How can you not be crazy about this girl?!!

Halloween

I have been seeing a lot of people still posting about Halloween, so I think this is still relevant. Ben and Spence were Blue Ranger and Red Ranger, (y'know, from THE POWER RANGER fame, in case ya didn't know.) And Annie was a frog. Yeah, didn't want to spend any money, so I borrowed it from a friend, and it was cute - so I went with it. Although not as girly as I could have or should have gone for my first girl's first Halloween. There's always next year. So darn irresistible though - I just want to smoosh her up! (with kisses, I mean.)

And here's our little under age cow out for a joy ride. (Okay, not a cow costume, or having anything to do with Halloween really, but I thought I'd sneak it in, b/c it's "udderly" cute. Yeah, that's right, I just made an udder joke.)Love my little Red Ranger! And he had a great time trying to figure out the whole, people giving him candy, and then going on to get more at the next person's house - thing. Moving on was kinda a tricky concept for an almost 3-yr-old.

This one is a good shot of the whole outfit. It's quite cute. Cape and all. Much higher quality than Ben's $10 jump suit from Walmart, this one was given to us by our next door neighbor 3 years ago. Very convenient choice for the Spen dog.
This is a pretty good action shot of the Trick-or-Treating. Totally focused on the candy - no time for annoying mom trying to get MORE pictures as usual.
Stud.

Lest there be any confusion, Doug is white. But, we blurred racial lines this year to go to a party as Taylor Swift and Kanye West. Doug was worried about offending - so sorry if ya are. We figured bronzer would be a bit better than like, thick brown paint - but he ended up just looking Guido and fake-baked! oops. An improvement on Kanye regardless... (Oh SNAP!) I don't know if it was the shiny black shirt with the rolled up short sleeves, or the gold chains that put him over the edge (we studied his VMA outfit with precision - and yes, the shirt front was really tucked in all haphazardly for real). At least our props were good.
And just a couple of the boys for fun. Happy Fall!

My Favorite Recent Family Pic

Who knew my kids could actually smile? I know this is not actually RECENT, per se, but I swear I will put some new pics of Annie on here very soon. I am FINALLY almost done going through the 2000 + pictures we've taken since June. I know, it's sad that's what keeps me from blogging. Pictures. Ugh.

But anyway, here's a sneak peak of pics to come...

Header Pic

Thanks for all your votes. I went with #1 because it was a tie, and I like Ben's face just a tiny bit better in that one, (although the margin is quite slim.)

But on a side note, I have to share a great story. I'm sure it will be rather embarrassing to Ben in the future - so I gotta put stuff like this on here while I still can. So, yesterday Ben was in the bathroom, and we hear him yell, "Dad, come in here! ..... My poo smells like your rice cakes!"

We laughed until we cried. At least 5 minutes straight. Then, Doug decided that he either needs to evaluate better what he's putting into his body, or Ben's poo smelled really good....

Puttin' it to a Vote

I obviously need a new fam pic in my header. Which one should I do? Please write a comment which family pic you like best. Refer to them as #1,2,3,4, or 5.
Thanks. I desperately need the help.

Most Recent Family Pics

Pretty old now (from May 30th), but since I stink at the whole, recent info on the blog thing, I thought they were still worth putting up - since all the other stuff is old on here anyway.... right?! Brooke did a fantastic job. Her style is so good. But none of the family shots worked out super well, through no fault of Brooke's. Ben was just on one that day, and was horrible at looking at the camera, standing still, and/or smiling. Arrgghhh!! You know that phase when a kid won't smile cute for pictures? They think whatever twisted, fake expression they're making is somehow cool? If you haven't gone through it yet, just dread it. And if you have, well, you know my pain. Spence was just being a 2.5 year old - and well, Annie cannot be blamed for lack of cooperation. Oh well. We tried. The individual pix of the kids are PHENOMENAL! Thanks Brooke! You somehow managed to get them looking lovable, in spite of how I was feeling that day! Here are just a few, and of course, the ones over on the side bar are from the same shoot...

Annie was only about 2.5 months old and has changed a ton. But she looks so beautiful - I can't help but melt when I look at these.













Oh, that hair!!!! I find myself missing her little Woodstock look.

First Day of Preschool!

We've got one too! It's obviously a popular item these days...
The pic on the front porch with the backpack on. Ours are not as professional as some - because I didn't have too much time to get one from behind with B looking over his shoulder, or to make sure Spence was out of the picture, or to even make sure that Ben didn't look sleepy - I was running a little late. But hey, it's a memory!

Happy Birthday Ben. 5 is the moment you've been waiting for!

Hooray! Ben is 5 Today.
Love to my big boy Ben.

What's Ben been up to? Well, he just started preschool yesterday. And, he's made HUGE progress this year in helping around the house, and being an awesome big bro to Annie and Spence. He's been really helpful, honestly. He's learning to read even. It's strange to say, but I think he's just growing up. I'm old.
We went to Quarry Hill Nature Center today, Inta Juice and egg drop soup for dinner (nice combo eh?) and we're having a party on Saturday. He wanted a Texas sheet cake for his cake. If nothing else, I will say - he's got... style.

Annie is way older than 3 weeks today - Almost 6 months. Can we say pathetic blog skills? I know - don't give me any more flack people!

Since I am so overwhelmed with my bad job at keeping up on the blog - and hence, the reason why I keep falling further behind, I will just do a few pictures from each month - and some highlights. We have been so darn busy. Honestly, it's been a fabulous summer, and I admit, I am downright depressed that school will be starting soon, because here, that can only mean one thing - and that's winter will be coming shortly. Nuts.

And I know there's no one out there who is still reading my blog though - but if you are: bless you. This one's for you!

April went by fast, we had a great Easter, and Annie just grew bigger and bigger. Well, technically, not THAT big, because she's still pretty tiny, but she's definitely developing so fast! The boys are crazy about her and can't get enough of her. Lately, they've taken to carrying her around the house -

We kicked off May with a trip to Wisconsin Dells with some friends. It's the Waterpark capital of the world (or something like that anyway), and it was a total blast. We rented a 3-bedroom condo, and that is the way to do it. Just check out that bathtub. Enough said. We're gonna make it annual I think. The upper left pic was when Annie's hair was still pretty freakin' ridiculous. It's funny to look at now - because it's actually gotten pretty tame, albeit slightly less fully than before, but more manageable - so I'll take it. And Annie got prettier each day of May, (especially when the baby acne cleared b/c it lasted like, 7 weeks; ugh), and started to roll over, (freakishly early, I know,) and really become interactive. In June, we bless Annie at our home. Doug's parents were able to drop by before they went on their mission in Connecticut - so we took the opportunity. It was really special, and I'm glad we got to do it that way. We invited a few families over, and had Rootbeer floats after.The boys had their first campout with Doug and had a ball. And we also spend much of the beginning of June with some good friends who moved in the middle of the month. We miss the Israelsens a ton! But here are some pics of our Memorial day shenanigans with them and the Scows. We also revamped the basement bathroom in early June (below). Looks fab! Thanks Carrie! And techically, this is the REAL BEFORE shot. We took this before we moved in. The one I have labeled BEFORE in the collage is technically "IN PROGRESS" I just barely realized that, and now I'm just too lazy to change the collage.Also from June are Father's Day pics, and Annie's first time in a bathing suit and in the pool. She liked it - but I actually let her get a sunburn on her cheeks that day because I forgot a hat, and I SWEAR I only let her be in the pool without it for pictures - no more than 5 minutes. Baby skin - so tender. I felt like a horrible mother for sure.

And honestly, that's all I can muster for the evening. So let's say this is PART ONE - Summer Catch up! (or half yearly) To Be Continued...

And PS - why this is making my captions hyperlinks - I'll never know. Sorry.

Annie is 3 weeks old today!

Finally, some more pics of Annie! These are courtesy of my friend Brooke who did this little newborn shoot at 4 days old. Thanks B!
These are way outdated though - Sorry. Obviously, she's changed a TON in the last couple weeks. I have more recent pics, and will post them soon, but it's such a chore for me to sift through them to find the best ones. Blogging would be a lot easier if I were the kind of person that only took 1 shot of everything. It's all my fault. Ugh.

Anyway, without further ado, here's our beautiful girl! They were all so good, it was hard to choose a few - so I didn't.

Annie is such a sweet child. We adore her! She has such a chill personality. She only cries when she's starving - or really uncomfortable. She eats like a champ, and is growing quickly in spite of her tiny birth weight. Her nighttime sleeping could be better, but that would be asking a lot, I think. Except, she doesn't like the swing like her brothers, so she likes to be held, or to just hang out on the floor. I like to call her mini-Doug. Not because she likes the floor or anything, (it's a weird joke, I know,) but I think she looks exactly like him, and she's super good. Just like D.

On a side note: her hair is uber unmanageable though! It's not like I'm complaining, I love her old man hair- it's adorable, but it looks like she has constant bedhead! Even the bath hardly helps! There's no way to control it I tell ya.

And for the record, I'm also doing really well - I've had a great recovery. I have lots of energy, other than the fact that I don't get much sleep some nights, and it's not always due to my newborn. Spencer is waking a lot these days, (in fact, I have a headache right now because of it). I remember that Ben did that when Spence was born for a while. It was maddening then too - but I guess that's the way our kids have dealt with it. Not to mention they are pretty much always trying to kill each other lately. Boys... Sheesh. I swear I'm trying to give them individual attention, but it's only the best I can do - probably not enough. That must be why it's taken me so long to blog this! Oh well.