Annual Christmas card shoot

I should be in bed. I haven't been to bed before midnight in over a week. And it started off as one NASTY week too. Lets just say a flat tire in "the hood" was not a way to start the week. Plus I taught my daughter some new words...**sigh*** mother of the year, right here! (BTW..they weren't cuss words persay, it was freakin' and heck, Christian cuss-words if you will. Just had to clarify that:)

My friend Stacia (that's her nickname:) showed me a pic of her pastors kids who were dressed up like "Who-people" a la The Grinch, and that was it. I knew that would be our Christmas card. After editing these pics, I decided I wished I would've used a white background, but it just washed out the little two and their light hair, so black it was.

Here are a few that won't make the card-cut, though they are too cute not to share!

If you want to see the final results....you better start begging to make the list! :)

Blog vacation

I know that it seems I've taken a vacation from the blog world. I assure you, I have not. Time is not my friend these days. We went on a little trip to Colorado which ended up being more of a work trip then a fun trip. Especially for our kids, but that is for another blog. Here is a sample of what was done......by sample, I mean sample 'cause this is it and I'm not touching another photo until my hiatus in December, so enjoy!
I was more than happy to take her wedding pics. She has been waiting for this man for years, as have all of us who know her! She looked radiant....it was extremely emotional, and I'm sad I couldn't 100% immerse myself and enjoy her wedding, but I am truly honored she trusted me with her memories.

Just as an FYI.....I will not be doing weddings:) Not now...possibly not ever. It was extremely stressful, and I just don't have the equipment needed to do them right. But I will be more than happy to take, say a Nikon D700 as a bribe:) I'm just sayin' :)

A bad case of the "we don'ts"

Craziness has truly taken over my life. Since my last blog, Maebree, after perking up, took another nose dive into the flu thing. I had to cancel my "babies" last week in some effort to get her better and sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. Then Russ got whatever "it" was. So far.....my immune system has held it together. I pray every day (while taking my Ester-C and acidophiles) that it will continue since I just don't have time for sickness. The upstairs of my house looks like a laundry bomb went off, and I can't even remember the last time I vacuumed. But I digress.....

Yesterday was a busy day. All babies were on their own schedule and had their own ideas about things. I caught myself saying "No! We don't.....(fill in the blank)" at least a million times. I find that saying funny, because "We" implies that I do these things....and I assure you, I do not. I thought I would share some of the "we don'ts" that were uttered yesterday. Mother's of my extras, see if you can figure out which one goes with your kid:)

We don't:
.....lick the couch.
.....lick the sliding glass door.
.....eat the entertainment center.
....pull the cat's tail.
.....pull the cat's ears.
......try and ride on the dog.
......try and ride on our buddy.
......poke buddies eyes out.
......take toys from our friends.
.......throw our plates.
.......throw our bottle. After opening it and spilling it all over.
......lick...ok....you can lick your plate.
.......stab the t.v. with a toy.
.......eat the remote.
......eat the phone. Here. Eat THIS phone.
.......lick the carpet.

Have you figured out which goes with which? ;) Hint: All the "licks" go together....

Nasty weekend

***SIGH****

That pretty much sums up the last weekend. My little tater came down with a fever early Saturday morning. She came into our room saying she had to potty, and when I picked her up, she felt as if she was on fire:( Nothing else, just fever, and a doozy of one that peeked at 105 that night. That lasted 'til about 6:00 last night when I finally caved and called the patient advisory nurse because I just couldn't take her being miserable anymore. I didn't want to just take her in and expose her to everyone else's swine flu, but wanted to know what was wrong at the same time. Wouldn't you know it while I was waiting for that darn nurse to call back, she snapped out if it. Her fever broke and she ran upstairs to put on her "pintheth" to do some heavy duty spinning to the Dora episode that was on. Just like that, sickness done. It was weird.

I don't know what it was, I don't know why she had it. She now has a small little cough every now and then and a bit 'o snot, but nothin else. I happened to get one of the sweetest shots of her in recent times. I love it becuase she looks so darn snuggly and it was really the only good sleep she got that day, and I hate it because I know she was miserable.

On that note, why is it that kids only snuggle when they are sick? Makes no sense to me at all!

Urbanathalon

Last weekend my husband ran in the Chicago Urbanatholon. It is a 12 miles race with lots of crazy, fun obstacles. In order to not repeat the debacle that was losing him at the Marathon last year, we left the kids and took our BFFs with us instead.


At the end of the race, they had to jump over two taxis and then climb an 8-foot wall. It was crazy, but I got video of him, separately, doing both. *****DISCLAIMER******* turn the volume down on your computer before hitting play. I quite possibly have the most annoying voice in the history of the world, and when I get excited....it just gets worse.

I did get some video of him finishing the wall climb, but really, it was 5 seconds long, and I only started it once he was at the top. It was seriously crazy there!


I also had my closet encounter with a somewhat famous person. Can you guess who it is? I will give you a hint....it is not Seal, Heidi Klum's husband:)


That would be Tyrese Gibson, star of Transformers 1 and 2...well...sort of. Apparently he also did some underwear modeling, but I wouldn't know about that.

Anyway, my husband did AWESOME despite not training, like at all, for this, as usual:) We had a blast with our friends, hit Ikea on the way home, and just all around had an excellent weekend. Thanks for coming with us guys!

This week's must read

My friend bought me this book as a joke for my birthday. Maebree drug it out and decided it was a must read for her and Mr. Big Stuff.

I like to keep the kids informed.

Mae's tu-tu

Technically....I don't have time for this. I really don't. I have paying people's pictures to edit......



But what the heck kind of photographer would I be if I let an opportunity like this pass me up:)

***Sigh***At least she was wearing underwear. This is a big accomplishment in our house these days.