Manda Girl

We have two birthday right in a row at our house in April. There are moments when I think I’m just going to kill over with all the planning and details but somehow I managed to survive. Remember how I don’t really like holidays, I don’t really like throwing birthday parties either.

What a party pooper I am. Maybe I’d feel more up for it if I wasn’t 35 weeks pregnant.

Isaac is 6 today. He’s been counting down for a while now. We celebrated over the weekend by having all of the neighborhood boys over for a little party. We had pizza and cupcakes are our house…

and then went to our favorite pool for some swim time. The boys had a great time. We gave them squirt guns for their party favors and I have to say they were such a HIT!!

Score one for the party pooper!

The guns keep the boys playing the whole time. Battles were going on everywhere. Even I got caught up in the line of fire game for a while.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not that big into holidays. I have to force myself to do the usual holiday festivities like doing Easter Baskets, purchasing a minimal amount of candy, hiding eggs and putting up any sort of decorations (oh, wait. I didn’t do that.) Am I the only one who struggles with this? It seems so many moms love holidays and look forward to them.

Luckily my poor kids are happy with whatever they get.

After much struggling, I decided to get the kids some Easter outfits. I debated between whipping up some skirts and a homemade tie but eventually just ran to the mall with a coupon in hand and bought somewhat coordinating outfits.

The girls loved their dresses and my boy hardly looked at his shirt.

Since I went to all theEr trouble of getting outfits, I wanted to have a little photo shoot with everyone fixed up nice on Easter morning before church. But that required getting ready for church before the appointed time for take off which I pretty much failed at.

I had about 3 minutes to capture some sweet Easter photos.

We tried the stairs.

That didn’t work.

Emma had a brilliant idea to stand behind the daffodils.

That didn’t work.

Emma wanted to rest her elbow on Leah’s head.

Then she was sad I said no and Isaac was busy showing off his new little toy.

Then of course there was the times no one would look at the camera.

So this is the best we got. Decent enough.

I sure love my cuties.

Happy Easter.

I have been thinking and thinking about needing to get a belly shot but for the life of me, I can’t seem to manage it. I have no idea but this poor baby will have no documentation of him growing inside of his momma.

The only picture I managed to dig up was from our San Fransisco trip and that was a month ago. It’s not even that great but the scenery is nice.

Here I am about 28 weeks.

My husband just came home and read my post, “Why don’t you take one right now?” Well, I’ll tell you. Ugly shirt, pony tail and no make up on.

That’s why. But I promise I’ll get one soon!

I drafted this post a while ago when I was feeling down. Now that the sun has been shinning, the tulips are popping up and things are looking better, I feel okay to post this.

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Lately it feels like I’ve been bombarded by disappointment.

I got my braces off.

And still have (slightly) crooked teeth on the bottom (can you tell from the pic?) and my bite just doesn’t feel right.

{Maybe we should be talking about my crows feet instead.}

Here’s the before braces shot. It’s an improvement for sure and I’m super happy to have straighter teeth.

It’s funny. No one has noticed that I’ve had them off. Maybe it’s because my top brackets were clear.

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I created some ugly art work.

I only hung it on the wall to take this picture. I have no plans on keeping it.

These big canvases aren’t cheap even with a 40% off.

I used this cool idea from pinterest. I repainted this stupid thing about 6 times to get it right and I still hate it. I don’t think I even like this graphic design anymore. It was surprising how hard it was to get the herringbone lines straight and even after all my efforts the lines aren’t straight not to mention the paint bleeding under the tape. I’m pretty sure I can’t live with it and am going to have to repaint is all over again with some other idea.

Poop.

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I made some anthropology inspired curtains.

And now I think they are too feminine for my house. I know the pic isn’t that good with the sun coming in but really, when I’m feeling this way I can hardly go take another picture.

I think they’d be much better suited for a little girls room. I don’t hate them but just a bit disappointed. I spent money on them. Because they are homemade I can hardly return them or start over. I think I’d be much happier with something more like this.

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I got some new highlights to brighten up this dreary winter.

And ended up with some ugly stripes, especially when I put my hair in a pony tail. Again, I’m in no mood to take a picture.

I even told the girl that I wanted the highlights to be subtle and didn’t want it to look striped. I’ve lived with it for months now. Would you dare go back and tell her to fix them?

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Tell me, how do you deal with disappointments? How do you keep positive and not let things drag you down?