Seven

 And then Miles turned 7! This doesn't seem possible. This means we've lived here in Florida for that long. Wow.
He requested donuts for breakfast, cheese sandwiches for lunch and  Lasagna for dinner. All easy requests. Make it so. (Yes, I am a Star Trek nerd sometimes.)

Miles got a new bike, some legos and a kick in the pants. Except not that last one, even though he deserves it sometimes. Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Lucas Adam, 4

In commemoration of Lucas's fourth trip around the Sun, I decided to celebrate with a photo shoot. But not a proper one with nice clothes, no. I'm way too lazy for that (I should change this blog's name to "I'm Too Lazy For That"). It was more of a "Hey, you have an unstained shirt on. Let's comb your hair and go outside!" Expectations are low here, folks.

 But don't worry, I did not fail to capture his charm.

He's one devilishly cute little boy, no?

 Yes, yes he is. 

I fear I'm in for some girl trouble. That is, if he ever breaks 100 pounds, which I sortof doubt.

 But don't worry. It wasn't all seriousness. We managed to capture the real Lucas too.

And some of this too. 

With some waterbending (a la Avatar: The Last Airbender) thrown in for good measure. 

Did I mention that this photoshoot lasted all of four minutes. Because it was 90 degrees outside. In April. Screw you La Nina. 

At any rate, we celebrated his birthday in the proper fashion. With "rainbow cupcakes with orange frosting". And I'm writing this down here so I won't forget. Lucas was SO cute. He sang to himself. So cute.

 His only other birthday request, "A glowing red light saber so that I can be a bad guy like Darth Vader."

Thank goodness Target had his weapon of doom on sale for $10!

 We've already had to replace the batteries twice. Heaven help me. 

10 Years.

 Recently, my oldest daughter, Abbie, celebrated her tenth birthday. This baffles me. She isn't supposed to be ten. I'm not sure what she is SUPPOSED to be, but it isn't ten and it isn't a fourth grader.

 But I suppose if you're going to be ten, you couldn't be a better ten. She's the kid who is liked by everyone. She's the kid who other parents say things like "Abbie is welcome in my home ANYTIME" about. She's the kid who doesn't give me a moment's worry about her grades. She's the witty, hilarious kid that everyone wants to be friends with, including me. She's the helpful, empathetic older sister, the tremendous girl who thinks of others before herself and puts her trust in the Lord. She is a reminder to me of why we were sent here to this Earth...so that we could know of the Godlike power of creation and the ability to love someone so unconditionally. And yes, in the ten years I've known her, I've learned that. 

Happy Birthday to my dear daughter, who made me a Mother.

Footage.

Just a quick catchup post... Libby had a birthday nearly a month ago now. We gave her a cupcake.

She did not fail to entertain.

We even took a video of the whole thing. It's pretty long, but the first minute and the last minute are fun to watch... we are video editing dunces.


The best part is that this is what she looks like after almost every meal.

That's How We Roll

Easter Weekend was a great one but I'm the type of mother that doesn't remember to: 1. Take pictures of the adorable skirts I made for the three girls using the Lazy Days Skirt methodology (with some tweaking). 2. Do any sort of Easter Basket for my kids whatsoever.

My children. They will survive. My ego, however, may not.

This Easter, however, was a threefold celebration. You see, Saturday the 3rd represented 2 years since I gave birth to the wiriest little string-bean of a boy.


Saturday was also the beginning of my faith's General Conference where we spend two days receiving counsel and instruction from our worldwide leadership via satellite broadcast. It's wonderful.

And of course, this was all taking place on Easter Weekend. So, we needed to find some time to celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Throw it all together and it sounds like we had need of a party, eh?

So, on Saturday we invited some of our friends over to do just that. There were 29 people in attendance. 19 of those were 10 and under. Yes, folks. That's how we roll.
We sent the dads to the back yard to hide the over 400 eggs we had. The moms took our horde to the front lawn to occupy their time. It looked sorta like this:

I admit to loving the chaos of all those kids... as long as I'm not the only one watching them.
Once all the eggs were hidden, we first released the "Littles" (5 and under) to find some eggs. I use the term "find" loosely. It was more of a picking up of eggs off the ground.

Then the big kids were released and made short work of the rest of the eggs. Once the kids has stuffed themselves full of candy, we brought them inside and sang a quick "Happy Birthday" to Lucas. It was followed by one of my favorite things in the entire universe. CUPCAKES.

This may have been my favorite Easter/Birthday/Conference Weekend ever.

1-2-3-4!

My baby had a birthday. No, not the baby growing (and leeching my will to live) within me. And no, not Lucas (who, consequently is also leeching my will to live - but that's another blog post entirely).

I mean my Miles. He believes that he's now a big boy, but I've made him promise over and over to be my baby forever. I've confessed my undying love and affection for this kid before, and friends who know him personally just can't help but feel the same way about him. He's intelligent, thoughtful, polite, and hysterical. Every day after Matt leaves for work, Miles will cuddle up to me and tell me in his most important voice, "Don't worry mom, I'm the man of the house now."

Happy Birthday, big man!

Shame on me.

I think it's obvious that I've been in quite the blog funk lately. I apologize, but don't actually feel badly about it. It's not as though my blog is wildly popular with people chomping at the bit to read my entries, so the entries will continue to come as I feel like it. So there!

Anyway! I had a birthday. It's official. I've reached the dark ages middle ages. I'm 30. And while I'm okay with that in theory, I certainly don't feel 30. I don't even really feel 20. Alas, the calendar tells the truth.

I had Matt snap some pictures of me on my birthday. And I had delusions of grandeur about showing you pictures of me from 25 and 20 and maybe even 15. But again, lazy.


My skin doesn't actually look all mottled as it appears in this picture. At least, I don't THINK it does. I'm often wrong.

Matt told me to be sexy. If this is my sexy face, I'm scared for him.

Uh. So. Yeah.

One of my kids had a birthday on Friday. I'll let you guess which one.

A hint:


I have a really hard time believing that he's actually a full year old. He has fully integrated himself into our way of life (read: chaos) and into our hearts.



As you can see, he's walking all over the place. He's pretty steady on those tiny legs.

Yes, we're quite fond of the little bugger.
I'll have to come back in a bit with house images. My hard drive is wigging out.

Headfirst into 7

Dear Seven,
I have to admit, I'm a bit scared by you. But I'm more scared for you. You're wise beyond your 2555 days.

Yet you're still my baby, as evidenced by the fact that you let me cradle you in my arms and snuggle into your neck.

You're fiercely independent in one moment and desperately needing mom the next.

You're a very intelligent girl, Seven. I want you to keep learning and growing. Gain as much knowledge as you possibly can. But never forget to rely on the arm of the Lord. Do not discount faith. It's importance and prevalence in your life is where your happiness will truly come from.

Seven, I need you to listen...

This world is only gonna get harder, and scarier, and meaner. Always, always remember that I love you. Never forget the things that your Father and I are trying to teach you: compassion, sincerity, patience, & a willingness to clean up after your own darn self.

But please, don't be afraid to be a kid. Don't be afraid to show your goofy side.

Seven, you seem so much older than I would have thought possible. We have the ability to trust you to make good decisions (most of the time).

Keep doing that. We like that. Don't get sidetracked by all the meaningless fluff this world has to offer, Seven. Keep smiling. Keep hugging. Keep us close.


Love,
Your mom.

5.

She was pretty darn excited. As evidenced by this second picture. Love that one. Please ignore the extremely greasy, sweaty hair she's got going on. Total nastiness. I want it cut!!! But she's intent on growing it out.

It's almost that time.

Birthday Time.

Abbie will be 5 on Valentine's Day. And geez. When did I become a mom of a 5 year old? It's making me feel SO OLD!

So, in an effort to get some 5 year old head shots, I bribed her! Hopefully, she'll give me another try, because I'd like more than just a couple headshots.

I failed to set my CWB, which I'm now kicking myself over! My color is all over the place! Also, I have no idea what happened but my ISO was at 1600 for most of these... thank goodness for NeatImage!!!

My favorite! Love her tiny smile.
She was getting pretty ticked with me... I even have one of her crying. But she warmed up again. Just in time to give me this attitude.