Rain, Rain Go Away!

I was so disappointed when I woke up to rain this morning. I was really looking forward to a shoot I had scheduled. I'm hoping to get the family rescheduled sometime in the next week.

Would you believe Kate is sick? She graduates on Wednesday, so she has some recovery time. She has cold symptoms with a low grade fever and body aches. She has had such a rough year. I'm hopeful that her first year of college will be much better.

Jake had a bad dream Friday morning. He woke up crying which is so unusual for him. Dan went in his room to carry him in to ours. Jake kept crying and saying, "My cozies are in the street." It took at least 10 minutes to settle him down and convince him that his cozies were safe. 

Now I'm trying to figure out how to occupy Jake today while it's raining. I think Dan may be taking him to the coin shop. Last week Dan pulled out some coins left from his collection and let Jake play with a few of them.

Jake just yelled, "Angie, where are you?" I guess that is my signal to get off of the computer now!

I have a few pictures to share before I go.

Jake did this portrait of Mommy at school  for Mother's Day.

This is my sleepy boy with one of his favorite breakfast requests...waffles.

We had Baccalaureate Mass last week for Kate. She took my breath away when she entered the chapel.  She looked so beautiful with her blond hair and that black dress.

The Fight

My kids had a fight the other day, and I LOVED it! Kids who are 15.5 years apart in age don't usually fight. The part I loved is that they were fighting over ME!

"She's my Mommy!"

"No...she's mine!"

"Mine!"

"She's mine!"

They went back and forth like this for the longest time. I got such a kick out of it.

Here are my favorite shots of Gracie and Carly that I took last weekend.

Catching up.

I am finally getting around to posting my favorites from a shoot I did with Izzy. Someday I will be caught up.  Are you laughing?

My latest stress is about screen calibration. I got some test prints back from a local lab, and my new desktop screen was way too bright. I ran a Windows 7 calibration, but I need something more accurate. I've ordered calibration software and hope to have it soon. Now when I post pictures, I wonder what the rest of you are seeing!!!

I'm confused.

On Thursday I went to Jake's school for his Mother's Day party. We brought flowers for Mary and placed them by her statue. I brought roses from my miniature pink rose bush.

After the flowers and a few songs including Rocking Baby Jesus (much improved version), we went inside for a snack that was prepared by the children.

Jake ate everything on the plate but the cheese. That he left for me.

After snack, I looked around the room for Colleen. He talks about her all the time. After school we ask him who he played with that day. He says, "I played ball with Colleen."  He says this every single school day. I was pretty sure I knew which girl this was. I didn't see her. I saw her aunt and cousin and asked them if Colleen was sick and missed the party. Her aunt informed me that Colleen dropped out of preschool last October. OCTOBER!!!!  Jake?? Seriously??  I am so confused. Apparently Jake is, too, or he has an imaginary friend named Colleen. 

If you are wondering about my Rocking Baby Jesus reference, maybe you didn't see the Christmas video.
Send me an email to the address on the right side, and I'll hook you up.

The Turtle

We had a first today. We've lived here for 15 years, and I've never seen a turtle in our yard. Jake was looking out of his bedroom window and yelled that he saw a turtle. I was thinking that it wasn't possible. We never see turtles around here. I looked out his window and couldn't believe my eyes. Believe it or not, the silly thing was moving fast, so we hurried outside. Of course, I grabbed my camera on the way. It was so funny to watch Jake with the turtle. He was timid at first...just watching. He progressed to touching. After awhile, he got brave enough to pick it up. I loved watching the progression through my camera lens.

I didn't get a chance to post any pictures from our trip to the park yesterday. Jessie called to say they were there and ask if we wanted to join them. It was perfect, since I'm not willing to take both Izzy and Jake by myself. Izzy had a great time with all the girls. Jake was a little clingy. He's been that way for the past 2 weeks...more than usual. I'm not sure why. It might be the antihistamines I'm giving him for allergies. Jake even refused to pose for the group picture. Izzy had to grab him later.

What do you think?

I made the blog layout larger and was able to enlarge the photos.  Do you like it?

I've been trying to narrow down my website purchase. It's between 2 different sites, and there are definite pluses and minuses to each.  Tomorrow I must decide!

I started trying to potty train. Jake was actually willing to wear big boy pants all day. The problem...he still won't keep them dry. He'll only go to the potty when he's naked. We had a bit of a problem with naked tonight. He accidentally pinched his you know what in his Nascar Pez dispenser!!! It was traumatic for Jake and Mommy! Are you wondering about Dan's reaction? "He'll never do that again." That was it. That was all we got.

So Busy.

I feel so behind. This weekend was so busy. We had lots of fun and lots to celebrate; but, when I'm not home, I feel like I lose control of my house.  I tried to get things organized today, but it was so beautiful outside. Jake and I spent a couple of hours in the sun cleaning the outside toys.

Despite the weekend craziness, Kate and I did knock out the graduation invites and announcements. I think I've mentioned before that we were disagreeing on the party plans. She wanted something small. Then she decided to invite 40+ people. That number plus just immediate family and a few close friends of ours now spells big party. I'm really trying not to stress.  We found a bakery this weekend that doesn't use high fructose corn syrup in their icing, so we are ordering petit fours from them. Kate wants palm trees on the petit fours. I got the paper products ordered today in her favorite colors...lime green and turquoise. I also planned Jake's birthday party for late June and ordered the favors for the treat bags. 

It's all coming along and now maybe I'll have time this week to work on my website. My new goal is to have it up and running by late June.

I took this cute shot at Gracie's First Communion on Saturday. Kate was the only missing cousin. I wish I had better luck getting Jake to smile!

Now to make this post even more random, I must share my Target excitement from today. I finished unloading my purchases and realized that a bunch were missing...big stuff! I was missing 2 movies (The Blindside and It's Complicated...in case you were wondering), Target brand Tylenol and Motrin (since the name brands are recalled right now), 3 t-shirts for Jake, and a bottle of vitamins. I called the store hoping the cashier had turned it in. I knew I had emptied my cart completely once I got to my car, so I was sure it must have been left in the store. No one had turned it in. They weren't willing to immediately replace everything since there were so many items. It was going to have to be reported to the regional powers at Target and investigated. I wasn't a happy camper. I was polite over the phone with customer service, but I did voice my displeasure. Well, it's a good thing I don't embarrass easily. I was on the phone with the customer service department when I located the bag in my car. Duh. It's not completely my fault. Jake had pulled the bag from the back area of the car onto the floor between the second row seats. I need to be more aware when I'm loading and unloading my car...and always remember that Jake moves quickly! ;)

Jake cracked us up tonight. Dan pulled a dvd out of the player and asked where the case was. Jake said, "There it is, silly!" That was a first.

I think Jake is cutting more teeth. Are there 3 year molars? I haven't googled it yet. He's been cranky, coughing a little bit, and very clingy.

Here are some shots from my George and Sam photo shoot from last week.

  After the shoot, we went to get burgers with the boys and Kathy, Em, Izzy, and my parents. You have to have a good sense of humor when you go out to eat with 4 little kids. Jake discovered vanilla shakes there. Fast food meals will never be the same.

I think Sam's face says it all in this shot. This was how I was feeling, too!

I think I set the record for longest, most random post.