a happy sunday

today was a good day. and we desperately needed a good day. today leah sat through {most of} church with a smile on her face. she snuggled me for most of the first hour. i helped her lead the hymns and she folded her arms for the prayers. we talked about jesus and she listened contently. her attitude was just as bright as her yellow dress. she giggled all the way home and we played on the patio before we took a nap. that was our sunday.

it wasn't our friday or saturday. friday leah screamed a terrible scream from midnight until 5am. and then again at 8. and then again at 11. it was truly horrific. friday and saturday the laytons were a big, messy train wreck. my pillow was soaked and my eyes were puffy. our little one was beyond sad and we could NOT figure out why.

so today we fasted. and so did lots of our friends and family. i can't tell you how much it means to us that so many people would be so selfless as to take a little bit of time {and food} out of their day to send prayers heavenward for our little leah. she is loved by many and for that, we are grateful. hopefully someday soon we'll figure out what is troubling her little body.

until then, we'll try to get through the fridays and saturdays...and really enjoy the sundays. today was a good day.

rockin' the bangs

Leah and I got hair cuts yesterday. We like them a lot. And we like our hair cutter a lot. Check out those cheek bones!!We chopped a few inches off of Leah's curly locks... And she is now sporting bangs.She was just too scraggly before and I think bangs (as much as I didn't want to do it) will spiffy her up a bit. Don't worry, I didn't cut half of her head into bangs like my mom did to me when I was three. I also didn't cry for days afterward like she did. Poor mom. It wasn't you fault. It was those darn '80s styles. Everyone looked like a cabbage patch doll, not just me.

As for me, I'm also sporting bangs after a few years of a hiatus (1984 was the first, aforementioned, go 'round...). They had receded a bit by 1989 and were full fledged volcano bangs by 1992.

My bangs reappeard in 2003 and were gone by 2006. And now they're baaaaaaack. Picture to come when I actually do my hair AND makeup in the same day. It happens. Really. It does.

dear lady,

*warning: i'm still somewhat fuming about this incident, so reader beware. it's not nice.*

dear fat, ugly lady we saw at the blood lab this morning,

i hate you. i think you should burn in the deepest, darkest abyss. you are very mean.

did you think it was okay to mutter under you breath today {definitely knowing i could hear you} about how i should listen to my child and just give her some attention? did you think that because you saw about two snippets of our lives this morning, you know exactly how to fix whatever you think our problem is?

did you know that five seconds before your extremely large self waddled through the door this morning i had been reading to my child while she lovingly pinched, hit and scratched me? did you know that i patiently took her abuse while warning her that if she continued to do it i could not have her sit on my lap?

i bet you felt pretty dumb when i turned to you and said, "really? really!?" right to your face after i heard your profound mumbles. in fact, i KNOW you felt pretty dumb because you wouldn't look me in the eye for the rest of the time we were there.

you wouldn't look me in the eye when you sat across from that sweet little child screaming her lungs out because the tech couldn't find her vein, so she poked and prodded and poked and prodded until she finally had to poke the other arm to get the sample.

i'll bet you didn't even think that no matter how hard i tried to get her to stop, maybe she was just mad because she had to go without food for the last 12 hours. from the looks of you, i can't imagine the last time you went 12 hours without food.

i bet you have no idea how many times that little girl has had to go to the doctor's office and blood lab...and how many times her mom has had to sit there and watch. you probably can't guess that she has been poked numerous times to try and figure out why she struggles so much from day to day. i bet you didn't even think that she might be screaming and hitting and scratching and pinching because she HATES that place...almost as much as i hate you.

i'll bet i CAN guess why you were sitting in the chair, but i won't. because that's just rude.

cute little leah with her two poke reminders

one man's trash...

...is sarah and leah's treasure? we had a garage sale last weekend (and the weekend before, but that's a different story). ryan had to clean our church building that morning and ed got called into work, so lindsey and i manned the sale and three kiddos by ourselves all morning. it was a success. leah and sarah were {relatively} good at keeping themselves occupied.

it'll never happen.

i think i will never be the mother of four children. it's just complete chaos. (well, it is when i'm in charge.) i watched four two year olds last week. really, it wasn't that bad, but they definitely had me on my toes for 2.5 hours.

we had a snack (on the blanket, ryan...don't worry):we played outside...apparently jack is faster than the others:and leah is a bit slower:but they all caught up eventually:ty loved climing back and forth under this:and jack enjoyed removing his pants...multiple times:sarah thought it would be fun to run out to the street (the others followed...jack with his pants down) but i caught them before any catastophes occured:jack and ty found "a bug! a bug!":and sarah was not about to be left out of that kind of excitement:
they helped me in the "special room" switching my laundry from the washer to the dryer and we survived the day with only two time outs (one for sarah kicking the piano and one for ty hitting jack...to which jack replied, "my head reallyhurts").

leah was sweet and comforted a very sad cam when rach came for ty:we finished off the day with a yummy "dilla" where i apparently got sarah to drink cold milk for the first time? and had to reassure jack that, no, i would not burn his sweet little finger two weeks in a row. i learned my lesson last time. then i took a nap.

i love fall...

...and i love cookies. september's edition did NOT disappoint. yum.

i'm a rocker

we went to a def leppard concert last week. this is my second rock concert in as many years. it's getting a little out of control. but since ryan and ed are certain they are going to start a garage band, we had to go see what their competition was like. and once i got past the second-hand weed i was inhaling, it was a great show!

ryan rocked the faux hawk (isn't he handsome?!):
i'm contemplating starting my own clothing design company. this is an mj original:ryan was no slouch in the fashion department either, folks:ed tried gushers for the first time. he's a fan:lindsey and i practiced our hard core rocker faces:
we enjoyed our view:and we couldn't have asked for better company:
even if they did get a little crazy once or twice:
my favorite quote of the night: "oh that's what 'pour some sugar on me' means!"

mobility according to leah

leah is getting more and more comfortable and courageous with moving around. she runs everywhere now (albeit wobbly) and likes to climb on certain things. this was her first time climbing on a slotted chair. not the most successful attempt. she wasn't sure what was going on - especially when i ran to get the camera instead of coming to her rescue.don't mind the smoothie-stache. it's a summer (and fall, apparently) staple at our house.

jack and leah

these two are the cutest together. twin cousins. born on the same day...two time zones (but only 30 minutes) apart. 6 months later, they became instantaneous best buds. and the rest will forever be history.

i was watching jack the other day and they decided they wanted to jump on the bed. so i let them.

then he wanted to give leah a zerbit. she didn't mind.

then they were so exhausted, they decided to take a nap.love them. both.

caught brown handed

i hosted a bunco group at my house last night.
in preparing for the evening, i put some cookies on a plate. they were all symmetrically placed.
a few minutes later, i walked past the plate and saw this:

so i went to go get my camera. when i came back, i saw this:

at least she has good taste. they were delicious!

girl's night

we had a girl's night this week. it was the female equivalent to a group of guys who gets together to play rock band periodically...we wives decided it was our turn. so in true wife fashion, we got pedicures. it was my third ever...i could really get used to this sort of thing.sarah had to steal the show and go off and get a shooting star painted on her toes. tee hee hee. niiiiice, sarah.

playplace?

so leah had never played at a mcdonald's playplace...until last saturday. they just don't have them here...something about real estate being to expensive or something. i don't know. :) but, we found one right by our house. she had a blast. so did ryan.

zzzzzzz

goodbye...

hello...

yes, after exactly one month of camping out in our bedroom, the newest member of our family was delivered. i don't remember trying to fall asleep since last friday. yes, it's that good.

back to school

since when do i have a big girl!? she looks so grown up!

manping

Ryan and his california BFF Ed went on a "man-pout" (a man campout) last weekend. They ate ribs, burned things in the fire, jammed on the guitar and hopefully slept way far away from each other in the tent. They were to be home by 2:30 the next day when kids woke up from naps. They obeyed.
While they were gone, we had a girl's night (+ Kai). Leah and Sarah ate on Sarah's cute new picnic table. Leah likes spaghetti, can you tell?

august...

goodbye summer...

hello fall.