Just can't get enough of the fall

I finally took fall pictures of the kids, to update the old ones on the wall. Yay! Magically in 15 minutes I was able to get something of each kid that would work. Whew. We won't even talk about the group picture though. Let's just say it will take more than 15 minutes and gum as the bribe. :)

(disclaimer: the pictures really are a lot warmer than they are showing up. I swear.

I'm looking at the printed copy right now!)

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Katie, look what I'm finally working on!!

So a couple of weeks ago one of my favorite neighbors EVER raked all her leaves together in a huge pile for all the kids to come and jump in. Yea. She rocks! So many pictures to choose from, and for which she is patiently waiting to see her darling little ones. So here are mine and I'll start working on hers! ;)

One of my favorite pictures; for so many reasons. Her expression. The fact that she was the first one in the pile, no shoes and no cares. SO not her!!

Okay, and this was pretty awesome too. The airborne ones crack me up. Got tons of my neighbor kids sailing through the air too!

Oh to be a kid again.

This one however thought the leave business was insane. She loved to watch, but just didn't get it. So we ventured to the backyard to let her have some fun. Glad we did.

Moving on, I swear!

I know. I'm stuck in the past right now, but I just can't help it. I've been spending so much time at the computer screen working on other's photos, I just miss working on my kids. So I'm gorging myself for just a bit. Allow me this guilty pleasure for just a bit longer, and I swear I'll move on. :)

I don't know why I have to talk so hard to get him to decorate a pumpkin. His is always the best. Show off!

Ase really worked hard at getting her's just right. I was so glad the girls opted to paint this year. Not the same, but so much easier!!

Final product and a proud girl!

I love catching her when she works. You can actually see the peace in her face.

And another proud girl!

This was my favorite year for Bug. He did the ENTIRE thing himself. Start to finish. It was AWESOME!

Because of it's AWESOME-NESS you would think we took a picture. Nope. Sad. :(

Fetching cute is what this is.

Or maybe I was thinking of this!

Still catching up.

I know. It's not Halloween anymore. I have a million pictures inline to post and catch up on, at these have been at the top for basically EVER! So here you go. Just about the best of the kids in costume. Bug was Darth Vader, and the girls were cats. It was really cute! Okay, and I did dress up...hehmm, unlike my husband. The girls picked the costume. :) So there ya go!

Lovin NY

A little while ago, Matt and I got to jet off to NY for a few days. He was working, and I was out playing. It was great, and it's easy to see why everyone LOVES NY. I so badly want to go back there for a girls trip. SO FUN! Our hotel was crazy. All the fixtures and wall hangings were just a little on the phallic side. Here are the lights. I'll let you decide what they look like.

While I was walking around by myself, I decided I was going to document it anyway. So I took a bunch of photos of myself in all the different locations...

(me in Central Park)

Then when finally Matt was able to join me in the evenings we took the same idea and continued to take pictures of ourselves. I was actually trying to make it so people didn't offer to take ones of us, so we could keep doing it our way! So here we are on top of the Rockefeller, and on the red steps right outside our hotel, in Time Square.

The Empire State Building. One of my fave photos. Hanging this in our bathroom. Those who've seen our bathroom will understand!

I also learned how to take panoramic photos and actually have them turn out. I had fun with these. The first is the Empire State Building in the NY sky line. The second is the other direction, with Central Park. I think you can click them to make them bigger...

Pretty cool huh!?

I hope not :]

I had one of those, "go-back-to-sleep-once-the-older-kids-are-in-school" mornings, and upon wakening; found my youngest watching her cartoons like this. That doesn't make me a bad mom does it?!!?

Pumpkins

While my mom was here, we headed took our yearly trip to Burts. It was sad because the kids had be counting down the days until we went, and when we got there... there was a lot of grumpiness. Too many missed naps. :( All in all though, it went well. The kids picked out their pumpkins, we went for the hay ride, and we of course had to take some pictures!

My mom

I'm really behind. Really. :) There is so much that has been going on around here, and I just can't seem to get here to talk about it. Then it gets almost overwhelming in thinking of all I'd like to talk about. So in typical me fashion, I'm just going to throw so much out there at once! A bit ago, my mom flew out to watch the kids while Matt and I took off to NY for a few days. Then I was lucky enough she got to stay for a little longer so I could actually have a chance to see her! It was awesome. Of course, before she left I had to snap a few pictures of her and the kids. They LOVED having her here and keep talking about when she is coming back. Sad to say, I don't know when that next chance will be. So THANK YOU mom for coming to our rescue!! Everything about it was awesome!

We love you!

(and this picture is my absolute favorite. The look that I have always wanted to capture, but is hard to get "the moment" with a camera in the face. I have always loved this expression on her.)

where did the sun go?

it's been hard around here to stay motivated. the sun has disappeared for quite awhile now. we saw it for a few, and then gone, yet again. but today will be good. i'm making it good. who needs the sun anyway (besides all living life forms. i'm not talking about them). i have my list of things to get done. and they will. well on the way already. this isn't a huge overly developed list. i tend to do that and fail before i can begin. this is attainable and doable. must be done. so here i go. and i'm leaving all blinds and curtains shut. why? so i can just imagine the warm sun out there. maybe that will help. i guess on a good note, it's not dumping rain right now!

When the dust settles

So, we haven't made it too far. The stairs have been sanded. They've been ready for the next step for the last week. I just haven't made it to the store to get supplies. Sigh. This is when it's hard with kids. They are napping, need rides, in bed for the night, need to eat. Something. So here is how we've sat. {crossing fingers} We'll have it done sometime this week. So until then, here are the pictures of sanding. My men at work. See, this is how you do it. Start it, and then pass it over. Sorry for the butt shots. The best is that layer of dust. Can you see that? ALL OVER THE HOUSE. So glad I deep cleaned two weeks ago. Totally worth it. Right.

Let there be light

Si I guess I really don't have that much to talk about, although I really wanted to say something. I seem to be so busy lately, but it's a good busy. Taking pictures, going to class, running the kids everywhere, birthday parties, church stuff. You know the grind. And lucky for me this week I had one of my favorite people in the world at my house. :) Love her and her fam to death. So that was awesome. My kids (and well me too) were sad it was so short. And get this. We went up to the pumpkin patch and totally forgot the camera. I suck! Luckily we're going up there again on Monday. Maybe Wed on early release day, if we dare wait that long. The longer you wait, the less there. So we'll see! Anyway, I guess I'll put on a few photos I took for class. This one was a fun assignment. Light drawing! Just wish I was taking more pictures of MY kids for a change!

Bored, and didn't know it

I just couldn't take it one more day. Really. I stood at the bottom of my stairs, with my list of things to do, in hand, and just couldn't bring my self to do it for an other day. I will no longer vacuum those stairs. They have been in desperate need of a re-do, and I just hadn't bucked up to the challenge. This was the day. The same day I had a million other things that really did need to be done. But no. I threw a fit, and this is how it looks. Because of this temper tantrum, I now have 7 blisters, and almost ready stairs. Matt can't get back into town early enough. I have a project waiting for his help. Wahoo! It's been way to long since we've done this. I forget how happy it makes me. :)

(Okay, so this is the before, but I have to give the disclaimer that I had already started ripping out the

upper stair carpet. So all that mess in NOT how our stairs usually look. I swear!!!)

I know you're dying to see how they turn out. You are, aren't you! Give me the weekend and hopefully we'll be looking at those beauties next week. Or, at least somewhat more beautiful. :)