Grampa's Mud

So I was talking on the phone today with Samantha and told her I would send her the pictures of Ellie having a blast in the mud. I thought it would be easier to just post them here instead. Here you go Sam, let's see if your kids can beat this! Oh yeah, and this shirt used to be WHITE! Agh!

And this last pic is what I got when I tried to hose her down!

The house is sooo calm and quiet...so why am I online instead of doing Laundry?!

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! I just spent the last 20 minutes typing this blog entry and somehow lost it all! I guess I'll start over. ugh.

Today was a fun day. It all started out with Alis and her girls coming over so we could take photos of the kids. Her brother Albert is starting his own clothing line of tshirts and onesies for kids that are super cute and trendy! He asked me to take some photos of the kids wearing plain t-shirts so he can photoshop his design in them and present them to the company he wants to print for him.

About an hour after Alis came over, Sam and her kids came over to play also. Sam and I have been wanting to plan out our summer school and preschool program that we plan on doing with the kids so today was the day to figure out our plan! I'm really excited about what we've planned and can't wait to get started. We've decided we'll meet two days a week (Monday's here, and Thursdays at their house) from 9am-11am. We'll start out with a circle time that will include going over the calendar, and a small spanish lesson from me that will correlate with the "theme" for the week. Next week's theme will be all about healthy foods/the food groups/and making healthy food choices. After circle time, the boys will each go for a 15 minute piano lesson with Samantha where she'll teach them through the suzuki teaching method. This is really what I'm the MOST excited about! Hayden has been wanting to learn the piano for quite awhile now! While she's with each boy, I'll do a special school activity with the other three kids. After all that, we'll end each day with a special art project or activity that goes along with our weekly theme. For instance, since next week's theme is about healthy foods, on Monday the kids will make juice with the juicer and on Thursday they'll be picking healthy foods from Sam's garden and orchard. I can't wait to get started and hope the kids will be excited too! We'll each be setting up a classroom in our home so it's organized and the kids can know what to expect.

After they left, we took the kids on over to my moms house. They are really excited about spending some time with just them and Gramma and Grampa this week while Haley is in Arizona! I think they've only been invited to spend one night, but Hayden insists they're staying for the week! I packed clothes for a few extra days just in case Gramma decides to give in to him! haha. :)

So.....for the next couple of days I REALLY am going to try hard to get ALL of my many loads of laundry completed and put away. I am so bad at keeping up with all this laundry, I swear, and it's just so neverending with three little ones! Wish me luck that I can get it done, and get this house organized to my liking!

Sorry about this loooong post. I'm really liking having the blog though, it's like my new journal and nice since I can type so much faster than writing anyway!

The photos in this post are some of the ones I took for Albert's Tshirt thing today!

I thought this one was pretty funny of Jordyn getting clobbered, look at her face!

Happy Father's Day!

My Dad and I, 1979

Well, it's Father's Day and I thought I should take a minute to post on here about just how lucky I am on this day! When I think about my dad, I can't help but get a little emotional about how lucky I am to have him as MY dad! My dad is one of those people who you can ALWAYS count on, no matter what. I cannot remember a time in my life where I have ever felt let down by my dad, or where he wasn't willing to rescue me out of whatever situation I was in at the time! He does have his ways that we all know are so "him", like how he is always constantly checking on us to make sure we do the right things in life, or how he has been saying he is going to move to Michigan "any day now" since I was five years old. He does many things that get on my nerves, like drawing little stick figures in permanant marker on my kids hands and arms EVERY time they're with him, or taking them on crazy rides on the ATV when they're over there. These are the things though, that although I get worked up about them in the moment, that are the most special! My kids have grown to love these things, and they even love how I get so worked up about it, like, "haha look what we did with Grampa!" These are the things my kids will never forget and that will always be etched in their hearts when they think about their grandfather!

One of my favorite memories with my dad is when he and I got to go on a "date" just the two of us! I remember dressing up in this long pink dress that I loved (my mom hated and would never have let me out of the house in it on any other occasion - which I NOW understand), and I had saved up $25 from my piggy bank. At the time the only restaraunt I had heard of in Loomis, was Lorenzo's and I had never eaten there, so I insisted we go there for our date! We went to Lorenzo's all dressed up and had dinner. Growing up, my brother and I always knew we had to order water when eating out with my parents because my dad was a bit of a penny pincher and didn't want to splurge for sodas. I remember this night, ordering soda since I knew I was going to pay for it anyway and my dad didn't say a word. I don't remember most of dinner, but at the end, I insisted on paying for the meal! He, of course, wouldn't let me pay for it and I remember wondering at the time if it was because it was too expensive and I didn't have enough money, but he didn't want me to feel bad about that so he just said he wanted to pay for it.

A few other times that always come to mind when I think back to my childhood are planting Christmas trees every saturday morning for what seemed like FOREVER, and listening to oldies in the car with him on family vacations. My mom would be snoring and him and I would be in the car singing to the oldies. My dad always had funny little names for my friends that would come over to our house, like Anna Banana and Sunny Summer! At the time I was mortified, but now I love that he has given me these things to remember. My dad is one of those people who is always honest at all costs. Not that I'm not honest, but he really takes it to the extreme. I'm glad that he IS this way, because it is something I can always rely on and know that he is someone that is trustworthy. I'm glad that he has instilled his strong values in ME.

Father's Day Montage 6/15/08

Why else am I lucky on this Father's Day? Because my children have also been blessed with a great daddy. I was making a movie montage (which you can watch by clicking on Hayden above) of pictures and videos of Obee with the kids last night for him for Father's Day, and watching all the videos of him playing with the kids, I fell in love with him all over again! I'm so happy that my children have a father who isn't afraid to change their diapers, swing on the swings with them, have a dance party in the living room with them, and work in their classes when he's practically the ONLY dad there! I'm proud that he has taught them that cooking isn't only something that women are supposed to do, and that a man can cook for his family or, whoever, and actually enjoy it too! I mean really, what would we do if he didn't cook?! We all know MY cooking abilities aren't really up to par!

Well, I'm trying not to sound too sappy, but I am thankful to have them both in my life and just felt like what better day to say so, than today! I really love these guys! :)

Jordyn is almost ONE!!!

How did this year go by SO fast?! Things here have changed so much since she was born. We've moved, Hayden has finished his first year of elementary school, and Ellie is getting so big and grown up lately. I spent the morning making Jordyn's birthday invitations and getting those ready to be mailed out. We're going to have her party on her birthday - The 4th of July. I hope it turns out to be a good party. Since it's also a holiday, we'll probably do her birthday party first and then just have it be a regular ol' 4th of July BBQ the rest of the time. Instead of going to see the fireworks this year, we'll just do them in the driveway with the rest of the neighborhood. Well here's my baby girl, all ready to turn ONE....

I thought these were so funny when I saw them on the camera! Don't worry, the balloon didn't pop!

My Girls at the Water Park

We decided to go to the "sprinkler park" as the kids call it the other day. Obee was working, so the kids and I were going to go by ourselves, and have a picnic dinner there, but as we were getting in the van, Obee arrived home. It was nice to have him be able to go with us too! The kids had a fun time and I got some pictures of the girls that I like of them, just being them. Hayden is SO difficult to get pictures of these days! He's always either making a silly face or too quick for me to catch up with him. Good thing I still have Jordyn who can't escape me and the camera quite yet!

Just hanging out on the bench

This girl is going to be walking SOOO soon!

We Now Have A 1st Grader!!!

I didn't get very good pictures of Hayden's Kindergarten graduation, because we were in the very back row and everyone who was standing on the side had already taken all the "good" photo op spots! We couldn't get there early because we were busy getting the house ready for the after graduation party that we hosted at our house for all the families/teachers.

Hayden looked SO grown up and sweet at the graduation. He was so proud of himself and so were we! Before the kids came in, we got to watch a slideshow to music that the teacher had made of the entire year. It was a definate tear jerker watching it! Then the kids all walked in to the typical song they play at graduations. He had the biggest smile on his face and was looking around for me with the camera! The kids all sat down and sang a few cute songs about what they had learned throughout the year. After that, they stood up and she called each one's name and then they walked over to the principal and recieved their "diploma's." (The diploma's were just a yellow piece of paper rolled up - too cute!)

When it was all over they threw their hats up in the air. After the graduation everyone came over to our house to hang out and celebrate the beginning of summer. It turned out to be a terrific party with lots of great food provided by all the different families. We set up the waterslide for the kids and they played in that while the parents sat around and relaxed. I wish I had taken some pictures, but was so busy I forgot all about the camera! Oh well. :(

This is when he first walked in the building, all ready with smiles looking for my camera!

Getting his diploma from the principal

Mother's Day

This year I had the BEST Mother's Day. We decided to do our own little thing in the morning just the 5 of us and then we headed over to my parents for the annual Mother's Day BBQ where the guys had to do all the cookin', set up, clean up and dishes. That morning we got up, went out to breakfast with my parents and then headed downtown to ride the old steam train. The kids had SO much fun riding the train! It was about a 40 minute ride and then we walked around all the shops in Old Sac., had lunch, went and got the BEST frozen yougurt EVER downtown at Mochii and headed over to my parents house.

Kisses All Around!

With the weather cooling down a little this week, I decided to take my camera along the other day for our walk to the park. The kids and I had a little fun with our own little mini session on the walk back home. You would think, being a photographer, I would have all kinds of pictures of my OWN children together. Well, getting a picture of these three TOGETHER is more challenging than you might think! Here they are with all their silly little smiles... :)

I couldn't resist posting this photo of our dog, Ziggy too! After our lawn was mowed today, he rolled around in the grass and turned GREEN! Poor Ziggy - the kids sure got a good laugh though!

Here we go with the "family" blog

Now that I've got my blog for my photography website up and running, I hate having to keep it strictly professional! I want to be able to post what's going on in MY own life and post pictures of the kids and what's new here. Thus, I've started a family blog for us! Not really sure who I'm sharing this with, maybe it's just more of a journal for myself at this point. So here it goes...