Back from St. Louis

We are home! Finally. The drive home always seems so much longer than the drive out. Paige was a tyrant a good part of the trip. She is tired, I know that, but it doesn't make me enjoy it any more. In fact, it is 10:30pm here and she is still awake. There is little in motherhood that annoys me more than my children not going to sleep. If you want to see me lose my temper, that is the time. Man, she can be so whiny and such a hypochondriac. She just wanted some tylenol for her supposed sore throat.

See what I mean? Grouchy me. Go. to. sleep.

I am happy to be home. We had a nice time and it was great to see Douglas. So great. But, it was really hard for a few reasons. 1) Douglas is subletting an apartment from a married couple that are gone for the summer. I do not like using blankets of people I don't know. Or sleeping on their bed. Or using their dishes. Or sitting on their couch. Lame, I know. It just grosses me out. I tried very hard to get over it and I did okay, but I am so happy to walk around MY house (dirt and all) with no shoes on. 2) His apartment is really old and pretty dirty. I am not the tidiest person, but my house is more or less clean. His apartment is dingy and gross. Had I been there longer, there would have been some major deep cleaning going on. I vacuumed and swept. Wiped things down, but it didn't even begin to take care of the gross factor for me. I commented to Douglas that I wonder when some people decide it is time to be clean. I would think marriage would do it, but clearly not. 3) It is really hard and tiring to entertain children all day, every day away from home. I was so exhausted. We went to museums, zoo, farm, children's museum. I would come home and crash everyday. Douglas was at work everyday, so it was all me. Man, that was hard work. Funny, yet slightly embarrassing story:

On Friday we went to this place called the City Museum. It was expensive...$40 for the 3 of us, plus parking. Ouch. We get in and this place is unlike anything I have EVER seen. It is this huge play area for kids. HUGE. HUGE. Floors and floors in a large warehouse. They have a whole man made caving system in it, jungle jims in the rafters, a 10 foot slide (which I went on with the kids...way too fast and curving for a fat prego lady. My body still hurts.), a bus (real bus) attached to the outside that kids can play in, enormous ball pits, underground caves etc. etc. etc. It was unreal. I knew within 10 minutes that this would be a nightmare for us. It was PACKED with kids and adults. So, I try to be cool and follow the kids around, but I just didn't have the stamina and after knocking my knee so hard on a cave wall and the slide experience, I decided that I would have to sit out and let the kids play themselves. I was very nervous about this (Douglas thinks I am too uptight, but I worry.) I told them they could continue playing IF they stayed together the WHOLE time. Well, that worked well until J would go somewhere that Paige didn't want to and she just wouldn't follow him. It would really distress Jackson and after the second time he came out to me almost in tears because he couldn't find Paige, I lost it. Now, mind you, I am pregnant, hormonal, exhausted from a week of entertaining and not sleeping enough. I break down. I am crying in the middle of the stupid museum. We finally find Paige after a good deal of searching (she was actually smart enough to come out to where I was sitting). I compose myself enough to go to the customer service desk to talk about getting a refund (did I mention it was pricey??). Just as I start talking though, the tears begin again. I think I kind of shocked the people at the desk. They were so nice to me and refunded my money and gave me two free passes for another time (maybe Douglas can bring J sometime bc I will not go again.) I was so embarrassed to be standing there sobbing in front of these people, but once it started, it wasn't stopping. When we finally got to the car, I had a good long cry.

It was so nice to be with Douglas. It has been really hard to be apart for all of us. I am on a constant countdown until he comes home. I miss him. It isn't even having him help me with the kids and stuff (though that is nice). I just miss being with him and having a normal life. It will be nice when he is done. Luckily he is really enjoying his internship though and hopefully, if it is right for us, it will turn into a job after school.

So here is a quick rundown of what we did. I will post pictures and more details maybe tomorrow...

Sunday-church, park
Monday-zoo
Tuesday-Science Museum, custard shop
Wednesday-Grant's farm with photographer friend Yvonne and her daughter Lily
Thursday-Magic house
Friday-City Museum, big fat nap, family pictures
Saturday-St. Louis arch, Marine show, Magic house, pictures of Yvonne's family, bbq with them
Sunday-home

See, busy week. I bet you can't wait for details!!

**and I must add that Douglas neighbor upstairs was such a loud walker and would pace back and forth starting around 6am. It was so annoying and woke me up everyday. I kept trying to see who it was with no luck.

A few more Shaw going ons...

I made a full batch of Neiman Marcus cookies for a luncheon at Jackson's school. Have you ever made a full batch?? I think it made about 300 cookies. I think I was baking cookies for a good 6 hours. At least it felt that way.

This is the kids favorite time of night...reading books. I love that I can now read chapter books with the kids. We have been reading some fun books...Harry Potter, Magic Tree House, Box Car, Chronicles of Narnia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I think the second Harry Potter book will be next on the list.

We finally wised up and attached Paige's snuggler to her pillow so we don't have to come and find 5 times in the night. Mental note...full size snuggler for next child.
Here is Mr. Great. He is so great about helping with the dishes. Love him.




Winter finally ended and spring *sort of* arrived. I love all the flowers!

Paige always has a vase of some sort with flowers in it. She isn't particular. Dandelions are perfectly acceptable.
Did I post these? I feel like I did, but can't remember. We love to have campfires in the back yard. Notice Paige's corn in her bib.

Aren't smores delightful. Douglas like peanut butter cups, but I am a purist. I like them with good old hershey chocolate.

Paigie Paige

Here are a few pictures I took of Paige in her Christmas dress and princess outfit (her choice). I loved this dress. How can I get so attached to my children's clothing??

More randomness...

We went to DC for my newest nephew's baby blessing. Jackson LOVED baby George. He has always loved babies and George was no exception. He told me he was just sooo cute he couldn't stop holding him.


We watched conference and crafted at the same time. The kids loved it. I brought out the peg things where you design a shape and then iron it to melt them together. It was a hit. Paige had a hard time, but it still entertained them for almost a whole session which is success in my book!
Here they are coloring their conference packets.


Free spiderman hands at the theatre. I love those toys that you discreetly have to throw away because the kids think they can never part with them. This, was one of those.

April Fools Day was fun for us. With Douglas on his MAP project for 6 weeks, I tired to be creative and fun. Here are my "spaghetti and meatball" cupcakes.

Meatloaf cupcakes for dinner. These were quite tasty.
And, they had silly silverware and drinking cups. They thought it was hilarious.











Mary Henning is our fantastic neighbor. The kids adore her. Paige loves to help her pick flowers. She has amazing gardens and is always so kind to let Paige pick a few flowers. One great thing about Michigan is that things actually grow here. So many beautiful flowers...bulbs, roses, peonies etc. etc. Paige calls Peonies "panties". It makes me laugh every time.

Fire station field trip

Paige's preschool had a field trip at the firestation. Yep, that's it.

Some more catching up...

Douglas was watching Paige and her friend while I was gone. Somehow, under his watchful eye, they CAKED themselves in mud. CAKED. Clothes ruined and it took me a good half hour to get all the much out of Paige's hair. I had to remove handfuls of mud out of the shower drain.


No idea...I don't remember taking this, but too funny not to share.

Have I ever mentioned that Paige likes to dress herself and has a very interesting sense of style?

Love that she always wants to wear white pants with panties showing through. Nice look.

Dying Easter eggs. The kids loved it. We were all shocked when I went to crack one and it was raw. Cracked another. Raw too. In fact, I pulled the wrong eggs out and we dyed all my raw eggs.








Easter morning we had our friend's, the Andersen's over for waffles and an egg hunt. The kids had a great time "hunting" for eggs. We had a lot for them to find! Here is Reed, Riley, Jackson and Paige.

Sweet outfit.














Checking out the spoils.

I see this face far too often...total Paige grouchy face.
I made birds nests with the kids. I like candy. I like marshmallows. I think Peeps are disgusting. The kids love them though. The nest was made out of chow mein noodles. We added Robin Eggs to the nests along with a peep. Cute and sticky.








We had our cute friend Eva come and make nests with us.