I’m getting that urge to blog, lately, and I love it! The only problem is… what do I blog about? Before, I had tons of stuff to blog about but couldn’t find the motivation.

My phone has so many pictures on it, that it won’t let me take anymore. Today I HAD to take a picture of Mag to send to my mom, and ended up having to delete another one that I’ll probably miss later. Oh well. Anyway, I’ll just use that as my excuse to blog… so here’s a million pictures of my kids!

My Nan had to have surgery and my aunt (L), my mom and Nan’s husband, Bob thought it would be funny to make fun a bit..

Another family gathering I wasn’t able to be a part of! Bitter much?! My Nan, cousin Trever, Aunt Shannie, my sister, Kelli (R) and my mom. Isn’t Kelli funny? ;)

My step dad, AKA Grampa Larry! Bad “A” for sure!

Oh little Maggie… you were so sweet then.
This was summer of 2011. Yeah. That’s how long some of these pictures have been on my phone. Lame.

Poor little Maggie. She came running around the corner into my bedroom, tripped and hit her head no the door frame. :( Breaks my heart.

Connor got invited to his friend J.D.’s birthday part and as you can see… “Army” was the theme. He came home with tons of goodies!

The shyest one of my kids is the only one who will give Santa Clause the time of day. Go figure!

Mag’s first attempt at getting dressed on her own!

Holy rag-a-muffin!

Naptime and bedtime are by far my favorite times of the day. Don’t get me wrong- my kids are my life! But those sacred hours between 1 and 3 in the afternoon are Heavenly!

Most days, I try to get everything done, that needs to be done, before noon. Because after lunchtime, I have my “me time,” go to pick up my kids from school, they do homework, I make dinner, we try to have a little family time (whether before or after dinner), then we do bedtime and then I collapse onto the couch, not to move unless it is to my bed. Or if I lose “rock, paper, scissors” and have to go put one or all of my children back into the beds for a 2nd time. And then we all wake up and do it all over again!

Lately I have been feeling like my afternoons should be a bit more productive. When Maggie goes down for a nap, I get giddy. Like, literally. I get a blanket, crank up the heat, set both remotes and my cell phone on top of the couch (within easy reach), shove every pillow in the living room behind my back, plug in the laptop (so I don’t have to get up if the battery gets low) and set it on my lap, and park it until 3 P.M.

Does this make me lazy?

I’m expecting some would say yes and some no. Most of me feels like I deserve this time! I earned it! I can take a nap too; there’s no rule that says I can’t! But then that little part of me says to get up and get something done. Because there’s always something to be done.

What do you think?

Or not!

Good heavens, it’s been over a month since my last post! What has happened to my motivation? Well let’s see…

Every year, Joe’s family draws names for Christmas. Last year, we decided to do all homemade gifts, spending no money. Sounds easy enough, right? Yeah, no. While the idea was SUPER fun, the time it actually takes to home make something, without spending money, is crazy ridiculous! Especially when you draw names at Thanksgiving. This year, we’re drawing names in July. I drew my niece Naomi’s name and Connor drew my niece Lucy’s name, so we decided to make doll quilts using all of Maggie’s old clothes. TOOK FOREVER. And of course, I decided I couldn’t just make 2 doll quilts… I had to make each of my girls one, too. Double the work. Double the time. In fact, I didn’t even get them done until Christmas day. As in, I worked on them on Christmas Day. Pathetic, I know. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking and didn’t get a picture of all four girls with their blankies. Anyway, all that kept me busy for a good 3 weeks.

The week before Christmas, my mom came so obviously we were super busy playing and having fun (including Joe graduating from college and the surprise party we planned for him)… much too busy to blog. Maggie’s “a tad” stingy with her snuggles, so when she unknowingly climbed up on the couch (she was glued to the television) and sat by Gramma Jackie, I thought I better snap a few pictures for proof. She climbed down right after this picture.

I think my mom just couldn’t get enough so she left, went to the store, bought fingernail polish just so Maggie would sit on her lap again.This is at Joe’s sister’s house the night of the party. I sort of forgot to take my camera out of my car, and it was FUH-REEZING outside, so when I brought it in and gave it to my SIL Rachel, it got all foggy. Whoops. :/ It was a great night anyway! Tons of yummy food and lots of friends and family!

The week after Christmas, I was on TOTAL relaxation mode. I didn’t do a single dang thing! Then New Years came and I was, again, super busy partying and staying up WAY too late to blog.

THEN… my kids got sick. The first week (the week before school started), Connor got bronchitis. He had the worst of it pretty much licked but missed the first day back to school, as well as Haylie. She caught it a few days after he did and missed 2 days of school. And of course, Maggie caught it too. It wouldn’t be in true Rose fashion for only one or two of the kids to get it… And I was DRAINED. We were home day after day after day and I’ll tell ya’ what… that was ROUGH on me! That cabin fever business is a real thing!

This week, we seem to be getting back on a routine and it is WONDERFUL!

Today is my birthday!!! Woohoo!!!!

I have this grandma. Her name is Nan, or Nanny or Nana. And she is one of my very best friends. We talk a couple times a week, usually for an hour or so at a time. When I was little, I would go over and spend the night at her house, sometimes several times a month, even though I lived 45 minutes from her house at the time. Once, we were at her house for dinner and my sister kept taking the t.v. remote and changing the channel. So when she wasn’t looking, I took the remote and hid it in the sleeve of my coat. Naturally, my 7 year old self forgot about it and when it was time to go, I put on my coat to leave. I remember noticing that my sleeve felt funny, but got in the car anyway and we left. When we got home, Nan called and asked if we knew where the remote was. Sheepishly, I gave the remote to my mom and she drove it all the way back to Sunnyside. That has nothing to do with it being my birthday, but it’s a fun memory that I have of her.

Every year, my Nan calls me on my birthday, usually between the hours of 5 and 6 a.m. It’s her “thing.” And I love it. Last night, I even called her to ask if she was still going to call me at her usually time (jokingly, of course). And then we ended up talking for over an hour. I love her so much! This morning, her phone call came at 6:15 and was the best one I’ve ever received. It went like this and was said in a low, sultry, late-night-radio-show voice:

“This is radio station N-A-N in Washington. I have a song request for a little girl in Wyoming so I’m going to sing the song. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday sweet little angel. Happy Birthday to you. Now go back to sleep, Roo (my nickname from her).”

Isn’t she the greatest?? I never want to forget this.

The kids had their Christmas program last week, on the 5th, and it was AWESOME! Well… except for one thing. Their music teacher, Mrs. Held is INCREDIBLE. Like… out of this world. I don’t know how she gets a bajillion kids to sing, in sync, without stepping out of line or goofing off! However, this year, they added an additional music teacher, who took over half of the program. He was AWFUL. I know that sounds mean, but it’s true. He’s very talented and seems nice, but he is way more concerned with putting on his own little performance on the piano while the kids sort of sing together. Connor had him while Haylie had Mrs. Held. It doesn’t help either, that Haylie is a TOTAL PERFORMER (like I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up on Broadway someday) while Connor couldn’t care less. Here’s a little clip of one of the songs Haylie got to sing:

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a video of any of Connor’s songs. Not like I really needed it. I think this picture says it all. 

He lost the scowl after the first song, but not the blank stare. He was thoroughly unimpressed. Like, barely moved his mouth to sing, kept his hands in his pockets while all the other kids did hand gestures to different songs, and gave the girl next to him dirty looks for twirling in her dress. The boy is just not cute out for the limelight.

Here’s a few more from the night.
Cousin Naomi and Maggie – Sometimes best friends! And sometimes best enemies. ;)

I think this was the only time he smiled all night.

On our way down a very long hallway to take this picture, Haylie decided to test her high heel athletic abilities and rolled her ankle. She fell on the floor and her face immediately turned purple from silent screaming. First thing she says to me, “Is my mascara messed up (I put a tad on each eye for the occasion)?” Her foot ended up being OK, although pretty sore for the rest of the night and next day.

Cousins: Haylie, Naomi, Maggie, Connor and Lucy.

Such a fun night!

This was one of those days where I kept thinking, ‘Now, this is a GOOD day!’ The weather was GORGEOUS, much to Joe’s annoyance… He is under the impression that looking for Christmas trees should be done in a blizzard. Weird, right? I, on the other hand, am perfectly content to look for my Christmas tree in 50 degree weather and then decorate it while it’s snowing outside.

My mom says that my brother and sister and I always liked to be outside when we were little, just like any kid does, but I am positive that my children did not get their love of outdoors from me. My husband is 100% mountain man at heart and all three of my kids have inherited this gene/trait/characteristic (or whatever).

This is Lady, our Beagle, who is a tad plump. She loves us a lot though… she just turned 7 a few days ago. I didn’t remember until the day after and felt sorta’ bad that I didn’t even get her a doggy treat.

This is our other pup, Lucy. We got her for free off Craigslist, not knowing just how amazing she really was. It turns out she has INCREDIBLE blood lines. We’re pretty sure she came from an abusive home because for a long time she would cower every time anyone came near her. She still does if we have to get after her for being naughty, but she has come a long, long way. She has the sweetest temperament but is extremely protective of us and she absolutely ADORES Joe. Getting her was the best decision we ever made.

OK, funniest thing… I just noticed that Connor is winking in the next 3 pictures. Not great lighting, but oh well.

Best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life is teach Maggie how to pose. SO FUNNY! I love how she even has some hip action goin’ on.

Haylie getting some chopping practice in. *Don’t worry- she was far away from the other kids."*

Pose #2

OK people. It took a lot of guts for me to post this picture. I am not at all comfortable with the way I look right now and RARELY get in pictures, but I have been getting little “nudges” lately to start getting in the pictures that normally I would be taking of my family. We wanted to get a picture by our tree (which you can’t really see here) for our Christmas card this year. I haven’t gotten brave enough to make the decision to actually send this out yet. But if nothing else, it will make my mom happy to see a picture of all of us. :)

And just for kicks…

Connor picked our tree this year. It’s big. And sorta’ looks more like a bush than a Christmas tree. But it’s OK because being together was way more important than having the “perfect” tree!