Happy New Year

From our family to yours.....

Happy New Year!

Thank you for blessing us with your friendship in 2012.

We look forward to entertaining you all more in 2013.

(Let's hope it doesn't involve loose snakes in the house or wild boar heads to be transported or other such boyish icky things and more things like...wait, that is my life.  Okay, stay tuned in 2013 for more of THOSE stories.  Pass the coffee....)

Can NOT Wait For Monday

Those who know me well know that I do not like Monday's at all.  Not. At. All.

Those who know me really well know I do not like Sunday's much either.  Not much at all.

But this week?

I can not wait for Monday.

Saturday was our last football game.  S2 stormed onto the field, played the game and lost.

It was tough.

It was also as windy as could be.  We have battled rain, enjoyed sunshine, had our eyeballs frozen and everything in between.  But now it is over.

That won't seem real until I am not driving to school every evening for practice.

I couldn't wait for Saturday night.  I had dinner on the grill all planned.  A movie to curl up with my honey over.  I could see popcorn in my near future.  A "hooray! we can slow down now that football is over" night if ever there was one.  I had been looking forward to this night for about eight weeks or so.

As it was, my husband made plans without consulting me.  Our good friends we haven't gotten together with in forever and ever called to see if we wanted to see a movie their church was playing. A movie we have already watched called Monumental. It's a great movie, I was happy to watch it again, just not THAT night, not THAT far from my snug little farmhouse.  Jake told me we had not watched the movie before until I reiterated to him the entire movie, what we were doing before we went to the movie, where we watched the movie at (our church) and mentioned the fact that S4 had been covered in dirt and barefoot that night we watched Monumental at our church during the summer.

He could hardly remember this and so he had made the plans and didn't want to back out of them.

And I, being the mature person I am, did something out of character.  Something low.  I looked at my husband and said to him, "How is it I married you?  I would be happily snug at home tonight as my introvert self but oh no, I had to marry YOU, Mr. Social!!!"

He gave me a loud kiss.  "I'm good for you."

He is.

But not on this day.

We hurried through dinner.  I suffered the pain that MSU lost their game agains U of M and S2 cheered - how as a mother have a raised a son who cannot cheer the great MSU team?  It's like a mom failure or something - and went to the unfamiliar church to watch a movie my husband than remembered and then joined them for ice cream.

We arrived home exhausted and still my husband needed to give the boys haircuts.

I curled up into bed and fell asleep.  Oh, sleep, how I miss you!

Sunday I awoke to the smell of coffee.  Fresh brewed coffee is such a wonderful smell when you didn't brew it yourself.  My husband had picked up these amazing cinnamon rolls at Weicks the day before and I could hear him opening the package and warming up a roll.

I smiled in complete blissful love.  My darling husband was making me breakfast in bed.

How was I ever so blessed to marry such a wonderful guy?

I didn't want to ruin the surprise so I snuggled in bed and closed my eyes when I heard him headed my way.  He entered the bedroom, that love of my life.  It was so difficult to act asleep when all I wanted to do was grin or throw my arms around him and tell him how wonderful he is.  But if I did either of those things I would startle him and he would spill my coffee and we cannot spill coffee.

My husband walked around the bed and...grabbed his phone.

Grabbed his phone and walked away to the dining room where I heard the fork hit the plate of his warmed up cinnamon roll.

I figured he was just being sweet and didn't want to wake me up, just let me sleep in.  I mean, I didn't even know I wanted breakfast in bed until I was apparently not getting any.  I couldn't resist texting him though.  "You would rather spend your morning with youtube than with me?"

He ended up bringing me coffee to bed.

When we got up all we did was run.  We ran to church where we rushed out as soon as our pastor said "You are dismissed."  We drove like the wind to arrive home and quickly grab some clothes to change into that somehow we forgot as we ran back out the door.  Time home?  Five minutes.

We pushed a little past the speed limit to arrive at my husband's mom's home where we had one hour to eat dinner and then make ourselves look great because we were getting family photos taken.  We have never ever had family photos taken and the photographer was great and cheery so we really can't wait to see how the photos turned out.

We had half an hour after pictures to visit before we had to run to Jake's office, grab his paperwork, hurry to the dollar store to pick something up we had forgotten we needed for church and then hurry home where I had fifteen minutes.

In fifteen minutes I made a pot of coffee and loaded the dishwasher.  As i was headed out the door, I spilled my entire cup of coffee all over the stove.

We jumped in the suburban and hurried off to church.  Jake had left with S1 to make sure he got him to youth group on time.  It was then I realized we had forgotten a child.

Yes, you read that correctly.

We hadn't even made it a mile down the road when my call to double check with my husband that he did in fact have S2 with him only to hear he did not.  S2?  He heard me holler.  He heard me leave.  He knew I would be back for him.

Grrrr.  What a stinker.

We arrived to church where we had our Dave Ramsey class while the boys battled a real live bat.

Yes, you read that correctly too.

They thought it was so cool.  They hope the bat continues to live in the church.

My husband stayed at church for a meeting.  I took four boys boys home, three of which were so exhausted they were fighting and crying.

The smell of a dead mouse hidden somewhere in the house greeted me as I walked in the door at eight fifteen at night.

Monday the boys get to sit at school.  I get to sit at work.

Monday night we get to stay home all night for the first time in about eight weeks with no practice to run to.

i can't wait for Monday.

Portrait Innovations

On the first week of school, I received home the note stating that school pictures would be taken that Friday.  You know, the day everyone is so exhausted they can hardly keep their eyes open but when they are still tan from summer and their new school clothes are still very much new.

I sat down and figured out how much it would cost for my four boys to get the photos taken....it would be 49 dollars a PIECE.  So, times four..... 

Two hundred dollars, people, to get the packages I needed for the boys.

That was when An told me to check out Portrait Innovations.  She had just been there and had a stack of pictures to show me.  Kelly, the girl who took her three boys photos, had caught him jumping in the air into a blue leather child's chair.

I gave them a call and scheduled an appointment for my boys with Kelly, and then asked if we could do family photos if my husband was available. They gushed that they'd love that.

When I called to make the appointment, they had openings that day, the next day....but I chose the next Sunday knowing we would be all home and should be rested.

You recall our last family photos.  I wasn't sure if Hubs would agree with getting a family picture.  But...HE DID.  Kelly, whom we requested, had no idea what she was up against.

Not knowing how long it would take us to get there, we arrived about 20 minutes early.  And they were ready for us.

Husband was already impressed.

She then proceeded to take the normal school photos......

 S3, as I rarely see him, all cleaned up and smiling brightly.  He immediately was taken with Kelly.

 S4.  Hello, would these NOT be the cutest ever pictures of him?  Missing all his front teeth, scar on his forehead....and Kelly caught his grins especially perfectly.

 Hubs and me.  Honestly, we had had a rough day that day - and that hardly ever happens - but Kelly was so great at pictures she actually just caught us being us.  I love the pictures she got of us!

This family photo????? Our absolute favorite!  It's in a 10 x 13 frame in our house right now.  We all love it!

Kelly did a great job catching our personalities...capturing the funny things that happened.  Like this....

 She caught the essence of the kids....

 Let them be themselves and knew just when to snap the camera.

 Even when S3 and S4 got the giggles...especially S3.  He had Kelly giggling by the end of the session!

 This here is one of my most favorite photos.  She caught my growing S1 just so perfectly.  This is allllllll S1 right here.  I'm floored how old he seems.

 She had the brilliant idea to line up the middle boys...

 And work around S3's giggles....

 And capture the preciousness of little boyhood.

 S4 was pretty sure he was going to get tickled in this photo....

 But Kelly became the BEST ever to S2 when she took pictures of him in his football jersey (that he has to give back at the end of the season) with an arena background.

 She caught pictures of him tossing the ball to his brother.

 Knew how to make him look ready to play.  Feel totally cool.

We were going to be a hard family to impress, but she won us completely over.

She knew just how to line up the photos to make them look the best when printed.  She had an eye to line up the right poses together.

And then she told us our photos would be ready to be picked up FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER.

All of them.

Including the disc, so I could share them here with all of you.

Out the door, all the photos we took home were $222 photos.  There are two "school" picture poses of the boys, poses of all four boys together,  family photos, pictures of Jake and I, football pictures and a few "special" arrangements.

We were bowled over impressed. I cannot rave enough about the GREAT TIME we had.  My husband, MY HUSBAND, loved the time and pictures.  People, that is IMPRESSIVE.

Look up Portrait Innovations.  They are all over the country.  I just punched in 50 mile radius to find the nearest one to us... but I knew I would be using Kelly because she had done such a great job with An's boys.

And if you were to wait...like the boys had to while we were checking what pictures to get...the waiting room is filled with comfy couches and chairs, toys, legos - the boys were not in any way ready to go.

They have no idea that I would blog about them, but they did such a great job it should be shared with every family everywhere. Check them out pronto!!!!

We Have Nearly Survived the First Week of School

It's Friday.

I don't think I have ever looked forward to a Friday so much in a super long time.

It's the first week of school - and while it is a four day week - it has been kicking our butts.  As S4 has whined..."Why do we have to go EVERY day?'  And S1 admits he would like school a bit more if he could just have a day to sleep in.  Okay, maybe every day sleep in and then go to school.

We've had school, practice and Daddy has been working crazy hours every day this week.

Can. Not. Wait. For. Tonight.

We are going to eat a ham meal, settle in on the couch and veg...all cuddled together.

We'll probably all be asleep by seven pm.  But that will be just fine by all of us, I'm sure.

Here's a snap shot of this morning....

After a morning where S4 has cried that school is horrible and he doesn't want to go back, S3 is peeling a carrot for his bunny but then decided to eat most of it himself, S2 just wants us to GET TO SCHOOL because he gets to wear his jersey to school today and S1 just wants just one day to sleep in....

We got in the suburban a bit late.

S4 remembered he hadn't eaten breakfast at 7:38.  We have to leave school at 7:40.

Today is school picture day.  We found some great place that is highly recommended by a friend and we are going for family photos Sunday.....

All you who recall our last family photos

Knows how monumental that above statement is.

And now you should all pray for me.

And suggest clothes for us to wear.  Quickly.

I told the boys they could wear what they wanted today for the yearbook picture they will be getting.

S1 is fully decked out in camo.  S2 has his jersey on (of course).  S3 is bundled up in his most favorite John Deere coat/sweater thing.  S4 has on a black tshirt with a motorcycle on it because it makes him look dangerous.

Seriously.

We jammed to Ted Nugent's Fred Bear on the way to school, with another song by the Beatle's thrown in, ran in to the door (because we were nearly late) and S4 lost his shoe and began to sob.

Because we can not STILL find his shoes and he is wearing S3's shoes.  The velcro is about shot on them.  It's not a pretty sight.

We finally make it in the door where S1 has to hug me to find out what we are having for dinner.  No hug, no dinner knowledge.  And since this is NEED TO KNOW information, I'm getting a hug every day.  I consider this awesome.

We manage to deliver all the boys to the correct class before the school bell rings.  S3 just has a little more carrot to munch on as he walks into class.

We are getting there.  I think.  I hope.

But tonight? Oh, tonight I am so excited to have all my boys home and cuddle them and chill for the whole evening.  That will be total Friday night bliss.

An old (famous) post...Family Photos

I was hanging pictures today in our living room, the last family photos we had taken that are much much too old now. I have been not putting them up in plain view for a while now because of the memory behind them. So I thought I would repost that story from when I first began blogging.

Enjoy.....

It is against my better judgement to share this story with you. However, we are now getting prank calls from friends and two of our friends have laughed so hard they couldn't speak anymore and it is always followed with "oh! put that on your blog" and I respond with "it's not funny to me yet".

So, here is my not funny to me story that happened just two days ago.

We haven't had family pictures taken since #3's clothes no longer fit #4 - it's been a while. Okay, like three years ago. I am the taking photos diva and I have pictures going out with every Christmas card and this year it dawned on me I sent two family photos out - both with me in grub clothes and no makeup (camping and farming pics) - and decided then that this was the year that all that was going to change.

So, I made the appointment. I had to find a place to get them taken and then wish that they would have some magic bulbs so I could look all summery tan instead of hibernation white. I made it for a week away, until my husband informed me he would rather do it sooner - like the very next day. And I got that appointment. Which meant I brought up in Bible study and had to call three friends to try to pull together a color scheme. We all agreed on one thing, being the only girl in the family, this time it really could be all about me. So I chose my favorite blue skirt...and wondered if there was a place that offered immediate bronzing to pull it off! But like they would really see my legs in the photos, right?

My husband buzz cuts all our boys hair except #4. I say this with all the unconditional love of a mother, our youngest has a large head. Thankfully, he has grown into it - more - but a buzz cut on him is never ever going to be an option. Ever. Over the winter this year I let my boys hair grow out, keeping around their eyes and ears and the back of their neck cleaned up with scissors. My husband believes that the boys were the greatest gift God ever gave us....and one of the greatest gifts about them is that he can buzz cut their hair and they will never have to see a stylist. So, having the boys hair long enough to look like hair is a big deal to me. I love their hair so I told them to keep their hats in the back of the suburban - the older two boys are NEVER without their camo hats - and I 'styled' their hair for them. Son #2 has the most beautiful curly hair ever. Beautiful. I never knew this when it was buzz cut and I was so glad to have it captured for the whole world (or all family members) to appreciate.

We arrived a few moments early - my husband was sure we would be late but everything was going smoothly! - and let the studio know we were there. My husband called his mom on the way there to let her know we were in the 'big cement city' as I call it and we could meet her for dinner.

And then we waited.

And we waited some more.

And then we waited longer.

My husband has no patience. He will tell you so. None. The only time he has patience is in letting his garden grow - my husband is a changed man when farming. But this was not farming. THIS was sitting in hard plastic chairs for over half an hour at our normal dinner time. Son #1 began being the 'third parent'. Son #2 was nervous his hair wouldn't look just right and began smoothing it down. #3 and #4 began rolling - I'm not exaggerating at all - back and forth across the floor. My thought was, if it keeps them quiet and they don't get dirty, it's better than them running and getting bruises.

The woman we realized we were waiting for was oohhing and aahhing over ever photo taken of her one teenage soon. She wanted them all but she could only choose a few and she took FOREVER!

At some point, we gave up making the boys stay quiet. My husband told them to go stare at the woman picking out photos, maybe that would speed her up. He didn't care if they knocked down the table with the display on it anymore, four little boys can't be cooped up that long.

I was becoming mortified by it all and still trying to talk peacefully. "We have nothing else planned, no where else to go..."

And then he reminded me of the dinner plans we had made on the way in.

So, we made it in to get our photos taken 45 minutes after we got there. Had we known it would have taken this long, we could have gotten our eldest new school shoes. He's outgrown his and it's one of those things you really need him to be there for and never have him with when you are near shoes. And then we would have been busy instead of doing nothing but thinking how long they were taking.

And this is the happy family that the photographer has to work with.

The photographer gets us all in place and Son#3 is sitting on my lap. The photographer says "look at my pickle nose!" and he begins to laugh. I mean, seriously all out laugh. "She said pickle nose!" and he cannot stop laughing. Imagine a bad case of the giggles, but way worse. He cannot stop laughing. I feel my husband tense beside me. I now realize that Son#3 is way over tired from two days of preschool and hard play outside and I know this is going to get ugly fast. I get right in Son#3's face and say 'okay, stop now!' in a forceful voice.

The photographer does not say 'pickle nose' for the rest of the session.

We get a few - like three - pictures and she has us all line up. I try to catch a glimpse of myself in the teeny tiny mirror they have in there. I see stress screaming from my eyes. And I have to check, when feeling any type of emotion what so ever, I get all red and blotchy looking. Some call it hives, some call it redneck, I call it the curse. If I eat anything spicy - like ketchup - I get red and blotchy. If I am out and about and think "I hope I don't get all red", I will. If I laugh too hard, if I watch an intense movie, if I am extremely excited and gleefully or really mad, I get red. If I am in a high stress situation, you guessed it. Expecting such a situation (and not wanting the whole world to be witness of my embarrassing trait), I had prepared by lots of makeup, because, as I said before, there was no tanning or tanning lights in the studio. And now I was thankful for the for thought to wear the makeup.

The next pose was me, on the floor, for all the world (okay, extended family and friends) to see my hibernation white legs. My husband sits next to me and son#3 lays between us with the three other boys surrounding us. We get one picture and Son#3 decides to get up...but he's not supposed to and when we get him to lay back down, he starts to cry. I have to kiss him and then go back to smiling happily.

When we get up for the next round of pictures, this time of just the boys, Son#3 decides he wants to ride on one of the toys there and we have to get him back with the rest of the gang so my husband gives him a gentle push with his boot on his butt.

This is what I would call the meltdown.

Son#3 begins wailing "my Daddy kicked me in the butt!" This takes MAJOR work to calm him down. Once he is done wailing, he begins laughing. Suddenly he has the best smile of the group. The photographer tells #4 he is a tough guy and needs to cross his arms; he takes this seriously and does not smile. He is tough. #1 decides this is a great time to pour on the charm, in a bunch of crazy looking (none appropriate for the photo) faces; my husband tells him to knock it off and smile. #2, sensing the stress, smiles in this huge frozen smile that is as fake as can be but he is staring straight ahead without blinking at the camera his hair completely flat and then huge wings at his ears.

The photographer looks to my husband and I and asks us if we would like our picture taken. "No, we're good" my husband states, "we have a lot of pictures of us together." He is right, I do agree, I don't want to remember this day but I am sure it came off a lot differently than that to the photographer.

When we go back to view our photos and purchase them, my husband loves how they have turned out. He had an eye for such things, the lighting and position and can glance at it and instantly know if we should keep or discard it. He is amazing at this. He tells me to chop chop in ordering how many I need and heads off to call his mom to tell her we will be leaving shortly.

In less time than the woman before us took to just pick out her pictures, we had taken photos, chosen them, paid and moved on out of the studio and were sitting in the restaurant across the street.

Ahh, the making of family memories.

Why someone can't just snap photos of us in every day life...like today when all six of us were outside playing soccer and laughing and having a great time.

I suppose that's why we have more soccer family memories than every three years family photos memories.

And that is the story everyone told me to post.