I miss blogging...

I really and truly miss blogging... I can't believe it's been (well) over 3 months since my last post... with good reason, it's been a slightly busy around here, and once I got out of the rhythm of blogging, it sure has been hard to get back into it.

In a very quick re-cap of the past few months; we found a house we loved, we put our house for sale, sold it, bought the new one, moved in, moved out, and here we are!  The timing was perfect, and luckily for us everything just fell into place like it was meant to be!

I keep debating whether or not I should try to catch up on all the months of pictures that I have never posted, but it seems like I may never get caught up on my personal pictures... but I do want to share this one of the kids.  I attempted a photo shoot with them, which has never left me happy - but I did manage to get one image I love:

I still can't manage to get a picture of all three of them looking AND smiling, so I will have to settle for this one - I love it because the girls had just given Evan a kiss on the cheek, and this was the reaction.  I think it's so representative of his relationship with his sisters.  I've thought it and said it out loud several times, that he is so wonderful with them.  He really puts up with a lot of grief from them (and of course, he has his limits), but he really truly loves them, and so far this summer I have really enjoyed watching him play with his sisters and including them in his games; playing make-believe, running in circles, playing duck-duck-goose, letting them watch him on the playstation... ;)

I sure hope I can get back in a routine of blogging consistently... here's hoping, right?

Happy Halloween

From,
The Krew

10 on 2sday

1.  This is my 3rd week in a row with a 10 on 2sday post!!  I think that's a recent record... Ya know why?  I started writing it in the to-do list section of my calendar...  I REALLY love checking things off my calendar...  even if it keeps me up past 10pm... (which is when I turn into a pumpkin...)

2.  We've had a pretty busy past week...

3.  I had a really fun family session...

4.  Evan graduated from preschool...

5.  I had the bizarre realization that we all matched what I dressed Evan in for his graduation 2 years in a row (2011 = blue, 2010 = red)  (Dan thinks I'm crazy for remembering this stuff... especially since I forget so much else...)

6.  We took a weekend trip to my parents' house in SW Missouri to celebrate my Grandpa & Grandma's 50th Anniversary...

7.  My parents actually live in Joplin, but thankfully just enough outside they weren't in the path of the tornado that hit last week.  We ended up driving through the town and witnessed some of the most unreal sights a person could see...  pictures don't do it justice...  but I will say, it is nothing short of a miracle that more people weren't hurt. 

8.  We said goodbye to Penny... she was my parents dog and part of our family for 12+ years...

9.  My Grandma E also came for a visit to my parents place, so we got another 4 generation photo... and the best part was my girls were NOT screaming while taking the picture!!!

10.  That's it.  It's 10pm and I'm turning into a pumpkin as I type...

10 on 2sday

1.  I got a wee bit of good news a few weeks ago...

... and I wasted no time in booking our trip, lining up babysitters (thanks Mom & Dad!), and I'm sure I will come back with a ridiculous amount of pictures!!

2.  Just before the good news we had our winter birthday celebration with my side of the family... it tended to revolve around Avery & Brynn a little more than everyone else (ity bity's will tend to do that, I think?), but it was nice to get everyone together... and get a picture of the cousins where my children were NOT screaming!  (although it was a close call until my Mom rushed in with a snack for Brynn!)

3.  Speaking of birthdays, my Dad celebrated a pretty momentous one... not sure if it's ok to post his age or not, but when have I ever really let that stop me??   :)  He turned 60!  With the help of lots of his family and friends, I created a book for him (using blurb.com - and I TOTALLY recommend them!) that had pictures from baby to now including letters and notes that were written to him for the book.  I was really happy with how it turned out... and I think he was too... a kid at heart...

4.  We got a new laptop not too long ago ~ which was a much needed upgrade.  I edited a photo session in about a 1/3 of the time it took my on my old laptop... soooooooooo sloooooooooooooooooooow it was.  Anyway, it's been a bit of a headache transitioning documents, making sure programs were moved over... and I lost every font I liked for my blog and my photog biz.  Very frustrating... I need to figure out how to get those fonts loaded back on the new computer, but I just haven't yet.  phooey.

5.  Avery & Brynn have been skipping at least one nap a week lately.  And they don't just skip a nap and lay quietly and play... they fight, they scream, they pound on the door, and they tear apart the little bit that is left in their room.  They have starting pulling each others hair during their little scuffles too.  lovely.  (I guess that's what sisters do?)

6.  So in light of their occasional nap-skipping (and general fondness of destruction), we turned their drawers back around... so dang frustrating that I can't even use a chest of drawers in their room.

7.  The girls have finally started pulling their weight around here and helping with the dishes...

8.  Brynn and Avery are still far more interested in the potty than I'm ready for... but again, I'm not totally discouraging it either... I figured for now we would just work on getting clothes on and off... but Brynn has taken it to a whole new level.  We now find her with her PJ's pulled down around her ankles at night when we go check on the kids before bed.  One night, instead of trying to put them back on and risking waking her up... I just pulled them off and let her sleep in her diaper.  I felt kind of bad about it, so the next time it happened I tried re-dressing her... she was a limp noodle... didn't even phase her...
 

9.  Evan and I were looking at the February calendar, you know... back in February... and he started counting... from 1 to 28, and he says... Mommy - it's missing 29!!  Up until that moment he was still forgetting a teen number here and there while counting, and all of the sudden he's counting all of the 20's!!?!?!? 

10.  Evan asked me to take a picture of him with all his favorite toys... and I couldn't resist...

10 on 2sday

1.  Sorry that I'm so generic at the end/beginning of each month... but it's not right that it's February already.  As ready as I am for spring to bring warm weather... I'm not ready for time to fly by so quickly!  Although the winter storm we are in the middle of right now is making me re-think that statement!

2.  I'm sure you are dying to know if I managed to take a nap last week... RiIIIIiiight... no.  I did not.

3.  Today is the last day I will ever have a one year old.  (well, 2 one year olds, but you get what I mean...)

4.  I SWEAR that right before I grabbed my phone to take this picture... Evan & Brynn were actually cuddling.  It was quite possibly the sweetest moment a mother can experience.  Even if it did only last for about 3 minutes. 

5.  Speaking of sweet moments.  Last week Evan and I had our lunch date, and when I told Evan about it earlier in the week he asked if we could bring along his sisters.  Melt my heart.  But.... no.

6.  We went to an indoor waterpark over the weekend with Dan's family ~ we have 7 winter birthdays from December to February ~ so we did a little celebration for everyone.  Awesome!  The kids had so much fun, and so did Dan and I for that matter ~ all three kiddos went crazy for the water slides!!

7.  I had to attempt a picture of me and the birthday girls during our weekend getaway... AAaaand... this is what we get:

(which is better than nothing... at least I show up in some pictures...)

8.  Our best attempt at a family picture:

(we had popped in a movie, which was right behind my SIL who was taking the picture... you can see where my girls' priorities fall... I'm just happy they weren't screaming!)

9.  The craziest part of our waterpark weekend was letting Evan go off on his own.  He never wandered far, but since Dan and I had to stick close to the girls (and take them down the slide 6-hundred times) he was mostly exploring by himself.  It was weird for me.  Especially as we get closer to sending him to kindergarten.

10.  Speaking of kindergarten.  I called the school last week to update the kids' information and make sure Evan is on the list to get info about kindergarten round up.  When I hung up the phone... I cried.

Christmas Traditions

The Christmas Chain
Last year I started doing a Christmas chain with Evan, in the hopes that he would stop pestering me with... "is it Christmas yet? Is it Christmas yet?"  This year we did it again, and got the girls involved a little bit!









Elf on the Shelf
This is our first year with the Elf on the Shelf, and I must say, this is the perfect year (4-1/2) to introduce it ~ Evan is TOTALLY into this.  And I must admit, the past two days that our little "Santa Spy" has been with us, has gone much more smoothly... and Evan named her "Nare".  Now I just need to figure out a way to incorporate this concept year-round!



MOM Christmas Party
Last year was our first year going to our Mothers Of Multiples (MOM) Christmas party, and of course Santa and Mrs. Claus are there! So, this year we went again and Evan was SO excited to see Santa that he just about knocked over the kids that were finishing up in front of us to get on his lap!



Brynn... not so much...



But she was ok sitting on Dan's lap, so we at least got one picture of the kids not flipping out!!



Santa's beard...
I'm not sure if this is actually going to stick around as a tradition or not, but Evan's preschool class did these and took them home.  It's a cute idea, and Evan loves gluing the cotton ball on every morning!




What are some of your favorite traditions??

best plans...

This was supposed to be our family picture for our Christmas card this year...



But then I had an opportunity to scope out a new indoor location for some upcoming photo shoots, so I thought, well ok, we can try for a more Christmas-y style for our pictures, and attempt to get a shot of the girls where they aren't flipping out...



Um... yeah, that's our family. Ok, there was a slightly better picture that we ended up using for our Christmas card... but I seriously thought about using this one. It's a little more real, totally us at this point in our lives... crazy, frazzled, and the girls want NOTHING to do with sitting still for a picture!

It's frustrating.

The wannabe photographer can NEVER get a decent picture of her own kids...

I've also been desperately attempting to get a good shot of the kids together. I try every chance I can get...

...and this is as good as it's gotten so far:



I'll just keep trying!

10 on 2sday

It's the Arizona edition!!  We flew out to AZ for a family reunion to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday.  It was a great trip, stressful at times, and worth every moment!  Here are some of the highlights and shenanigans...

1.  We made a few discoveries about our children (mostly Brynn):
a. Brynn likes to dip her fries in ketchup... and eat the ketchup.  And now she likes to dip everything into anything.



b. Brynn no longer appreciates the confines of her crib/pack-n-play... it became a really fun game at nap time and bed time to keep climbing out...

c. Brynn was more comforted by strangers while on the airplane... the flight out she sat in the lap of a perfect stranger during our decent, she wanted nothing to do with me or Dan, but was totally content sitting on the lap of a very kind lady looking out the window ~ and on our flight home she was so tired, but wanted nothing to do with us again, and thankfully our flight attendant was wonderful and held her until she fell asleep, and a little longer after that! 'Cause this peace & quiet didn't last long...



d. Brynn has zero problem with taking off and leaving us.  (which, I might add, is completely frightening)  My brother told me he watched her push the (heavy) double doors open, walk out, check every door that would have led to the great outdoors, and never once looked behind her to see if anyone was following her.  I am so thankful my brother happened to see her... Then when we were outside, she made her escape attempt again, although this time I was watching her like a hawk.... through the lens...



e.  Avery DOES NOT like getting pictures taken where she has to sit down... (so we got creative to make sure she made it into some of the pictures)



f.  Evan was more than happy to let his new friend learn how to share toys (and he was GREAT at it!)...



2.  I got to meet an "old" friend for the first time ~ she wrote a blog post about it too, which was super sweet ~ you should check it out!!



3.  We realized how much we truly love our minivan when we borrowed my Grandma's car during our stay... kids being able to touch each other in the car is SO overrated...





4.  The weather was a little funny, when we arrived in Phoenix, it was a bit toasty (aaahhhh!) ~ and we spent our last few days in Sedona, where it was colder than if we would have been in Iowa at the same time... (which may have been why we got some funny looks while being outside in the pool/jacuzzi... crazy Iowans)





5. This is just strange and funny to me... makes me glad I don't have to deal with this problem...



6.  Chasing 3 children going in different directions through an airport when one person had to stay with the bags... a logistical challenge!  'Cause the novelty of watching the planes didn't last very long...



7.  Having 5 out of 7 days with no regular nap time for our kids... a parental challenge!

8.  We have a very polite family... and instead of saying, "Wow, your kids are obnoxious!"  Everyone said, "Wow, your kids never stop running, do they?"  Nope. They sure don't. (see #1e & #6)

9.  Family, fun & fellowship ~ although, Dan and I realized we had very few truly meaningful conversations while out there (refer to #8), very challenging when the only quiet time we get (nap time) was either spent in the car trying to drive our kids to sleep (refer to #3 & #7), or in a separate location from family... but the time we did spend with everyone was such a treasure that I will never forget.  We had all 31 family members in the same place at the same time, and it was awesome!



10.  My Grandma ~ an amazing lady, to say the least.  My cousin, PJ, took this picture of her - and I adore it.  I think he perfectly captured the love and compassion in her eyes...  and she made this whole trip worth it and then some!

Happy Birthday, my dear!

Happy Birthday, Dan!

Even though our lives often resemble this:

It's still fun to share the craziness with you!  I love you!

This is what we do for fun...

...when it's nice out. 

Although, I'm pretty sure when I took this picture it was the last nice day we've had, and that was 2 weeks ago... so we are praying for the warm weather to come back!

Being a Mom is AWESOME

                  Always:

       hard Work

                       Exhausting

                self Sacrificing

               lOving

                  Mostly:

                              the bEst job in the world

Sending lots of love out to all the Mom's I know and love.

A beautiful day...

...for a wedding!

Welcome to the family!

Yesterday was such a beautiful day...

...that when Avery yanked off her socks while we were outside...


...I didn't bother to put them back on...


...that when Evan wanted to pose with his favorite car...

...I obliged...


...and even attempted a try with all 3 kids (realizing that I haven't made a single attempt at getting all 3 together since the girls became so mobile)...


...that when we were done with dinner...

...we didn't even bother to clean up the dishes right away...

...instead we went outside to play...