Sledding Pictures!

As promised, here are some pictures from our sledding adventure Tuesday. We didn't get very many because the supposedly fully charged camera battery was dead, and Dan's Blackberry doesn't zoom enough for action shots, so I mostly had to take stills, and how many pics of my kids posing in snow gear does a person need??

Emily Grace, the little snow princess!


Jared, LOVING his warm new down jacket.


Connor, complete with blood encrusted lips after managing to bite his lip after a rough landing. Did it slow him down, though? NO!!!


Emily not bothering with a sled


Connor was extremely independent about the whole process of sledding, and wasn't waiting for anyone to get him situated, or for getting help shoving off; he just totally took care of himself. At one point, while we were helping Em and J, Connor pushed himself and was heading right for a jump at the bottom of the hill (the one place we'd had the kids AVOID). I panicked briefly, watching my child fly down the hill and go airborn, but he landed, came to a stop, and was laughing hysterically begging to do it again. It wasn't a huge jump by any means, but he definately caught a good foot or two high of air, and then landed several feet out. I ran down the hill with Dan's Blackberry to try to get a picture of his additional turns. Here he is, halfway launched off the jump:


Dan tried to get a better one and managed to get him airborn (can you see the shadow underneath him?)


I know, I know, we're terrible parents for letting him do that over and over again. I'm sure his little spine is jarred out of alignment, but if you'd have heard how hard he was laughing, you'd have let him do it, too! It was sooooo funny!!!

We had a great time, and I can't wait to do it again. I'm hopeful to go back at least one more time this winter. The kids really enjoyed the snow (something we don't get a lot of in our city), and I really enjoyed the time spent together as a family, with nothing else to focus on but each other and having fun. It was great!

I SAID SMILE!!

I wanted to get a good picture of the kids last night, so I could FINALLY insert it into the photocard template I'd created, upload it for printing, and get the cards back home/addressed/sent out. I made sure the kids were fed, relaxed, and all that other good stuff needed to ensure better succes, then I grabbed my camera and got to work.

Smile!


Not too bad, now let's do one and make sure everyone has their eyes open!



Well... I really need to see a REAL smile on everyone, okay? (passed around some tickles, made some funny faces...)



Come on guys, scoot closer and pretend you actually like each other! And don't tip your head up so high, okay?



woah, wait a minute! What's going on here, let's try that again...



Ha ha guys. Do you have it out of your system now? Let's try again.



No bug eyes, please? Just smile nice, don't cross your eyes, don't bug your eyes, don't wiggle your eyebrows (and yes, all this was happening), sit in the spot where I put you (they were like jack-in-boxes!). Can you do that, PLEASE??



HEY! What happened to REAL smiles and open eyes???



I'm over HERE!!!! And I said no bug eyes.



That's right Connor, I SAID SMILE! Good job listening to your mommy!

I debated long and hard between #1 and #6, finally deciding on #1. I'd rather have the squinty-eyed laughing Jared pic over the crazy bug-eyed pic of Emily.

I miss this!

I LOVE being at the ocean. I love the wide open views, the sounds of the waves, the feel of the sand under my feet. I love how calm life feels, the joy on my children's faces as they run and dig and play and splash... I love our family time, uninterrupted by work and chores and appointments.

I LOVE being at the ocean.

Swine Flu

Have you missed me?

We've been battling swine flu in our home the last few days, and I have been BUSY nursing two sick kids, and sanitizing like you wouldn't believe in order to keep the remaining three of us healthy. I even had to call my mom and beg a favor in order to get my hands on more Lysol spray. If the sick kids have touched it or breathed near it, I've sprayed it with Lysol.

I'm not a major germ-a-phobe in general, but I have ZERO desire to be nursing sick kiddos while being sick myself. Therefore, I spray. And use hand sanitizer. And wash my hands frequently. And use more hand sanitizer. And spray more Lysol.

Dan took the lid off an empty cup of juice for the kids yesterday evening, then went reaching for the fridge door to get out more juice. In comes ME, shoving a bottle of hand sanitizer at him. DON'T BE TOUCHING THE GERMY CUP AND THEN TOUCHING THE FRIDGE AND THE FOOD/DRINK THE REST OF US WILL BE EATING/DRINKING WITHOUT CLEANING YOUR HANDS FIRST!!! I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm nuts, but I am NOT getting sick, too. *grin*

Due to swine flu, Connor had to miss his activity yesterday, in case he was contagious and coming down with it as well. Emily had to miss dance (and I had to miss parent observation, where twice a year you get to go IN the classroom and see your child in class). Today, Connor has to miss a field trip with his preschool class to a local music store (again, in case he's contagious, and because no siblings are allowed and I'll have his two sick siblings home with us), where he would have gotten the opportunity to test out some different instruments and see instruments being repaired in the shop in the back, etc. Emily has to miss out on a field trip to see a play, which has been hyped up in class for over a month now, and will miss her 2nd dance class (where I, yet again, miss out on parent observation). Jared will miss out on a birthday party Wednesday for an old preschool friend he's been anxious to see again, because even if J is totally better tomorrow and fever/symptom-free for 24 hours, he'll have been too recently exposed to be around the birthday boy, who is one year into a three-year treatment plan for Luekemia.

And here I was worried they'd be sick over Halloween. I'd happily give up Halloween (less candy for me to be tempted to eat!) in order to have all this weeks' activities back. sigh...

Trunk or Treat!

The kids and I attended Connor's preschool event, Trunk or Treat, yesterday afternoon, and we had a great time (as usual!). The rain held off for us, we had LOTS of participants, and we came away with some yummy treats and prizes.

Here are Little Orphan Annie, Knight in "arming sharmor" (as Connor says it), and a SWAT team guy, all lined up in front of our decorated trunk:


NORMALLY, the kids would have trick-or-treat bags that coordinate with their costumes. I even bought the materials to make the bags. But that tricky little thing called LIFE got in the way, and it was either stay up extremely late and stressing over it, while also trying to tackle more important things, or admit defeat for this year and buy "normal" trick-or-treat bags. I admitted defeat and bought bags. And you know what? The world didn't end! The kids loved their bags, which will hold more candy anyway... Life is NOT all about the coordinated trick-or-treat bags.

I still feel like a bit a failure. LOL

PS Em went to bed with sponge curlers in her hair in order to have a mop of Annie curls on her head for her school Halloween party and parade later today. I'm anxious to see how things look once she's awake and we take them out. Could be interesting!

Fun Times!

Here's the kids having a GREAT time at the annual fair in our area last night:


What? Not a real picture?? I guess I can't fool YOU! But this is what you get when mom is too busy keeping track of everyone to remember she even brought the camera in the first place! ha!

The kids rode TONS of rides, a roller coaster, for example (Connor was big enough for one of the coasters in kiddy land, J was big enough for both the coasters in kiddy land, and Emily was big enough for one of the BIG coasters, which she rode with our neighbor girl and LOOOOOOVED!!!!!)


We bought the kids cotton candy (Connor wanted all pink, J and Em wanted mixed):


My mom had given the kids each $20 (like she does every year--thanks mom!), and while in the past we've typically just used it towards the ride passes we buy that let the kids go on all the rides, all day long, this time, we gave them free reign and let them choose how to spend it.

Connor picked out a bubble gun, which also lights up and flashes while spewing bubbles everywhere:


Emily picked out a glowing butterfly necklace and a crazy pink headband that lights up:


Jared picked out a stuffed dog with Charlie's coloring, that came with a red leash and harness (the leash is stiff, so you can "walk" your dog, and he's obsessed with it--PS and the leash/harness comes off and can be used on other stuffed friends in our possession...):


They had a really good time, and are already bugging us about when we get to go again next year! The only real bummer of the whole afternoon/evening/night (we stayed LATE!) was that they changed the minimum height on one of the rides, which made it so that Emily wasn't tall enough...EVEN THOUGH SHE RODE IT FIVE TIMES LAST YEAR, AND IS SIGNIFICANTLY TALLER THIS YEAR THAN LAST YEAR. It was her most favorite ride last year, and she was quite devastated to discover that she was a good three inches too short by the new limit. Thankfully, she got over it as soon as we hooked up with our neighbors!

And yes, I know I dropped the ball by not having real pictures to share, but I must get an A++ for creativity and effort, right??? *grin*

JCPenney Portrait Studio

I took the kids on Saturday to get their picture taken as a group, and I'm sooooooo pleased!






The kids had a BLAST doing this one and the next one!




I think she's got the kids in the wrong order for the correct saying, but it's cute anyway:


See J's crazy eyes??? Cracked me up; I had to get a small copy for the laugh

Every so often...

...I like to pretend that I totally ROCK! I went and bought balloons for all the kids at the bus stop, tied Tootsie Pops to the strings to keep them weighted down, then gifted all the kids as they got off the bus to celebrate the 1st day of school (including a younger sibling who ended up not coming to the bus stop)!





(and we'll just assume this cancels out the fact that I forgot to pose Emily for any 1st day of school pictures, right?)

Photo Booth Fun!

We took the kids to the Pacific Science Center over the weekend, to celebrate the last weekend before school starts. Connor would NOT stop obsessing over the photo booths, so I finally just bit the bullet and posed individually with each kid:

Wedding Pictures!

I didn't take any pictures during the ceremony because I was in the wedding party, and I didn't take any posed pictures OF the wedding party after the ceremony because I was IN the wedding party, but I have two pictures to share from my mom's camera which she emailed me. The rest of the pics will be from the reception...

Like I stated Monday, my brother's wedding was awesome; I just hadn't gone through my pictures yet, in order to be able to share very many with you at that point.

The stage, nicely decorated with the arbor my brother and his good friend, Everett, built. Isn't it fantastic?? (someone should really teach me how to hold the camera straight!)


Tables decorated in their wedding colors:




Their cake (I got put in charge of arranging some flowers on top. I think I did a pretty good job, eh??)


Ali and Emily, very impatiently waiting to be allowed to put on their dresses!


Marc and Alisa included Ali in the exchange of rings, and Marc made vows to Ali to not try to take the place of her real father, but to be someone she could trust, turn to, learn from, etc. It was VERY sweet!


Posing for pictures after the ceremony (back row: Teasha, Leah, Trista, Stormi, Se-Ryong, Annette, Alisa, Marc, Everett, Matt, Josh, Brian. front row: Elektra, Emily, Ali, Jared, Connor)


During the Dollar Dance, Marc ended up with all sorts of women to dance with


And Alisa hadn't thought to have a cute little purse to collect money in, so she kept stuffing it down her dress! LOL!


There was a tree outside of the building which drew the kids like magnets...


At some point, we formed a line of girls and a line of guys and took turns pairing up and doing goofy dances down the center. I, stupidly, did not think to run for my camera until it was starting to pitter out, but OH MY, was it fun!




Another picture of the first dance from the back so you can see Alisa's pretty dress (which was custom made by her sister's mother-in-law, who also did four of the bridesmaid's dresses and the littlest flower girl's dress)


After everyone had pretty much gone home, we started taking down all the decorations and whatnot. The arbor had somehow managed to arrive at the location in one piece, but they quickly decided that it wasn't worth trying to take it HOME in one piece, so they grabbed a drill and took it all apart and hauled it out in pieces. It was rather sad, but they swear it will go back together again just fine...


The DJ kept up the music, all through the take-down process, and the kids were ROCKING OUT. Look how flushed and sweaty Connor was (he was dancing and running and dancing and jumping and dancing and sliding and so on!!)


Jared was using the practically empty dance floor to work on his break-dancing skills. Hilarious!


When the night was over, we took Ali home with us and all four kids were totally zonked out after we made the 40 minute drive back home. I thought it was hilarious that all four had their heads tipped the same way. Ali was JUST starting to wake up when I took the picture


Congratulations Marc and Alisa!