Matt and Kylie's Wedding

This past weekend, my younger brother was married.

Wow.

I am sad that my pictures turned out so grainy and blurry. It may have been because my flash wasn't up to par with the darkness of the church. It may have been that my eyes were filled with tears of joy, and I really did think my camera was focused. Either way, the day was perfection.

The rehearsal. Father Joe, Matt and Ky.
Isn't Kylie classic?



Nathan with Honey. SO confused as to why we were at Church at nighttime.



The flower girls.



Practicing the LOOOOOOOONG walk down the aisle.



Peter and Stephen deserve medals. Their jobs were to watch over the ring bearers.



The tools necessary were cups and steel-toed boots.



Again, those ring bearers...AWESOME!



The morning of the wedding was psychotic...for everyone but me. Emily and Christina went out of their way, disregarding their own plans and preparation, to help me get the Pernot household in order.



Christina was so patient and so kind to Sarah.
If I hold a brush in my hand, Sarah starts to cry just thinking about having her hair brushed.
She sat still for Christina...who I will now refer to as Saint Christina of the Curling Iron.



SEE?!?!?!
She is SMILING!



I would have stopped doing Sarah's hair after the curls were set.
Christina has come crazy tenacity and Sarah's hair just kept getting better.



BESTIES!



Finished product.
Then Saint Christina of the Curling Iron went on to tame my crazy pregnancy hair, without mumbling or complaining.
Thank you, Girl!



Soooooo....because the ladies spent so much time at our house in the morning, Emily had approximately 30 seconds to do her own hair, makeup and get dressed. So she totally missed her ride with Peter to the Church and she had to put up with the hooligans in the BACK SEAT of a Suburban.
She must be able to change like Superman, though.
Because, seriously, look at that girl!



We made it to beautiful Saint Mary's in time for LOTS of cousin pictures!

The (other) happy couple.

Father and Mother of the Groom





Everyone always turns to look at the bride when she walks down the aisle. My eyes ALWAYS go to the groom. Best part of the entire ceremony is watching his eyes when he finally gets to see his future spouse!

Terrible picture.
Beautiful moment.



 This was a cool moment after the ceremony. Everyone had left the church and the little people went and sat on the steps next to Father Joe. He baptized all three girls in white, even making the trip to Long Island for Ella's baptism!



Being so, so silly.

Love the girls' expressions. You know EXACTLY what they are thinking.

Again, with the need for steel-toed boots.

The Skinny Sistas!

Try Again.

This is my favorite picture from the ENTIRE weekend.
The photo bomb of the century.
Every family has to have a Crazy Uncle Mike.
(Mike, I had to change my pants after I saw this picture.)



The Crew

Peace

Schoolroom

Random shots from the schoolroom, Project: RE-DO EVERYTHING.

I love Thomas from the depths of my heart, but this child is crazy!

Joseph, really helping.

Same Thomas. Different hammer.

Where does he find all this stuff?

Nathan has a terrible habit of walking, bottom first, into everything.

Proof.

Nurse Amy

I think it is so funny when Sarah dresses up and pretends to be a nurse. I remember, vividly, doing the same thing when I was little. I used to pretend my name was Amy too...because Little Women was my favorite book...and I was too akin to Jo, but desperately wanted to be Amy.

Sarah says she just likes the name Amy. 

So much less drama.

The Diagnosis

The Waiting Room, complete with "customers".

Finishing Up.

 Each customer gets a sticker.

I haven't been out of the hospital that long, but scrubs have sure changed!!!

Harvest

Sarah spends a great deal of her time coloring and drawing. I could not (still can't) draw like this when I was six. This was her first art lesson of the year: The Harvest. Can't wait to see what the rest of the schoolyear holds!

35 weeks.
Not ready to harvest but plenty of "contraptions", as the kids call them.



Harvesting the first corn of the year from the jungle of impossibility. Again.

I don't weed. I don't have time or energy. And I might not be able to get back up again. (Good excuse, Anne!)
Hence, the jungle of impossibility.



These have nothing to do with the harvest. But, oh my, how they grow!

Nathan learned how to swing this past week. He can sit and pump and everything. This is a terrible picture, but I wanted to document that he is still only "ONE YEARS OLD" and can already swing independently!

Sleeping In, Schoolwork, and Why I Will Never Be the Favorite Parent

"Babe. I'm so tired. I need you to go downstairs and feed the babies."

Chocolate Milk?

Really?

I swear Matt does this so that I never ask him to do it again.

I guess that is why the children write things like THIS in their schoolbooks.

Me- "Joseph, sweetie, Mommy said you have to write words that tell about your family."

J- "Right! I love Daddy is ALLLLLLLL about my family!"

Happy First Day of School banner.

 Matt and I draw a small picture for each child on our annual banner. Something special. Something they like.

I drew a test for Sarah. See the bottom? She got an A+! 

I drew Nathan in his car bed yelling, "Naptine!"

Cuz he likes his bed...and I like it when he naps.

Matt drew Thomas driving his VERY OWN JOHN DEERE TRACTOR!

And.....a GG1 for Joseph.

How in the pants am I supposed to compete with these?

Verbatim

~Silly things that have been said around these parts that I NEVER want to forget~

Nathan, singing the theme song to Bob the Builder: "Baaaaaa da dilder....canna friggit? Baaaaaa da dilder.....hanna CAN!" (Real words: Bob the Builder! Can he fix it? Bob the Builder! Yes, He CAN!")

Sarah, when she was far past angry with me: "I am so angry at you that I will kick a horse!"

Matt, in response: "I'm glad we don't own a horse!"

(Side note: This only made her more furious.)

Matt: "No, seriously, PETA would be all over that."

Sarah, when Matt told her to get in the kiddie pool on a hot day and cool her jets: "If you get me wet, I will kick you for the rest of the day!"

Matt, seriously confused by Sarah's dramatics: "What makes a 6 year old so mad that she would want to kick a horse, anyway?"

(Kicking seems to be the theme for the week with Sarah.)

Thomas, who I just caught jumping head first off the couch: "We are doing Jedi flips! My training is almost complete!"

Joseph, who was about to get a serious time out for pushing: "It was an accident! I didn't know it was bad! She did it first! I am hungry! I am tired! I am thirsty! I just don't like time-outs! But I REALLY love you, Mom!"

Thomas, who is very eager to meet the new baby: "She's gonna be naked when she comes out of your tummy!! Hahahahahahah!"

Time

If I ever want a good cry, I think about how quickly time passes. How quickly these children grow. How I can never spend enough time with them, soaking them in, learning from them and with them. Matt and I are both trying our hardest to appreciate each and every moment. Our last few weeks have been filled with cookouts, campfires, ice-cream, house projects that the children can "participate" in, and sleepovers in our living room. One evening this week, Matt took some time off from our never-ending home repairs...and we played with the kids. Played hard. We turned the playroom into an airport, made a dinosaur zoo (complete with parking garage), played dinosaur bowling (don't ask), laughed until we cried, wrestled, played dodgeball, etc. And then we looked around and discovered the children were no longer in the same room as us. Just kidding, almost.

We had a sleepover in the living room that night and watched Bob the Builder (Nathan's new fave). After the children fall asleep, Matt spends half the night reorganizing them. They feel the need to sleep half-draped over eachother...and they roll. It's hysterical. I call it Musical Children. But I guess Matt is more correct in saying that it is like Parking Lot, that game where you have to get the one car out of the parking lot by moving around all the other cars. You know. So Matt stacks them around like Tetris blocks. And we fall asleep for another 15 minutes until he has to do it again.

It makes me chuckle in the middle of the night, so it was worth documenting. 

My brother is getting married soooooooo soon. The children need dress shoes. I have never walked into a store, found exactly what I wanted for all four children, and walked out again. Going shoe shopping normally entails a trip to 3 different stores in 3 different towns and I ususally cry. No shoe shopping trip is complete without a meltdown from Mommy.

So yesterday, I politely asked (begged) my mom to go with me and the four crazies to the mall. She jumped at the chance...and so did Scuba Steve. So all 7 of us prepared for the worst and braced ourselves as we walked into the shoe store. 

It was perfect. We were the only ones there. They had a toy section for the children. They had perfect shoes in perfect sizes. The very sweet girl at the counter measured the childrens' feet. She measured Thomas twice... because he wanted to. 

This was the picture I sent to Matt when we arrived home.

Matt- "Pants, that's a lot of shoes."

Me- "Best part: Boo and Koala can put their new church shoes on by themselves!!!! That takes, literally, about 7 minutes off our Sunday morning routine! I mean, right? Between wrestling them to hold still and tying laces, I think its about 7 minutes."

Matt- "Oh definitely, at least."

Hurray for the gift of more TIME!

Dinosaurs

Joseph is hooked on this Dinosaur book by Dorling Kindersley.

This means that we talk about, dream about, think about and play dinosaurs alllllll day long.

The boys were doing their rendition of "dinosaurs on parade" through my kitchen, dining room and living room the other morning. I told them to go quietly read down in the playroom.

Found this.

They were reading the book to their toy dinosaurs, pointing out to the dinosaurs which type of species they were...and, at the end of the day, who was gonna eat them!

Just to show you how the far down the line this new obsession has taken hold:

Nathan has his dinosaurs lined up on the couch and is singing Happy Birthday to Dinosaurs...until he sees that  I am recording. Then it  turns into "Hey, Mom is watching. Can't let her think that I can speak or sing in a normal voice. Her expectations of me might get higher."

So he changes to his dinosaur voice.

Disturbing.