CrazyBusy

May. 20, 2008

A Moody Little Cowboy

I took so many pictures at Gabe's birthday party that some got overlooked. When I went to upload my pics to Shutterfly, I noticed some keepers I'd missed. Here are a few of the moody side of my littlest cowboy. I couldn't decide if I liked color or B&W better in a couple of them, so decided to post 'em both. You'll have to tell me which ones you like best.

A sleepy, dreamy little cowboy.

An "it's MY turn to ride the horse" pouty little cowboy:

And its vintage version:

And lastly, the "even cowboys need to suck their thumbs sometimes" little cowboy. Just try and argue with him about it:

That's all for now!

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May. 13, 2008

Gracie the Ballerina

Posted in PhotoBlogging

So if you read yesterday's post about the challenges of taking photographs in the girl's ballet studio, add to that today that Gracie was standing behind a cement pillar in the middle of the room and I could hardly see her at all. And add to that that Gracie's class had many more students (and bigger ones) than Millie's. It was really hard to get any of her.

Stretching.

I had to shoot into the mirror to get this shot of her doing her arabesque. I couldn't see her otherwise. Her left arm really isn't 3 feet longer than her right. Promise.

So graceful. The little girl in all black in the front is REALLY, REALLY talented!

Doing her chasse arabesque with a partner. (doh! Motion blur!)

At the end of class. They were watching one of the little boys perform on his own.

That's all for now!

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May. 12, 2008

My Prima Ballerinas

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I took pictures of the girls at ballet last week. Now for you photographers out there, here's the set up. These were taken in the ~~dungeon~~ basement of a dance studio. There is an antique shop at ground level above the dance studio. The only light available was from the overhead lights in the studio. I have permission from their teacher to take pictures, but I told her I wouldn't use flash so as not to distract the students. So it makes it a little bit challenging not to get blurred pictures! I have to crank my ISO up to 1600 or 3200 (1600 when they're doing floor exercises & 3200 when they're really moving around a lot), open up my aperture quite a bit (which makes focusing on a moving target difficult) and watch that shutter speed! But I love a challenge. This is what I got.

Millie's class was on Wednesday. Their teacher is very encouraging. Millie, doing her arabesque, while the other little girls look on with great interest.

All lined up (I can't explain the look on Millie's face):

Now look at this one closely. See the little girl in all black? Her nose is completely smooshed on the elbow of the little girl in front of her.

Millie likes to spice things up a bit and throw in some of her own moves. The tossing the head back thing is hers.

I love the concentrated look on Millie's face in this one. She's really trying to copy what her teacher's doing.

Sleeping Beauties. I think Millie's the best fake sleeper in the class. And I don't know if that's such a good thing.

Following teacher's lead:

See Millie trying to make her foot do what teacher's is doing?

I didn't get as many of Gracie but I'll post hers tomorrow.

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Apr. 25, 2008

Death Of A Girlie-Girl? (be warned- not for the weak stomached)

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Gracie loves pink. She loves dresses. She loves tights and bows and fancy shoes. She will sometimes come downstairs to begin homeschool in her Sunday finest, complete with all of the above. She loves princesses, ballet and playing house. She loves babies and great grandmas and everyone in between. She loves snuggling and hugs and kisses and praying for people.

So I was surprised, to say the least, when Gracie ran in to show me the treasures she found in our yard yesterday. Normally, it would be a pretty rock or a freshly picked flower. Not yesterday. Nope.

To my surprise, this is what she presented me with:

A big fat earthworm.

And Millie had to share her worm with me too. At first I thought it was a maggot. But we don't have flies around here. Not until summer anyway, and even then, we don't see much of them. So it must be an earthworm in its pupal or larval stage or something.

Yes, those are my GIRLS' hands. Did you notice Gracie's fingernails? If not, check out this next one. Nasty.

I hope none of you have just eaten. I couldn't finish my breakfast after I pulled these photos off my memory card and took a peek at them.

Now this hand belongs to my 12 year old niece, who'd spent the previous night with us. She was showing me the vast collection of earthworms they'd acquired. Yes, she helped too.

After these pictures were taken, Gracie had to come in and get cleaned up. For what? It was time for ballet. Yes, from pulling slimy worms out of the ground to gracefully performing chasse arabesques in a tutu and ballet slippers across the dance floor, in the matter of an hour.

And I don't think I even want to know what *that* is.

I think I want my girlie-girl back. Maybe this was just a glitch. I hope.

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Apr. 14, 2008

An Eclectic Mix Of Pictures From Sunday

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I hate to keep harping on our weather here, but you know it's got to be sad if the pastor has to mention the two really nice, sunny days in a row you've had and the congregation applauds and some even whistle. But then he went on to add how he was a bit let down when he looked out the window this morning and saw that it was raining. Again. I actually felt the same way.

Saturday was really, really nice though. It was 63 degrees! That's practically summer weather around here. It felt good to be outside and feel warmth. The children played outside almost all day that day.

But the rain cleared up by the time we got home from church, the children went out to play and I followed with my camera.

This was actually taken Saturday. Alek calls Gracie "Galadriel" after she takes her braids out of her hair. What do you think?

Do any of these make you nervous? (trampoline shots)

After the children went inside (and I had nobody else to photograph) I decided to try & get a shot of a hummingbird. They're everywhere- they sound so cool buzzing around the yard. We have a hummingbird feeder on the side of the house, so I was kind of waiting around there. Did a test shot to make sure my exposure and everything looked good so I'd be ready for a hummingbird.

Nooshie was following me around. She knew I had some dog treats in my pocket so we practiced sitting several times.

Although I heard a few hummingbirds, none were headed towards the feeder so I decided to look for signs of spring. I don't know what this is- Kenton thinks it might be huckleberry.

Don't know what these are either. These shrubs line the front of our house under our living room windows.

Can you spot the early bloomer? I think this is a decorative plum. (can you tell I do not have a green thumb?)

Newly emerging leaves from our little Japanese Maple. (now this one I know! Aren't you proud of me?!)

I went back to the tree where the hummingbird feeder resides and was standing RIGHT THERE when I heard a hummingbird coming from the direction of our neighbor's yard. I saw it fly towards me. I slowly raised my camera, excited that I'd get a shot at it, and my ever-so-slight movement must've scared it away. It flew close to the feeder and then buzzed away. I never even got my finger on the shutter release. *sigh* Maybe some other time. Here's what Nooshie thought of the adventure:

And this is something different for me. I processed this with a vintage look and then added a texture- tried to make it look old-fashioned. I should've decreased the texture over Josiah's face a bit more- it's a bit much. This was an unplanned shot otherwise I think a teddy bear would've looked better than a modern toy dog on skates. ;)

We have a busy, busy week, actually 2 weeks, coming up!

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Apr. 12, 2008

Physicals and Sunshine

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We've gotten a little behind on getting physicals for the children. I wanted to get them all in before the baby gets here (I'm 28 weeks along now!) as life is just going to get crazier... in a good way. A *really* good way. I'm getting very eager for her arrival.

Anyway. So I've had all 5 children scheduled for physicals this month. When I called and was scheduling Gabe's appointment, they asked when he was in last & I thought sometime early last year. Well, they checked and he hasn't been to the doctor since 2006! Oops! He did see his eye doctor though. So it was definitely time to get them in. The girls went in last week and today I took Josiah & Alek. Gabe goes in towards the end of this month.

Here are the stats so far on their percentiles:

                   Height               Weight
Alek            75-90th               50th
Gracie         50th                     25th     (this has been her norm since she was born practically!)
Emilia         50th                     50th
Josiah         25th                     50th   (his height percentile surprised me but Dr. said last time he was in the 10th percentile for height!)

So far, everything's checking out okay with everyone. Healthy children.

It was actually WARM in the van on the way home from the doctor's office. We actually had the VENT turned on to cool! Both boys said they wanted to play outside as soon as their feet hit the ground and the rest of the siblings joined them.... and their mom followed them around with her camera. ;) It was a beautiful day. You can definitely see signs of spring around town- grass is getting greener and thicker, the trees are starting to blossom... ah, a change in the weather will be nice.

So here are some snaps from today. I LOVE this one of Gabe- probably because he RARELY lets me take pics of him- but I just love it!

Nooshie (awful composition, I know):

Millie was Miss Take-A-Picture-Of-Me today. I got a ton of her, but this was my fave:

From that to this in 4.2 seconds:

Alek swinging:

Alek?? not sure what he's looking at:

Sisters:

Gracie:

And because my husband reads my blog sometimes and will wonder why I have a pic of Nooshie and not Ceph, here you go honey. Here's your big, bad, black dawg.

Edited to add: And for my first commenter (I don't know who you are- you didn't sign in or sign your name!), here are two of Josiah (I just thought I'd posted an awful lot of pictures of him lately. ;)

Can you just hear the airplane noises he was making?

And Josiah swinging. Fiercely.

Busy week coming up for us!

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Apr. 9, 2008

Walk Down Our Road

Posted in PhotoBlogging

I hate to admit this, but since becoming pregnant, the number of walks we've been on has dramatically decreased. (sorry, honey) I'm tired, we're busy.... life happens! Hopefully this will start to change a bit as I have more energy these days and a lot of our big projects are done.

Last week we went on a short walk down our road. It felt good to get out, even if for just a little bit! I took my camera, which has been quite neglected lately (I didn't take a single pic the first three weeks in March!), with us. It was getting late though so I didn't get very many, but here are a few I liked.

Stopping to oogle over the neighbor's horses:

My family, who walks at a much quicker pace than I these days.....

My belated fraternal twins. And I know that makes no sense because fraternal twins can look quite different from each other... but since Gracie's a girl and Josiah's a boy, I can think of no better way to describe how much I think these two look alike. So there. Belated fraternal twins.

That's all!

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Apr. 4, 2008

The Many Faces Of Josiah

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This child is such a goof. He's the family clown, for sure. He is brimming with personality and we all enjoy him very much (and he knows it.) I discovered he knows how to pedal his tricycle today and while I was trying to capture his newly acquired skill, I got even more than I bargained for- many different faces.

I should add that Gracie did his hair today- and got him dressed. I actually like his hair like this. It's a little long to be so spiky though. At any rate, she's hired. So, here they are.
(okay, so he was off his trike for this one)

The white pipes growing out of his head is the support system for our raspberries.

This is his Jack Nicholson look.

Such a goof.

And a shot I got of Alek today that I just love.

That's all for now!

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Feb. 28, 2008

My Little Ballerinas

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We promised Gracie sometime last year that after the first of the year (THIS year) she could start ballet up again. Well, here we are at the end of February and we finally got her back in! It's been about a year and a half since she last did ballet and now she has a little sister who wants to be a ballerina just like her.

So we enrolled both of the girls in a local ballet class. Millie has been counting down the days till her first class, which was supposed to be yesterday. She was all pumped up and ready to go! Gracie really, really wanted to go and watch Millie, even though her class is on Thursdays. I told her if she got ALL of her school work done before it was time to go, she could go with us. She worked SO hard yesterday and got everything done! She was so excited!

So off we went. I had the girls stop so I could get a picture of them in front of the studio and then..... and then... we saw the sign taped to the locked door. Ballet was cancelled that day. The girls were SO bummed, but especially Gracie! She was on the verge of tears.

I called their ballet teacher today to see if it was possible if Millie could sit in on Gracie's class. I said if it didn't work out- if she was naughty or disruptive or couldn't keep up- she could just sit with me. Miss Sylvia is a sweet, gracious lady and said she could certainly sit in with Gracie!

This was Millie's first ballet class EVER and I was so proud of her! She kept up so well- she kept a close eye on Gracie and did EVERYTHING she did. She kept up for the entire hour and not a single problem with her. She really did great. I'm beginning to think she's going to be bored in the 4 & 5 year old class. When Gracie was in that class, a lot of the time was spent containing the children and disciplining them. We shall see. (it would sure be nice just to have to take them to ONE class per week... :)

So here's Millie, sitting 1/2" away from Gracie so she see how to do things properly (BTW, I do NOT use flash during ballet so as not to disturb the dancers- plus I hate flash anyway. hee-hee!):

You can see that Millie was sitting dangerously too close to Gracie as Gracie attempts to do her arabesque and nearly decapitates Millie. BTW, I cannot, unfortunately, take credit for those LONG SKINNY legs- those legs come from her father whose legs make up most of his 6 foot 4 inch height:

At the barre, first position, plie (how's that? any ballerinas out there? did I get that right? this type of thing was SO NOT ME when I was younger.... never did anything but track, soccer and basketball):

I don't know what it is about this one, but I really love it. I shot this one looking into the mirrors on one of the walls. I think I just like how Millie and Gracie are both trying so hard to copy their teacher.... and I think I also love how her teacher is on her own little section of mirror- she's in a class of her own.

And I liked that one in B&W too:

Millie got some good air here. They were doing chasse arabesques across the room.

There were at least 10 children in the girls' class today, two of which were boys. But just to show the age range Millie joined today:

Yeah, I think she's going to do fine in the 4 & 5 y/o class.

There has been SO much more I've wanted to blog about! We have been SO incredibly busy! We totally just re-did the girls room- tore down wallpaper, painted on a primer, repainted and redecorated and their room looks SO cute! I will post pictures soon! We will also be re-doing the children's bathroom and touching up the boys' room next weekend. Monday is Alek's birthday and his party. We have homeschool co-op and a field trip planned tomorrow.... just waiting for life to slow down a little. And then there's the tag from Liz a long while back I need (and WANT) to get to... and a couple of other things going on here... soon. Hopefully, soon. Pictures are SO much easier to blog than typing out thoughts and things. (for me anyway)

Until next time... :)

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Feb. 18, 2008

Warning: Photos Not As Dangerous As They Appear

Posted in PhotoBlogging

(if you are here to find out the sex of our baby, CLICK HERE)

We had a field trip to a goat farm today! It was a lot of fun. There was a great turn out- there were probably 50 people or so there. I'll post more about that later.

We finished our school work yesterday (yes, on a Sunday and yes, we do school on President's Day) so we wouldn't have to worry about finishing anything up when we got home from the field trip since it was right in the middle of the day. It was a nice and sunny and very slightly warm day today (44 degrees!). As soon as the children jumped out of the van, they headed to the back to play. And since I had my camera on me already, I followed them. I wanted to play too- I'm getting a little rusty with my camera.

Anyway, going through today's pics, these few kind of cracked me up. They looked kinda dangerous, but they're not.

Millie gets air. And I have no idea why her shoes and socks are off. Other than it being a very hot day today, you know. Okay, so that one's not so bad.

But how about this one of Gracie & Millie on the trampoline?

Or Alek, while wearing his socks but no shoes?!?!, is seen jumping off the swing while a worried Josiah holds his breath:

Or Gabe jumping off the swing, while wearing snow gloves. Did I ever mention that some of my children have a problem dressing appropriately for the weather? Or at any time for that matter.

Okay, maybe they don't look as bad as I thought.

Here are the rest of the pictures from them playing outside today. I have 3 more posts ready to go over the next few days, so check back! Tomorrow I'll post about our field trip.

Sisters.

Some sort of pose they made up???

A little boy that is way too cute for his own good.

Millie swinging.

That's all for now!

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Feb. 11, 2008

Lil' Kitchen Helper: Millie Makes Pan Fried Asparagus!

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And it was good!

And no, her clothing selection does NOT indicate that the weather is getting warmer here. A few of my children have a bit of a problem dressing themselves appropriately for the weather.

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Jan. 29, 2008

Pictures, Puking And (I can't think of another P word)... Oh My!

Posted in PhotoBlogging

I'm going to back up a little first. You may or may not have noticed I haven't been taking many pictures lately- especially since becoming pregnant. I just haven't felt like doing *anything*! I *miss* taking pictures but just don't have the energy to do much else but the basic necessities.

And now I'm going to back WAY up here. We did NOT have a summer in 2007. We skipped it entirely! We have 2 seasons here- the rainy season, and 2 short months of "summer" (which temperature-wise is more like early spring or late fall in most places). Well, summer just did not exist last year. The rainy season just continued for those 2 months it's supposed to stop. It was such a bummer.

And now it's winter. And I've wanted nothing else but for it to SNOW! A good snow that lasts more than 24 hours. A snow that covers the ground and looks pretty- not one that the grass can poke through; not one that reveals just enough to make everything look dirty and messy.

I should be happy- this has been the driest January we've experienced here. We've had more sunny days this January that all of our other Januaries put together. But I'm not. It's gray and drab and ugly and ... well, gray around here. Nothing is very pretty this time of the year... until it snows. Then all turns white and magical and transforms into something new..... that and I've got a bunch of cute winter hats and sweaters and things for my children that I've been wanting to take pictures of them in.... in the SNOW. The weather has just not gone my way for a long time now.

Right now we have about 1/2 an inch of crusty hard icy snow on the ground. But it's patchy and isn't very pretty. It just looks messy. So when it started snowing today, I thought, forget it. This might be my last chance to get even a HINT of snow in a picture. I told my older 4 to keep working on their school work, put a sweater and hat on Josiah, threw on my shoes and a coat, grabbed my camera and out the door we went. And of course in the time it took us to do all of that, the snow was only falling at a rate of 4 snowflakes per acre per minute.

We found patches that made it look snowier than it really was and that's where we took our pictures. We had some fun too.

Trying to catch one of those snowflakes with his tongue?

Heard a dog bark:

Little Norwegian boy:

Such a stinker- does he look mischievous or what?!

Nothing exciting- it just felt good to get out of the house with two of my babies (Josiah and my camera).

So no sooner do I come in and start uploading pictures onto the computer do I hear someone, Millie, puking upstairs. Kenton was up there and he took care of it (what a guy!) but she's been sick all day since. So into sick-day mode we went- I told the rest of the children they had to do the important stuff- reading, math, Latin... and could skip most everything else. Later, Gracie started saying her stomach hurt. She's my "cry-wolf" girl so I never know if she's just wanting to get out of something, feeling sympathy pains, wanting the same attention as the sick kid or what. But I tell her to grab a bowl and lay down on the couch. What she didn't get done today she'll have to finish tomorrow (I kind of wondered if she was trying to get out of math too). About a half hour later SHE was puking. Oh boy.

Now I think my 2 older boys are done with this. Gabe was sick the morning after we got home from Seattle. He threw up a few times Saturday morning, laid around all day and then was fine. Last night around midnight Alek complained of intestinal symptoms and a stomach ache. This morning his stomach still hurt and he said he felt like he had the chills. He says his stomach still hurts but I think he's pretty much done with it too.

He's kind of like me that way- has a strong stomach. Don't hate me, but I've only thrown up ONCE during any of my pregnancies- and it wasn't even pregnancy related. It was in the last month of my pregnancy with Josiah & I contracted rotavirus from one of my children. That was (NOT) fun! And the time before that was the summer of 1990- I had a 24 hour flu bug (or could've been from the lobster I had eaten) and I swear I thought I was going to die.

Anyway, we'll see if Josiah's next.....

Alek read my title and said he thought of another P word for me... Pencil sharpener. Our electric pencil sharpener is our most used "appliance" in the house- and it stopped working today. So it's been a tragic day here. The thought of having to sharpen a pencil by hand is just, well, terrifying! Thankfully, Alek found a battery operated pencil sharpener that will do until Kenton can fix the electric one. Kenton? Are you reading this? The electric pencil sharpener needs you. Badly.

Never a dull moment....

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Jan. 28, 2008

After A Month Of Planning, Sneaking, Whispering... I Can't Believe I Actually Pulled It Off!

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About a month ago, for our birthdays, my MIL mentioned giving Kenton & I a couple of night's stay at a Worldmark Resort- a timeshare type thing they "own". We were trying to think of a resort we could all go to. She mentioned Seattle and I had an idea. What about if just Kenton & I would go- would babysitting services be included in the deal? She said yes so I swore her to secrecy because I decided I wanted this to be a surprise- her birthday gift was the 2 night stay, mine was the surprise of it all. Well, that and the cost of food, entertainment, getting there, which includes an almost 3 hour drive, a ferry ride and parking in Seattle- we spent about $100 just on parking!

We set the dates and these last few weeks I've spent sneaking around, packing things, planning things... which is not easy when you also have to keep it a secret from 5 children who would be more than happy to let their dad in on the plans. Certain telephone conversations were held behind a locked storage closet door, packing took place when Kenton was working and after the children FINALLY went to sleep one night, etc.

My parents said they'd stay the first night, and my in-laws the next. I typed up 3 pages of instructions for them. Yes, 3 pages! Welllllllll! I had a 3 year old that needed his antibiotic and our puppy situation here was (is) CRAZY! Our Siberian husky is in heat- she just turned 6 months old! And our other dog, a male, was not fixed when I typed up the instructions initially, so that had to be revised. Our Husky has been an indoor dog since she went into heat and only goes outside to go potty. Before Ceph was fixed, when she'd go out, we had to put our other dog up. Our yard is not fenced and huskies are known to run off so we've had to be VERY careful with her. We do have an underground electric fence and the dogs wear collars that zap them if they try to leave. This has worked very well. However, Kenton will take them for walks sometimes and I think they've learned that when they walk over our driveway, they don't get zapped. Their collars are off when Kenton takes them for walks. So Nooshie (our husky) one day just ran off through our driveway. She didn't even seem fazed by the electric collar. I was so freaked because 1) she could get pregnant and she's too young for that and 2) we live very close to a highway and she's not a bit afraid of cars- I was afraid she'd get hit. We got her back quickly though. Something had to be done so I shaved a spot on her neck. It turns out her coat is SO DARN THICK that she didn't even FEEL the zap from the electric fence. You can hardly even tell I shaved her, but I had to explain in the instructions that the probes from the collar need to go on that shaved spot or she won't even feel it. She did try to escape again and she did get zapped, twice! but kept on going. But I think that surprised her and she hasn't tried it since.

We were getting really tired of trying to keep the dogs separated so we decided to get our male fixed. (Nooshie is AKC registered and we plan to breed her when she's around 2) That brought on a whole new set of instructions. Ceph had to wear a buster collar?? to keep him from chewing on his stitches. (I call him Satellite Dog now) They also put him on an ($50!) antibiotic that he had to take twice a day. And not only that, he has been VERY AGGRESSIVE towards Nooshie since getting fixed. So we STILL have to keep them separated. So Nooshie's in, Ceph is out. I had to cut up some old hand towels to use as diapers for Noosh since she was bleeding... Oh, it's been fun. They were mainly the cause of the 3 pages. When we got back, my mom said the children were perfect- the dogs were a pain! My MIL said pretty much the same thing!

I took the children over to my folk's house the night before Kenton's birthday (he was working) and told them I wanted to shop for dad by myself (they know they aren't very good at keeping secrets) and then I'd come back and get them, take them to the store and let them each pick something out for him. The real reason I wanted to shop by myself was I needed to get some things for the trip. I couldn't take anything that he'd miss- like his toothbrush, brush, deodorant, cologne or things like that without him noticing. AND I had hidden our bags in the back of the van & I had to sneak those into my parents trunk. I had already arranged for them to let us take their car (which isn't unusual- a van just doesn't constitute a hot date car). My dad knew I was coming and what I was going to do so he had the trunk unlatched already. So before I sneaked off, I slipped our luggage into their car.

I told Kenton we were going somewhere for dinner. It was a bit of a drive, we had to dress up and leave at 4pm, but that's all he knew. Everything went smoothly the day we were to leave (Thursday). While Kenton was waiting for me in the car, my dad was distracting him talking about some squeak the car does and I took the children upstairs to let them in on the secret. I could NOT leave without telling them what we were really doing! They all took it very well, even Gracie, who I expected to have a mini-breakdown. She misses me when she's away. :) I told them they HAD to help me keep my secret and couldn't run outside and say anything to dad. They'd already said their goodbyes.

Meanwhile, my mom per my instructions put a pair of Kenton's casual shoes in a paper bag and took them to the trunk. I knew he'd wear dress shoes and his trench coat and also knew he'd want something different to wear the rest of the trip. My dad left a coat in his trunk for him to wear. Kenton's coat is so big and bulky, I knew he'd notice it was gone. I was so concerned about Kenton having a coat and shoes that can you believe I forgot to bring myself a coat!?!? Argh! So I made it through the first hurdle- leaving home without him figuring anything out.

We made it to the ferry and of course by then he figured out we were on our way to Seattle. The ferry wasn't leaving for another half hour so I decided to give him his card and gift then. The card gave the whole story away and was he ever surprised! For those of you who don't know me, this is the first time since having children, almost 11 years, that we've gone away by ourselves! I'm a big chicken about it normally but felt it was a good time to try! I told him he's to never surprise me like that because I'd probably freak out leaving my children without a chance to prepare.

When we got there, we went to Tulio's- a quaint little Italian restaurant in downtown Seattle. The food was delicious and Kenton got a kick out of our ex-mob-like waiter. Anyone watch SNL? You want-a the pepper? He was very smooth- slid a steak knife next to Kenton's plate in one fluid-like movement as he was walking by. I had smoked salmon ravioli with a lemon creme sauce (YUM!) and asparagus and Kenton had grilled spice-rubbed lamb sirloin with artichokes, green beans, mint and ligurian olives. We'd definitely go back there sometime!

We pretty much kicked back, relaxed and did what we wanted. We had a great time and now I'm looking forward to the homeschooling conference coming up in April- we already have babysitting lined up for 2 nights and it will be just us two again. May as well do it while we can! Once the new baby arrives, I'll be a wimp again till he/she is a few years old (and if we don't have another little one by then!).

Did you get this far? Shew! I was a bit long-winded. Guess I'm making up for my blogging dry spell as of late.

Oh! Before we left, while Kenton was still in the shower, I had my parents sneak my camera into the trunk. He'd think it a bit strange if I brought my camera along just for dinner! So I did take a few pictures, which of course I'd like to share.

This is where we stayed. It's an old hotel called the Camlin, now owned by Worldmark. It was really beautiful and had a lot of character!

Hallway to our room:

Next to the door of each room, they had in a glass display, the original doorknob to that room. I thought that was really neat!

And a close up:

The view from our room:

I found this apartment building intriguing. I don't know what it was. It's shape? The fact that their only yard is a small little porch? The fact that with their lights on you could see everything going on in there? I don't know. Maybe because it's just so DIFFERENT from my "home".

While Seattle is a fun place to visit, we both concluded we could never live there. Kenton & I are both always smiling and laughing and the people there just don't seem.... well, happy! Hardly anyone smiled. And we also noticed a couple of other things. We only saw a handful of dogs and very rarely were they bigger than could fit in your purse. But I suppose if most people live in pricey, teeny apartments, they don't have much of a choice. But a little more disturbing is we hardly saw ANY children! When we did, usually there was only one, and a few times we saw families with TWO children. We did not see ANY families with more than that. Nope, we would not fit in in Seattle.

But besides that, I don't think I could live there because it's so..... gray and sterile and full of granite. Tall buildings everywhere- up, up, up they went. Everything stacked high. Hardly any green or parks. Crowded and stuffy. Fast paced and void of happiness.

Anyway. The next day we went down to Pike's Market. That's a fun place! Lots of neat stuff to sell. This one guy was selling children's ponchos for $25 each. If they weren't so much, I would've bought a couple- they were so colorful and unique! Here are some photos from Pike's Market.

A nearby candy shop (mmmmm!):

Fish, of course:

Fruits and veggies and even more fruits and veggies!

And for Alek, who is into peppers for some odd reason:

More seafood:

And some really neat soap a lady was selling- her stand was arranged so cute! This was only one small part of it:

Before we left Seattle on Saturday, we ate at Cheesecake Factory. I didn't think they'd have much on their menu, but boy was I wrong! It took me FOREVER to figure out what I wanted because there was so much that sounded good! I finally settled on half of a chicken salad sandwich (the best I've ever had), a bowl of creamy chicken and asparagus soup and a yummy salad. Kenton had a breakfast dish. And then of course you can't eat at the Cheesecake Factory without having a piece of cheesecake, but we were both so full that we just split a piece of white chocolate mocha cheesecake. Mmmm! The restaurant was so pretty inside! This was taken from our booth:

And a bit of a closer look at the ceiling:

My hubby reads my blog sometimes so I had to keep it a secret even here. Can't wait till April! :)

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Dec. 30, 2007

Crazy Busy Is RIGHT!

Posted in PhotoBlogging

Wow, what an action packed month! Besides the days of busyness that goes along with Christmas, we have THREE December birthdays in my little family. Granted, one of those is mine (and I won't say how old I am except to hint that I am now considered "advanced maternal age" BOO! HISS!), and I obviously don't have to put much effort into my own birthday, but still. I am *exhausted*! And we're starting school back up tomorrow! I don't think any of us are ready! (but when are we, really?)

We just finished up our last December birthday party tonight- Josiah's 3rd! I cannot believe my BABY is now THREE! He has been SUCH a blessing to our family! If there is ever a reason to consider having a fifth child, come meet Josiah and just imagine life without him- you won't be able to! He's irresistible, I tell ya! That smile! Those faces! And the constant making us laugh- he is destined to be a comedian. He still says he's my baby, and I'm glad.

And because I'm extremely tired and just rambling, I'll add this here. There is nothing I can really think of to be thankful for when you have a miscarriage. However, since there is NOTHING you can do to change it, I have found two things to be thankful for (which of course does NOT mean that I am GLAD it happened- I hope you know what I mean). First of all, I would have been due on my birthday. Which as I previously mentioned is this month. For one thing, I just cannot imagine having a newborn right now. But thinking in future Decembers.... wowza. I think I'd just have to combine all December birthdays into one celebration. Or celebrate half birthdays in June instead. I really, really love my due date of July 3rd. It will spread out our birthdays a bit more. And the other thing I've thought about that I am thankful for is having a bit of extra time with Josiah. The largest age span between my children before this was between Alek & Gracie- there are 2.5 years almost to the day between them. And I had a miscarriage between those two, which is why there is even that large of an age gap. There are 20 months between Gracie & Gabe, 18 months between Gabe & Millie (he turned 19 months just 2 days after she was born) and 2 years, 13 days between Josiah and Millie- my two December babies. Josiah and our next baby will be 3.5 years apart! My largest age gap by a year! But Josiah still seems like a baby to me. My other children had to grow up so fast it seemed when their babyhood was replaced at such a young age. I guess I expected them to act bigger too. I have really enjoyed this time with Josiah. And I had not planned on blogging about that but there ya go.

So here's my sweet lil' goofball Josiah tonight on his birthday. One blowing out his candles and the other being the little ham he is.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I'm STILL waiting for snow! We got a little today but it's already gone.

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Dec. 16, 2007

Sneak Peek: Christmas Pictures (and *gasp* I'm in one!)

Posted in PhotoBlogging

I tell ya, sometimes I think it would be worth the money to pay a *real* photographer to take our pictures. It was an all day ordeal and I didn't even get any WOW pictures. But, I will settle for what I have because I am NOT going to do this again!

I started the day by bathing Nooshie (what we call our husky, Annushka) and got Kenton to do Ceph (Bucephalus). I wanted to try & get them in a picture or two and wanted them looking clean. Nooshie's whites get yicky after all her digging and chewing through extension cords that *were* powering our outdoor Christmas lights and chewing on our house and whatnot. Ceph never *looks* very dirty since he's all black, but, well, I still wanted him washed. That was quite an ordeal.

Then I picked out all of the children's clothes. Couldn't find some shoes and after searching for a half hour or so I decided the children were going to be sans shoes in the pics.

Started tearing apart my living room. I have to make room for my stuff. Kenton & the boys helped (well, Kenton did anyway). He even got out my backdrop stand, backdrop, light, reflector and other things while I put hot rollers in the girls' hair.

Then I jumped in the shower. After I was done getting ready I did the boys' hair, took the hot rollers out of the girls' hair and styled it and then came down and hooked up my light to my camera, did my custom white balance and got the settings adjusted for exposure. I much prefer shooting in natural light outside. It's a hassle, I tell ya!

Now you're getting a little sneak peek. If you know my parents, you cannot tell them that I got a family picture of us! It's supposed to be a surprise! That's the only thing they've asked for for Christmas & I told them I didn't think I'd have time- that it was enough of a hassle doing 5 children and I was pregnant and blah blah blah. I look too fat. Wait three years till I lose some weight. Excuses. Basically, I hate having my picture taken. But I thought I'd try it for them & if I got one I liked okay enough, I'd give it to them for Christmas. My mom even called tonight- she knew I was taking pictures today and said, I know you don't want me asking, but I just want to know, did you happen to get a family picture? I told her that it was crazy, that it was hard enough getting a pic of 5 children and we got the dogs in a few too. So I didn't lie, because I didn't actually say, "No, I didn't", however I did lead her to believe that I did not get a family photo. :) (the last family picture they have of us is when Millie was a baby, which means Josiah's not even in it!)

This was fun. I set my camera on Gabe's school desk, set the auto timer, focused, pushed the shutter release button and RAN to get into my place with my family. I do have a tripod, but it's a cheapo Walmart tripod. I've had one snap in two already and did NOT want that happening with my camera and NICE (expensive!) HEAVY lens. Don't trust it. Anyway, the children thought that it slightly amusing seeing mom have to run and jump in place to get in the picture. Hee-hee. Here's the best of the 4 or 5 I took of all of us. I wish Alek wasn't so slouchy and Gollum looking and Gabe was smiling and some chins were down and I know you can hardly see Ceph, but oh well. It's going to have to do:

Now here's where I need your help! We are going to print this off and send it along with the Christmas cards to announce our pregnancy to family and some friends. So far the only ones that know about it are our parents (and my cousin Kim, who reads my blog sometimes! Hi Kim!). But I am wondering if/how this can be improved? I am SO NOT creative when it comes to wording things in a clever way. If you can think of something better, PLEASE let me know- and quickly! I want to get these done on Monday (hopefully)!

Can you read it? If not, it says:

Bun in the Oven
(for best results)
-Hand of God -Husband and Wife
Preheat oven to 98.6 degrees. Mix in lots of prayer, rest and good nutrition. Let bake for 9 months. Remove from oven around July 3rd and enjoy for a lifetime!
Yield: half a dozen (yield may vary)

I put "for best results" because as you know, you don't HAVE to have a husband and wife to have a child.

So here are the rest:

And then Josiah thought he'd entertain his siblings with his fabulous "go to sleep while taking Christmas pictures" trick:

I had to perform Photoshop head swapping surgery on someone not looking at the camera in this picture. Can you tell who?

The pyramid/Christmas tree picture I imagined did not turn out. It appears that Josiah is afraid of heights and Alek is not quite as strong as his younger brother, Gabe, which is why the lighter, younger sister is on his shoulders instead of Gabe's.

Not at all exciting. But I LOVE HIS LIPS! (now picture Larry singing the lips song)

This was Kenton's idea & I loved it! He was trying to make them into a star. I just need to be about 3 feet taller to get them all in the picture while standing on the chair (or maybe I should've just let Kenton take it....).

Got milk? Cookies for Santa... but since they don't believe in Santa and they do believe mom when she says they can eat the cookies after just a few shots, they were getting a bit anxious.

They've got the go ahead! And they're off!

How many can I shove in my face at a time?!?!!?

Sorry, Santa. The children ate your cookies.

But not this one, oh no. She's *completely* innocent! She's an angel! Never does *anything* wrong!

That's all there is, there isn't- anymore.

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About Me

Hi and welcome to my crazy busy world! I'm Alyssa, pronounced A-lee-sa. Hubby & I have been married for 15 years and we have 5 wonderful children and one on the way! Their ages are 11, 8, 7, 5 & 3, with the latest model due early July! Spend any amount of time here and I'm sure you'll quickly learn that I love photography! You'll find quite a mix of posts here- lots of photo blogging, some photography tips and tutorials, posts about home schooling and posts that will give you a glimpse to the goings-on in our lives. I hope you enjoy your visit! Thanks for stopping by!