My Boys Are Boys

While blogsurfing people in my ward, I found a blog of a girl in my ward that I didn't know was a PHOTOGRAPHER! So, I e-mailed her and asked her to do a shoot of my boys. . .she agreed, I really should have asked the boys if they were willing. . .but hindsight is always 20/20, right? So, we went to Joe's Farm Grill and she did an amazing job, with what she had to work with. . .remember the hindsight remark? She also showed me a few tricks with my camera, so that was fun to learn. . .her are some of the pictures that I got. . .

 

 

She really had to work hard and chase them to get them to cooperate AT ALL -- they just weren't in the mood. And yeah, Ryan's hair wasn't supposed to be that short, but you know what happens when the dad takes them to the salon and the hairdreser won't be used again. . .

 

Mary did an amazing job, if you want to see her pictures, you can go to her blog, here: http://www.maryjordanphotography.blogspot.com/
She catches the essence of my boys really just being boys. Darn them -- I do have to love them though :)

This Weekend

This weekend, we celebrated my birthday -- Ryan and Spencer were most concerned about a gift for me -- they collected things in a box, of treasures, throughout the house -- put the treasures in the box, tore a piece of our Christmas wrapping paper crumbled it up inside the box, and taped the box up and labeled it to me. This was done early in the week, and it waited until my birthday. Spencer was so excited for me to get my present -- first thing on Saturday! I took a picture of my presents - I love their sweetness, and actually, they know some of my favorite things! I just looked at the picture, the penny he gave me didn't go into the collage. . .bummer -- loved it!

For my birthday, I try to make it more a day we do kids things, so the boys chose Denny's for breakfast -- I have never gotten a free meal before -- but I did on Saturday! Lunch was at Joe's Farmhouse Grill with my sis, her hubby, and sil Lauren who has a b-day on Sunday! It was delicious, and yep, I got carded and got a ten dollar credit on my lunch!

What is better than Krispy Kreme? We had to go and get, yep my free dozen doughnuts and then a box for Jake for Father's Day -- fun times!

 

Jake took Jacob shopping for my birthday present from the store -- they chose something I have been eyeing for years -- well, er, maybe not, but it is a "hit" a water gun that holds, to quote Jacob "A whole GALLON of WATER!" -- He had better watch himself, one of these days, he is toast, and I mean TOAST! The boys were pretty excited about this gift and couldn't wait for me to open the box, they have been carrying it with their aresenal of guns. . . what do you say, a mom of boys!

 

My parent also came home from China! Hooray! Yesterday, they had a family dinner and my cute neice was modeling some of the treasures that Grandma and Papa brought her!

 

 

All in all, it was a great day, and I appreciated all of the kind gestures!

This is Amazing!

Ok, so I LOVE Taylor Swift music, and I especially like the song "Love Story" -- so in my blog hopping, I found this arrangement! -- I think it is AMAZING! Enjoy. . .

Testing the Waters

This weekend, we went out and looked at houses. The Sewer Pond house, was difinitely a favorite, and the New Age Church was also one that we quite liked. It is funny how prayer works though, we were primed and ready, down payment in hand and . . . well, I guess we are going to have the blessing of listening and not asking continually. . .I am ultra bummed, so is Jake, Ryan and Spencer. . .it was fun and we are grateful that we can get revelation for ourselves.

I also am grateful for a little boy, who for Family Home Evening last night went and got a piece of paper for each family member and a pencil and asked us to write down our blessings, counting our blessings really put things into perspective. . .

Not much else is really going on. The boys have started their Astronomy camp through the Riparian Preserve, and they LOVE it! I am breathing a big sigh of relief on that one -- if it was't fun, two more days would be hard to get them to. Jacob and Ryan are in Kids Camp too, so me and Spencer are enjoying the company we enjoy during the school year.

A site you have GOT to TRY!

Ok, I love photography, not to great at it, but I do like it. I took pictures of my friend's baby girl, and had lot's of fun. . .her little girl Brooke, was there and wanting some of the attention, you know the new baby is getting more attention. So, I took some cute ones of her too, There are some really cute ones of just Brooke, but there was one that was super cute, specially if we could get rid of her mom in the corner. . .We still love you Nicole. . .So, I worked on it a little in Photoshop Elements. . . it was cute, but there are tons of super cute ones, so we didn't go any further. . .Yesterday, on one of my favorite photo sites, they gave a website that is for people that Photoshop is a little more than you want to get into, so, I went and played around on it. I have some fun pics of my boys, but for the most part there wasn't that "problem" in it. . .so I took Brooke's picture and played around with it --- to fix the problems, it took me all of two minutes! So, here is the before and after. . .

 

 

The site, if you are interested, is www.picnik.com! Let me know what you think!

Sometimes. . .

Sometimes, kids say the sweetest things. Yesterday, I took Ryan with me on an errand in an attempt to keep peace at home. I asked him if he knew what was going to happen that was special in two weeks, he said he didn't. I said Grandma and Grandpa were coming home! He said, that means it must be your birthday and Father's day. I said he was right. He thought for a minute and said, "I bet your dad was pretty happy when you were an early Father's Day present. I bet that made him pretty happy." I asked him if he thought my dad was happy, he said he was sure my dad would be thrilled to have me on Father's Day. What a sweet heart. Today, he is onto figuring out his clubhouse that he wants to build, but every once in a while. . .Thanks Ry, I am glad you are you!

 

The mind of a FOUR year old. . .

Ok, so we have chickens, three of the six end up being roosters, we are down to one of those, but that is another post. Yesterday, we got our first EGG!! Jake took Spencer out to check for eggs and there was one! Spencer was enthralled with an egg in our chicken coop. . .So, he comes in carrying the egg, trying to figure out the whole egg thing. . .He asked if the baby chicken in the egg melts in the sun and gets to be liquid and that's how we get eggs? I assured him this isn't a baby chicken that melts -- can you imagine? What do you tell a four year old on the whole egg thing? He is fine about it now, but he got me on that one!

 

 

 

Ok, so these pictures were right in a row on my card reader. I had gone outside to take pics of Spencer, he dressed himself, and he DID NOT want to cooperate. So, I was trying to get some cute candids, he was busy building his dam with Ryan, and I was in the way with Sunny, so I moved on and took a picture of the chicken. . . and then to show off our baby egg. . .Jake said the eggs will get bigger, they had better!