It's New Year's Eve, You Know What That Means

It's business time...


this video has been around for ages and I laugh about it all the time. Especially whenever Matt or I have to a business meeting. We always walk out of the house singing, "It's business...it's business time!"

Christmas Pictures

Since it has been so chaotic here for Christmas, I thought that I would pretty much just post pictures from our week here in Georgia.

We have had a blast. A new activity every day.
Riverquarium, Chehaw Park, Turtle Hill beach, walks, playgrounds, arts and crafts, plenty of laughter AND tears. It has been something!

Jesus Loves Me This I Know...

For the Weather Channel tells me so...
here in Albany, GA it was 80 degrees on Christmas Day.

Were your kids donning their birthday suits to celebrate little Baby Jesus' Birthday?


Cause mine were. So were my sisters.
It was hilarious.

At this Rate, She's Getting Nothing For Christmas

Forget what they say about terrible two's, Lucy is quite the delightful child.

She has decided that she wants to be potty trained. All on her own. And she has had only one accident in the last two weeks! Unbelievable!

We are loving it.
She even "helps" clean up her little Baby Bjorn potty by dumping it in the big potty and flushing. Isn't that sweet?

That's has led her to LOVING to flush the big potty.

Well, over the weekend we noticed a considerable slowing in the power of the water flow in the big potty. We plunged and plunged and it made no difference.

So this morning, I was in the middle of the potty time and I asked Asher is he saw anything other than "potty" things end up in the potty. What did he tell me?

A duck. A rubber duck.

So, I had to go call a plumber and have them come out to the house and work that snake over for about 30 minutes. By the time he had cleared the obstruction, this man was sweating. Sweating like crazy.

But, you know...once you have a plumber in your house; you just go ahead and have him fix up other things. The temperature control in our showers are pretty jacked up and make me frustrated a daily basis, so I had him fix them.

It is bliss to have them corrected. So, thank goodness Lucy went ahead and flush that dadgum ducky down the toilet. I got to have my shower fixed!

It's Ain't Christmas If You Ain't Bruised

Last night, I was heading home from a smooze-fest for work and I got a call from Matt that went something like this,

"Hey Les! I was just putting Asher in the car and holding Lucy's arm and she fell to the ground howling in pain!!!"

I hear Lucy screeching in the background.

"Now, she just keeps saying, 'My elbow, my elbow.' and not moving her arm at all!"

Yikes!

I have Matt call our doctor, head to the ER and I meet him there. I walk in, see Lucy sitting stiff as a board on Matt's lap and she starts crying hysterically as soon as she sees me.

I take her in my arms and hold her because well, there are REALLY sick people in the ER.

Thankfully, the doctors and nurses know that as well and we are taken back VERY quickly where our doctor pretends he is just going to take a look at it, while our daughter is screaming bloody murder and he "pops" it right back into place.

That's it. About 30 seconds later, Lucy is off of the table and chasing Asher around the exam room. Of course, Asher then climbs onto the "rolly chair" and rolls it into the metal "rolly table" and all three of them "roll" into the "stable" wall and make a noise that sounds like Matt picked up both kids and threw them into the wall in a rage that might mimic Rocky Balboa. A nice nurse came into the room to check and make sure that no one was getting hurt.

We made sure to look like the nice, responsible, Volvo driving family that we are before smacking the kids into shape and kicking them down the hallway to get into the car to drive home.

Cause there's no place like Home for the Holidays.

For Sale By Owner

This was just sent to me by a friend. It is a for sale by owner ad on Craigslist in Montana for an XTerra. Read and be amazed:

NINJA HAULER: 2005 Nissan Xterra - $12900 (Ronan / Lake County)

Reply to: sale-941704797@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-12-02, 7:25AM MST

OK, let me start off by saying this Xterra is only available for purchase by the manliest of men (or women). My friend, if it was possible for a vehicle to sprout chest hair and a five o'clock shadow, this Nissan would look like Tom Selleck. It is just that manly.

It was never intended to drive to the mall so you can pick up that adorable shirt at Abercrombie & Fitch that you had your eye on. It wasn't meant to transport you to yoga class or Linens & Things. No, that's what your Prius is for. If that's the kind of car you're looking for, then just do us all a favor and stop reading right now. I mean it. Just stop.


This car was engineered by 3rd degree ninja super-warriors in the highest mountains of Japan to serve the needs of the man that cheats death on a daily basis. They didn't even consider superfluous nancy boy amenities like navigation systems (real men don't get lost), heated leather seats (a real man doesn't let anything warm his butt), or On Star (real men don't even know what the hell On Star is).

No, this brute comes with the things us testosterone-fueled super action junkies need. It has a 265 HP engine to outrun the cops. It's got special blood/gore resistant upholstery. It even has a first-aid kit in the back. You know what the first aid kit has in it? A pint of whiskey, a stitch-your-own-wound kit and a hunk of leather to bite down on when you're operating on yourself. The Xterra also has an automatic transmission so if you're being chased by Libyan terrorists, you'll still be able to shoot your machine gun out the window and drive at the same time. It's saved my bacon more than once.

It has room for you and the four hotties you picked up on the way to the gym to blast your pecs and hammer your glutes. There's a tow hitch to pull your 50 caliber anti-Taliban, self cooling machine gun. I also just put in a new windshield to replace the one that got shot out by The Man. My price on this bad boy is an incredibly low $12,900, but I'll entertain reasonable offers. And by reasonable, I mean don't walk up and tell me you'll give me $5,000 for it. That's liable to earn you a Burmese-roundhouse-sphincter-kick with a follow up three fingered eye-jab. Would it hurt? Hell yeah. Let's just say you won't be the prettiest guy at the Coldplay concert anymore.

There's only 69,000 miles on this four-wheeled hellcat from Planet Kickass. Trust me, it will outlive you and the offspring that will carry your name. It will live on as a monument to your machismo.
Now, go look in the mirror and tell me what you see. If it's a rugged, no holds barred, super brute he-man macho Chuck Norris stunt double, then contact me. I might be out hang-gliding or BASE jumping or just chilling with my ladies, but I'll get back to you. And when I do, we'll talk about a price over a nice glass of Schmidt while we listen to Johnny Cash.

To sweeten the deal a little, I'm throwing in this pair of MC Hammer pants for the man with rippling quads that can't fit into regular pants. Yeah, you heard me. FREE MC Hammer pants.

Rock on.


depoconnor@gmail.com

Last One I Promise

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

More Christmas Good Times, but even better

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Just so all of you know, this officially means that I have too much time on my hands!

And for those of you who don't know who the mystery 5th person is in the video, that is Ben! He has lived with us for about a year and half now and is definitely part of the family, so he gets to be in the "bideo" as Asher calls it.

It's Official, Christmas is Here

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Senior Hip Hop Choir

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin with this. But just watch, watch ALL OF IT. It is worth every youtube second.

It's A Duel Bag

A Video that is worth watching over and over again while you are in the Christmas shopping season!

Heavenly Thanksgiving

We had a heavenly Thanksgiving weekend thanks to our kids being really amazing, an incredible feast with family in Columbia, a road trip to Orlando, three days in 80 degree weather and a magical night at Disney World.

I have plenty of thoughts to come on all of that (to come soon!) but I have been editing a little snippet for you to get a snapshot of our weekend. Enjoy!

In Case You Didn't Make It to Church Today

These videos were made by a church in Raleigh, NC in 2003 to help shed light on how silly it would sound if Jesus actually treated people the way we act like he did!

I know a lot of people have put these out there and I have seen then a number of times over the years, I just wanted to share this morning!

Delayed Obedience

I just read this incredible article about professional soccer player Chase Hilenbrink (from Clemson) who left pro soccer to pursue being a Catholic priest. This article speaks of the incredible fortitude it takes and the risks that people will take on in order to follow the call of God even if it makes NO sense to those around them.
He sited a quote that said, "Delayed obedience is the same as disobedience."
Intrigued?
Take a look: Washington Post

I'm Poco

Asher has a new favorite game of his, which is playing "Program".

For those of you that don't know, Program is what Matt does in the summer at YL camp. In our new house, there is a sliding glass door in the play loft area that turns into a big mirror at night time.

So Asher sets up his microphone EVERY NIGHT and for hours plays program and he even made up a character! He calls himself "Poco" and he is always looking for people to play games, do something silly or he is making up a dance. He is getting a bit embarrassed and not letting me get a good video of this, but here is the best video I have shot to date:

Lucy's Birthday

Here we are two years into having a little girl named Lucy.
I love her so much, it hurts. I mean she kills me with how funny she is, how sassy she is and how all-together different from her brother she is.
She is amazing and she doesn't get quite the same billing as Asher, but believe me...she has every bit as much personality as her older brother and maybe more. Here she is playing to the crowd because we laughed one time when she said, "Oh my goodness."

For her birthday, we got her a trunk of dress-up clothes that she was smitten with and had to put it all on immediately.

This is her looking at herself in the mirror. Notice Asher crying in the background?

He wanted to play with her dress-up clothes too. 

The Wiggles

It is Lucy's birthday week so most of the posts will be about her for the time being.

Matt's parents being the loving grandparents that they are bought tickets for our family and them to go see the Wiggles on Saturday for Lucy's birthday. Gammy pulled some strings and we ended up with NINTH row tickets to see my kids favorite television personalities!

I dressed the kids in their Halloween costumes (since we went as the Wiggles). Matt and I declined to take part in the dressing up part :). When we got inside, the kids tore into the programs that included Wiggles stickers and put them all over everyone and everything around them.


It was unbelievable.
I would be lying if I didn't admit that I teared up a bit when the Big Red Car came out on stage. My kids were mesmerized the whole time. These guys definitely know how to put on a show! Murray read EVERY SINGLE sign that kids made in the crowd and they came down into our section and said hi to all of the kids. Each Wiggle took their time with the special needs kids around us (it made me love them a little more that they did that).




As the concert was ending, Matt and I grabbed the kids and rushed towards the stage. Asher and Lucy both got to give Jeff a high-five. They have been talking about it ever since!




Truthfully, I think that I was as excited if not more than my kids. I have logged some serious hours with the Wiggles in the last three years and this was definitely a highlight!

If Salt Loses Its Flavor...

I am still battling the migraines this week and I came to bed the other night and saw that SALT was all over my night stand, my side of the bed, in the carpet and on top of my freshly laundered clothes.

Matt was already in bed and I kind of freaked out on him, demanding to know what this was? He snapped to attention and then told me that while I was making dinner, he saw Lucy grab the salt shaker and being to chase the cat, "Paisley" all throughout our room shaking salt on the cat and laughing her head off.

Of course, none of the salt made it onto Matt's side of the bed. Just mine. Oh, and he never did stop her. She just got tired of the game and put the salt back where it belonged. I; on the other hand, spent twenty minutes making sweet love to the dustbuster so that I could go to bed without feeling like I was at the beach.

Sorry

I just signed into my blog and saw that I had five comments to be published! They got sent to my old email account! I had no idea that kind of love was waiting for me!

Breakthrough

I feel like I am apologizing for my lack of blogging a lot right now.

But the truth is that I have been battling a brutal migraine for three days now and at one point I was vomiting from the pain. So I think that I get a "bye" this week. All I have to say is thank goodness for Zomig!

Things are going well with the new house. My kids LOVE living here and that makes me love it more and more. The only problem? Slappy. There is no fencing in the yard and since we now live in a neighborhood, we are trying to respect our neighbors and not let her just roam the streets. So I bought a wireless fencing system that sends a little shock to her when she is nearing the boundary. We are in the middle of the training and I thought it was going well.

But now I am aware that she is freaked about going outside because of the shocking and pooped in the house four times today. FANTASTIC.

And I don't love shocking my dog. Stay tuned to see how this one gets resolved.

I just finished watching a few episodes of My So Called Life and I am still sad that this show was taken off the air when I was 16 years old. Here's a clip in case you are interested:


Seriously awkward.

Pictures PICTURES Pictures!!!

I haven't updated with pictures in quite awhile so first:

We went as The Wiggles for Halloween this year. Can you say "easiest costume in the world" with me?


I went to visit my sister in New Jersey for four days without the kids. I slept in the most luxurious "temperpedic" bed with royal sheets. I felt like a princess every night when I went to sleep and I took my sweet time getting up every morning. It was bliss to travel without kids and to get to play with my niece and nephew (whom I love dearly and hardly get to see!)






We got to go see "A Tale of Two Cities" on Broadway and visited Ikea TWICE in two days! It was great fun!


Then I came home to see that hardwood floors were being installed at our house and so I can now post some pictures from the new house!








As our new homeowner gift to ourselves, we bought a new backpack leaf blower because we had to load 35 bags of leaves this weekend. For just the front yard.. Fantastic.

Pictures soon to come

I hate to post pictures of our new house before everything looks "HGTV" ready. That won't ever happen, but I am going to wait a few more days until we get a bit more furniture and maybe EVEN paint on the walls.

For some reason, I just can't make myself feel passionate about paint colors or painting. The whole house is white and that is fine with me for now.

I just saw this slideshow on the NY Times and it is about where my mom and dad live and how the election results effect them. Take a look, it is pretty moving.

NY TIMES

I know it seems weird, but there are real people that are REALLY hurting for a change in America. Perhaps this isn't the worst of times?

Closing Was Terrible

We jut went through an ordeal yesterday that I can't really get into. But we had a to do a "dry closing" and hope that we get paid for our house on Monday and then we can buy Sandy's house. All the papers are signed, just waiting on the money now.

I am exhausted.
But I am also in New Jersey! I planned to visit my sister for her birthday about two months ago and so I escaped the insane asylum for someone else's insane asylum in New Jersey! It is so fun to be here and have no distractions and just get to love on my sister for a few days.

I landed in Newark at 11:40 and was in the Newark Ikea at noon. Is life great or what???

Don't Even Get Me Started

Today we are moving!

It might come as a surprise to some of you, but I have not been posting about all of this because well...it has been a pretty insane process to sell our current house and buy the next house. I will break it down for you here:

Last year, we switch high schools for Young Life from the school where we were leaders for six years to a high school that has really strong Young Life. All of their leaders departed for grown-updom and there was nobody to head up the ministry. Matt and I knew that the Lord was calling us to this high school and so we started the long process of getting our hearts AND house ready to sell.

Early in the spring, we were approached by my sister-in-law's (Buffy) mother-in-law (Got THAT?) who lives in Asheville near the area we were looking to buy; and she expressed an interest to move near to her son and Buffy. Would we be interested in buying her house? She named a price and well...we were VERY INTERESTED.

But we knew that some crazy stuff was going to have to happen. Such as, sell our house AND her have a new job that started simultaneously with our closing date. But we knew that God had called us to this new part of town and this was not beyond his abilities to orchestrate.

We all agreed to try to make this happen, however bizarre it might seem.

So we listed our house and had a lot of traffic over the summer and even came under contract albeit briefly.

Right after our first club, I totally lost heart with this process. I was overwhelmed with high school kids I didn't know, the ones that I did know and the ones that want me to know them better. I just wanted very badly for us to get to move down near them because it is so much harder to have relationships when you don't shop, live etc. all in the same neighborhood as them. It is really a Jesus philosophy because he came to US and moved into the neighborhood of Jerusalem in order to speak directly to those he loved. We want to do the same thing and thought that it was never going to happen.

Mostly, I lost heart because the news that mortgage market was tightening up and nobody was getting loans. I saw the writing on the wall that would mean nobody would buy our house.

The very next day we had a second showing on our house and on the very day that the market plunged 700 points-we had a contract on our house! It was unbelievable! People are amazed that we were able to sell our house in this market, IN THIS MONTH. The worst financial month in history. Oh, and we needed to close in 21 days.

We have had no problems qualifying for our mortgage which is incredible too.

The biggest "X" factor was that seller also needed to get a job this month too. Not so easy. As soon as we told her that we had a contract, she freaked out. But a few days later approached her boss and told them the situation. They decided that it would be best for all parties if she continued her job via telecommuting. So she could go ahead, move to Florida AND be able to BUY a house since she still has her steady employment.

Seriously y'all? I can't make this stuff up.
So we are moving into her house this afternoon and tomorrow. Matt's mom and sister have graciously taken the kids off of our hands since Sunday so that we can make the move happen without them underfoot. And to tell the truth, that has made this seem like a vacation rather than the most stressful week of the Fall.

How 'bout them apples?
I will post pictures of the new house as we get settled. Stay tuned!

Young Life Leading

I have officially been involved with Young Life for 12 years this Fall. Which is crazy.

Last year Matt, me and two other leaders started doing YL at a school that was new to us, but not new to YL. With not a single leader returning to the team, we were surprised by 80 kids showing up at the first club.
We spent the whole year just trying to make our way at the school and somehow handle the ministry that was literally handed to us by so many other people's blood, sweat, tears and prayers. I am not gonna lie, it was really fun to have a lot of "ready made" relationships and be able to go deep quickly with a group of senior girls.

This year looks a bit different. For one, all of "my" seniors graduated and are off at college. For another, the other girl leaders on the team are not back. So its me. ME with a whole slew of girls. For those of you who need an idea of what a slew looks like, think in the range of knowing over 200 girls at the school, an assortment of about 50 of those 200 come to club, 12-15 come to campaigners and just today, three asked me if I could spend some time with them one on one.

I am not saying any of this in a prideful way because, well...I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of this school and many other people have poured into these girls for them to even be WILLING to say hi to me, much less GET the idea that I would love to hang out with them.

And of course, I would love to hang out with them. But I feel overwhelmed at how to do all of these things. Plus, these girls are not exactly worried about if someone else says something bad about them to the cheerleaders. My 12-15 are pretty much the party girls, the crazy girls, the ones that no youth leader would feel excited about in their right mind; cause they are prettty much the definition of TROUBLE. But I am so fired up. And freaked out because I can't really give to them the way that I want to.


In truth, I feel like the story of the widow from the Bible who gave a mite to the Temple fund and Jesus said she was more blessed than people who could give more money. All because she gave more than she could have or should have. I should not be in these girls lives with how little time I have to offer. But somehow, it keeps happening! And it is blowing up. It is incredible and I am so excited about these girls and getting to be real friends with them and to be a person that they can trust. It is such a privilege.

And come next Thursday, we will live less than five and half miles from the high school. Can you believe that it is really going to happen? I can't wait to invite girls to just come over after school and take a walk with me and the kids. I can't wait to invite them into my life, while trying to love them in the middle of theirs.

Just a little bit of the crazzy

At Matt's Grandmother's house, there was a picture that one of the cousin's drew that had a headline that read, "Slap Me, I'm CRAZZZZY!" Which is exactly how I feel at the moment.

Our house officially is under contract. The appraisal and inspection have gone through fine. We have a "domino closing" set for Friday, October 31st.

The house we are buying in South Asheville is truly from the Lord, but turning this whole thing around in the next 10 days is insane.

I have packed about 15 boxes and I have not even scratched the surface. And I feel like I have very little in the way of "clutter" as compared to most people I know. So, how do normal people move? I don't know, we are going to make it happen but not before we have a committee meeting, two YL clubs, work every day, two college life meetings, two soccer games, Matt is speaking next weekend at Windy Gap and as soon as we move into the house; I am leaving for a four-day trip to New Jersey to see my sister.

Fantastic. Why wouldn't I sit around for the evening watching the new Real Simple show on TLC, followed by a two-hour game of Settlers of Catan? It's not like I have anything to DO.

Things that go bump in the middle of the night

Last night at 1am Matt woke me up from a dead sleep saying "Leslie get up! Come see this bear."
He is standing at the window in our room peeking out through the blinds in only his boxers. I can only see him thanks to the glow of Conan O'brian.
I roll out of bed and watch as a seven to eight foot-tall bear saunters up our driveway. It is ENORMOUS. It walks into the darkness out of reach of our motion detecting light and stands up to knock over our garbage can with the slight flick of its paw. Yeah, it was frightening.

Matt yelled at it in his deepest voice; which was full of MENACE and TESTOSTERONE "Get outta here BEAR."

The bear, frightened by the manliness exhibited by my husbands voice, calmly snaked a bag of trash and walked into the woods to devour a bag full of poopy diapers and banana peels.

Matt then went into the basement, found his pellet gun and went onto the back porch and proceeded to shoot pellets at the bear.
The bear left a short time after that, but Matt was so pumped on the adrenaline of the experience that he was awake until 3am.

Fantastic.

Good News

We have a contract on our house!
The inspection has been scheduled for Friday morning, we just have to get through that AND get approved for our mortgage and everything will be set to close on October 31st. That is only 25 days away. NUTS!!!!

Mortgage Woes

So the Dow is down even more than last Monday and guess what we are doing? Submitting our final paperwork for our next mortgage.

GAG.

Our timing is impeccable.

We received an offer this morning that was very low, we have countered and are waiting to hear back. It's a tough game to play.

To My Gal

I left the hospital a little while ago and I wanted to share with you all the most precious Ruby you have ever seen!

Congrats to Robin and Zack! Now the hard work begins...

Can I just say?

It has been a long time since my legs have looked like this?

And that it has been a lot of fun AND humbling to go back on the field? I feel like I can't hit the side of a barn much less the back of a goal!

But the best part is reconnecting with Lexi! Our lockers were next to each other throughout college and we spent A LOT of time complaining and grumbling about the day ahead at practice or what we just put our bodies through. It has been great to play together again, but on a team that is having fun instead of torturing ourselves for the sake of...well, I have no idea now. But those are days gone by!

Might I add that the South Carolina women's soccer team is killing it these days? I am fired up about my alma mater! Go Cocks!

Yep, I said it.

One of the Best Weekends

We are heading into another work week, but can I say that I think we had one of the greatest weekends we have had as a family.
Our kids rocked. They slept, they played, they stayed up late. It was good times.

Friday night
We went to the North Buncombe/TCR Football game. And my kids charmed the entire color guard until we became friends. Seriously. I hit it off with an ENTIRE PACK of high school girls thanks to my kids. Who says you can't do Young Life as a grown-up? Not me. It was awesome.
We lost the game, but headed home and the kids went right to bed thanks to it being nearly 10 and they were FREEZING at the game. I have to go buy Lucy a hoodie-SOON.

Also, Robin Plemmons water broke in the middle of the night on Friday! YAY baby Ruby on Saturday!

Saturday

Sky Top Apple Orchard. If you live in the area and haven't visited this orchard in Flat Rock, then you don't know what you are missing. It is good clean, CHEAP family fun. We packed a picnic and met the Knauers and the Goforths at the Orchard.
We all played on the playground, picked AMAZINGLY good apples right from the trees.


Fed the chickens, sheep and goats. Walked through the "Bamboo Forest" and took a tractor ride. We followed that up with fresh made doughnuts, went home and took a three hour nap.



That was me. The kids slept for two hours. God bless Matt Sloan and a white noise machine for giving me the gift of a long nap.
The entire day, I was trying to get updates on Robin. But nothing was happening. Ruby just wants us to wait.
We ate pizza and took a family walk. The kids played and we had a great evening around the house. They went to bed and we just watched college football and enjoyed life around the house. It was the second weekend since July that we have had at home and it felt amazing to just sit here.

Sunday
Church and it was awesome. Best service we have experienced thus far. Anxious about Robin the whole time. After church, I had enough. I got dressed for my soccer game and went to the hospital. I got to see Robin and Zack and they looked terrible. It had been 36 hours of labor and nothing was happening. They were talking about a c-section.
I left to go to my soccer game which we won. It has been so fun to play with my college teammate, Lexi. That was followed with a 2-year old birthday party for Bennett Knauer, then back to the hospital. Ruby was born soon after I got there!
YAY!
I knew it would be awhile before I could see Robin, so I decided to wait until tomorrow. Came home and got a call from our real estate agent that we will have an offer on the house tomorrow! WOO HOO! We might even have 2 offers since there are a few other people interested. We will have to wait and see tomorrow!

We also had a YL team meeting to plan for the rest of the semester and let's just say-I am excited to see what the Lord is going to do with us all this year.

Speaking of that, we are leaving for Sharp Top on Friday with over 100 kids from Buncombe County. Somehow, I don't have anyone to watch my kids for the weekend, so if anyone I know wants to take on this task...drop me a line!

Lucy Pace Sloan

Lucy has come into her own in the past few weeks and she has become the dearest thing to me. She makes me laugh and melt all day long.

She is also, apparently starving to death.

At her school, the teachers have been telling me that as soon as she is done eating lunch, she gets down and starts trolling for leftovers from her classmates. 

This week, they did a craft with gluing popcorn onto a copy of a lamb...who's child did not put a single piece of popcorn onto the sheet but instead in her mouth? Take a look:

We had our Weaverville Co-op this morning and I can safely say it was the most fun and easiest time we have had with all of the kids since before they were born. We took a walk and thankfully I had my camera with me. Adorable or what? And yes, Bennett Knauer wore a bike helmet backwards on his head the entire morning, even through a diaper change. 

That's impressive.

And Robin showed up with Ruby in her tummy still.

I love this town.