Introducing Miss Madeline

I am excited to say that I am officially an aunt!  I am so thrilled to introduce my very first niece.  Miss Madeline was born July 5th, 2014.  She so graciously let us celebrate the fourth of July and then decided to come into the world after 16 hours of labor.  I was there for the 16 hours, but I am so happy I wasn't the one in labor.  She definitely was well worth the wait because she is the most adorable baby in the world.  At only 5 days old, here is Miss Maddie. 

 

 

Isn't she adorable?

 

Less than a week old and she definitely already shows a personality.

 

I love all her faces she makes.

 

 

I tried different filters on the images.

 

 

You can definitely see the difference.  These are the same images, but with different filters.

 

To set up for this photo shoot, I used a coffee table with a couch cushion on top.  I love couch cushions!  Lets zoom out and see what it looks like.  What a world of difference a little zoom can do, huh?  Yes, my son was watching cartoons while I was snapping pictures.

 

Snap and this is what I got.  She's wearing my blue tutu I made for her.  Tutorial will be coming up soon.

 

 

My brother in law took a picture of me working.  Doesn't she look so tiny laying there?

 

Once again, here's the close up of the picture I shot.

 

I've taken a picture of a babies before, but she was the best baby model ever.  I can't say that she cried once.

 

 

 

 

I'm ready for Halloween!  Can you guess who I am?

 

 

Taking a break, I placed her in this basket and then decided it would make the perfect photo.

 

 

 

 

 

Love.

I took hundreds more, but this post would be too long to show you all of them.

I'll end this post with M. giving a little sass!  Thanks so much for being such a wonderful model for me.  I had a great time.  This is only the beginning of many photo shoots I will have of you...next one will definitely be you and your cousins! 

I want to congratulate my beautiful sister and brother in law on their new addition.  Thank you so much for giving me the most perfect niece in the world and thank you for loving me so much that you gave her middle name my name.  Love you.

A Day at the Beach

This year, E. wanted to go to the beach for his birthday.  He's been wanting to go for some time, but since we don't live near the ocean, it wasn't as easy a gift to deliver as we wanted.  We decided to take the kiddos to the beach during the fourth of July week.

Needless to say, it was a huge success.  As a kid, we went to the beach pretty often.  We went hunting for clams, fishing for crabs and practically lived at the beach every summer.

That however isn't the case for my kids, they got to see waves for the very first time last week.  They loved it so much, they didn't want to leave.

 

 A. especially loved the water.  If we didn't physically hold him back, he would have swam as far out as his little legs could carry him.

Here he is posing for a picture like he always does.

As much as we swam, there was also a lot of digging.  

Here's the kiddos creation.

And what did we do with the hole we left?

We buried R.   It was meant for my hubby, but R. jumped in and asked to be buried.

 After all that digging, we snacked and watched the birds watch us eat.

We shared

 

and shared.

More kids jumped in to share their lunch.

Birds were everywhere and were only finger tips away.

When I jumped in to watch over my little ones

 I got attacked!

We had a wonderful vacation. The kiddos are already wanting to go again so again we shall.  Hopefully, I won't get attacked next time.  ;)

 

Happy Birthday E!

E. turns 8 today!  Happy Birthday!

 

My sweet little boy is growing so fast.  For his birthday he requested a cookie ice cream cake.  I made him a huge ice cream sandwich.  More on that later.  This year we decided to just have a small  family party which was nice.  Instead of devoting all my time entertaining, I spent my time with him.

I still cannot believe that he is 8 years old.  I get so weepy-eyed looking through his scrap book.  He is the most caring person I know.  He loves all animals and I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a vet when he grows up.  Today is his class field trip to the zoo!  There couldn't have been a better field trip on a better day. 

Happy Birthday my dearest E.  I love you more than words can say and I hope you have a wonderful birthday. 

What Kids Can Say

Kids, in general really do say the darnedest things. A lot of the things that my kids say directly come from my actions which make it more funny. Everyone of my kids know that I clip coupons. If I seek out to buy a particular item ahead of time, I generally am able to find some sort of coupon or deal for it.

In the summer, I found a great deal for free chocolate. Each time we went to Target, which was pretty often, we would pick up a free bar of chocolate. E. asked how much it cost and I said it was free. He asked me how that was possible. I told him that I had a coupon and each time I bought another bar of chocolate, another coupon would print out so we were constantly getting free chocolate. I told him that coupons are great because it could save a lot of money and sometimes even get you things for free. His response was, "Mom, can you look up and see if we can get some video game coupons so they can be free?"

Speaking of free, I asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas and R. told me that he really wanted a 3ds. E. overheard this and replied, "No, don't ask Mom and Dad for that. If you ask Santa to bring it, it will be FREE. Mom will be happy about that." Can't you tell E. is truly my son?

During Christmas, Santa was pretty generous this year (seeing how everything was free). After all the gifts were opened, R. later says, "Mom, Santa brought me a lot of gifts. What did you bring me?" Next year, Santa will be bringing less and Mom and Dad will be getting more credit.

On the flip side to that story, E. responds to R. saying, "Christmas isn't really about getting gifts, it's really about giving." It's nice to know that they do listen to some of the things I say (well, some of them).

We took the kids to McDonald's one day and I tell Mr. N, "ooh, I can use my coupon." Yes, it's another coupon related story. E. asks, "What coupon do you have today?" and takes a look at it and says, "A coupon for free fries! I love fries, but I love them even MORE when they are free!"

Lately, R.'s been asking a lot of "how much is this" type questions. He asked Dad, "How much does this house cost?" Mr. N. responds, "how much do you think it costs?" "Hmmm...I think it costs a hundred dollars," he says. "Homes cost thousands of dollars, R." His response, "Mom's going to have to give me more for my allowance if I want to save for my own house."

A. always says he loves his mommy more. Its just a silly game he plays because he knows it irks his dad. A. asks me to get him a cup of milk one day and I tell him to go and ask his father. Mr. N. says, "who do you love more, Mom or Dad?" (knowing he always says Mom). "I love Mommy more, " A. says. Mr. N. responds, "Well then, I guess you can get your Mom to make your milk." "..but Mom told me to ask you," A. says. I enter the room and hear Mr. N. say, "If you want me to make you milk, you have to love me more." I'm now interested to see what A. does so he looks at me, then looks at his father and says, "I love you both." Mr. N. says, "Nope, not good enough." "Umm...I love you more Dad," he says as he looks at his father, but he quickly looks at me, covers the side of his mouth and whispers, "Mom, I really do love you more." He turns to his Dad who wasn't supposed to hear that and says, "Can I have my milk now?"

Those are my kids. Gotta love them. :)