Happy Birthday, Eliza!

In my regular fashion, I am wishing someone a happy birthday after the fact. I will admit that I am really bad at remembering dates, as in what date it is on a particular day. But, I am really good at remembering dates of actual birthdays. Remembering it on the actual day, however, proves to be difficult for me!

Yesterday, was my sister's birthday. I talked to her on the phone and wished her a happy birthday, but I wanted to do it here too. Apparently, Elizabeth had a bad day yesterday, in regular family fashion. We must have a tradition in having bad birthdays.

I am very grateful that she is my sister. Growing up, we were almost always together. I always looked up to her and wanted to be like her.

I can say that she is my best friend, and Cecily's idol.

I hope that her next birthday is better. I love you!

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Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Well, maybe just bears, or rather just one bear really. I was meaning to post about this earlier, but me being me, I forgot. Anywho, last weekend, the dogs were just going nuts and barking all night long. Come to find out, there was a BEAR in the neighbor's yard. I have never even heard of a bar coming all the way down here. It is likely that the poor thing was looking for water because it has been so dry lately. It hung out for a couple days under the neighbor's deck and even went into the crawlspace under their house. You'll have to excuse the lack of clarity, I did take the picture through a knothole through the fence. Yes, I am a nerd.

You check out some more pictures here.

It's been kind of a crazy year for bears here.

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Anyone Wanna Be My Guinea Pig?

Well, I need some practice taking photos in a session setting. I want to do some family and kid shots possibly even engagement shots. I won't charge anything, just give you prints at cost and I'd want release to use the photos for my portfolio. So, anyone want to be my guinea pig, or know anyone who'd be interested?

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Mamma Mia!

So, last night, we went and saw "Mamma Mia!" It was actually pretty sweet because we got in for free because Nate knows someone working there. We were actually pretty surprised by it. But hey, a free movie is always good!

Yes, we went with the kids. They actually loved it because of all the infectious ABBA songs. It was pretty mild content-wise with the PG-13 rating, which is great of course. It was really quite fun and enjoyable to watch, even Nate really liked it. Poor guys, they were greatly out numbered. There must have been 10 women for every man there.

The story was fun, but I had two major complaints: 1) My sexy Colin Firth was a gay guy (he did seem a bit uncomfortable in that position) and 2) The girl didn't get married so that they could travel around and have fun. What, you can't have fun when you are married?

Meryl Streep was definitely a highlight of the movie, she looked like she had a great time doing it.

I would certainly recommend it if you enjoy ABBA (even secretly), it was a lot of fun!

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Some Pictures of the Kids.

A couple weeks ago, before my mother in law was off her feet due to foot surgery, they had three of the four C kids to visit. Baby Wyatt, stayed at home. So, I took some pictures of the kids playing. I have been in a photo taking rut lately and have been trying to get out of it.


The older kids were all posing, so it is rather difficult to get what I'd consider a nice picture.

Here is a sampling of the day.

Jolie, being weird:

Gavin was using a crutch as a gun:

Cecily and Clara loved playing together. It was a constant cry for "Cessy" and "Cwara":

Notice Cecily wearing a robot shirt with a skirt. This is typical of what she likes.



Landon sits still, so I got a few cute pictures of him:


Emily and Landon:

This tomato sorta tasted good!:



Hello!


She's pretty cute!



Clara's taking the slide:

My pretty girl:

Aubrie and Landon:

Aubrie with her flower and greens salad creation:


I hope you enjoyed!

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Conjunctivitis?

I haven't taken a picture to add to this yet, but this morning, Cecily woke up with her left eye plastered shut by lovely green discharge. It was and is quite puffy around her bloodshot eye. I have been trying to keep it clean and it's already looking better. It seems like there is always something to worry about.

Bleh.

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Happy Belated Birthdays!

To my lovely brother, Matthew Aaron! Tuesday was his 28th! Man, we are getting old! Well, maybe just him! I love you!


And also to my little nephew, Wyatt Edward, who just had his first birthday yesterday!

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It's hot...

and not having air conditioning sucks. I am not a person that is big on summer. I mean, in the winter, there is basically no end to the layers you an put on yourself and the blankets you can put on your bed. But in the summer, there is a limit to what you can take off. And quite honestly, I don't think anyone wants to see me go past that limit. Thankfully, it should be cooler tomorrow.

I am trying to think it through, and the only big advantage I see in the summer of things you can do is swimming. But, I have not been in a pool for well over a year, and that is really sucky for me. Oh well.

The kids don't seem to mind and they have been enjoying playing in the water. On the back porch, I set out some basins of water and little cups for them to dump the water. It is literally hours of enjoyment for them and the porch is basically shaded for most of the day. Cheap entertainment!

The problem comes when we have to come inside. When I am trying to get something accomplished, they are busy somewhere making a mess that seems like it will take as long or longer to clean up than the thing I was already doing. Talk about frustrating. It is basically damage control everyday, all day. But I guess I can say they are playing together mostly tear free. But their exuberance plus the heat has me exhausted.

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Anyone want a two year old?

Free to a good home:

A poop squishing (meaning in her hands), permanent marker using (on herself, sister and the couch), sister pushing, screaming and yelling, grandma's collectible playing, but totally cute two year old girl.

She answers to Cess, Cessy, Cessa and Cecily. She is not potty trained, she usually eats with relative mess. She will dance to music and be totally content watching a Disney movie.

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Cordelia's Birthday Party

June 21, 2008

Two days after our Disneyland adventure, we had Cordelia's birthday party. Every one of the S______ kids were there. Of course, we neglected to take a picture. But it was a very busy time and we had fun, but I was a little stressed out. We had some sandwiches and cake. Unfortunately, we do not have many pictures, due to an oversight with the memory card. Oh well!

Oh yes, and it was also my brother Soren's 30th birthday! Happy birthday to him!

The kids playing.


Trying to light the candle:

This thing looks good!

It was!


Here is a series of videos of Cordelia with her cake. All told, it's about 5 minutes.

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Disneyland!

About a week and a half ago, we went to Disneyland. It was a whole lot of fun to meet up there with Eliza and Leigh and also Matt and Cristina. Of course, we had to pick the hottest day of the week (high of 104) to go there. Of course, everyone knows how much I love the heat (yeah, right). We finally got there at about 11 and we had to park and go to the trams, which took some time. Not to mention, after we slathered the girls in sunscreen, both of them rubbed it into there eyes. That, of course, led to their eyes being irritated for much of the day! Poor things, needless to say, I felt really awful about it. I guess the benefit was that they did not get sunburned! Especially poor Cecily, my white girl.

Cecily was excited to see Cinderella's castle. (please excuse the quality of these photos, as most were not taken with my camera.

Though she didn't really get into it until she went through Minnie and Mickey's houses and....

Met the mouse himself! She was practically bursting with excitement!

Don't we look hot? No really, don't we?


Cecily got to ride on the carousel and on the Dumbo ride, while the other grownups rode the big rides in shifts, and Cordelia slept. She had a great time. At lunch, she zonked out for a solid two hours!


Then she woke up in time for the parade, which was actually quite cheesy!:

A nice pic of Leigh and Weeza:

Eliza channeling Kirsten a little bit here:

The last ride of the day. The park closed earlier due to grad night. Weeza is part cat.

Then it was time to watch the fireworks:

And head out:

We tried to avoid the rush on the trams and hung out at Downtown Disney. We listened and danced to a band and then finally figured out how to walk to the parking structure. We dropped off Eliza and Leigh and headed home. Finally getting there at about 2 am!

We had a good time, but maybe next time we'll go when it's not as busy nor as hot. Much thanks to Eliza and Leigh for inviting us along!

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Piecing Together The Last Couple Weeks!

I seem to go in spurts with blogging, I am not very consistent, but I have several events and tidbits from the last 2 weeks or so that I will share. Please be patient!

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