Birthdays, Babies, Best Friends and Bad Dreams-- The Trilogy

In keeping with my slacker theme from the post below, I'm just now getting around to our (not-so) recent birthdays....

Catch up on parts one and two of this trilogy by clicking here and here. (That would be the blue words, again Mom. Those are the ones you click. Okay, we'll all wait for you. Got it? Great.)


Like Her Highness and Lightning, these two handsome fellas now share a birthday week. We love to stretch out a birthday in our house, but this year for poor Thunder, the birthday week wasn't quite as glam as others. I'm going to cut myself some slack though, I did just have a baby. An organized Mom would have planned the party before a new baby arrived. I completely forgot about the party until the week of. Mrs. Manners would cry, but I actually just e-mailed a ton of our friends the WEDNESDAY before the party which was held that SATURDAY and begged "I know it's super short notice, but if you're going to be in town.... I'm on my knees.... Forgive my horrible etiquette....."

Etiquette or not, Thunder turned five just the same and had a blast.


All Thunder wanted was a baseball party. It was one of the coldest days of the year.
Surprisingly, we had a huge turn out.

I don't have any good pictures because my usual fancy photographer (aka: BFF and surrogate aunt, Dr. Pepper) was stuck sitting in the car with my newborn the entire time, due to the frigid temps.

Other "birf-days" as Hail would say, have come and gone too.

This Apple Dumpling turned two in December. Then, a few short weeks later, she became a BIG SISTER!

My sister, Kell-Bell, is now the proud Mommy to three beautiful babies, ages two and under. I'm so proud of her and her hubby, Luke.
And here's a sweet shot of them-- My nephew is on the left and niece on the right. Give me a spoon......

Now, for the Best Friends segment:

Her Highness is blessed to have one of those best friends that come only once in a lifetime.

These two are like Peanut Butter and Jelly. They've been best buds since they were three. We watched Bridal Wars and at the end Her Highness said, "We would never fight over our wedding date 'cause we're just gonna have a double wedding!" I won't be surprised if they do. They seem to never tire of each other. They have even discussed ways to become "real sisters." The plan now is for Thunder to marry Em. Not sure how they'll feel about it in a few years, but they talk about it all the time. Sweet girls. If they would just stay this sweet through the teenage years....

And in keeping with tradition, I will end this lengthy post with a dream....

But before I do, for the record, we're not obsessed with The Duggars. Not completely anyway. I do watch their show (with Bert, though he would probably never admit it). I think the reason they are buried so deep in our psyche is due to how many folks compare us to the Duggars. I mean, I can see why.... We've got five kids, they've got 19. We send our kids to public school, they homeschool. We believe in using birth control, they don't. Okay, I do realize I just set myself up big time to be made fun of there, but my point is, we're obviously NOT that much like the Duggars. I guess it's just a big family joke people like to make. Anyway, back to the dream.

Bert and I were both in the kitchen, he was holding Flash Flood and pouring a bowl of cereal as I packed Her Highness' lunch, when he said, "I had the strangest dream last night. I was back in high school, but I still had the kids. Only, you weren't there. I don't think I knew you. Anyway, we were at some type of convention or something, when I met one of the Duggar girls. And the entire dream I was chasing after her trying to convince her to go on a date with me. Weird, huh?"

Right as he was finishing up the details of his dream, Bert tried to hand Flash Flood to me, even though I clearly had my hands full, spreading peanut butter and ziplocking cheez-its. I glared at him then said, "Just stick him in the bouncy seat! I can't take him right now." To which Bert replied with a smirk, "My Duggar girlfriend never makes me deal with babies. She keeps everything under control." I laughed and asked him to give her a call. I could use a Duggar girl in my house. For sure.