We Went Camping. I Took Pictures.

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Part One of Two of our vacation. A weekend camping... Pictures of part two to come at a later date. Enjoy!

Summer Reading Program

Thanks to the library's summer reading program I am able to tell my boys to go look at books for 15 minutes. AND - they are able to actually look at books nicely for 15 minutes. Liam has quite a few that he's memorized and can "read" during those 15 minutes. Quinn is able to read quite a few words and has many books that he can actually read. Of course - sometimes, they just look at the pictures and make up stories.

Either way - I'm able to get the laundry folded, the dishes put away, or just straighten up a bit for 15 minutes without my boys just vegging in front of the television.

It's a total win-win.

(Each 15 minutes we read or look at books the boys add a sticker to their own charts. For each 3 hours we read or look at books we get to go to the library and pick out prizes.)

*Oh - and just so you know, we always spend time reading books in this house, it's just that the summer reading program has really helped my boys understand just how long 15 minutes is... And it also encourages me to encourage them more often.

Fireworks!

Yesterday I asked my facebook friends for help taking pictures of fireworks and Jennifer came through with this link! So - our first night of celebrating the Fourth of July (also known as Mike's birthday weekend)! Of course, there are pictures...

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The only down side to taking photos of fireworks - is that it takes some set up and then you sort of need to leave your camera there and ready - so I wasn't able to capture pictures of the pre-fireworks activity (mostly the kids playing around). Luckily, my friend takes just as many pictures as I do - so she took care of that part of the night for us! (Also - I have to give credit - Mike took all of the fireworks pictures. I just did the research.)

Look at Liam

Look who had his pictures taken this week.

Guess who spent just a little bit too much money on prints?

Happy monday!

From the whole family!

Superbowl Sunday - Toddler Style

Created with Storybook. of course.

Weekly Winners - 1/25/09

If you want to see some amazing pictures of our dog flying in the snow, be sure to check out this post. There were too many great ones of him flying through the air to include in the weekly winners!

Weekly Winners - 1/18/09

Happy Monday!

Hope you had a relaxing weekend!

Weekly Winners - 1/11/09

If you're in a reader I think you'll need to come on over to see my weekly winners posted via pictobrowser. We got our new camera delivered Friday afternoon - and a huge snow storm passed through Friday night and Saturday - so I've got lots of snow pictures!



Also - I think I really need to get an external flash - all those shadows with the kids are driving me crazy.

Happy Monday!

See... we don't just spend our time making him cry.

Weekly Winners - 1/4/09

Also - I'm looking for a little advice. These were taken with our old camera. Our NON-SLR camera. And now it seems I can go get a new camera. Any suggestions? We're trying to stay under $1000. My main problem with this old camera is that the flash washes out the people - and without it I can't capture the picture. Does that make sense?

House of Pain

A few weeks ago Quinn and I made (or rather decorated a pre-made) gingerbread house. It was all ooh and ahh and beautiful.



We made Quinn wait until after Christmas to start picking at the pieces. Because we're mean like that and there's nothing better than very stale candy.



Finally, a few days after Christmas Mike busted it up.



And Liam was pissed.



The end.

Santa? Nooooo!

Monday Morning Smiles - FLASHBACK

Was it only just a year ago?

Christmas Project Number...oh I lost count...

I'm going to replace the page prints I have hanging over the mantel with these that I just threw together tonight (using my favorite program).

All that's left to do is send them to Costco to print. And then when I pick them up I'll get some more yummy soup and then some other stuff that I really don't need - like maybe a new digital camera, but yeah, probably not.

(Right now the large center frame above the mantel, as seen in the link above, is put away and there's a wreath in it's place. A wreath that may die soon because our spray bottle is broken. Of course Quinn suggested we just take it outside every morning and spray it with the hose - not a bad suggestion, except that the water is frozen.)

Christmas Card Fail (but not really)

So, DesignHER Momma is hosting a Christmas Card Fail contest and I thought I would enter.

First, though, let me explain. Usually I attempt to take some pictures of the boys for our Christmas Cards, but this year we got a beautiful one of all of us in front of Cinderella's Castle - so I just went with that. But that doesn't mean my boys were exempt from having to pose for some Christmas pictures.

My mother-in-law puts together the most clever and adorable Christmas Cards I've ever seen. I look forward to them every year - and every year she buys the boys (my 2 plus Mike's sister's 2) something to wear, bribes us with pizza, insists that we each bring a camera, and maybe she even says a little prayer that it will all work out. And somehow it does. I think it has something to do with the fact there are 3 cameras clicking away. This year I took over 40 pictures. Here's some of the best, or uh, the worst.

Remember I said my 2 plus 2 more. Yeah. That does not equal 3.
This would have been perfect. With one more.
So let's add him in...

There that's better. All four boys.
With only two of them looking good.
Liam is staring at Mike - waiting for his brownie reward.

Oh goodness. Now only one is looking and smiling.
And Liam? He's eating his brownie reward - not sure why he got a reward.

Okay - forget it for now.
Let them play for a bit and we'll try again later.

We got my mother-in-law's card yesterday and she did it again! Absolutely adorable. She's amazing with words and very creative. And she managed to find a good one of the four boys - and then one of the entire family.

The outside of the card reads: "We wish you the Quiet Ecstasy of a Christmas of Simplicity, A Welcome Wreath, a Christmas Tree, and always, the Bear Necessities."

And of course the "Bear Necessities" are her family.

Perfect, right? And the card I'm sending out...well, you'll see it when Meghan hosts her Christmas Card exchange. But really, don't hold your breath.

Happy Monday!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Now get back to work!

Happy Monday!

I used to do something called "Friday Smiles". It worked out well because I would send a smiling picture of one or both of the boys to family via email and share that same picture with you all. Then, I started participating in Haiku Friday via Jennifer, and sometimes I would try to work a smile into the 'ku, but eventually stopped my Friday Smile Editions. I would still try to send pictures to family, but for the past few months I haven't been very good about it - and a few of my aunts have been wondering "what's up!?!" So - my hope is that since I tend to have more time on Sunday evening I will start sending Monday Smiles to my family and sharing those pictures with you!

There's a story behind this picture.

Our Halloween Day

I got home from work (where we had two really good parties!) around 3:30ish. And right away Quinn, Liam, and I headed out for some trick-or-treating while Mike stayed home and handed out candy.


After a few houses I thought we'd go drop off Liam and head out for more.
But first we needed to grab a few pictures of the boys. We got Liam to sit there by giving him chocolate.
Later we found out that Liam is, in fact, allergic, or sensitive to, chocolate - he now has a horrible diaper rash. After the pictures Quinn and I ditched Liam and went out for more CANDY! About an hour later we came home, I put Liam to bed, had some dinner, and Mike sat outside with Quinn waiting for more trick or treaters.
I could hear Mike telling the spooky stores and singing spooky songs. "Who has my golden arm? Who has my golden arm?" and "There was an old woman all skin and bones...."

All in all it was a great day - perfect weather, work wasn't too crazy - in fact - everything would have been perfect had I not felt like crap all day. I was feeling better (or doped up on pain medicine) after work, which is why I took the boys trick-or-treating. But then, I sat down while Quinn was outside and it hit me. My face hurts, my nose won't stop running, I keep sneezing, and of course the skin on my nose is all dried up from all the blowing. I called the doc. today, they sent in a prescription, but by the time I dragged myself to the pharmacy it was closed! Argh! Oh - but more good news - we went to some Halloween stores this morning looking for discounted costumes - and I got the best clown costume ever! So cute! I can't wait until next year!