I hate my oven.

Either I am turning into a failure of a cook or my oven is crap.

I vote B.

In the last week I have had a double batch of poppyseed bread BURN, and a double batch of homemade brownies BURN.

The brownies maaay have been slightly my fault (they were really thick), but the poppyseed bread was most definitely the oven's fault.

This is horribly embarrassing to me. I've been cooking and baking since the 4th grade. I'm normally good at it. The brownies were so bad not even Matt would eat them and I had to throw them out. You have got to understand, he love, love, loves brownies. For him not to eat them they've got to be really bad.

Last night was our company Christmas party and I made brownies, cheesecake squares, and magic cookie bars. The only one that they ate all of was the brownies. What is wrong with people? All that magnificent baking (because these really did turn out awesome) and all they want to eat are brownies?

Now I know why some people skip holiday baking. Humbug.

Sweet Dreams

I Heart Faces Week 48: Sweet Dreams



When I saw this week's challenge for I ♥ Faces I thought "I can TOTALLY DO this!" Well, fact of the matter is I totally have done it about a million times. Some results better than others. But this one of Xander is by far one of my favorites. Taking such beautiful pictures of my kids now makes me feel guilty for gipping my older girls with bad photography when they were littler. Not that I'm stellar now, but I'm a good stretch better than I was. It also helps that my camera is about a gazillion times better than that first little Kodak point and shoot 3 megapixel camera I had 7 years ago!

Anywho, this is my beautiful son. Just a few hours after he was born. Taken by me after Matt had left the hospital to spend some time with the girls at home and let me rest. I may not have gotten much rest but that hospital had some of the best lighting EVER. I was seriously jealous that my home didn't have such nice light. I can feel how soft his cheeks are just looking at this picture. I can see my girls in those cheeks, too, and remember how it was when they were all this small (and now they are gangly legged Big Girls... 'cept Charlotte, she still has a little chub on her cheeks ;) still some gangle in her legs, though ). It makes me a little sad that he's already starting to crawl. And yet again I'm still so proud of him for it. But, that's a blog for another day.

Sweet sleeping babies. They make my heart sing.

L.

A few years ago I was on a kick of making avatars and desktops. I saved all of them (some are pretty pathetic and no I will not share them). Among these files I found this:



I had made a pretty sweet desktop background for L. with it. The girl in the painting reminded me of her. When I think of her that's the face I see (only L, not a painting). I still think that the Little Knitter looks like L. Only L has a few years on her. haha

There is a bit of irony there, though, because sometimes I think the Little Knitter looks sad, and when I think of L. my favorite thing to think about is her laugh. It's amazing. It makes me feel happy. I like making her laugh just to hear it.

I think I should record her laughing and use it for my ringtone.

That would be epic.

Photographic...

Today, I can report (with humorously mixed feelings [not in a bad way]) that I was featured on PW's blog!

I'm excited that she mentioned me (I have to say, personally I thought Laura's and my stunt was pretty memorable), but on the down side I pretty much look like a dork. Whoops.

In keeping with that theme I got a new ID card today as my old one was about to expire and on a military base you basically can't do anything without one of those magic little cards. And you know what? I look like a total freak.



Seriously, where the heck are my eyebrows??? And why do I look like I'm on drugs?

I tried to take a couple pictures to redeem myself and even that didn't really work out very well. (Thank you Daughters O Mine for breaking my tripod.)

Blurry:


Meh:


Why yes, I DID do laundry today and hung it to dry on my husbands pull up bar. How did you know?


This is probably the best one, after some serious cropping, and it's still rotten (I should have cropped that last one, it may actually be better but out of the 6 shots I took they all made me wince so I quit).


These are some of the first pictures I've tried taking since having Xander (we took a couple after Matt's Ranger school graduation, but I really think that's just about the only pictures I've taken... that's a lie, I did take a couple "head shots" for Matt while he was away at Ranger school because he missed my face and I'd only been sending him pics of the kids). At least Xander is lovely and adorable no matter what.

That's got to count for something, right?

I met PW. Kinda.

Ok, so after my "I love Laura" post last night I should probably go a little more in depth and explain why I was so giddy.

I chatted with her as she left work last night and she told me she was going to Ree Drummond's (The Pioneer Woman http://thepioneerwoman.com/) book signing.

Color me jealous.

I wished her a happy adventure and said I'd chat with her later. I also told her to tell PW that I love her. haha

A couple hours down the road I received the following message:

Laura: okay so im at the pw signing ;)
if you connect via video when i get up there i might let you say hi :-P

Well, needless to say I jumped on THAT train immediately, because I'm a P-dub addict and read her blog every day unless something keeps me away from my computer.

I uncorked a bottle of wine and we chatted for the next few hours while Laura made her merry way down the line. At some point along the way, I forget how early on, Laura told me that she had bought me one of Ree's books and was getting it signed for me. Which blew my mind because it was pure awesome. I was going to order one off amazon but I knew that there weren't going to be any stops along Ree's book tour that I'd be able to make it to so I'd resigned myself to my fate of not getting a signed copy and never getting to meet Ree.

We also took pictures. It's what we do.



I think people found us humorous.



Laura prefers to be behind the lens so most of the pictures I got of the evening looked like this:



Or this classic Laura pose:



While we were in line I got to meet Amy from http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/



We also perused the shelves (like how I talk about this like I was physically there?) and found such gems as this:



Flash cards? Oh my.

And we got closer and closer. Poor Laura had to carry me all night. But she was such a trooper. I really had the better end of the deal, I just sat around and drank wine and chatted.



I never realized that Borders had a whole section for Dummy books.



In keeping with our earlier theme:



Lest anyone worry that her arms got too tired hauling my bum around the store all night she did get a chance to sit and rest:



And we did a lot of this:



and this:



My ONLY regret is that when I actually got to "meet" Ree my head was in the clouds and I neglected to take a picture. Laura has one that I am going to steal. haha

So, thank you Laura for doing this for me. You made my night. Thank you Ree for being such a good sport and staying up till the wee hours to sign the books for all us yahoos. And thank you to all the people who hung out with us all night and laughed at our antics. I had a blast at the book signing. :D

ETA: Check out L's version of our grand adventure (her pictures are undoubtedly better because they weren't taken through a computer screen! haha!) http://whennooneslooking.wordpress.com/

Love that girl.

Laura, let it be said, is effing a-mazing. She stood in a line for hours to get a book signed (by one of the arguably coolest bloggers ever) and not only included me in her adventure but got me a book and a t-shirt. Freaking awesome. I love you forever, Laura. I hope I didn't scandalize anyone with my loose tongue there at then end, but I was a wee bit tipsy (still am) and ridiculously excited. I hope Ree wasn't too freaked out by my mug on the computer right in front of her face. haha

I'm stoked and cannot wait till we can wear our t-shirts together and plot what recipes to cook.

FTW! haha

Sad, sad little bloggie.

Still lonely and naked.

We're gearing up for another week of Armyness. We've pretty much spent our weekend sitting on our asses. Except yesterday, we were supposed to go to a "mandatory fun day" but Genevieve got sick so we stayed home. I ran a few errands while she slept and Matt was home to take care of her.

I bought a whole slew of ingredients for making Christmas cookies. I am really excited to make them with the girls this year. It'll be the first year I've really done it with them. Before they were little and it didn't really make a difference; last year I was pregnant with Xander so I was really sick. All we made was a batch of Peanut Blossoms. Which Matt instantly fell in love with and made on his own when I wasn't feeling up to making another batch for him. HAHA! I was duly impressed with his ability to follow a recipe.

THIS year, however, will be different. I found a bunch of tin/copper cookie cutters just like the ones my mom had when I was little. They had belonged to my grandmother. It's just awesome to me that I will be able to make the same cookies with my kids that I grew up making with my mother. The only difference is that I have a Kitchenaid mixer and won't be breaking my arm stirring cookie dough. haha Woot! for improvements. I'd say technological advances but I know they made those mixers when I was a kid, my mom just didn't own one.

I'm looking forward to the great cookie adventure. My kids are going to go crazy with frosting cookies. I love it.

Weed.

What a lonely, naked, little blog I have.

My life has just been too hectic to write lately, and when I have thought of something funny to write about by the time I get a chance to do it I've completely forgotten what I was going to say. I keep telling myself that I will get the time, that I will start blogging regularly again (because I like to and it's good for me even if no one else reads it). It never seems to actually happen, though.

Tonight, however, I DO have something. Short but sweet, and, if I do say so myself, effing hilarious.

I was getting the girls breakfast and had poured three bowls of Cheerios. I went to the counter to get a banana to cut up and toss in and I hear Adrienne say, "It smells like WEED!"

I turned and said "What???"

"It smells like weed."

"WHAT smells like weed?"

"My Cheerios. They smell like weed. Like the weed that's in Grandma and Grandpa's garden!"

"Oh. You mean WHEAT." (My in laws have a small patch of rye/wheat in their garden and the kids like to play and hide in it.)

She giggles, "Oh yeah, wheat!"

Later on in the day she asked me "What's weed?" Needless to say she does not know what marijuana is, I just though the whole scenario was hilarious and wanted to know what else she would say. I did eventually explain that weeds are "bad" plants that grow in the garden and you pull them out so your vegetables grow properly.

Lonely around these parts.

Poor, poor, neglected blog.

Matt graduated Ranger school. Woot!

We're moving next week.

Visiting some family while our house is getting prepared for us. Looking forward to getting settled again, excited for the new place. I'll write a real blog entry later when we get settled.

The girls and boy are doing great. So good to have Matt home. Relaxing and sipping wine. :)

Busy as ever.

It's been a few weeks, but I'm alive and kicking. The main reason I haven't been blogging is because I've been writing letters to Matthew instead. Kind of blogging to him, I guess... only with a pen and paper. It's important, though, to tell him all the little things the girls say and do. The new coos and drools from Xander. The explosive diapers and the noses on the wall for bad behavior, too. He knows his kids aren't always perfect, no sense in sugar coating it. And really, sometimes even though they are naughty the story of what happened is too funny to keep to myself. I love and hate those moments. You can't let your kids SEE you laughing at their hilarious but naughty behavior but you can't hold it all in. But, you still have to discipline them for it. Talk about mixed signals.

Today was Matt's 8 hour pass---the only chance we have to see him during Ranger school. The next six weeks will be spent at post in GA, and in FL. I made Matt's favorite meal last night so I could re-heat it and have some waiting for him in the car when we went to pick him up this morning. I spent a good chunk of the day washing and drying 4 loads of RANK laundry. OMG, I cannot begin to express how awful it was. Muddy, musty, sweaty... some of it I washed twice. Those guys really go through a lot. Matt wrote me a short letter earlier this week and said it was " pretty much a suckfest." My husband does not usually talk like that, so when he says things like that I know it's gotta be tough. It was good to spend the time with him today even if it was mostly spent doing laundry and a last minute errand before dropping him off again. He spent a lot of the day trying to comsume as many calories as possible, drinking Powerade to replace electrolytes, and eating fresh fruit (which we stopped off at the store to buy because he wanted it so much---living off MREs for 3 weeks'll do that to you).

All in all today has taught me one thing: 8 hours is really short. But I am grateful for every second of it. I think the best part of it was after we got home; I had sat down to feed Xander, Matt was throwing in his first load of laundry and he looked over at me and said "You're a sight for sore eyes."

Phew.

Quickie post this AM (usually I blog later at night, and might get in an entry later tonight but for now, in case I don't I wanted to add this).

My Ranger school connection (I was going to say "hook up" but that just sounds wrong lol) called me at 8:30 this morning. I accidentally hung up on him because I thought it was my alarm going off. Whoops. We are friends with a Captain who works over at the Ranger battalion and he called to let me know Matt passed his test. He said that "he did well" and he's in B company--so from what I understand he got in this class.

Praise God!

I wasn't expecting to hear so quickly how he did, but I am so glad that our friend passed the word along to me. I'd have been going crazy all day if he hadn't called.

Worn out.

Must... have... 15... minutes!!! *&^%)@_)$@_!

Today has been so draining. It wasn't even a difficult day, it's just... ugh. I don't know. All day I have felt on the verge of tears but I don't feel like I have a reason for them to come. Given what I'm about to detail some people might disagree, but I've felt like this off and on the past couple weeks and I think it comes more from exhaustion than anything else. It's just my brain and body's way of letting go or something. I've gotten so wound up trying to keep everything together and in order that something's gotta give.

Today I dropped Matt off at the Ranger battalion. I'm praying, and hoping, and wishing, and banking on him passing the RPFT tomorrow (Ranger physical fitness test). He took it last week with the other LTs at the LTO office (where they report and do PT, etc. between classes) and he passed everything but the run. He failed it by 12 seconds. (A lot of guys failed the test by a lot more than that, too.) Usually push ups are his weakest set, but back in April he sustained a stress fracture during Airborne schoool. We thought it was probably muscular or something so he pushed through the pain for the 3 or 4 weeks of that course and went to the doctor afterwards. They put him on a 30 day profile (no running or high impact exercises) so he wasn't able to train for Ranger school and keep his run time in it's normal range (otherwise he'd have passed it last week).

A week and a half ago he went back to the doctor and they cleared him for PT and Ranger school and he started training for the run as much as he could in that short period of time. He started with one mile and worked his way up to 5 by last Wednesday. Unfortunately those last 12 seconds put him at the bottom of the list. Sort of. Using the PT test scores and their scores from IBOLC they made an order of merit list and divided that into 5 groups. The bottom 2 groups are getting sent on to their next duty stations, the first 3 are taking the RPFT. If these guys pass they will be going to Ranger school either NOW or in July. If they don't pass they will be moving to their next duty stations in 10 days.

Matt MUST pass. I don't care if he has to wait until July. I just cannot move in 10 days. There is no way I can be ready for that. Unless God tells me otherwise, which He seems to like doing, but seriously I don't believe I can do it right now.

I'm in a weird place. I have faith in Matt, I believe he can do it. I believe he will pass. But there is also this cloud of uncertainty hanging over me because I just don't know what direction our lives are going to take over the next couple days. I hate not knowing. No matter what the answer is I can deal with it, I just need to KNOW. (See, I really am focusing on myself, I swear.)

Don't worry, I'm not suffering from PPD. I'm totally chill with my baby and girls. I'm just tired out. There has been a lot going on here in the past month. Colleen was here and she was a terrific help. Then she left. Then my brother and his family came. Then he left. Then another friend came. She left. She came back. She left. And it's been great having these people visit us, especially my brother (it had been over 2 years since I saw him between him being in Japan, Iraq, and CA, and us being in Korea and then GA)... it's just a different way of life when you have visitors versus when you're on your own time.

Maybe I'm just a little overwhelmed, I dunno. I just need some breathing room and a little certainty. I should know either late tomorrow or sometime Tuesday how everything went with Matt's PT test, but until then I am in this state of limbo that I hate. Freaking sucks.

In the meantime I'm chilling out at the computer, listening to some Jason Mraz right now... I exercised for the first time since Xander was born this evening. I only eeked out about 10 or 15 minutes but it was enough for me. My kids are in bed, finally all of them are asleep. I am blogging my 15 minutes (the first chance I've had to take it since my last blog) because if I try to sit quietly I'll probably fall asleep. lol I could totally stay up longer if I am being entertained but if I just sit there and have nothing to do but drool I'm not going to stay awake.

Yeah, I totally just wrote a public diary type of post... heh.

time to decompress

So I have been trying to think of a creative blog for at least a week now and nothing has been coming to me. I start writing and it's been totally lame. I decided that I needed to start doing my 15 Minutes of Me Time again. I have barely done it since leaving Korea, and I know that with Xander it will be harder to pick up right now, but it will be worth it. I can devote more of that time to blogging, and the self-reflection is good for me. Heck, 15 minutes alone, preferably with some peace and quiet is good for me even if I don't blog or self-reflect. I totally get why my sister in law sends her kids up to their rooms for an hour or so of naps or quiet time (depending on how old they are) every day.

Lately I've been mad at myself (sort of) because I still have 25 lbs of baby weight that I need to lose. I just want to shed it so I can wear my normal clothes again. I have to keep reminding myself that it took me a good 4-5 months to get back into my regular jeans after having Charlotte, and I gained about the same amount with Xander. I'm not going to magically be back into my old jeans one month after his birth. My body just doesn't work that way. Gain 50 lbs and it's going to take some time to shed that. Duh. So I look in the mirror and think "Ew, I have such a flabby stomach and a fat ass," but eventually I know it'll be gone. I just have to try and remember that when I am thinking about how I look like some nasty old man with a beer gut. Ew.

Speaking of old men, earlier today I was looking at some photos of a woman I know who is married to an older man. She's 26 or 27 and the guy she's married to looks at least 10 or 12 years older, possibly more (I've never met the guy). I think he looks older but I'm trying to give the benefit of a doubt here. Personally, I think he looks like he's (at least) in his early 40s. Not in stellar shape (but then again who am I to judge?), but not an ugly guy. Anyway, point is, it makes me wonder why young women fall for older guys. I know there has to be something there, some attraction, some pull, but to me it would be way too weird. It would just make me think of my dad or my uncles. It's difficult to make the connection to "I can see why she's attracted to him" when I've got this image of my uncle Joe in my head (and he's the cooler, better looking uncle).

I have weird hang-ups, though. Beards and mustaches, for instance, creep me out. I know guys (my brother included) who look great with facial hair (and I have no problem admitting it), but I could never, ever date a guy with it. I thank Jesus that Matt is like minded on this one. He can barely go 24 hours without shaving. Friday night when he gets home he'll say he's not shaving all weekend and by Saturday night he's got out the razor.

Ya know what else I don't get? iPhones. Cell phone plans are pricey enough as it is, why would you buy a device that requires you to add an additional 30 bucks (PER PHONE, so if you have 2 phones on your plan that's 60 bucks extra) just to use it? We have a 2 phone plan, the lowest plan ATT offers, and we still average about 80 dollars per month after all the taxes and junk. Do I want to add an additional 30-60 bucks on that? Heeeeelllls no. The iPhone is just not THAT cool. Not that I wouldn't mind upgrading my 3 year old phone that's been dropped in the bathtub twice, but I can handle a modest little phone. One that won't cost me extra money every month just because I want a cool gadget.

I subject jump way too much. I could have made this into 4 blogs. haha On the upside I've had about 30 minutes of mostly uninterrupted "me" time. I did have to tell the girls to pick up some toys, and Xander is on my lap because he was getting fussy, but moments like this don't always come this easily. I have been staying up late so I can have a little bit of semi-quiet (I still have Xander with me) where there aren't as many demands on me as there are during the day. I wouldn't trade my lot in life for anything, but a girl needs a little peace and quiet every now and then.

I am lazy.

So I got really lazy about posting these last few months. I got busy with life, growing a human being, etc. But things are getting back on track.

I just developed a nervous twitch because my friend gifted me a Jonas Brothers song on iTunes. What a nasty trick, Jim. lol

Ok, this is a lame short blog, but I'm alive and well and so is my husband and all my kids. I'll write a real one soon.

Oh, and the baby, a boy, is damn cute. :D

She begs. I jump. She jumps.

So what do you do when your child practically begs you to take pictures of her? You go outside and you take seventy shots of her running around the back yard.

I have creative children.

"Mopping letters"

Now there's a new one... cleaning the house today in preparation for a weekend house guest and Adrienne has taken it upon herself to help mop. Sometimes kids only want to do the jobs that look fun. Mopping, washing dishes.... jobs that you can make messes while you clean. As opposed to actually picking up their crap off the floor.

So she's mopping and she exclaims "I'm mopping letters!" Using the mop she was writing letters across the floor. My kids are way more imaginative than I ever was.

Scooting

What kind of a parent lets their children ride scooters around the house? This one does... Adrienne and Genevieve each got a Razor scooter for Christmas (they were on sale at Toys R Us for about 15 dollars, and the kids had been begging for scooters for nearly a year... wasn't an option in Korea, and when we came back to the States there was so much going on that I never got around to it). Anyway, I don't know if this makes me awesome or awful. The kids, however, love "scooting" in circles around the house. I've got no real problems with it as long as they keep out of the kitchen while I'm cooking. They have lots of other boundaries and things that they are Absolutely Not Allowed To Do so it's not as though they're running wild and going loco. And I have to admit, I get a kick out of seeing them whiz past hooting out "Look at me, Mom!"

On another note, it's funny that sometimes the people you least expect to be friendly or take notice are the ones who you find out are really sweet people. Yesterday we were in Best Buy and Charlotte started to wander away from me. I called her back and waited, and when she didn't come immediately a young woman who had seen what happened scooped her up and brought her to me. I smiled and said thanks, but it was ok because she was just going to her Daddy, that was why I had waited to make sure where she was going. I suppose the kindness of strangers isn't really something to be surprised over, but this girl had her hair half dyed an odd yellowish green, had multiple piercings on her face, interesting choice in make-up application, and dressed like some sort of Emo-punk (I can never really tell the difference so I lump them all together. They'd probably have heart attacks if they knew.) Not that I usually judge people by appearances, but I didn't expect anyone to pay particular attention to a pregnant woman with a (seemingly) wayward toddler, but if I'd been asked to rank people nearby on a scale of 1 to 10 she may not have been near the top of my list of "possible helpers." (And the group of guys playing Guitar Hero would have been dead last.) She told me she has a 1 year old so she understood what it was like to be chasing after them all the time. Later on I saw her with her husband-boyfriend-whatever, he was pushing the cart with their little boy sitting in the seat. That's something my husband would be doing, too. Sometimes we find similarities in the strangest places.

I also looked at some lenses for my camera... I tried not to drool, too much. Not that I was going to buy one right then any way, but I like to look. I hefted up some of the other models, some Nikons, and fancier Canons... Nikons felt too bulky to me, I have little hands. And I decided that I probably will never really upgrade from the series of Canon that I have now because I didn't like how much heavier the others were. Add weight of lenses... well, toting a really heavy camera is just not for me. Sure, I might fall in love with the specs but there are other things to consider, and if I didn't like it just from picking it up in the store no way am I going to like carrying it around for actual daily use. So there ya have it. Not that I had actually actively considered upgrading at this point, I don't intend to get another camera unless/until this one dies on me, but when I take that leap it will be for more of the same, not an actual upgrade.

I am dumb.

For serious. I really shouldn't go looking at old pictures of myself. Especially not when I feel fat and everything hurts.

Me "then"


Me "now"


I could cry (figuratively speaking). lol I want my body back. I feel fat and tired and my back hurts. I was scrubbing my kitchen (which leaves me even more exhausted) thinking about blogging... and lately my blogs have sucked. I mean, nice little updates on the family but nothing really creative. I think I used to be funny. I wrote much better blogs back when I was doing my "15 minutes of ME time", but I haven't had a chance to do that since moving to GA... since coming back to the States, really. I want it back. The solitude, the relaxation, the time to blog if I decide to use it that way... so much of my life is wrapped up in kids and being pregnant right now that I'm too tired to spend 15 minutes for myself once the kids are in bed. I'm ready to go to sleep before they are.

18 more weeks...

I was thinking about why I do this... and really, it's not like I have more than a handful of people reading... I just do it for me. To put what I want down for prosperity or something. To vent, to rage, to share something funny with whoever might happen to see it. But I'm not sure the sharing is really my primary goal. Maybe it's just to exercise my brain. Whatever it is there is a piece of me in there, and I want it to be the real me, not the big fat whiner me. :P This me is only temporary, I have to remind myself of that. THIS will be over soon enough... well, maybe not soon enough, but it will end.

Photos I’ve taken that don’t suck.

Title and blog idea stolen from The Pioneer Woman. I'm not going to post anything prior to this past year because, frankly, (and I apologize to my children in advance for the crappy representation of their childhoods) my older photographs suck. Lighting was poor, angles were wrong... I have pictures that I love because of WHO is in them from the past 6 years, but none that I especially love because I think the picture is actually DECENT. Up until this year, that is. Well, I may be exaggerating slightly, there may be a few decent shots from the older stuff, but it certainly isn't an accurate representation of what I am capable of... they are more snapshots to remember events or stages in my kids lives. Not that that needs justification, it's just that it doesn't necessarily make for quality photography. I can already see that my post will not be limited to 5 photos... and probably not nearly as concise as PW's but I don't care, this is about me and what I like so... deal. :P (I'm linking them as small but the images SHOULD be clickable to see a larger sized image... should be... don't quote me on that, I suck at this html crap.) These photos are also not edited in any way, although a couple could use it. What you see is what I get straight out of my camera.



I took this shot at my in-laws home right after I got my XSi. Rusty hog trailer, not exactly the most beautiful thing in the world, but I like it. It's as simple as that. I like it.



I took this one as part of a challenge to capture the word "anatomy" in a photograph... I think ultimately I settled on another shot for the challenge, but I love this picture. She has the damn cutest nose.



This was taken while documenting pie making--sometimes I do that, photograph the process I go through to cook a meal. It can provide some really cool shots and is a challenge to me to work with my camera in poor lighting situations, learn how to get the best out of my camera. I love the reflection on the knife.



Found this guy when I was taking the trash out one day. I was so intent on the bug (and praying that he wouldn't fly into my face) that the bokeh was entirely unintentional. I just wanted to get as close as I dared and get the best shot possible. I took several and I'm really pleased with the way most of them turned out--this is NOT usually the case. haha



Searching for inspiration one day and took this shot of some junk on my desk. If you could SEE how horrendously dirty my desk is you'd be even more impressed.

(OMG this is going to be a long post... you can skip the lame commentary and just look at the pictures if you want.)



Genevieve is super expressive and I love capturing her at various times. Sometimes I wish I could capture my other girls like this, but then I guess it wouldn't be as special a trait in Genevieve.



I blogged this once before but it bears repeating. This is one of my absolute favorite shots of Adrienne. It captures so much of her personality; she's such a happy, beautiful, fun, and loving child.



Charlotte... holy crap she has grown so much since this summer! I love her expression; just kinda taking it all in, "Hey Mom, you camera-toting-freak, whassup?"



My father in law... I was trying to be discrete but he totally knew I was taking his picture. But this is one of the ways my children will remember him; him taking care of the garden, while they run and play between rows of straberries and vegetables.



This is one of my favorite poses for Charlotte, she does this when she colors, reads, watches movies. It always makes me laugh.



Adrienne, again, so full of life and fun.



Again with the awesome expressiveness. You can see why she's so much fun to photograph.

I think over the next couple weeks I'm going to have to devote a blog post (with photos) to each of my kids. There were so many more pictures of them that I love for various reasons... and I may have gotten carried away here and shared some that do, in fact, suck even though I said that they wouldn't. But this was about me and what I like... so I guess if I like bad photos... oh well. haha

20 weeks

20 week ultrasound. :) We didn't find out for certain, but we're pretty sure it's another girl. It would be funny in a way if it were; Matt's older brother has 4 boys (they got married a year before we did, our anniversary is the day before theirs), and we always joke that they're getting all the boys and we're getting all the girls. Of course if this little one is born with a penis I will be shocked. I'm not really hoping either way, but I am expecting another girl.



Last night Genevieve and Adrienne got haircuts; Adrienne's was really just a trim to get rid of the ratty looking ends, but I cut a few inches off Genevieve's hair. It was all uneven and wispy and the front pieces were finally long enough to cut the rest of it so it was evened out. She likes it and I think she looks pretty adorable. It'll be awhile before she sports piggytails like these again, though.






Adrienne has been a pretty super helper lately. Washing dishes, helping make dinner, cleaning up the living room (we make all of them help, but she's the only one who really hauls ass and gets it done, the other two lolly-gag around). Today the girls and I cleaned their play room... from the sound of things it's going to be a wreck by the end of the day. They have been avoiding playing in there because they KNEW it was a mess, Adrienne even told me it was too messy, but now that we got it tidied up Adrienne doesn't want to play anywhere else.



This was the best shot I could get of Charlotte by herself on Christmas Eve. She just doesn't hold still for very long, or she rushes the camera because she wants to help take pictures. Potty training has good days and bad days. She's starting to say more words, which is helpful when she is trying to tell us what she wants. She's started playing "Eye winker, Tom Tinker" with me; she'll point to my eyes and say something that sounds like "ginkger" (hard G sounds) and then "kikkle" at my chin. It's pretty funny... except when it's 11:00 at night, you're in bed and she comes in and decides she's not tired, she just wants to play.



The wouldn't smile for me, but they'd look at Daddy and give him their best grins. The pictures where Charlotte is looking at me she looks like she's on drugs.

PT, mom style

Potty training; an adventure for the whole family! At least it seems to be that way (lately) in our house. For my first two kids it was a relatively calm event. They had both already hit and passed their second birthdays. Adrienne was nearly 2.5, and Genevieve was a couple months past her 2nd birthday when we undertook the endeavor. Training, when we really got down to it, happened quickly, they abandoned diapers of their own volition and even stopped peeing at night (this was never really an issue with them anyway, praise God).

Charlotte, for some INSANE reason, my husband decided to start training while I was suffering morning sickness. She was probably around the 20 month mark. She's finally catching on (she will be 2 later on this month). And when she does decide it's time she doesn't come tell me she has to go (and trying to MAKE her go and sit when she doesn't have to is never succesful), but usually when she does her big sister Genevieve is in there with her. And NO ONE is more excited over her progress than Genevieve. She comes out yelling gleefully "Charlotte PEEDED on the POTTY!"

Now you see why I devoted a blog to discussing toilet training my children. Simply so I could point out how joyful my darling 3 year old is. Who, coincidentally, is so skinny that her underpanties fit Charlotte better than they fit her.

Right now, Genevieve the Joyful is prancing around in a pink satiny dress-up dress with a strand of pink plastic beads around her neck. She's so freakin' cute. Charlotte, panty-clad, is sitting next to me brushing her hair. She thinks she's so grown up. Adrienne is *ahen* still in her pajamas and playing alphabet games on the computer. But at least she's learning something!

Matt called me from the grocery store (seriously, he's awesome) and asked if I wanted anything. If he'd told me he was going this morning I could have just told him to take the list off the top of the microwave, but whatever, he's DOING the grocery shopping so I'm not going to complain if he has to call me multiple times to ask again what kind of beans I want for the chili (which I HAVE to make since now THREE friends have mentioned making/eating chili and I'm seriously craving it).

You know what else sounds good? Apple crisp, or cobbler, or pie. I don't care which, just some sweet, cinnamony, baked apple dessert. Preferably a la mode.

I'm making myself hungry.

Ultrasound appointment bright and early tomorrow morning. Whee! Maybe I'll post back then with another picture. :)

Huge.

Positively ginormous. That's how I feel right now. And I'm only going to get bigger. Who's idea was this again? lol It's all worth it in the end. Problem is I just wish it were the end NOW instead of 20 weeks from now.