Family Portraits 2010

It was that time again. It's been a year since our last family portraits, and the kids change so much in these early years. So, I asked my friend Natalie to take our pictures. Again. Prepare yourself- I posted a lot of pictures. Some are our favorites; some are just for laughs. Enjoy!

See if you can guess what kind of mood Elizabeth was in....

Maddie

Annie

Happy Fathers Day to Ryan! (By this point in the photo shoot, the twins were holding rocks. It seemed to make them happier than otherwise.)

Ages and Stages

Emma has entered the Awkward Tooth Stage of her childhood. There is something very cute about it, in spite of lost teeth and giant ones growing in. I am sensing braces in this girl's future.

Can you imagine eating corn on the cob like this?

Just Another Manic Monday

This is what greeted Ryan when he arrived home from work yesterday at 7 pm. Generally I try to do a quick pick-up before he arrives home. Obviously it did not happen. I feel sort of justified though. I took the twins in for their 18 month check-up at the doctor and was there for 1 hour and 45 minutes. This included 6 shots between the two of them.

The aftermath of shots would leave me exhausted, if keeping them entertained in the little exam room for so long didn't accomplish that already. I did pick up the house a bit during nap time, but by 7 pm that was all undone. To Ryan's everlasting credit, he never says anything about the state of the house when he comes home on days like that. Not even a heavy sigh. After his long day, he rolls up his sleeves and helps me get the munchkins in bed. And then helps clean up the house for another day of shot-aftermath..... Crying. Ugh.

Annie and Maddie are exactly the same height, and within 7 oz of each other in weight. And they got a similar reaction of their left leg shot. So.... on that question of if they are identical... I think maybe yes. They are awfully similar in many aspects to be "just" sisters.

The Monday Mess

I left Annie working on this: while I went to the laundry room to switch a load of laundry, and start the next. I returned to this:

and this:

Budding artist or street graffiti gang member? You decide.

Carrots of Embarrassment

I remembered to stop by the mirror before leaving the house, and changed my shirt. I left the tank top on, but changed the one over it. I was clean and presentable when I arrived at Achievement Days. (This is a group of 8-11 year old girls from church that meets a couple times a month.)

About halfway through the activity, I had my arms folded when I noticed there was some kind of suspicious lump in my shirt. No one was really looking my way, so I shook out my shirt. Into my hand fell a half eaten baby carrot.

Rewind to snack time earlier that day: I picked up Maddie who was holding a carrot. I held her in one arm as she was eating it, all the while I was doing something else. I guess she never finished the carrot.

Sad But True

A couple of weeks ago I was out doing some shopping and the lady who checked me out of Penneys told me, after looking at my ID (since they check when you use your jcpenny card) that I didn't look older than about 16. I came home a little sad about that. My 10 year high school reunion was last summer, and I still get mistaken for a teenager. Pathetic.

Fast forward to today. I paid babysitters to feed my children dinner while I read at the library. Emma stayed home from school sick today, and frankly, I just needed a little break. While I was reading, a group of 3 teenage boys came in and sat down at the table next to mine. After a while, they were being kind of loud, so I just looked over at them to figure out what was going on. They were playing with a cell phone. And then I went back to my book. A little while later, they left and I gave it no more thought.

As it was nearing time to go home, I put my book in my purse and left the library. On my way to my minivan, I passed those same 3 boys sitting outside.

I heard from their direction, "Hey!"

I looked around, and it appeared they were talking to me. I kept walking.

"Hey!" These boys are nothing if not articulate. They noticed the keys in my hand. "Can we get a ride?"

This asked for a response. "Um, no. Sorry."

"What, your mom won't let you give people rides?"

I choked out, "Nope, she won't."

I had to call Ryan and relate this story to him. It is likely at least one of these kids has/had him for their teacher.

People tell me that when I am old, I will appreciate my youthful appearance. Right now I am just hoping that someday soon, I will stop looking like a teenager. I'm telling you, it's annoying to be stopped in Walmart with two children in tow and pregnant for the 3rd time by a grandma-aged lady asking how old I was. I am old enough that my teacher husband is not going to get in trouble. Promise.

Signs Your Day Isn't Going Well

In no particular order:
1. 45 minutes into nap time, you get a call from the school nurse saying your daughter has a temp of 102 degrees, and could you please come pick her up? Now?
2. You find a hole in another one of your shirts.
3. Saying goodbye to your husband for 3 days.
4. Finding out that if you forget to set a timer when you cook asparagus, you can really overcook it.
5. Overcooked asparagus does not feel nice when stepped on with bare feet.
6. Having had to wake up your twins from their nap, they spend the rest of the day crying off and on. Between the two of them, someone is almost always "on."
7. Even though you rented a kid-friendly movie to watch as a family (and it wasn't even animated!), you can't watch it with your kids. The ones who want to watch it can't hear it over the crying, so you move out of the room with the criers.
8. Did I mention your husband isn't coming home tonight?
9. You pick up your iPod for music to rock out to while you finally clean the kitchen (after you put the kids in bed), only to realize one of the children found it and played games on it, and left it on. Now the battery is dead.
10. It's after bedtime, and you still haven't unloaded the dishwasher of yesterday's dishes.

How Rude

We had a play date at our house after lunch today. After feeding the kids, I hurried and tried to clean up our lunchtime mess. Upon finishing cleaning the table, counters, high chairs and floor, I discovered Annie by the bookcase and Maddie by the couch. Further inspection revealed 1 and 1/2 shelves missing their books. My little tag-team was taking the books, 1 or 2 at a time, putting them in a pile on the floor. Only the pile was not as big as I would have expected with that many books missing from the shelves. And then I saw where the rest went:

Maddie was systematically shoving them under the couch. These 3 in front are blocking the view of many more under there.

Seriously, how am I supposed to keep up with them???

(Don't Be) Part of Your World

Elizabeth watched the Little Mermaid this afternoon. I was sitting on the couch, alternating holding Elizabeth, Annie and Maddie. In a good moment, we can get two kids on my lap and a third by the rest of us. But it only lasts a moment. Someone always gets jealous.

So, while I am juggling kids (literally), I started animatedly reciting the words along with the movie for the twins' benefit: "Les Poissons, les poissons, how I love les poissons..." Elizabeth turned and looked at me with an angry face. "Don't sing with MY movie."

So, I waited a couple of minutes and tried again, reciting some lines of Sebastian: "You gotta pucker up your liPPPs like this..." (Come on, with the lips sticking out...? It makes the twins smile.)

Elizabeth looked at me again. I have a feeling she's perfecting this look for her teenage years. The You-Are-Embarrassing-Me look. Then she tells me, "You can sing with Ariel."

Note- at this point in the movie, Ariel has NO VOICE. I got dissed by a 5 year old.

Waiting....

Isn't Daddy home yet?