look...

look past those stunning eyes, beyond the supper on his face, you better go ahead and click on it to make it large, and right in there with the little sunburned cheeks, you can see them. teeny tiny freckles. i am in love with these freckles, and there are more and more every day. note to self, kiss those cheeks one more time before i go to bed.

no freckles on this one, but come on, i just gotta kiss those cheeks too. i am in love with these 2 crazies. and i mean crazies, but they act pretty good in public most days so i'll keep them.

i have always thought derek's freckles were pretty much the cutest thing ever. (and his curly hair, but he refuses to let the public know he has this curly hair anymore so he shaves them off every 3 months. i know it's sad. i did get a hockey haired husband for a good 3 years in the beginning though) anyway, summer freckles are the best. there may have been a time when i got summer freckles, now they just look like age spots. i get freckly arms and legs in the summer (and post mexico) and i am learning to love them. but face freckles are the cutest on little 2 year old boys, am i right?! and i just mistyped freckles every time i typed it.

I think I'll use capitols where appropriate now.

We had a few extra kids for a few days last week. It was good times. I did the switcharoo with Rhonda. There's some good birth control for ya. I forgot what it was like to have crying kids in the night for extended periods of time.

I thought this picture was funny. These gals are less than week apart in age. What a pair!

These guys spent a lot of time together over the last bit, and they did really good.

You have to be laughing now. If you aren't look at James again, now you're laughing right?!

And this little guy did his best to keep up with it all, and I did my best to keep up to him!

The weather has been exceptional for the last few days, especially compared to last week. I think it was 24 today. I feel so great. All the rules seem to go out the window in the beginning of nice weather because you know it's gonna get windy or rain or most likely snow soon. So you have to let the kids run barefoot to the neighbors, ride their bikes until 8:30 at night, eat picnics everyday, go to the park 17 times, and get their clothes absolutely filthy along the way. People that don't have 8 month long winters don't get it. And if teachers got paid better in Arizona (or Kentucky!), I would be there.

I swear stress leaves my life when it's like this. (I would be a new woman if I lived in California I swear.) And I know why. I cut corners on the cleaning, and cooking because I'm not in the house as much. Do you know how to do this? It's the best thing to do. I'm not sure if I can share my cleaning secrets here just yet because my mom is out of town and I'm doing all the cleaning (which I always do, right momma?) and she reads this and it might be better if she never knows the way a Baldry house is run. Trust me, I'm no Martha, and I don't want to be. And my crap-out cooking isn't that good, but it's still food, so I do it, but it's not worth sharing.

I hate it when people bring up that they have a secret and then they don't tell you. I just did that.

Ok I give, one thing that never ends is laundry and my secret of the day is I don't fold my undies. There, I said it. It's a huge time saver. Doesn't look pretty in there, but who looks in your undies drawer, NO ONE. So no one will ever know.

how does this happen?

I went from this ...

to this.

(everybody was snowed in and stuck this morning and since I live only a couple blocks from the hospital I had to go in for a little while this morning while people dug themselves out. no blow dryer so no shower + no light so no makeup + working until 11 the 2 nights before + getting home from mexico at 2 in the morning before THAT = me looking like this in the snow. i don't know what derek's excuse is, hehe)

and the week before i was happy to even just enjoy this 3 child workout.

or see the grass

or play outside without the winter gear!

What a day today was. I was at work last night pushing a patient on a stretcher cruisin around the corner when all of sudden lights out and BANG my elbow into the corner or the door. They were only out for about 30 seconds and then generator kicked in, but we almost crashed through the wall with that guy and I practically had a heart attack. That was just before 11 o'clock last night. Long dark, cold, house story short the power came back on about 2 or 3 this afternoon. So there was no school, but we didn't really do anything. Weird day.

I'm just trying to focus on the ridicuolously great time we had in mexico last week! We just got back late Sunday. It was hot and sunny every day. I sat on the beach or by the pool every day, jogged on the beach, read 4 books, did yoga by the waves, bartered for some mexican 'goods,' did everything uninterrupted by anyone and ate myself to an extra 5 or so pounds. Worth every one. You feel like you really have to eat a lot when you go all inclusive when you don't get in on any of the alcohol. So I did.

Here's a picture or 2. We didn't take many pictures mostly because beach = me in a swimsuit which therefore = no thanks, put that evidence away.

Oh Derek, splashing in the waves.

And a big thank you to my mom and sil Rhonda and sil Sarabeth who passed around my kids and took great care of them while I was away. I have 2 of Rhonda's kids for the rest of the week right now and I hear one of them giggling with one of mine right now! Should be fun!

Before we left we had a fun Easter weekend with the familia. My sister Brooke had her 3 week old baby Gavin here and we are all pretty much in love. My kids were fighting over who's turn it was to hold him and were in his face all the time. Gavin was pretty good about it all. And don't even say it...I know my baby is turning 3 next month, but don't even say it!

Just look at the lips on that baby! love 'em!

My sister Sue who apparently has a 9 month baby belly somewhere in there.

Now excuse me while I go and lather up my dry skin and brush out my dead dry hair and watch my tan fade away and dream of the wonders the humidity did on my hair and skin.