Braces

Catherine's wire on her braces broke. And since I got to stare at her teeth a lot today I was surprised to find that I could hardly remember her sweet gap toothed smile -- So I had to post it here so I could remember.

Braces fixed. Her smile is just as beautiful as ever. I think I just feel like my kids are growing up so fast. I miss their baby faces and their crazy crooked teeth smiles.

Things they love --

Today I am documenting some of the things my kids love so that I will always remember them when they outgrow them.

First, Julianne -- she loves bunny. This bunny was a gift from Deann and Jason Moore when Julianne was born. For about 2 years it sat on a shelf in her room and went relatively unnoticed. But then one day, she just had to sleep with it. . . and she has slept with it ever since. She loves it. One day while walking through town she spied an identical bunny in the windows of the whitney store only it was 10 times larger. She has said she would never replace bunny -- but that she wouldn't mind if bunny had BIG bunny around too!




Next, Catherine. She loves stuffed animals and books. She has never been able to settle on just one favorite. Her bed is a constantly shifting arrangement of as many stuffed animals as her mother will tolerate. These ones have been there since Christmas and her birthday. The pillow pet dog, the porcupine webkinz, and the fureal penguin.



Then, there is Madelyn. She has had this littlest pet shop stuffed penguin on her bed for a couple of years. But the newest addition to her favorite things is the silly yellow minnion from Despicable Me. She loves the movie and loves this plastic blow up minnion.




Adam is the first of our children to become attached to a blanket. His original blankie was finally moved to "museum" status (meaning it resides in a drawer for safekeeping and emergencies. We have been able to find acceptable replacements so that blankie can be appropriately cared for (laundered). It never goes anywhere with him, but always resides on his bed, crumpled by his pillow waiting for bedtime. Adam also has a new love -- DINO DAN on nickjr.com. HE IS OBSESSED. He watches the webisodes, prints out the pages, draws and tracks imaginary dinosaurs all over. He doesn't however appreciate me calling him DINO ADAM.





Owen, is just getting into favorite things. His first toy that he shows any interest in are these little linkies that I can hook on his car seat, swing, stroller, etc. . . He loves to eat them. I even keep a pacifier hooked on -- but don't be fooled he DOES NOT like his pacifier. If you try to give it to him, he will get mad. REALLY MAD. Just ask the ladies at the gym this morning who tried. Now if he puts the binkie in his mouth all on his own he is happy as can be just chewing all over it (but not sucking on it).





Next, there is me. I am loving my new lens -- a 50 mm f/1.4. I traded my 35 mm f/1.8 for this one (and some change) and I am loving it!!!!




Last of all is Trent. He currently is loving the sun. He has gone 7 days without shoveling snow. I found him on google the other day looking up "how long does it take for snow to melt" Our 10 day forecast does not predict any snow. So he may have time to pursue some other things. He is also loving BYU basketball games with Jimmer Fredette and reading articles like this one.

Broken bones??? Stitches??

Our kids have so far made it through childhood without any major injuries. We have only had one trip to the ER ever!!!!

Catherine was the one. She fell at school and caught the center of her forehead on a table corner. She got stitches and wore scar treating bandages for a while and now you would have to know about it to even be able to find it! Yeah for plastic surgeons!

Another fun filled snowy day

The kids headed off to school this morning with the BIG storm looming. It was supposed to start around 4:00 this afternoon. Imagine all of our surprise when it started snowing heavily around 9 am. I abandoned hope of making it to the gym and headed down to the basement for some quality treadmill time. By the time I got back upstairs (exactly 42 minutes later -- which is the length of one episode of 24 that I watch on my iphone's netflix app while on the treadmill) it was apparent that the snow was not going to stop for a while. The phone quickly range informing me of an early dismissal day. I don't mind delayed starts or early dismissals because those don't eat away my summer days.

The boys and I hung out at home. Owen was so cute. He was so smiley and happy that I just had to take his picture. Adam thought he was so cute too and would lean in to kiss him. As soon as Adam got a little close to Owen, Owen would start to cry. It was so cute. Adam tends to be a little "in your face" with Owen. We are working on helping Adam understand boundaries a little better.







The girls got home and we just hung out. I saw the mailman drive by so I sent them out to get the mail. It was already starting to get dark so I sent both Julianne and Catherine. They quickly brought me the mail and then went right back outside. They had decided to surprise their dad by doing all the shoveling. Madelyn was not about to miss out on the shoveling fun. All 3 girls shoveled for nearly 2 hours. Trent was so happy for all their help. He got home around 7:30 and the girls were so excited for him to see all their work.













Of course by 7:00, the "big" storm had finally arrived. All their shoveling efforts have now been sufficiently undone by mother nature.

The only question that remains . . . will we have school in the morning?

Not another snow day

Weather truly is UNPREDICTABLE. Last night we watched the 11:00 news. The weather was all about the "big" storm that is coming Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. There was absolutely NO talk about snow the very next morning. So I was really surprised to get the automated phone call from the schools announcing a 90 min school delay. I sat up in bed and looked out the window and it was snowing very heavily. We had already gotten 3 inches of it. It proceeded to snow until about noon. Julianne rode to school with a neighbor and so was spared walking in the snowstorm to the end of the driveway, but Catherine and Madelyn were not so lucky. Here they are all bundled.



This is point where Catherine asked, "Can't you come out with us????" To which I replied that I would be watching from the window because I couldn't leave Adam and Owen all alone and I couldn't possibly bundle them both up either.



Aren't they cute girls? Even in a hundred layers.



It is nice that I can watch them walk all the way to the end of the driveway. The bus was about 15 minutes late, but they seemed to be having fun standing in the snow!

Lightroom, New computer

I bought Lightroom a while ago but quite frankly my old computer just couldn't quite handle that program so I haven't used it until today. My new computer is up to the task and I have all the space to put ALL of my old photos onto one computer and so today I have been on a walk down memory lane. This one of Catherine made me smile so I thought I would share -- It was taken way back in Apr of 2004 when I had just 2 sweet baby girls.

The Birthday Party

Lots of little girls . . .
Lots of pizza . . .
cupcakes . . .
movie . . .
fun

Catherine doesn't turn 9 until Monday, but she sure had a fun party today. (and I took the picture with my birthday present. . . a NEW camera!!!!)

The Soccer Team Photos -- Fall 2010

Beautiful Day, Beautiful Kids, Happy Mom

Here are some more pictures taken with my new lens on a stunning fall day here in Connecticut.

My poem

I have a love-hate relationship with the fall --
I love how it looks, how it feels;
but I hate that each day means our winter draws near
oh the dark, oh the cold, my heart reels.

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Friday night we had a "trunk or treat" at our church. Going from car to car is so much more fun than house to house (especially here where the houses are so spread out!). On Saturday we trick or treated in the neighboring town center. All the businesses open their doors along main street for trick or treaters. It is so fun and it is during the day so it is light outside and a little warmer than the evenings. My kids had so much fun and candy, that when it came to last night (the real Halloween) they didn't even ask to go trick or treating. It was very dark and very, very cold -- I was so glad they didn't ask. I didn't remind them of it either. This morning Julianne commented "We forgot to go trick or treating!) We only had 2 trick or treaters to our door, so that certainly helped them forget about it!

Starting School

In the midst of all the business I wrote about, school did start. And I did take pictures of it. And I meant to blog about it. But it has now been a while, but I am going to catch up!

Julianne has matured into a beautiful 5th grader. In our town, that means she starts middle school. (that makes Trent and I feel old) Her school starts earlier than the elementary school. So in this first set of pictures you will see that while she is all dressed and ready to go, everyone else in still in their PJ's.


Roughly an hour later, Catherine and Madelyn get on their bus. We follow that bus to school and walk them to their classrooms. (Middle school is too cool for Mom and Dad to do that!)

Swimming Fun

The kids love swimming. I have a love/hate relationship with swimming right now. I love being in the water. I don't feel pregnant. I don't feel huge. I just float and float! I hate being in a swimsuit out of the water. I do feel pregnant. I do feel huge. I do look huge. I do feel heavy. Oh well!

The kids are really getting good (and fast!). At the end of each day they can race me and see if they can beat me. For the first time, I am actually having to really swim in order to win. One of these days, one of them will beat me!

Enjoy this collage of their fun!

Two Brave Girls!

Catherine and Madelyn both decided to get their ears pierced. Madelyn went first. She was so brave. Catherine went next, she was only brave because Madelyn had been (in fact if Madelyn hadn't done it, I think Catherine would have chickened out (as she has before)). They each picked beautiful earrings and looks so grown up!

Karma???

So . . .

to recap for the sake of this story

Julianne got glasses in October (frame A).
Catherine got glasses in November (also frame A -- because her mom can't be trifled with such small details)

Julianne got new glasses in April (frame B) (meaning I have an extra frame A pair of glasses lying around the house)

On Monday, Catherine came home from school, having been tackled at recess by a group of boys who wanted a ball she was holding, and her glasses were broken in the incident. (maybe at some point I will write about the "incident", but I am still too mad about it.)

However as luck would have it, despite her frames being completely ruined, the lenses were somehow unscathed.

I called the glasses place and they said since the frames were identical and I had purchased both of them there that they would put the good lenses into the good frames (julianne's old frames) for FREE!!!!

So my little lack of attention to detail saved me $250 bucks!!!!

It made the "incident" not quite as bad.

Spring Soccer

3 kids playing.
4 practices a week.
3 games each Saturday.
. . . and the kids love it!!!!

April 22nd -- Bring your daddy home early from work day!!!

also known as "Take your daughters to work day"

This year both Julianne and Catherine were old enough to attend the program. This year the "official" program started at 9 and ended at noon. So Trent took the girls in to the city on the 7:09 train (later than his usual 6:21 train) took them to work, took them to the "official" program, picked them up at noon, grabbed some lunch, ate at Bryant Park, enjoyed the beautiful spring weather we have been having and were headed home on the 2:07 train.

Catherine even made it to her afternoon soccer practice! We loved having Daddy home early!!!

Their glasses don't match anymore

Eyeglass timeline

Sept 2008 -- Julianne gets glasses for the first time

Oct 2009 -- Julianne gets a new pair of glasses as her prescription has changed

Dec 2009 -- Catherine gets glasses for the first time and her mother inadvertantly lets her select the same frames as Julianne

April 2010 -- Julianne gets another new pair of glasses as her prescription has yet again changed drastically (yes just 6 months later) -- but they no longer are the same frames as Catherines!!!!!

My cute kids

I love these new pictures I took of my kids while trying out my new blue background. (For info on the background and where I got it check out my photography blog). Here they are cute as can be!





and here are even more for you to enjoy!

Catherine's 8th Birthday

Hard to believe 8 years have come and gone! She had a great birthday with lots of friends and fun! She is really growing up!