Mom was here visiting a couple weeks ago.
My plan was to have a Bopp/grandkids photo shoot, but I forgot. And when I remembered, Joel was the only one still up.
So we had a Bopp/Joel shoot instead.
Which was fabulous.
Duh.
Joel is a fan of Bopp
...and glasses.
As Shelly pointed out in a recent email, it's been a long freaking time.
Okay maybe those are my words. She was much more polite.
But still.
I won't bore you with the details. I'll just tell you that one rather squirrely baby, a kid in school (oh. my. word. Waking up in time for school is not my friend.), two other boys needing some schooling at home and a husband also in school (as well as work) does not make for tons of blogging time. So. Yeah. Anyway, I'm now going to make up for the huge,long,gynormous absence by showing you far too many pictures from one twenty minute period in our lives. Brennan received all kinds of fun sporty stuff for Christmas from Grandma Lulu and Grandpa Kevin. So, yesterday we started off the new year with our first (of many) (probably) family t-ball games. Joel was munching on some Mum-Mum's. He was pretty happy. For a few minutes. When it was my turn at bat I handed Dave the camera and told him to make me look good. This was what I found in the camera. Lens cap looking like some chew in my pocket, getting serious with my 20 inch Easton bat. He loves me. Anyone who would take a picture of my rear end when trying to make me look good must love me. The all important calling of the home run. Hmmmm. Yeah. I might have to work on that home run thing a little. Go Babe! There would be more of Dave, but by now Joel was done with the silly stroller and holding a baby and a camera with a huge long lens didn't work real well. So you can imagine his amazingness. It's important to try all available bats. Elbow up! Oh yeah. This is fun. Just like her momma. She learns quick. Home Run!! And then we suddenly realized we were insanely cold and frozen and the fun was over cause the car had a heater.
The kids got a foosball table for Christmas.
Everybody likes it, but Isaiah looooves it.
"GOAL!!!"
He goes down to the basement by himself to practice several times a day.
Fun times.
Building with Legos also occupied us for almost an entire day.
I believe this was Isaiah's 'disguise room'.
Sometimes you need a few disguises for your road trip too.
And finally, not related to legos, but Dad brought the kids this book about bats in the library and they completely love it. Brennan especially.
Also in October, Dad and Sandy came to visit.
We carved pumpkins...
pecan snack
succombing to the belly zerbert.
A few of the snapshots from the trip...
We spent a lot of time lakeside. I took pictures only twice, and both times were at the lake.
That shirt is one I made just before the trip - I made one for all the boys. They're covered with different sorts of campers & rv's. I totally got matchy-matchy there for a minute. The girls got matching (different) shirts too, but they never made it to a picture.
Shawn taught Isaiah (and all the kids really) how to fish and Isaiah was thrilled. He loved fishing. He even caught one the first time he cast out. Somehow I missed getting a picture of it.
Ellen wanted to like it...
but decided bucket fishing with goldfish crackers was more fun. There were tons of little baby something right there by the side of the lake and Wendy did manage to catch one or two. As well as a few frogs.
See?
Isaiah was posing with the fish he caught for everybody. And then he thought it would be fun to pose with this fish.
I actually made them little neck pillows for this trip, but Isaiah obviously preferred his seat belt.
:)
The other night was car washing night.
Sometimes it's pizza night. Sometimes it's movie night.
Sometimes it's car washing night.
The kids were into it.
I'm afraid I was a bit distracted. And I'm afraid I took a hard working car washer with me.
But did you see all those potatoes we dug up?
Well, some of us were digging up and some of us were burying.
"Who, Me?"
We also pulled up a ton, a ton of garlic.
I'm a little lost on how to get it cleaned up. Washing seems like it would be a mistake for some reason and I'm too lazy to search online right now.
Any ideas?
We waited for dark to start our fireworks this year.
Ha! Just kidding. Dark doesn't show up until about 10 pm these days and we are not that crazy brave.
Maybe when the kids are teenagers.
We were going for some tame firework fun which meant sparklers, poppers & flowers for us.
With a few baby fountains thrown in for fun.
I had the hardest time getting a good sparkler shot. The kids kept saying something about wanting to wave them around.
Lucky for me we saved a few and I'm going to try to talk Dave into helping me out tonight.
Maybe we'll even be super crazy and wait for dark.
Wooo! We're wild sometimes.
Last night we finally got some dusk light (which I helped along a bit in camera)
Happy Fourth of July!
And now if you'll excuse me for a few days, I was a bit ambitious at the library this week.
(This is one of those more pictures than words posts. FYI)
This dog was insane. I thought it as a greyhound, but it's owner said it was a Whippet.
Wally the Whippet.
He runs 35 mph.
This little guy wasn't quite as fast.
Sand angels were a huge hit.
(Hush. I know this picture is painful to look at with that amazing angle I shot at. But just hush.)
Running out...
...and running in.
Repeat 57 times.
My view.
Check out that sky.
Love the sky.
Somehow whenever we make that peanut, raisin and M&M trail mix the M&M's are what's on everyone's plate. And all for different reasons.
Brennan seems to only take those from the container.
Isaiah saves them for last.
And Ellen sees their plates full of M&M's and decides she should probably have more.
This boy looooves drawing with Sharpies.
And this boy loves drawing with anything, Sharpies included.
Happy Father's Day my Love. I'm so glad we're on this journey together. You're the best father for our kiddos. I love you.
