Family pictures

We utilized a new remote control and tripod and headed north to the local university gardens for a photoshoot. It was no easy task. The girl had something all over her new shirt from off the seatbelt so we made a quick trip to Downeast Outfitters for a new shirt (the checkout girl said "Um, did you guys like, notice you were all like, wearing plaid shorts?" NO WAY! It's almost like, we planned it or something. What a co-ink-ee-dink!

Then we get to the gardens to discover two bridal photo shoots and one college family home evening group playing a rousing game of tag.
Some of these thought provoking looks were given after we reminded him of the hot blonde running around the gardens chasing after her cute family home evening brothers. Yeah, he can't wait to go to college now.
And the girl? Wait... there's cute boys running around up here? Am I really only almost 14? Life is so not fair...
Then there was the Ish, who cooperated when she wanted to and when she does, she proves to be the photogenic child she has always been.

Dad... please buy me icecream when we're done... oh, and a cell phone for my birthday next week.

Mom... please don't let dad take a picture of you with your head on my shoulder because that is the one you will post on facebook and tag me in and all my friends will see and...
Lesson learned... the girl is better at taking pictures than the boy. That is all I'm going to say about that.

To really appreciate our beauty, feel free to click on the photos to enlarge them... just my way of saving time and space.

5 silly blue eyed girls...

Yesterday, we had a visit from more of those superbly cute nieces of mine who currently reside in Missouri. It was a bit tricky at first as the five year old seemed to have NO desire to stay with me, despite having stayed here before. As she sat by the front door and cried, the boy went up to her and talked to her, told her that if she was going to cry, so was he. That helped a little. She eventually warmed up to us, though, and we all had a good time.

I had to giggle when the same five year old came up to me, wrapped her arms around me and whispered in my ear... "(the boy) sure is bigger than he was last summer!" Ha ha!


We had a fabulous time, they posed for some pictures for me, even (and totally gave me a photoshop challenge that was funner than heck as I transposed a head from another picture on to this one... LOL It's good to know when a certain three year old doesn't want to cooperate, you just edit her a little and it's all good!). We all miss them terribly when they aren't here and Ishee asks weekly when they are coming to visit again. Too bad I don't have some sort of control over where they live, eh? (Just for the record, their daddy just got home from his second tour in Iraq, so they go where they are told!).

SPT: Do you have eyes in the back of your head?

As I checked to see what the subject of SPT was this week, I was wishing amidst the chaos this morning, that I had thought to grab my camera to capture one of those many moments of things that go on when you're not looking ... things you only seem to capture with the eyes in the back of your head. Instead, you will just have to suffice with some old photos of some special people who just melted my heart this morning...

Ishee is still not feeling her total self. She woke this morning feeling fine, but tired as all get out, even though she'd slept soundly for almost 12 hours. Her morning turned sour when she had to do things like... move... and get her shoes on and comb her hair, you know, the usual.

At 7:20, she had her shoes on and she was doing her song and dance whine about having to get her coat on when all she really wanted to do was lay down on the floor for just a few more minutes. PLEASE MOM? Just one more minute. Sorry sis, the bus will be here any minute. And by any minute, her brother announced, she means, it's HERE. Oh, why oh why does the bus driver have to be early today of all days?

Insert crocodile tears of mass proportions here.

(this photo is simply an example of a very common occurrence around here... Ishee refusing to cooperate? NO! Really?)

"I don't wanna go to school! I will miss you too much!" She grabbed my leg and clung for dear life. The middle child darted out the door like a bolt of lightning and ran for the bus, not stopping to even care who was or wasn't coming with her. The boy... stood there. "Come on, sis, it's okay, I'll wait for you."

"I need a kiss. Just one more kiss. I need one on my forehead, too. Can I kiss your forehead, mommy? Oh, I need a hug. I need a bigger hug. Oh, just one more kiss. Do I look like I've been crying?" she asks with those ginormous tears still running down her cheeks. Nope, you look just perfect. I wiped away her tears, patted her on the bum and tossed her out the door.

Then the 14 year old "too cool for you" teenage brother, took his seven year old sobbing baby sister by the hand, and together they walked (or jogged, rather) the 80 yards down the driveway to the awaiting bus, knowing full well he had a bus load of friends watching and critiquing his every move.

A picture just wouldn't be able to capture spirit of the moment anyway...

Speaking of the boy and his compassionate ways...

Last night, he brought home a stack of papers an inch thick with 6 photo shopped $1 bills photocopied on to each sheet to be used for a social studies class project. Somehow, he got suckered into cutting all 600 of these $1 bills out... in one evening. Because of the layout of the page, you couldn't just use a paper cutter and call it good (someone put some serious thought into that one...), they had to be cut out one at a time with scissors. He and the middle child spent the next four hours cutting them out, while the rest of us watched and/or found better things to do... because we suck.

When he finished, his sister looked at him and said "You owe me big time for this one!" He looked at her and said "you have already been paid with the experience of a lifetime. Don't you feel honored?" Not exactly what she was thinking....

This was after the conversation they had that went like this:

The boy: Where do you want to go on your mission?
The girl: You want to go on a mission? (you'd have to understand us to really "get" that one)
The boy: Sure! Why not? In fact, I want to go to Scotland.
The girl: Why? So you can be Irish? (ROFL!)
The boy: No, because they have the best golf courses!

Okay, so he's not ALL good...

Don't get me wrong, those two have had their moments. Four years ago, she came home from school with bloody fingerprints on her cheeks after he had wiped away her tears she acquired when she split her head open at school (which required four staples... I'll spare you THAT photo). Aren't all big brothers this compassionate at times?

Oh, the things that go on when we're not looking ... it's just too bad those "eyes" in the back of our heads don't have a real built in camera... just lasting memories.

Good times! Good times!

Ask and ye shall receive...

So the sister asks where the picture of the guilty redecorating culprits was... here it is. We used the old curtains to hide behind so we could "hide our fatness." That's when the Ish said she was going to stand behind the curtains as well to "hide her skinniness." Oh, don't we all wish we had HER problem?
Then we handed the camera to the Ish and as you can see, some of us don't cooperate as well as others...

Instead of SPT, how about an SSOSS?

SPT today was a simple fill in the blank: the other day, i was in my _____________, and i noticed this _______________. my only thought was, "why do i still have this hanging around my house?!?"

So let me fill in the blank with the only thing I can think of: the other day, i was in my __pajamas___, and i noticed this _whiney child_. my only thought was, "why do i still have this hanging around my house?!?"

Yeah, not gonna work. <*grin*>

Therefore, I will freeze your mind with images from yesterday's "SSOSS" day... that's "So sick of stinkin snow" day!

When I was a kid, every winter was filled with snow days and snow piled so high that it was like driving through a tunnel as you drove down the road in front of the house. Those days just don't exist anymore.

It's been a good many years since we've had enough snow to plow, let alone pile up in the driveway for anyone to play on. After a good snowstorm hit over the weekend and we found ourselves trapped in our driveway, my brother in law came with a tractor and decided to make his favorite nieces and nephews day by creating the biggest hill he could create. My kids have a thing for hills... and he has a thing for building them. Seriously. People pay him for his hill making abilities.

And yet... this is all he could come up with? Maybe he needs a bigger tractor!It's just a wee bitty thing.

Never the less, I took the opportunity to polish up my mountain climbing in snowboots with a camera in hand skills to venture to the top for a few shots of the 'hood...
It's not every day you can see the water tower in town (a good five miles away) from my backyard...

We played until our noses froze...

We climbed on dad after he regressed 25 years and decided to go off a nice little drop off on that one side and landed square on his still aching tailbone (I'd show you the video but he made me promise I wouldn't show a soul). He could barely stand up after that one. Good think he had the Ish to keep him bent over just in case he was planning on trying anyway.

And we celebrated the moisture that we have received ... because of the drought we are in, we needed it so desperately.

I'm SO sick of snow... it can leave now.

Quite possibly the only good...

The only good things besides getting the inlaws one step closer to living in their dream house...

Painting each other.... like grandma's back side ...
Permanent 13 year old handprints... And this... was purely and accident... really... he was just... there... and the roller slipped... I swear... I would never intentionally paint a skunk stripe on my favorite sons head... really...