Baby Annie's Blessing Day

Annie is 2 1/2 months old now.  Times flies!  She really doesn't look like a newborn anymore, which is both a little bit sad, and way exciting!  My baby is growing so fast!  (It's a good thing, though, because her blessing dress is a size 3-6 mos, so I needed her to have a bit of chub in order to fit into her dress on her big day!)

For the big day, we had lots of family from both sides attending church with us.  Why didn't I take a picture of all them, you ask?  I have no idea.  That would have been smart.  And memorable.  Maybe I'll think of that next time.

Sydney is the best big sister ever.  Aren't my girls beautiful??

Grandpa Jon holding an infant.  You will only ever see that happen when he is required to hold one for photo ops.  He even pretends to enjoy it.  He's a good sport.

Annie loves people and smiles and talks whenever she sees a face close enough to respond to.  She also performs for overhead light fixtures on occasion

Aunt Natalie with Annie.  Both are so pretty!

We LOVE you so much, Annie!  I'm so happy to have you in our family!  Already, I can't imagine us without you!

Soccer, Finally

Tanner has been patiently waiting to be old enough to play soccer for three years.  That's a significant portion of an almost-five-year-old's life!!  Okay, so he wasn't exactly patient, but he did wait three years.  This is his big chance to get out there and run.  And fidget.  And make silly faces for no reason.  And run.  And fidget.  And drink from a water bottle.  And eat half time snacks.  And fidget.  And get dirty.  I mean, we are talking serious FUN for him.

 He hopped (literally) right out there for his first practice before his first game.  Somehow kicking the ball was much more of an elusive skill than he was expecting.

I love that the most important skill that his coach taught the team was to only score in the correct goal.  His wisdom stayed with the players for the first half (for the most part!), but by the second half, none of the players on either team really had a concept of which goal they should be shooting on.

Here is Tanner after making the first goal of the season.  Yay!  That's my boy!!  Should I mention that he also made the second goal of the season?  He tipped it in for the other team.  I'm not sure how many goals Tanner made in this game, but I'm pretty sure he made more for the other team than he did for his own!  I LOVED watching his game!  He's bound to be an energetic player, and may even learn how the game is supposed to be  played.

Tanner! (because it's hard to say his name without an exclamation at the end!)

I Do It, Mom!

I have told many people that Eli is the easiest two-year-old ever.  That's because he is happy all day, he practically puts himself to bed for naps and bedtime, he says, "Okay, mom!" every time I ask him to do something, he never teases or hits his siblings, he's a great (not picky) eater, and he says the cutest things ever.  No, really. I'm telling the truth.  Easiest two-year-old EVER.

Except, as of  2 1/2 months ago, ALL THAT CHANGED.  Apparently, he had to become a two-and-a-half-year-old before he could turn on the real charm.  I won't go into the nitty gritty about how terrible his two's are, because, well, you probably already know.  He still has his moments though, when I just have to scoop him up and hug him because I love him so much and because he makes me smile.  And laugh. (And groan.  And pull my hair. . . )

So the other day, in all his grown-upness (what? that's a word!), he helped himself to a snack.  I often hear the phrase, "I do it, mom!"  He's getting to be very independent.  He didn't make much of a mess in the kitchen either, surprisingly. 

Yes, that's because all the mess ended up on him.

He is great at cleaning up messes, though.  He helps keep the napkin and paper towel companies in business.  I'm not gonna complain if he's cleaning up his own messes!

This mess wasn't easy.  He really had to work hard.

I'd say he worked at it for five or six minutes.  An eternity for a two-year-old.

And he's done.  Looks much better now.  =)  I love my Eli!!

Getting Ready for Church

Last weekend Cannon had to be away for reserves, so I got the kids ready and took them to church all by my lonesome.  Everything went exceptionally smoothly.  HA!  Not!  People still ask me how I am feeling when they see me (probably because I had a baby 2 1/2 months ago??) and I tell them I feel great!  I do!  But when they ask how I am doing, I tell them my life is crazy!!!  Depending on the day, I may say it with reserve and it fits right into polite small talk - or I may say it with a bit too much authenticity and the conversation suddenly stalls as the other person tries to find a quick way to move on and leave me to my insanity.

On this particular day, the kids lined up as I did their hair one by one.  Eli generally goes first because he is still enthusiastic about mom doing his hair.  And anyway, all I do it pretend to fix his hair because 1) he hardly has any hair to DO, and 2) his adorable cowlick in front makes it impossible to do anything other than let it be.  So, I pretended to do Eli's hair and proceeded to help each of the other kids with their hair.  As I finished up with Sydney, I hear Eli coming back down the hall towards me saying, "I girl, mom, I girl!"  And he had put one of Sydney's flowers in his hair.  Darling.  And then he tugged on the door handle to go out to the car and off to church!  Can I tell you how difficult it is to convince a two-year-old to change his mind about something once he has his mind made up?? 

What do you think?  Doesn't he make a sweet little girl?

Oh, yes.  And when the camera came out, every kid wanted his picture taken too.  Tanner wins the most kissable cheeks contest!!

Star of the Week

In Jackson and Jordan's fourth-grade class this year, they each get a turn to be Star of the Week. Last week was Jordan's turn. So fun to put together a poster with pictures and see which things are important enough to Jordan to present to his friends at school. Cannon and I were both able to be there and we brought along the little kids too.

Hmm. Check out Tanner's face. He is great in pictures!

This is Jackson and Jordan with their teacher, Miss T. It was also crazy hat day.  Jackson is on the left, Jordan is on the right.

February 3

 Hmm.  Well, I have obviously fallen off the "post a picture every day" wagon.  It is already February 7, and I have yet to post my photos from Feb 3, 4, 5, or 6!  I'm not going to give up, though.  I will try to make up lost days, but no promises.  I have my sanity still, but only barely.  And I have an idea of why this particular assignment tripped me up a bit.  The prompt is THEN AND NOW.  So, since everyone is asking, and the time seems right, I wanted to post pictures of my darling little Annie on the day she was born (just over three weeks ago) and pictures of her now.  The thing is, I sort of have this BLOCK when it comes to taking pictures of adorable babies.  Let's face it, I'm not that great of a photographer.  I'm only moderately better than my 4 year old when it comes to photography!  Annie is adorable.  I mean really darling.  My pictures don't even begin to do her justice.  I feel like I'm being kind of mean to her if I post her pictures, because you will never know just how amazing she is by looking at my photos!  So, I'm going to swallow my pride a bit, and hope that Annie forgives me for posting less-than-amazing photos of her, because I want to avoid falling into the trap of not taking any pictures at all. . . (which I may or may not have done with my other kids!)

So, here is Annie, only minutes after her birth.  8 pounds, 7 ounces!  Big girl!  =)

And here she is today, almost 4 weeks old.  She and I had some fun taking pictures this morning, and I even got a few smiles!

 

And now, I will show some more photos from this morning, because I think she is the cutest thing ever!!

And because I am a glutton for punishment, I will post professional pics too.  I love these shots!  Bella Baby Photography showed up in my hospital room and spent a few minutes taking pictures of Annie a couple of days after she was born.  Easiest photo sitting ever for me!  I just sat in my bed and watched.  And I didn't have to agonize for weeks about what Annie would wear or how I wanted the pictures to look.  There is definitely something to be said about spontaneity!

My favorite is last!

February 2

Day 2 of my photo sharing!  Since I don't have an infant in my arms tonight, I can type with two hands.  So I will mention that I am taking a photo class.  Well, is that really what it's called?  Not sure.  It's online, it's called The Joy of Love, and it looked like a good excuse to dust off the camera and start shooting again! 

I admit that I am feeling a little overwhelmed with mommyhood right now.  A three week old baby is the sweetest thing EVER, but juggling the complexities of bringing a newborn into the house with the day-to-day of running a household and caring for 5 other kids and a husband has me on the brink!!  I have no room in my life for any projects!  So, seriously, a photography class??  No, I can't even be sure that I will have ten minutes together to work on it!  But I think I can commit to ONE photo a day, as long as I don't promise high quality! 

Today's prompt for a photo is HOW THEY LOOK.  I caught Jackson eating a yummy muffin, told him to wipe off the crumbs (he missed one, heehee!), and snapped a shot.  For some reason, it is so difficult to get a picture of him looking natural, but I think the yummy muffin helped him to relax or something. (Yeah, I know, that makes no sense.  But we're talking about a nine year old here, and it's a sleep deprived mommy talking about him!)  This picture is certainly HOW HE LOOKS. 

And I couldn't resist adding this second picture.  Those two.  I love 'em.  Jordan made the muffins and he was very satisfied that Jackson enjoyed his so much.  Uh huh.  I know.  I should have gotten their hair cut days/weeks ago, but don't forget that overwhelmed mommy comment!  Now.  Who can tell me which twin is Jordan and which is Jackson?

February 1

In February, I plan to post a picture a day.  My poor blog will be so happy to see something new after such a long, boring year of nothing!  For the first day in Feb, Jordan.  While he practices his violin.  Right now he is working at the end of book 1 in the Suzuki method.  He's a fabulous player, and I love to listen to him practice!

A New Car!!

Okay, we don't actually HAVE a new car, but now it's time to start SHOPPING for a new car.  The last time we bought a new car was in the year 2001, and after having twins, we decided that we had become a minivan family.  We got the most beautiful car - a 2001 Caravan.  I have LOVED this car.  The roomiest car ever, but still drives like a car rather than a big ol' SUV.  That car took us from one coast to another, more than once.  It has taken our family of four to a family of seven, with camping trips, family vacations, trips to the school, church, and the park.  You name it, that car has BEEN there for us! After 150,000 miles, it's still purring along and taking us where we need to be.  So, shopping for a NEW car doesn't even sound fun to me.  I want THIS one.  MINE.

Alas, it is time for a new car.  A seven passenger will no longer meet our needs.  But who wants a huge SUV which is difficult to park, or a very UNcool van??

So, what do I do?  I'm open for suggestions.  I love my Caravan.  There are other minivans out there that are eight passengers vans.  But they don't have a whole lot of space for our camping gear for our family trips.  And I'm thinking that we will be wanting to be able to tow trailers too.  So, maybe we need an SUV.  But the smaller 8 passenger SUV's don't have much cargo room either.  Could I really handle a Suburban or some other monster?  Certaninly, no big van.  I just don't think I'm there yet.

Birthdays Past

Well. My new years resolutions have gone very well so far. Except the one about blogs!! (Two a month! Guess I blew that one!) Who knew it would actually be detrimental to set a resolution? I haven't totally given up, though. Here are a few pictures to get me back into the game.

I turned 8 1/2 this year. Wahoo! We celebrated my birthday very late because I was out of town all week before my birthday, got home late Saturday night, high-fived it with Cannon, and he took off early Sunday morning and was gone for a week. Funny - after all of his years as an active duty submariner, he never missed any major holidays or any birthdays. But this year, he has or will have missed multiple birthdays. Yay for reserves! That's okay though - it's a small price to pay. The big celebration was that Cannon managed to find me a Carvel ice cream cake! Since I was a kid, that has been a tradition for me. There is no ice cream cake like Carvel ice cream cake! We haven't been able to find it anywhere for the past few years. I haven't even really enjoyed ice cream much for the past couple of years. But this year - it was perfect!

Jackson and Jordan have now officially had more birthdays than me! They are 9! And wow, they are grown up now! Every age is fun - I love to see how they grow and overcome the challenges of childhood.

Here is a picture of our backyard two weeks ago. We have had a crazy spring! The poor fruit trees can hardly tell which season it is, and the kids are pretty confused too. I am hoping that was the very last of the snow, because the cherry trees are blossoming, and the rest of the trees are soon to follow. Yay for spring!

And here is crazy Eli. He is here in our home to make me laugh and to keep me sane. He has the funniest expressions sometimes! And he somehow knows when I need a good snuggle. Such a sweetheart. He will be two in August, but I think he will always be my baby!

Our Biggest Christmas Wishes to You

The kids all told me their BIGGEST CHRISTMAS WISHES.

(tree, ornaments, and lights)

Corel Paint Shop Pro

I had some questions about the photo editing (finally checked on the correct spelling of this word!) software that I use (and LOVE), so I thought I'd post just a bit about it. I am so not qualified to do a real review, so please don't expect much. I actually downloaded it for free a few months ago. I think Corel had just released the new version, Corel Paint Shop Pro XI, so there was a one-day deal to download Corel Paint Shop Pro X for free. I am SOOO glad I did, even though I didn't really know what it was at the time.

I like reading Amazon.com reviews, and if you want some, check here. (Wow, that was cool. I finally figured out how to put a link on a word! I'm getting so much technical experience these days!!) In my opinion, the price for this software is extremely low for something with so much depth.

You can use this software to make very sophisticated edits to pictures using easy correction or editing "wizard" type applications that work for beginners who don't want to invest a lot of time. Or you can delve into the details and edit with layers (so cool!) and advanced effects. I spent an hour the other day watching youtube posts which explain step-by-step how to create some advanced edits. Like pulling a person out of one photo and posting into another. Or some serious make-over action, including adding make-up and fake eyelashes! (Maybe I'll get good enough at that one that I will surpass my abilities to put on real make-up. Shouldn't be too hard considering my lack of skill in that department!) There are many places where you can download free, or costly add-ons which will make specific editing tasks even easier. The sky is the limit with this software. So fun. The only thing that it doesn't do that I wish it did is edit directly from RAW files. This requires significantly more expensive software and isn't in my sights right now. And I think when I get a new camera with RAW capabilities it will come with it's own software for this??

Why did I major in statistics when I could have learned super-duper recording skills or awesome graphic design and photo editing STUFF??! This is something I am deifinitely going to have to spend some time learning.

Here are a few before/after shots with edits mostly fixing lighting and cropping issues.