the perspective of a photograph

You know that feeling you get when everything is in order?  Your house is clean, your bills are paid, your children are bathed, you're caught up on laundry, and you just got done serving your happy little family a delicious, healthy meal?

Yeah, what does that feel like?

a wedding to remember

This past weekend (yes, I am actually posting about something that happened mere days ago), we celebrated the addition of a new family member.  No, I did not give birth to ANOTHER child, my brother-in-law got married!  Which means that after 12 years, I finally get to share the title of daughter/sister-in-law with someone else.  Sweet!  We all love Candice and are so happy to have her as part of our family. 

These four boys have a lot of fun together.  I cringe thinking of the trouble they will cause as they get older, wiser, and braver.

Maya had the honor of being the flower girl on the big day.

Her personal hair stylist slaved over her hair and subsequently used half a can of hairspray on it to attempt to keep it in place.  Apparently it does the job a little too well as it was a bit of a challenge to get the braids out without ripping the hair right out of her sweet little head.

7 siblings. 1 mom.  1 bride.  You be the judge.  Yes, I know that didn't make sense, it just felt right.

Elliot kept trying to sneak into the pictures so I took a few of him to make him happy.  It totally worked.

Luke could hardly believe his good fortune...he got to sit next to the prettiest girl of the day! 

Maya wanted her picture taken with her new new auntie, but of course had to play the shy card.

This is where the other half of the can of hairspray wound up.  These braids were even more difficult to get out on account of this child has the pain tolerance of a turtle.  (Again, I know it didn't make sense, it just felt right.)

This sweet couple is getting married in a couple of months.  Because that's just what I need.  Another brother-in-law.  (Just kidding Zach, you know we all love you!)

I guess he was trying to imitate the shark on his shirt? 

Aww, aren't they just the sweetest couple?

There is nothing wrong with a wedding at which it is acceptable for the guests to run around barefoot.  

Yep.  That about sums it up.

Fun times were had by all.

how time flies {a bloggy recap}

My email inbox has been flooded with requests from my readers to update my blog (or not, but whatever) so I finally decided I'd better get to it.  We've had a very busy few months around here.  I'm not ambitious enough to do a full post on everything, so here's a short little recap.  You're welcome.

Various methods of deterring my two very destructive little boys from tearing appart the track on their train table have failed miserably.  As a result, I have become quite proficient at putting it back together (not as easy as you might think).  

Ethan had a birthday.  He chose a Tron cake from the bakery rather than have me make him a cake.  He's never seen the movie and really doesn't have any idea what it's about, but he liked the toy on the cake.  And everybody at the party loved their black teeth after eating it.

My baby had a birthday, too.  I keep asking him to please stop growing up.  He's not listening.

We had a  big 'ole Christmas treat baking and decorating party.  There were scandalous amounts of sugar involved, but all in all it was a success.

Elliot turned four.  His obsession at the time was with candy canes, so I went with that and we had a Candy Cane Craze birthday party complete with a candy cane cake.  Silly boy doesn't even like cake.  But he is a big fan of the frosting. 

Brenna had her first violin recital.  She was very nervous even though she played only for us and her violin teacher's family (who happen to be our very good friends).  She did great though!

Shortly after her recital, she turned ELEVEN.  I hid in the closet and rocked back and forth sucking my thumb most of the day.

We had a few very unseasonably warm days this winter.  Wyatt found this to be an excellent time to go outside shirtless and practice his martial arts skills.

The kids helped their dad with a project.  More to come on that later.  Maybe.

Maya had a birthday, too.  Yes, our kids' birthdays fall in November, December, January, February, and April (1).  Basically one a month for 5 months.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a great picture of her with her cake.

We ate ice cream cones.

They were pretty tasty.

I made cake pops for the bands and volunteers at Livestock.

Maya performed in her 6th ballet, La Sylphide.  She was a Scottish Plaid.  It was a very long weekend with dress rehearsal on Friday and two performances on Saturday AND Sunday.  She hung in there and danced like a pro.  It's so much fun to see how much she's progressed since she was a Strawberry Tart in her first show, Alice in Wonderland.  I volunteered to help backstage for all but one show.  I still feel like I'm covered with a film of hairspray.

After the last show we were about ready to collapse, but not before we had our picture taken together.  When we were done with clean up, we celebrated by going out for ice cream and going to bed early.

new {toys}

Obviously I'll be needing to do something about the creases in my new backdrop (there's a white one, too, but we just pulled out the black today) and will likely need to double it up to make it opaque, but that's what a test run is for! It should be noted that the boy in the pictures was not prepped for a photo shoot beyond a quick wipe of his face.

I did not ask him to sit like this, he just did.

Say "cheese!"

I love love love my little boy's chubby feet.

How big is Wyatt? So big!

The toddler squat.

better late than never {halloween 2011}

Here in this Siberian Wasteland we call home, the ground is covered in a blanket of snow that appears to be planning on sticking around for awhile. Given that fact, I figured that perhaps it was time for me to post some Halloween photos before my fingers literally freeze and fall off for the winter.

Elliot was a super-hero this year. He was also a super-hero last year. And it's highly likely that he will also be super-hero next year. I'm just so inspired like that.

Maya decided she wanted to be a flamingo this year. That one stumped me a bit. I found a few ideas online, but the best ones were all rather complicated so this is what I came up with. She made the decision to wear her vest under her shirt on her own.

Brenna decided she wanted to be an Indian Princess. When I went to the store to find her costume, they didn't have it in her size. So what did I decide to do? Why, I decided to make her costume of course! I own stock in procrastination (hello, it took me over a month to put this post together), so I hadn't gone to look for a costume for her until the day before a Halloween party she was going to. Which meant I had less than 24 hours to get it done. Thankfully, I happen to work well under pressure.

Wyatt was not really a huge fan of putting on his costume. However, all of the kids since Maya have been Grumpy Bear at this age so he was going to wear it whether he liked it or not. Once he realized people were going to put candy in his bucket he forgot all about his attire.

You may notice that there are only four kids in this picture. That's because Ethan managed to have his Trick-or-Treating fun taken away from him. In our house, Trick-or-Treating is a privilege, not a right. Ethan made the choice to be rude and disrespectful even after being warned that he wouldn't get to go if he continued his behavior. Thusly he stayed home with Aaron while the rest of us went out.

This was our door-bell ringing crew. It was unseasonably warm on Halloween night this year. There were so many kids out in costumes that weren't hidden under bulky winter coats that it almost felt like we were in a movie.

Poor Wyatt had a hard time keeping up with the big kids. He tried to, but his little legs are just so, well, little.

It cracks me up that Elliot not only wore his mask, he actually liked it. I did not expect him to like it at all.

He was very protective of his candy.

This was the last picture of the night for two reasons. #1: The sun was going down. It's hard to take pictures in the dark. #2: Elliot's bucket wasn't big enough for all of his candy. I dumped it in to his sister's bag to make room for more. He did not like that idea and decided to shut-down. Hence I had to carry him the rest of the way. And we still had a long way to go. My arms were quite fatigued by the time we got back. All in all though, it was a very lovely and memorable evening.