Family Pictures

I usually try to make notes of things that have gone on during the week to record on our blog, but I forgot to do that this week and my memory isn't the greatest.  I do know that I spent a lot of time doing some work for the office.  Lincoln and Jackson had hair appointments Monday.  And then Lissy surprised me by calling to see if I needed her to come over and watch the kids so I could get some stuff done.  I was pretty excited because the three youngest were down for naps and I was just getting ready to wake them so I could pick up Jackson and Ellie and take Jackson for his hair appointment.  So she watched them, I dropped off Jackson at the Paragon, and then Ellie and I went shoe shopping to see if I could find some boots for our family pictures.  Ellie is desperate to get some Twinkle Toe Sketchers and she kept bringing them to me.  Then she brings out the, "every other girl in my class has them".  I imagine I will hear this more times in our future.  Poor girl, is just going to have to learn to do without for now and enjoy her Wal-Mart shoes :-).  If she is a good girl, maybe she can get some for Christmas. 

After we got home from the hair appointment, I was able to finish another project I have been working on.  I decided to replace our landscape lights in our front flower bed because some of the others were broken.  I started while the kids were napping and was able to finish while Lissy was there and then it was off to dance.  Andrew had something going on for work, so Lissy offered to stay with the boys while I took Ellie.  It worked out great because I was able to get some of the office work done while I was waiting for her. 

Along with our usual activities for the week, Jackson and I went to the Mother Son Stampede Thursday night.  And just like the last few years that we have gone, a majority of the time he just wrestled around with his friends.  It took a while before they decided to try any of the activities they had there.  I am glad I have the chance to go with him them and spend some one-on-one time with him.  Even if it is just a few stolen moments in between him playing with his friends.

We had all the Homecoming festivities on Friday.  It was a beautiful day for Homecoming.  Jackson and Ellie were both in the parade and Andrew also helped with the youth football players.  Lincoln, the twins, and I along with my mom and Lissy watched from the sidewalk.  Jackson decided he was a little shy at first and trying to hide down in the truck.  He said he sat up later though.

After the parade, we ran by my parents house real quick, got the twins their bottles, changed diapers (and wet jeans), and headed to the football game so Ellie could cheer with the Rah Rah Rookies.  It was a little crazy, like always, and kind of hard to see her.  But I think she had a good time.

After Ellie cheered, we headed back to my parents for dinner and to see Kaitlin, Zane, and Owen who came into town.  Friday night was kind of another rough night for Miles and Bennett.  They were both up screaming around 3am.  And Miles was upset the night before too.  Andrew got up with him then.  And we both got up with them Friday night.  They were fine once you got them up.  So after holding them for a bit, we put them back down and had to let them cry it out.  Andrew eventually decided he wasn't going back to sleep and headed to the office.  The boys finally settled down, but then one of them started crying again around 5:30 and then Lincoln came into the room around 6:15 all dressed.  He got into bed with me but kept asking me to do different things-button his jeans for him, put his socks on....Long night.  At least our soccer games weren't too early on Saturday.  They both had games at 11.  Andrew took Jackson and Ellie and I let the twins nap a little more and then I brought them and Lincoln.  The weather was perfect and Jackson and Ellie's fields are actually close to each other so we could kind of watch both at the same time.  Some of my family came to watch them, including Kaitlin and Owen.  She decided it would be a good time to try out his new "leash".  I'm not sure it worked out so well though :-).

After the games and lunch, Andrew and I decided to go look at the house that are going up in the neighborhood-just across the street and a couple houses down.  We put Jackson in charge of the twins.  They were just crawling around, playing.  A little later, I come in and can't find Jackson or the twins.  But then I hear some splashing.  The twins were in the bathroom, playing in the toilet, trash can, and toilet paper.  Oh, and Jackson was in the basement watching TV.  Andrew gave the twins a bath and put them down, while I walked Jackson through cleaning up the mess in the bathroom.  I think he was most disappointed that this really hurt his chances of ever convincing me he could take care of a dog.

After nap time, it was time to head out for our family pictures.  We decided to do them out at the ranch at this bridge we had used last time.  The only problem was that it was on a road that no longer existed.  Last time we had to carry everything a ways and cross over a washed-out area of the road.  So this time we tried getting to the bridge from the other side and we were able to drive up to it-albiet past the road-closed sign and down a dirt road that eventually wasn't anymore than a path.  But it worked great and I love the pictures Lissy got.  And Molly was nice enough to come along for the adventure and help us out.  We just did most of our pictures in that one spot.  We ended up being done pretty quickly, it was just the traveling that took most of the time.  We hit up one more spot on our way home to get a silhouette picture and I am so glad we did that one too.  THANK YOU LISSY AND MOLLY!!!!

Lissy also did some quick 9 month pictures of Miles and Bennett.  I only have some from the first part.  Again, these were real quick shots.  Each set took maybe 10 minutes at the most, but they are adorable.  We just did the second set today and Lissy is swamped today, so I'm not sure when I will be able to get that one. 

**So Lissy may get mad at me, but I took some individual pictures of the kids from her computer to use on the sidebar-they are unedited, so I thought I needed to point that out (they are still great thought). :-)