I've been meaning to do this for a while, and what better time than right before Father's Day, when the thoughtful Cari gave us "Dad" as a photography theme!

 

 

Kaitlin has an awesome series called "Why I Love My Husband" - here are some of my reasons!

 

 

 

First, my absolute favorite picture I've ever taken of him - the very early days of the twins, when our life was pretty much what you see!  Sleeping whenever and wherever, diaper pail and bouncy seat in the background, never not holding a baby.

 

 

Check out more Theme Thursday takes on "Dad" and see my reasons below:

 

1.  He does EVERYTHING.

He works full-time, he cleans (ALL the time), he vacuums, he mows the lawn, he weeds, he bathes the kids, he changes diapers, he rocks babies to sleep, he snuggles babies in bed in the middle of the night, he washes dishes, he takes out the trash, he does pretty much all the laundry, is there anything he DOESN'T do?

Well, I don't let him cook because I like it too much.  But if I let him, I'm sure he would!

Acts of service are pretty much my love language.  I would rather have my husband clean the kitchen and do all the laundry than buy me flowers.  And he does it! And he does it WELL!

2.  He knows how to have fun!

Even though he does all things domestic, he knows when to take a break and have fun with his kids:

 

He tickles better than anybody.  Try as I may, I can't get the kids to giggle as hard as he does when he tickles them!

 

And he makes up his own quirky activities to do with the kids:

 
 

Peep jousting sans microwave is apparently just sticking toothpicks in peeps and then eating them...

 

3.  He knows how to balance the fun with learning

Doing a science experiment with John Paul

 

I get soooo tired of reading to Cecilia all day long that the second he comes home that for the rest of the day any time she brings me a book I immediately say, "Go ask Dad to read it!"

 

And he NEVER (well, almost never) groans and tries to distract her with anything else.  He sits her down and reads Cinderella for the 87th time in a row, and he doesn't even skip words OR pages!

 

 

 

4.  He LOVES babies

 

I'm like Colleen, I'm not a baby person...  Want to know what Andrew's first response was when he found out that we were having twins?

 

Not shock.  Not horror.  He said, "Now there will be TWO babies for us to snuggle!  One for each of us!"

 

He has a patience with our babies that I totally lack.  He knows exactly how to hold them so that they fall asleep in his arms.  He has been pooped on, peed on, spat up on more times than I can count and he STILL wants more babies!

Once we hit the less snuggly phase, he starts to get that little glimmer in his eye every time he sees a tiny baby.  He LOVES nothing more than that tiny bundle phase when they just snuggle and sleep all the time.  Is there anything more wonderful than a man who loves babies?

 

5.  He takes no breaks

 

I read somewhere that when a husband gets home from work, you shouldn't just hand the baby to him, but you should give him 30 minutes to decompress on his own.

 

Ha!  Sometimes he gets his shoes off, but normally he comes to take one or both babies from me, takes the big kids outside or downstairs, and gives me time to cook dinner without interruption.  No complaints from him, he knows I'm MUCH happier and dinner gets finished a lot more quickly when I don't have 4 kids begging for my attention!

 

He's pretty handsome, too!

 

Just this past week he left me in Cecilia's room to nap while he played outside with the kids and did science experiments with them - best husband ever!

 

6.  He's Catholic

 

When we started dating, I didn't think it would work out in the long run.  After all, he was a Baptist!  But after a few months and Sunday Mass together almost weekly (he came with me because it was more time we could spend together).  Right before he left for college, he discerned that he was being called to convert to Catholicism.  That's when we both knew that maybe this was more than just a summer romance! 

 

11 years later, he takes his role as the head of our domestic church VERY seriously, and is always doing things to bring his family closer to God.  Total consecration to the BVM, Latin Mass (when we can handle it), daily Mass (also when we can handle it), reminding me to go to confession, late night adoration dates (again, when we can handle it...), teaching our 3-year-old all the Latin chant he can handle...  He loves his faith and takes his job of getting his family to heaven seriously!

 

And read his Easter blog post here - doesn't it just give you butterflies?

 

I just can't express all the reasons I love this man - he has changed so much since we started dating back in 2002 and is constantly striving to be a better man, a better father, a better husband.  A Darth Vader apron seems a silly way to show my love and appreciation...

 

Happy Father's Day, Andrew!

 

Five Favorites - I'm a sell-out

Disclaimer:  I've become an Amazon affiliate so I can make money off of you.  I know, I hate me too...  But here's the thing - twins are expensive and I realized that we're going to have to upgrade them to convertible car seats in a few months and that's going to run us over $500 for the seats I want.  So...  Help?  If you click my links and buy anything, I get some tiny percentage to put towards those car seats!  And now I'm going to make sure that every time I shop at Amazon I click through another blogger's page, because I can't click through my own and someone else might as well get a portion of what I'm paying!

With that confession...  Here are this week's 5 favorites!

ONE

We bought this camera for Christmas, because I'd been wanting a real camera for yeeeeeears so I could take awesome pictures of the kids.  It's super entry-level and about the cheapest DSLR you can buy, but it's working great for a newbie like me!  My pictures are 1000 times better than with my old point-and-shoot and I'm so glad to have really high-quality pictures of the cutest kids ever!

 

I'm no pro, but the camera definitely makes me look like a better photographer than I am!

 

TWO

 

 

Norpro Stainless-Steel Citrus Juice Press

 

I've been squeezing lemons and limes by hand for years, but I've never actually made fresh-squeezed lemonade.  After Andrew and I bought a huge bag of lemons at Costco, we decided to give it a try.  But no WAY was I going to squeeze all those lemons by hand!  This seems a little pricey for a one-trick pony, but I know we'll be using it for years and years.  And we made some reeeeeally delicious lemonade (Paula Deen's recipe, in case you're wondering.  There was no bacon OR butter in it!) and stuck all the peels in a jar full of vinegar to try to make this vinegar citrus cleaner I saw on Pinterest.  I feel kind of like a Native American using every part of the deer that I killed...  Only I'm using the lemon juice and the lemon peel.  Basically it's the same thing, right?

 

THREE

 

 

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

 

I love lemon & blueberry EVERYTHING.  Lemon and blueberry pancakes are one of my favorite things in the world, but I kind of hate making pancakes.  And then I realized there MUST be a recipe for lemon blueberry pound cake, because lemon pound cake is a thing.  And ohhhh my it was delicious!  Plain or with homemade strawberry jam (made from the recipe in the pectin box, I'm pretty fancy), soooo yummy!

 

 

 

And I made a plain lemon version for Andrew, since the recipe makes two pound cakes.  Next time I'll double the glaze though, there definitely wasn't enough!

 

FOUR

 

eShakti

 

Okay, I only have two skirts from them.  But they're my absolute favorite new articles of clothing and I wear them each at LEAST once a week!

 

 

Tiered gingham skirt, similar here

 

 

Cambric skirt

 

And they're running an awesome referral deal right now - if you use my code, ROSI55AS, you get $40 off your first purchase (of $55 or more) and I get $30 credit.  Andrew wants me to wear more dresses, and I have my eye on a couple nursing-friendly gems:

 

Comes in 3 colors and YOU CAN ADD SLEEVES!

 A couple more shirt dresses here and here.  And ohhhh how I wish I were going to be nursing babies forever because those high-neck dresses are SO cute!!!

 

FIVE

 

 

Because last week was that kind of a week.  Delicious with just lemonade ;)

 

Go check out more favorites at Hallie's!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latest quotes

Cecilia, in the car:  Pwuto (Mary Claire), do you see dose pwetty, handsome cwouds?  God MADE dem so beautiful!

Pwuto and Minnie Mouse

...

After reading The Way of the Cross for children:

Cecilia:  Who hurted Jesus?
Me:  The soldiers did.
Cecilia:  Dere's NO soldiers at our house!
Me:  That's right.  And what would you do to help Jesus when he's hurting?
Cecilia:  Um...  Say "What-a heck."  WHAT da HECK???

...

Cecilia:  Dad!  Gweat job cuttin' da gwass!
Turning to me: Mom!  Gweat job cookin' dinner!  Um...  Mrs. Mousewin' gweat job cookin' dinner!  And Mr. Mousewin' gweat job cuttin' da gwass!
Looking at Elizabeth:  And Baby Mousewin' gweat job...  Pwayin' wiff your toys!!!

Gweat job, Baby Mousewin'!

Clearly words of affirmation are her love language!

We are assigned various story/tv characters throughout the day - this is her Angelina Ballerina cast list, in which I am Mrs. Mouseling, Andrew is Mr. Mouseling, John Paul is Marco (from the tv show), Elizabeth is baby mouseling and Mary Claire is baby ballerina.  Of course...

...

Me:  John Paul, maybe the new swing set will be done before dinner!  Or maybe after dinner!
JP:  Or MAYBE when we see the TADPOLES!

For the record, it has been MONTHS since we even talked about tadpoles.  NO idea where that came from...

...

John Paul, telling his first original story:  Once upon a time, there was a monster!  The monster had a friend, and it was named Bug.  Bug decided to read a story!  *He tiptoes around, kisses Elizabeth on the head, and begins spinning in circles.  The end?*

...

Cecilia:  God made Mary Cwaire for ME!
John Paul:  And God made Elizabeth for ME!

Good thing we had twins...  Think I'm supposed to have quads next so they each have their own baby?

...

Cecilia, eating dinner:  I wike wemons!  And I don't wike...  *thinking hard* poison.

They're always comparing yummy things to poison, and I have NO idea why, because it's not like they've ever eaten poison!  I think it's because pretty much all food is yummy for them, but they know that poison CAN'T be yummy!

...

In the morning, I heard them fighting in their room even before I got them up...  "Yes!"  "No!"  "YESSY!"  "NO-EY!!!"

Me, opening the door:  Stop fighting!
John Paul:  Good morning! 
Probably a better way to start than mine...
John Paul:  Good morning, Mary Claire!  I love you!
Cecilia:  I have sparkles in my eyes!

And thus began our day...

They're spending as much time as possible on the new swing set, and since it's been raining a ton they come in SUPER muddy...  Bath time has never been so necessary!

I love Elizabeth's face in this one!

 

Simple pleasures!

 

 

The babies have been making a lot of forward progress with their crawling, but sometimes they end up pushing themselves backwards and get stuck under the loveseat...

 

 

"I'm drawing the number four, because I'm almost four!

 

 

Getting better at the tracing...  These workbooks are the extent of our homeschooling right now!

 

 

Although Cecilia pretty much just scribbles, but at least she's working on her grip!

 

 

And Mary Claire and Elizabeth are working HARD on this crawling thing!

 

 

WIWS + weekend recap + Mass report cards

Well, after a less-than-stellar Friday, Saturday was awesome! 

The babies didn't wake up for the day until 7:30 - it was incredible to wake up with the sun already up for once!  After Elizabeth pooped on the floor (I mean, the day couldn't be TOO good) we headed out for strawberry picking and were pleasantly surprised to see that the farm had added tractor rides to the field (last time we were there was 2 years ago) and a nice playground area.  John Paul and Cecilia were less than helpful when it came to picking strawberries (maaaaybe picked 10 between the two of them, and all of John Paul's were orange...). 

(I would give you pictures, but Andrew took them on his phone and never shares them with me...)

8.5 pounds of strawberries later, we were on our way to stop by my aunt's house for a visit, where Cecilia decided she was terrified both of the cat AND a dog statue.  We headed back home and the kids spent quite a while muddying up their knees playing on the swing set while Andrew and I weeded & gardened.  They even got to eat lunch at their new picnic table under the clubhouse part of their swing set!

I got 6 pints of strawberry jam made while the kids napped, and headed back outside with them once they were up.   Goodness the weather was glorious!

So even though Andrew abandoned me to go to a birthday party at one of those Brazilian steakhouses where they let you eat ALLLL the meat but don't let you take home any leftovers for your wife who's just sitting on the couch eating Cheez-its while watching Netflix (no I actually don't mind, not even being sarcastic, because I'm on such a high from a beautiful day and it's not like he EVER gets to go out anyway!), I think Saturday can officially be declared a GOOD DAY.

So on to Sunday...  Here's what we wore!

 

John Paul did NOT wear that hat to Mass - he found it on the floor right before we took the picture.

 

He did AWESOME at Mass.  We had to sit about halfway up because we got there right as the announcements before Mass were starting and all the old people had taken all the back pews (even when we get there 10 minutes early they have them filled...  I don't really understand it...).  I think sitting farther up helped him, because he paid attention and followed along a lot better.  He also retrieved the babies' toys when they dropped them and was overall pretty awesome.

 

I'll give him a B+, since I had to physically drag him out of the pew for communion because he was busy reading the Latin Missal and didn't want to get out of the way.  He got a doughnut after Mass and was VERY pleased with himself!

 

Mary Claire did well, as far as I can tell - she spent most of Mass outside with Andrew and Cecilia, because apparently sitting farther up means "be on your worst behavior" to her... 

 

I'll give Mary Claire an B+ because she was quiet when she was actually in the church.  Points deducted for having a massive poop just before Mass started, so Andrew had to change her and I had to deal with the crazies by myself while he was gone.

 

Cecilia gets a D-, and I'm only being that generous because she didn't physically injure anyone.  She shouted "STOP IT" loudly during the consecration because she was trying to take something from John Paul.  She shouted about various other things all through Mass and had to be taken out three times.  She took her sweater off and carried it around in her mouth like a dog and freaked out when we asked her to stop.  She insisted on licking the babies' toes and talking loudly about it.  Basically she was a disaster...  Needless to say, she did NOT get a doughnut.  She sat there drinking water while we all had doughnuts and juice.  Eventually I pitied her and gave her half a bagel because I figured she was probably hungry...  No picture of her in her Easter dress because I have a trillion and she had already been sent to her room upon our return home.

 

Here I am, rumpled post-Mass.  Andrew asked me if I was going to wear a "pwetty dwess" like Cecilia and the twins, and asked me why I mostly wear skirts.  He thinks I should have accumulated a lot more dresses over the years, and I reminded him that I have, and either they don't fit or aren't nursing-friendly.  I'm going to take this conversation as permission to shop for new dresses...

 

I wore mostly repeats - you've seen the skirt (eShakti) and the shoes (Bass), the belt (H&M), and the baby (Mary Claire).  The shirt is one of my few articles of clothing from college that still fits, a J.Crew purchase.  I kind of wish I had it in every color but when I look at what colors they have available I think, "Hey, blue stripes!  Or blue checks!  I like those!  Or look, light blue!  Perfect!"

 

And then I remember that I already have a blue checked shirt, and a blue striped shirt, and a light blue chambray shirt.  Sooooo maybe time to branch out?  Nah...

 

Best shot we got of Elizabeth...  She mostly quietly sucked on my scarf or chewed on toys throughout Mass, but she also decided to gurgle and blow raspberries loudly at the people behind us, while spitting in my face.  They thought it was hilarious, but once she started shrieking with glee I think it got a liiiiitle less funny.  She got fussy near the end of Mass because it was naptime, so I'll give her a B.

We found out yesterday that our favorite priest is, of course, getting transferred to another church in a few weeks :(  Bad news for us, good news for those of you in Front Royal (Beth and soon Hannah!) because he's great!  Although I'm not sure how good of a preacher he is, since the only part of today's homily I heard was when he started talking about the fact that Wal-Mart sells coffins and you should start shopping for your funeral early so you can get good deals...  This was likely related to something scriptural, or just a PSA for a parish populated by maaaaaaaany old people.

 

Aaaaanyway, linking up with Fine Linen & Purple AND Camp Patton to make you all feel a liiiiiittle bit better about how your kids behave during Mass!

Garden Questions

Taking a break from my usual "listen to me blog about poop and post cute pictures of my kids" nutshell to ask you knowledgeable folks some garden questions!

First, what are these plants?

1.  Random bush in our front yard

Close-up of bud?

2.  Totally weird bulb of a plant I dug up today that has been nothing but a random leafy stalk...

See?  Leaves and stalk - no buds anywhere and I wanted the space for a new tomato plant.

3.  Andrew dug up a SERIOUSLY invasive weed that had roots over 2 feet long.  It was trying to take over the azaleas and looks kind of evil....  Any ideas?

Also, because I know my mom will want to see how her babies are growing, look at these lovely tomato plants!!!

My mom came over and planted the seedlings a few weeks ago and they are doing AWESOME.  Some of the leaves are looking a little yellow - is that bad?  I bought a fourth plant at a farm market today because it's supposed to give me huge heirloom tomatoes (pineapple tomatoes, whatever that means) and all the plants she gave me are for smaller tomatoes.  

Here's another tomato question - at what point am I supposed to stake them or cage them?  And do I need to put a net over them so birds and squirrels don't eat them all?

And WHAT is this growing all over all my azaleas?  It looks like a creepy white fungus but I can't find anything about it on the internet.  Help!

Life is finally slowing down enough that we've been getting a lot of yard work done and planted some seeds today that proooobably won't come up because it's too late in the season - basil, carrots, and zinnias.  But a friend offered me some of her basil seedlings, so maybe that will work out since John Paul would eat nothing but basil all day if he could and I'd like to have more than our one farmer's market plant can offer!  Next year we'll get a little more ambitious in the gardening department - this year is still all about survival!