Disclaimer

Disclaimer- I have the most patient daughters in the world.  They put up with the most crazy Mother out there!  

I had taken theses photos weeks before we moved.

Ya'll know how much I love taking pictures, dressing kids up, flowers, nature, blaa, blaa, blaaa.  Well I had noticed my lilacs had come into bloom, so what did I do?  Photo shoot with my girls!  Geez, they put up with a lot!  I made Ella wear a very small purple dress to match the lilacs and put tons or bug infested lilacs in her hair.  

She deserves a medal.  I poked and stuck lilacs and bobby pins into her head and she just dealt with it.  Just a few squeals and fits because of the bugs.  She's a tuff gal!

 This is how I roll.  PJ's curtsy of the Porter's, and TWLOHA shirt.  

I had to do some bribing and yelling for me to put flowers in my gorgeous daughters hair.  Did I mention the flowers had bugs in them?

 I probably should of grabbed a foot stool.  My children are gifted with their Fathers height  

 Miranda Sings would appreciate  my Crocks.  Troy thinks they are soooo sexy. Hehe!.

 Anna was my helper through this.  She had grabbed some socks and shoes out of my closest.  She thought it was pretty cool she was tall enough to take pictures of her feet. The only lens I have is a 55- 200.  

 Oh yes, she has terrible allergies.  I'm such a great Mom.

 I got some great pics.  Ella is a strong powerful, feminine young lady.  She has amazing strength and courage and is sensitive and caring.  

 When I grab my kids and make them do these crazy photo shoots, my main goal is to have fun.  By no stretch of the imagination am I a professional  I do this for fun.  I do this because this is how we end up.

 We laugh and play.

 I told Anna I wanted to see if I could take a picture of her leaping across the yard.

 OH MY GOSH, I DIED LAUGHING.

  I can't recreate these moments.  I am so lucky I have funny beautiful, uncoordinated daughters that will play dress up with their weird unbalanced Mother.

Dynamic or Difficult Dunows?

Next time I have my family do family pics, I'm going to have it video taped.  I personally like to just have the kids get dressed for me and lets get it done.  There's a whole lot of squabbling that goes on.  Troy and Logan have the same attitude of hating it. Troy seems to play around and tease more than a child would.  Soren eggs everyone on and acts goofy.  Anna and Ella try to stay away from Troys tickling hands.  Olivia......it's all about the camera.  She's the SUPERSTAR.

OK, let's start.

Logan was going to smack Soren.

Anna was making sure her shirt wasn't showing anything.

I'm scolding children.

 Troy is harassing Anna and Ella.

I'm now telling the kids I'll give them each 20 bucks if the behave.

 Ella is fixing my hair.

Logan is cussing all of us out under his breath.

Troy and I are listening to Soren.....again.

Anna wants that 20 bucks.

 It would of been so good if Troy would of kept his hands to himself.  He's acting all innocent.  Poor Anna.

 My kids were being so good.  I just couldn't' get their father to behave.

The day before this, it was beautiful and sunny.  Of course it had to rain on Logan's day off.

We caught a break in the rain, kind of.  Grabbed my favorite Leah and did a 5 minute photo shoot.

The things that Leah has had to put up with.

I yell and swear, threaten and bribe. In the end, I'm the luckiest Mom and Wife alive.  We are a family who laughs a lot.  A family who teases a lot.  We have our share of bickering and fighting. 

I'm sitting here typing and looking at my family.  I'm crying because I'm in Calgary and my first born is in Washington.  We aren't all together anymore but I know my kids all love each other.  They will always have that.  This was our last family pics before we moved.  Us standing out in the open field being rained on.  That's so Washington.  That's so us.

Going to miss my birds

 Haha.  I call them my birds.  This first pic is one I took from my front porch.  Even though there are so many bald eagles around here, I still get so excited when I'm up close to one.  Literally, it's a daily occurrence here.

The farmer came and cut the grass on the field next to our house.  Within minutes of the tractors leaving the birds were all over that field.  It must have brought the mice out.  I got the kids off to school and then parked myself on a lawn chair on my driveway.  Ok, so I'll miss this part.  How am I going to get used to living in a neighborhood?  Actually, I'm really looking forward to be a part of civilization again.  As much as I will miss my backyard bird watching, it will be nice to have neighbors. 

It won't take me very long to drive to find my quiet solitude in Calgary. 



My Boy Soren

I'm sitting at the computer surrounded by moving boxes.  There are a thousand and one things I need to be doing, but I need a breather.  I had downloaded a bunch of pictures this morning and wanted to catch up on a few post before we move......on Friday! 

Soren had a birthday in May and turned 12.  Can I just state for the record that this age of boys is not my favorite?  He's going through all the emotions of moving while not having his Dad around, while going through this age stage.  Yikes!  Then top that off with a very smart, funny, active personality.  It's going to be so nice having Troy home every evening to spend time with him. 

 He was my best Mother's Day present I ever received.  Even though we butt heads, Soren is by far my most tender, affectionate child to me.  He definitely has that protector aspect about his personality.  So often he will see me crying and tearing up about missing my Mother.  He will wrap his arms around me and rub my back and try to say something to cheer me up.  He's very aware of things that usually set me off crying about my Mom.  It's not always sad crying.  Most of it is happy tears.  Here I go.....crying.  Even though he didn't spend a lot of time with his Grandma Fowler, he talks about her a lot.  I think he knows it makes me feel better.

Since I can remember he would always rub my upper arm with his hand.  He loves the squishiness about it.  It's a habit he doesn't realize he does.  There have been teachers who have brought it up to me.  Still to this day when he talks to me he does it.  I always joke that he will have to marry someone who can put up with having their arm rubbed.

 The field next to our house, right before they cut it. 

 Most of the time he is willing to help me out.  He loves the animals.  It doesn't seem very long ago that he couldn't walk Elliot because he would be pulled down and dragged.  Soren has done so much growing lately, he takes the dogs on runs with no problem now..

 I couldn't resist these pictures of  Milo in the grass.

I guess I just have a hard time with my boys growing up. My kids all have such strong distinct personalites.  I want to keep them with me always.  I know that's not how it's done, but dang it's hard.  Soren is growing up to be a funny, smart, caring young man.  He just needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut.!  Love you Son!