Happy Monday!

Happy birthday to Patti and Calloway!

I said that I'd never do this... never ever show my belly pictures to anyone (much less blog them). But, I just can't help it. My sweet babies just turned 7 today! And, this momma can't help but try to remember the feeling of them moving around in my belly... trying to guess who was who. What an amazing miracle. So, I went through all my old pictures this morning... and I found these. Whoa! That's it... just whoa. Don't have much else to say about this picture (I think I still had 7 weeks to go in that second picture... it was taken March 3, 2005).



I remember this picture like it was yesterday. It had been a long 12 hours... labor just didn't progress, I started running a fever, Cal's heart rate was dropping, and then I had to have an emergency c-section. When the doctor came in to give me the "we might have to do a c-section speech", I quickly stopped her and told her, "I don't care what you have to do... take them out through my mouth if you have to... just get them out!!!" Once I heard both their cries.... pure peace.



They were one in this picture... I would do anything for three minutes with them like this again (just three though)!

And here we are today... precious babies. I love them so.

Patti is still as sweet as always... maybe even sweeter. I see a little more boldness in her step these days. But, she's still tender and loving. She cried this morning because she didn't want to go to 2nd grade... she still doesn't like change. She's an angel.

Calloway is just precious. Oh that boy... he just has to smile at me and I'd buy him the world. He's growing up though... bittersweet. He's too cool to hug and kiss me in front of his friends, but the first to crawl in my lap when he sees it vacant. He's a love.

I'm still here...

I can't believe that I haven't blogged since Halloween. A dear friend of mine, Lee Cole, passed away on Christmas Eve. You may have seen some of her comments here on my blog. She loved reading this and would always be on my case to blog more often.... in fact, she'd leave me comments or email me and tell me that my blogging "sucked." Ha... there was nothing subtle about Lee. It has just been so hard starting up again knowing she wouldn't be reading this. I miss her so much.

I have a lot of catching up to do... November through March. Yikes. You know what, I think I'm just going to just start in April. There's lots going on over the next couple of months... I'll be plenty busy just keeping up with what's going on now :)

Cal has started up baseball again... he's in the Junior Minors (machine pitch) and is on the Iron Pigs (he wasn't too excited about his team name). He's really good, but he lacks that competitive edge... which drives Daddy nutso. David is obsessed with baseball... he has to wear Cal's old jersey and hat to every practice and he takes his "baseball team glove" and ball with him too! I think he named his team the Sonic Mickey Mouse Baseball Team... I love it!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun Halloween we've had, but I am SO glad it's over. Whew. Next year, I need to remember to plan early.

The kids got to dress up as their favorite book character for school. Cal was Skippyjon Jones... a Siamese cat who thinks he's a Chihuahua. Patti was, of course, Fancy Nancy. I had so much fun getting their costumes together. Thanks to my sweet friend, Angela, who at the last minute made a fabulous Skippyjon cape and helped me make those fabulous ears. Oh, and about those ears.... Cal hated them. Wouldn't wear them. Little stinker said that they looked like bunny ears (okay, maybe they kind of did). David had to get his Superman cape on and be a part of the party too.

Later that day, Patti was feeling this whole dress-up thing and decided to get the face paint out. She painted Cal's face (I had to bribe him with 50 cents to participate.... correction, happily participate). Sorry, didn't get any pictures of Cal. Then, David begged to have his face painted. Patti quickly obliged.

And then, Patti really wanted to have her face painted. I jokingly volunteered David to paint it... they both agreed that was a tremendous idea!

And finally, Halloween! I just wasn't in the "Halloween" mode this year. I took Patti to Target and we picked out her costume and Cal's costume. She was a little Senorita and Cal was an Ice Wolf Ninja. David's costume was dug out of the dress-up clothes the day of. I have to admit, they were pretty stinkin' cute!

Tough Mudder

Welcome to the Tough Mudder.... 12 miles of mud, water, ropes, smoke, rocks, more mud, barbed wire, more ropes, walls, three levels of hay bales, more water and mud (about 19 crazy obstacles total)... And I did it all for fun!!

A few months ago, my friend Linda talked a bunch of us BCS Fitness girls to join her in this crazy thing. At first, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I thought I was in pretty good shape. As the time got closer, I started to do my research.... good cow! Well, part of me was pretty excited. The other part was completely terrified. Our one and only goal was to finish... oh, and have fun. That's what's great about the Tough Mudder ~ it's not a race, it's not timed or judged. You just have to finish.

So, on Saturday October 8th at 9:40am.... we signed our Death Waivers and off we went. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but also one of the funnest!!


Here are my teammates... Chalyce, Linda, April and Abbie. Love these girls!

Our first obstacle.... don't waste any time getting down and dirty!


This one was pretty scary. First you had to climb this massive wall to get to the top. And then at the top there was a 20 foot jump down into nasty water. You really didn't have time to hesitate. Just jump.


These are called the Berlin Walls. There were about 9 total... this was one of the shorter ones. We had to recruit some big strong guys to help us over the taller ones. This took a lot of team work and arm strength.


You can't tell in the picture, but this is ice water. They had trucks dumping in ice to keep it freezing cold. It was one of the first few obstacles... definitely took my breath away. I couldn't wait to get out of that water!


Teamwork at it's best.


It may look like I'm having loads of fun at the beginning of this one. By the end, I was ready to cry. Those are rocks of all shapes and sizes that we're crawling over. My knees and elbows were in so much pain. But, you couldn't rest... you see all those people waiting behind us? Definitely don't want to look like a sissy.



I can't describe to you how nasty this water was. It was so gross and stunk so bad. We had to step over cow manure in order to get in. There were even dead fish floating around us. And the taste it left in your mouth after you had to go under in it.... yuck. But, towards the last half (oh, 6 miles or so) we had to carry logs and sludge through thick mud (we don't have pictures of it because it was so far in the back Daniel didn't make it there)... we were so happy to see that nasty stinky water.




Meet Mt Everest.... we were so worried about making it up this sucker. Daniel said that it normally took people a dozen tries to get up. I'm proud to say that we all got up on our first try. Luckily there were plenty of guys there to help us up.


I twisted my ankle on these hay bales. I heard it pop. I could still put pressure on it, but couldn't run. I had to walk the last three miles and I had to skip a few of the last obstacles. I was pretty frustrated, but glad I could still finish.


This is the Electroshock.... All of those wires are charged. We had to run through them while running through a foot of mud and water. Just glad none of us fell. It was the last obstacle... the finish was only feet behind it. By this point, we were all just ready to finish this thing.


So very happy to be done! Thanks Linda, Abbie, April and Chalyce.... I had a blast! Let's do it again in March!

First Grade

I need to blog more. I hate that I've gotten so far behind. I had to get these pictures posted while it's still the beginning of the school year. At the rate I'm blogging, and as far behind as I am... I'm just happy I'm getting them up before they're in Second grade!

We were really ready for school to begin. It was a wonderfully busy summer... it's just time to get back into a routine.

Patti and Cal are in the Dual Language program now. They will be learning along side children who are primarily Spanish speakers. They have two teachers... one that speaks all English and one that speaks all Spanish. So far, they really like it and are doing well. They say that in this program, the kids will be fluent in Spanish by 6th grade and taking college level Spanish classes in High School. Pretty cool.

And this is why I don't like to take pictures of my own kids...

As most of you know, I love to take pictures. I've created a small photography business consisting of friends and friends of friends. It's grown and keeps me pretty busy. But, I'm so busy doing everyone else's pictures that I forget about my own kids. I finally decided to quickly find some "complementing" clothes and set out one very HOT evening to take some pictures of those precious kiddos.

It wasn't long before I remembered why I don't like to take pictures of my own kids. First of all, I realized that I have a lot more patience with other peoples kids. And, I can't yell at other peoples kids... haha.




Patti has helped me on many photo shoots, so the girl was ready to pose before we even stepped out of the car. Before I had my camera ready, she hopped up on this "stage" and began throwing out the sassy! I quickly started shooting (not my favorite background or lighting, but it made her happy).

Then, I hear David holler, "Wook at me! My turn!" So, he started doing his poses. Oh my goodness, I love that boy!!

Patti knows how this works... she really is beautiful~ inside and out. I love this precious girl!

Here come the "cheeeeeeeessssse's"..... You can almost hear David saying it, can't you?

I would love this picture... except Cal is scratching his leg and Patti's dress is up on one side. Am I being too critical?

Okay, I like this one...

And this one...

Daniel was off to one side tickling the kids and then jumping out of the way... David got a little too tickled here :)

There's this crazy thing that happens to about 75% of the people I take pictures for RIGHT before their session.... someone always gets hurt and it's almost always on their face. I'm not kidding.... it always happens. So, as we are about to walk out the door, Cal throws a Hotwheels in the air and his lip catches it. Blood. Tears. Photoshop.

I love Cal's "real" smile... talk about melting my heart!

After about 15 minutes, David was gone... it was hot and late and he was plain ol' tired.... and sick of saying "cheeeeeeessssse!"

I asked him where his toes were, thinking he would play with them and maybe giggle a bit.... instead, this is what I got...

I think walking on the tracks is considered breaking the law... oops. I love how David is looking back at me like, "where are these crazy siblings taking me? help!"

The End

I haven't gone through all my pictures yet... so, you may see more again soon!