mac n cheese for life

'Merica.

so mostly i'll begin with saying i have no photos of our actual fourth of july.

but that means it was a good one, ey? 

i mean, SO good that you didn't even have a moment to take some snaps?  yep.  

but really.  it was swell.

on the fourth, we lounged by grammy's pool, took mr leifs little brothers into town to get snacks and greasy food and more firecrackers, and then we had a pool party.  

cheers to you 'Merica.

but i did take a bazillion other photos to document our fantabulous road trip home to the good life.  

and really, it started out great.  

theRomes had no idea we were about to force him to stay in his seat for the next 4.5 hours.  

yes, despite how many times he said "up up UPPPPP",  and how hard he tried to pull the straps off, 

the little fella was stuck in his seat.  poor dude.  he so has it rough, i mean...traveling with an ipad? 

surely, it can't get better than that.......

well, i guess he thinks it should.

because about half way there, he.was.DONE.

and thankgoodness for sandhills publishing, 

tractor house mag had this kid swooning in no time.

{so did the other two free dumper/semi truck for sale mags}

once we arrived, we hung for a bit, and then mr leif and i headed "into town" to meet up with some high school friends.
after traveling down memory lane for a couple hours,
we came home to a house full of sleeping family,
so we snuck outside to eat icecream cookie sandwiches and watch the moon

and then, for the next 4 days, we ate, played, and slept by the pool.
{not really, but almost}
and it was awesome.
because when you live in KC and don't have any family near you,
just having someone love on your child like a grandma, uncle, or papa?
 it's like, amazing.  and having those same people help entertain your child,
so he's not hanging on your leg 24/7? double amazing.

we spent some time teaching roman how to do the front crawl, breast stroke, and side stroke,

but we made sure to give him a rest, he perched up on the raft with momma.

and then one afternoon i made brownies.
my MIL has the pioneer woman's cookbook.
and, well, after i wiped my drool off the page, i settled on these bad boys:
knock you naked brownies

we shared our brownies, along with burgers and wings with our friends and their little ones :)

do you see mr leif and his class of '02 gang, crashin boards like it aint no thang? 

and then there's aj.  jumping on the trampoline eating smashing a cupcake :)

and the little cheerleaders. so proud of their daddy's trying dunk the ball. {yeah, i said trying}

and while they were eating cupcakes, and cheering for their daddy's,
romes took to the bag of chips and the kitties.  dude's an animal lover.
i didn't post a picture of it {for fear i'd gag} but he literally lays out on the cat, saying "night night".  makes me wanna sneeze.

 romeslice totally loved spending time with his uncles :)  

they tackle, chase, and do silly things to make him laugh.

what more could a little guy ask for?

it made my heart so happy to see them love him.... and he love them.

one lovely afternoon, i got my hairs did.  

ombre.  didn't know if it was still "in" or not.  

but i loved it.  and i loved sitting in a quiet salon for 2 hours.

and i loved knowing my little boy was in good hands, allowing me to completely relax.

and i loved looking at people magazine.  i didn't even know about tomKat.  

but hotdang.  they're all the rage in the gossip mags.

{note to self: less elmo, more E news?}

 and then, all too soon, sunday came.....which means we go home.

it's always hard to leave.  our family, our friends, not being able to see everyone we wanted to, their love and support and just being "home", it's so good.

but we do what we gotsta do, and we hit the road jack.

...

on the way home, roman declared this little girl to be called, "momma"

 i know, she's totally a creeperish doll.

but she has brown hair and brown eyes, so i guess i see the resemblance?

oh, and a visor.  i mean, i where visors all the time....so how could he not call her momma? 

oh, and knee highs.  momma loves her some tall socks.

{but i would sooo take the yellow shoes}

chillin wit muh homies.

yo yo wassup.

these are my homies.

we be spinnin round in circles at the park, at the park.

we be rollin on dubs at the mall, at the mall.

we be goin down the slide so fast, so fast.

that's what we do, what we do.

happy heart momma bear stuff.

happy heart:

when he makes him laugh.

uncontrollably.

happy heart:

romes, telling the pig "i yuv you"

happy heart:

eating tcby, pink lemonade and gummy bears, in my yellow dress

happy heart:

his blue eyes.

happy heart:

walking into the kitchen, catching him play grocery store.

happy heart:

sweet fitty cent garage sale finds.

roman's first motorcycle. his first train.

[he's in love]

happy heart:

those lips.

those eyes.

[those cheeks]

happy heart:

finding his friends, stuffed in a stroller, being pulled around the house.

happy heart:

pajama top.

swim trunk bottom.

paci.

tiger.

kitchen floor.

happy heart:

his excitement for the trash truck.

happy heart:

us.

happy heart:

him.

i never knew what this momma thing was gonna do to my heart.

but wow. it expands by the moment these days.

lets paint.

last week, romes and i invited some friends over to get our paint on.

 we had plans to whip up a rad father's day gift.

 and though, there were a few distractions 

{asher man, driving chooo chooo's around the fire pit}

 all in all, our little morning a'la art was successful. 

[read: it was a blast]

 and we were so very thankful for our madigirl to be here helping :)

 romes made a special little piece, with hand prints galore.

 dude's got talent.  let me tell ya.

bram and asher went to town.  

creativity is an understatement with these to young lads.

 and, well, they're kstate fans.  

so they got all 'wildcat' like and painted themselves purple.

[go big red, i say. go big red]

 we didn't stop with canvases.

soon enough we were painting everything in sight:

legs and arms. diapers and bellies.  paper plates and straight up the deck floor.

we love our friends.

we love to paint.

and we love to run around sans clothes.

all in all? awesome morning.

father's day. 2012.

for the past couple months, father's day has been on the back of my mind.

trying to figure out how to honor my husband, the father of our little boy, on his special day, 

just made me all sorts of giddy with excitement.  

i began planning the gifts we would give him, whether homemade or bought, 

and what we would do on that weekend to celebrate his amazing, steadfast, cornerstone role in our family.

and, though i thought up some pretty rad things, i kept feeling like nothing would suffice in rewarding his hard work, his love, his selflessness, his compassion, his empathy, and his honesty.

and then, it hit me.  he does those things out of love.  he doesn't even need to be rewarded.

[don't you worry....we still loaded him up with presents and fun surprises!]

if i can teach one thing to my children, about their father, it would be that he loves us well.

unfortunately, these days, love is a word so over-used, so used out of context, and so used without really understanding its value.  

but, today i choose to use the word love.

in trying to describe my mr leif, i rely on what our heavenly Father tells us about love.

because, thats exactly what my mr leif shows us.

love is these things:

"it's patient, love is kind. 

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails." 


happy fathers day to you mr leif.
we love you :)

and without further ado, 

i give you the monsterishly long video i created for mr leif.

romy and i shared it with him this morning.

and, well, to say he loved it would be an understatement.

[hi grammys! hi papas! this video is for you!!!]