So, I have this super-talented friend (shout out to Brenda A!) who takes these fantastic shots of things like cupcakes, caramel corn, or the pocket on a pair of jeans. They are so great, that I thought it would be fun to try and take some pictures that are different than the usual ones I take of my girls. They shall henceforth be know as "artsy pictures". So here are my best shots from painting with the girls in the culdesac yesterday afternoon. (Brenda, don't laugh!)





This one of Erin's feet is my favorite...

Recipe for a Tired Mom

Mix together in smallish, increasingly messy home:

2 sick three year-old twins

1 four week-old newborn

1 five year-old trouble-maker (sweet, but still trouble...)

Beat in 8 (yes, EIGHT) trips out of bed to various crying children

add a dash of colic

a pinch of hormones

Bake in pressure cooker @ 5,000 degrees

Watch out for boiling over or excessive tear production

Course : Ghetto Garage Sales 101

Professor : April "Cheapskate" Bishop

Lesson: How to humiliate yourself for $3.45

1. Drive past a garage sale with no money and no wallet

2. Impulsively decide that you should stop, "just to look..."

3. Find a small purchase (3 baby bottles for $1, for example)

4. Notice the ADORABLE little-man suits that your nephew would look adorable in

5. Loudly tell your daughters that you are going to see if you have enough money in the car (make sure garage sale host hears that you've been playing softball and have no wallet.)

6. Prayerfully search your ash tray for quarters

7. or dimes

8. or if you're desperate, nickles

9. Realize that you have a total of $3.45

10. Fill one hand entirely full of all your loose change

11. With an embarrassed grin ask the garage sale host that "If I put the bottles back, can I have the suit for... this? And hold our your handful of change.

12. Pretend to ignore the sniggering of other garage salers

13. Politely dump all your change on the little card table, pick up your new suit (Merry Christmas Alan!) and RUN!

14. Try and remind yourself that you'll never see any of those folk again... Until the next garage sale!!!

Class dismissed!

It's official! We are moving to Idaho Falls the second week of April 2009. Tom starts work on April 12th. Not suprisingly, my job as mother/slave driver/doctor/chef/maid/expert trampoline jumper will not change and just moves with us! We are excited to be closer to a lot of family and be able to get into a house that we actually fit into! We love our home here and have done a lot of work on it, but have outgrown it at least a kid and a half ago! Hopefully it will sell and hopefully I won't have a heart attack from the stress of keeping my home clean enough to show with four kids, five and under! I do have to say that I am heartbroken to leave our friends (and softball teams...) behind. We have been blessed with the best group of friends ever and I'm not sure that we'll ever be so lucky again. But this is the right thing for our family, so off to Idaho we go!

Favorite picture of the week!!

And it's no small miracle that I'm in it. I can't remember the last time that I loved a picture that I was actually shown in, but I love the feeling of this picture. It is Erin and me at the Tacoma Rainier's baseball game. The whole family had a great time (I'll post more pictures later...) but Erin was my little buddy for the second half of the game. What a sweetie.

Yet another beautiful day with the sprinkler and shaving cream... this is one of the girl's favorite things to do. (I think it feels naughty, but they don't get in trouble!) Brooke and her friend Mya and Alix had a great time. Erin wasn't interested and watered the flowers instead. I love the summer!

Now that Sam is two and a half weeks old... Here are some hospital pictures.

Mum and Tom (aka Dr. and Dr.) Ready to assist if needed in the c-section.






Sam being weighed and measured.
Here are the girls meeting her for the first(ish) time. They are amazingly sweet and gentle with her.




The proud mama, ready to go home. (A day early, so we could go to a funeral the next day...)



Brooke, Mom - holding Sam, Dad - holding Erin, and Alix. The whole family. So much estrogen... So little time!

SISTERS

Four little women inhabit our world
Dresses all over, sparkly and twirled
Four sisters to love and to hold
Four sisters to fight with and scold
A bond different from any other
Really, who needs a brother?

Four little women inhabit our home
In a few years we'll cancel our phone!
So much drama, so little time
At a garage sale, Brooke shares a dime
A brand new baby, with love they will cover
Really, who needs a brother?



Here are some pictures of the girls meeting their sister for the first time.

Alix holding Sam in the hospital

Brooke with Sam when she's a day old

Erin loving Sam on the first night she was home