The Latta Family

It's becoming clear to me that Andrew and I should not be left alone together.  We're NOT good influences on each other.  Eating out and lounging around are becoming an everyday event.  It takes nothing for one of us to convince the other for a lunch or breakfast out, or a stop at the QT for a fountain drink.  Just as it takes nothing for him to convince me that I shouldn't vaccuum, clean the bathrooms, or emtpy the dishwasher right now.  We both have a natural tendency towards laziness.  If Doug or Alexa are not around to organize and direct us (aka: dictate the plans), Andrew and I don't really do much of anything.  Currently I am using the fact that he practices baseball for at least 2 to 2.5 hours an evening, or plays 1 or 2 games a day, 7 days a week as my excuse for why he can lay around all afternoon (and so he's not lonely, I join him.  That's what a good mom I am.), but baseball will be over in a week.  What will my excuse be ...

Poor Doug. You gotta feel sorry for him sometimes. This past week he and his co-teacher took 8 students to Raleigh for the state FFA Convention. The weekend before he left, we lived on the baseball field since Andrew's team was playing in a tournament and since there is no rest for the weary, we practiced Monday night. Doug and Andrew got home at 9:30pm and then Doug packed in a flurry to leave for the Convention at 7am the following morning. In all of the flurry, he forgot his Facebook account and didn't sign out on the iPad... There I am on Wednesday, happily pinning many a pretty picture to my Pinterest boards when I realized, "What's this? Did my handsome husband leave his facebook account unattended?!" I decided I would leave a little post about how awesome his wife is that goes like this: "My wife ROCKS!! Not only is she smoking HOT, but she takes super good care of me! I am one lucky dude!!" then, like the dork I am, I giggled like crazy think...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "Privacy is hard to come by in this house."  Is it because it's a small house?  Is it because we're a family of 4?  Is it because we don't have a lot of inhibitions?  Well that last one is definitely not it.  We're all trying to get privacy, but Alexa doesn't abide by the common rules of privacy.  She barges in the bathroom on me, as if I've forgotten her (I have not.)  Andrew has recently started desiring more privacy.  I believe it started as a way to escape his loud, temperamental sister. Then he realized, "Huh, it's sort of nice to be in my room with my door shut and no one nagging me, or making me stop doing something fun" or "Huh, Mom was right- it is better to use the bathroom with the door shut."  Privacy in the bathroom is almost as hard for Andrew to come by, as it is for me.  Alexa frequently busts in on him.  (I have 2 feelings on that: dread for the confusion o...

Here are some rather shocking pictures of Andrew.  Or, maybe it's just shocking to me.  Somehow he turned 7 today.  How?  I don't know.  I blinked when I was holding him and feeding him a bottle, and now he's laughing at burps, farts, and when he hears the word booby.  He's not pudgy and soft.  He's boney, and scrawny.  He's not a baby, he's a kid.  He doesn't laugh when I do peek-a-boo.  He gets embarrased when I sing along to music played in stores.  He requests bands, Doug and I have never listened to in our life, ("Mom, do you have any One Direction?").  He has friends that aren't me.  He knows what to do when the ball is hit to him on the baseball field- and he can usually do it.  He's reading me chapter books and I'm not reading him picture books.   I like that he's growing up, but I hate it at the same time.  Last night before I went to bed, I kissed him for the last time as a 6 ye...

My mother is taking a writing class, and called me last week and needed skin pictures of Andrew and Alexa for a writing project.  So . . . I took them.  I thought again, "My mother is so unusual sometimes."  Except that after I took them, I realized . . . I simply love the pictures of Alexa's skin.  No wonder she had me do this!  Her skin is sweet, and baby-ish, and Lord knows, I don't have much more time of her skin like this.  This is one of my favorite spots to kiss on.   Won't lie- I still chomp on her thighs sometimes.  Just cause their so chomp-able  Look at this sweet hand!  And so after all that sweet, soft skin here are the knobbiest, skinniest, boniest legs!

So, Andrew's birthday is next week (he'll be 7 years old.  How did this happen?  When did this happen?!  He's a kid- not a little kid, not a cute kindergartner, not even an almost cute 1st grader.  He has thoughtful opinions, and can carry on a discussion.  When did I get a kid in my house?  Aacck, I will stop.  I am emotional about this birthday.), so we're having his birthday party on tomorrow night.  We're doing a "Mock Camp Out."  I say "mock" because the boys are not actually spending the night.  I'm honest enough to say- I don't know that I could deal with boys sleeping in my backyard, mostly because I have NO intention of sleeping out in a tent with a bunch of 7 year old boys (and I know that they'd either end up in my house- or I'd end up out there.)  My parents decided that Andrew needed a tent for his birthday, since my idea to make one out of sheets was lame (it was a lame idea- but I wasn't sure I wanted to fi...