{happy birthday meredith}

{b.i.f. five}

Claire:  Mom, I have an announcement to make.  Amelia is gluing sticky notes to your desk.

{someday}

Someday, Olivia, you will get to sit at the big girl table with everyone else.  Someday.  

But for now, she just watches.

Can I just say that I love everything about this picture?  I love how Olivia is right there with the girls.  It truly is one of her favorite places to be.  She loves to just sit and watch them.  She just watches and takes it all in.  

Claire is sitting on her foot...a favorite position of hers.  I'm certain she's appointed herself "Craft Director".  

Meredith is sitting on the table {not necessarily typical of her}.  What is typical of her, however, is that she's wearing one of Claire's shirts.  Do you remember when your older sister had all the BEST clothes? Well, of course, Claire has all the best shirts, and Meredith's are just soooo boring.  Oh, the woes of being a little sister.

Amelia.  The table sitting is absolutely perfect.  She perches herself on tables {when she can get away with it}.  I allow it on the school table from time to time.  The counter and our dinner table...ummmm no. She has a hard time processing this.  

On the table is the infamous Santa Box: full of Christmas cards, thank you cards, interesting pieces of mail, magazine cut outs, and all things random.  These girls can create quite the plethora of masterpieces from one little box.  Bring the Santa Box out once every other week, and I've just bought myself a good 45 minute pass to read blog posts and pin to my Pinterest account put the laundry away and clean the toilets.  

I love this little family of mine.

{little helper}

Warning: ridiculously cute baby photo ahead.

Oh my goodness...I totally warned you.  I could eat her up!!  She has finally learned how to pull herself up to a stand on just about anything.  The dishwasher is a fav for the 10 month old crowd.  

{b.i.f. four}

Yet one more reason to love my hubby.  Thanks for being such a great daddy.  

{marriage and booze}

Today, the girls were happily chatting away about their futures. 

Meredith: When Olivia is Claire's age, will Claire be married?
Me: When Olivia is 8, Claire will be 16.  She'd better not be married...that's a little young.
Meredith: When Olivia is Bria's age, will Claire be married? {Bria is one of our friends who is 13.}
Me: When Olivia is Bria's age, Claire will be 21.  She could be married then, but I still think that's a little young. 
Claire: Well, maybe I'll be married, but I'll be drinking beer for sure.

Bahahaha!  At that point, our girls will be 21, 19, 16, and 13. 

I might have to take up drinking beer as well.

{b.i.f. two}

Current sleeping patterns in our house:

Claire {to sleep around 9:30, up at 8:00}

Meredith {to sleep around 9:00...she always falls asleep during quiet reading time, up at 9:00...this girl is a bear in the morning if you wake her before she's ready}

Amelia {to sleep around 8:30...she can rarely stay awake until Claire and Meredith come to bed, up around 7:00/7:30}

Olivia {to sleep around 7:30, up at 7:30...I think I hear the Hallelujah chorus playing in the background}