These are the best days of my life....

Those are the words I hear so often from my mother and other older people when talking about raising little ones. I shop on Tuesday mornings while the girls are at piano. It seems that there are always a lot of elderly people at Wal-Mart in the mornings. Every week at least one person will stop to look at the baby, and without fail I hear words like, "Enjoy it, they grow up so fast." Having two teenagers in the house I have at least a little glimpse of how fast it does go by. I do cherish the time I have with my children. But lets face it, it is exhausting some days! Here is a sample of some of Malachi's recent "art work"

This lovely piece done on the side of my refrigerator was done with a black Sharpie. Any ideas how I might could get it out? We have tried Windex, Grease Lightening, Clorox, Magic Erasers, and hairspray. Believe it or not, the only thing that even lightened it at all was the hairspray!

Then there was dinner the other night. He decided he would like a little pepper on his spaghetti!

Not sure why he is under the table. I think it had something to do with him getting into his big sister's pan of sweet rolls that she had just made.
We recently went to see a family that travels all over the country and sings. One of the songs that the mom sang was about cherishing the time with your children because they won't always be here. I needed to hear it, because that particular day had been a bad one. That morning I was changing the baby's diaper and he tee teed on me, Mariah was calling me to help her with her math lesson and Malachi was screaming from the bathroom to come wipe him. As I stood there with baby pee on my sweat shirt I thought to myself-- this is NOT a glamorous job! But thankfully those moments aren't all the time. There are so many precious moments that I would miss if I weren't here with them. Like hearing Mariah say to the baby, "You just think you are an old bag of chips!" (She has heard the saying, "He thinks he is all that and a bag of chips too.") Or the day that Malachi pulled on the binding of our couch (that already looks horrible!) and I heard Mariah say, "NO Bubbie! You are tearing up mama's memory!" Or when I was scolding Malachi for making a mess with the soap and he said, "Daddy said don't be means to me and no louding at me."

Or being there to see Myles's first "roll".
Or seeing Malachi give the baby a kiss and say, "Oh, my sweet baby."

Yes, even with all of the exhaustion (and art work all over my house)....... it is worth it! :>)