Happy 50th Anniversary

Wow, if that is not a feat in today's society I don't know what is! It is amazing to see these anniversaries be celebrated. :) My mother and father-in-law have been married 50 years (September 27th). We had a family shindig that turned out pretty well. My in-laws did not want much in the way of a party and so we honored their wishes and just made it a small affair of immediate family and a few neighbors.

We got the reactions we wanted, at least from my mother-in-law. See, my beloved and I went down to their house a few weeks ago while they were out of town to steal their wedding album and some old pictures of each of the kids' and the entire family. My unsuspecting in-laws returned home only to notice the wedding album missing, which we had to quickly explain for my mother-in-law gets over worried with all sorts of ideas. Anyhow, what we did was use an old wedding picture and had it screened onto the cake. Here the lovely couple is below:

Then we used all the other pictures combined with ones from each of the six kids' to make a photo book on Shutterfly.com Did it turn out awesome! And with all the pictures and commentary my mother-in-law was in tears :) She loved it. A truly priceless gift and an unexpected one. One of my favorite things is how their wedding album ended. Seen here.

So that is just how we ended out album. We took a modern picture with their shoes under a very similar bedspread. 50 years side-by-side and going strong. What a blessing and testimony to all of their children and their children's children! Happy 50th Anniversary Ma & Pa!!!

The KK Girl

As promised here are a few drawings I came upon one afternoon. The whiteboard was out and Kiersten went to town. She is funny because it is all in the details for her. You'll notice both she and Isaiah have buddies and she has a bow in her hair. I think those are supposed to be earrings in her ears, not sure, but a good guess. Anyhow the pictures were precious and I couldn't pass them up.

Here is her first story as narrated to me:

The Possum and her Friends by Kiersten
It's about this possum. The possum's name is Emily. And she lived in this tree. She buys some toys from the toy store. And she plays with them. She has friends to play with. Their names are Elizabeth, Emmy and Twinkle. They love going to the Eiffel Tower to play. They also watched the parade with fireworks. They always read at bedtime like we do. They sing songs at bedtime and read stories too. They fell fast asleep. They lived happily ever after. The End.

Super Size Carrot Cake

It is not believable until you see it. My beloved and I went out to a Fish Market chain restaurant to celebrate his birthday. The food was wonderful and the hour away from children even more so. We had known there would be a free appetizer/dessert something before we went but hadn't put much thought into it. When we finished dinner the waiter asked about a dessert on the house and recommended the carrot cake. I always love carrot cake but wasn't sure if my beloved wanted something chocolate. He went ahead with the recommendation and I have to tell you we about died laughing when it arrived at our table. This is no lie- it was a 7 layer round piece of cake that had to have been about 1/6 the entire cake. It was HUGE and oh so delicious. It is not often you have to ask for a box to take dessert home because you couldn't finish it. Amazing.

The Three Stooges

Here they are: Larry, Mutt & Jeff :) I managed to grab a picture of the three kids' together just the other night. I have been working on a special project, a photobook, for my in-laws 50th anniversay. Of course I can openly talk about it as they have no computer. Anyhow, it has kept me pretty busy, but is finally done and this picture was part of our family display. The kids' are doing good and keeping me a little too busy, if you know what I mean.
Kiersten and I started school this week. The new scedule will take some getting used to but will hopefully work out well. I'll be posting a few of Kiersten's recent drawings as well as her story here in the next day or so.

O.K., Not Everything is Cute

As much as I have raved about Katie, not everything she does is cute. Do you believe it?! :) This morning I was burping her only to discover a few minutes later that she had spit-up so much that not only was my shoulder wet but there was a trail (seriously, I am not exaggerating) half way down my back. That cold wet feeling does not appeal to me, especially when I know it is spoiled milk. Of course that wasn't all the spi- up. As I am changing her Isaiah goes to the couch and says, "Ew! Gwoss!" Katie had managed to still project some spit-up, other than that which soaked me, onto the couch. Amazing and not really all that cute. :) Oh well, it would be too good to be true if she didn't have her not so cute ways to.

So Abused

WARNING: To any male readers, this story stems from breastfeeding issues :) Just thought to give you a heads up!

The Katie girl was trying to manipulate me hard yesterday. She has had a few bottle feedings here and there. Especially the last one of the day, at 12am-ish because she is too asleep to do a good job. This feeding ensures I will not be getting up in the night so I like to make sure it is a good one. Anyhow, Katie has caught on to the fact that the bottle is much easier and much faster. So what she did yesterday was decide to throw a fit when I tried to breastfeed her. When she felt something touch her lip she literally screamed. The full blown wail, not just the usual cry. I let her get away with it once earlier in the day, but when she did it again I had to wait her out. I let her cry herself exhausted so she would take right from the source! I am not opposed to pumping, I just am not willing to go full time. There is no need. You would have thought I had beat her. Poor girl, so abused because her momma is trying to feed her! :) It was both comical and loud.

A Wonderful Day in the Sun

We enjoyed a beautiful Labor Day weekend! Saturday we just hung around the house, but Sunday was busy. We went to church and then off to the beaches to check out a local kite show. It was beautiful and the water was just perfect. The kids' had a fun time playing in the water and digging sand up on the beach. We had so much fun we headed back out to the beach on Monday night for a picnic dinner and a little more playtime. :) Here we are enjoying the beauty of the day and the kites!