Free time? What mom do you know?

So what have I been doing now that the kids are in school? I wish I had this huge awesome list to share. But of course, I don't. I will say however, I have managed to keep the house clean for the last three weeks! Really! So far so good. And the kids haven't been late to school, although we've had two close calls with alarms not going off. I hung a bunch of stuff in the house. Been very efficient in my shopping and returns. Actually went to the post office. TWICE! Kept up on the bills nicely. Worked out (not completely in a routine yet.. but close). And blogged twice (which lately that's doing quite well now isn't it?!). So no, not some awesome list... but I am happy with it. Very happy with it! I won't mention what I have on the list TO DO. I mean, really. When you have this to compete with, it's hard to turn her down!

and I do have to say, there is just something emotional for me, in this first picture. Maybe because she just looks older to me? I can't figure it out.

oUR sUmmEr iN a DaY!

So there is no way I'm gonna catch everyone up on our summer... so here's how it's going down.

(in no particular order of course)

In the Summer of '09 we:

Visited 8 states

1. Florida

2. Texas

3. Alabama

4. Utah

6. Montana

7. Wyoming

8. Idaho

Went to the pool day, after day, after day

Celebrated the 4th of July

Went to Bear World

Went boating twice

Rode the Heber Creeper

Celebrated 4 birthday in our family and 3 with extended family

1. Pa

2. Diana

3. Aunt Kristi

4. Matt

5. Grandmom

6. Ase

7. Bug


Attended a wedding (See photography blog)

Saw the Grand Tetons

Blew out Matt's knee

Visited Yellowstone (stinky guysers!)

Took swimming lessons

And kissed a horse

So there you have it. Highlights of our summer. As much fun as it all was, sometimes, it just feels good to be home!

I did it, I did it,

I did it, Yay! (put up a new post that is)
Are you just about sick of that last post yet? Her going to cheer camp was exciting, but really... not THAT exciting. :) The summer months have just gone way to quick and are back in school. *sigh* So here are the kids, on Monday before heading out to school. 6:30 in the morning is WAY to early if you ask me... but doesn't look like there's much chance. We can't even really hope for a snow day here. So Bug was SUPER excited to go to school. He was up and dressed before my alarm went off. Crazy nut. Nutmeg on the other hand... well, lets just say the nerves set in. And don't let the pictures fool you. I don't know how she pulled those out because, she cried at the drop of a hat and wanted nothing to do with getting ready. But at the same time, was excited. It was rough. She just kept telling us she was too shy and nervous. When we got to classes, Bug was outta there. No biggie for him. Then off to drop Nutmeg off. She was being very brave and strong, putting all her stuff away just like they told her to do. Then they sent her to the table to color. She was very aggressively coloring. I knew it was all she could do to not cry right then. Matt really wanted to go and give her a hug goodbye, not realizing the fraility of the situation and that's when she broke. Clinging onto his legs. Tears streaming down her face. Not about ready to let go. It was really sad. They ended up kind of prying her off his leg so he could leave and we left her there. Piled in a heap on the floor. Crying. Lucky for me we've done this before in Pre-K. So I was some what prepped. But it's still hard to leave your little one on their first day, like that. Well... she is loving it now, so it's all okay! Wow. A Kindergartener and a 1st grader!

Go! Nutmeg Go!

I little while back Nutmeg actually did a cheerleading camp. If you knew her, you'd realize this was a BIG thing! She doesn't like to take any classes, let alone a cheer camp. It was really cute though. I am not and advocate for cheer, I'll be the first to tell you.. but hey. She actually wanted to do something. So I decided to support her. And it went well! We'll have to see if maybe this has opened her up a little more. Maybe.

the circus clown car

We've been doing a lot this summer, and I have no intention of being able to catch up with it all. I know I would just be setting myself up for failure. So I'll just keep posting some here and there sprinkled with a few of the "real time" activities. This one was a fun picture to try and work out. A couple of weeks ago my mom, dad, and baby brother flew out here to visit. We all hopped in the car and drove 12 hours to see my sister in Texas. Crazy would be the only word for it. So I had to capture us all in the car. Matt wasn't able to go since he had work.. which I will say; it helped a lot with car space. One more pair of long tall legs in the car might have been one too many. Really though, the drive when respectably well I'd say. The kids did much better than I anticipated! We had a bunch of outtakes trying for this picture as you could only imagine, but this was the closest to having ALL of us in there. Too bad I hogged so much of the camera and didn't give my dad a little more face time. Sorry dad!!

Happy everything to my man!

So I've been mia for a bit again. Summer has taken it's hypnotic trance over me and I can't seem to find myself sitting in front of the computer AT ALL! But I've missed all of this, so I'm trying to get myself to be patient and sit here for at least 5 minutes. Tops. I just couldn't go without saying how much I love Matt. Really. Sunday happened to be his birthday andFather's Day. Something he was not happy about. He wanted his two special days to be just that. Two. And Sunday is never the fun day to have your birthday on anyway. Poor guy! But we tried to make it special and have fun anyway, so hopefully it worked. :) I wanted to get a picture of all the kids with him, which is NO fun. He was actually a very good sport for me, which was a pleasant surprise. You would have thought it was my birthday! It was naturally the kids. But o-well. Those things are what makes the portrait, right?! And then Bug really wanted to take some pictures too... so he was the one behind the camera taking of Matt and I. It was so adorable to watch him "work the camera". We were trying so hard not to laugh! Too cute!

Read the label carefully

So uh, I got a new bottle of probiotics, and Matt was reading the label. Not very carefully I might add. He didn't think it said one billion "organisms" per capsule. Of course. He's a guy. He thought it said something different. I leave it at that. :)

missed

I've been gone for a bit. I know.. this is a problem I always have. Gone for a while and then back for a while. I miss you guys when I don't get on though. I haven't been around the computer much really in the last nearly two weeks. Just getting everything ready for the end of school, a couple photo shoots thrown in there, and two camping trips. Ahh! It's sad that school is actually out. NOT because I don't want my kids at home, but because I know how much Bug really enjoyed going. And I loved working with his teacher. Camping was awesome; the kids had an absolute blast! There was some really disgusting flying beetles (and these were not little beetles) which were pretty creepy when they came out at night attacking you. And there was a really massive spider we had to battle to get across the bridge (this thing could literally walk across the top of the water. He was HUGE!) but none of it scared us off. Not even the looming weekend of rain. We stuck it out and I'm glad we did. The photo shoot went okay. I got some decent shots, but the lighting was low and I'm just not good enough with the camera settings to get it to work the way I wanted. Grr.. I guess this is how you learn though, right? I'll post some of those later on the photo blog.. but not yet. Until then, here are some oldies that I just saw again and loved. :)

a bit dIsTraCteD

It started out being an adventure to look for something for someone else. I hadn't done anything really all day, and I was actually going to do this one thing. Well, I got a bit distracted and just started having fun. It was a really bad time of day to take pictures. The sun came out of the clouds and it was hot, muggy, and sunny. Mmmhmmm. We were sweating like crazy and pulling off illegally on all sorts of roads I hadn't been down. I even fell in love with this chair for $800 flippen dollars. I'll visit it often, trust me. But the kids were begging for it to be their turn for a picture. REALLY?? Since when do they want to have their picture taken? I think they knew I didn't really have the time... so I just kept snapping a few here and there, not even setting the camera. :( So pictures aren't great... but good enough for some fun!









and my fav

Happy Mothers Day!!!

How many people do you think are going to have that as their title of a blog? Pretty creative huh? Today was a great day. I got to sleep in (which is ALWAYS good) and I got some wonderful breakfast in bed. Matt made french toast, which was the BEST french toast I've ever had, and the kids gave me a bracelet and cards. It was sweet. Matt also made an awesome dinner with ribs and all the works to go with it. The day had gone really well... until I remembered I had to take the family picture today. It's Sunday. Ugh. It was already past bed time and it was going to be a struggle. But the kids had been in good moods, so I thought we'd give it a try. But since it was mothers day, I'll get in them too. Seems kind of fitting. And we'll just pretend it was my hubby who wanted to take a picture of me with my kids for mothers day, instead of the other way around. However, as soon as the camera came out, all the temper tantrums came out of the closets. It was crazy. Then of course batteries died and had to be replaced in the camera. All while trying to talk my hubby into taking just a few photos for me. Please everyone! So with Ase crying the whole time because she wanted to play the piano, Nutmeg upset because she didn't want to have to listen to Ase crying, Bug who really could have cared less if he was in there or not, and my guy who was minute by minute becoming more and more likely to throw the camera out the window; we snapped many pictures. None of which really worked. But wait. That wasn't the intent of this every Sunday thing. I KNOW not every one is going to work. I just have to take them. So here are a few of what we got.. and you know these are going to be the cream of the crop... so you can imagine what the others looked like. Lets just say there were a lot of fingers in a lot of noses! -and no, mine was not one of them!

Oh, and of course one of the better things to get are the cards where your kids fill in the blanks about you. Here is what my kids know about me:
Bug-
*My mom is the best
*My mom is 19 years old
*Her favorite food is shcrosh (squash.. which I do love!)
*When I am at school my mom tacs car of cis (takes care of kids)
*Before I was born my mom wet to the hspitol (went to the hospital, although I did wet since I brok my water!)
*If I could get her anything I would get her a big hug
*My mom's favorite thing to do is hps with the jrnol (helps with the journal..at his school)

Nutmeg-
*Her name is Diana
*She's pretty as a flower
*She is 80 years old (gulp)
*She has brown eyes and black hair.
*She weighs 6 pounds
*She is 30 tall
*Her favorite food is pasta
*I think MOm is funny when she tickles me
*My mom is a good cook. The food she cooks best is healthy food
*I love my mom because she's pretty

grass is green

We finally had a good day. Sun, sun and sun!!! And we fnally hired someone to spray the yard for us so we could actually enjoy some time on the grass. For those not familiar to the south, the grass here is full of bugs, to where you can't even stand in it. Grass mosquitos, chiggers, and nats just to name a few. Now.. there's nothing. So we couldn't help but roll around in it a bit and lets just say, we love it!!

pink

I don't really have much to say. I think I'm just really tired today. There was supposed to be so much I got done, and I feel it's not going to happen. So instead, I'll share a picture I took of Nutmeg today. As hard as she can be, I do love her like crazy.

Green

I love how every time I walk to any window, all I see is the color green. EVERYTHING! It has been raining so much there isn't any way to be anything but green, and it just makes me happy. Growing up in the desert I had no idea what green was until I moved HERE. Now I know, and it brings a smile to my face. :)

(oh, and I finally added some new portraits to my photo blog. check em out cause is a cutie!)

Sunday today

So I had decided I was going to take pictures of the family (or atleast the younger half) every Sunday. And I did this week... I just didn't post them until today. I know, not quite the same, but hey. I'm working on this and it's what I could do. We had crazy storms all evening, and the kids were up until 9. *UGH* So everything was running a little behind last night. :) Dylan did not want to be involved in this photo op. He was claiming to not be of this family, but I didn't fall. So although they aren't what you would consider the perfect photo, I still love them because it's SO them!

*okay, and as a side note, how do you get the picture files small enough that they aren't huge without loosing the quality? Mine end up looking like this, when in reality they are pretty dang crisp, VERY frustrating I might say. :( If anyone has the anwer, please tell me!