For Devin and Rachael

Hey D,
It's your song,

This post if for you,

Get Well Soon!

We Love You!

We can dance if we want to

We can leave your friends behind

Cause your friends don't dance

And if they don't' dance

Well they're no friends of mine

Happy Birthday Rachael! Happy Golden year! You're the best sister-in-law ever. Great picture, that's all I have of you! Good thing I snapped it last week or I would've had to find a straight jacket somewhere and post that for your picture.

All Because Two People Fell In Love

We celebrated my grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary, and my aunt Val's Birthday, they are on the same day.

Val decided after all these years of her parents making such a deal of her birthday and neglecting their anniversary, it was time to return the favor with this embarrassing display of recognition. I didn't even take a picture of what she did in the house and their bedroom. That girl just reeks of class, I love it.

Sixty Wonderful Years. It's funny when you think about the reason were alive, all because two people fell in love.

This is the birthday girl, my aunt Val. Self titled "Rock Star!"

I got the best seat in the house at dinner. Here's "Fanny" and my uncle Brent on my left and...

My cousin Amy and uncle Randy across the table. We had a lot of good laughs. The rule was nobody can sit next to immediate family, so I sent Jaya all the way across the room and I enjoyed myself.
(Open your eyes Amy, it's not so bad.)

My cousins Michelle and Rachel just looked so pretty I had to put them in too. Everybodies all grown up.

Jaya met my cousins kids and had a great time. This is Charity, Madelynn and her Margie whom she had to share for the first time.

This was the lunch scene, I had to take a picture and post it and remember when we all sat at this table. I even reminded everybody of the red kid table we had to sit at for years.

This is Jacob. He is Michelle and Brian's. Jacob and I didn't really hit it off. This is probably the best look he gave me all day. There was just something about me that he decided wasn't OK.

The girls colored for a long time while grandpa supervised. Not just any art is fridge worthy.

This is Michelle, her daughter Madelynn, Jaya and Sadie. These cuties were all born within 2 months of each other. (I think Michelle is a little older. Although her senior pictures would suggest otherwise. Heads up to any unpresent Hart grand kids your senior picture was made fun of without mercy. Sorry, you should have made an appearance. On second thought, it wouldn't have made a difference because even those present were teased.)

Umm...Sorry Grandpa.

We had a really great time with family. It was a curious experience to be with cousins and all our kids rather than being the kids ourselves. It's all come full circle.

I had to be brave

Sometimes people don't post because they are too busy or there is nothing to post. The second, is the reason for the recent lull in my blog activity. We have been cooped up in our house for the last couple of days, because this dog you see below was hanging around. The picture of course, doesn't explain my reason for locking myself and my children in our house. Two words will though...

Pit bull. He was extremely persistent. Every time we opened the door, looked out the window or drove into our driveway, we would see him. He managed to escape our efforts to eliminate him for several days. So, the kids and I stayed in the house and enjoyed each others company. We were sad to miss Allred's pond on Wednesday, especially since I had picked up some great sand toys to surprise Jaya. (Of course she saw them in the trunk of the car yesterday and wouldn't catch the hint when I just didn't answer her questions about them.) We also missed the movies at the park and the theatre last week. (However I did not allow that dog to interfere with the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Justin came home just in time to make it, Cohen slept through it and Jaya got to have a sleep over with Honey and Papa (my parents). Sorry Lyndsey, Justin said he wouldn't go with me if I went dressed as Hagrid so there are no pictures or stories to tell.) We were actually really scared here the last couple of days. Jaya asked me several times if I was afraid and of course, I had to be brave when I didn't feel that way at all. It's a very new feeling to have to be the brave one for your children. Now I know how my parents felt at times like these and I must say they did a great job, hiding their fears from me. I know they were scared now. Secrets out!
This is the best picture I could get of him. Every time we would point a camera or any other "thing" you would point at an unwanted, dangerous dog, he would run. This made us wonder if we weren't the only ones trying to eliminate him.
Don't worry, our knight in shining armour, did get the upper hand on that dog. And our fear has been laid to rest somewhere in a field far away.
Cohen admired his daddy for a long time that night. It was as if he was saying, "Thank you for being such a wonderful daddy to me and my sister and a great husband to my mommy. You are what keeps us all together each day and the reason we are all so happy. I love you so much, Daddy." It's funny how kids can say exactly what you want to say with just their eyes. Justin admired him for just as long because he likes his "Minnie Me" a lot.

I would just like to impress upon anyone who doesn't see these dogs as dangerous, as the state recognizes them, how serious a problem they are. A recent study found that pit bulls, alone are responsible for 1/3 of dog bite related fatalities in the U.S. while these dogs make up only 2% of the dog population.
If you need more convincing just google pit bulls and you'll find so much more, and so many sad stories.

(She has started pretending to be asleep every time I get the camera. Why? Cohen is not pretending he only does that right before I begin something really important for everybodies well being, like waxing my eyebrows or painting my nails.)

Here are some pictures of our family enjoying each other and making the best of our time together in our house. I know these wonderful moments with our children will fly by and soon they will be avoiding each other like the plague. There is even the possibility that they might not even want Justin and myself around. I don't know why, I always hoped my parents would chaperon the prom. And what could have been better than having my dad watch my life and my friends lives unfold everyday, as the high school princi"pal". Heavy on the "pal". Now that I have grown and see how great my parents really are, I can say that. (I hope they're reading.) That's actually really funny. I wonder if he feels like he has a front row seat at a reality show taping everyday, in a small town high school.

Don't tell Jaya, but sometimes, even if we tell her, "Everybody is going to bed now," she is actually the only one going to bed. Someday we will do the same to Cohen too, but for now he's in on our little secret.

We love you Jaya, and that's why sometimes we send you to bed earlier so that we can still love YOU in the morning, instead of that grumpy girl that sometimes shows up.

Did you know?

Did you know there are movies in McCosh Park on Friday nights? We went. It was really fun. I didn't get a picture of the screen before it was too dark to show up, but it was so great, Justin fell asleep. I couldn't resist this photo-op and I guess I went as far as putting it on the blog. The movie was Kung Fu Panda, I have seen this movie on a theatre screen for free three times now. I saw it for free Wednesday at the theatre, where they also have free movies at 10 a.m. And once last year for the first grade field trip when it was too cold for the aquatic center. It gets better every time.

People have been asking how we are all adjusting to our new addition. It has been two months today, and we couldn't be happier. Look at that face, he's delicious!
Even Jaya seems to have adjusted well. This morning I decided to see what she would do if I put him in her bed with her. She rolled over and put her sweet arm around him and went back to sleep.







We went to Camdyn's 1st birthday party on the Forth of July. Here is Makayla and Jaya's traditional greeting. Two girls used to being the only children and grandchildren who have recently been bombarded by brothers. These girls don't get to see each other often but they truly understand each other.

Jaya: "Makayla, push me." (She forgot the magic word. I think it's

implied.)

Makayla: "OK. Do you want to go high or higher?"

Jaya: "High."

They worked in the yard.

Here is my sweet boy Sunday morning after the Fourth of July. He got to sleep in his shirt partly because it is so cute. OK the real truth is, he was asleep and clean when we got home, so why would I wake him?

This is what woke me up in the night instead.

1:03 A.M.