Spring Photo Shoot

The title in of this season of our family life is "The Spring that Daddy Disappeared" because Danny has been gone a lot!  He has had numerous work conferences, mostly related to the new national learning standards (the Common Core State Standards) and has also been to Sacrament twice to work on the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam...the test that all high school students must pass in order to be eligible to graduate from high school).  I will say my heart goes out to all single mothers and to those whose spouses are gone a lot for work, although I will say that absence does make the heart grow fonder!

Danny happened to be gone during Carter's spring break and during that week I used a Groupon coupon to get photos taken of the kids at The Picture people. So, one morning I gathered strength and attemped to round up the kiddos and in order to get the new pics snapped.  Unfrotunately, things didn't go so smoothly.  William insisted on wearing his Thomas shirt (an act that is accompanied by incessantly shouting "Choo choo!") and jeans rather than the new khakis I wanted him to sport.  I improvised and decided we would go with outfits that worked with jeans and I also decided to wait until we got there to coerce him out of the Thomas shirt.  The gentleman who helped us was really great but for some reason William was petrified of him.

We did get this photo right off the bat:

At least we got two good photos in that pose. Unforutnately as soon as we tried to have them sit down, we ended up with this:

And this:

Yes, that is Thomas in William's hand.  There was no way to remove it without inducing absolute hysterics from him.

Next we changed to individual shots to give William some time to relax and warm up to the idea of a "professional photo shoot" (that phrase makes it sound as if we were in a swanky boutique...it wouldn't have mattered either way).

I love all of these photos of Carter.  His toothless smile will always remind me of this moment in our lives. The blue shark shirt wasn't my first choice, but as I mentioned earlier, this morning unfolded in it's own special way. 

We did a costume change hoping to get William in the other outfit I brought and got a few more.  Yellow is my favorite color and it looks great on Carter!

Sweet Claire Bear's individual photos (although I wish the photographer would have switched up the background colors...I didn't think of it myself until later...at least she looks angelic, if not a bit washed out):

I love her cherubic little face!

Then we tried to get William to join in but he refused so we got these photos of the "big kids."

(Above...one of my favs)

(Another fav--they drive each other crazy at times but you can see they really love each other!)

I am the person Groupon's clients love because I went in with a coupon and spent much more than just the package I pre-purchased!  I couldn't help it though because pictures truly capture a moment in time and I wish time would stop passing so quickly!

Before Daniel left for San Diego tonight he shared the following poem "Love That Boy" by Walter Dean Myers with me and talked about the spontaneous love he feels for our children.

Love that boy,

like a rabbit loves to run

I said I love that boy

like a rabbit loves to run

Love to call him in the morning

love to call him

"Hey there, son!"

We talked about how the overwhelming love we have for our children is as natural as a rabbit running. There is no class we took to learn how to love our children, it just is. These three little people add a meaning and depth to our lives that we never could have comprehended before they arrived. This unique and overwhelming love gets us through the moments of frustration that naturally accompany sounds a two year old makes that resemble that of a broken record or the strange and unnerving moodiness of a seven year old who becomes enraged and upset at the slightest perceived injustice. Those moments, however, are fleeting and pale compared to the lessons of love that we learn from one another in our family unit. As was stated recently, we learn so much more from our children than from our parents.

So, as this season comes to an end, we look back with fondness on the good times and the hard times and recognize that they are both needed for us to learn the lessons we are here in this world to learn. Bring on summer and all it will entail and before long fall will be upon us!

March 2012

This cute boy finally lost his second front tooth! The funniest part is that he lost it during church. He got it out and gasped a little; everyone around us laughed and fortunately someone brought us a baggie to stick it in. We stuck it under his pillow that night and the "Tooth Fairy" brought him some money. Sadly, he's figured it out. He came in our room the next morning and told us the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are all pretend. We told him he was right but he needed to keep it a secret for the younger kids. He is growing up much too fast!

On William's actual birthday morning, we had our traditional number pancake with candles but William wasn't thrilled with the sparkling candles we used.

Carter was recognized at his Honor Roll assembly, which happened to fall on the one day I worked. Papa filled in for us and got this photo from his phone. Thanks, Dad!

For St. Patrick's Day, leperchauns came and destroyed our house, leaving a trail of gold (Werther's) and turning the milk green. They also left some fun, sugary breakfast cereal and a note. :)

That night we had a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner brought my parents. I made whole-wheat Irish soda bread. It was sooo easy and sooo yummy! We got serious playing Connect Four x Four as well. It is an exciting twist on the old Connect Four; we really enjoy it!

We finally finished reading Indian in the Cupboard and held a themed night. Little Bear consistently asked for "Meat. Little Bear need meat." so we went with that. We haven't been eating much meat around here, especially red. But being that we aren't morally opposed to eating it I bought some organic, grass fed strip steaks and we grilled them. Wow! What a difference in taste. We cut them up small and used toothpicks to eat that and our grilled veggies (William may have eaten a few Fruit Loops as well;)). We also watched the movie with our popcorn (that Little Bear requested). Danny and I both were a little disappointed in the movie but the kids really liked it. We haven't started reading something else yet but we are thinking about Harry Potter for the summer.

We also went back to the "jumping place" and I couldn't resist both of these cuties in the swing together,

Carter jumped like crazy at Jump Rope for Heart,

and, we had fun at Nana and Boppies with extra foamy handsoap.

Besides William's actual birthday, the highlight of March was when we went a wonderful vacation in the middle of the month. One of William's biggest fans sent us to Disneyland for a few days. We met her and her beautiful family for the first time and had such a relaxing and enjoyable time enjoying our kids! Here we are with Angela and three of her four kids. She decked us out in Disney attire and literally spoiled us the whole time. William having been ill was incredibly difficult, but like all trials, there are blessings that come from it. We knew this trip was a tangible blessing from our experience and evidence of God's love for our family. We are so grateful to Angela and her generosity!

William's Airplane Birthday

(I really am not a great photographer (see the bad lighting) but I did have fun editing these photos with the new Instagram-like features in Picasa (thanks Deanna for the tip)!

There were a few days last summer when we were not sure if William would see his second birthday. It was with extreme gratitude that we celebrated his birthday last month. His birthday was on a Friday the 9th and we had a gathering the next day. We wish we could have invited everyone we know but we held it at home so there had to be some limits;).

William LOVES airplanes and I love themed parties so I scoured the internet and used ideas from various sites to come up with a "high-flying" day.

We created a landing strip for the guests when they walked up.

I gave the kids "passports" with activities to complete before they could "board the plane." The activities were:

Baggage claim (decorating the treat bag)

Pin the propeller on the plane (Carter freehanded the plane for us:))

Color in the airplane--note about these--Danny has been on a LOT of trips for work recently...I asked him to ask the stewardesses if we could buy small packs of peanuts...he told them William's story and batted his pretty blues and they gave him a ton of peanuts and these fun post cards!

The last station was Make and fly a glider. I bought them from Oriental Trading. The kids put them together and had to throw them through a hula hoop.

Then, we were ready to board the aircraft. We had First Class seats for grandparents.

Our kids and nephew Ryan were flight attendants and handed out above mentioned peanuts, pretzels and waters. We then showed a video we made of William's life thus far. We were thrilled with the final result. We put it on Facebook but if you haven't seen it, it is worth the watch (although we are biased;)). Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3hzPF-OKcU&feature=youtu.be

For lunch, we had "sammies" (sandwhiches but I'd like to think they were fancy) and BBQ flight wings, "plane" chips and "not-so-plane" chips, veggies, and "Captain's Cuties." Can you tell I had fun with the theme?

My mom's friend makes delicious and beautiful cakes and made this one for us.

And, William is so loved Boppie made him another cake!

Carter learned to play "Happy Birthday" on the piano and was our accompaniment. :)

Getting ready to blow out the candle!

And, although I got very few photos of the people here, I did get some of Uncle Eric with all the kiddos on the hammock. The kids love him because he is really just a big kid himself!

We had a great day! We feel so blessed to have experienced many miracles with William and to have such a healthy boy! At his last check-up the doctor was able to decrease his blood pressure medication even more and he no longer requires iron supplement. During some of the "dark days" in LA it was hard to imagine how well he has recovered. William has truly "turned two" and learned to say (shout) "no" and is doing his best to exert his independence. He is a joy to have in our family, even when he repeats himself for twenty minutes at a time;)