Quote of the Week

"Mama? I really love you. And I am not fond of snakes."

~Jared~

As Emily sees it

For those of you following my blog already, you know I've decided to start doing a blog topic a few times a month called "As Emily sees it", which will include pictures she's taken on her camera, and probably sometimes stories (in her own words) about the pictures. For those of you new to my blog, this is only the second installment, so you haven't missed much yet!



me: Emily, tell me about this picture.
Emily: That is a picture of Daddy handing the ball to Connor, and Connor was gonna hit it.
me: What do you like about the picture?
Emily: I like that Daddy looks like he's saying "Here's the baaaaaallllllll" (said in a sing-song voice)

Doors are NOT good friends to pinky fingers

Jared would agree with that statement (these were taken about five hours after the initial injury):




It's one FAT FAT FAT and BRUISED little finger, but he can bend it and doesn't complain about it, so we're convinced it's not broken. It was the ugliest thing you've seen in awhile (very flat, very very purple, all the fleshy pad twisted and squished off to one side), but it plumped back up, then swelled up, caused about 30 minutes of MAJOR DRAMA for Jared (understandably), and some serious emotional trauma for the mother, who was initially sure the finger was smashed into a zillion pieces. Thank goodness he'd had it parallel to the door instead of perpendicular. I'm convinced the end of this story would be FAR different.

J's a trooper. barely said one word about it hurting the next day. I'm pretty sure I'd have whined for several days about the pain had I shut my ENTIRE PINKY in a door and squished it flat. (oh, and to hear Jared tell it, Emily shut the door on his finger on purpose because she's REALLY MEAN, but Em says she was trying to shut the door so the other kid they were playing with wouldn't see where he was hiding for hide and seek and she didn't know his finger was there).

Just in case you were STILL wondering...

Sit, Stay, Roll over!


I personally like the added texture and aroma of a bit of baby poop smeared on my skirt...(don't you???)


Have a little chicken, baby...It's epescially good shoved up your nose!


Just a few more saliva dribbles and this bottle will be cooled right off...


PS Classy Chaos is hosting a little shoe give-away, and I'm not one for heels, but the shoes look adorable and she swears they're the most comfortable things ever!!!! Check it out!

Just in case you were wondering...

Say cheese!


Here fishy fishy fishy!


BUUURRRP! Another round, Mommy!


Mpfhh mphhffhm mfpphmhm (translates to, I can't breathe under here!)

At the top of the list

If I were to make a list of things I never expected to see, the following would be at the top of the list! I walked into Emily's room to check on her before I went to bed that weekend I mentioned it was HOT and MUGGY (and did I mention it was HOT and MUGGY?) and nearly jumped out of my skin when I nearly tripped on a big dark shape in the middle of her room. My eyes adjusted to the darkness right about that same time and I realized it was only Emily, and then CRACKED UP!


The first picture I took turned out all blurry, so I had to take a second one, and she's reacting to the flash in her sleep, so has a funny look on her face. And, YES, she is truly asleep! She barely moved a muscle when Dan lifted her back into her own bed. (notice she even got herself a cup of water sitting in the corner??) We asked her about why she was in there the next day and she replied that her bed was too hot, so she tried sleeping on the floor, but that was too hard, so she put a pillow in the laundry basket, got a small pillow for her head, and got a drink in case she got thirsty and went to sleep there. We estimate she must have been there for about three hours before we discovered her.

Some wedding pictures!

For the rehearsal and picnic, we had Emily, baby Grace, and Julie wear flower girl t-shirts. We tried to buy iron-on decals that said "flower girl" already, but all the craft stores were out of them, so I got creative and bought a flower decal and a "girls rule" decal and cut off the "s rule" and stuck the flower with the "girl" and TADA...flower girl shirts for all three girls


Here's Jared, the ladies man. He's sitting by some little girl he met just that day!


All the kids with Jessica on the wedding day


The little boys with Christopher (Em's camera doesn't' zoom without making things blurry and I couldn't get closer because then I would have been in the way of the professional photographer for this shot)


Tanner (Christopher's nephew), Emily, Jared, Julie (Jessica's cousin), and Connor


JUST as the ceremony was about to begin and people were finding their seats, it began to rain, so we quickly got everyone inside and set up for an INDOOR wedding (which meant no real aisle to walk down, unfortunately). Because I helped guide the little boys where to go (Jared and Tanner, age 4, and Connor, age 2) I don't have pictures of them making the journey with their little ring pillows, but the professional photographer does, and I will share them when I get my copies!! But I do have Emily and Julie just before they headed out the door into the big room


Emily captured the first dance


pretty tables (fish in the little bowls, with Hershey kisses and candles surrounding)


Here's the beachy-themed cake (the same lady that did their cake did my cake 8 years ago, and will probably do my brother's cake next June when he and Alisa get married)


Emily also captured part of the cake cutting (which I missed because Connor said he had to go potty; and I'll try not to be bitter that I also missed the entire ceremony because I had to leave with Connor who wouldn't be QUIET!)


Dan coaching Jared about the garter toss




Here's a certain little princess catching the bouquet!!




Jared propping his feet up after a long day!


Here's Emily before the ceremony (her hair looks all flat at this angle, but you can see in just about all the pictures that it wasn't! LOL)


Emily partway through the wedding dinner


notice anything different???

It was a great day, and Jessica and Christopher really seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was a bit of a long day for my little boys, but they did very well overall, and looked soooooooooo adorable in their little tuxes (and I'm still blown away by how grown up Miss Emily looked in her dress and fancy hair-do!). I think Jessica will have about 800 pictures of Connor because he drew quite an audience of amateur AND professional photographers (sorry Jess!). Jared kept to himself coloring at the table (or hiding under it), so I doubt there will be much of him, but hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised because I didn't end up with much of him!

Jessica and Christopher, thank you SO MUCH for letting us be a part of your special day! We wish you a LONG and happy marriage together. XOXO

A big day!

Jessica and Christopher's wedding day has finally arrived! We're busy with doing Emily's hair and packing up all the fancy clothes and shoes for three little children to show up at the location for pictures. Pray that Connor behaves himself, that nothing happens to the little outfits before the ceremony is over, that the rain holds off, and that the bride and groom have a fabulous time.

I hope to have pictures to share tomorrow, but it's going to be a long, busy day and I might just be coming home to SLEEP! ha!

PS Can I just brag that my little boys in their tuxes are about the most ADORABLE little things EVER?!?!? Especially with their darling haircuts. CAN'T STAND IT. Em's a little princess in her dress and has been prettily pouting for days and days begging to finally get to wear it.

Oh, and the bride is gorgeous in her gown (it is HER day, afterall! Can't leave her out of the brag!)

ME ME ME ME ME!

Someone recently mentioned that I don't often talk about ME on my blog, so I figured I would do that today!

Here I am, in all my sweaty glory...It was somewhere around 90 degrees and muggy the day this was taken (and for western WA, that's a HOT day), and we'd been outside ALL DAY LONG (and then some) because of Dan's company summer party, followed immediately by our annual summer get-together with my dad's side of the family.


Some things you probably don't know about me yet:

1.) My one big regret from high school was not "doing" prom. I didn't go to Junior Prom, and although I went to Senior Prom, I didn't go get my hair and make-up done, I didn't get the princess dress, I went with the safe guy friend instead of asking the guy I really wanted to ask... If I HAD to do high school over again (I don't have any desire to go back, so this is a really truly an IF I HAD TO situation), I would save harder for the dress I really wanted, I would get my hair and make-up done, and work harder at building the courage to ask cutie boy Jake. NOT saying I didn't have a nice time, because I did, but I wish I'd really done it up.

2.) The toes next to my pinky toes are crooked. And don't ask for a picture because I'm not showing you my feet! All three of my kids have the same crooked little toes.

3.) I'm afraid of heights and am super cheapy about spending money, but I think I really do want to spend the $265 and go sky diving (with video and still pictures as proof). Just to say I've done it.

4.) It bothers me A LOT that I have a lot more blog posts about Emily and Connor than I do of Jared. And it's not some forgotten middle child syndrome at work either; it's the simple fact that Jared won't pose for pictures very often. So I end up taking pictures of the Diva Emily (major ham for the camera, in case you hadn't picked up on that), and Connor, who is happy to flash me a sweet little grin (or is up to no good and giving me all sorts of blog material). And I have this horrible fear that people come to my blog and notice on the blog category list that Jared's post numbers are far smaller and think I'm a terribly neglectful mother. sigh...

5.) I just found green crayon on the wall next to me, and I can't tell you how many weeks it's been since we've had crayons out, so either I've been VERY unobservant, or Connor's sneaky. Or it's a combo of the two! ha!

6.) I recently discovered that chocolate chip cookies made with ground flax seed instead of eggs are really good! (1 Tbsp flax seed plus 3 Tbsp water = 1 egg). Dan says they're acceptable. I thought they were really good!

7.) My digital camera broke a few months ago and I've been unable to make a decision on what to buy to replace it. I've been borrowing cameras (had my mom's for a few days, then had two of my MIL's at separate times, and have been using Emily's most recently)

8.) I never sent out thank you's for any of the kids' birthday parties, OR for the birthday luncheons we had with my mom's side of the family. It wasn't that I didn't want to or didn't think I should/needed to. It was that I felt obligated to have them be home-made since that's kind of what I've been known for with family and friends, and I got so overwhelmed in the end at the idea of having to make 30 plus cards when all was said and done, that I just didn't make any. And then a few weeks ago, the guilt started to eat away at me, so I ran out and bought some notecards and started filling them out for at least the family members. BUT THEN, I felt stupid that they'd be MONTHS late (birthdays were all May and June), so I set them aside. I also thought it would be nice for the kids to include their own words or pictures as well, and trying to wrangle three kids down to the table to sign a bunch of cards, on top of everything else (getting rear-ended and having PT, Em was finishing up school and having her Kinder grad ceremony, and then having her dance recital, and then we've been gearing up for the wedding, were out of town, I've been busy preparing for the start of preschool for Jared and 1st grade for Emily, etc), and it just hasn't happened. So, friends and family, we greatly appreciate your gifts and your thoughts on our birthdays, and I'm sorry I'm a bum and never got out thank you's...

9.) I have a little too much fun helping Emily earn Webkinz Cash by playing Webkinz arcade games (and I'm not the only one, Jodi and Cheryl are hooked, too!)

10.) I get a little long-winded sometimes (and NO, you did NOT already know that! ha!)

And the fork goes to...

JARED!! WOO HOO!

Jared won first place in a race for kids under 5 years old at Dan's company picnic last weekend. He was given a fork at the finish line (f for fork and for FIRST place) to take over to the prize booth to receive his prize (which was a plastic toy sized surf board with a little plastic surfer guy--Jared thought it was just the coolest EVER!)


I can't take away his glory of winning first place, but look closely in the background and check out his competition... The kid that got second place was probably 3 or 3.5, and then there was a 2-ish year old, and then Connor (which, if you'll notice, is WAYYYYYY in the back and hasn't actually even started running yet!!)

HE LIVES!

You wouldn't know it from this picture, but the child is alive and well...

A joke for you

Here's Emily two years ago telling a knock knock joke. I read this one in a kiddy magazine earlier in the day and actually giggled because it was one I hadn't heard before.

I'd like to thank...

All of my friends and family (including bloggy friends!) who put me in the position of being considered worthy of this award!!



And an extra thank you to Kaci, Kristina, and Jodi for all three giving me this award. Your love and support mean the world to me. Except it's so dang tiny. I want a bigger award...

There! Much better! Wouldn't you say?


JUST KIDDING! SHEESH! What do you think I am? A total snob? The original is just fine and dandy with me, and I'm appreciative of receiving it.


I'm supposed to award it to seven people, except those three lovely ladies gifted it out to just about everyone I know, which leaves me in a bit of a pickle.

SO, I award this to:

Rachel because her little man gives her "the look", and I've seen that same LOOK on Connor's face!! (go ahead, click on over and see it!)

Steph because she was super sweet to let me guest blog for her while she was away (talk about trusting!)

Melissa because she has GREAT ideas for family together time, and craft ideas, and cooking ideas (I'm still determined to try the truffle recipe she posted awhile back...)

Valarie because I have faith she will take to blogging her hilariousness again soon... (hint hint Valarie!)

Rennie because she is absolutely one of the funniest people I know, has A WAY of writing and telling a story, has darling little boys whom my little boys think are the BEST EVER, and because she unfortunately got some weird blog comments awhile back, but is sticking with blogging (with the comment feature turned off, so you won't be able to ooh and ahh to her about how great she is, but believe me when I tell you SHE IS!)

Munchkins And Music because she recently found my blog and was sweet to comment. AND she posts great ideas about introducing kids to music in fun ways!

And last, but NOT least, Are You Serious! because she has done some pretty cute things to her daughter's hair that I haven't seen done before (and I've done a lot of stuff to Emily's hair!)

LOVE YOU ALL, and if you feel worthy of the award and haven't received it yet, FEEL FREE to consider yourself awarded!!!!

A big fat WHINE

It's freakin' RAINING, our doctor just rescheduled my kids' check-ups, Dan works too much at his new job, It's freakin' RAINING, my allergies are bothering me, the boys need haircuts two weeks sooner than expected and I can't let it slide because they need to be clean-cut little dudes for the wedding this weekend, blah blah blah, oh, AND IT'S FREAKIN' RAINING (pouring, actually).

THE END

THE PICTURES!

I woke up this morning to the pictures from Jamie in my inbox so I get to post them afterall!!









The shirt she got was longer than her shorts, so I had the brilliant idea to just knot it up on the side (she was concerned people would think she was in just her t-shirt and panties if her shorts weren't showing), but I didn't take into consideration what would happen when she raised her arms! At the time I tied it, the shirt was nicely around her hips, but once it got raised up once, it just stayed up. OOPS!

GO, Seahawks, GO!

Before I get too far into this post, I just want to make it clear that we are NOT referring to the NFL Seahawks in this video... This cheer is for a high school in our area. Funny story: Emily came pouting over to me after the first day of cheer camp and said she didn't want to go back the next day because she didn't want to be a stinkin' Seahawk. She wanted to be a Steeler girl (her daddy has trained her well, eh?). After I set the record straight that THESE Seahawks were for Grandma Marlee's work, NOT the football team we see on TV, she was beyond excited to go back for days two and three. Her next pouting moment came when she found out cheer camp was only three days long... ha ha!

Alright, onto the video of the performance yesterday. Bear in mind this is after only three days, so I don't think she did too badly when you take that into consideration. And forgive the camera-person's crappy filming. She was also trying to take still photos, AND wrestle a certain two-year-old little boy to the floor one-handed lest he RUN OFF! (Don't forget to pause the music player)


Sadly, Em's camera just isn't good with zooming in (everything was BLURRRRRRRRRRY! and I still haven't figured out what I want to buy to replace MY camera, which broke a few months ago) so I have no still-frame pictures to share. An acquantance was super sweet to take a few pictures of Emily, which she said she would email me last night, but my email account has selected a few choice people who's emails don't make it through (Jodi, for one. My auntie's emails if she includes pictures, and I'm guessing that's what happened to Jamie's email with pictures as well). So, if I ever end up with versions of those, I will be sure to post them up, but for now, you'll have to make do with just the video.

(PS Remember, I'm guest blogging again today over at The Daily Grind)

If only they really WERE interchangeable

The other morning, I got a late start to my daily work-out and the kids ended up waking up before I was finished. Emily and Jared sat together in the recliner chair and watched me. I wasn't pushing myself all that hard because my allergies have been awful lately and I've been having some trouble breathing (I think I need to be seen about asthma, but that's another post for another day) so I wasn't all that focused on the work-out DVD and found myself listening to Emily and Jared's conversation while I half-heartedly followed along with the video (while wheezing and coughing and wishing I had an inhaler, or SOMETHING).

Jared: Emily, mommy is wearing her excercise boobies you know
Emily: NO SHE'S NOT Jared, stop being crazy.
Jared: YES SHE IS! I can see them!
Emily: Jared, mommy has the same boobies she always does.
Jared: MOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOM! Emily says you're not wearing your exercise boobies, and you are, I know it, and I'm right, right?

me (very confused as to what the heck this child is talking about): What exactly do you mean by exercise boobies Jared?
Jared: That thing under your shirt. That gray thing.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. He was referring to the gray sports bra I wear while I exercise!!! Now, if I really DID have exercise boobies I could put on, believe me I would! And they'd be a whole lot perkier than the current models.

(and forgive me, FIL, for subjecting you to that topic, but it was just too funny not to share!)

PS I'm guest-blogging for Steph today and tomorrow, so head on over!

Give me an E!

M-I-L-Y! What do you get? EMILY!!!! Emily attended the first day of a three day cheer camp yesterday at the local high school. She LOVED it! She jabbered all day about wanting to be a cheerleader and wondering (over and over again) when she'd get to cheer again after camp was over.

Here she is all dolled up and ready to go (isn't she adorable???). And she's totally NOT AT ALL EXCITED, either...


And here she is in one of her favorite poses! (bet you've never seen pictures of her like this before...ha ha ha!)

Next time won't you sing with MEEEEEEE?!?!

Jared could speak 3-4 word sentences by 18 months old, and could practically rattle off the Gettysburgh address by the time he was two (I jest, but he truly could speak very very well, and lots of people assumed he was three and just small for his age). People commented ALL THE TIME about the complexity of his sentences and how articulate he was. Even then he was coming up with his goofy things to say (if only this blog were in existance back then!!). He also loved to sing little songs and tell knock knock jokes.

This video was taken when he was 25 months old. He's doing karaoke at our annual summer party at my uncle's house (Don't forget to go down in the sidebar on the right side of the blog screen and pause the playlist!)


And this was taken just a few days later. Can I just add that one of the things I dislike the most in life is little kids' knock knock jokes? They never make sense, kids repeat the same nonsense joke over and over again and you have to continually pretend they are the most hilarious things you've ever heard. It's exhausting I tell you!!!!!!!! (but seriously, how adorable is he in this video?)


more singing. Oh man, how I miss that little toddler voice of his! (and Emily the copycat! LOL!)

It's a full moon!

Some of you got an email from me a few days ago whining about the HORRRRRRRRRRIBLE day I had with my kids recently. This was taken shortly after I found Connor in my bathroom, in the middle of flooding it (he'd taken an entire container of flushable wipes, emptied it of the wipes, and stuck them all in the sink, and turned it on full blast--while I was solving drama between Emily and Jared in another room). He also squirted a half a bottle of handsoap all over himself, the counter, the floor, the walls, the toilet and the tub. And he soaked a new roll of toilet paper in the toilet, then fished out soggy clumps of it and threw it all over the place. SERIOUSLY, I had my eyes off of him for maybe two minutes. So then because he was soaked and covered in soap and soggy toilet paper, he stripped himself down. And THEN, he discovered the roller skates and put them on. I cleaned up the bathroom while he was barricaded in there with me (can't take your eyes off that kid!), and then couldn't resist a picture of his naked rollerskating self.

Quote of the Week

When asked where he got the container of baby powder from (because it was one I had NO CLUE we even owned), Connor replied, "Dah-ee dit!" (daddy did it!). And when asked about the red mark on his arm, he replied, "Yi-un...bit...me" (lion bit me), and proceeded to bang his arm with the hard plastic toy lion we have.

I just love the little things that are coming out of his mouth lately!

He also calls the big bucket of dishwasher detergent and the bin of cat food, "DIG!" (and yes, unfortunately, I have recently discovered him happily digging in both of them...)

A day at the lake

The company my dad works for owns a large section of property at a lake about an hour's drive from where we live, and they've used it as a campground, complete with a roped off swimming area, playground, short basketball court, beach volleyball area, and fitness trails. When I was a kid, we used to go camping there all the time over the summer, and would do day trips to swim and play. I haven't been in YEARS, but my mom invited the kids and I out there earlier this week. Here are a lot of pictures of our time there (but not nearly as many as my mom took!):













I truly think this "boat's" dog head should have been facing OUT instead of IN because it just poked Connor in the face the whole time and he couldn't resist just CHEWING on it!


Jared was "napping, so you have to be quiet so you don't wake me up"


You can see just how much of Jared's hair got wet while he was "napping" and how much didn't! LOL But it's a sweet picture of all three kids


There is a tree near the swimming area that is actually 6 or so trees all joined together. There are several different kinds of trees and all their roots and trunks are intertwined at the bases, and one of the trees has this goofy branch that my brother and I would pretend was a horse when we were little. I had my kids test it out:






The water felt sooooooo good on that hot day. The kids barely wasted anytime before getting entirely wet (minus dunking under water, my kids DON'T do that!). I expected to need to enter the water slowly to get my body used to it, but it truly just felt great. We didn't spend quite as much time in the water as I expected, but with three non-swimmers, I guess there's only so much time you can wander around in the shallow end and float. LOL

The kids are already asking when they get to go back again!