Sweet and Innocent

So while we were at my cousin's house this past weekend we were playing outside with some sidewalk chalk.  I asked the kids to sit on the step so I could get a picture but Karli and James were the only ones that humored me.  James thinks Karli is pretty cool and often wanted to be where she was.  Out of the pictures of them together this one is my favorite.

Sweet and innocent, right? 

Chicago - part 1

I thought I'd do a post about my trip to Chicago (which I'm still on).  My intention is to do a follow up post but if you know me you know that there is a distinct possibility that it won't get done.  Not finishing what I start . . . something that I'm working on.  Anyway . . .

I took a few days off to visit my cousin Jenn and her family in Chicago. Well, we're actually way in the suburbs, but you get the idea.  We don't get to see each other near often enough so I was really looking forward to this trip.  I have not been disappointed.

We've been hanging out with the kids -- she has 4 and I brought my two.  We're like the Brady Bunch -- 3 girls and 3 boys.  The best part is that they are all 6 and under.  Yep, 6 kids ages 6 and under.  We've got 6,6,5,3,2, and almost 5 months.  Nice relaxing vacation with all those kids right?  In reality the kids have been doing really well together.

We've tried to keep busy.  We had an Easter egg hunt at the house, took the kids bowling, have done a bunch of talking and cooking, had to have one kid (Ryan) get stitches, and took a quick trip downtown.

I thought I'd just include a few pics from that trip downtown.

The 3 boys holding hands while we were walking to get some pizza:

The kids holding up the bean:
(all but the baby)

The gang at the park downtown:

From left to right:  The grownups:  cousin Jenn, her husband Jason, and Jason's longtime friend Casey who was in town visiting on the same weekend.  The kids:  Joe, Karli, Siobhan (in the baby sling), James, Ryan, and Aly.

♥ them!

linked 52: Spring

I went with Spring this week.  I really wanted to take a new picture this week because the grass is getting greener and I'm starting to see buds everywhere.  :)  Unfortunately I've been a little busy this week having to make an unexpected trip home and then packing to head out to Chicago today.  I pulled one from my archives (last spring) but it fits for the challenge.

A tiny little bird.  One bird from afar is just fine with me but that's enough.  Has anyone noticed that there seem to be an abundance of birds this spring?  They are very loud when I'm trying to sleep.  I've never been a big fan of birds -- the beady eyes and the beak that could be pecking at me.  I can't totally put my finger on it but they're not my favorite.  I'll observe them from afar.  Now you've learned something new about me.  :)

Not sure about my processing on this.  Thoughts?

 Be sure to check out these other ladies to see their take on "Spring/Autumn":  Michelle, Stacey, Andrea, Tracey, Heather, Jenn, Jessica, Amanda, Kristin, Amanda, Sara, Tracy, Lesli, Janet, Naomi, Rhonda, Rose, Heidi, and Jean

Celebration of Life

My uncle passed away this weekend.  He was a good man and he will be missed. 

My aunt, uncle, and all their kids always lived in my hometown.  It's great that when I go home to visit my mom I get to see all of them.  All of them includes my four cousins and their spouses and 10 children between them.  They are crazy and they are loud and I wouldn't change them.  They are a very close knit group and the loss of their patriarch was very emotional.

I'm thankful that I was able to spend the first part of the week with my family celebrating my uncle's life and recalling old stories.  A special thing that the family decided to do was to release 71 balloons after the funeral service to represent my uncle's 71 years of life.  It didn't go quite as planned.  The balloons were blown up the day before.  The colors were so pretty.

We should have waited until the morning to blow them up though.  Quite a few of them had lost their mojo by the time of the release.  We went ahead and tried anyway.  A vast majority of them fell back to the ground but a few caught the wind and flew high.  We counted 4 -- one for each one of his children.

It was a beautiful service for a beautiful man.
Rest in peace uncle Don.

linked 52: Underneath

Hello friends.  I just wanted to take a minute to apologize to anyone that came to visit my page last week with the expectation of seeing vegetables.  I had not been feeling well during the week and by the end of the week / weekend I was exhausted.  Blogging was not in the cards for me then.  Hope to do some catching up this weekend.  Onto this week now . .

Underneath.  Initially I thought I'd go with a picture of Jackson, our dog.  He's always underneath the coffee table if I choose to eat there.  It's cute to see his little head peeking out.  I took a not so great pic of him that I thought I might use and then this happened:

I went with underneath his clothes.  :)  I had put him to bed and then went in to check on him and found him like this.  Notice there is a pull-up in his pile.  That's because he still needs it at night.  Thank goodness I caught this before I had a big mess.  Thank goodness I caught this to have a record of this great memory.

My kid often like to run around in their undies and because they are little I think they look so darn cute.  Here they both are wearing what's underneath their clothes complete with bed head from James.  :)

I know . . . corny.  That's me.  I hope that no one is offended by a cute 3 year old hiney.

 Be sure to check out these other ladies to see their take on "underneath":  Michelle, Stacey, Andrea, Tracey, Heather, Jenn, Jessica, Amanda, Kristin, Amanda, Sara, Tracy, Lesli, Janet, Naomi, Rhonda, Rose, Heidi, and Jean

linked 52: Spirit

When I thought about this weeks prompt, many ideas ran through my mind.  Do I take a picture of these beautiful doors that I've been admiring on a church that I drive by?  Do I take a picture with some awesome light to embody spirit?  (I couldn't even come close to Stacey's gift of light so that was out the window.)  :)  Do I take a picture of James because he's "spirited"?  Then I went to the women's expo on Saturday and walked passed the perfect picture.

Spirit:

I wish that I would have had my big girl camera with me but I had to make due with my phone.  These adorable kindergarten - 2nd grade girls were in the hall practicing their routine.  They were adorable.

It made me think about when I was a cheerleader way back in the day.  I have some fantastic memories from hanging out with those girls.  Flashback time.  You know you were wondering what I looked like back then.  Well, I couldn't find any pictures of me in my albums but I found one that someone had scanned on facebook.  That's me in the middle of the back row.  Can we say "scrunchies"?

That was just one season of cheerleading.  There were also some others.  Does anyone recognize the lady on the left?

Yep, it's her.

I did find this gem though.  One picture from a photo booth strip that we took during the basketball tournament.  My head is ginormous.  That's my BFF, Amy, with her chin in my head.

My friend (who is also my son's awesome preschool teacher) has decided to join us -- check out Jean's blog too.

Be sure to check out these other ladies to see their take on "spirit":  Michelle, Stacey, Andrea, Tracey, Heather, Jenn, Jessica, Amanda, Kristin, Amanda, Sara, Tracy, Lesli, Janet, Naomi, Rhonda, Rose, Heidi, and Jean