Family Picture Day

We had a family photo redo this late afternoon.  It was horrible.  If this poor photographer puts together a decent shot or two I'll be thrilled.  And when I say 'put together' I mean literally put it together.  See, nobody would smile.  I'm sure at some points you could look at me and say SHE's not even smiling!  Victoria's been getting her picture taken every single month since she was born.  Christian isn't as natural as Victoria, however, this photographer can get him to relax and get some great shots.  Brecken is just a happy little baby and smiles all day long.  But today.  What a mess.  Victoria speaks and smiles different since she lost her teeth.  So she was a mess.  Christian is over tired and cranky and doesn't like the feel of grass (even though he'll roll down a grassy hill if he's not getting his picture taken).  Brecken napped like a champ yesterday.  But today, he maybe slept for an hour with all the minutes combined.  His eyes were bright red from lack of sleep, the photo shoot being near his bedtime, and maybe an allergy to grass.  I was sweating because I just wanted a nice family shot.  For the love of God people SMILE!

Overall, it was a nightmare.

It was a beautiful day.  The flowers were beautiful.  But we were a grumpy little family.

I hope this lady pulls some magic out of her camera bag.  She took a close up of each and every one of us because she thinks she'll need superimpose our faces.

Family Picture Day sure isn't the way is used to be.  I feel our professional photo shoots will become few and far between unfortunately.

Rained Out

It took me about a month to be able to set up a time for our family photos.  I wanted to do it when Brecken was three months and it didn't work out.  So a month later.  Lots of looking for the right outfits.  An hour of curling Victoria's hair.  Wiped tears because she didn't want to wear a dress.  A day of making sure Brecken was napping enough so he could pull through the 5:45 photo time.  Mark and Christian had to leave a bday party early so we'd make it to the photo shoot on time.

Finally, all five of us dressed and ready.

And then we got rained out.  We were sitting on wet rocks in the actual rain.

Finally, we had to call it off.

We'll try again tomorrow.  What a pain.

Back To School

Back to School.

That phrase is so bittersweet.  Mark and I have had a couple talks about me not going back to school.  Maybe just one year to stay home with our sweet baby.  Sure it sounds enticing.  Cuddle and snuggle and be the for every single smile and milestone.  I mentioned it to my friend Shauna who is a stay at home mom.  As I was talking about it with her it made me feel like I really wanted to do it.  More than I even thought I wanted to do it.  So I started to give it some real thought.

Wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about putting a five month old in daycare?
Wouldn't it be nice to have the time to make dinner each night?
Wouldn't it be nice to have time to run errands so my evenings and weekends weren't so jam packed?

Then I was talking about it with my friends who are teachers.
Then I had a short meeting with my principal (about something unrelated) and stopped into my new classroom.
Then I realized (or just remembered) what a huge part of my like being a teacher is.
I was pumped when I walked out of school.
Today I found myself slowly walking through the back to school supplies at WalMart.
My mind racing with the things I need to buy for my kids and for my classroom.

Christian overheard a conversation between Amanda and me last weekend about sending Brecken to daycare and he was eating and suddenly jumped into the conversation and said, "Oh Kris LOVES babies!  She'll take really good care of Brecky and he'll love all his news friends too."

It brought tears to my eyes.  He's spent a lot of time at Kris' over the last few years and if he thinks that's a safe and fun place for Brecky I'm sold.  And I'm confident in my decision.

I'm going back to school!

Two Months

Two Months

Brian & Tammey

Just a random picture from Brecken's first two weeks.  It's my Uncle Brian and Auntie Tammey.  They are so cute!  They don't have children of their own, but they are so good to every other child!

Bowling for the First Time

Last week I took C, V and B bowling.  We had a great time.

Sometimes we danced back.

Sometimes we just posed.

Mommy was LOSING!

Then Mommy went down two pounds and her pelvis wasn't screaming at her!

Better than knocking the pins down we realized Brecken 

was starting to hold his own bottle.

Then we slammed his whole fist in there.

But he was happy.

And so were we.

And we danced back some more.

And held our bottle again.

Then we met Great Grandpa for lunch.

82 yr old + 5 yr old eating cookies = Adorable!

Excellent Day!

Shots- Not the Good Kind

Mark had some serious shots put into his back last week as an outpatient surgery.

  Brecken was clearly concerned as we waited for him.