What a beautiful day!

Today was so beautiful out! I figured since I had nothing to do today, but pick up the kids from school, that it was a perfect opportunity to go on a little adventure with Dane and take some landscape pictures. We packed a lunch and some camera's and headed for Larrabee State Park. After an hour drive we finally arrived to find it was closed for paving! ARGH! So we headed for the more crowed Boulevard Park. It wasn't too bad though and Dane and I took a nice long walk from the park to the end of the boardwalk. He had a good time and it was very relaxing for me. Its nice to get out of our little town for a while and be in a different city, even if its only 20 minutes away. Different scenery, different people, I can just relax. And of course the sunshine makes everything better for me! Here are some pics of the day...

Snacks

I have just a little rant today. I don't know about anyone else but I HATE snacks! No, not my nightly snacks while I sit and watch Biggest Loser, but sports snacks. I have 3 kids. They are all in sports. For some reason, every sport requires you to take a turn bringing snacks for all the kids. This drives me crazy! I mean, it was cute the first couple times when they were in preschool, or kindergarten, but come on...my son is in the 4Th grade. Haven't we moved past the cuteness of it? He is there to play ball, not wonder what snack Joeys mom brought that day. And don't get me wrong, I love myself a good cupcake, cookie, or fruit leather, and I have even been known to buy a yummy licorice rope at the concession stand, but jeez, my kids game gets over at 8pm and I really don't want him to eat a bunch of sugar. OK, but here is my real problem with it now... no one asked me to sign up to bring them, now, they just make a schedule of WHEN you need to bring your snacks.

Please, oh please, snack Nazis....its hard enough for me to remember to bring snacks and water for my own kids, I don't want to be responsible for yours too!

busy busy bees

I have been slacking again in the blog area. Been so busy around here with kids sports and I have been doing a lot of picture sessions. So just editing away. Tonight I plan on bringing my big guns (the wonder lens) out to the t ball fields. I miss taking pictures of my own kids. If you head on over to my photo blog though, I will be posting some pics of some recent shoots.

new photos

Nothing new on the home front, but check out today's photo shoot on my photo blog HERE.

My niece Presley

My brother, his wife, and my precious niece came down for dinner tonight. My little niece is so cute! I just want to squeeze and kiss her cheeks all day. I can't wait for them to go on a vacation and leave her behind with me...someday.

First day of Tee Ball

Today was Dane's first day of Tee Ball. He was so excited this morning. He kept asking when we were going to his baseball. Finally the time rolled around to leave so he got to put on his new baseball cleats the Easter bunny left him, had his big league chew in his sweatshirt pocket, and his bottle of Gatorade. He smiled the whole way through practice, which consisted of running bases, learning the right way to put on your mitt, and how to throw the ball. It was so cute, it made my heart melt just watching my baby turning into this big boy. Where does the time go? I can't believe he is 3 1/2 already. Here are some pics of my big boy today.

Long day

My guy was tuckered out by the end of the day today. Since Maia has been sick for the last couple days, we haven't had a chance to get out and run errands. So we spent most of the day in Bellingham, the boys needed new shoes and all that good stuff. They were so well behaved for me that I decided I would take them to Monsters vs. Aliens. I was pleasantly surprised with the movie, enough adult humor to make it worth watching. It made Dane laugh quite a bit and when he laughs it always makes me laugh and I would watch any movie in the world just to hear him laugh like that. So here is my tuckered out little guy, fell asleep playing with his cars.

Baseball camp

The weather has been incredible! Thank God, because I wasnt sure just how much more I could take. Was about ready to pack the bags and take a real long vacation to somewhere much warmer. I hear Mexico is cheap. I dont eat much, usually. So it is spring break and I have all 4 of the kids. I promised them yesterday that we would head to the batting cages, but of course Maia got sick and there was no way I was going to be able to get her anywhere. That really bummed the boys out, they were really looking forward to it. But I tried to make up for it by playing hours of pitching to them so they could hit. I dont think it was the same for them though. But today they went to the high school for a baseball clinic. They thought that was pretty cool to have the high school boys teaching them. 20 bucks got them a full day of baseball, a tshirt, prizes and lunch. Davis said he ate 2 hot dogs and 5 rice crispy treats. Best 20 bucks I have spent all week. I tried to get some photos of them, but they didnt turn out so great. Here they are anyway.

Dane was very upset he had to leave. Unfotunately this made him a little monster while the boys were gone.

I am trying to upload more pictures, but my computer is being fussy. So hopefully I can get more on later. peace out.

Photoshoots

Because it is just too much work to post the same post twice...I did a couple photo shoots with friends and some of their pictures are posted on my photo blog. If you want to see them head on over there Roxsey. I am going to try to separate the photo shoots from my family blog. Anyway, check em out if you like, comment, I love comments. Now I have to get 2 boys ready for a baseball camp today. I promised them pancakes and sausage before they go.

The Bode's

I should be getting ready for church, but I just couldn't resist putting a few of these pictures up. I will post more of them later, but here are a few of my favorites!

An evening out with the Beav..

Last night I went to an art show. I have never been to one before, but my dear friend JJ was putting in on and it was just in town. JJ is really Jessica, but I have called her that since we were in high school. Not sure why or how we came up with that nick name for her. I think she had a few nicknames for me too, but we wont get into that. Anyway, you have to check out her stuff. She is an awesome artist and definitely one of the craziest people I know. Here is the link to her stuff... Slowshirts. I will even share a story about JJ...she made me do things I probably should never have.

One day, when we were only 15 years old, she insisted that she had to go to the mini market a few miles away. She insisted that we drive her parents Suburban, without parents. She had her learners permit, all would be just fine. So I caved to the pressure and agreed, but I wasn't driving. Well, we made it to the mini mart, but we had to duck and hide in the Suburban for about 10 minutes because JJ saw someone her dad knew. But, then she insisted we just drive into Fred Meyers because she needed to get a gift for a friend. "NOO, we can't do that, we will get caught!" I say. "No we wont", she says. So off we go. We actually made it to Freds and back and just pulling into the driveway when one of her sisters walks out of the house.

"What are you guys doing?!" JJ and her quick thinking skillz says "We were just pulling the car out for so we could wash it for Dad." I am not sure if her sister believed us or not but we did end up washing the car and never getting caught for it.

We did a lot of crazy things, too many to mention, but we had fun.

So anyway, my other dear friend Kate, over at Life As I Live It, was nice enough to join me. I know it was last minute and I had to beg and plead for her to come with me, Okay not really, she was more than willing. After we were done looking at the art, we thought it was probably necessary to celebrate being out with no kids so we went to Ishka ( I know I am spelling this wrong, but that's how it sounds when you say it) and had a thick beer. You look silly if you order Coors Light, and I didn't want to look silly. We left there pretty quickly because of the insanely loud Irish band playing. Then we headed over to Scotty B's or Scotty Browns, I cant remember which it is called, but it is a new place in Bellingham. It was really nice inside. Reminded me of a Vegas place. I am glad we dressed up a bit to go out, I would have looked out of place in a tshirt and tennis shoes. Not a place for kids. We had some really good food and laughed a lot. I did bring my camera with me (surprising huh?) but I was going to take pictures at the art show and didn't. I really wanted to pull it out and take pictures of Scotty's but it just didn't feel right, so I secretly stuck the lens out of my purse and tried to aim at Kate. She didn't want me to take her picture. Not sure which finger she is holding up...

Still didn't get very good aim, but I had to stop, people were starting to look over. She was causing such a commotion...

Please don't kill me.