Carter is ONE!

The first thing I did on Sunday morning was have a little photo shoot with my one-year-old nephew. He is such a happy little guy. We had a great time smiling at each other and I got some great shots.

  What fun we had with Carter!

A photo shoot

Before I get back to the visit from my brother & sister-in-law and their boys, I just had to post these pictures of a cute little two-year-old I know.

She was oh-so-cooperative.

That’s her refusing to stand.

Well, if Mom gives me her bracelet to play with and kisses me on the forehead, I might not scream anymore.

I’m kidding. Sort of. Honestly, the photo shoot started out pretty well. We got some good stuff. The following four pictures are the same shot, only with different photo editing options. I’m taking votes…

And then we have    And these

  And these

 

She. Is adorable.

Some videos

1. Bethany on violin at our impromptu recital

2. & 3. Sarah on piano at our impromptu recital

4. & 5. Bethany’s piano pieces

6. Sarah’s flute solo at the band concert

7. 5-12th grade school kids singing the song commissioned for the school’s 100th anniversary at the recent choir concert. Can you find Sarah?

8. Nephew jabbering this past April when I visited. So funny!

9. One of the songs Becca’s class sang at our Mother’s Tea

10. One of the songs Elise’s StoryHour class sang to the moms at Coffee Break

 

Day One of Surprise Visit

Slowly, but surely I’m making my way through the 983 photos that I have taken since Saturday evening. You know I’m not kidding.

So far, the photos are all pretty much SOOC (Straight Out Of the Camera). The advantage to SOOC is that I can get through them faster, save them to jpegs and upload them. When I edit, it takes an absurd amount of time. Most of the Day One photos are just snapshot type photos and are good enough the way they are.

Unfortunately, my camera is not yet fixed and I’m just having a really hard time with some focus issues. I sure hope the problem is only that it needs a new focus screen and not something else. I have A LOT of blurry photos. When it’s a mostly sharp picture, it’s OK, but put that mostly sharp picture next to a perfectly sharp picture and it pretty much gives me motion sickness to look at the mostly sharp picture.

Day One of the Surprise Visit Photos are available here for your enjoyment.

It’s finally here

About six weeks ago, my brother called me with an idea. He & his wife and boys wanted to fly up to WA from CA over Memorial Day weekend, for their son’s first birthday. The catch? The trip was to be a surprise to everyone but me – I could not tell my husband, my kids, or my parents.

The first step was to purchase the tickets. They bought one-way tickets up here with miles, but I had to drive to Bellingham and purchase their tickets home. Problem: How was I to do that? Ed takes care of the finances. He would notice a $160 charge to Allegiant or a $160 cash withdrawal with no explanation from me. What was I to do?

Enter a very good friend, who watched my kids while I drove to the airport (under the guise of doing GEMS business) and who loaned me $160 cash so I could pay for the tickets at the airport.

Over the course of the next six weeks, up until today, my life was full of lies and trying not to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and give away the surprise. I lied about the piano recital. I lied about where I went today. I lied about phone conversations. I lied about mailing birthday presents. I lied about oh, so many things. Lying really stresses me out. I begged Ed to guess because I just couldn’t stand it anymore. He couldn’t of course. And then he even forgot that he knew I was planning “something.”

Plus, I was soooooo excited about the visit and the surprise. I’ve been jittery for weeks.

This morning I drove to Seattle to pick up my brother and his family (under the guise of going to garage sales with another very good friend) and dropped them off at my sister-in-law’s family in a nearby town. Later on, my parents came over for games and dinner and were surprised (along with my kids and hubby) by the arrival of  my brother, his wife, and his two adorable boys. Everyone was actually surprised! No one had figured anything out and it was so awesome. We had dinner, a birthday party, a one-year-old digging into cake, cousins giggling, and 12 smiling people in my house today.

I am so relieved to be able to live in the truth again!

And we are all looking forward to 3 days of family togetherness.

Happy Birthday, Carter!

My sweet nephew is 1 year old today! Carter, your smile makes me smile and your sparkling eyes make me want to pick you up and laugh right along with you. I miss you so much and I hope we get to see you soon! I am so looking forward to having you here at Christmas – what fun you will be this year and it will be our first Christmas with you!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO ~ Love, Aunt Julie

Happy Birthday, Katie-bug!

This little thing is two today! Katie-bug, you are such a sweet little person. I know your mother calls you The Destroyer, but that’s just because you are challenging her in ways she’s never been challenged before. Just keep it up. It’s good for her. I love the way your eyes light up when you see the people you love, like Holly, and Aunt Sally, and I love the way you follow Sam (and my girls) around. You’re the perfect little sister. And since we have you around, Elise doesn’t need a little sister and that’s good news for me! One of these days it’ll stop raining and I’ll take your two-year-old photos. Have a fun birthday!! Go destroy your cake!

The Bathroom and the Thumb

As I was typing that title, I realized it sounds like a fable. I thought about trying to actually write this post as a fable, but I decided not to. Life is too complicated to mess with fables.

First, the bathroom:

For some reason my children think it’s acceptable to leave the bathroom looking like this, or worse. I decided I had had enough. I made them clean it, of course, and then threatened to confiscate any items not put away in the future. They would have to buy those items back from me, in addition to cleaning the bathroom. I was informed that Daddy would not like it if I took away their toothbrushes. I said “Just TRY me.” (Insert evil laugh here). I think I actually scared them, or a couple of them anyway. So far, I have not been tested in this. They are putting things away. They are lucky.

Second, the thumb:

This is the thumb of an almost-four-year-old after being caught in the back end of an automatic sliding van door. Swollen, tender, discolored. Ouch. I felt so badly for her. It happened in the Target parking lot, at the beginning of our errands. Why is it that one little event like that can completely throw off your entire day? I don’t know. Anyway, she was screaming and crying and hyperventilating. We drove to Logos, borrowed stole some ice (not gonna return it, after all), and headed for home. I gave her some ibuprofen and she survived. She doesn’t hold a cup or anything with that hand and you just don’t realize how much you use your thumbs until you can’t use one of them!

Poor baby girl. I felt so awful for her. She was all worried that it would hurt at her preschool picnic today, but not to worry, Elise. It’s pouring down rain. I don’t think you’re gonna have your picnic today. Perhaps next week.

Time for a change

I've had that previous blog design for a long time and have been sick of it for a while now. My computer-genius husband had figured out how to make my blog look like I wanted it to look, but it takes some time. When I started talking about redesigning he groaned and said, "Why don't you just get a pre-made one for a while?" Yeah, things are *that* busy. I'd love to get a custom design on my blog like Dee but I don't have the connections she does. So, I had to settle for a free design from, as you can see from the ugly stamp on the upper left, Hot Bliggity Blog. It won't last forever. I hope.

High Low

Have you ever played the “High Low” game? It’s where everyone in the group or family has to tell their “High” from the last week or day and everyone has to tell their “Low” from the past week or day. You can also play “Happy Cr---“, but since this is a family-friendly blog, I’ll stick to the Highs and Lows from the past week or so.

High: I used to have one of these. Loved it. Broke it. Thought I could make salsa without it. Was wrong. Bought a new one. Can’t wait to use it.

Low: Multiple hail and rainstorms flattened these peonies.

High: The Calla Lilies are blooming. See those raindrops? Yeah, those are the ones that flattened the peonies.

Low: This was on Becca’s field trip, which was of course a High, but the point of this picture is to see that I am still having focus trouble on my camera (Low). We do think we know what is wrong with it (High) and we don’t think it’ll be too expensive to fix (High) but the closest place that can fix it is about 90 minutes+ away (Low).

High: Pushing Becca on the swings was one of the fun things we did together on her field trip.

High: Taking a nature walk with her class.

High: Shopping and dinner with the 7th/8th grade GEMS. We had so much fun.

Double High: Mini Rich Chocolate Cake for dessert. It was scrumptious. As was my Baked Cheese Tortellini at Johnny Carino’s. DE. LISH.

IMHO, Olive Garden is like a hotdog compared to Carino’s.

High: I cut those flattened peony buds and brought them into the house and placed various bouquets around the house. They have opened, as they always do, and are bringing fragrance and joy into the house.

It was a strange week; chock full of “stuff” and late nights other “Lows”. I’m just not taking as many pictures with my camera since it’s frustrating to deal with the focus issue. Stay tuned for some videos soon. I hope.

Gratituesday List

I am thankful for…(in no particular order)

*the rain today

*Isaiah 43

*the teachers at our school

*these flowers:*and this:

*and the fact that these peonies always act like they’re never going to open, and then, always, they do:

*God is faithful