We just finished ringing in Noah’s 3rd birthday. We threw him a party; celebrating his life, his birth, his nature and character and I cried! I cried as my sister surprised me, alighting from the car with my parents. I cried when Noah saw his cake – the exact color (chocolate), flavor (chocolate:) and pic (brontosaurus) that he dreamed up – and his entire face lit up. I cried when I kissed him goodnight as he ambled off with nana and popie for a sleepover. I teared up as my nephew (all 17 lbs:) body slammed my hubbie as he was winding down for the night. and I definetly bawled like a baby to say my goodbyes. It was such a joyous weekend.

we drove to the far reaches of wisconsin in order to explore the fishes.

I’m surprised it’s still hard to get through today… That’s not true, it’s not fair to say its hard, it should be, it helps keep things in perspective. All of a sudden the mishaps and drama that made up my life, don’t really add up to much – because we’re all still here!  We’re still together.  We’re a team and it’s that, that makes the difference.

Mom, I love you. I know you’ve lost, I know you hurt, but you’re still here for so many reasons!  You’re here to save lives, to leave flowers, to say your prayers.  You’re here to remind and remember, to create, to prepare, to defend no matter what comes. You’re here to love and shelter, to play, and to laugh, to teach and to lead.

YOU ARE HERE! I am so thankful for that. for you.

This post is to test the new design. For some reason I can’t get the images to work on the homepage. Just ignore this.

Ahhhh what could be better than a beautiful day playing at the park with friends!

we drove to the far reaches of wisconsin in order to explor the fishes in mil-wau-kee

After  soaking, destroying, ripping, and eventually running in his birthday suit, I felt I had to post about our day at the children’s museum!  Nothing but good memories! Check out the rest of our pics.

When the collective “we” started talking about getting our little people introduced into the world of organized sports, I couldn’t imagine anything more adorable than our toddlers running around, scoring goals, making passes… HA!  The pictures could never do justice to the up at dawn, constant vigilance, semi-peep show (that’s for you leah:) that was the shorewood hills soccer league.

we traveled to lake ripely with the baby-mamas to let the kiddos play in the sand.  It was perfect