Family Pictures 2017

A few weeks ago we went for an adventure as a family.  We borrowed a canoe from my FIL, picked up some fountain drinks from the local Giant and headed out on a dirt road to a pond at the base of our mountain.  It turned out to be a little more exciting of an adventure than we meant it to be - Marcus stepped on a cactus that stabbed through his shoe and into his foot :( Maelee and Madi both let go of the rope swing too late and landed in shallow water, thereby effectively damaging various joints in their legs, and I... well... I have no upper body strength which, when mixed with trying to support my ghetto booty and thunder thighs on a rope swing... let's just say everyone fishing on the other side of the pond got quite a chuckle.  And Clint caught it on video.  Which needs to be destroyed.

ANYway, on our way back home, we stopped at the ranger station so the kids could show me where they saw a deer on their last visit and we were met with the most GORGEOUS dry grass meadow and MASSIVE cottonwood tree.  The photographer in me got all kinds of googly eyed over this somehow forgotten treasure and vowed this was where we would take our family photos this year!!

Hmmph.  Fast forward a month or so and it's now the day we have a chance to do our pics... and it's windy as all get out... and I somehow have 2 evening church meetings I have to go to :(  -SO- change of plans and pics on our bed it is!!!  Because evidently, that's how we roll lol!

And Clint was SO excited to be taking them, can't you tell?

We did get ONE good family photo...

And a few crazies...

Marcus has this thing lately where if Clint kisses me, HE has to kiss me.  Twice.  If Clint compliments me, HE gushes on the charm.  And so on... I think it's hilarious personally!  I mean, who WOULDN'T want 2 handsome fellas fawning all over them??

As you can see from the photo above, Clint doesn't always think it's as cute as I do haha!!  And a disclaimer from here on out, not all the photos are edited... I've been working non-stop on pictures for other people for about 4 weeks and I'm kinda done lol 



I was so excited for pictures in that meadow, I got mine and the girls' dresses from my friend Taytum who was a JUNIEblake consultant and I had all these pictures in my mind involving these dresses... none of which involved laying down hahahahaha!!!  My dress does good things for me and my hair has finally grown back out which was going to make for pretty great pictures... ah well.  This bed has hosted numerous family wrestling matches on Sunday afternoons, so these are pretty great for sentimental reasons I suppose ;)

Oh, my Madi.  These pictures are pretty much her at 11 1/2.  A spunky, beautiful, curly-frizzy, warmhearted tween.  I love that she's one of my friends, and that I'm one of hers :)

This boy.  He is 100% boy.  And I freaking LOVE him to pieces!  I didn't know when I fell in love at 19 that I would fall in love again at 27.  Dad GUM he makes me so happy!!!

And then there's Miss Maelee!!  Our aspiring comedian/cosmotologist :)  She keeps us on our toes by bouncing back and forth between stirring the pot and making sure everyone has a smile on their face.  Babies LOVE our sweet little coconut, which she loves lol

I've been telling these two turkeys to pretend that the other one is her best friend.  Give each other the benefit of the doubt like they do their best friends.  Be compassionate and loving like they are to their best friends.  It's helping, some days ;)

Watch Marcus' dart...

 

We're a mess.  But it's a good mess and I'll take it <3 br="">

Halloween 2017

This year All Hallow's Eve could have very easily been a total failure.  We had all 3 kids sick with a ridiculous virus that acts like strep but can't be killed with a pill (what the crap??!?  As if regular strep isn't bad enough??  Ugh.), and up until about a week before, Clint and I had NO IDEA what we were going to be.  I know, that's not really "failure" material, but the few years we've dressed up with the kids have been really fun (we really are just big kids you guys)(and I just realized I used the word "really" 3 times in that sentence... mmmmmkay.  Shows you just how tired I am!).  I'm still a little unsure as to why Clint wasn't on board with my Miranda Sings costume idea, I do a "real gooood" impression (insert pervy eyebrow raise and head tilt) and I thought he'd be one lucky guy to have her on his arm all night.  Weird.  Luckily, we found some pretty fantastic costumes on Amazon and with our handy-dandy free 2 day shipping they were here in time for the big day!

Actually, Amazon came through for a good chunk of our costumes this year - we got the inspiration for Madi's dragon costume from there, and both Maelee and Marcus' costumes found their way to us through our Amazon shopping cart.  But that's actually totally irrelevant haha!!  Back to Halloween!!!!

One of these years we are totally going to have a family theme and all dress coordinating - like the emotions from InsideOut, or cave people, or hill billies, or LOTR characters... or something.  But not this year!!  This year we had:

A very beautiful yet scary dragon

Our very own Moana

and the most adorably fierce pirate on the 7 seas (who refused to wear his eye patch, bandana or hat)

 

AND...

Let's not forget the biggest and the best...

A pair of sparring SUMO WRESTLERS!!!  Bahahahahaha!!

Aren't we beautiful??

 

The girls were SO EMBARRASSED by us and insisted on going off with their friends and avoiding us at the school's Halloween Carnival, which in my book is a total parenting win.  Go us!

It was a pretty chill evening, a regular bedtime and since everyone was either still sick or recovering we all (minus Dad, sorry Clint!!) slept in the next morning and got to school late.  Worth it.  Totally worth it!

 

The Day I Knew Would Come Too Soon

Not sure how to approach this new phase in my life.

Joy?  Weeping, and I mean like ugly, uncontrollable sobbing?  Sleep?  A happy dance?

All of my kids are in school.  Even my sweet baby boy has left me and joined his buddies (and his "girlfriend" lol!!!) in Kindergarten.  No fear, no clinging to Mom or sadness in his bright, hazel eyes - just pure excitement and go go go!  Marcus took that first step and hasn't looked back. 

Maelee grew up overnight and is suddenly in 3rd grade which where we live means switching classes between 4 teachers.  AND she graduated into the second highest class in gymnastics - whaaaaaaaat??  When did 8 become so OLD?  Speaking of 8 that also means she was baptized this summer by her daddy.  I cried ugly tears that weekend... 

And Madi?  Madi is 11 and a full blown tweeny-bopper.  She entered 6th grade with spirals in her hair, new glasses on her face and a skip in her step.  She came home talking about boys and new friends, new teachers and familiar faces. 

 All three.  Gone.  All day.  And I'm alone...

I'm sad because I love my kids!  No matter what else you've heard, I really do!!!  :)  We had so much fun playing card and board games this summer, and I don't feel like we got to do enough together.  I crave snuggling up with my munchkins and a movie...

I'm happy because I'm SO DONE listening to them argue and bicker and nag and tattle and whine and disagree and yell and on and on and on!  We're a team!  Let's support each other, you obnoxious knuckle heads!!  Get over it, stop name calling ya bozos and just BE NICE!!!

I'm thinking that I'm leaning more toward a "woohoo!!!" kind of emotion, mainly because I'm the kind of person who's on the go ALL THE TIME and it'll honestly be nice to not have to "worry" about my kids - Who's watching them?  What are they doing while I'm editing pictures or painting or crafting or cleaning?  Are they doing something that's rotting their brains or actually benefiting them?  How many freaking fruit snacks have they HAD today??  Do I let them watch just ONE more episode while I try to finish what I'm doing or do I slip out of "Tiffany" mode and back into "Mommy" mode now like my guilt is screaming at me to do?

That kind of worry, ya know?

I think the craziest part about being here is that this is the year I've talked about for ages!  "When my kids are all in school I'll FINALLY catch up on my blogging and scrapbooking and journaling!  I'll write that book or two that are floating around in my head!  I'll flesh out my photography business and start pushing myself to succeed there!  I'll stay on top of the housework and keep our home running smoothly by meal planning, couponing, budgeting better and finishing what I start!  I'll manage my time better!!"  Well lady, here it is.  That year you've been going on about.

So now what?  What first?  Where do I even start??  My best, most honest answer?  WHO KNOWS!!?!  I couldn't tell ya!  But I'm pretty excited to figure it all out!!