being sick = point & shoot photos. yeah
Payson in the background of this next shot is
so melting my ♥
Allan took this the other night when I was blogging. glamorous.
I have like, um, five days worth of pictures from stuff that’s been going on lately.
That’s a lot. And the worst part is I uploaded my pictures and typed up this blog post and then my computer froze and it didn’t save anything so I got to do it all over again. Not fun!
Saturday, the 22nd.
We had a really fun day. We spent quite a bit of time outside in the absolutely perfect weather.
Allan was teaching the girls how to cast.
Brooklyn did a really good job!
Sierra was watching Brooklyn practice. And she wanted me to take a picture of her owie.
Then Allan got out our float boat to make sure it doesn’t have a hole. We’ve had this little float boat for 8 years! I spent a LOT of time in it during my pregnancy with Brooklyn. I cross stitched a lot while Allan fished. lol
I caught a few fish myself, too 🙂
I think Payson missed his nap that day.
Blue skies. Beautiful weather. Just so so so so perfect. I loved that afternoon 🙂
Sierra got a turn casting as well.
I sat in the boat with Brooklyn and Payson. We sang and pretended to row and pretended to drown and lots of other stuff. It was funny.
Ember woke up from her afternoon nap and came outside, too.
And I risked annoying everyone by asking if we could take a quick family picture.
I set my camera up on a life jacket on the grass.
Which wasn’t the sturdiest option.
But everyone wanted to take another one!
Sunday, the 23rd.
The next day was one I’ve been looking forward to. Ember’s blessing day! (In my church, I’m LDS, babies get a blessing and their name is added to the church records.)
The other three kids got blessings, too. I labelled this picture according to how everyone is related to Allan.
My kids were playing outside with their cousin, Emmalyn.
While Ember was inside playing with their other cousin, Marc.
She got to see two of her baby cousins during the weekend and she loved it. She loves other babies.
Later on we took some more of the two baby cousins together. Marc is one month younger than Ember.
They kept holding hands. It was so cute and I tried to get a picture but my camera wasn’t focusing! Bummer. I did get a couple ok ones, though.
Monday, the 24th.
Ember had a blowout diaper so got a bath.
When I was making lunch I dropped a glass container and was surprised when it didn’t break! I set it on the counter and continued cooking. A few minutes later it exploded! Scared all of us.
Since Ember had been so cranky the day before I didn’t get any pictures of just her in her blessing dress. I put it on her again to try to get a couple pictures.
She hates wearing the dress but I managed to get a few smiles.
I wasn’t really in the mood to take these but figured I should for her sake. She was really not liking me for putting the dress back on her but I hurried and did all my silliest tricks and she didn’t get too cranky in the couple minutes it took to snap these.
Tuesday, the 25th.
Ember had fun playing with some toys on the floor.
Until Brooklyn picked her up. Brooklyn asks to hold her so many times every day. Ember really doesn’t like being held by her siblings so it’s rough on me to decide who to make happy at that moment. I feel bad saying no to Brooklyn, “you can’t hold your sister” feels mean, but at the same time, Ember hates it! So I usually let Brooklyn hold her a few times but say no to the other twenty or more times she asks 🙁
The weather has been lovely lately so we’ve been outside a lot.
Payson is wearing a sleeper because he’s having some problems with keeping his hands out of his poopy diaper :-S
Sleepers with a safety pin at the top are his all-the-time outfits now. Even on errands and outside… I just can’t handle him coming up to me one more time with poopy hands because he scratched his bum!
Brooklyn and Sierra were putting on a play called “Tiger and Hyena” based on the true story of Brooklyn’s tiger being attacked by a javelina. She meant to write javelina but couldn’t remember the word, so it became hyena on the sign she made.
Before the play we took some group pictures.
Payson did something that annoyed Brooklyn so she glared at him. It was such a funny face I asked her to do it again for a picture so I could show her how extreme it looked.
Then I asked them to do a super, super happy face.
The play was really good! I wish I’d video taped it. I laughed through the whole thing.
That night right before bed Brooklyn was wiggling her tooth a lot. I told her I’d wiggle it to see if it was loose enough to pull out. She got really excited! I twisted it a little bit and knew I could pull it out with a little tug but didn’t want to hurt her so said, let’s wait another day.
She got excited that it was close enough to be only a day away and started wiggling it and pulling it a lot. And…
She pulled it out! She was so excited I thought she’d pass out. There was lots of screaming and squealing and running around and “I can’t believe it!” shouts.
The tooth fairy did come, but I haven’t taken pictures of her note or her dollar or anything yet.
Wednesday, the 26th.
We didn’t do anything exciting during the day. I cleaned a lot while the girls spent a lot of time writing.
In the evening we went to Brooklyn’s gymnastics class. I went on a walk with the littler three kids while we waited.
When I took that picture a man asked me if I wanted a shot with me in it. I said yeah. He took this picture and asked my name. When I told him Ariana he said he’d written a children’s book about a girl named Ariana.
Kinda weird.
The three little kids were great while we waited. Really patient and sweet. I got told “you have your hands full” and nodded in agreement and thought, “and I have another one.”
Brooklyn came out of her gymnastics class buzzing with excitement and being silly with her friends.
Thursday, the 27th.
Today!
Oh boy. Today was rough for the first hour. I woke up sick. Sick, sick. I could barely walk and my throat felt like I’d swallowed razor blades. All the kids are sick, too! Usually my kids aren’t all sick the exact same day but today all five of us at home are sick! Ember didn’t sleep well last night which means I didn’t sleep well and I am just tired.
And when we’re all sick there’s nothing better than to spend the morning watching a movie.
And of course I have to have my chamomile tea!
But guess what. I used my last tea bag.
My throat hurts and I’m very sad.
I was hoping Ember was finally taking a nap just now but I hear her starting to cry in her swing. I suppose I’ll go get her and then try to get Payson to take a nap and then play some math games with Brooklyn and Sierra.
But I’d rather be sleeping.
Last night I was emailing some pictures to my sister-in-law. Allan came in and said he made hot chocolate for us.
I believe his exact words were, “Ariana, I made you some hot chocolate, please come drink it with us.”
And this is what I came out to. Hot chocolate by candle light. Fun, cozy, simple and perfect 🙂
I love the phase Ember is in now. I love when she grabs my face with both hands and pulls me close and tries to suck on my cheeks or chin or mouth. I think of it like baby kisses 🙂
Ember loves her changing table pad. Every morning she lays there grinning from ear to ear while I change her diaper and clothes and talk to her and sing to her. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.
I set my camera on the box of wipes to use the timer for a couple pictures of us together.
In the first picture it looks like she was pushing me but she’d actually just pulled me close by my hair.
My sister-in-law, Mary, is in town! Not only is she my sister-in-law but I consider her my best friend. I miss her so much!!
We got together Friday. She took me and my kids out to lunch, then we went to the park, and then we went to Allan’s parents’ house and visited there for a while.
All four of my kids LOOOOOOVE their aunt Mary! Payson was Ember’s age when we moved away from Texas so he spent the trip getting to know Mary better. Ember had never met her, of course, but she fell in love instantly.
Brooklyn asked me to take this picture of her going down the stairs at grandma’s.
The next day (Saturday) she came over to my house while Allan went fishing with her husband (Allan’s brother), Don, and Allan’s dad.
We spent the day talking and we took a little walk into the desert.
We took a couple pictures that I really love.
I’ll print one of these for the kids’ rooms.
And one of me with my kids 🙂 Mary’s a photographer, too!
On the way back I wanted Brooklyn to take a picture of me and Mary wearing our babies in the back/front packs. I told Brooklyn to stay still for a second so I could set the exposure and she looked so cute!
And then she nailed the focus on this shot of Mary and me!Mary’s baby is 11 months old. She was named Leslie after my mother-in-law 🙂 They call her Lulu.
Payson was dawdling a lot on the way back. It was warm and he was tired and just wanted to play with rocks and sticks and sit on boulders in our neighbor’s yard.
He asked me to sit by him and so I did for a second.
Allan, Don and Allan’s dad got home a little bit later and Allan took some pictures of Mary and me. We wear the same pant size and we’ve both been growing our hair out so it was fun to have those similarities 🙂
Thursday we went to the Barnes and Noble storytime. The kids had so much fun listening to the story and doing a little craft.
Payson was more interested in his snack than the story. haha
I was really glad I brought him something because they had smoothies with milk in them for the kids. Being allergic to milk, he couldn’t have any.
Ember had a snack when we were there, too. She nursed during the entire story. Then she played with a package of disposable changing table pads.
And no trip to Barnes & Noble is complete without a stop at the train table.