this reminded me..

of the day that Henry and Sophie dressed up and asked for a picnic lunch.

They both raided my costume box. Soph chose Princess Jasmine, while I converted a princess gown into a handsome, prince robe for Henry.

Instead of a blanket, I brought out a fringed rug, (magic carpet) for Jasmine.

They were only three years old.Fast forward Two days ago, Henry asked for a picnic lunch.

It is February and in the high 30's.

He invited Sophie and Parker to join him because I wouldn't brave the cold.

Parker is three now, and officially "in the group."
Look at his peace fingers.

It was all over in about 8 minutes, but oh, the joy!

naughty turned nice

Taking it too far? Sort of, but I'm used to it.

The Gummy Bear Offense on Mother continued throughout Valentine's Day.

Kinda sweet? Well, yes.

Henry climbed out of bed at 1am to pull this together. He and Hillary were in on it. Actually, Henry is rather artistic. He removed all of the green bears for aesthetics.

Really, I don't like gummy bears, but Yorks are my fav!

One thing I have to look forward to for about the next nine years, will be the onslaught of "Sometimes I eat ten." inside jokes that Henry will serve up at any possible time. Great that Maddi and Hillary will be fully able to participate in the teasing of their mother.

Shuggie took to posing the bears... special.

Hooray for Valentine's loot!

Little finally gets the Star Wars Lego Wii game that he's been dreaming of.

Maddi, with some metallic flip flops and a new shirt.

Hillary, with the new shirt from Justice... Right on!

Happy Valentine's Day!

by the way,

Henry turns 41 in 9 days,..... hmmm.... could be interesting.

Sometimes I eat 10!

GUMMY-VITES OF THE WORLD UNITE!

AND TAKE OVER!

How much fun is birthday money?

After much, much deliberation and research, this is how I finally spent my birthday money. I needed a new camera quite badly (proof to follow). My obsessive tendencies reared their ugly head as I went about my camera selection. The cool person in me really wanted a great camera like Pioneer Woman so that I could take majestic photos of cattle and ranch hands. The realistic person in me that was holding the money reminded me that I am a basic type of girl with just a couple hundred bucks in hand.

I found this at Costco. It's pretty easy to use, probably the equivalent of a Honda Accord.

Taken with my old, hand-me-down camera. I thought the colors were true....

...until I took this one with my new baby. Good job, baby.

And who could forget old goldie?


...ok, contents of vase are different, but image quality.....
In my research, I learned that the graininess in a photo is called "noise." Noise o'plenty in the before shot. Now I'm really relieved that I didn't buy shoes with my birthday money.




Actually, I just needed a good "Mom" camera. One needs to capture the moments of their hooligans, right? This camera will snap infinite rapid shots in succession, so that I can get just the right amount of "ham" per frame.

Did I say ham? I meant cheese.

This. So typical of boys. "Take a picture of our bums!"

Thank you, Mom, Dad, Sis, and Grammy for the cash.

I am going to have lots of fun.