March - Home Sweet....doh!

St. Patrick's Day Eve... the 1st anniversary of moving into our new house! Ummmm, not quite... We moved back in with my in-laws 1 1/2 weeks ago. Let's review....

The radiant heat in our family room was leaking so we embarked on yet another round of home renovations. So it looks like ET moved in with us. No problem! We can't use the family room for about 2mos. No problem!

Surprise! They insulated the family room.... with SAND! You're looking at approximately 500' sq of sand that has to be dug out. OK, not the end of the world. One more thing on the to-do list but hey, we'll get it done. Surprise! I get a call from Greg at 3:22pm last Monday: "They dug out the sand." "OK, great!" "No. There's sand everywhere." "What do you mean 'EVERYWHERE'??" "We can't bring the kids here. Or stay here. It's bad." My head start to swim a little.... but I kept it together and as I headed home I kept thinking it just can't be THAT bad. I opened up the side door and knew there was no exaggeration. Through the crack in the door I could already see the film covering the floor. EVERY SINGLE SURFACE throughout the ENTIRE downstairs was covered in a fine dust. Everything. Every toy, every piece of furniture, every frame, every crayon... I cried. I didn't cry when my children were born but I cried that night. Twice. Mom & Dad Billows.... we're BAAAA-AAACK. Lunch at the Cypress means one thing: BOOTY! (Pirate's that is....) "Mommy, I'm gonna do poops." "Do you want to go on the potty?" He shakes his head yes. OMG! He always says no! We hustle in, take off his drawers & he sits there for a few seconds before Adrienne busts in & has her head practically in the bowl. "HE DID POOPS!!!" (and yes.... it smells like roses) Now THAT certainly deserved a donut! Nick passed out in the car on the way home.... poopin' takes a lot out of you! (ba-dum-bump!) So Adrienne & I got to do some baking! My coworker (mom of 4) mentioned she had an easy (keyword!) Irish Soda Bread recipe. She wasn't kidding. Not only that but it was DELISH!!!! Mixing the dry ingredients... easy as pie! The wet ones... please! A cinch! But mixing them TOGETHER... well now THAT took a bit of muscle.

On to the big event of the weekend.... we got to spend the night with Tori!

She didn't have ANY fun....

Tori has 2 modes when she's in Nick's presence: Copycat or Audience Either way, Nick eats it up.

Everyone wants to be Achoo.....
And after the little peanut hit the hay my two actually wanted to CALMLY cuddle up - no battling or squirming around like they have ants in their pants. I guess putting on a 3hr show for their cousin actually wore them out!

The next morning NO ONE wanted to get out of bed after that fabulous slumber party...

March - Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes (knees and toes!)

Nothing cuter than hugs that border on strangulation!

Making sure the beach didn't melt away with all that snow....
"Hey Nick! Wanna go swimming!??!"
"Ummm. No thanks."

Look at those
POOCHY LIPS!!!!!

Dreaming of his first Superbowl ring...

Meanwhile I'm celebrating my first French braid! Yes, my very first. Ever. And yes, I know it's a tad loose. But it's her WHOLE head! Now that I know I can do it I'll practice up & by the time she gets her driver's license I should have it mastered!

Shoe shopping.
The 3 of us were there the minute they unlocked the door Saturday morning. A super nice guy came over, measured their feet (they wear the SAME SIZE NOW!!!) & pointed me in the direction of their respective sections. "Ooooohhh no buddy. I'm not doing this solo. The quicker we get this done the quicker we're out the door. Let's save everyone's sanity & you come along with me."
So we start with Nick. He picks out navy blue with green 'snots' (yes, the pattern is ACTUALLY called Snotrocket). As they guy is putting them on his feet Nick announces, "I like your HEEEE-AAAAD!"
The guy was bald.
He laughed so hard he had to hold himself up.
On to the next pair of shoes which took a sticker bribe from Mr. Clean StrideRite to get him to relinquish his Snotrockets for all of 30 seconds. All good. 2 pairs of shoes in under 5min. Awesome.
Next up, Adrienne.
As Mr. Clean StrideRite is putting her shoes on, Nick comes up, taps him on the arm,
"'Cuse me. Don't take my shoes off. K?"
He kindly obliged but did manage to get close enough to cut the tag off before we walked out of the store.
The shoes didn't come off his feet for the rest of the day.

"Nick, we HAVE to take your shoes off."
"No."

"NICK! It's time for bed! Are you going to where them to nonnie!?"
"YES!"

The temporary setup in the living room is providing a much appreciated viewing proximity to the Disney epics.

Miserable Sunday was the St. Patty's parade. Nick woke up at the crack of dawn so we left the boys at home to nap and ran down to Belmar to catch a bit of the action. I tried to get on the porch at The Boathouse. That didn't fly. It was 1/2 empty & I told them we would order food!! But they seemed to think bringing a 4yr old into a pub on the biggest drinking day of the year wasn't such a good idea... So next best, the Mexican bar on the corner 2 blocks up.

Nothing says St. Patty's like a hot burrito & a cold Modelo.

So here's my little leprechaun in her new gear, necklace courtesy of Uncle Vic.

"I don't HAVE a nick-a-liss!"
("No, YOU'RE Nicholas. She's wearing a NECK-LACE."

"Here Nick! You can wear mine!"
(Aww, such good sharing!)

"Oh wait, Mommy's taking a picture. Gimme that back."
(doh!)

Nick's been waking up with some kickin' breath. He now walks around, proudly announcing, "I got BRUUU-TAL!"