Random thoughts....

I've been having some seriously random thoughts the past two days, and since I love all things random, I thought I would share.

*When it's the end of the night, and you think kids should be tired, why do they run around like crazy people jacked up on pounds upon pounds of sugar?

*If Jack Bauer can save the world in 24 hours, like SEVEN TIMES, why oh why can't our government save it in 100 days? Just sayin..........

*Why, Oh WHY, does cake hate my midsection and thighs so much?

*Why don't babies understand how good they have it. I mean seriously, if I didn't have to wipe my own butt, could eat whatever whenever, and got to take two naps per day, I would be the happiest person alive. And yet.....their not.....

*That "I'll sleep when I'm dead" statement is the stupidest thing I have ever heard and the person who first said it should be shot 'til their dead.

*Why is it that when our "mommy love feelings" kick in, we have this overbearing urge to squeeze our kids until stuff comes out. Literally....like their breakfast cereal.

*That feeling also occurs when they tick us off.

*Did I SERIOUSLY just sing the whole theme song to Dora? And Diego?

*My throat really hurts today.....what are the symptoms of swine flu again?

*If I had a secret super power, it wouldn't be something awesome like being invisible or flying or any crap like that, it would be the one Jeanie had where she blinked her eyes or wiggled her nose or whatever and stuff would get done

*What takes hours to clean is undone in mere seconds by a two-year old. Life truly isn't fair.

*Why do I sometimes hate the word "mommy"? Oh yeah, it's 'cause all I hear over and over all day is "mommy....mommy.....mommy.....mommy". Yet, I really am sad when they start calling me just "Mom".

*Ah screw it.....I'm making a cake. I jogged 1.5 miles today.

The week in review....

This past week was a crazy one. I feel like it flew by and I CANNOT believe that it's almost May! Here are a few of the highlights....(or lowlights)...

*We bought a bunch of plants last weekend and planted some new bushes in the front. It looks good! I can't wait for my Gerber daisies to grow!

*Softball season is officially kicked off! Faith is excited, and her new nickname from her team is "House" which her dad and I think is awesome. She is putting it on the back of her shirt.

*Emmy got her costume for her dance recital. They are doing a routine to "It's a Small World", and all the girls costumes are all from a different country. I think hers is supposed to be from Holland, but she looks like a french maid. It's kind of scary:)

*Jury Duty was crap. I was actually put on a jury on Thursday. I sat through the entire jury vetting process and was SURE I would be excused to enjoy the rest of my weekend because I went to high school with one of the witnesses. I informed them of that during questioning, but they kept me anyway. As a last ditch effort, when asked if there was any reason at all I did not want to be there, I folded my arms and replied "Absolutely. It's 75 degrees outside and I want to be playing with my kids or planting my new flowers." The judge and lawyers laughed. I guess they thought I was being cute and funny. I was not. It didn't work, and I had to decide if one guy hit another guy in a bar fight. Yeah.

*I took great pictures of the cutest chunky monkey I know (besides my own kids of course, who really aren't "chunky monkey's"). I had some good conversation with his big sister at the swing set, and we solved all the worlds problems:) I miss our lunchtime talks...........

*Maebree is trying to potty train herself. I realized I'm not ready for it. I took the changing table out of her room and almost started crying. It's still in our hallway.

*I made reservations for the hubs and I to go to Chicago (Ok, Oakbrook, but close enough) so I can break-down and buy a Mac. It's our first trip without the kids since Mae was born. I flippin' can't wait!!! Plus, he's going to take me to see Wolverine. That wouldn't be exciting for most women, but I am not like most women, and any excuse to see Hugh Jackman beating people up is OK with me.

*Lost was a re-run and that was crap. What are we going to do at the end of May?

*I started jogging. I'm really sore and out of shape, but I jogged a whole mile before stopping!! YIPPEE!! Except Nichole kicked my butt, so I gotta catch up with her......

*I spent five hours, YES FIVE HOURS!, cleaning Faith and Emmy's room. There ended up being two huge 75-gallon bags FULL of trash and one 75-gallon bag full of donation stuff by the end of it. They have a 300-square-foot room, and they filled it with garbage and junk. Plus, they are girls and they like to try on clothes and then leave them wherever. I found things I had been looking for for weeks. It's Tuesday, we cleaned on Saturday, and it's STILL clean. Here's hopin' it stays that way.

Well, that's it. My life is so exciting:) I plan on starting dance club back up again (it's raining and I can't jog), so that should be exciting. I hope I don't pull something....

Civic responsibility

I'm getting ready to go and do my "civic duty" to Champaign County by serving jury duty this week. FYI........I'm not in the least bit thrilled by it.

I think I will wear an "I (heart) guns" sticker on my cardigan and see if I get dismissed early on. It could work............

New website

I just wanted to throw up a quick post and let everyone know that I have a website now for the photography stuff. I felt like this blog should be simply about our day-to-day (more like week-to-week lately!) updates on our family and didn't want to take up space with other people's pictures:)

Anyway, I still have some work to do on the new website, but at least you can see some of the new photo shoots I have done recently (as well as find out WHY I have been absent lately!). You can find it at www.myhousephotography.com

Thanks All!

Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter Sunday this year. The girls had fun on the hunt for their Easter baskets

Of course, I realized how stupid it is to give kids a basket full of candy right before breakfast and then expect them to eat their boring 'ol cereal:)

After breakfast, we got them all dressed up in their cute new dresses.....Mae would not take out the paci for the picture!

After a great church service, we went to moms and did an Easter egg hunt with the girls and Noah. I have never done one before with them, and they had a blast!

Mae would scream every time she found an egg!

Noah, right before he "chucked" one of his two eggs at me. Everything is a ball with that kid!

The were all obviously thrilled with the prospect of taking pictures. They were coming down off their sugar highs by then!

My running man

My hubby ran in the Illinois Marathon on Saturday (this was all of waiting for him to come in). He ran with 3 other's guys on the fire department in the relay. He was the second man in the relay and had to run 7 miles....not really a big deal for him under normal circumstances. Except they don't do things normally at the fire department:)

I think you will see what I mean....

Yep...they ran with their air packs on. Can you imagine running 7 miles with a 30 pound tank on your back while breathing through a tube? No thanks! I can't imagine running 7 miles period. This clip was taken at the end and he had to remove the mask since there was no more air left in the tank and he was getting ready to hand of to the other guy.

Russ coming down the last stretch.

Us aftering our stud came in!

My baby's no baby no more....

Well, her birthday was a massive success......she had good food.. (pizza)....along with some ranch (in maebrinese, this is "souko")the girl loves her "souko".. She thorougly enjoyed her cake, and was way excited at the prospect of "eatin' sum"....







She got some great presents, but I think the M&Ms from my mom and dad was her favorite..

We kept it very low-key with only family and her best buddy Emmitt....are we getting a glimpse into the future here? She is already bossing him around in the kitchen.....

"E....let me show you how this is done..." :)

I also took the opportunity to get her 2-year pictures done since I loved her $6 Wal-Mart dress she was wearing. Green is definetly her color! These are not typical shots becuase quite frankly, she doesn't cooperate for me. She is sick of the camera being in her face!! But some of them turned out pretty cute...

I love this one becuase I left the color in her eyes....you can see she has one dark brown spot in the bottom of her eyes...it's pretty cool!

Typical Mae here...won't put kibby (or sometimes pissy) down...

"Cheese"......but I'm gonna sit as innapropriatley and unladylike as I can....





Not bad...but kinda blurry......they only "typical" picture I got!

She LOVES my bathroom mirror...I don't know why, but she loves playing in it! And kissing that baby.....



These are probaby some of my favorites.....She was excited about the commercial that came on for her "go-go's" and I caught her reaction:)

This one is her most natural...and at 2 year's old, she still has no hair on the side of her head! Some day Maeder....some day.....

I'm still trying to get over the fact that my baby's not such a baby anymore. In fact, she wants to baby the other babies now......*sigh*