Kaia 2013

She was so exuberant this year that I deleted all but these three photos.  The smiles were sooooo fake and the poses were downright hilarious.  Are any of these wall worthy or shall I go back to the drawing board?

Ayla 2013

These are the best of my third attempt.  I can find stuff wrong with each photo.  Am I being too picky?  Which is your favorite?

Part Three

We went through our quirky teen years together and 20+ years later we are still friends.  Awesome.  Michelle and her 3 darlings came from Reno for several days this past September.

The fact that our kids like each other is icing on the cake.

Next up; 2013 photo shoot.  It didn't go so well this year.  Kaia is into fake smiles and posing. Ayla is into open hostility.  After three tries I think Ayla is starting to realize that doesn't work.  It doesn't make her Mom give up.  It makes her more determined and prolongs the agony! 

The Past Ten Months Part 2

We cheered Micah on at his last track and field day.  I still can't believe his elementary school days are a thing of the past :(

This part of our experience deserves and in-depth post, but I just can't do it right now.  I can't even look closely at all my photos.........Grandma Mary was diagnosed with cancer at the end of May and died seven short weeks later.  We had a lot of special family time and these are some of the photos I loved.  When I feel more ready to process the events of our summer I have lots more photos and some stories to share.

Things That Happened During The Past 10 Months

Ayla turned nine.

Our friend, Miss Sophia turned one.

Micah turned eleven.

We went to St. Louis over Spring Break.

We were accidentally matching one Sunday morning so we took time out for a nice family photo shoot.

Spring finally sprang.

Then we had another snow day.  On May second.  We lost power for several hours.  Thank goodness for the wood stove.  It's how I made my coffee that morning.  Oh yeah, it also heated the house!

To be continued.......

I Quit Blogging Because I Wanted To......Sort Of

Actually, I don't think I wanted to quit blogging.  I sort of had to for a while.  I got sick of trying document everything.  I stopped picking up my camera for, days, weeks, months.  I kept feeling like I should be blogging.  I should be taking photos.  I should be documenting the lives of my quickly growing children.  Anytime I feel like I should be doing something it doesn't take long until I stop doing it altogether.  Anyway, I think I'm done with my self-imposed break.  I don't know if I have any readers left.  I'm just going to do a bit of posting/catching up and then decide what I want to do with this space.  If you are still out there thanks for checking in.  If not, I understand.

Winter Break

Our break seemed to fly by this year!  Since Craig is working second shift we didn't get to Mom's until Saturday afternoon.  

So excited to get a flute (recorder) at long last!

 Yes!  Mom finally got some sharp knives!!  Now she just needs a bigger cutting board and more counter space.  Oh & a dishwasher would be OK too.

Our trip was short, but busy.  A few of us made it to the theater to see The Hobbit and we also fit in a nice meal with Dad at a super delish Japanese Steak House.  

Monday we headed back North in the afternoon.  We had another family gathering at Craig's uncle's place and then Shari and Mary headed over for a couple of nights.  I didn't take one photo of that time, so I'll have to use words.  We had an awesome Christmas meal at a friend's house prepared by a trained chef, we lazed around in the hot tub some & stayed up late playing dutch blitz and drinking eggnog ~ a family tradition! 

Then we had a few nights with just our family.  Not too much exciting went on as Craig was working, but we did manage to spend one afternoon at IKEA and another at an outdoor skating rink.  Again, no photos.  I'm lame.

We rang in the New Year with a visit from the Prouty family.  We made it to a sledding party for several hours & then spent the rest of the holiday in a very low key way.  I think a few of us might have had our pj's on all day on the 1st.  A perfect way to start the new year, except, maybe some photos would have been good.  New Years resolution #1 Be a better blogger/photographer!