we agreed that it be necessary for the “big” girls to come for only a few minutes to say their own goodbye’s to “Poppy”. they made cards for him to take to heaven and they blew kisses big enough to carry him the whole way. And then my niece, as she always does, said somethings that made us laugh when we needed it most.

aly: ”did you see poppy”

kelly: “yes i did. did you see poppy?”

aly: “yes i did. he is the King now”

where does she come up with these things!

as we stood over the casket in prayer and the girls added their handmade works of love to the casket, we hear this:

my sis: “ok girls. its time to let poppy go to heaven now”

aly: “this….(arms raised) this is heaven? (turns to the room full of friends and family in mourning) all of this is heaven?”

and we laughed some more.

remember the good times. laugh at the memories, it helps to stop the crying.

we love you Pop! we miss you more than words can say.

because i CAN!

back to poor lea. allergic to EVERYTHING she couldn’t savor in the standard birthday treats.

(get the recipe for these little numbers here. a BIG hit for the kids and soooooo easy! if you know me, even a little, then you know that i do not COOK, nor BAKE! never, ever really.i’m not kidding. and even i could do it!)

instead of these decadent treats, lea got to eat these:

looks tasty, doesn’t it?! not really sure what it really is. leave it to my sis to search out some sort of gluten, dairy, nut, egg, everything else that’s tasty, free. we dropped one of these on the floor and i think it’s still stuck there. sure am glad i could scarf down a couple slices of strawberry shortcake instead of eating one of these “cupcakes”.

lucky for us, little lea doesn’t know the difference. she seemed to think they were quite tasty.

or maybe not. she doesn’t look so sure about it.

nevermind. that looks like a sign of approval.

have at it little lady. your not going to have many more chances to inhale a cupcake in nothing but a diaper and a bow.

happy birthday baby girl. aunt gigi loves you (even though you walked all over my celebration!)

if you have ever eaten a truffle, ever in your life, if it wasn’t from the 5th Avenue Chocolatier, it wasn’t the real deal. i was hooked at first bite! creamy chocolate heaven, wrapped in a semi-sweet powdery goodness…it really is like a little wooden box of heaven.

5th Avenue Chocolatier is owned, and has been since 1974, by the wonderful Whalley family, fortunately for me, they are like family to me (not fortunate for my hips!). their stuff is out of this world, rich, creamy, and just to die for! you really have to give it a try!

this past week we came home to one of the best surprises EVER!! besides a bag full of my favorite truffles (i have a standing agreement with the Whalley’s that when i shoot their family they pay me in chocolate) there was another surprise for me (and for kira)

that’s right! a solid chocolate camera of goodness!

kira really got a kick out of it! it was killing her to have to hold back and not take a bite…and then i let her have at it!

and she did

she really did a number on it!

lindz felt left out…we gave her a “fake” chocolate face…you have no idea the tantrum that would have persued if she got her hands on this bad boy!

thank you Whalley family from the bottom of my now big old chocoate filled butt!

you MUST ger yourself some of these treats!! head over here to grab some! need a gift? is there really anything better than chocolate? send someone their own little piece of bliss!

got 5 more just like it. baby girl held that little pose for about 15 frames. apparently she was making a point and wanted to make sure we all got it!

i have officially filed “eats finger foods” under august 23, 2009.

lindz loves her some cheerios, i think?

Not sure why she checks each one but she does. leave her be aboout it.

she gets a good grip and opens REAL wide. apparently she thinks she is eating her first plate full of filot mignon and not an itty bitty o.

almost ready.

delish!

or not!?

all that work for this!?

think she has any idea? lets try that again.

way to go lindz! you’ve got it now!

she’s losing it!! why is that “o” still on her finger and not in her mouth!? how is she not getting it in the big gapping hole in her face, even with the help of TWO hands!

good save! she is surely enjoying her treat now!

oh lord! not again!

now its wet and stuck to her little fingers.

and now its stuck to her face! AGAIN!

this is going to the start of some LONG snack times and tons of clean up. there must be 298 cherrios in her seat. she cleared the tray 5 times over. i was so proud thinking she ate them all up!! mama was boosting about how good little baby girl was doing with finger food.

just when i thought it was time rename all those saved files marked 8.23.09 to some later date….

we’ve got chewing people!! something made it in there! officially marked successful in my digital baby book of memories.

way to go little one, you take as long as you need t eat your “o’s”. gives mama some blogging time

and she’s out of here!

 gone are the days of staying put. it’s all down hill from here. better go find my kids!

it’s frustrating. exhausting. a true pain in the butt.

today i had a delirious moment. i thought it might be “the” day i got a picture of the girls together. i have only waited 8 months to do it! i pulled out the stand, rolled out the paper, fluffed up the fur and quickly cleaned up my rug rats and attempt the “shot”.

for all you doubters who don’t believe that i have to beg, bribe, and threaten my children (child that is, lindz is just starting to run from me and at 8 months old has not yet learned the art of negotiation) today i introduce you to “a session with my kids”. straight out the camera and outtakes included, of course.

i took 187 pictures (not kidding) in our 37 minute “session”. here is just a little tidbit of what i got.

apparently Lindsay smelled like “something”. Kira couldn’t put here finger on it but it was something gross.

p.s.-she was fresh from a scrub down, clean diaper and all. Kira’s first attempt to get out of the shoot. but apparently still smelly.

not sure what they didn’t understand about SIT UP! I said it loud enough to wake up a sleeping cat 3 blocks away.

we’ve just started and lindz is already sooo over it!

how dare i think it would be easy to get them looking at me. even as i sing, dance, whistle and basically act like a fool.

lindz saw something that looked edible.

she’s really a lost cause now!

the rug is itchy.

my back hurts.

im hungry.

oh just forget it.

oh wait someone wants a solo now that i have given up. i didn’t want yet another portrait of just k but i better grab it while i can.

i don’t even know what this is. and i really have nothing to say about it.

she agreed to continue only if “blankie” can be in the shot! just what i needed, a shot of a blanket. but i agreed. i had to deal with it if i was going to be able to continue.

back to being hungry. note the bag of goldfish.

and of course. my last resort. let her play the games we ALWAYS have to play. whether it be one, two, three…OPEN.

freeze dance.

or the ever popular “kid picks the pose”

not sure who she thinks she is!

and then, like clockwork, i get the “mom i’m really done face”.

and i pack it in, hook up the camera to the computer and say a pray, or two. sometimes i find a nice surprise.

when did that happen? .00534% success rate, i’ll take it!

it’s the same thing over and over. it never really changes. but the kids love it. every glow in the dark necklace is just as exciting as the first. and the routine never changes.

the girls wait anxiously. their love/hate relationship spikes during a bought of anxious boredom.

love

hate

boredom

looks like love, but i’m not quit sure

last year was the first year the girls really “got it” and they wanted to go on every ride, over and over and over and…you get the point. i was enormous and miserably pregnant last year so i didn’t get to enjoy the excitment as much. i was on official purse patrol, the entire summer!

i thought i was going to have my turn but this year the girls got to enjoy the attractions on their own. i did do the “big” slide though. do those potato sacks need to be that itchy? really? can’t we come up with something a little less harsh on the coolie and just as slippery?

they rode the typical kiddie rides. dumbo (kira has not yet been to disney world, she doesn’t know yet that it’s not the real deal…and don’t any of you tell her! october will be here soon enough!), the carousel, the monkey maze.

by chance we met up with huner and lizzie, the girls cousins. boy were they excited and just in time to fill up a tub, of fun. doesn’t look like much fun to me. looks like an accident waiting to happen.

i vaguely remember asking hunter to watch out for girls and if they wanted the ride to slow down, that HE was in charge of stopping this barf machine from spinning. he happily agreed .

apparently he did not understand what i was saying!

i saw my little precious thing spinning wildly and i got more and more nervous with every turn. but she was having fun. i bottled up the anxiety and just kept clicking.

i’ve told you that aly has a really hard time sitting still. it is very apparent that even while spinning at the speed of light, she finds it necessary to want to evacuate the tub, not out of fear, she has none, but because it might add to the fun she is already having!

good lord, she makes me nervous.

we yelled.

she listened.

just watching them made my stomach queasy. i thought for sure that would be the end of the evening. nope back to the monkey maze. 47 more times. we were surely done now. exhausted, filthy and feet aching. nope. a fair is never complete without a big ball of sugar on a stick, an hour before bedtime.

it’s sticky and almost void of any flavor at all. it dissolves before it even hits your taste buds, so why do we bother? as nasty as it i, you just have to spend the $6, take a taste and then toss 3/4 of it in the trash. and as you walk to the car, you spend 36 minutes discussing how gross it is.

then we went home. soaked in the tub and watched the filth filter down the drain. got in jammies and called it a night. i think a post fair shower is a close second to the just got home from the beach shower. i love summer. whens the next fair?

it wasn’t an immediate sense of elderness. it kinda just creeped up on me. as the teeny boppers and fellow graduates rolled in, it started to hit me. even if i tried, they would all look at me as…old!

we tried. we tried real hard to fight the feeling. my hubs more than me. who do you think you are playing a college game like beer pong?

looks like you need some practice buddy. object is to get the ball IN the cup, not as far away as possible.

kelly reminded the hubs that he would in fact be considered the creepy old guy at the college party if we ever decided to take the drive to visit her at school.

i agreed!

he doesn’t seem to think so. and tried to prove it to himself and apparently everyone else that this wasn’t the truth. oh sweetie, it is soooo the truth.

leave the darn kids alone. they don’t want to hear what it was like partying in the early 90’s when seattle grunge was taking over and nirvana and pearl jam were all the rage. (p.s.-they are laughing at you not with you!)

jen tried to keep up with a quick game of badmitton. that’s going to hurt in the morning.

(i’m going to get in trouble for that one!)

hey craig…guess what? your old too!! (happy birthday by the way, to the best bro-in-law around! yet another year older today!)

we’re no longer able to sit at the kiddie table. we’ll have to stay off to the side with the “old” people. sorry mom i didn’t mean it literally. isn’t my mom the most beautiful  ever.

she has some pretty snazzy feet too! or at least she thinks so. it’s her trademark.

i’ll just sit over here with gram. she loves to chat it up. telling stories about bingo and the olden days.

to be young again. carrying kids around on your back without needing a tylenol the next day just to get out of bed.

enjoy it kids. you won’t be young forever. unless of course you are aunt lee.

she still keeps up with the kids. her constant competitive nature leaves her no rest for the weary. i mean it…she will make a game out of anything, just so she can rub it in when she wins!

thanks steve. thanks for having us at your “don’t you feel old party”. your not old yet…but i think you are old enough to lose the juice box!

good luck in all you do and have fun getting old!