Last September we sadly and suddenly had to put our puppy Claire to sleep. She was only 2.5 yrs old, but she got really sick and after numerous tests and watching her health dramatically decline in a matter of a week, we were left with no other options. [] (https://latc.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/we-will-miss-you.jpg) My husband was heartbroken. He is an animal lover through and through. The kids took the news pretty well. The girls really didn’t notice because we had two dogs and so it wasn’t like suddenly they were left without a dog to play with.

4 years ago today my sister in law got married. My son was exactly one month old. I went dress shopping so I could find something to hide the 50 pounds of baby fat I gained. Hard to find a dress flattering enough to do that, but somehow I managed to find one that I was happy with. [] (https://latc.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/the-dress-2.jpg) Until I got to the church. I was a new mom and new at the whole nursing thing.

Finally, our baby can get in on the fun at the playground. For more Wordless Wednesdays, check out 5 Minutes for Mom.

The other day I discovered a way to occupy my kids for a good 15-20 min, which many of you know is an eternity in Mommy time. Wanna know the secret? I let them play with my clock radio. I plugged it in and placed it on the floor in the living room. They had a blast taking turns turning it off and on and changing radio stations. It was more fun then Mommy turning on the stereo, because they had control of turning it on and off as well the fun of switching the music from station to station.

Last week my two year old wanted desperatly to hold my 9 month old. This is a practice I don’t generally encourage, unless I am trying to take a picture of the kids together, then it’s used as a bribe. Let Mommy take your picture and you can hold your sister! This time however, it went the other way around…Mommy you can take a picture if you let me hold my sister.

Since Christmas my 4 year old son has built up quite a weapons arsenal. A few days before Christmas my sister in law called to ask if it was OK for our son to have a toy gun for Christmas. Since we had just been to the store looking for one, I think our answer was pretty obvious. In January my husband built wooden swords for him and my son to practice sword fighting.

Last night the power went out for 3 hours. My 2 year old woke up in pitch darkness and obviously was scared. I fumbled my way to her room using the glow from our glow in the dark stars to guide my way. I then slept on her floor to help her fall back asleep. Occasionally she’d wake up scared and I would reach my hand up to let her know I was still there.

The other day our two year old had a really bad diaper rash. Her poor bottom was BRIGHT RED and she screamed out in pain when we had to change her diaper. My son looked at her bottom and exclaimed, “Diaper rash is my favorite color!” That boy makes me laugh.

Looking at this picture one would assume I was preparing to dive into the swimming pool. Don’t be fooled. Despite being on the swim team for 5 summers and having literally every adult I knew work with me one on one, I never learned to dive. This is me looking the part before I belly flopped into the swimming pool. Starting in about 3rd grade and going through the end of middle school, I spent every summer on the swim team.

Last weekend my husband picked my daughter up and noticed she was incredibly wet. He commented that someone must have put her diaper on wrong (Since I was the grownup home at last diaper change, the blame obviously fell to me). I muttered something about those stupid diapers not absorbing properly. Check out her look of disappointment. (MOM, you let me down)! My husband called me in to check out what went wrong with the diaper…