Embrace The Camera

Embrace The Camera is a concept I was introduced to by Emily over at The Anderson Crew.  It's about getting in the picture with your loved ones, not just hiding behind the camera.  Capturing memories, with you in them.  I'm sure we all know what it's like to look back through the photos from an event and realize we weren't in a single one.  I know I take a ton of pictures of my kids... at home, at the zoo, at birthday parties, anywhere, any time!  But I forget to hop into view myself.  I want my kids to grow up and have pictures of ALL of us to look at and bring back childhood memories, big and small.  So I am making an effort to Embrace The Camera!

Last week, Emily and her friend Sarah invited us to Embrace The Camera every day that week.  Each day had a prompt that you could follow, but the important part was just that you made an effort to get in the picture each day.  I was able to get it done three days, and these are my photos.

Smile

Making Memories

Faces

Bubbles

Summer Doesn't End

**Welcome, welcome to my new followers!  I am SO overjoyed to have you here!  You all are making me do a happy dance!**

It seems that around blogland and Facebook, there is a common topic being discussed these days.  The fact that summer will soon be coming to an end.  Already!  Mommies are sending their kiddos back to school, or off to school for the first time!  Teachers are preparing to go back to work.  But for our family, it doesn't have to end.  Sure, the weather will change, and our schedule will be adjusted, but we still get to be together.

As most of you know, I am a stay at home mom.  But you may not all know that I am also a homeschooling mom.  This year I will have a first grader, a pre-Ker, and my tiny tot.  I'm not sure how I'm going to balance everything yet.  I definitely want to keep blogging, as it is a wonderful creative outlet for me!  SO, it may be quiet around here for a few weeks, as I plan and prepare for the school year.  Please stick around!  I will be back!

Fun Busy

Sorry I've been MIA!  Just living life over here!

The weekend before last I got to escape to the cities with my Mom, sister and niece for a girls weekend, celebrating my Mom's 60th birthday!  We drove up Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day at the Mall of America.  And let me tell you, we shopped till we dropped!  I don't even remember all the stores we hit that day.  It was my first time shopping at H & M, that I remember, and only my second or third time at Forever 21.  And I went nuts!  It was so much fun!  I'll have to gather up what I got to show you my haul!

Sunday was dedicated to the best store on earth, IKEA!  I could spend days in there and be happy as a clam.  My sister had never been, can you believe it?!  We ate some meatballs and then proceeded to fill up two regular carts and a flat cart.  We did good.

Then on Tuesday, I loaded the kids up to head to Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, to meet up with a few friends from college for a day of fun.  The weather was gorgeous and we had a blast!

And moving on to this past weekend, we had a big ole birthday party for our three kiddos.  Lena just turned 5, Eli will be 7 next month, and since Koen is a December baby, we decided to celebrate his half birthday!  It was another beautiful day and we were so blessed to get to celebrate life with so many friends and family members!

 Each of these events really could use a whole post of their own, so we'll see if I ever get around to that!  This week is pretty full, too, but I hope to do more blogging if I have a few spare minutes!  I miss it!

Independence Day

Family, parade, Subway, kiddie pool, ladder ball, sunshine, grilling, fireworks!  So blessed to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Here is what I wore! (A big thank you to my sister for taking some outdoor photos for me!  Can't wait to buy myself a tripod!)

 

Entire outfit:  Old Navy

I swear my shorts are red!

 

Red, sparkly toes!

 

Here is our parade group.  My crew and my sister's crew.  We were so blessed to find a perfect spot in the grass, under a tree!  The weather was gorgeous and the parade wasn't painfully long.  Haha!

 LOVE this picture of my sister and me!  Isn't she GORGEOUS?!!

And I sure do love these four!!!

We spent the afternoon hanging out in our backyard.  Love cuddling with my girl in the hammock!

Our town puts on THE BEST fireworks show around!

I hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July!

Linking up:
Weekend Shenanigans
What I Wore Wednesday

FIVE Years

Yesterday was our sweet Lena Marie's FIFTH birthday!  We've had a fun, busy week celebrating our little princess.  Hopefully I will have time soon to go through pictures and share all about it, but for now I just want to say, Lena, you are a dream come true.  It is such an honor and a joy to be your mother.  I love you forever.

Go check out this post about the day my girl was born.  It's a pretty good story, if I do say so myself.  :)

PSA

I interrupt my blogging silence to bring you this public service announcement.  **Mamas, don't feel bad about the things that you don't do with/for your kids.**  I think there is a lot of pressure in the Mommy World to do a lot of things that just aren't necessary.  We either feel guilty and get down on ourselves if we're not doing what "everyone else" is doing, or we burn ourselves out trying to be Super Mom.  I just can't do it all.  There, I said it.  And you can't either.  It's okay.

 

My kids are not participating in the local library's reading program this summer.  Is reading good?  Yes.  Do we read at our house?  Yes.  Would the summer reading program be good for my kids?  Yes.  Heck, I have an emerging reader on my hands, who could use some extra motivation...  Do I want one more thing on my list of things I have to do?  No.  And that's that.  And it's fine.  We will read together whenever and as much as we can, and our prizes will be enjoyment, experience and time together.  That sounds better to me than a pencil or a balloon.  (Don't get me wrong, I think the summer reading program is GREAT!  We have participated in the past and probably will again, but this year it is just one plate that I am choosing not to spin.)

So if there's something you're feeling bad about not doing, STOP. :-D  Go snuggle your littles and tell them you love them.  That's enough.  YOU are enough.

{Hopefully I will be back to more regular blogging soon.  I've been busy spending time enjoying summer with the three adorable kiddos you see above.}

On This Day...

Five years ago, on this day, I was being blessed beyond measure.  I was surrounded by friends and family at a baby shower that my sweet friend Aimee hosted for me and my little girl.

This is what I looked like:

 Whoa, mama.  I was only 29 weeks!

Two years ago, on this day, we finally had a SOLD sign in our front yard!  We were officially moving on to bigger and better!

And it was a good thing, because...

Two years ago, on this day, we saw two lines!  We were expecting this guy:

We were definitely going to need a bigger house!

Today was spent at home with my hubby and kids.  My sister, niece and nephews were here for part of the day.  My step-dad came over for supper.  We didn't do anything special or exciting, but it made my heart happy to be with so many people that I love.  Family.  On this day, I am so thankful for family.  <3

Easter 2013

We had a very nice, simple Easter weekend.  We colored Easter eggs at home on Saturday.  Sunday morning, I had to be to church early to get communion ready and practice a group dance I was performing in during our church service.  Hubby got the kids ready and brought them in time for the service.  Our dance went really well, and the rest of the service was great.  Then we traveled about an hour away to go have dinner at Joe's cousin's house with his Mom's side of the family.  After we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves full of ham and all sorts of other deliciousness, we came back home to relax and digest for the evening. :)  Oh, and hunt for Easter eggs.  I had just put together one Easter basket for the kids to find in the morning, with a few bags of candy  for all of us to share and an insulated cup with a straw for each of them.  I just wanted a little something special to celebrate the day, without going overboard.  I hadn't hidden eggs, because I didn't think we'd have time in the morning, so we did it in the evening.

The only pictures I managed to get the whole weekend were of the big kids coloring eggs.  So here they are.  :)

Lena's artsy eggs  :)

Eli's festive eggs  :)

b's have bellies, & d's...

Last month Lena was working on learning the letter 'D', and was struggling to tell the difference between the lowercase 'd' and the lowercase 'b," as is common in preschool I'm sure.  As I searched around Pinterest, I came across this...

"b's have bellies, & d's don't!"

I'll admit, I wasn't so sure about the picture myself, but thought I'd give it a try.  It sounded like people had had good success with it.  So I drew this amazing picture on our white board...

 

 I brought Lena over and enthusiastically explained to her that she could tell the difference between the two letters by remembering that "b's have bellies, and d's don't!"  She looked up at the board and very matter-of-factly said to me, "That looks like a butt."  And...  we both erupted into a flurry of giggles!  She said exactly what I was thinking.  I mean, seriously, who doesn't see a big ole' booty when they look at that?!  And how helpful is this gonna be?  If a 'd' has a butt...  that starts with 'b' too!  And so does booty, which of course I mentioned and was rewarded with even more laughter!  So what we learned was that "b's have bellies, and d's have butts."  That's some solid homeschooling right there.  ;-)  

Snow Day

It hasn't snowed much around these parts this winter, or last winter either, so when we got several inches earlier this week, we had to take advantage.  Mommy and all three kids donned our snow gear, and headed outside.  This was Koen's first time ever playing in the snow!  He loved being pulled around the yard in the sled with his big sister.  Eli and Lena had filled our plastic wagon with snow, so he also had fun standing at that, playing in the snow with our beach toys.  Koen and I didn't stay out long, but the big kids enjoyed playing out there for a good hour and a half.  It's raining today, melting it all away, so we'll probably (hopefully!) have to wait until next winter for another snow day.

P.S.  Tough guys wear pink snow boots.  ;-)