it's a rough life

Oh the life of a wanna be photographer's child!
I guess life could be worse. A LOT worse.
Try to tell that to my kid!
Bri, Alli and Nate are usually cooperative during our "photo shoots". But with Delaney, I probably have ten of these shots for every smile.
I hope these make YOU smile!

And finally, that sweet face I love to plant kisses on!!!

stampin' up

My friend and I went to a card making class over the weekend and here are the cards I made.
It was a lot of fun to get out and get crafty.
And everything was there to make the cards. So handy!

This is my favorite. I love the colors!

We gave this card to my father in law for his birthday. Happy Birthday Papa!!

drive-in movie, home edition

We invited our neighbors (and good friends) over to watch an outdoor movie.
Actually, they provided the movie, but we provided the venue.
We projected Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler (funny movie!!) onto the side of the house and gathered around with our lawn chairs.
We ate popcorn and movie candy.
The weather was about as perfect as it can get. And other than a few June Bugs, the critters stayed away.

I hope we are creating special memories for our kids to always remember!!

show us where you live - master bedroom

It's Friday, which means it's time for home tours at Kelly's Korner. This week is master bedrooms. I mentioned last week that I was updating our bedroom and for the most part, we completed the project!! I still have a couple of pictures to frame and hang, but that's it.

We (ahem...Jeremy) painted the wall blue to match our comforter. It was green and we had yucky pull shades and a green striped valance. We bought the bedding last winter when Linens N Things went out of business but hadn't had time to repaint. I was so undecided about what color to go with. I'm happy with the results! And I love the new roman shades.

This is the south wall and that's Jeremy's chest of drawers.

I framed artwork for each child (that is in school). Brianna drew a bee, Allison drew a vase of flowers and Nate painted. I'll have to rearrange the frames when Delaney has artwork to display.

My mom was going to sell this chair in our garage sale, but I snagged it.

My dresser. It's kind of cluttered and I have a stack of books I need to return to their owners (you hear that Mom, Amy and Diane?)

This is our bed. No headboard or anything. We bought a king after a few months of Delaney sleeping with us. Best thing we ever did!!

And this is the picture hanging over our bed. It's called Master Bedroom.

We always vacationed in Vail, CO when I was growing up and in one of the condos this picture was hanging over the bed. I've always been drawn to it and now that we have a yellow lab, it's even more appropriate. This picture was a gift from my parents a few years ago.


Well, that's it. I spared you the agony of tripping over shoes in our closet!

Have a great weekend. I think I'll take a blogger break and see you the first of next week!

help wanted

Help!! The pets need some lovin'!

Looking for one or two teenage daughters (who just HAD to have a cat AND a dog) to care for 2 household pets. Responsibilities include feeding and watering pets, scooping poo out of the litter box and backyard and taking the dog on occasional walks. You will be provided with food, shelter, clothing and occasional spending money in exchange for labor. No experience necessary (or expected). Please apply within.




**This post has been part of Writer's Workshop, hosted by Mama Kat.

worlds of fun

On our last night in KC, we headed to Worlds of Fun. They have cheaper tickets if you go after 4:00 and it was wonderful because it wasn't crowded. We hardly had to wait in any lines. And sometimes we were the only ones on a particular ride.

Allison is NOT a thrill seeker, so she spent most of the time hanging out with Delaney and Nate (and me).

On the other hand...Jeremy and Bri LOVED the rollercoasters!

This was more my speed!!

And Nate was a trooper! He never once fussed the whole evening. He loves watching people!

It's pretty scary to think she could be driving in a few months!! I emphasize could. Because she WON'T!!

Allison did like the water rides. This is what they looked like after riding several times in a row.

And we were all giving a THUMBS-UP when Delaney finally gave in and fell asleep!!

giveaway

Who doesn't love free stuff? I'm all about good deals and free samples and sales. Well my friend Sera at Laughing Through the Chaos is having a giveaway for All laundry detergent. And who doesn't love doing laundry? Ha! Just kidding!! But when it's free, it makes it a tiny bit more fun, right?

The giveaway will be held on Sunday, June 28. I really don't want you to enter, because I really want to win. And if you enter, it will decrease my chances of winning. So if you really care about me, you won't actually enter. But if you want to laugh, you should go ahead and check out her blog.

Sera is one of my virtual friends (a lot of my friends live in my computer). We both have April babies and met on pregnancy.org. She is a super sweet gal with a cutie patootie little girl. And she really loves good deals. Maybe even more than me!

In order to enter the giveaway (and I'm just telling you this so I can share my story with you, not so you can enter) you have to leave a comment telling her what you would do with the $6.50 you'll save on detergent. Here's what I would do:

I would buy a new pair of flip flops.

When we were packing up to leave our hotel, I was hanging out in the room with the kiddos while Jeremy was loading the luggage on top of the van. Nate was laying on the bed and I thought he was getting ready to roll over so I turned quickly to grab him and I guess I pulled on the strap of my right shoe and it pulled all the way out. Since my other shoes were already packed away, I had to spend the rest of the day trying to walk while holding the strap between my toes. Not so fun. And let me add that these were nice Adidas flip flops. With memory foam type insoles. Super comfy!

So now I'm in the market for a new pair. And it would really help my budget if I didn't have to buy laundry detergent too!!

take me out to the ball game

We pretty much planned our whole trip to Kansas City around going to a Royals baseball game.
Nate loves to watch baseball.
We have to save games on our DVR so he'll have something to watch all winter. It gets to the point that we can all quote every commentary because we've see the same game so many times. We decided that Nate needed to see an actual game in person.
Because of handicap accessibility and seating, we purchased our tickets back in March. The tickets were mailed to us and I tucked them away in a safe spot, just waiting for our vacation.

We arrived in KC on Monday and the game was on Wednesday. On Tuesday evening we were resting in our hotel room and all of a sudden I realized that I someone forgot to pack the TICKETS!!! I was sick to my stomach.
We called my mom and she agreed to meet us in halfway and bring the tickets to us. But then Jeremy decided to call the stadium and just see if there was anything else we could do. Well apparently lots of people lose or forget their tickets because that was one of the options on the automated machine. They were able to look up our information and print new tickets for us to pick up at will call. Phew!!

That was the mishap I mentioned previously. A pretty big one, but it all worked out!!

We had great seats! And it was dollar night at the stadium. Hot dogs, peanuts and pop were all $1!! Can't beat that!

And Greinke was pitching...Jeremy was super excited about that!

We couldn't all sit together because of the handicap seating. But we could still yell at each other to communicate. Our section was pretty empty, which was also nice!!

Look at all those peanut shells!! I think most of them were under Bri's seat!

Even though the Royals got beat by the Diamondbacks, we had a great time. Allison said she thinks she'll start watching baseball!!

father's day

I wanted to take a moment to honor the special dads in my life.


My dad and me. What a handsome man!! It seems he may have wanted a boy by the looks of my outfit! Where's the pink?

The cute little baby (that Delaney might resemble just a tiny bit) is Jeremy with his dad and his brother Chris. You gotta love those shoes!!

And here are a few pictures of my dear husband with his kids.

Check out that sock line!! Yes, he's a golfer!

I hope all the dads had a great Father's Day!

I love you Dad!

great wolf lodge

Our first vacation stop was Great Wolf Lodge. If you haven't been there, it's tons of fun. It's an indoor waterpark/hotel. I'm not a big fan of swimming or hanging out in the water all day. But even I had a blast going down the slides with the girls. And it was perfect for our family because we could easily take turns hanging out in our room with Nate and Delaney and Bri and Alli could go off safely and do their own thing.

She was NOT enjoying this ride.

Earlier in the day, I took her and she practically fell asleep, she was so relaxed. I think she just wanted Mommy at this particular moment.

Nate even hung out with the family by the pool.

Every 5 minutes this bucket would dump 1,000 gallons of water!

And there's my family getting water dumped on them. They are the blurry figures behind the wall of water.

She thinks she's pretty big stuff!!