Mrs Fussypants

Weekly Winners Blurry Blackberry Style

"Favorite Men"

Remember I went to my cousin's wedding? Here is my Uncle (father of the groom) saying hi to Mark and the boys. Yes, those are all my boys. :)

"Awkward Blackberry Family Photos"

My own akward family photo for ya. My eldest son took this pic. And, yes, I know my hair is glowing. I think the 2 yo was off in search of snacks. Notice the super cute Kimba pin on that Shabby Apple dress? lovely! And, yes, I *am* 12 feet tall. Everyone always pictures me petite.

"Them boys are tired"

...said Lori on Flickr. Oh, you noticed the Uhaul, eh? We brought a family heirloom home with us. A huge table my Grandaddy had made years ago from cherry trees from his farm. Having my family eat around his table means more to me than I can tell you. So pleased.

"Run Lady Run"

I rarely leave the Pediatrician's office without apologizing profusely. I think we scare them.

"Blame Canada"

We terrorized the geese, too.

"God's Rays"

When I was a little girl I had a favorite page in my picture Bible. A beautiful scene with the sunlight breaking through the clouds. I forever called the rays that shine down "God's Rays." I snapped this picture of the boys playing in the backyard right before the football was thrown in the pond and they fought, cried and stomped inside. {just keepin' it real}

 My sweet and lovely real life friend Lotus (sarcasticmom) whoIhaven'tbeengivingenoughattentionto hosts this fab Weekly Winners meme at her blog. It is for people who take beautiful, thoughtful, artistic photos, and um people like me, who snap some randomness with the Blackberry through the week just for fun. Enjoy!

My week in Blurry Blackberry Pictures

Hey Y'all,

 I love when I get emails asking if I am sick when I haven't posted in a couple days. Too sweet. The house of Pants is all good. End of school year festivities, meetings and life stuff kept me away all week.

 Since I now am all fancy and finally figured out twitpic and how to use my Blackberry I send Mark pictures daily and am having a fab time documenting daily life.

Wanna see my week in blurry pictures? Of course ya do!

 

Jeremiah has physical therapy and hates it. Here he is expressing his displeasure. We are working on encouraging him to pull up on things. Go Buddy, Go!

I spent the whole week in my car. Shuttling my entourage all over middle Tennessee. Look at him pretending he is all grown up!

The geese, they just walk right up to us at the park. They were all, "Hey, Bipeds, you got some bread or what?"

They were not amused when the boys offered them some tasty playground sand. Now, after I twitpic'ed these pictures, I was told I was lucky the boys were not bitten. Whoops. Parenting Fail.

My favorite blurry picture this week is of Mark & I. He is so not amused by my constant documentation of life.

 We have a wedding this weekend and I'll be back next week with some better classic-poor-quality Fussypants blog content for ya.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

 xoxo.

Priceless

He loved cake. Loved it so much he needed to disrobe for a quick birthday photo with his brothers.

In a big family you take a group shot when ever you can. Not necessarily when everyone looks good, or is wearing any clothes.

 He even was sweet enough to finally say Mama for the first time after he ate some birthday cake.

 I took a shaky video of course! Do not watch if you get seasick easily, or get grossed out by babies with messy cake smeared faces- do. not. watch!

 I warned you.

Yes, I may have cried just a little when he said Mama. :)

 All is well in my world.

This post celebrates family life & is linked in to "I am Blissfully Domestic" over at BD. If you have a post within the last 7 days that fits in to the BD topics, link in and share ideas, links and hopefully some traffic! All ya have to do is link back to BD and then visit and comment on 5 other sites that are linked in. Easy Peasy Lemon Squuezey. :)

Winners!

Heidi Klum and Seal at their 50th wedding anniversary.

Congrats to Jeanette! Two weeks in a row. It's a first for Name that Inappropriate Photo. Good thing I am so lazy that I haven't mailed her winning earrings yet and now she will get two sets in the mail. Yay for slacking. (sorry, honey!)

Drumroll please....

The Winner of the $50 Giftcard (so generously donated by my friends at Hanes. Thanks y'all!) is...

(Photo by Adam Keats)

Amy, the Resourceful Mommy

"I stay cool in the summer heat by walking around wearing nothing but my Hanes briefs. Okay, so not really. What I really do is keep the windows open in the cool morning and then mid-morning I shut the place down. Windows closed, curtains closed. When the air conditioning needs to kick in, it doesn't have to work quite so hard."

Thanks for all the great entries!

Comfort Comes From Many Places :)

 Hanes is all about comfort. They live it. My week at Disney was enough to make anyone too big for their britches (as my Grandma would say).  V.I.P. treatment, private tours, gourmet meals, presents, you name it- I was spoiled.I almost planned to stay at Disney and get a job as a tour guide, but they would frown on tour guides who had to wear their babies the whole time!

 I went from an amused, yet skeptical, woman on a fabulous trip to a true believer in the company, their team, and how they operate. I was in love with the vision, the goals, and of course, the comfort.

 As the week ended, I missed my house of chaos more and more. It was the only thing that kept me from crying as I hugged all my new friends goodbye. The dirty little toes and backyard football games, the whole family snuggling on a too small couch, and taking turns saying grace at dinner. I missed every little bit of it.

At the Nashville airport, I watched my mom drive up with four boys all wearing smiles.

My heart exploded with joy! Oh, mah babees! I was home!

But then I came home-

I was not ready.

Oh my stars, the house!

Where was my bellman, room service and artificially big ego?

Where was my comfort?

Well well well, they cleaned up the place for my return.

Oh and let me tell you- they were proud!

I had to readjust my standards of what was "comfortable."

It may not be the fanciest place, but I love being back in the middle of my crazy life. 

Am I comfortable?

Sure, I'm still wearing wedgie-free. :)

New Media, Hershey's Chocolate and History Appreciation

I promised you more pictures from the weekend in D.C. with Hershey's. Well, here they are with a giveaway!

There was this actor who played Lincoln so well. I *had* to see if he would break character if I kissed him. He didn't! He mumbled something totally as Lincoln. Hilarious!

Hershey's arranged for the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum to be opened after dark and a private tour from the curator. It was very cool. I actually could take the time to learn about all the exhibits and heard great stories from the curator. Justin is a history buff and loved all the World War I era planes.

The women from Hershey's were wonderful. Here is Jody, who I loved instantly. She's smart, funny and rocked that jacket in the best shade of green. They actually unlocked the room where the Wright Bro.s plane was kept for us to see. Jody and I are looking at the plane in this picture.

I never found history interesting until I home schooled my sons. Now my eldest is a history buff and we both learn together. It's pretty cool. I am so grateful for the chance to take him to see the Smithsonian like this.

Sweet little Jeremiah slept through his night at the museum. :)

After the Smithsonian we had a PJ party. The kids watched Night at the Museum and the Mommies had s'mores, coffee and all the Hershey's candy we could eat. Nom Nom Nom.

I am totally making that face because Liz, being all savvy and fancy, had to make my espresso for me. I made no attempt to hide my goofiness and Liz hooked me up with some caffeine!

Because I am so cool, I won't tell you that when I met her I almost knocked her down because I was SOEXCITEDTOMEETHER! I'm excitable like a puppy Daisy tells me. I prefer to think of it as a zest for life. :)

Anyhoo, the whole weekend was great. The boys and I went to two museums, rode the metro, bonded and made new friends.

The fun part for you is-

Hershey's is giving away more trips.

A trip to the premier and to spend the night in the Smithsonian. And MEETTHESTARS!

I can't win, but you can.

So go enter.

Next week I will be teaming up with Hershey's to host a giveaway of a gift basket over on Blissfully Domestic also.

:)

**My thanks again to this very cool company who took the step to reach out to the new (non-traditional) media, bloggers, to help spread the word and create buzz. I think it is so important to support companies who reach out to us online. Big high fives to the whole team. **

Smithsonian Junkie

I am a certified Smithsonian junkie. When I got the invite to take the trip up to DC for the weekend with the boys I jumped on it. That is serious awesomeness. (thanks Hersheys! More about the event later) I met bloggers who I have admired from afar and was thrilled to learn they were super cool in person.

The Air & Space museum event had a photographer (who was cute and adorable herself) and I'll show y'all the picks when we get them. I'll tell you this- I *did* kiss Abe Lincoln. More on that later.

 Anyhoo, we had a few hours to hang out before the party, so I packed up Jeremiah in the sling with the boys and we took the Metro over to the National Museum of Natural History. I have been a million times (we used to live in Maryland) and I knew we could hop on the Metro and have a blast.

Jeremiah totally crashed and Justin took this picture of us at lunch. I love my babywrap as much as a woman could possible love a piece of fabric. Seriously.

I took about 7000 blurry, too-dark, awful pictures (which I adore anyway) and I won't bore you with those, but you may get a kick out of these from the photography exhibit. I suggested to the boys that they ham it up a bit. ;)

Alli: "Go act like the bear is eating your head."

Alli: "OK, now the Mama Lion is about to bite your arm off."

Alli: "Now waddle like Penguins."

As you see, the big guy is totally into the action shot routine.

~~~~~

I'll post more about the trip this week. So much fun.

In the meantime- Have you been to any of the DC museums? Did your kids love it?

See the sign for the Deep Sea 3D IMAX? We so wanted to see it. but ran out of time. Has anyone seen it yet? Looks awesome.

 

I wonder if they won't love it as much when they are teens. You know how teens are too cool for everything? OHMYGOSHIAMSOAFRAIDOFTEENAGEYEARS! I love their sheer joy at all the exhibits and seeing them soak it all in like little sponges. I want to keep them at these ages for a few extra years.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Love, Alli

P.S.- Don't forget to enter the contest to win a trip to the movie premiere. It's a pretty sweet trip!

I like big families and I can not lie.

I grew up an only child in a not always so happy environment. I dreamed of the white picket fence surrounding a big happy family. I have been blessed with 5 amazing sons and a wonderful husband. As a family we have done it all: been rich, been poor, been homeless, been sick, been healthy, been miserable, been happy.

My two oldest, 10 and 8, are growing up and showing us glimpses of the men they will become. Even though I have to battle their constant ploys for things that will hurt them: bad music, inappropriate television shows, friends who don't share our values, bad words and so forth. I am enjoying them so much. Who knew how much easier it would be when we got past the baby stage?

My littles, 5 and 2, are exhausting and wonderful. My days with them are spent fetching snacks, cleaning up the craft messes, snuggling and watching Backyardigans together. The 2 year old grabs my face with his hands and says, "I wuv you, Mom." I am wrapped around their little fingers.

Jeremiah, the baby, is my little love. He is sweet and spoiled and won't sleep unless he is touching me. I am sleep deprived and at his mercy still. He will be a very well traveled baby with all the conferences and trips we take. (Yes, he is coming to BlogHer and maybe even SheSpeaks)

Mark and I know it's time. He made the appointment last week for his first consult to have the big "V". I have been asking him to make the vasectomy appointment, but now he did. I am feeling like it is so, um, permanent. {bites nails}

Last night we had this conversation:

Alli: "Wow, I guess we really *are* done."

Mark: "Yep"

Alli: "Well, with the finality of it I am kinda torn. I think my fallopian tubes are screaming at me."

Mark: "Well, if you want another baby that's fine. You have 30 days to decide."

Alli: "Really? Wow. Ok. Well, we need to really think carefully about that...."

Mark: "Sure, but if you do, you can. not. live here. We are full."

{Insert giggles and teasing}

So, I guess we are done. Which is cool. They do keep me busy. Balancing being a Mommy, Wife and Momprenuer does kick my tail most days. But I would never change it. The sheer volume in the house is deafening, the messes are infinite.

I work on the computer while nursing baby and bouncing him on my knees. The littles naptimes, while the big guys are at school, are a whirlwind of trying to get all the work done. And the work is never done, I surround myself with the most amazing women who keep me and my businesses on track as much as possible. Even then, emails get buried, I forget to do what I was supposed to, and never have time to take that shower.

Most days I collapse on the couch at night thrilled they are all sleeping, happy for the quiet, and missing the pitter patter of feet all at the same time.

I wouldn't trade this crazy life for anything. One reason I am coming back to my Mommyblogging roots here at Mrs Fussypants, is I want to take the time to revel in the beauty of the daily chaos. One day they will read this site and get to 'know' who I was these years while I was raising them. They will read and get to know 'Mommy' from a different perspective. I want the kids to know how much I enjoyed the craziness of it all.

How about you? How did you know if you were "done" or are you having more kids? What is the magic number? I would love to hear. In the meantime, I gotta go make waffles and then clean syrup off the walls when we are all done. :)

This post is linked at Emily's lovely site: Chatting at the Sky

Little Moments...

My little James. My heart leaps hearing the sweet pitter pat of feet.

I am reminded of what my priorities are by his little voice.

"I love you, Mommy."

Kisses and hugs- the world is right again.

For both of us.

Proposal 2.0- Married Life Rawks

 There is a sweet event happening over at my friend Marcy's blog, The Glamorous Life Association, today. And it is history making!


 Some crazy guy is proposing using a blog. {swoon. I know!}  And there is a linky carnival everyone can participate in...

 So run over and put up a link about dating/love/marriage and be a part of the First Blog Proposal Event.

 
What about my story with Mr. Smartypants?


A blind date, falling in love, then my Grandfather married us in a perfect little wedding before he passed, and now, 5 boys later....we are still going strong.

 Mr. Smartypants and I have learned to pull together as a team during the many hard times and revel in the good times.  We try to respect each other's feelings, never let passive-aggression slide ( oh man, I hate passive aggressiveness ) and try laugh at ourselves often.





Seriously, ladies, is anything sexier than a man who is a loving Dad?

{rawr}





My favorite quote-

"The only thing worse than a man I can't control is a man I can."

Doesn't that just say it all?

Now get on over to Marcy's to join in the fun!

xo, alli

 
*I wish I knew the author of that line. Anyone know?