Unrelated but still totally cute pictures

I am behind. I have so many pictures I want to put up, and so much stuff I want to say... Not that I think you, dear readers, NEED to see/know all this, but it's for us... We're making those Blurb blog books now. We've done 2006 already, and the book was average-sized. The thing is, Nuala and Bran were born in December 2006, so most of that entire year is rather lacking on the picture front. Well, compared to the years that follow, anyway... wow. And I thought we took a lot of cat pictures! (We did, I just didn't blog about them constantly, just occasionally. But I should have. They were awesome.) Point is: our books post-children are going to be HUGE. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly... hmmm... short on words. In real life I'm not this chatty, not usually. Get me in front of a keyboard, though, and you'll know more than you want to. Well, I delete a lot (be thankful). And I put up a ton of pictures. I'm aware of that. I've accepted that fact and will just move on. Anyway, some random pictures from the recent past... (see? proof of my longwindedness...)

Nuala goes to a little ballet class every Friday at a friend's house. Maeve is the proud owner of a darling little tutu, thanks to our cute friend, Naia, who passed it on down. Here are The Ballerinas. Bran grudgingly approves of ballet, as it is the means whereby he gets to go to the friend's house every Friday and play with her twin brother and the other ballerinas' brothers. And I get to chat with other moms! Win-win-win!

This was just fun. N&B decided to build a submarine, and this was the beginning stage. It's sooooo nice when they play cooperatively! So nice. When they don't...aaaaarrrrghhhhhh.... please just prick my kidneys with a hundred tiny little mouse-sized forks. That would not be as painfully annoying as the repetitive whine that comes droning out of their cute little mouths lately when things don't go their way... But yes. They are adorable and I love them.

Baby in a pot. Yummmm. Though this one looks a little tough... (haha! But she does, doesn't she?)

It's sooooo exhausting being a beautiful ballerina. So exhausting.

And a warrior. They don't nap anymore, except for when they do. Occasionally they'll fall asleep during the day, a practice which I greatly discourage because I love my quiet evening time. And a 30-minute nap invariably translates to at least an hour of in-and-out-of-the-bedroom-for-absolutely-made-up-reasons at bedtime. Can I also admit to taking a wee bit of pleasure in waking them from their naps? Sure, they're grumpy and sweaty and try to thrash away from me, but I always sympathetically tell them, while tickling them in a totally not annoying way AT ALL: "I know, it's so hard to wake up... this is how Mommy feels when YOU wake ME up when I'm sleeping... I'm sorry, I KNOW it's sooo hard..."

Like I said, so nice when they play together! It's really fun seeing what they come up with together... what game they play and the scenarios they invent. Maeve LOVES joining in with whatever they're doing. I'm convinced she thinks she's four, too, that one. A really shrimpy four-year old. Oh, my Small One... stay small!

Small and loyal! She's always trying to bust her older bro and sis out of time out. Either that or it sounds like such fun, what with all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, that she wants to join whichever little hooligan is in there at the moment.

Bran dressed Maeve up in his little hat and scarf that Sister Tanya at church knitted for him. He's such a great big brother. He's a little rough sometimes, but Maeve's a tough little thang and can handle it. But he just really does adore her. He calls her "cutie" in a sweet little voice all the time, and it always makes me grin. She's a lucky little lass, that one.

Bran's helmet that he and I made out of cereal boxes. He was really involved, actually. This guy's got a good eye for building things... like his Daddy!

Nuala and her dolly, wearing matching dresses that Granny sent. This doll is rather consistently named "Belinda". And Nuala's convinced she invented that name. At 4 years old, I'm sure she hasn't encountered many "Belindas," so her claim is valid, in a sense... ;)

The awesome hair-do's I come home to when I leave the girls with Ani and take Bran to his speech class. It's like she has several little geysers spouting off all over her head. She also reminds me of a little firecracker. (In more ways than one, haha...)

And this is one of MY awesome hair-do's. Courtesy of Nuala, not Ani.

Rascal of Rascals! Maeve got tired of relying on bigger people to let her in and out the back door and decided to just bust her way through.

She was none too pleased when her personal escape route was fixed. It's a tough life.

Happy ***th birthday to my dear ol' Dad! Love you! (Wait, is that too many asterisks? I lose track... ;)