In a Nutshell: Family Photo Shoot FAIL

I can't even remember the last Week in a Nutshell post I wrote.

I have not written about this cute family of mine in awhile. I used to be really good at documenting our week and all our antics. I probably should get better at that.

I just had to share our Family Photo Shoot FAIL. First, because it was HEE-larious (looking back of course). Second, because it was definitely one of the "keeping it real" moments.

We got awesome family photos taken last July. They were perfect and beautiful, taken by a professional. When it came to our Christmas card photos though, I needed another another photo. I wanted one a little more seasonal. So I decided to do what I have done before and take care of it myself.

It is getting colder around here, so I knew I was running out of "good" weather. So this week I gathered up outfits from their closets. I warned them that after school that day we would be going to take pictures. I even offered a bribe of hot chocolate if they did well. They seemed on board. I was pretty excited.

I knew the location I wanted and it was close to home.

I figured, it was in the bag.

I figured horribly wrong. There was no bag. There was no "on board". There was definitely no hot cocoa drinking...well except Oldest, he was very helpful as the photos will document.

Instead I had four boys (one being a toddler), vanishing sunlight, cold weather, and stinky attitudes.

My best laid plans, rapidly came crashing down. The first problem came when I forgot that Oldest had piano lessons, so we couldn't leave until 4:45. That wouldn't seem like a big deal, but here by 4:45 the sun is getting ready for it's farewell for the day. No begging would seem to stop it.

By the time that we got to my warehouse location, there was pretty much no sunlight. So even with a good lens, I knew the pictures probably wouldn't turn out.

I thought I would give it  try anyway.

However, then the baby wrangling began.

He was less than pleased being wrangled.

He was less than cooperative. Even with all my "helpers".

Even if I got him to sit still, or took one with out him, silly faces abounded.

There were also angry faces, and "mom-this-is-lame-faces".

There was yelling, crying, kicking, rock-throwing, and not all just by me.

So I gave up. I figured I would either try another day or I would just send another photo.

I had failed to plan for all the contingencies, mainly one very cute, but very active toddler.

I can't say it was all their fault. I rushed it. I was a tad cranky.

Oh well. What are ya gonna do but laugh at it all. I have since recovered. They have since recovered. We have since done a different photo shoot that turned out much better. So fingers crossed I can get a warm and fuzzy Christmas card sent.

I sure do love being a mom to boys, even on the days that I want to pull my hair out.

In a Nutshell: Spring Break

I haven't posted an In a Nutshell post in a really long time.

I hope you will indulge me in sharing an itty bitty bit of our recent Spring Break.

We had a great time spending time as a family. The boys especially loved having Gram and Papa here. Just after that their favorite part was of course being out of school.

We made a trip to the library, where of course the books of choice were those about dinosaurs and dinosaur poop.

We flew kites that Gram and Papa brought. The weather was especially windy that day. They boys frantically ran back and forth in one direction trying to stay with the wind and keep their kites up.

We made our way to our local farming store and visited the chicks, ducks, and bunnies. They were super cute and looked really fluffy. We will never know though because there was no holding allowed.

So we just "awed" from the other side of the glass.

Toward the end of Spring break week it was time to get ready for Easter.

We made sugar cookies. We made funny faces. We ate cookie dough. We colored Easter eggs. Some of us in sweet muscle tees. The Easter Bunny hid our eggs and we went on a hunt to find them.

Bean very patiently shared his time with all the other siblings. He wasn't quite sure about what to do with them around all week. However, he did eat up all the attention he got from his brothers and his grandparents.

We also celebrated Little's birthday.

We celebrated with presents and balloons. We celebrated with kisses, hugs, and ice cream cake.

He didn't see the need to use silverware. After all it is his birthday, so he shouldn't have too.

Spring Break ended with Easter Sunday.

We dressed up all our Little Men for Church. Aren't they handsome?

 

We had such a great week. I feel blessed to have had our little family all together for so much of the week. I am one lucky wife and Momma.

In a Nutshell: Thankful for my Littles

Our week was busy this week, as I am sure was most people's. The holiday season makes time fly by.

Then on Friday time stopped. 

A tragedy beyond words, thousands of miles away had me in my chair quietly sobbing.

I prayed. I cried. I prayed more. I cried more.

I then wiped my tears and went in search for my Littles.

I gave them a right good huggin' and kissin'.

Today I am a little more aware of what I have.

My prayers and thoughts are with that sweet little town and the babies and loved ones lost.

In a Nutshell: SNOW and Party Madness

 

At approximately 4:30 in the a.m. on Thursday morning, I was walking through the house. What!?!

That would be the truth. Yup folks, my super cute baby still gets up in the a.m. to inhale a feeding.

Anywhooo...

So I was up in the a.m and noticed that it was unusually bright outside, especially for an early Fall morning. I was super puzzled then a light bulb went off.

Immediately in my head I groaned, "Noooooooo!"

I opened the blinds and sure 'nuff, the ground was covered in white stuff. Hahaha, I totally just rhymed.

While I was a little sad at the immediate ending to Fall, my most favorite season, I was excited for my Little Men. They LOVE, luuhve the snow.

When they came upstairs to get ready for school and saw that I had set out snow boots, they immediately ran to the window. Thanks to the snow we had one of our chipperest mornings ever.

They got ready in speed time and happily walked out the door.

By the time Middle and Little came home from school, they were both all to happy to head back outside and have some fun in the snow.

They made giant snowballs.

They made smaller snowballs. Middle may also have been caught putting those small snowballs in the hood of Little's coat.

There was lots of snow throwing and lots of stomping around.

There was lot sand lots of happiness.

The other big thing this week was getting ready for Middle's 6th birthday.

This was my first birthday party since becoming a Momma to four Little Men. I will admit it was really rather tough to pull off. There were plenty of moments were I just wanted to scrap it all and buy some pizzas and let them all play video games.

Since I had promised Middle an Avengers party, and because that made him super duper excited, I stuck with the whole shindig.

We had tons of fun and I think the party was a success.

Here is a sneak peak for now. I will post about all our Avenger fun next week.

Have a happy and lovely Sunday.

In a Nutshell: My Boys

I am feeling a bit hormonal sappy this week.

Sometimes in the midst of check-lists, obligations, appointments, errands, menu-making, projects and such I forget to stop and notice the really important going-ons around me.

I forget, if you will, to take out my mental camera and capture the precious moments.

My precious moments involving four Little Men gifted to me by a very, very generous Heavenly Father.

Part of this week was spent with Hubby out of town. While there is a bit of hanging on by my teeth and just waiting for him to come home, I have tried to cherish the just Mom and boys time. Besides a few moments of utter chaos and pure desperation, we have had a good time.

I have four delight boys that are delightfully different. I am proud to be their Momma. I am beyond grateful.

Allow me to further the sappiness by sharing pictures I have taken of each of them recently. None of them for project, blog, or portrait purposes.

I took them as a Mom wanting to keep a memory.

Oldest:

I was actually taking pictures for a food post coming soon.

As I was putting my camera away, he said I should take a picture of him

taking a bite of a muffin.

I love that I captured his one dimple.

I love that I know he was making a thumbs up indicating "yum good".

I love that he came up with the idea.

I love that this was his little way of supporting all my blog craziness.

I am glad I let dinner get just that much colder so I could snap his picture too.

Middle:

He is all about being a football player.

His favorite thing to do is put on his Ohio State jersey...

(Yup he is still an Ohio State fan even in Idaho)

and his football shorts.

(That is what he calls his pj shorts)

He sleeps in this outfit.

He wants to wear it all day.

He wants me to sew foam into it so he can be a real player with pads.

I even let him wear this to the store.

Someday the football won't look so giant in his hands. 

Little:

Gah, I LOVE that face.

His little squinty-eyed grin.

I love that you can tell he is saying "cheese".

We were off to preschool again.

This day I was in love with his rockin' outfit and just had

to snap a picture.

He has been so excited to be in preschool.

Every day he asks if he gets to go to school.

All of his new pants he calls his "preschool pants". 

Bean:

Oh that face. 

Can anyone get enough of that face.

I haven't made it a secret to anyone that Bean was a surprise to our family.

What a wonderful, utterly fantastic surprise!

I snapped this picture of him hanging out while I was doing something or other...like I feel I always am.

He sits there content most of the time. I wanted to capture how he puts up with me leaving him in his chair.

Instead I captured this. This is the face he makes when I or anyone else he loves comes near.

Immediate grin.

Which produces more immediate grins from anyone close by.

Can you see those teeny tiny adorable teeth?

Thanks for letting me go on about my love for these boys.

I am a normal Momma and not every second of every day is sunshine and roses. There are days when I am simply commanding the somewhat insolent troops through the trenches.

But they are my troops and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Thanks again for letting me indulge in the sappiness.

Have you indulged lately in what makes you sappy?

I highly recommend it. It will be good for you heart.

In a Nutshell: College Football-Go Cougars!

As you might expect of a houseful of boys, we like ourselves some football.

The boys are pretty content to play a rousing game of two hand touch/tackle madness. They can't make up their mind if they should just tag it out or if they should clothesline each other. So they basically do both.

Sometimes they play with the neighborhood boys.

Sometimes when everyone is busy, they are happy playing with just the two of them.

When there are just two players the rules are little different, and to be honest I couldn't explain them to you even if you offered to pay me.

Some things look familiar. Hut, hut, hike.

They can give a good smack down when necessary.

Tuck that ball in.

Run Forest, run!

You know what we love more than backyard football...

College football.

BYU football to be specific.

Hubby and I both graduated from the Y. We love watching the Cougars play.

We are raising a new generation of Cougar Fans.

This was their very first live BYU football game. I was sad to miss it, but I know they had fun.

I wonder if they learned some more rules to apply to their backyard football game.

In a Nutshell: Housiversary, Preschool, and Pears

2012

We have now had our 1 year Housiversary.

The year has been quite eventful. Most notably, the addition of a child.

We have had a wonderful year and have all adjusted well to our move. We have spent the year filling our new home with memories and making it our own. We are still in the process of hanging pictures up...not kidding folks, I still have many a bare wall. However, we have done redone four rooms...all while I was LARGE with child.

Our boys love our new home and have made many friends. Our neighborhood is just marvelous and the best if I do say so. I can't believe how much they have grown in this last year.

2011

Crazy right??? Did anyone notice that Little doesn't look like he has grown much...hahaha. We are still waiting for him to hit is growth spurt.

This week was also the first week of school. Not just for the older two, which I wrote about HERE, but also for Little.

We haven't done a legit preschool before. I was always on the fence about that fact that I was able to do it at home weighed with the cost that preschool can have. For many reasons, we decided preschool would be a good thing for Little.

He has been so excited and was quite disappointed that he didn't get to start school the same day as the older two.

On his first day he was super duper excited.

He got his very own first day of school photo shoot via Mom.

He wasn't very happy about it at first.

He was upset that I was cutting into his preschool time.

He perked up quickly when I told him just a few more and then we would head off to preschool.

I got to go with him for the first day, and let's just say I was amazed and astounded at the very lovely preschool he is able to go to.  I am happy to know the teacher, happy that it is so close, and happy that he has his very bestest friend in class with him.

I am so excited for him.

With 3 out of the 4 starting school, I was looking forward to some extra quite and peace this week. I even thought for a minute that I might get to sit on my fanny for a minute.

False.

I forgot that I had 40+ pounds of these lovelies.

When I canned peaches a couple of weeks ago with my mom and sister, my mom informed me that canning peaches was no big deal, it was pears she hated to can.

Really, I thought. Worse than the sticky mess that was canning peaches?

TRUE!

Who would have thought it. They were worse.

I may never want to peel another pear. Well at least until next summer. I think that will be enough time for me to have repressed the memory.

Over two days and with the help of my magnificent husband we turned all those pears into 80+ pints of canned goodness.

I can definitely say that the result was worth the trouble.

I love seeing my growing supply of canned goods. They taste better than store bought and they are cheaper. Plus there is something to be said for seeing all those jars and saying, "Dude! I totally did that!"

Have a marvelous Sunday!