BUSTED

the first response i got when i said that i started a blog was from my uncle. he warned me to never put anything on my blog that i wouldn't want my biggest enemy to know. well, i'm throwing caution to the wind here and posting this picture taken at my brother's honeymoon suite. we have a family tradition of "decorating" the hotel room the newlyweds stay in. my sister got the worst (feeder fish in the bathtub), i got shaving cream in my towels and balloons in our car and my brothers have gotten lots of tacky island decorations everywhere. here are the culprits from the latest expedition all in the bathtub. i just want to say the arm of someone taking pictures in the photograph is MY DAD! i have a better shot if anyone needs proof he was there.

oh and jim, if you are reading this, the post-it notes all over the car was done by a college friend. i believe aunt pam got a picture of him decorating your car. so the rest of us are in the clear for that one!

a windy day in march

here are some pix from the wedding. i hardly took any pictures, but you can at least see what my kids looked like. if i get my hands on a cute photo of the flower girls, i'll post it. there was a cute one of the bride and groom walking with all the flower girls in between and they were all holding hands. it was darling.

the wedding went well. it was a windy day in march, but sunny and fun. lots of my family came from all over to support my brother and his wife and it was great to have such an outpouring of support. i have a very loving extended family. i'm blessed.

the windy day in march reminded me of a children's poem by A.A. Milne that i love. for those interested, it goes like this:

Wind on the Hill

No one can tell me, Nobody knows,
Where the wind comes from, Where the wind goes.

It's flying from somewhere as fast as it can,
I couldn't keep up with it, Not if I ran.

But if I stopped holding the string of my kite,
It would blow with the wind for a day and a night.

And then when I found it, Wherever it blew,
I should know that the wind had been going there too.

So then I could tell them where the wind goes...
But where the wind comes from Nobody knows.

(except for maybe metereologists or seafaring people? bet y'all didn't know i could capitalize!)

a herd of macnairs at the zoo

Here's the gang at the zoo! (picture to left also demonstrates that family trait of allowing precarious pictures of ourselves be taken. i think my sister refers to this trait on her blog as well. to show that we are not a complete lost cause i included picture above.)

evolution

we went to the hogle zoo and here's how we measured up to the gorilla. (yep, that's my brother in the hat - allowing ourselves to be photographed doing stupid things seems to run in my family as you will soon see). i also feel like mentioning that in high school my good friends and sister called me "ape" (my sister still does). it use to bug the heck out of my grandma when my sister would call me it, but it actually never bothered me. it was an endearing nickname from close friends and family. so feel free to call me that if you feel inclined.

back to life, back to reality

we're back from our trip to utah! we had a great time. i went skiing for the first time since college. it was loads of fun. gracie learned to ski as well. the second day of skiing i had to take an hour break in the lodge (with my cousin and grace). my legs were like jello at that point. my cousin and i had a good laugh at how pathetic we were, but after that break we were able to ski for several more hours and felt great! i think we looked pretty good too (for amateurs that is)!! gracie was always the first down the hill with her straight down snow-plough technique. i went for a more controlled descent with lots of turns, but fun nonetheless.

we had a wonderful time visiting tons of family on both sides as well as catching up with a few friends. the trip was good timing as i needed a good respite from the craziness of life. we genuinely had a wonderful time. i didn't take as many pictures as i would've liked and most of the ones i did take were goofy, but i'll post them nonetheless. enjoy!

time correction

thanks to comments in a previous post, just corrected my time for posts on my blog. and yes, i will have you know that these times are correct! jake woke up at 3 am this morning. so i've been up with him. probably should have let you think i was some type A getting up early to get stuff done, but trust me, i would still be asleep if it wasn't for aforementioned son!

check it out

i am highly recommending that you all check out my friend's blog at:

www.lainakay.blogspot.com

it's an incredible blog! i absolutely love all her ideas and finds. then you can spend the next week or two brousing through the blogs that she likes. there are so many neat blogs in that section to look at. my favorites are probably design mom, oh happy day and motherhood is not for wimps, but they're all fantastic.

for fun, you can go to www.emusic.com and get a free download of "michael brennan" song by the barenaked ladies (click on the link on main page). i guess michael brennan downloaded the 100th million song from emusic and won the prize of the barenaked ladies writing a song about him. what a fun prize! the song is hysterical! so have a listen!

quotes

i happen to like quotes. here's one from my planner from this year that i thought was interesting, if not a little depressing.

"Only the fairy tale equates changlessness with happiness...
Permanence means paralysis and death.
Only in movement, with all its pain, is life." -Jacob Burckhardt

nap, nicknames & updates

sorry for the delay in posts; i won't bore you with my usual excuses (trust me there are some really good ones if i cared to share - not as good as the mom i just read about who was late picking her older child up from preschool because she forgot to put a diaper on her toddler and then when said baby woke up from nap there was quite a mess to clean up! go to www.damomma.com for complete story.)

i haven't taken many pictures in my absence, but i did get this one of evan who had fallen asleep while in his high chair. he's done it a couple of times now and i think it's his way of saying: "get me on a better schedule, mom!"

speaking of evan, i have now read a few blogs where people have come up with nicknames for their family members. this has caused me to ponder on what anonymous names i would come up with for my family. i tend to call evan a "big brute" whenever he is trying to pull hair or digging his fingers into someone's face (he gets called this name a lot throughout the day). but evan is really too good natured for such a tough nickname. so we've thought we could call him "fezzik" which is the name of andre the giant's character in "The Princess Bride." gracie would be "drama girl" for too many reasons to name. i haven't come up with one for lily or jake. lily gets called "stinker" a lot, but that's my affectionate name for any of the kids (but not my niece who's informed me it's a not a nice name to say and that it's not nice to tease) when they are doing something naughty that i actually find kind of funny (we won't say what i call them when i don't find it amusing - just joking here). so any suggestions for a quiet mischievous child who often charms the socks off of us? or how about a boy who loves to laugh and roughhouse (jake)? pat's grandpa would come up with nicknames for everyone. his nickname for pat was "his all american." so maybe pat could be my "mr. all american" or i could go with the standard "dear husband" or "cute husband" (both of which are very true). my one nickname from college i wouldn't share because then i would have to explain how i got it (it's not as bad as you think). with all my thinking, i have only come up with two nicknames possibly three, but it is a fun thing to ponder.

here's the update on the kids:
*evan's favorite hangout spots are: the piano where he will stand holding unto the bench and then reach his fingers up to hit the keys; the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom where he will try and reach out for the faucet to see if water is coming out. evan also now likes to continually stand while in the bathtub. he's learned how to pull himself holding unto the faucet and "drain control switch." bathtime is now a constant battle in trying to keep him safe.
*lily more and more is getting to wear she only wants to wear skirts or dresses (for an hour or two at the most before it's dress-ups or nightgowns). i'm constantly having to re-dress the girl before we go anywhere.
*gracie has worked hard on memorizing some subtraction and addition facts for school. she gets timed on how fast she can do them and she's improved a lot in her speed. she would get bored when we practiced until i pulled out the stopwatch and we made a game of it. she definitely got a competitive streak (might not be a strong enough word here) from me.
*jake is making some real progress in terms of communication. we are trying to use the sign "more" with him and he seems to be starting to understand the sign when we feed him. i just gathered a ton of doctor's reports for an independent evaluation of his schooling. it will be done by the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. it will hopefully give us insights into his education and encourage us as well as his team at school to push him educationally. unfortunately, the observation will most likely not happen until the fall. i'm excited at what we might learn from it.

stats, blogs & blanks

evan had his 9 month check-up today (it was a couple weeks late). he was 22 lbs. (70th%) and 31 inches (90th%). he's right on target of where he needs to be.

i've recently discovered some neat blogs. i'll have to get the links up once i figure out how to do that. this blog thing can be very fun!

this will be a short blog as my mind seems to drawing a blank. i'm still recovering from being sick and so maybe i'll just head to bed. by the way, i have to say i just love how off all these times are for when i post. i should probably learn how to correct the time, but i prefer to have you all think that i'm so organized that i actually do get my posts done at decent hours before my kids are in bed. HA!