Rare and Sweet

My baby doesn’t often lay her head down on my shoulder.

Rare and oh-so-sweet.

Summer Family Portraits 2013

Once again, Atalie Bale blew us away, despite very challenging circumstances (rain, crazy muddy yard and fiiiiiiive little ones!!!).

She’s amazing folks! Call her up for your next session!

http://ataliebalephotography.com/

I really will cherish these photos!

I Lied.

Yesterday Mikey returned from a two week trip.

My girlie spent part of her morning coloring her sign and periodically checking her watch. Mike’s flight arrived at 8:15pm in our city and so even though it’s past the kids’ bedtime, I told them they could come with me to pick him up at the airport. 

Their Daddy travels a lot and there are very few opportunities for them to be a part of the drop off/pick up. Usually the flight is out of Denver (an hour and a half drive to get there) or leaves early morning or late night or yada yada.

This time it was feasible.

They.Were. Thrilled.

We arrived a bit before the flight. I knew if we were running late I would have a nervous breakdown trying to pull it off. We made signs and purchased balloons and parked and walked inside and it was past bedtime and if we missed him by a couple minutes I would have been so disappointed. But that’s just me.

Soooo I made sure we had plenty of time.

It’s a good thing, cause we had to fight the throngs of people who had flocked to the airport to welcome their loved ones home.

Or not.

My kids love the airport. It’s like home to them. :)

We were happily waiting, stress free when OF COURSE my daughter sheepishly tells me that she had to go potty!

“You whaaaaat? What if Daddy arrives while we’re in the bathroom?” I said in my head. “AAAAHHHHHHH”!!!!

Waiting. And taking deep breaths.

Bathroom mirror portrait. I don’t look stressed out, do I?

Ha! I was actually fine. Thank goodness I planned to have extra time for setbacks like potty stops. Somehow I guess I just knew that might happen…

They actually watched his plane land.

And you can’t tell, but a luggage cart went by outside and H excitedly told me… “Look Mommy! It’s the cart carrying soupcases!”

I hope he never stops calling them soupcases.

Maybe I don’t mean that. But it’s darn cute.

Little one was pretty chill.

We watched. And waited.

And I lied.

Earlier in the day I had lied and told Mike that I was leaving the kids at home with a friend. He believed me. Then I lied and told him that I was just going to pull around the pickup and not come into the airport.

Oops.

I had to explain to the kids that I lied to Daddy so we could surprise him.  H comforted me… “It’s not a lie Mommy! It’s just a joke!”

Okay then. It’s a joke.

They stood like this for awhile waiting for Daddy to be the one walking around the corner. In the meantime we cheered MANY a passenger. People got a kick out of my little cuties and their signs and balloons.

And then he came!! And there are not photos of that because I switched media and took a video instead of photographs.

But it was so sweet.

And I got tears in my eyes.

My kids have such a good Daddy.

N squeezed him and then proceeded to hit her balloon around with her sign.

She had moved on pretty quickly.

Okay, very quickly. Gotta love her.

Reunited and it feels so good! (Do you hear it in your head?!)

He was definitely surprised and it was such fun to let the kids be a part of pulling off a fun surprise for Daddy. They did awesome.

Later at home it was back to the way it’s supposed to be…

Joy fills my heart.

Ted E. Bread

I occasionally pull out my kids’ cookbooks and let each of the children choose one thing they’d like to make. Then we make their choices together over the next few days.

Last week, H’s choice was Ted. E. Bread. It was a recipe to make a honey-cinnamon bear.

I have such fun cooking with my kiddos. Although I am trying to teach them to ‘go with the flow’ when it comes to stuff like this cause there tends to be some bickering about who gets to measure and pour and stir and baaaaah! You’d never guess it from this photo! I try to keep it fair but they could use a chill pill…

In any case, it was super fun and it turned out cute AND delicious!

Lovies

My baby gave me lovies today.

I can’t really explain what it is about slobbery gummy baby mouth smooshed all over a Mama’s face that is just so wonderful.

It just is.

:)

Two Things, Organizationally Related

1. I recently made new labels for my kids’ toy bins. It brought me great joy and fulfillment.

2. My boy must be made of the same stuff because when I asked him to please put his trains into the bin that I had so carefully and beautifully marked with a printed train icon mounted on two layers of coordinating scrapbooking paper and then laminated…  he worked so patiently and carefully and then proudly presented me with this…

Bahahaha… I love it. A boy after my own heart.

And that reminds me, I thought of something today that I wanted to re-organize. I gotta go!! (Um, this is not a joke).

Flying Buddies

My baby girl has so much fun playing on the floor these days. She is such a joy to watch.

She has also been ‘superbaby’ a lot. Her legs and arms go up and the only thing that touches the floor is her rolly polly belly.

This day, she had a flying buddy…

Aunties are the best…

Baby’s First Fingerpainting

Maybe my baby is going to be an artist.

We often find her fingerpainting.

She even makes her own all natural fingerpaint. There is that overachiever in her again…

I know I know, it’s kinda gross.

But it’s kind of funny too.