Down with Love?

I love, love. I really do. I love pink. My favorite color since birth. I like red. I love hearts, diamonds, flowers, and chocolate. I like babies in gold diaper covers with a bow and arrow. I just don't really like Valentine's Day.




I don't like crowds. I don't like 'special' menus. I don't like people telling me that Valentine's Day is the day for my husband and kids to show me how much they love me. Because, inevitably, I've built up this fantastic, romanticized idea of how Valentine's Day will go, and then am disappointed.

Honestly, I'm a really lucky girl. Barry is thoughtful, and considerate, and kind 364 days out of the year. The one day he's not? V-day.

This weekend Barry painted my family room. He did all the prep work, all the painting and all of the clean up. Happy Valentine's Day to me. It looks WONDERFUL! The family room was an awful cream sponge paint. It was Ug-to-the-ly. Now? It looks fresh, clean and modern. Not like 1990 threw up on my family room.

Before:

(Excuse the mess, this was moving days)


After:


A vast improvement, yes?

Yesterday, Julian had his Valentine's Day party at school. I didn't go. I had the other boys and well, it just didn't seem like a fun time to go to the preschool for 20 mins to wrestle Gabe, and lug Owen's heavy car seat around. I feel bad, but what are you going to do?

Instead, Gabe and I snuggled on the couch and watched his new favorite show, The Baby Show as he calls it. We call it Rugrats. Yep, Rugrats. The same show from our childhood. The same wonderful animation, the same mispronounced words from the babies. It's GREAT! Both boys, in fact, love it. Yesterday we watched an episode called Chuckie vs. the Potty. And guess what? We recreated that episode.

We'll call it Gabe vs. the Frog. His potty chair is a frog. And for MONTHS he has said he's scared of the frog. We've had maybe one, or two successes. Yesterday we took off his diaper and let him run free. He hated it. But he did pee on the frog! Yay! Here's to hoping he'll be potty-learned someday in the not too distant future.

After Barry came home, we had yummy red & white heart shaped ravioli. Thank you Costco. The boys, who for some reason despise ravioli, had heart shaped pasta from Cost Plus World Market. Julian ate 2 plates! This is remarkable because he doesn't eat. Ever.


We then went to Costco where the boys were pretty awful. And whiny. And wanted to eat the Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches we bought right.now.Mommy. Oy. And then on the way home, Owen was STARVING. We've never before fed that baby, or so you'd think.

Pretty much my prestigious Valentine's Day was just like any other day. Except I was disappointed. Disappointed because I built up this romance, this idealistic day. One in which Barry brought me home See's Dark Chocolate, some pretty yellow roses or lilies, and a large Diet Dr. Pepper from McDonald's (Hey it's only $1). None of that happened. Yesterday I was pretty bummed. Today, I'm less bummed, but curious.

We are supposed to be examples to our children of healthy relationships. We are supposed to be the ones that teach them how to treat others, and be a model for a married couple. Do I forsake Valentine's Day, and teach my children that? No. Because the likelihood of them (all 3 of them) meeting someone in the future that hates V-day? Not so good. Should I buy my own Valentine's so I'm not forgotten? What should I do? And really, I'm not trying to be whiny because I didn't get anything. I'm honestly and truly curious.

Happy Valentine's Day!

&hearts The Palizzi Boys

My mommy is mean

And needs a baby girl some day.

&hearts,
Owen

Photo Shoot Fails

Gabriel's birthday is coming up shortly! We're having his party on the 26th, so I needed to get a photo for his invite, ASAP! Stacy designed it, and it is SO, SO, SO cute! The theme of his party is Circus, and it's going to be FUN!

So you'd think it would be easy peasy lemon squeezy to get just ONE picture of an almost 3 year old for his invitation, right? Not so much. It was an EPIC fail. Epic. The pictures are cute, most of them, but wow so not what I needed for the invite.


Then, if Gabe's pictures weren't enough, Julian tried to show him how it's done.
This

Is not how it's done.

This is how it's done.


In the end, despite mucho frustration on my part, we got a stellar picture that works perfectly for the invite! So I can't really complain. And here it is! The moment you've all been waiting for. The Invite.


If you are at all interested in a circus party pack for your very own ringmaster's party, check out Stacy's Etsy Shop. Dandy You

Whooooo is 3 months old?

Ok, cheesy, I know. But he is!


Yesterday my baby hit 1/4 of a year old! So insane! He's such a sweet boy, and learning new tricks every day. Especially how to make his mama melt! He always gives me thing biggest smiles!

I've been practicing my photography on him. I love natural light photography, and these pictures are straight out of the camera.

I know I told you last month that he didn't have any leg rolls, yet. They're coming, but they're still much smaller than both of his brother's at 3 months!


I really love his eyes




And his toes


And his nose


And his fist.


He's such a sweet, sweet boy. I'm so blessed to be his mom.

Weekend Recap & Caillou

My boys LOVE Netflix. The watch instantly thing?? It's seriously genius. They are able to watch shows that I've not DVR'd whenever they want! Frequently, unfortunately, they watch Caillou. Caillou is in Canada, and goes tobogganing. I don't even know how to spell toboggan, but thankfully, spell check does. We were at Hy-Vee the other day, getting groceries, and the boys laid eyes on it. A toboggan, or sled. Whatever. We bought it just in time for the snow to melt away. But have no fear, we live in Iowa. It can snow until April. It snowed yesterday and Barry was kind enough to take them outside after he got home from work, and take pictures to document this momentous occasion!

The shovel were so they could help daddy shovel the sidewalk...


I <3 this picture! They are SO happy!



They had sooo much fun, and with another 12 inches in the forecast, they'll be able to go tobogganing again soon!

This weekend we were able to celebrate with my friend Dana and her little boy's 1st birthday party! It was SO fun! There's something so special about celebrating 1st birthdays. The look they get when they realize that thing in front of them is yummy! SO sweet! I am ordering my lighting this week, and will be taking some pictures of the little fellow soon! I'm nervous and excited!



We also started planning in full force, Gabriel's third birthday party! Holy cow. How did that happen?! I have no clue. He said he wanted an M&M party, but I've convinced him to go with something else :) I promised him we would have lots of M&Ms though!

It's hard for me to believe Owen's almost 3 months old! This week even! I need to get cracking on his shirt! I want to mix it up this time, so we'll see what I come up with. Speaking of Owen, he learned a new trick at Atticus' birthday! People still say that he looks like me, and I LOVE that. Julian and Gabriel are mini-Barrys. Everyone says that. So for me to have a baby that resembles me, in the slightest? Amazing! And little known fact, I sucked my thumb. And look! So does my mini-me!


Well the snow is coming down, and I have a shirt to applique! Well, actually two! Look for them soon on my crafty blog!