russ clove doesn't sugar coat it

when, during a night out at the killers concert, you have THIS conversation:

mindi: "honey--my fake eyelash is coming off my right eye--does it look okay? do i need to fix it or just take it off?"

russ: "ummmm. that's funny......i'm shocked you are concerned about your eyelashes, when the issue you really should be concerned about is that big zit on the side of your nose. it's pretty bad--do you have something to put on it?"



MAC eyelashes: $16.00

2 killers concert tickets: $85.00

having your husband point out what should be your hugest insecurity:

PRICELESS.

russ and mindi go to the killers concert or the best confetti concert display we've ever seen.

you guys KILLED it last saturday night. and i might have fallen for you just a little bit more because of it. 

brandon, i forgive you for wearing a 26-inch waist pant. 




you know how i feel about confetti and this concert had a golden shower that was such a spectacular display of glitter that i put it at number 1 confetti drop of all concert time.

thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:



**a sweet little 'hand tree' brought home from miss brandi and miss kim's preschool by my mia. or 'pim' if you read her handwriting correctly. :)



**documentation of how hard a concert rocked with our friends--thanks to michelle for the proof~

sniff* or mia has a bunny nose.

if i was speaking mia, i would say that i have a 'bunny nose' today.

thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:

**our little friend, spencer, who took mia & madi to his school for his class--as you can see by the look on mia's face, it was pure HEAVEN. plus, spencer gave me a special gift this week: a new way to spell 'performance'. POFOMANS. i am SO having this word changed so we can spell it this way. the WAY it was supposed to be. thanks, speni!

**this sweet little songbird card my sister loni made for my litle songbird, mia~ she wrote a cute little note inside and quoted king julian: "i would love to become a professional whistler. i'm pretty amazing at it now, but i want to get, like, even better, and make my living out of it."

** babies, Babies, BABIES! at our family reunion held last saturday--we loved getting together with russ's family and loved having these little ones there even more.

song bird

mia has learned how to whistle, and she does it all day long--

she whistles in the car, while she watches television, when i'm doing her hair, while she's loving the catties. it's basically an all-day long songfest.

if i don't know where she is, i'll walk through the house, listening. within 45 seconds i'll know where she is.

it's pretty handy. as well as absolutely adorable.

always read me a story before bed or why i love being a mom even though that will surprise you.

{mom, chandi, & kaitlyn--1999}

when katie was a toddler, we read SO many books. i had purchased a collection of little dr. seuss books from some random ad in the back of a magazine, and we'd wait for the new book to come in the mail every month. (remember, this was pre-internet years. it was old-school survival.)

we read and re-read those books so often that we would get to a point where she could 'read' the entire book to me. almost completely verbatim. her best efforts were 'go, dog, go!' and 'one fish, two fish'--some pages had more words than others, and it always tickled me so when she would recite every word, and with my exact inflection or speech patterns.

then chandler came along, and we read, still--but a little less. then abbey arrived, and with her so did school for katie, more responsibilities as mother, & juggling 3 kids as well as a prescription for prozac. so we read, still--but even less.

so when poor little child number 4 hit the scene, reading was at an all-time minimum.

by the time we'd go to get children in bed, we were DONE. we wanted to get them tucked in/sent off to bed/kissed goodnight as quickly as possible. our 'child-meter' had hit it's maximum potential, and russ and i were both ready for offspring-free time. AT ALL COSTS.

i eased my guilt by telling myself that we had at least tucked them in, clean, teeth brushed (mostly) and that was a credit to our parenting. after all, lots of kids don't get that, right? plus, mia got a story every now and then when we forced an older child to read to her. AND i play puzzles with her here and there. that should do it, right? RIIIIIIGGGHHHHT?

then, i had a small ephinany: a month ago or so i read THIS post. now, keep in mind that i don't read or follow nie nie. i think her story is inspiring, but i keep my blog following at bare minimum. so i don't even know how i would have stumbled across this, except for the fact that i needed to.

i started crying 1/2 way through and couldn't stop for about 25 minutes afterward.

and i came to this conclusion: being a mother is a gift. i don't always view it that way when each and every parenting moment comes along, but i only have this one shot at it. my children are growing and will remember many positive things about both russ and i as parents (we don't screw EVERYTHING up. sheesh!) but i lack sometimes in the 'little gestures' department. i know it's my biggest area for improvement.

so i vowed to start reading every night to the younger girls-- if i couldn't, then russ was on.

i realize it's not huge. but it's SOMETHING.



and i've started to enjoy it again.

thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:

**first day of preschool!!

mia was all kinds of excited--she could hardly contain herself. we were so lucky to be able to get her into a preschool just 2 blocks away, run by the cutest ladies, miss brandi and miss kim.

miss brandi sometimes frequents the old blog here--when i went to drop her off the second day, she said, "mindi, i have to tell you something funny: yesterday when it was time to go and we were trying to figure out whose backpacks were whose, i knew IMMEDIATELY that the pink skull one was mia's!"

sadly, we are SO very predictable.



**this fabulous sparkly keychain that my arianne bestowed upon me last week. it's shiny and reflects light and totally appeals to the raccoon in me.



**this photo of zac efron that appeared last week.

even if it makes me feel like a bit of a pedophile. (in a good way? yikes.)

you're welcome, internet.

hims loves catties or we let colt pet those dirty things.

yes, hims DOES:





so does hers: