Isn’t it amazing how pictures can tell a story….so that is part of my story of meeting my sister’s firstborn. I love her.

1. The bright square cards you all asked about yesterday are a Charley Harper Memory game. They were a gift and I have debated long and hard what to do with them…I am pretty stoked with the end result, but you have to wait for it. Yeah, I am making you wait a lot today! You can buy the game here.

2. Have you visited the Sweetest Occasion? If you are a bride to be or planning any type of party, consider this your warning INSPIRATION OVERLOAD. I could spend all day looking through posts and dreaming of parties to host. Yesterday my sister’s shower was featured, which was fun since we had a big baby day.

3. And this worked out nicely…since I have no brain cells left to share a normal post you can visit CafeMom for a little tour of my home today. I’ve heard it said that the spoken word has power, so I tried that out in the question about my personal creative space.

And by the way, I do read every comment. I don’t always have time to respond to each question and comment, but know that I read them all. Sometimes 4 little people just come before answering blog questions…which is the way it should be. Thanks for understanding that. Thank you to all of you that leave comments….they make me very happy and a play a big motivator for me to blog.  Thank you. A more rested me will be back tomorrow….with a little of this action:

I told her I have given birth 4 times, that totally gives me enough street credit to deliver her baby. Lesley opted to wait for her doctor. I totally could have done it. I have used ‘totally’ way too many times in this post, I guess I like revert to like the 80s when I am sleep deprived. Like totally.

I believe there is such a thing as too many Legos. 4 out of 4 boys in this house disagree.

My dad built the boys an amazing model airplane for their room. It is so light it can hang from the ceiling with two push pins. I told him my boys are perfectly mild mannered all the time and such a delicate model would be fine in the room of 2, 4 & 6 year old boys. So he hung it in the corner.

My boys NEVER wrestle. They NEVER throw balls or hard objects inside. They NEVER have pillow fights in their room. They are NEVER rowdy inside. They are NEVER anything but still and calm. However, since they do have friends that aren’t of the same behavior my dad built a plexi-glass shield to protect the model. He is smart like that

“Little girl what are you doing on mommy’s ladder?”

“You need to climb back down.”

Why do kids like to pull down folded laundry? Why does my daughter like to pull it all down, find some boy underwear then hide it on the bookcases in the house? If you come to my house and you see boy underwear in a random, sneaky location…it’s her fault.

Enjoying her aunt & uncle’s carrots…which are planted in their flowerbed. Great idea.

A few projects to feed my project addiction. I’ll post pics when the projects are done…which will take me a few weeks, the average person a few minutes.

Her 2 year old brother decided she needed a snack, so he fixed it for her himself. He is a becoming such a thoughtful, protective little guy.

She is a huge fan of the vacuum. She tries to ride it while I am sweeping. Weird child.

Happy Monday. How was your weekend?

Here she is with her daddy in the front yard…a couple of weeks old.

The front yard session wasn’t working so well, so I thought I’d sneak away one evening to go to a park…alone with my girl.

Those pictures might seem like going to the park made things easier in regards to posed pictures, but here is the real story:

“Sweet girl. Hey baby, look this way. Moo. Ruff ruff. Achoo. B where’s mommy?”

“No, no. Those ducks will bite your little finger off. Trust me baby girl. Quack Quack. Where’s mommy? Quack Quack…look this way.”

“What does Mommy have? Do you see your brothers? Where’s daddy? Moooooooo Moooooooooo Mooooooooo. Okay lets find somewhere without ducks.”

(brothers & daddy were not there…and my animal noises weren’t working.)

“Baby girl, I promise you do not want to chase those ducks. They are not friendly. Look! AAAAA CHOOOO. Do you want mommy’s sunglasses? “

Fake sneezing not working. It always works with toddlers that don’t belong to me. Bummer…she doesn’t go for my photo tricks, but she did start coming for my sunglasses. Sorry for the fake out little girl.

“Baby girl those ducks are not your friends. Yes, they are loud and act like they want you to come play. Yes, you and the ducks have the same waddle walk, but they will just mistake your cute fingers for bread crumbs.”

“I know you don’t understand what those are, but most kids your age actually wear shoes. Crazy. I know.

Let’s put them on and pretend I am a mom doesn’t let her daughter walk around a public park barefoot.”

“Can you look at mommy’s camera one time and smile perfectly instead of trying to climb into the pond to be with the ducks? Please. I’ll make more animal noises if you want.”

“Sorry didn’t know that request would offend you. The Oklahoma humidity sure makes your curls cute. Good thing I have 100 pictures of the back of your head now.”

“Can you show me your STOMP routine? Nice.”

“It may be annoyingly hard to take pictures of you now, but I guess this is a pretty good documentation of you at one year. Maybe one day you will sit still and pose for a picture, but right now you are too excited about the freedom that comes with walking…and those crazy ducks. Let’s go home…it’s hot.”

Last week Marci left the comment, “I bet your kids love their lives!! I would if I were them!!” I would now like to tell them daily…”if you were Marci you would love your life not grumble and complain.” I don’t think they care though. Maybe I will frame that comment for them to read. I could hang it in their room to look at when they are in time out…but only one of them can read. Oh well.

It has been too hot to be outside during the afternoon so I’ve been working on random things to entertain the kids. This week we did a Photo Hunt for the ABC’s. My youngest son was asleep, but he would have liked it too. The 6 year old had to look for words that started with the different letters. The four year old had to find words that started with the letter or just find the letter. They both had cameras and I followed them around – yes, we have a lot of cameras in this house.

They started in the ‘work in progress’ playroom with their sister. I don’t think I have to point out how much she enjoyed their complete attention on her.

We went from room to room searching for our letters. I was impressed with what all the boys came up with.

Once we made it downstairs and found a box of Legos the remaining R-Z became creations out of Legos. The whole point was to stay busy, so I didn’t really care. I was surprised with the deep thinking that went into Biggest Brother’s items. I can’t find the cord to download his pictures onto my computer, which is a bummer. He had some really creative stuff.

The boys had a lot of fun with this and it reinforced learning – which I am a bit partial to. Their favorite was photographing their sister. I can’t blame them. If you noticed the “B is for Beautiful” onesie she is wearing…yes that was intentional. I am doing a Reader Etsy Store giveaway today! The onesie is from the store Jig. The only drawback to this store is that there are WAY too many options to choose from (check out this one for twins…hilarious). I especially appreciate some of the boy designs. It is hard to find boy stuff that isn’t corny, Jig has some GREAT options. I am pretty sure I am going to have to order a certain one I keep thinking about for my 4 year old. Here is FireCracker in her jig duds. When you look at the store…ask to see ALL the design options…they aren’t all shown in the store.

Giveaway Details:

Contest ends Monday, July 19th 9:30pm US Central

One winner chosen at random

One entry per person

Prize is: Winner’s choice of 2 onesies or 2 tshirts or 1 onesie & 1 tshirt

To enter: Leave a comment on this post with 3 letters and how they describe you (for example: A is for Ashley, C is for crazy, F is for fried brain)

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In an attempt to win the battle against my email inbox, I am going to try to share more ‘behind’ the pictures every now and then.

Top Picture: 1/250, f/4.0, ISO 100, 50mm lens, edited with Totally Rad Actions

font (get it free here); flowers on picture (Design Aglow); rounded corners tutorial (Happy Web Diva); tutu was a gift

Bottom Pictures: 1/200, f/4.0, ISO 100, 50mm lens, edited with Totally Rad Actions, hat (HeartSmiles)

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Thanks for the sweet comments on yesterday’s post, I had fun taking them…not so much fun trying to remember to take them! I also got a lot of comments and emails recently about how I take photos of myself on the self timer and get things in focus. I will try to answer that in a post soon. I have been updating the My Lovelies tab on the far left of the blog. You should check it out. I especially want to call attention to the River to Well photo competition. All proceeds from the contest go towards building a well in South Africa. Check out the blog and send in a picture. You don’t have to be a pro photog to enter…and you get to help build a water well. Go check it out!

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and just to keep it real….she can swing a sword as good as the big boys

Some outtakes.

We visited the Habitat for Humanity ReStore…it is a 30 minute drive, which in my book is borderline ‘roadtrip’. Well I am now the proud owner of a Griffin PowerJolt Reserve…so had Chris’ iPhone batteries died again – I would have been set.

The ReStore was awesome….however going with 4 kids was not so awesome. FireCracker was in a carrier strapped to me, which made it difficult to rummage through all that stuff. Next time I’m going alone. Guess I won’t be back there for several years.

There were lots of toilets.

This picture makes me laugh. So very 6 year old boy.

Fake throwing up.

I really love being a mom to boys.

…I will be needing some of these…

She is getting curls. She’ll never have bangs…check out that hairline.

Her hair grows STRAIGHT BACK. It is crazy. The back grows forward, the front grows backwards…they meet in the middle. I have lots of pictures related to her turning one that I want to share this week, so for those of you that always ask for warnings before I do a bunch of baby posts. Here is your warning…this week will be a lot of baby pictures.

It was asked in the comment section if I ‘revealed’ the playroom. Nope. Just beginning to work on it. I had about an hour that all 4 kids were sleeping…I built a shelf, painted a hamper, and painted 3 pots while Chris was at Lowe’s. I am sure I am breaking all kinds of safety codes in these pictures – no need to point them out to me! At least I remembered the safety glasses in my race against naps. I also managed to eat a pint of ice cream by myself in that hour.

After I loaded these pictures on the computer I thought, “I am so odd. Why do I take pictures of myself while doing these kinds of things?” As odd as it is, I am glad I take them. I think my kids will like looking back at them. No doubt they will have plenty of memories of their mom covered in paint and making stuff. I think pictures like these will remind them of their childhood as much as pictures of them fake throwing up in random piles of toilets will.

It was hot outside. I didn’t want any to go to waste due to melting. You would have ate the whole pint too.

We had some crazy rain clouds over the weekend. I love HEAVY rain. It always amazes me how one area of the sky can be clear and blue and right next to it can be dark and pouring rain. You can’t really see the blue area, but on the other side of the car it was a blue, sunny summer day.

All that rain means the ditch in front of our house gets full of water.

Hot glue + Popsicle Sticks = Pirate Ships to float down the raging river

The ships did have sails, but they were destroyed in the waterfall that leads to the raging river.

While crossing the massive raging river his foot slipped on the treacherously steep banks. He was carrying FireCracker. He checked on the iPhone first…they were both fine.

Cleaning off all that raging river rainwater.

Happy Monday. Hope your weekend was great.

They make me laugh. Have a great weekend!

They also wanted to get her a toy and it took them no time to decide on one. They said every little girl needs a doll and a stroller for her doll. I love that they are celebrating that she is a girl. She likes the stroller best without a baby in it. How is she already one? How did dolls and baby strollers end up in my house? When did a cute thing in a flowered dress become more of a toddler and less of a baby?

And IN TOTALLY DIFFERENT news, I thought I’d share a little DIY on a way to customize your swimsuit…since it is summertime!

Supplies:

One cloverleaf shaped swim tube…should hold 4 people with spots for their booties to sit in

4 individuals ages 8 and up (I opted for two 10 year old boys and a 13 year old girl)

Waterslide with a LARGE drop off

Step 1: You need to be visiting a waterpark that is also a hotel. The first step is to get up early and put on your swimsuit. Then rush out of your hotel room (leaving hubby and kids behind) so you can be at the door waiting for the park to open. By being at the front of the line you only have to outrun preteens to be on the adult slides first. Once you make it to the slide, pick three random kids to ride with. They make look at you like you are crazy, but just go with it.

Step 2: Postition yourself on the cloverleaf tube. When the tube begins the giant fall allow your booty to slip through the hole just enough that it hits the fiberglass BEFORE the tube. This step does hurt quite a bit. In fact a week later you may have an x-ray done of your very bruised booty…but don’t worry the x-ray will show you didn’t break anything.

Step 3: After spending the rest of the day walking around the waterpark chasing your kids it will be time to dry off and head back to the room. When you start drying off your booty, you will realize that first slide of the day resulted in a diy customized swimsuit….one that everyone at the waterpark got to enjoy seeing.

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Yep, hole in the booty of my swimsuit….and I didn’t know until the end of the day. Nice.