Our tiny tornado

That's our Eli...our tiny tornado...don't be fooled by his cuteness!:)

Summer Fun

Just a few pictures I found of some of our summer fun in Wisconsin!  This is where Eli first learned to ride his bike and he was a total natural!

Menominee Park Train

When we were in Wisconsin this summer we went to the Menominee Park and took Eli on his first ride on the Menominee Park train.  I have such memories of this park and specifically this train growing up.  It looks and feels and sounds exactly the same and I just love that my children are able to enjoy it the same way that I did!

Our CRAZY week!

You know it was a crazy week, when you are almost through the following week and still don't feel totally recovered!:)  Yep, that was our week last week...total MADNESS!

It was a pretty full week to begin with what with work and ministry and home school.  I was also teaching a photography lesson to our home school group about Ansel Adams and black and white photography.  We took a little field trip and got the kids shooting and it was beautiful.  Here's my shot from the trip:

And even though we were focused on black and white photography I just couldn't resist this one in color: And these were two from Lily, my little budding photographer: And a couple of the girls from our home school group: And I just couldn't resist these pictures of Lily walking with her friend, Hannah, on our way back from photographing: That was a fun afternoon! And then that's when things got crazy... Much of the next few days were consumed by our dog, Indy. We got word from our vet that there isn't much more that they can do for him and his leg (badly affected with arthritis). We had hoped, along with our vet, that we would be able to amputate his leg. That didn't seem like a great option to us, but it was really one of the only ones we had. We agonized over the decision only to find out last Wednesday that it was never really an option. His x-rays came back and showed that he also has arthritis in his other front leg (making him a bad candidate for amputating his badly affected leg). There were many tears in our house that night as we feared that we would have to put our beloved Indy down in the next day or two. He was in pain, not putting any weight on his leg, and crying at times in pain. It was awful and we just knew we could't let it continue. It felt all consuming those couple of days. Then on Thursday evening Lily accidentally threw a stick at my eye resulting in multiple cuts to my cornea. It happened later in the evening after Joe had already left to work a rare shift at the fire department. Ironic that my husband, the EMT, wasn't able to help me on the one night I really needed it! I struggled through the night...waking multiple times to help my sick pup (while only being able to use one eye). It was not a pretty picture. The next morning (one day before my biggest photography job ever) the eye doctor removed the flaps of my cornea that were sticking up (and causing pain)and that afternoon while I rested and recovered Joe took off for our Fall Conference that weekend that he was helping to lead (told you it was a crazy week)! Late that evening, just when I thought the crazy was starting to lessen, Eli decided to drink about 1/3 of a bottle of children's cough medicine that he found in his room (with the child safety cap ON I will add). How he got that open I still don't know...but apparently he drank quite a bit (WHY would you WANT to drink that much cough medicine?)!! A call to Joe resulted in calling poison control (my first time). Visions of dragging my children to the ER at 10p.m. were hauting my already exhausted brain...but thankfully that wasn't necessary and Eli was fine. The next day, with a clear contact bandage over my injured eye (that nobody noticed thankfully)I photographed 55 soccer kids from our local rec center, Lily played in her soccer game (Joe came back to coach), Joe's parents came to watch (and take the children so I could photograph),Joe returned to the conference and afterwards I drove down to Southern Maine to get the kids and go to a family harvest party. The next day we all returned home and rested. Oh, did I also mention that we were all sick in varying degrees last week too? Yep, vomiting, staying home from school for Eli, nasty coughs, runny noses, and achy bodies. Good gracious. It's been a week now and I still don't feel like I've caught up or fully recovered!:) But the photographs are all done and delivered, my eye has healed nicely, the coughs are also getting better, and Indy is still with us (he took a wonderful turn over the weekend, is in much less pain, and thus we in a holding pattern for now and we are so thankful for that)! There are so many people who have lives so much crazier than mine, but that's all the crazy I can use for a while please!

Conversations with Eli

Eli is growing leaps and bounds with his speech.  He talks so sweetly and it still just makes my heart melt (and laugh) to have a little conversation with him!  Here are two of my favorites from this week...

We were making caramel apples and I must have called him "my baby" or something like that.  As usual he corrected me, informing me that he is not a baby, but a big boy!  Then...

Me: "You will always be my baby.  I remember when you were just a baby in my tummy.

Eli:  "Wwwwhhhhaaatttt?  You eat me?

Me:  "No, I didn't eat you.  You were a baby growing in my tummy before you were born."

Eli:  "Oh.  That's funny."

Then just the other day...

Me:  "Eli, daddy has to go to work."

Eli:  "Me go to work too."

Me:  "Someday you'll go to work.  What do you want to do for work?"

Eli: "Shoot bad guys."

Hmmmm...don't know if I should be proud or nervous about that one!:)

Apples!!!

Apples! Apples! Apples!

It's that time of year!  So far, in addition to at least one or two apples a day we have also had apple dip, apple crisp, apple pie, apple coffee cake, dried apple chips, and lots of applesauce!:)  Oh, and caramel apples are next on the list...maybe tomorrow!

Play-Dough & Blanket Forts

Play-Dough and blanket forts...the stuff of childhood!

The Play-Dough was homemade using Kool-aid (it's so much better than the store bought stuff).

And the blanket in the fort was a gift from my Aunt Linda- it has all of our names on it and a special heart for Joy (which was so special to me).  And if you look closely you'll also see two other homemade blankets- these from my Grandma (the one on the couch she made for me shortly before I left for college and the one on the floor was one she recently made for Eli)!  Thanks so my family for keeping us warm (and entertained)!:)

My girl...in jeans...on a fall day

My girl...in jeans...on a fall day!

Until a few weeks ago this girl of mine flat out refused to wear jeans...it was only dresses or leggings or yoga-like pants for her.  But then I brought out these jeans that I bought at a yard sale and they happen to have little flowers around the waist (you can't seem them in these pictures) and that was enough to convince her to try them.  And because they are still a bit big for her they felt more comfortable and that was enough for her to keep them on.  And suddenly this dress loving girl of mine WANTS to wear these jeans!  And no matter what she's wearing there is no denying that she is beautiful.

April

As I'm making my way through my pictures I found these ones from April that I thought I would share...playing with Eli, fun with the water hose on an usually warm spring day, and a fun baking soda experiment!