All Hallow's Eve

Another Halloween has come and gone and I may have reached a new peak of indifference this year when it came to the children's costuming choices.  Yes -- I may have gone all out in seasons past and sewn brand-new costumes for the kids, but these days I'm just as likely to do absolutely nothing and let the kids costume themselves.  Hahaha.  Tonight's venture proved to be a sort of middle ground, with Sophie and Jane choosing costumes from our overflowing dress-up bin, and Ethan and Grace sporting brand-new looks that I happened to score for half-off at a newly opened thrift store this  morning.  It was a win-win situation. 

Even though NONE of my kids brought costumes to school today for their class parties, they were all properly decked out for the real trick-or-treating tonight.  Grace in particular went all out by improving upon the simple black dress and blue wig I found today at Red Rack.  After taping a bunch of construction paper together and then cutting it out into a giant circle, I helped her slit it up to the middle and wrap it around itself into a cone.  And then, while she went to paint her face {and her hands and her feet} green and her fingernails black, I went ahead and cut out and taped a couple of sections for the "brim" to help her finish it up.  All in all it was an impressive joint effort.  She is one creative and resourceful girl!  

Ethan was much more excited about his costume than I thought he'd be, so that was a nice surprise as well.  It was most likely due to the fact that it was orange, but for some reason I think the Home Depot sponsorship tickled him as well. 

He's really into goofy poses these days.

Sophie went as Cinderella while sporting a Cinderella sticker on her sling.  Very existential.  Hahaha.  By all accounts her broken wrist garnered lots of attention and excitement today, so that's good.  I had to run over to the school this afternoon to give her some more ibuprofen and managed to pop in right at the start of her class party.  It was a slightly awkward moment when the mother of the boy who pushed Sophie off the monkey bars came over to apologize right before I left.  I felt kind of bad for HER and think I ended on a "don't worry about it" note before I headed out the door.  

Cute little Jane.  She's such a character.  She told me today that last night's outfit was her dressing like a "cool kid."  Tonight she went with the slightly less cool but still pretty awesome care bear costume that Grace wore back in the day.  She made it work. 

They were only out for about an hour, but they still came home with too much candy for my sanity's sake.  And considering we had ZERO people knock on our door tonight, we have more than enough candy to last us for awhile.  So, with the evening drawing to an end I'll leave you with a Happy Halloween and one last shot of the almost birthday girl! 

 

{So hard to believe she's going to be 8!} 

It's Sophie's Turn

I'm so tired.  It's a good thing I was sick on Saturday and not today.  Or yesterday.  Or Sunday.  Because now that I'm better it's free reign for the kids.  In the two and half years we've lived here, Sophie's asthma has taken a back seat to Jane's.  Aside from the occasional seasonal wheeziness, she's not had a lot of problems.  Well, come Sunday night it all caught up with her and about an hour after falling asleep she woke up with some major wheezing and retracting and sounded just terrible.  The nebulizer got quite the workout over the next 12 hours {nothing says fun like a 2 to 3 AM jaunt with Sophie and some albuterol} as we tried to keep her comfortable and tide over until we could get her to the doctor the next morning.

Luckily, I was able to get an appointment first thing in the morning and after hardly any wait we were able to go back and be seen by the nurse practitioner.  After checking her out they discovered that even though her oxygen levels were really good, she was still really tight and wheezy and kept coughing.  So, they gave her an albuterol treatment mixed with some Atravent and a dose of oral prednisone just for good measure.  With a prescription for the Orapred under our belts and instructions to continue the albuterol every 4 hours for the next couple of days we were on our way and Sophie was so happy she could go to school so she wouldn't miss the Girl Scout party that was happening in the afternoon. 

When I got a message from the school nurse this afternoon, my first thought was, "Oh no -- her asthma is flaring up again!"  I was a bit surprised, however, when the nurse had nothing to say about her breathing and instead informed me that Sophie had fallen on the playground and her wrist was hurting.  When I was finally able to get a hold of the nurse and get more details, she said she had kept her in for a bit while she ate lunch, iced her wrist, and then sent her back to class with instructions to keep an eye on her.  She asked if I wanted to bring some kind of pain medication to school for her, but since both the little ones were napping and I figured the school day would be over soon enough anyway, I told her I'd just wait till she got home.

When she DID get home, I was surprised to see she was still crying about her wrist and seemed to be genuinely hurting still.  To be honest, I'm always a little skeptical when it comes to Sophie's "injuries" because of her slight streak of hypochondria.  Not to mention she's a bit dramatic.  BUT -- it didn't seem as though she were faking the pain.  She tearfully told me that a boy from her class had pushed her off the monkey bars and that's how she had fallen and gotten hurt.  I knew she was probably really hurting when she didn't want to go down and play with the neighbors when they called a few minutes later.   

And of course, tonight WOULD be the night that our ward was doing it's Trunk or Treat Halloween party.  And of course, Scott would already be there to help set things up with the Youth.  So, not really knowing what to do about Sophie, I gathered the kids and their makeshift costumes up and carted us off to the church.  Not helping matters was the fact that Sophie tripped coming up the stairs from the basement with Alex's costume and fell on her hurt arm right before we left and then fell again in the car as she was trying to get out once we were there.  We are one sorry bunch.  See below.   Hahahaha.

Ethan didn't bother with a costume at all and Grace threw on Jane's {WAY too small} Dorothy costume at the last minute after Jane decided to ditch that look in favor of THIS one.  And she was quite proud of it.  Sophie was the only one who stayed true to her vision from the beginning of the season until the end and wore a Cinderella costume.  Alex was a frog by default seeing as to how it's the only costume in our bin that is in his size. 

I think in her mind this was a "princess" costume.

 I think Ethan was the only other kid to wear this one.  I'll have to dig up a picture for the next post.  

We arrived at the party with the older ones already hyped up beyond control, Jane already a tired and melting down mess, and Sophie crying over her wrist and wanting Scott.  Luckily, she saw him right away at the church and even more luckily a friend who is a doctor was at the party and helped us out by taking a look.  He thought it might be broken and then when another friend -- who is an orthopedic surgeon -- took a look at it and thought the same thing, we figured we'd probably be making a trip to the ER before the night was over. 

Happy Halloween!

We made it through the Trunk or Treat and as soon as it was over Scott headed over to the hospital with Sophie while I trudged home with the other 4.  I'm pretty sure I had heavenly help in heading off a Grace bedtime storm this evening and thankfully everyone fell quickly asleep once they were finally in bed.  Scott is still at the ER as I type and is waiting for the doctor's final word.  He did text me about 20 minutes ago to say that the x-rays show a fracture, but other than that I'm not sure what's going on.  So, pretty much par for the course, right?  Because this is already going to be the busiest week ever -- with something going on LITERALLY every single day through SUNDAY even -- so, why not throw in a little broken bone?  At least there's never a dull moment around here, right???

UPDATE:  It's a buckle fracture.  They're splinting it tonight and once the swelling goes down she'll get a cast tomorrow.  Awesome.  And Goodnight.

Wow Wow Wubbzy

So, I totally got knocked flat by a mean bout of stomach flu yesterday.  Nothing like a little sickness to help you appreciate your health.  Right?  Luckily it was only a 24 hour gig and if it was going to happen anyway, I was glad it happened on a Saturday when Scott was in town and home to help take care of the kids and the house.  Because I was pretty much useless for the vast majority of the day.  Even though I was out of commission, Scott knocked it out of the ball park yesterday by cleaning out the garage with some help from the kids {okay Ethan} and even went grocery shopping in the afternoon to boot!  Not too shabby.  The day ended on an even better note as I started to feel a teensy bit better and my sweet visiting teacher brought over some homemade chicken noodle soup and crescent rolls for us to enjoy.  It was greatly appreciated!  You would think my kids had never seen a home-cooked meal before.  Hahahaha.  

Thankfully, I'm feeling much better today than yesterday and I'm up for a bit of blogging.  The remainder of this post will be dedicated to my dear, sweet little Grace who will be turning 8 in just a few days.  So hard to believe!  I have finally finished her baptism quilt and she was super excited to finally sleep under it last night.  When I protested that I wanted to roll it up and bundle it with a ribbon to give it to her on her birthday or baptism day, she quickly reassured me that I could still do that -- she'll just be sleeping with it until then.  Hahaha. 

 A really terrible picture of the finished front.

 Showcasing her name block on the back.

Before I go into more details {and pictures} of her quilt and its meaning, I thought I'd back up a little to tell the tale of our Friday.  You see, Grace has amazing reservoirs of  persistence and resistance.  And you pretty much cannot make her do ANYTHING she doesn't want to do.  Trust me.  I know this from experience.  It is one of the hugest challenges of our parenting lives to figure out what we can do to motivate our children to choose the right and to become responsible, hard-working, independent little creatures.  We try our best to enforce consequences for bad choices and to praise and reward with positive consequences for good choices, but the hardest thing of all is that each and every child is totally unique and different.  What works easily for some does not work at all for others.  Scott and I jokingly congratulate each other for our "Parenting 505" skills when we are able to trick Grace out of one of her moods.  And she has a lot of them.  The most recurrent of which seems to be her fancy to NOT go to school.  

Friday morning was rough.  I had told all of the kids that if they wanted to have a movie night they would have to get all their chores done before school.  Grace especially was on the hook because of more bedtime issues from the night before.  When it became increasingly apparent that she would not be able to finish the kitchen before school started, I told her just to wipe the table and sweep and she could finish the rest after school.  Well, she immediately started throwing a fit that I wasn't going to let her do movie night if she didn't finish everything and no amount of pleading, cajoling, or threatening could make her clean up anything.  At this point Ethan began freaking out because he didn't want to be late for school so I told Grace to just get in the car so we could go.  Even as I told her, I knew deep down inside that she was already past the point of no return.  Not only would she not get in the car, she also wouldn't start cleaning or getting her shoes on or doing anything else that would have possibly propelled her forward.  She stayed rooted in one spot hanging on to me so that I couldn't leave and resisting enough that I couldn't make her move from her position.  Her fit may have been sparked by a fear of not getting movie night but by that point it was no longer about anything.  The storm had started and it would need to rain itself out before the sun could reappear.  

After yelling and pleading a little more, I attempted to just PUT her in the car so we could go.  It was impossible.  With her resisting and freaking out every inch of the way I was able to pull/drag/carry her to the open car door, but no amount of force could get her in and to the backseat and buckled.  So, after a mini-breakdown of ME crying and freaking out I told her to just stay home and I'd be back to get her after dropping Ethan and Sophie off at school.  

 Hurricane Grace.

Well, try to picture this next scene.  As I drove off, Grace started running after the car.  All the way up the hill out of our neighborhood, she trailed behind us screaming with her head down in determination, arms pumping in fury, and tears streaming down her face.  Every few feet I'd stop the car and tell her to get in and she'd stand there frozen in place with a scowl and an "I'm not gonna budge" look firmly rooted on her face.  After the third time we stopped I decided this was ridiculous and I got out of the car to try and put her in.  For any passerby on the street, I'm sure this looked like a sure-fire case of kidnapping.  As I pulled and dragged and carried her over to the car and then lifted and pushed and shoved her into the backseat, she screamed and fought and tried to counteract my every move.  It was a mess.  And quite a scene.  I really hope there were no neighbors watching.  Once she was in the car and we were driving off to school she informed me that she had never packed a lunch.  {Even though she had said yes when I asked her earlier that morning.}  When I told her she'd just have to buy, she alternated between freaking out that I would take it out of her allowance next month and freaking out that she never likes the school lunch anyway.  By the time we got to school we were already late and Ethan and Sophie hurriedly climbed out of the car and ran off and away from the crazy.  Grace, however, was not going anywhere.  She was still crying and couldn't pull herself together.  I tried giving her a few minutes to calm down, but every few seconds she'd come up with a new thing to cry about.  I tried every kind of threat and bribe imaginable but nothing worked. 

In the end, I stormed off and took her home.  I was fuming and freaking out myself and I told her that she would just have to make her lunch and get her chores done while I was at the gym because by the time I got back home I was taking her to school, dang it!  Most definitely not my finest parenting moment.  I got halfway to the gym (which is literally just up the street from our neighborhood) before I broke down crying on the phone to Scott like a broken record saying "I don't know what to do with her!"  After a quick prayer {and some more crying} in the gym parking lot, I realized I needed to turn around and go back to her.  I came home to her curled up on the couch crying with Scott leaving another message on the answering machine for her to pick up the phone because he was worried.  "I don't know how to answer the phone," she tearfully told me as I gave her a hug and answered it for her.  

I hugged Grace and told her how much I loved her and then gave her some time to calm down and decompress while I made her lunch for her {including a little treat of butterscotch chips which she really loves} and let her watch some videos on Youtube.  I called the school and let them know she would be coming in a bit late and after only 10 or 15 minutes she was ready for me to take her.  

So, yeah.  My mothering skills are a work in progress.  Fortunately, the rest of the day went much better than the morning and when they got home from school they all quickly tidied up their chores while I got dinner started.   When Movie Time rolled around they finally settled on something they all agreed on and I finished up the binding on Grace's quilt while we watched "Daddy Daycare" on Netflix. 

 Grace wanted a "Flower" theme for her baptism quilt.

 I didn't have enough of the pink dog fabric for the back, so I pieced together some leftover strips and combined it with her name block to make it big enough.

The idea of a Baptism Quilt came about as a result of inspiration drawn from a few different scriptures and a conference talk that was given a few years ago.   In the Book of Mormon, in the book of Mosiah, there is a group of people who have come to the waters of Mormon to be baptized.  In verses 8-11, Alma outlines the baptismal covenant:

 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

11 And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.

And then in the New Testament in the book of St. John chapter 14 verses 16 and 18, the Savior says:

 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 

This idea that part of the baptismal covenant is to comfort those that stand in need of comfort and then that the Holy Ghost {the gift of which is given after baptism} is a Comforter as well, led to the concept of a quilt -- a tangible symbol of a comforting item.   I love the way Sister Matsumori explains this imagery in her address entitled "Helping Others Recognize the Whisperings of the Spirit."  In her talk she tells the following story:

A Sunbeam teacher wrapped each of her class members one by one in a blanket to teach them how the Spirit feels like the comfort and security of that covering. A visiting mother also heard the lesson.  Many months later the mother thanked the teacher... Several weeks after the lesson, the mother suffered a miscarriage. She was overcome with grief when suddenly she felt a great warmth and peace. It felt like someone had covered her with a warm blanket. She recognized the reassurance of the Spirit and knew that Heavenly Father was aware of her and that He loved her.

 When I first listened to this talk several years ago, this story stuck in my mind.  For Family Home Evening shortly after that Conference, we used this object lesson with our little ones and took each of them one by one and wrapped them in a quilt to help them feel peace and love and comfort.  Last year, for Ethan, we did the same thing in Family Home Evening the week before he was baptized.  It was a really sweet experience. 

I'm branded now.  Hahahaha.

bunnysauce 

 

With Grace's baptism rapidly approaching, I am looking forward to doing the same thing.  Comforting others is something we talk about a lot in our family.  With so many children -- and so many of them SO little -- there are opportunities all around to give comfort.  Grace is especially quick to comfort Alex and Jane when they are hurt or upset or in need.  She is a generous and tender-hearted girl and I am grateful to be her mom.  Hopefully, she is just as grateful to be my child. 

Blast From the Past

The past 24 hours have been rather eventful around here.  You see, I left last night around 7 on an errand from the kids {specifically Grace} to run to the thrift store to pick up some clothes that could work for "60's, 70's, and 80's Day" for school.  I hit the jackpot -- and had a REALLY fun time with the shopping -- but when I got back an hour later, the older three were all still awake and Grace was a little too excited to see everything I got.  Since they were still up, I let her and Sophie try on some of the options I found and was happy to see that they were pleased with the results.

 Grace is forever my free spirit.  I found a tie-dye shirt and flare jeans that {almost} passed for bell bottoms and she tied a scrap piece of fabric around her head for a headband.

These are technically size 3T pants but they fit!  So, I told her to throw a striped shirt on with it and she could be an extra in a Brady Bunch episode.  Hahaha.  Do you like the way she's working that pose?  

Ethan seemed unconcerned last night about his dressing up efforts and told me he would just wear a striped shirt because "that's what they wore in the 60's."  I figured he didn't really want the self-consciousness that comes from dressing up at his age, so I didn't push anything else on him.  

After convincing the kids to all go back up to bed, I knew we were in for trouble when Grace came down about 20 minutes later and said she couldn't fall asleep.  We have decided that Grace has a VERY narrow window of opportunity for falling asleep easily.  Once she passes that portal, she reaches the point of no return and continues to work herself up into an increasingly crazed frenzy where   screeching, screaming, and shrieking combine in epic proportions with complete and total irrationality.  It is not a pretty sight.  She finally fell asleep a little after 10 when we threatened to make her go to sleep in her own bed with the door shut and locked if she didn't get back in our bed and stay there.  

You would think that would be the end of her issues but you would be wrong.  A little after 2 in the morning -- when Jane climbed into our bed and joined us for the night -- I gradually came to realize that we had an additional guest in our bed in the form of Grace.  And she was in a crazed and overly-tired frame of mind.  For the next hour and a half we dealt with her kicking and screaming and shrieking that she didn't know what to do and that she couldn't go to sleep and that we had to do something even though we gave her every suggestion we could think of to get her to go to bed.  And every threat and bribe as well.   All of our efforts and suggestions were met with shrieks and screams of rebuttal and in the end {after she woke up Jane but thankfully no one else} we resorted to letting her go on down to her chair and the TV so we could put Jane back in their room and the rest of us could go back to sleep.  I hate it when this happens!!!  Especially since I was so woken up at this point that it took me almost an hour to fall back asleep.  And THEN just as I was finally drifting off Grace came back up to our room to tell us the Wii remote wasn't working.  Scott took care of that one for the team and I eventually fell asleep to the most fitful night's rest and CRAZIEST dream sequence ever.  It is a miracle that I was able to wake up this morning and get the kids out the door on time.  

I ended up making everyone's lunches this morning, but they did their best to stay on schedule with everything else and we made it to school with 15 minutes to spare!  Thanks to my shopping trip the night before, the getting dressed for the day was made a bit easier for the girls who had their outfits laid out and ready to go for when they woke up this morning.  Okay, scratch that -- SOPHIE had her clothes laid out.  GRACE just slept in them.  Hahaha.  Ethan, however, killed me today with how much effort actually went into picking out what he wanted to wear.  Apparently he had no clean striped shirts and ended up having to scrounge around in his clean clothes basket to try and find something that would work for the theme.  I think he went through 3 different outfit changes {and even IRONED a shirt} before I told him that jean cut-offs seemed 60's enough and that his old school Lacoste polo shirt would probably fit the bill as well.  

Don't they all look so excited?  Hahahahaha.

 Showing off his new skills.

Cute little walking man!

It was funny, though, to see how self-conscious they ALL had become in the end.   As I was dropping them off for school, I had Ethan loudly calling over his shoulder as he walked away that I picked out such weird clothes for them and I had Grace down-playing things a bit herself as she got out of the car saying her clothes didn't look too 60's, 70's OR 80's.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some. 

And in tonight's case, I'm hoping for a BIG win.  The kids all went to bed without a problem this evening and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I'm hoping we'll ALL be able to sleep tonight and I'm REALLY hoping that Grace will benefit from the early bedtime she will be having each night this week as a consequence for last night's antics.  

To close I'll leave you with a couple more dress-up pictures from Ethan who was playing around with the camera  last week on "Missouri Day" -- an all day, in-house field trip where they dressed like pioneers (or other olden day type people) and learned all about  the history of the state.  Good clean fun!  Hahahahaha.

A Little Deja Vu

Alright these pictures have been waiting to be posted for a little while now!  A couple of weeks ago for Family Home Evening the kids finally earned the privilege of painting their pumpkin cans.  You may or may not remember THIS post from a few years with the same activity being pictured:

Back then it was just Ethan and Grace doing the painting.  This time around I was brave enough to let Sophie AND Jane join in the fun.  After collecting tin cans out of our recycling bin for a few weeks, I spray-painted them all white a few days before the painting started.  I bought 4 different shades of orange for the kids to sponge on and after a brief tutorial they went right to work.  Although, apparently I caused frustration on Ethan's part because my sample pumpkin looked "amazing" and he couldn't get his to quite measure up.  Hahaha.  

The pumpkins really only needed to dry overnight, but due to various issues the children were having and consequences that were meted out, it took about a week before they were finally able to paint  the faces on.  They all attempted to copy my original pumpkins to a certain extent, but they also went outside the box on some of their other ones.

Look at that concentration.

For the record -- the "Sharpie" brand paint markers were not the greatest.  

Cute little Jane's masterpiece.

The finished works.

Grace made a dog.  Very creative.

She also made a "mom" and "daughter" -- it's supposed to be me and her she says.  Hahahaha.  Although I did hear her name the little one "Betsy."  It's her new favorite name that she wants to use for one of her kids.  It's also a code word the kids have come up with to refer to people's bums.  As in "You've got a cute Betsy!"  Hahahaha.  Where do they come up with this stuff???

Sophie's work.

And Ethan's.  My favorite parts are the squiggly drawn on  eyebrows.

It's been a while since I've posted anything, yet I can't really think of anything major that has happened.  Mostly just minor stuff like how Sophie's card is flipped to yellow almost every day these days.  And how Ethan has evaded getting a haircut for a good two weeks now.  And how Jane REALLY needs to get potty-trained.  And how Alex is officially a toddler!  And how Grace has been hijacking bedtime by throwing massive fits about wanting to move into the basement.  You know stuff like that.  Hahahaha.

I did start a new segment in the Story of our Life comprised of the "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise" initiative.  It's going much better than I expected.  {Which is always a nice surprise.}  I woke up last Monday morning with that primary song stuck in my head -- you know, the one that goes:  "Early to bed and early to rise. Makes a man healthy, and wealthy, and wise."  It struck me that THAT was the answer to a lot of what I've been praying for lately.  We (more specifically ME and Scott) all need to go to bed earlier.  And we also need to get up earlier so that we can get a better start to our day.  It really is ridiculous to be late to school when it starts at 9:05 in the morning.  Day One of our new lifestyle change officially blew my mind when Ethan not only stayed on his own schedule but also made the girls' lunches and did part of Grace's chore -- which was the KITCHEN.  He unloaded the dishwasher for her and then LOADED it, too.  What???  Unheard of.  It was bananas.  Things have not been quite as perfect since then, but they have definitely been a lot better.  And we haven't been late to school once!  Hahahaha.  I'll take it.  We are a work in progress my friends!  

{Stayed tuned for pictures from "60's, 70's, and 80's Day" tomorrow...}

Overload

Get ready for a major overload of pictures.  But first -- here are some highlights and lowlights of the last week in which I survived half of it without Scott.  That lucky dog got to go to BYU for a few days worth of recruiting for P&G, leaving early Wednesday morning -- after the infamous night of no sleep {on my part} -- and getting back Saturday afternoon.  We survived.  Although I did experience a couple more nights of kid awakenings on my own.  Truth be told, though, the hardest part of each of these days was during the morning crunch to get the kids off to school.  And Scott's never even here for that anyway.  The kids were so kind to take turns with their complete and total meltdowns, so that each morning I only had one super hard kid to deal with and four regular hard ones.  Ethan's mad day resulted in a broken broom, a metal mail organizer being ripped off the wall, and a super late drop-off at school.  The children also suffered a consequence of no electronics for pretty much the whole time Scott was gone, due to a lack of chores being done along with general disobedience and sassy-ness around the house.  It was a lot of fun.

By Friday evening we were ALL ready for the week to be done.  I knew the kids had been waiting for the last month for the world premiere of Girl vs. Monster on Disney, so I decided to have mercy on them and gave them extra time after school to get all their chores done so they could still have their movie night.  The end result?  A clean house, happy kids, AND a cooperative Ethan willing to pose for his birthday photo shoot so long as he didn't have to change his clothes, shower, or get his hair cut first.  Winning!  {Duh.}  Hahahaha.

I've been looking up a lot tips and tricks lately for taking pictures of kids.  Let's just say that Ethan and I do not have a great track record when it comes to taking his birthday portrait.  The usual outcome involves a lot of yelling and pleading on my part, tears on his, and a lot of frustration and lack of fun all around.  After finding a couple of ideas online, I realized that my approach all this time has been wrong.  Go figure.  Hahahaha.  SO -- for this shoot I employed my newly Pinterested skills and embarked on the BEST PHOTO SHOOT with Ethan EVER.  Seriously.  EVER.  In a nutshell, I tried to make it fun rather than a chore.  {Hmmmmm.  Maybe I should try that with actual chores for the kids as well...}  I kept a constant stream of conversation going while I snapped away, I told him each and every pose and shot he gave me was great and awesome {even if it wasn't}, I asked him silly questions and gave him silly poses to do, and I let him take a look at some of the pictures as I was going to show him how great they were coming out.  It really worked!  This was the most cooperative he has EVER been for pictures and it was definitely the most enjoyable mother-son photo shoot we've ever experienced.  Here are some of my faves and the back story behind each of them:

I asked Ethan if he thought his teacher was pretty and this is the look I got.  She is really young AND pretty, just for the record.  Hahaha.

 This is a classic Ethan face.  A kind of go-to look for him, if you will.

 After asking him what girls he thought were cute in his class, he bent over in nervous laughter and avoided answering the question.

 When I asked Ethan if he ever daydreamed in class, he told me that sometimes he spaces out like Jane.  Who knew?  I told him to give me his best spaced out face and this is what I got. 

 "Give me your best Diary of a Wimpy Kid face!"

 "Give me your best crazy face!" is what I said, and maniacal laughter is what I got.  Hahaha.

I told him to think "cowabunga, dude!" in his head but not to say it out loud.  I think he thought that was the weirdest thing ever and then I had to explain that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were very popular back in the day. 

I'm pretty sure this is the one I'll put in a frame on the mantle.  This is Ethan.

 For the last three shots I told him to come up with his own idea of what to do, tell me the idea he was going with, and then hit it.  This was one of his poses and I can't for the life of me remember what it's supposed to be.  Hahaha.  It's kind of a cute face, though, don't you think?

 For his very last frame, he went with his every morning {absolutely obnoxious and crazy loud} yell of "LOAD UUUUUUUU-UUUUUUUP!!!!"

And just in case you were wondering where everyone else was while the picture-taking was going on, wonder no more.  We are seriously the most white trash family in our neighborhood. 

After Ethan was done with his pictures, Grace wanted in on the action.  After all, her birthday is coming up in just a couple of weeks and she needed to practice, of course. Since there was still some daylight left, and it wasn't quite time for their movie to start, I humored her request and took some "practice" shots of the almost-birthday-girl.  She's kind of a riot as her poses will prove. 

 This is one of the many sides to Grace.

 She has a lot of feelings.

 Looking at this picture reminds me so much of pictures of her as a baby and toddler.  Something about how big her eyes are and the way her cheeks still have a bit of that baby softness to them. 

 She was seriously killing me with her poses.

 Work it, girl!

 I don't know what the deal is with the hand to the face move.

 Grace unraveled.  I kind of love this picture of her.

Oh Grace.  Such an interesting child.  My favorite line of the night came just a while later when they were about to start the movie and I saw her heading to the kitchen and heard her say, "I need a fork to scratch my foot, 'cause my finger's not working."  Hahahaha.

And that was our Friday night!  I made the mistake {as we do EVERY single week} of letting them stay up a little later after the movie was over to watch one more show.  In this case, it was the series premiere of "Dog with a Blog."   The extra late night coupled with a regular early morning the next day resulted in a melting down Sophie all morning long.  I managed to hold off the fits for a little bit by walking down to the park with the 4 younger ones, but that only worked for so long.  I did manage to take a few more pictures of Alex for his 1 year birthday picture while we were there, and I think I'm going to just have to call it good.  He's already 14 months old now and I think these pictures are about as good as it's going to get!  He is a hard one to get to stay still and look at the camera.  I guess I'll have to do some more Pinteresting to find some tips on how to deal with that.

 I love this cute little face.

 Okay, I love ALL his cute little faces.

 He kind of has a bit of a shark look in this one, don't you think?

 This one's a classic Alex laughing face.

 And probably the one I'll put on the mantle.  Although I really hate that picnic table cutting into his head in the background.

Once we got back from the park, we killed a little more time by going to the store to pick up some birthday presents and when we got back I forced Sophie to lay down on her bed and take a nap because she was so incredibly out of control.  Surprisingly, she actually went to sleep, and we enjoyed a little bit of peace and quiet before Scott FINALLY got home from his trip.  It was a joyous reunion all around.  Thank goodness he will not be traveling again for the rest of the year!  And that, my friends, is a wrap.