Hey Guess What?

I have a fabulous new photography blog. I love it! And I am so excited to share it. Update your bookmarks and make sure you check it out. Go to www.photographybyleeann.com/blog

Tell your friends. And leave some blog love.

Downtown

Indianapolis has a fabulous downtown. A downtown I rarely go to. And a downtown that I thought would be fabulous for family pictures. And here are a few that I love. Tons more to come!

Happiness is

Answering the phone to talk with a friend from back home.  And then turning around to see a box on your fireplace.  A box you have dreamt about.  A box you have lusted after.  A box you have fantasized over.  A box that brings complete happiness.  A box that makes you completely lose your train of thought and ramble like an idiot to your friend and make so sense at all.  

Happiness is the new iMac sitting on my desk in front of me right now.  

Thank you love.  You surprised me completely.  And now I will only lust after you Randy.  Only you.

Four

Four liters of lovely shampoo. I just recently purchased Iso Bouncy Cleanse, and Matrix Essentials Sleek Look. Iso is the most wonderful smelling shampoo ever. But the Color Me Sexy, and American Crew we still quite new. I love my salon shampoos. So much that I only by them. Anything else makes my hair cringe. I am quite the shampoo snob. I fully admit this. But without it, my curls freeze, my head dries up, and my hair looks horrendous.

This sweet girl loves to take long showers. Doesn't she look like an angel? This sweet girl took an extra long shower today. She loves her bubbles. While in the shower this sweet girl dumped all four bottle of shampoo all the way down the drain. Just so she could have extra bubbles. She is in some trouble. I am not happy. But she is six. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. And she will be doing extra chores to work off all of my wonderful shampoo.

Chrysanthemum

I have a fabulous friend. She is uber talented. She is super creative. She has some serious sewing skills. And she sells some of her fabulous creations. I decided to splurge and get myself a new funky big purse. Something I can use when I am on a fun outing with the kids. Something I can throw my camera in and still have room. Something different than my boring purses that are from Penney's from over three years ago. Something funky and fun. And I found it.

It is so fabulous you should get one for yourself. I love my Chrysanthemum. Thanks Kristie for being so amazingly talented and for selling your beautiful creations! So go here to Wild Coriander and place your order. Mine only took three days to come. It was a happy day at my home today.



My kids snapped some pictures of me so I could share. But at least you get to see my fabulous bag!

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.

I have nothing else to do..

Today I have sat here contemplating what to blog. And then I decided a good story about Little Miss would be the perfect thing to blog.



Little Miss is always happy. Always smiley. She is pretty even most of the time. And then there was today. Today she was happy. She had cute sparkley pink bows in here hair. She looked like an angel. She sat happily in Sacrament Meeting drawing.. coloring.. just being happy. And then she decided to start ripping papers oh so loudly. I quickly told her that it was too loud and to stop. She looked, smiled sweetly, knowing she was being disobedient and continued. I told her to stop again. She smiled and looked me straight in the eye and continued. Sweet girl. I decided the notebook was mine. It went away into the Church bag, and she pucked.. she cried. And I swiftly carried her out of the chapel into the hall. All the while thinking kid, you are 5. Almost 6. You don't do this anymore.



Once in the hall I had her stand with her nose in the corner. She doesn't get to throw fits like this. I stood there. She screamed. And screamed. And screamed. And then her nose started to run. I looked at her as her tongue was licking her lip and told her not to eat her boogers, that was gross. She looked at me and replied, "I have nothing else to do." I didn't crack a smile. But I really wanted to. I told her that she could stand there quietly so we could go back in but eating her boogers was not an option. It is gross and EWW!! She calmed down. We returned and life was well again. And she didn't eat anymore boogers, I guess she had better things to do.

Over.

I just got home from dropping Little Miss off at school. I had to fight back the tears as I drove away. It is her last day of Kindergarten. My baby is growing up and I am not ready. I realized this was my last day of morning with just her and me.

Little Man is finishing First Grade. He is thrilled. I am not. I am not ready for him to be THAT big. THAT old.

The school year is over. over. over. And Summer begins. I am thrilled that Summer is here. We are ready for a fun summer. I am hoping this summer is slow. I want each day to drag on. I don't want summer to fly by. I am already dreading school in the fall. I plan on enjoying every minute of summer swimming, biking, playing, laughing, running, jumping, swinging, painting, drawing, catching guppies, playing in the creek. Just having fun and making memories with my children.

Here I sit. Wiping a tear. Wishing that the clock moved slower. Wishing I had just a little more time. Wishing I could do it all. Wishing I was always the Mom I mean to be.

It Was Over!

The kids slept for just a few short hours. It was midnight when they hit the bed. We didn't hit it until after 1:00 AM. We were busy getting everything ready. The poor children were woke up a little after 4:00AM so we could catch the shuttle and then catch our early flight home. They were less than thrilled.

We realized we didn't have a single family picture at our resort, so we quickly snapped one.

Little Miss with her souvenir hat and Sleeping Beauty Doll. She still loves them.

Little Man with Pluto. The hat and the dog.

He still loves Pluto. And he sleeps with him every night.

We were happy to go home. We were exhausted. But we cannot wait for another fabulous family vacation and we cannot wait to go to Disney again. And it was over.

It Was Wonderful!

Saturday we were all so excited we were meeting up with my brother and his sweet family!! The kids were so excited to see their cousins. We have decided we need to do yearly vacations together so our kids get to see each other and we can have so much fun!! We spent the day at Magic Kingdom.

The girls in front of Minnie's House.

We went and waited to meet the fairies. They were so excited!!

I think Tinker Bell was the favorite!

And then we went and rode Splash Mountain!! We loved it!! The kids loved it. We rode it over and over.

We played in the Sprinklers again. The kids loved getting cooled off.

We saw Cinderella's Castle. The girls all loved it.

We rode the carousel. Once again Randy opted out of the spinning rides.

My sister in law and I rode Dumbo together. It's not strange to see two adults in the ride without any kids is it?

We met Ariel. And somehow Little Man decided he would get her autograph. I think it was the Sea Shells that drew him in.

But he didn't want to get too close to her.

We played in sprinklers again. This was one of Little Man's favorite things to do!

Jenni and I waited to meet more Princesses with the girls.

Little Miss had fun being the photographer! She was kind of bossy. Don't know where she would get that from! :)

Almost ready to see Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Belle again! They were stoked.

Three girls with some of their favorite Princesses.

We decided we should ride Barn Stormer a few more times. I sat in front of the girls and I turned backwards the whole time. It was totally worth it. Their faces are priceless!

We had to do it one more time so we could get even more pictures.

The last ride made me a little sick. It is meant to be ridden facing forwards.. not backwards. But it was a lot of fun!

We watched the Parade. Or at least part of it.

And then we watched the Fire Works. We loved them!

And then we said Good-Bye. To Disney World. To our cousins. And to our vacation. I will admit when I said Good-Bye to my brother and his sweet family I totally cried. Not in front of them, but as we went our separate ways. My heart broke. My brother has always been one of my best friends and it makes me sad to live so far away. We arrived back at our hotel shortly after midnight. The kids were out.. and we were exhausted.