Today

I told Coco the truth about what nipples are used for.
Why??
I'm just soooo tired of making up stories for kids.. she caught me at a weak moment... we're around new moms with new babies.. she asks things like this ALL the time... so I just told her. 
Milk, Babies, moms, etc.
I immediately regretted the honesty. 
One question, lead to a billion questions.
Which turned into half-truths: about all milk drying on First birthdays and what not... (Hopefully, she doesn't happen upon a mother nursing a 4 yr old...)
I was also myself struck mid-conversation that there is no age appropriate adorable word for 'nipples' like 'pee pees' or 'wee wees'.
(And NO: General, Coach and Warhol, that was NOT an open invitation to list alternative words for nipples, so just stop your mind from working that track...)
Long Story Short.
I told Coco the truth today about nipples.
So Coach, expect a phone call this week from one of her teachers... Even though we followed The Talk with a lengthy Talk on 'What happens in our house doesn't need to be spoke of at school'.. I'm certain we're still going to get a call.
Because we're THOSE parents.
Or at least, I am..

She's broken me.

The End of The World

This week, in our small town, were pre-school screenings.  Moms everywhere were complaining about their babies being grown.  Any one who has followed this blog, knows that I HATE my babies aging. Except, with one baby, I could not be more ready to ship her off to full day Kindergarten. 

And this long winter has only confirmed that.

I've joked that Coach and I have made:

1.) A paper Christmas chain

2.) Have set alarms set on all of our phones.

3.) Have commissioned wall-sized chalk board calenders, desk calenders, oven timers and string reminders tied to fingers...

All devoted to Coco's first day of school in August.  Because this little girl (while crazy beautiful) is utterly and completely exhausting.  Below is just a teeny example of what her energy level is like on any given morning, in our home.

And the spinning: perfectly depicts her tornado like presence in life.

 

 

Obviously, that was a Coco original recording.
If you like her song,
I probably have 118 more videos like that on my phone... (not by my choice)

Side Note: I honestly have no idea who's girlish laugh is in the background.  Either Tink or The Kid (I'm leaning towards The Kid).  We may need to discuss him laughing less around future girlfriends..

Surprise!

Flag Girl and Chili D were not the only couple married this weekend... we were as well!  At Mass, Saturday evening, Father surprised the congregation by having all married couples stand up and renew our vows.  Each couple had to face each other, hold hands and recite full vows in the church.

Because our first wedding was outdoors,

 

We joked all evening that we are now 'officially' married. Newlyweds. (Although if you look at our beautiful wedding day, I'm pretty sure God was there.)

Coach was crushed to realize that if it took until Saturday to become 'officially married in the church' he has wasted a lot of years that he could have been living the wild bachelor life. Coach also made sure to leave his options open by accidentally forgetting to insert my name.. "I, Coach, take you Blank to..."

Coach later explained the Blank wasn't his fault.  He claims Father just threw the renewal at him, not giving Coach enough time "to REALLY think about his options.." (He takes my breath away.)

 

Friday, I posted our annual Valentine's love story. 

Honoring the week, we fell madly 'In Like' with each other.  We had a great long weekend, celebrating love, family and marriage. Which only confirmed, without hesitation, I would marry Coach, every year for the rest of my life.

Sooo.. I'm not keeping track but...

We're now at Two Weddings.

And Zero Honeymoons.

Let's work on that, Coach.

 

"I'm yours and that's it,
Whatever.
I'm yours and that's it,
forever.
You're mine and that's it,
forever."

The Wedding: Part Two

The Cousins are all Big.
Of course, I see all of these children on a regular basis... but for some reason, I was repeatedly surprised with each picture, how old our babies have become.  They were all so beautiful and well behaved. 
We are a very lucky group of parents.
This family makes pretty babies, for sho.

 Coco, watching her favorite band sing.

You may be wondering where Coco is, when she is not with her other girls cousins... but look closely in the background: you'll see Coco being snuggled by Jumbo Joe and the Cute Girl.. like they are a little family together. Adorable.

 The Gipper gettin tipsy.

 Me and One. The Eldest. And Mostest.

The Trio.

Galway Girl, Grace of Monoco & Bondie Beach.

 Coach and (one of) his God-daughters.

 Coco could not stop staring at her Aunt Flag Girl. Who was 'beautiful like a princess'.

Tink and her BFF Owl, trying to take a cute picture while the annoying Uncles kept photo bombing.

 Uncles are Dumb.

The Younger version of Cousin Best Friends. 
It's nice to have babies in pairs.

The Three Jr. High boys (mini men)

My two Bookends. Coco and her broder.

I am a notorious Non-Crier.
Yet, I cried 3 times during this wedding.
1. The Sister toast, prior to the ceremony.
2. When Flag Girl's boys walked her down the aisle to my favorite version of 'I want to Hold your Hand'. (It was like she was trying to make me cry!)
And then, I cried when Coach showed me this picture on the camera:

Me and my first baby.  We are both STANDING!  Which means he is this close to being taller than me.  He just keeps growing up. Yuck.

Again... it was an amazing evening.
I love all those little faces.

The Wedding: Part One

They are now officially Mr. and Mrs. Flag Girl!!

The following are pictures of the ceremony and the super dapper totally beautiful newlyweds.

 

 Flag Girl's cute parents.

 Flag Girl was walked down the aisle towards her groom, by her adorable sons.

 Just married!

 

The adorable happy siblings sharing a toast!
The ceremony was beautiful.
The location was perfection.
Great evening.  I'm so happy for them all!

Tomorrow,
The Wedding Part Two: Cute kids.

"My Love Like a Voice"

 

"Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name."

Happy Wedding Day!
Congrats Flag Girl and Chili D.
My Five Family enthusiastically sends our most heart felt wishes for a long and happy life together. 
You've belonged together:
"Love has been waiting, patient and kind."

Tomorrow:

Flag Girl is getting married!
Flag Girl is getting married!
Flag Girl is getting MARRIED!!
Oh... and so is Chili D...

We had a bunch of fun plans to kick off the Valentine's/Wedding weekend.  Starting with tickets to the Avett Brothers concert on Thursday.  We were traveling out of town, got a hotel room, planned to first attend the Avett Bros and then move to an David Mayfield Parade after hours concert.  And I was BEYOND excited!
Wednesday evening: concert canceled.
I literally went dizzy with the bad news.
With a portion of our group missing, we went ahead with the second concert.  We celebrated and smiled, despite never hearing A Ballad of Love and Hate.

 (Isn't Coach cute??!)

 (Me and the sistas.)

Friday we planned to have the Anti-Bachelorette Party.  Simple day for seven ladies sharing lunch, drinks and painted nails.  The men were headed to their own lunch.
Except... when we woke Friday morning, the town was COVERED in snow. (huge surprise).  A large chunk of our ladies couldn't make the drive because of the weather.  Clark got called into work (bummer). Only one couple was able to make it down to share the day.
But again, we continued to celebrate,
despite the series of unfortunate events.

 Weirdly, the girls attendance, shared only 2 names.  Flag Girl and I have/had the same first and last name.  While the other two also share the same first, middle AND last names... Odd.

 (Chili's exaggerated hanging head from his 'Wild Bachelor Party')

We took pictures in an experiment to see if standing between Chili D and Clark made us better.

 With me... the bar lights made Clark look jaundice. Sorry Clark, I have that affect on men.

Our joke became, the more unfortunate things that happen leading up to The Day, must mean all the bad vibes are getting spent.  So each bad thing, which ruins another well intentioned plan, only equals another year of happy marriage. 
Can't wait to see what else fate has in store for the family this weekend!!  Because we've got a whole lifetime of happy anniversaries ahead for this couple!

Our Annual Love Story.

Come children, gather around the imaginary camp fire... for once again, we will share our annual tale of two unsuspecting kindred spirits, falling (tripping) madly in love..
It was during this week in history, The Commissioner took me man-hunting... for a new, deserving suitor.

We had a specific list of required characteristics.
1.) Suitor must be taller than me.
2.) He must be kind.
3.) He must have a job, with insurance and benefits.
4.) He must be older, established and seasoned in life. With a calm maturity about him (ie.. no 'lil help' repeated jumping off boats)

We entered the finest establishments for Good Husband Meetin: Willy's and Turtles... and like any great hunter, our prey was unsuspecting. We moved stealthily and with a keen, watchful eye. One by one, each Target fell off my radar. Some, for superficial reasons... a few, for fairly legitimate issues: Black socks with faded jeans?? Really??
We returned from our hunt, exhausted but in good spirits and ready for a post-outing night cap.
Upon arrival, we encountered my future Tru Love, the man of my dreams, the father of my children...passed out on the couch. Clothes, boots, hat: all too ready to rally and start Round Two (or knowing him, maybe Round Three).

(actual picture, is it any wonder, I fell?)

I squeezed in next to my catch, almost immediately smitten. While engaging Coach in witty banter, I remained oblivious that he qualified in Not a Single One, of my Four required categories. * It is not always obvious, how Tall a man is, as he sits on a couch.
One would imagine, Coach should certainly qualify in Category Two: though not from the glowing recommendation, Commish bellowed from across the party (and with much conviction).
"No way! Not that guy! Don't Date my Brother!"
"Stay Away from my Brother! He's NO Good."
And other expletives, not appropriate for blog reading.
* While I understand my posts are often laced with extreme sarcasm, these quotes are exact and without embellishment.
Years later, this is the portion of the story, where I take pause... for certainly, a woman should take the advice of the actual older brother.. Except,

A.) The more negative and Bad Boy the review, the more instantly attractive Coach became.

B.) Also, The Commish's impeccable and well-educated judgement seemed blurred and untrustworthy.
For on this evening, during the most romantic moment of my life, The Commish was dared to eat a piece of dog food.
And. He. Did. Twice. (I'm not sure the second piece was still part of the dare...) Proving my cousin Jackie scored a winner, as well.

Commish: I would like to commemorate this (and every) Valentines, by thanking you for your unsolicited advice. Warning me, so passionately against dating your younger hot mess of a brother, that it pushed me towards him that much harder.
You were so very convincing in your obvious disdain for Coach, I knew this must be the man for me.
Maybe... that was your plan, all along? Maybe, you really wanted us together and only pretended Coach was a Worthless, Bad-news good-for nothing Heartbreaker who would amount to nothin?

Tricky. Tricky. You are a sly one, Commish.
One day, when our children are told an edited, sweeter version of this fairy tale (probably without the dog food)...Commish will be the hero, in our story. The man, who convinced not One cousin but Two cousins, to marry into his family.
Bamboozling two 'brown-eyed' girls, to sculpt his Family Tree, into our Family Wreath. Well played. Hats off...

A modern-day fairy tail. As Warhol says..
"It's like Pretty Woman, if only Richard Gere lived in his car."

During these 10 days of February, Winter Gave to Me...

Yes.. I wrote that title in a Christmas themed tune because the snow has won.  It's taken my sanity.  And this is where the blog has been..

It snows here.  All. The. Time.  It just snows and snows and snows... and when it's not snowing, it's so cold your skin could freeze.  Literally, the News programs actually tell you how quickly in seconds your skin will freeze.  And because of the 'Schmuckin Schmolar Schmortex' our children rarely attend school. 
And that's not good for me.
I love summer with my children.  Sure... it's exhausting but I enjoy it.  I do NOT enjoy being trapped in this house over and over and over again, with three children ranging in age, gender and a general variety in interests. It's gettin real Realz in here.
Little girls are kicking each other in the face.
Big kids are screaming at younger kids.
Moms are hiding in their bedrooms with heated mattress pads randomly screaming down the hall "What is happening out there NOW??!!" while Dad's pretend the Barbershop is super super busy. 

In between losing my 'schmit'... I've attended at least 427 basketball games during the past week... (FYI- it may be too cold for humans to walk to the mail box but apparently it is never too cold to hold a basketball tournament.)

The first ten days of February has also celebrated two brothers birthdays:
On February 4th My Brother had his 33rd birthday.  We celebrated with a birthday lunch at DQ, followed by a short shopping trip for clothes and later he went out to shoot pool with our Dad.  A very simple day but a very active and positive day for Joel.  As always, his birthday can feel a little sad.  But we exchanged an 'I love you..' and that felt pretty darned positive.

 (Lunch date with his niece, Coco)

And today, Warhol celebrates his 44th birthday.  And while it seems impossible to top his past year of life: he married his beautiful Sweetbreads, he literally traveled from one edge of the country to another (Florida to California) he continues to inspires through his art work and his home renovations... oh... and he made a baby...
All of that and more,
and he still looks to a future filled with an even more amazing year.  Because in July, he will be with a son or daughter.  And THIS AUNT can not wait for baby snuggles. 

(remember how that dinner was the best eva??)

Happy Birthday, Warhol.
Hey.. I love you, too. Really. I do.
I'm honestly grateful to have both brothers in my life.
(I'm also grateful the weather seems to be breaking.)