a few days in photos...

The open bag of stuffing...or fluffing as it is called.  D successfully made a huge mess in the living room, as he went swimming in da clouds.

wallet + computer = trouble. :)  hahahaaa!!

living in a small town I have learned to do a good amount of online shopping.

Caught this shot of my little S while I was out doing a photo shoot of a darling little baby! Love it!

Plus, I love that she is letting me take pictures of her again.

The spa party!  It was a huge hit and I am officially the coolest mom ever.  It was A's first friend party, so she felt awesome...and that was the point.

The little blue eye shadowed, 80's princess ballerina.  The recital this year was flashback to the 80's, so the girls were happy little campers to have blue eye shadow.  

Catching up a little...

big things this week...
A turned 8 (and is super excited that she gets to start Activity Days this week)
and will be getting baptized very soon.

J hit a grand slam (only because he is speedy fast and DID NOT listen to the third base coach to stop), and won three first places at our local Hershey Track and Field Event.

D continues to act older than he is and say funny things...
* while I was attempting to help Mister Independence push the cart at the grocery store he looks at me and says, "Mom, get you dirty hands off da cart".
* when Mike called me Am the other day he said all scandalized like, "Don't call she Am, she my MOM!"
* and regularly sasses back with "yeah, yeah, whateva"  Thank you big sister, A!
D is just growing up tooooo fast!  and he is full of 2 yr old spunk.
S loves t-ball and hits the ball when pitched to her about 50% of the time.  If they miss after 4 pitches they get the T.  She always NAILS it off the T.  She smack it hard too, about to 2nd plate most of the time.  Yet she definitely gets distracted when in the outfield: kicking dirt, picking flowers, dancing,  etc.  :)
A and S have their dance recital this weekend.  One of my favorite nights of the year...NOT!  hahahaaa!
A gets to have her first birthday party with invited friends.  She is thrilled...it will be a spa themed party.  UGH!!  why am I doing this to myself.  LOL!

I have decided to make some changes in my online shoppe.  That should be fun and exciting.  And a little sad too, as I will be closing one chapter and beginning another.  I also started an online photography class and am super excited about it.  Up until now, everything I know I have taught myself by reading books and playing or from google.

Mike has been doing some continued education classes to keep his administration licenses current.  So he has been out of town, hanging with the other administrators from WA.  It is always good for them to be together for a bit, because they are otherwise so spread out.  His remodel is SO SO close to being done.  They will have a big open house and celebration soon.  And it looks so gooooood! woo hooo!!!  I'm glad he's home today!

onto pics...sorry for the redundancy for those of you who are on FB too.

getting ready for baseball!

my sick little D.  I love his dinosaur book, triceratops stuffed animal, and his plastic t-rex sticking out from under his leg.  LOL!!  it was a dino obsessed afternoon.

S sharing a flower with her new t-ball friend.

After all, what else are you supposed to do with waiting to bat.

S-  a quick picture before the sun went down.  (I hate using my flash)

A planting her faux garden

S on the beach (our very mossy beach)

I had taken some senior pictures for another gal in our ward this evening, and then I let the kids play at the playground right there.  

Instead of staying at the playground, S, of course, found her way to the beach.

Happy birthday to A!!  

She loved her little cake, except she said the neon green food coloring (which I love the new neon food coloring) made it look like I had put guacamole along the outside.  She wasn't too keen on chocolate and guacamole! LOL

a little light family reading

my proud boy of his newly discovered running skills!

1st place in softball throw, 200m and 400m.

Me...feeling lucky and blessed.  I thank Heavenly Father daily for these little guys and the joy they bring my life!

sunshine! YAY!

Fun and busy week.  Mike left and went to Lake Powell for fishing. So I was on my own.  Mike and the boys had fun as well as some challenges at Powell, but they always love the fishing!

My week was normal...tball, baseball, dance, Scouts, more dance, some senior pictures, more baseball, more tball, and more baseball, oh,  and Young Authors.

Our week in photos

the Harbor view from my kitchen, on a cold, windy, and very choppy day.

We finally had some sunshine stick around longer than an hour or so. :)  So we enjoyed MOST of our free time outdoors this week.  So much so, that J and A didn't get homework done all week.  Oops (we caught up this weekend though)!

S, giving me her "game face"

If you have kids that watch Ben Ten Alien Force then you know what this is. I was just whipped my son up an omnitrix this day, cuz I am crafty like that. While he was excited for the first little while, he became disappointed when the aliens didn't proceed to come out of it when he called their names.

super cute new pair of shoes. They are little flats. I LOVE them

S just chillin on the grass

playing in the water

My Mother's Day breakfast in bed. Mike was out of town and the kids were so bummed that they had no help in doing Mother's Day. One child, A, actually was in tears over it many time, so I decided that we'd go to the store. The kids made a list and had free reign (within reason). They picked stuff out for breakfast for me as well as a potted plant. (I told them no to the $60.00 flower arrangement.) they took the alarm from the guest bedroom and A set it. In the morning, they proceeded to make breakfast with strict instructions that they could only use the toaster oven and microwave. It originally came to me without a plate, but I asked for one so I could put the syrup on my waffle. and yes, that is an ice-cream cone. :)

While the entire thing was cold (it took A 30 minutes or so to figure out the hot cocoa in the microwave, and it bubbled all over, so she had to clean it up and start over, and then I think she was worried, so she didn't heat it up enough) I have to admit is was definitely a step in the right direction after last year. See this post for a recap of last year's breakfast

 I really only wanted one thing (other than a new camera lens :) ) for Mother's Day and that was a photo with my kids.  Since Mike was gone, we had to come up with another option.  Everyone looked good after church, so J and A were the photographers.  I set up the exposure and coached them through the picture taking.  and these are the results. :)  Not bad, if I do say so myself.

This is an extra one of S, just because I love it. :)  

She had bumped her elbow and needed some comfort, and J kept shooting. 

Nice moment captured!

And then S wanted a turn taking some pictures.  She has never taken any with my camera before.  I coached her and this was the first one.  Not bad, not bad at all. :)

Her first picture ever on the SLR. :) 

this is me giving her directions, "push the button just a little, oops, not that much, see the red dot, put the dot on mommy's eye, then be sure it beeps when the red dot is there, then push it down the rest of the way."

Robin...some senior pictures

Did some senior pictures yesterday for an AWESOME gal from our church.  We love her.  I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. :)

(Sorry if you get this via email and don't care about these photos, but they are fun and I wanted to share)

Here they are:
The first one is just normal editing...fixing color, making it pop a bit, etc.  then the following ones are some fun editing I did.  Sometimes I like the first one best other times I like the edited one.

She is beautiful and is such a sweetheart!  Good Times!