You say "quick, jump out and go to the purple tree,
you're just TOO CUTE today!"
Then you go inside for the camera for a 60 second photo shoot because they had baths that day, are in a good mood, their clothes kind of coordinate for once, and you're not quite late yet.
I ignore the fact that one has sunglasses on still and decide to use that to my advantage. He looks up at the purple flowers that are raining down around us, and I see the reflection in Dylan's sunglasses. I also see the flower pedals that lay on the grass and on the neighbor's driveway.
I took this one w/ my pocket cam before sending them to the tree while I went in for the heavy cam. It's so funny how Dylan poses, then Isaac looks at his big brother and is like monkey see, monkey do.
Ok, back to the car, "run babies, run, daddy's hungry!"
We went to pick up Steven and had lunch at Bonnie's Tropical Smoothie Cafe, then we went in to Steven's office so all of the ladies could tell us how cute these two are:) It's funny that I didn't take any photos of the events of the day, just a couple of my cutie baby boys before they got dirty again:)
I like reading blogs as a good way to procrastinate, and love that sometimes it motivates me to be better. That just happened, so I'm going to link to it for you before I sift through today's under water photos. My friend Marcie told me that I should read a blog, and today, that blogger linked to herself being interviewed here. Phew! Read it if you'd like:)
Here's Shawni's intro:
Sarah has come up with the coolest idea: to interview mothers of different faiths and ask them questions about how their religious convictions help them to mother. She explains her purpose much better than I can:
"My goal is to interview fellow mothers/bloggers of different faiths and have a little window into each of their lives...and to see in the end, how we are all trying to achieve the same thing...to prepare faithful, loving, compassionate, children to go out into the world and lead productive, purposeful, meaningful lives.
"We are all more similar than we are different.
"Different doctrines, different traditions, different rituals, different beliefs, but our fears, our love for our families, and our hopes for our children are all so alike."
I love the scripture that tells me that all good things come from God.
It's true!
When I was still young and living at home, I would like to go to other friends' churches. Our church promotes finding out for ourselves what is right, what is good, what is true, and to surround ourselves with it. There are LOTS of good people out there, and it's fun when they happen to be members of my church. But soooo many of my good friends don't go to my church. It's more complicated now- to trade going to friends' churches with them since I have more responsibilities at church and with my kids, but I still like to do it. (And I always welcome anyone who wants to come to church with me.) Anyway, this is a different spin on it - that mothers want what's best for their kids - that's pretty much a universal truth. And religion plays a huge factor in that. I agree with the answers in the interview. (Shawni and I go to the same church and I like that she speaks more clearly than my scrambled thoughts.)
everybody was doing it, so I said I would at the end. It moved though, and I don't think I could have stopped it if it wanted to turn and snap at me! So scary!
I didn't feed marshmallows to the gator that swam up to the building. I was content stepping back taking pictures.
Did you see that kid getting the little gator to come up to him?! He works there.
We went on an airboat ride in the everglades. Steven and I have always wanted to, so we drove down to Ft. Lauderdale. Darren and Andre had played in a volleyball tournament that morning. Steven and I didn't want to worry about a babysitter, 2 nights there, and paying for food and the hotel.
Well in the morning at Dylan's tball game, my mom offered to babysit for the night. Steven started thinking. He was thinking that either we could stay home and clean the carpets, or we could drive 4 hours to hang out with our friends. We didn't think much about it b/c we had a birthday party that afternoon.
We flipped a coin, and listened to it:)
I made phone calls to cover my church responsibilities of the quartet practice, the home teachers, and sharing time. And we grabbed swimsuits and loaded in the car! My wallet was in the diaper bag, so I had to take my passport. We really hand't planned this:)!!
Our airboat driver guide stopped along the way to show us some air plants, "ancient Seminole indian ruins", and to tell us stories. He's a self proclaimed "a good ol' boy." He was entertaining:)
His son is the youngest boat captain in florida. He's on the yellow boat here.
After we got to Ft. Lauderdale, it was almost 11pm. Darren and Corrie were ready for bed, but thankfully Andre and Barbie still had energy!
So those are our "randumb" photos from an spontaneous 20 hour vacation. Oh, and Steven and I slept in our minivan b/c we didn't want to impose on our friends. It was perfect with the windows down!
Lacey posted this, then so did a couple of other facebook friends (they don't know each other). I follow the nie nie blog myself - though not daily b/c i don't do many things every single day besides eat, kiss my boys, and help make messes.
anyway, if you have 8 or so minutes, watch this. i finally did and i like it.
Isaac was my "grip" for a friend's photo shoot the other day. Here are some quick pics from before my friend got there. Isaac is always so determined, and I think he's always thinking of the next creative mess he can get into.
He's sneeky.
And always getting into things he shouldn't, like when he colored on my friend's walls with markers. She had me take the kids outside when I got there so she could touch up paint over what wouldn't clean off.
He plays hard and isn't afraid to get dirty (or sandy).
Shoes aren't needed.
Neither are pants.
When it's nap time, watch out. That's when the real messes begin. I was so angry with not only Isaac for his beautiful mess this day, but I was angry with Dylan. Dylan came in and said "Mom, look at what Isaac did," and Dylan was laughing.
It was a rude awakening to me. (I was the only one who took a little nap.) Isaac came in my bedroom with what I looked like mango paste. It was Bag Balm. All over his hair, smeared onto his shirt, massaged into his arms and legs, and onto other things in the room.
I officially gave Dylan the "you're the big brother and should have known better" lecture. I threw some things away. They both cried. I wanted to. The dresser drawers were emptied, the changing table things were on the floor, the crib bedding I want to sell on ebay was dumped out and was on the floor, all of the diapers were scattered on the floor, all of their bedding was on the floor, all of the pull ups were on the floor, all of the books were off of the book shelves, their transformer wall clings were on the floor. I couldn't believe they hadn't napped, and I slept through this tornado!
Today, at nap time, Steven went up there (I told him it's Mother's Day, so he should go), he caught Isaac up on the changing table tasting some sort of butt paste or lotion. He brought him carefully down to me so I could change his smelly undies. Gee thanks. As I was wiping his cute little tushy, he smiled up at me and said "Happy Mother's Day!"
Oh, and I finally got that goop out of his hair after the baseball game that my mom and Don took us to on the 6th shampooing. Dish soap worked as suggested by MY wonderful mom.
I washed it along with Isaac's cupcake face after Dylan's morning Tball game the next day.
Happy Mother's Day!
Oh, these photos happened over the past 2 weeks or so, but I don't seem to have the time to post here much. I'm taking this day for me b/c I decided to not "work" on Sunday. It's dificult because I have 2 photos sessions backed up and I really want to go through them. I decided I have pleanty of other things to do, so I'll do a bit of my own blogging for the day!
I've been busy, and it's such a good thing. This is what I do for a living, sure beats sitting in a cubical! Oh wait, I still spend the nights in my own cubical-like computer desk going through these thousands of photos. I guess that's why it's called a passion and not just a job. I did figure out how to record my own "actions" for photoshop, so that's cutting down the underwater editing for me. I seriously learn so SO much every day.
Hi, today I had big plans for a bit of fun, a bit of friends, and a bit of work. I didn't even try to put a bit of cleaning in there. I need to prioritize:)
First, Dylan woke me up telling me he was dry. We decided to give the pull ups all to Isaac. I wasn't 100% awake, and b/c I stayed up editing all night, I went back to sleep. Then Corrie woke me up. Dylan aparently asked her who it was at the door, then b/c he knew her, he let her in. I was sound asleep. Let the party begin!!!
I put on my anual Cinco de Mayo shirt from my Grandma Gille. (She grew up some in Mexico although she's not Mexican.)
Dylan and Isaac put on their Guadalajara, Mexico futbol shirts from their uncles. I turned on the Cinco de Mayo music channel, and we had a Mexican hat dance party!!!
We put a hat down and danced to La Cucuracha. I remember sitting in a creative Mexican restaraunt with my Grandma Gille as a kid. She translated that song to me and I thought it was so funny. She was tapping her foot to the beat while it played while we ate. There was a volcano that would errupt if we were lucky. We would end the meal with sopa papillas. I don't know how that's spelled, but I would call them that as I asked for them to be passed to me. I would bite off a corner, then fill it just so with honey. I'm sure my dad taught me the "right way" to do that. They also had powdered sugar on them. And that's all I remember about that. Back to today:
Once the living room and play room are cleaned, I let the kids get out the musical instruments, mostly all from my other grandma, Grandma Rebeck. Today, they wanted them for the hat dance party. They seemed so appropriate for my little mariachis!
Little Ada came over to play too. I tried to ballance this hat on her head with no luck. Oh well. She didn't mind it.
We ate chips and queso for lunch with limes in our water.
I let Ada lick a slice of lime, but she didn't make any silly faces, she just didn't go to grab it the next time. Aren't babies supposed to make the silliest faces with lemons/limes?
Oh, Lindsay, she grabbed the spoon then her hat, so it's in the dryer right now.
The kids got sweaty and dirty, so it was time for the pool!
This was Ada's first pool experience, so I'm told.
She wasn't happy about the cold bath at first, but with grapes in her mesh bag thingie, she was easily distracted.
After nap time, Isaac got pink eye.
How does he go from fine to goopy? Where did he get it? AAAh, not fun.
I washed our hands, sheets, clothes, toys, etc so not to spread it to the other 4 kids there, then I didn't get to go see my other 3 boys, the Szaszs b/c they catch it easily.
Instead, we went to dinner with Andre and Barbie. Yay! It seems like I've been babysitting the last couple of times Steven went to dinner w/ them.
Carmalita's gave them new sombreros!
I tried using pocket cam (that's what I call it) on more of a manual setting, but it doesn't work. I really don't ever use my Canon on auto, so it irritates me when I can't get the exposure I want with a quick enough shutter speed to capture wiggly boys.
Steven got one on his cell phone (the reason for their above pose).
So, even though it's now officially seis de Mayo, Happy Cinco de Mayo from the fegers!
I was going through folders and noticed that I had never done anything w/ these boys' sillouettes that I took months ago. They're from October. I don't want to neglect my own personal projects just because I'm busy with other clients. So I'm taking a break. It's fun that I'm procrastinating one fun thing to do another. Which reminds me of what I've been thinking about today. I tell kids to go be lifeguards when they're about to turn 16. I tell them it's the BEST JOB! But I also tell lifeguards to teach private swimming lessons, because it's the BEST JOB! And I tell people that they should be a dental hygienist because it's the BEST JOB! But then today I was thinking to myself how being a photographer is also the BEST JOB. My conclusion, is that I have the BEST LIFE!
Except of course for the day that I had to clean tables and trays from a mall food court when I was a BYU student. The job placement rep in Utah asked how many words a minute I could type and asked if I liked to shop at the mall. He told me to wear comfortable shoes and either jeans or khaki's and a regular polo shirt and to show up above a sports store at the mall and I would be directed where to go. You should have been there to see my shock upon finding out that my temp job for the day would be being cleaning nasty ketchup from trays. I didn't get another temp job from that company. I think I gave plasma instead a couple of times. Oh, and I got "terminated" from a telemarketing company b/c of a schedule conflict. That was NOT a best job. Anyway, here are the pictures of my babies.
(The papers are from Heather Ann Designs)
You probably already know this, but I also think that being their mom is the BEST BEST JOB!
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