HELP …

… there’s a pirate in my kitchen! Wait — I mean there is a pirate helping me in my kitchen.

More to come about Pirates later. We’re in the beginning stages of planning a pirate themed birthday party for my baby (#3) who is about to turn 5. Seriously, 5 years old. I can’t believe it.

Now, here’s the big sister, the big help herself — my #2. I just can’t get enough of this kid’s squeezes.
She’s really beginning to blossom. She even danced for me yesterday — normally she’s just too shy.
I just love her.

It’s still all girl power during regular business hours at our house. I am really missing my oldest. I know he’s having a fab-u-loso time in Florida but I can’t wait until we’re all together again.

more of the park

My friend brought this heirloom watermelon that she grew in her fabulous garden, to share with everyone. Have you ever seen one orange? I never had. It was so delicious. We were the lucky ones who got to bring home the leftovers.

Every week the little squirrels love to eat all our fruit scraps. Now, this was not shot with a zoom lens, it’s a fixed 50 mm. This little booger is brave! He gets so close to us. Note his floppy torn little ear.

And my last thing to share is this. Oh, isn’t he just so precious. I just love watching the families in our homeschool group “grow”.

a little fish story

Today was park day. It was a bit different because my boy has gone to his MeMe’s for a few days, so I am down to only two kids. The girls cried as they watched him drive away -real tears streaming down their cheeks as they held on to me and waved goodbye. Well, they managed to have fun without him at the park. They spent a lot of time playing on the creek bank with some friends. As we were walking to the car to leave my youngest begins to tell me a story …

“Mommy, today I was catching fish in the water and I caught this little fish but then he got dead … so I buried him in the sand. Then later I went back to un-bury it, and guess what? He wasn’t there, he had already gone up to heaven!”

After we were home and the girls had scrubbed all the nastiness off of them – they totally took advantage of their brother not being around by running around the entire house several times squealing with glee – completely naked.

On the way home tonight from being out with some friends, the girls got excited thinking about being able to have a mini slumber party together by sleeping on a big bed of blankets in the middle of their room. We pulled in the drive way and #2 said, “Mommy I like sleeping with Sydney, but sometimes she just keeps talking and talking and talking. Then when I am almost asleep she leans over and whispers “Kaley Grace are you asleep?” and I just want her to stop talking.”
Sydney replied, “I just don’t want to be the only one not sleeping!”

One more thing …
Tonight I laid between them on the floor to give them kisses. They asked me to read a Dora book. I felt really tired but I picked it up and began to read. After the first page #3 interrupted me and said, “Mommy, start over and please use your Dora voice.”

hired

I had two people take me up on my offer.

This was my first little baby shoot. Isn’t she precious? She’s a happy little thing too. I was completely smitten with her by the time we were done.

Meet my cousin. Handsome fella isn’t he? I can’t believe he’s a senior. In high school I would pick him up at his daycare and keep him once a week for a few hours. I never put the kid down when he was in my care. Now look at him. (I am starting to feel a little bit old!)

for hire this weekend

I am headed back to my home town this Friday. It’s my mom’s birthday … happy birthday mom… and I had a photo session scheduled but it has been postponed. So that means Saturday morning – I have a outdoor location (it’s a good one) and I even have a black back drop – I am available to shoot some portraits. If you are interested – leave me a comment (I won’t publish it) and I will give you a call so we can set something up.

my early morning

At 6:30 am I thought I heard one of the kids get up. I turned over, repositioned my pillow and tried to go back to sleep. I couldn’t. So – I got up and peaked around the corner into the living room. There was my oldest wrapped in a blanket watching TV. I said, “Hey bud, you’re up really early, why don’t you try to go back to sleep?” Then with my eyes barely able to focus I turned to get back in my bed. I grabbed my ear plugs (I hate to hear birds chirping in the morning) and laid back down. I was surprised as I lay there how awake I suddenly was. I had no desire to go back to sleep. Next I get up and ask my son, “Hey, do you want to go on a walk with me?” He gave an quick and enthusiastic – yes.

We walked for over and hour. We had some small talk, shook tree branches and let the rain water resting on the leaves sprinkle us, we laughed, we talked about directions – north south east and west. We had discussions about the water cycle, seasons and his favorite things to do when he’s hanging out with his friends. We had a disagreement and then laughed at how we’re both stubborn and sometimes butt heads.

At one point he stopped me and thanked me for inviting him to go on a walk. I just wrapped my arms around him and thanked God that a kid that special desires to spend time with me.

what we are

Today we are ….

a painter

a jewelry maker

a pirate

and a chef

a prize for me

Over a year ago, a friend wrote a post on her blog about Etsy. I clicked on the link and fell in love. WOW, what a site.

I think it was my first time on Etsy when I discovered Ling Glass. I loved her work and I wanted so bad to order jewelry from her, but for some reason I would always just look and never buy. Ever so often I go back to her site and look at all her amazing stuff. Well today I finally committed and bought a few things. I can’t wait to get them.

Go check out this chick from Singapore. She’s incredible and the prices are unbelievable!

spoiled rotten

That is what we are. Mom and Dad came and stayed just over 24 hours. The girls cried themselves to sleep tonight because they did not want them to go. I was sad too. It just wasn’t enough. Thankfully we get to visit them next weekend. Yay.

Last night they took us to dinner and then after the kids went to bed we stayed up playing Guitar Hero III. Mom even played! I loved it! Then today my dad treated Eric to golf while my mom and I took the kids around hunting for yard sales, ate Mexican and spent forever at Tuesday Morning rummaging through junk. It was so much fun. Oh, and she bought us new sheets, thanks mom! I have my fingers crossed that these are going to be the ones!

We ate a big dinner tonight at home and they left at the kids bedtime.

Here’s a shot of my parents with the kids. My children were NOT cooperating with taking photos. They hate to be posed but for group shots, there is hardly any other way.

missed me? how much?

All this week my oldest has been attending an acting camp during the mornings, so for a few hours it’s been just me and the girls. Well today while I was brushing the morning cowlicks out of my son’s hair he asks, “So what are you guys going to do while I am at camp today?” I gave him the run down of the errands we’d try to accomplish and then he asks, “Do y’all miss me while I am away? I mean you are so used to being with me all the time, I was wondering if you missed me being around?” I assured him we did.

Fast forward now to the car ride to camp. As I am driving, I call back to the girls, “Your brother asked me this morning if we missed him while he’s been at camp everyday. Do you guys miss him?” Well I didn’t hear a response so I look in my rear view mirror and what do I see … both girls have their arms around their brother (he sits in the middle of them) and they are smothering him with love. It was so precious.