Halloween 2009

With the kids not really being into Princesses or Spiderman this year, I was finally able to see my idea to fruition. My obsession with Dr. Seuss goes public!!! :)

I have talked about the beautiful change that has occurred with my beloved girl this past 6 months.

No need to discuss it again. But if I were to, (I can't help myself)

I would say that she has changed into the cutest, yummiest, sweetest little thing.

She will ALWAYS be Charlotte, and I love that about her.

But now there is so much sweetness, that the occasional vinegar is much easier to digest or even ignore.

But anyway.....how cute is she right? Oh man.....so cute.

And as you probably know, I don't touch up my photos at all. Sorry. I probably should. I probably will. On second thought maybe I will repost this later.

But for now this is my cutie a la natural.

And she's four. Thought you should know.

Strut it if you got it girl! :)
I hate to break this to you sweetie, but this is the last year for topless tricycle riding.

 And if it isn't, just don't tell me please!

Isn't he precious?

Isn't he lovely? Isn't he wonderul? Isn't he precious? Less than one minute old.....

Okay fine, so I really like that Stevie Wonder song. So sue me.

But seriously....when he sleeps like this and I capture it in a picture, it takes me back to my happy baby

memory place.

The place that is far, far away from memories of marathon nursing sprees,  4 hour long doctor visits, and dirty diapers, dirty diapers, dirty diapers.

This place, the place that smells like newborns.... is full of smiling babies, stacks of clean diapers, freshly laundered baby blankets, giggles, and cute slobber kisses. I like it here, even if it's only my imagination.

architecture

Because I love cool architecture or house design stuff whipping out my camera while in line in a bathroom did not strike me as odd particularly. Ok, maybe a bit. But anyway, we were at Oakglen apple farm & they just redid their bathrooms and I love what they did with the open beam, super tall ceiling & pine paneling with the dormer window. Very Scandinavian. I love it mucho.

Bubble Klingons

We had bubble Klingons in our bathtub.

child abuse?

I know what you're thinking.

And the answer is no, I do not make strangling my young children part of my everyday routine.

I was a bit horrified when I first saw this and then couldn't help laughing.

 I know we have been discussing my perfectionist attitude and the havoc it wreaks on my soul,

 but this is taking it to the next level wouldn't you say?

Right before I took this I think I said:

"Charlotte hold your little head still so it gets in the picture, here I'll do it for you."

Ah, now ya see?? This is more like it.

My first picture with my new little Canon Powershot 1200 IS.

A cute little point and shoot camera by the way.

I love my sister

She's the most generous person I know.

She is oh so patient when I am cranky.

There is always room for one more person around her dinner table.

I love you.

 

Embracing imperfection

I sometimes have a hard time with imperfection. Okay, okay I have a REALLY hard time with it. Like I would rather not do things unless they are perfect. It's sick I know, but I am growing. Look at the picture below. The clock is in the background, but I did not delete this picture...and I am so glad....

 I have a really, really hard time not taking 53 pictures of my men doing the cuddle-sleep together. What's more astonishing is that our early bird is actually sleeping past 7am. It's about 7:53am on a Sunday when I shot this picture. Miracles really do happen.

We went to the Harris Ranch hotel this past weekend to surprise my grandparents for a little visit. My aunt orchestrated the whole thing. And the awesome part is that my WHOLE family went. This is the first time we have all been together in a year. Needless to say it was awesome. We ate, we drank, we swam, we inhailed deep breaths (just kidding) the latter is impossible. Harris Ranch is in the middle of a....uh...Ranch. A ranch with cows. Lots and lots and lots of cows. Lots of cows = lots of poo. Lots of poo = really smelly. Moving on....My favorite part besides being with my family was the heated gargantuan pool. I swam for about 13 of the 24 hours we were there.

Yes, I have grown. Really trying to ignore the perfectionist monster that tells me pictures like this are not worth posting. But then, if I did pass them up you would never know that I wear aprons from the time I get home to the time I go to sleep on most nights, you might not know that she wears incredibly cute pigtails sometimes, and in 50 years I might not remember my clear, smooth skin (wow that's the first time I have ever said anything nice about my skin).  Here's to savoring imperfection.

This and that

So I thought I would post a little of what's been happening...at least the picture versions of it...

On Fridays we do various things, but mostly I make the kids play outside for as long as I feel is not mean. :) Four children = a lot of dirt, cut me some slack. Oh right, back to the photo. So here we have Isa playing with the hose. Hose = hours of fun.

Violet is posing for me at the racetrack we went to (see below). Violet won't really smile on command but if you say "show me your teeth" this is what you get. Half smile, half "check out the pearly whites" Works for me.

So my brother had the day off and my dad found a indoor racetrack nearby. I wish I had a dad like that. Wait....

Anyway, just the men went out, and us womanfolk watched from the sidelines.

As a side note, there is no good reason why we didn't race too. My sister and I like to do stuff like that, like to throw balls, and swim and do, ya know....stuff, but these cars get going pretty dang fast and it just didn't feel like my kind of thing. But anyway, the shot. The shot above is a favorite of mind. A little fuzzy and out of focus, but whatever, I love the composition.

This is my dad racing past.

I think this is Memo. I love this picture. I'm a freak, I know.

Do you know what I girl has to do to get men to pose?? I want to reach across that damn fence and....sorry. Memo grabbed that sign last minute. Pretty cute.

My crazy mama on a scooter at KidSpace museum (our favorite kid's museum). We used to have a membership and go there all the time, but now that I am working we haven't been in a while. This particular trip was with our school, field trip day. Back to the photo, don't you love the tongue hanging out??? Fantastic. Gosh I love you Charlotte,

I was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this picture. Geez girl. You are such a knockout!

There are moments when my camera is a total pain. It bangs into things, knocks children on the head as they pass me, it throws my neck out, i can't leave it in the car, but then there are moments like these when I am walking to the car after a long afternoon at a carnival where I spent so much money on nothing, I am half crazed with hunger, and I want to just eat Rosco's Chicken and Waffles and crawl into bed and sleep for 76 hours. But then I see something like this and decide to pull the dang lens cap off one more time for the day and voila! I get the yummiest memory of that day. (the chicken and waffles were pretty yummy too).

Another weekend my brother was off and we went to the beach. The whole family. Like EVERYONE. IT was glorious. I boogieboarded for the first time in 10 years I think. There was salt water pouring from my nose for approximately 7 hours that day. It was awesome.

Dang it Violet, you are just too much!

I have recently been trying to get over my "I hate every picture of me" line of thinking and so decided to take no less than 37 self portraits of me this day at the beach. Aside from the blue chair and girls in the background I dare say I love this picture. I don't hate the way I look, it's the "good" side of my face, my face doesn't look freakishly round and it's from the neck up. :) Always a plus.

This picture is not noteworthy but the reason it's here is just some evidence that John and I are alive. You might not know this because we never are in a picture together. Someone's always behind the lens.