I love my girl

I hate to admit it, but one of my worst pregnancy symptoms is always IR-RIT-TI-BIL-I-TY. I'm thankful that it has seemed much better so far this time around. But Sunday...wow....Sunday I was grouchy all over the place!
Usually, if I take a nap (pregnant or not), I run a great risk of waking up grumpy from it. So I often skip them. 
But this grumpy Sunday afternoon, I did finally doze off on the couch for a little while. Not long at all after I awoke, there stood Brooklyn, freshly awakened from her own nap. I had been mulling over a little snack for myself when she whispered, "I'm hungry." Then the little sister read my mind, "I want ice cream," she whispered again. We hardly ever have ice cream, so her mind reading was quite impressive.

I grabbed the carton of chocolate ice cream, one spoon, and my baby girl and we headed to the big middle of Mama's bed. And shut the door. And do you know? All those giggle and ice cream bites later the grumpies I'd fought all day were gone for good. 

Such a happy little time with my little princess. :)

In other little princess news, Greg headed off to work as usual just after daylight Monday morning, leaving me in bed for "just a few more minutes" (riiiiight). But not as usual, he returned to the bedroom just moments later, carrying a half-sleeping Brooklyn. He had found her curled up asleep, outside her shut bedroom door. Apparently, sometime in the night she had gotten up (probably for a drink) and the door had latched, shutting her out of the bedroom. Poor sweetie pie had just laid down in the floor and gone back to sleep.  Isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard?! 

She never did go back to sleep Monday morning, but those early morning smiles and cuddles were worth it. 

We're all a little strange, I suppose

I went to a ladies' retreat this weekend. We played a "get-to-know-you" game involving individual sized bags of M&M's. You pulled a candy from your bag, and based on the color you drew, answered a question about yourself. 
At some point in the middle of this exercise, the lady to my left asked (quite randomly, I felt at the moment), "Do you homeschool?"
Of course I answered that, yes, I do. She nodded and smiled and pointing to my book on the table in front of me said, "Your M&M's gave you away."
As my turn came around the table and I answered each question, I had lined up my candies like so:

Turns out my new friend had homeschooled her two now-grown boys. So maybe it is true that "it takes one to know one!"

On an unrelated note, that evening I took the whole gang out for a walk to give Greg just a tiny slice of silence since he had been busy with them all day and had gotten Zero studying done. While we were out we circled by the campus playground for a while. Here sits this fine stand of nice, new playground equipment, and what do my kids like to do most?

Run around on the concrete slab, of course! Every. Time.

It's on the blog - so now it's official!

Well, my observant readers, I certainly did not mean to be secretive or sneaky! Word is out in real life, and most of social media, but I can't believe I forgot the good ol' blog!

Yes, we are happy to announce we are looking forward to welcoming baby #6 in September!

And in true Buffalo fashion, we are expecting another BOY. :)

BLUE silly string gender reveal with the kiddos.

Pregnancy #6 has been very kind to me thus far. I have gained more weight with this one than any other. But that couldn't have anything to do with my husband keeping me well stocked in burgers, cookies, ice cream and donuts. I promise, I eat healthy stuff, too. :P

We are admittedly nervous every once in a while about adding another human to this merry-go-round, but are truly convinced he is God's will for our family.  

Plus, who wouldn't want to welcome a sweet little person who will grow up to do things like this:

and this:

Or regale us with thoughts such as these:
"There are two kinds of chickens: dead ones, and live ones." (Tyler, inspecting the meat in his supper bowl tonight.)

Yes, this house gets messy, and it gets loud, but it is full of fun and creativity, joy and hugs, love and laughter. We are truly blessed!