House for sale

Our neighbors put their house on the market.  We spent a lot of time playing with them as Kim is one of the only stay-at-home-moms in our neighborhood.  In an effort to attract buyers who love babies and hopefully have some of their own, I sent Elena strolling up and down the block during the open house.
The old lady who yelled at me for walking around barefoot is not welcome. Just kidding. Maybe she has grandkids.  Or maybe she loves baby-sitting and as a policy never accepts payment!  Hmmm....

Mom's Day Away!!!

The weather is starting to look a little more like spring.  The birds are chirping.  The trees are budding.  Puffy coats are being traded in for hoodies.  And somewhere in Maryland, two small children are screaming.  From now on, whenever my children decide to start crying at the same time, I'm going to open up my Gmail and take a look at the top line. 


That's right!!  That's a plane reservation FOR ONE!!!  Faith and Family is hosting a Mom's Day Away in Massachusetts.  I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would be able to get away and ignored it at first.  Then Colleen over at Martin Family Moments told me she was going.  Well that's a party I just CAN'T pass up!!!  You remember Colleen right?  The non-serial killer?  As soon as I told Jason about it, he made me buy the ticket.  It'll be a nice break that I will be able to think back on when he is gone on his week-long mission trip in July.  Though, this will be my first overnight away from my children and I may spend the majority of the time rocking in a corner in fetal position...NAH!  Who are we kidding!!!  It's gonna be awesome!!

If you are planning on attending the conference in Stoneham please let me know!  I'm flying in around lunch and will have a few hours to kill on Friday afternoon.  I'll probably be at a bar at a coffee shop near the water and I would love to meet up with you!!

Snag your ticket here!

Early to rise - early to bed!

Attention: This is your 4:30 am wake-up call!

It was like he sensed it.  The whole family is awake!  He was left out!!  He woke up by 5:15...


10:30 am



11:15 am



I am so lucky they rarely do this.  They always wake up between 7:30 and 8:00.  This was just a fluke and we have all since recovered.  In fact, they slept in until 8:30 today!

And all in the land were filled with joy and happiness!!!


We're going to Oma's...

Twice a week, I pack the kids up in the van and we head down the road. 

Well actually, a lot of things happen before we leave.  We get dressed, make some food for the diaper bag, pack a couple diapers, fresh clothes, pajamas, take a few trips to the potty, scatter like flies as we attempt to load the mini-van, insist on getting in the carseat and buckling ourselves, hop out of our seat once or twice and do it all over again, drive out of the neighborhood and book a U-ey to go back and get the forgotten cell phone, try again, and book one more U-ey to go back to get the forgotten diaper bag. 

Okay - so NOW we're on the road again.  For 30 minutes we sing the happiest song on earth.  Not a Disney tune.  Not even a Backyardigans song.  It goes something like this.

♪ We're going to Oooo-ma's, to Oooo-ma's, to Oooo-ma's ♪
♪ We're going to Oooo-ma's!  House!  To!  PLAYYYYYY! ♪

My mom lives in a huge in-law suite in my sister's house.  My sister and her husband have 6 children.  When I invented the little jingle, it seemed only fitting that we simply call it Oma's house.  Adding on every other family member to the song would have been complicated.

But the kids know exactly what happens when we get there.
They have the time of their little lives.  And I get a long break with 6 baby-sitters at my beck and call.

Hey Leo?  What are you working on??

DUTCH!!  FETCH!!!

Sorry little man.  He's just not playing along. 

Elena's First Year in Video

I take ton of photos.  I think you all knew that.  On Elena's first birthday alone, I took over 350!  (Half are blurry though...)  Just for fun, I went back through all the photos from the last year and put together a fun video of Elena's first year.  I tried to do it in her birthday blogpost but only got through the first couple weeks of her life!  This was quite the project and I can't believe I managed to put this together, make Mensa Granola and scrounge together enough leftovers for dinner.  I can't start a project like this and not see it through to the end product.  I CAN however leave the laundry in random piles throughout the house and dishes piled high to the sky.  I really need to adjust my priorities.

If you feel like you want to encourage me learn how to prioritize, I suppose you should boycott the video on principle.  But I don't recommend it.  It's pretty darn cute. 

This is the short version. 5 minutes of fun. For family and those of you who have 8 minutes to spare, the long version is below. They are exactly the same - the first one just looks like it is on fast-forward!  And turn up the volume!


Elena's First Birthday from Lisa Gale on Vimeo.


Elena's First Birthday Video - Long version from Lisa Gale on Vimeo.

(Sidenote: You can watch the video in completel peace - The children got me back for neglecting my chores...we were up and at 'em at 4:30 am.  OY!!)

As if I needed further proof!

Every now and then, I snap a picture of Elena that further proves that she is her father's daughter.

Jason 1983

Elena 2/22/2011

Jason 1983

"Hey hun? Where are you??" "I'm in the den!"

We love our house.  It is a very small house but we both feel that it has exactly the right amount of space for us.  We have been here for a year and a half and we have had 6 or 7 different layouts.  True to form, as soon as the new floor was in, the wheels started cranking and I needed an Ikea fix!!  After a very long day at the twins baptism, we packed the kids up and drove an hour to our closest Ikea.  We were about a quarter mile from the exit when we found out that here in DC, due to brush fires, the exit to Route 95 was closed?!?!  Brush fires in DC??  Must be the endtimes.

We could see the glorious blue sign on our left but we JUST...COULDN'T...GET....THERE!!  45 minutes and 2 miles later, we finally hit the motherload.  Did you know that you can get your meal for free this week if you spend over $100?  Swedish Meatballs!!!!!

Anyway, I have been envisioning a way to make our space work better for us.  We needed to get rid of some of our larger furniture pieces and scale down a bit to make the house look bigger.  I also wanted a space for Jason and I to sit and drink coffee while the kids run around like crazy animals.  I envisioned a quiet den with vault-like doors and a lock from the inside.  I envisioned a full coffee/wine/beer bar fully stocked at all times with every homebrew possible.  I envisioned a skylight, complete silence and access to every book every published in the history of earth.

This is close as I got to my vision:

Welcome to our Den!!!


And I LOVE IT!!!  I jumped out of bed this morning just to come down and see it!!  Okay that was a complete lie.  But as soon as I woke up, while being pummeled by 2 wrestling babies, it was the first thing on my mind and I was really looking forward to coming downstairs. 



Hopefully the novelty will wear off for them soon and they will get out of MY SEAT!!! 

Aside: The brush fires were due to some dry grass and super strong winds.  The winds were so strong that when Jason and I tried to wheel our carts to the van, we were pushed clear across the parking lot.  We regained control long enough to make it to the van but we were quickly losing our carts to the wind.

The poor guy and his wife in the car next to us decided to purchase a 6' x 4' painting.  Watching him try to carry the painting from Ikea to his car was like watching a wiffle ball try to stay stationary in a tornado.  After getting blown around like a rag doll he successfully made it to his car only to find out that the painting wouldn't fit!  He returned the painting and went home - thankfully in one piece!!

Happy Birthday sweet little Elena!

My sweet little baby girl is 1!!!

When the doctor did the ultrasound at 20 weeks and said "It's a girl!" I was ecstatic.  I secretly wanted a girl but as a mom I felt terrible being partial :)


I was 100 percent ready to split my laundry into whites, darks, mediums, and PINKS!


Leo was head over heels in love with his new sister.  In retrospect, I should not have spent so much time worrying.  But then again, I had brothers and I remember vividly how nice they were to me...



She was a champion at nursing from the start.  Hence the growth :)


In preparing her First Birthday Blogpost, I told myself I would go through a year of photos and compile a cute little blog showcasing her growth over the last year.  But who are we kidding!!!


I'm only into the first couple weeks and this post is already overflowing with cute photos!  So this blog turned into a celebration of her first few weeks at home.


Looking as adorable as babies were meant to look.


She has been the perfect baby so far. She says a few things like Mama, Dada, Leo, I love you and I DID IT! She also sings some songs with us by putting her jaw to her chin and moving her head up and down while saying "Bah bah bah". She looks like a puppet and it's adorable.  She blows kisses and loves her brother.  Every single thing about her is adorable.


She is a busy baby and spends most of her time exploring the space. She is different from Leo in that she sits quietly and is a pro-snuggler. We couldn't duct tape Leo in a snuggle position!! She happily puts her head down on our shoulder and just smiles. She also loves to crawl up into our lap and sit and have a conversation. She is quite the communicator. She has a set of lungs on her that can rival a dog whistle and lets us have it from time to time.  We usually deserve it though ;) 

And I love every last little bit of her.


Happy First Birthday Elena Renee!!!  We love you!!

Birthday Celebrations are already starting!!

We LOVE getting packages in the mail.  I was forewarned by Aunt Julie that something good was coming.

Even though it is technically Elena's birthday fast approaching, the older brother merits a gift.  His Aunt and Uncle are fast-tracking him to a real job with gifts for all of his recent his success in potty-training.  So, he receives:

Spongebob Underwear

And a Shaving Kit!!

All business.  All the time. 

Elena got a bunch of goodies. 

Including the most beautiful card we've ever seen.  Thank you Cousin Iris!!!

I don't know if Toy Story is the cause of all the awesome toys coming back. 
But how exciting is this?!?! 

Leo helped her call Aunt Julie, Uncle Nathan and Cousin Iris to say thank you.  She stayed on the phone way too long like any girl.

So he distracted her with the box so he could play with it along. 

So spoiled!! 

And Leo's first job interview is tomorrow so he's going to go get ready now.
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