Blog Slacking

I have been a total slacker on my blog. It's because I have been trying to be like the best.mom.ever. Totally trying.. and trying. And trying some more. A few things.. First you should go HERE and become a fan of my photography on facebook.. do it.. you know you want to!

And something to blog about. One of my best friends ever came to visit me. Tiffany!! It was awesome to see you and your family and we loved having you here!! She came to see me all the way from Idaho. We had so much fun catching up and talking for hours on end. I can talk to her all of the time and we still always have something fascinating to talk about. I love it! While they were here we took them to the wonderful Children's Museum here. While there we decided to hula hoop. And here we go. Little Miss totally knew what she was doing.Randy even gave it a shot. Check him out. But not too close ladies.. he's mine!

Little Man decided he could try a blue hula hoop.

I can still hula hoop even after all these years. I even took out a 13 year old girl who walked into the hoop.. what was she thinking? And do you see the concentration on my face? Skills.

Tiffany was rocking it.

And her husband Billy even joined in. What sport!

Sadly I don't have a picture of any of her kids doing it. I don't even know if they tried it.
I took family pictures of them! They are faithful clients coming all the way from Idaho just to get pictures!

We enjoyed a night out with a delicious dinner at The Melting Pot. It was fun to leave the kids with babysitters and just enjoy grown up conversation.

And then we had a fantastic time at the WNBA Fever Game. Thanks for the tickets Alan!!

And Tiffany and I thought we should get a new picture together.. it has been years. And I converted her to the fantastic Indiana hair stylists we have here. I think she might have to come visit me often just to keep up her fabulous cut!!

After the game we headed back to our house. Tiffany and I with her kids in one car. Randy, Billy and my kids in the other car. Tiffany had the scariest thing ever happen to us. And if you are my friend on facebook sorry to bore you with this again.. we had a guy pull a gun on us on the freeway. We think he just saw two Mom's in the car without a "man" around and wanted to scare us. It worked. Real well. We slammed on the brakes and avoided an untimely death. And now I don't know if she will ever come back to get another fabulous haircut. Stupid guys. We recovered after large amounts of ice cream. And a lot of holy cow.. did that really just happen?

We laughed a lot. The kids played. We talked a lot. We stayed up late. We had fun. And I loved having a wonderful friend for the past seven years at my home. Thanks for coming girl!

Six

My girl is Six! Happy Birthday Little Miss!

Little Miss is the happiest kid I know. She is always smiling.
Little Miss runs everywhere she goes while smiling.
Little Miss loves to be pretty!
Little Miss knows that all girls are the prettiest in the world. She will tell you how all of her friends are the most beautiful and she knows she is beautiful too.
Little Miss is a wonderful example of kindness. She never wants anyone to be sad.
Little Miss is a spitfire.. wonder where she gets that from?
Little Miss made our family complete.
Little Miss is an answered prayer.
Little Miss loves to color.
Little Miss is the best daughter any mother could ask for.
Little Miss is hilarious when she doesn't even try.


I am so grateful to be her Mommy. I don't know how I got so lucky. Happy Birthday Little Miss!

Busy!

Summer is keeping us busy! Too busy to update my blog as much as I should!

Today we had swimming lessons bright and early.
Piano lessons taught by me.
Ice cream is currently being made.
Playtime outside is coming soon.
Then gymnastics.
And then some quiet reading time while I get my crazy new shot.
Then a quiet dinner and a nice walk.
And the day will be over.

Our summer is delightful! The kids are happy. I am happy. How about yours?

Four

Tonight I went for a walk. I have been taking nightly walks lately, normally with a neighbor. But tonight Randy had to go to Church for Young Men's which meant I wasn't going to get a walk. And then the kids wanted to take the dogs for a walk. I figured we would go out for a short walk. But it would be a walk nonetheless.

Off we went. And not even two blocks from home Little Miss falls and scrapes her knees. Thankfully we were by friends, they came to the rescue with band aids. I thought we might be doomed but they wanted to keep going. We walked.. and walked. I asked them how far they wanted to go. They responded super far. I wanted to get in a nice walk so I figured let's go. At worst I would end up with Little Miss on my back and a leash in my hand on the way home. An extra forty pounds would definitely help me burn calories. I kept checking in with them as we walked, and they cheerfully responded this is so fun! I was shocked. Especially since Little Miss can hardly make it through Target without being too tired to walk.

Little Man walked a dog the whole time. Little Miss and I traded off. She had never been allowed to walk one of our dogs before. They weigh twice what she does, it makes me nervous. But she did great. The kids were troopers. The dogs were well behaved and we made it four whole miles. It took longer than normal, but they made good speed. And they thanked me for the best walk ever and they want to go again, and again, and again.

Being the Mom

School has been out for one whole week here. And I have made my goals to be a fun, awesome, attentive Mom this summer. As opposed to being the slacker Mom I normally am. This week I have taught them art, and piano. We have made bread. We have played outside. We have read. We have laughed. We have swam. We have cleaned. We have folded lots of laundry. We have giggled. We have had fun. We have been happy! We have gotten along. We have had a terrific week.

Until today. Today I have been distracted and busy. Today I have had a horrible headache. Today my kids threw bottles of sealed finger paints at each other. (Thankfully they didn't explode.) Today I see the blessings of all of the fun busy activities we have been doing. They are happier, I am happier. And being the Mom is much more fun when we are all happy. When they are both in their rooms in timeout, it's not too fun.

And next week I will be a good busy Mom again. I can't be a slacker Mom and a happy Mom. They don't mesh well together. Although being the slacker Mom is much easier, and I think I am pretty good at it. But it is time to perfect the busy Mom.

Thunder.. Lightning.. Wind

And we have a storm. A storm like no other I have ever seen. A storm that killed our power. Rain that blocked our view of anyone else's home. Wind that broke trees, thankfully none of ours. Lightning that lit up the sky. Thunder that shook our house and made our picture frames shake and hang crooked. And hail that dented cars.. thankfully not ours.

I think that was just round one for the night. I think round two is quickly approaching.