "maybes":

• we might be buying our first home! Ahhhh! I can't believe it! It makes me feel like a real grown up! when did that happen?

here are the "already happened(s)":

• Dan and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. well, "celebrated" is a little too generous a word... we are lameo grown-ups (in the student phase of life) and we didn't do anything but remember the significance of the day... lol... lame (what are his professors thinking heaping 40 page paper's and finals on him?! lol)... ;)
  

• We threw the girlies a joint bday party at the beginning of May. Since they're both June babies, I threw it early so that we could maximize the "friend attendance" before everyone leaves town permanently after graduation. It was sooo fun but also a little sad for me to realize this was one of the very last times they would hang out with their Boston friends!   

The theme was "cowgirl" (courtesy of Laila who is obsessed with Jessie/Woody from Toy Story right now). We had a "branding station" (where the kids got a personalized tattoo), pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, potato sack races, heat-transfer sheriff badges, and I printed off "wanted posters" of each child in attendance. 

  

(gotta love Maddy's determined little face!)

(the tattoos looked like these cupcake toppers but had the child's name instead of the word "sweets")

 4 candles... 2 candles... when did they get so old?!

• also, we went to visit the Galbraiths... it. was. epic... stay tuned b/c I literally can't wait to show you all of the amazingly, fun pictures that we took down there! we might have gone a little photo shoot crazy...
  

Here are some funny/cute things that my kids have said/done over the last few months:

Maddy: Mom, how did Laila get so beautiful all the time? (this wasn't said with jealousy, or anything, she was just totally in love with her sister when she said it, sooo cute!)

Maddy is growing up. There is no question about it. It's a little bittersweet. I love her and want her to grow up but I also want my adorable little girl to never grow up. That's why moments like these are so precious to me. It reminds me that while yes, she is growing up, she is still so very innocent and small.

Maddy: "Mom, there was a monster earthquake in Japan"

Me: "I know Maddy. Isn't that awful?"

Maddy, very worried: "Yes. Where are the monsters now?"

It was very hard not to laugh outright. I contained my smile and very sweetly explained that there are no monsters. It was very adorable watching my little girl trying to make sense of the world around her.

Maddy loves to run up and down the hall with her friend Jackson. A few months ago, as Maddy was running past Laila in the hall she burst into hysterical giggling. She quickly did an about-face, ran up to me, and admist her laughing fit stated, "boogers fell out of my nose while I was running past Laia, it was SO funny! It made me laugh!"

Laila:  Dan, Maddy, and I had just come back from a 5 day vacation without Laila. Grandma just picked us up from the airport and we had to take her right to her terminal for her flight. When we were saying goodbye, Laila thought I was leaving her again. She threw her hands out in panic and said, "Don't. Mom. Stop. Stop!" Melted/broke my heart!

While sitting in my lap this week she began stroking my hair and said, "your hair is beautiful! mommy's hair beautiful" and then she grabbed my cheeks and planted a big kiss right on my lips. Can we say "a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e."? then she told me that she loved my very much.

She is always very concerned about Maddy, whenever Maddy is crying Laila will run up to me and say "why maddy crying? Iina gonna hug her!" then she will promptly run over to Maddy and give her a big kiss and hug. It is sooo endearing! 

While visiting the Galbraiths, Weston and Laila warmed up to eachother. One the second to last day she leaned down from a curb and said, "Iina gonna kiss you" to which Weston promptly leaned in and kissed her. I luckily had my camera out (we were doing a photo shoot) and this photo is (no kidding!!) the actual moment:

This was not rehearsed or coerced by their mommies... if you don't believe me, just ask Alicia (she's slightly more credible than I ;)

My Mother's Day:

 Our visit to the Galbraiths' happened to be right over mother's day. While Alicia and I were napping (good man, Christopher!), Christopher gathered up our kids (Dan was in California house hunting) and wrote down verbatim what our children said to him: 

Here's the actual transcript from my card:

Maddy: "Dear Mommy, I love her so much. My favorite food is pancakes. I love writing a heart for you because I love you so much. Happy mother's day mom, I love you. Love, Maddy"

Laila: "I don't know. Minnie Mouse. Mickey. I want mommy (almost in tears). I want mommy. Love, Laila"

Ok, that's all for now. I think I kind-of made up for my absence. Here's to a renewed blogging effort...

-Heidi