Happy Anniversary!!

Hope you have a great anniversary, Jim and Nickie! We can't wait to see you!!!! The kids are THRILLED about coming out in August and I'm sure it's going to be such a great experience for them! Lots of love today and always!

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Things are crazy at the moment. Between sick kids, sick Rob, a video editing project that is way over my head, a rush photo montage job, several photo sessions, vacation planning, a recent friend sleepover, and the kids activities, we are just running non stop at the moment. Mostly good stuff but even too much of good stuff can be overwhelming! Needless to say, I haven't picked up my camera for fun in a couple of weeks! :-(

The light at the end of the tunnel (or at least a break in the tunnel) is Ryan's arrival on Sunday!!! We are all SOOOOO excited to have him here! We were disappointed to see today that he's moving right in his dorm on Sunday and will be tied up with school all week but we're still glad he'll be nearby and hopefully he'll be able to squeeze us into his busy schedule! I've already got all of Ryan's games laid out in my planner. Can't wait!!

Crazy Weeks!

Thank goodness it's not the end of the school year every week...things are crazy around here! Corey recently started baseball so that keeps us running a couple nights a week. He gets home from school at 4 and has to be at the field at 5:30 so we have a pretty small window to get everyone fed, homework done, clothes changed, and hopefully a little down time before we're out the door again! Unfortunately, I think it all caught up to him this weekend and he was quite ill on Saturday with a 102 degree fever. Poor guy. He spent the day on the couch vegging in front of the TV and was better by Sunday but he did have to miss dinner at some friends house so that was too bad.




Clare has also still had her cold and has been unusually cranky as a result. She's been missing some of the fun stuff going on lately too to give her some rest...hopefully she'll be better soon.


Emma just woke up with a bad cold today. Ugh! She's had a busy couple of weeks...SIX new teeth have come through (total of 8 now) AND she's started clapping and waving. Hopefully she'll get over this cold quickly.



Lilly is struggling with being out of school. She's way too social to be home all day so I'm sure she'll be thrilled to get to camp next week! We went out to lunch yesterday at Applebee's just to get out of the house for a bit and she ordered her new favorite food....Broccoli & Cheese soup. In fact, she liked it so much, she asked for a second bowl INSTEAD of having dessert!!!! I'm guessing it's not actually as healthy as it sounds but I'm so glad she's branching out and trying some new things.

I've been very busy with my photography stuff. I set up a new website which is still a work in progress but feel free to check it out... www.illustrationsphotos.com I also set up a blog for my photography so I don't have to bore you here with my session photos but I imagine there will be some overlap for a while. I have a newborn session scheduled for Thursday (a one week old), a 2-year old session on Friday, and I did an event session for the WI Upside Down Foundation (a support organization for families of children with Down Syndrome) on Sunday. Our neighbor, Robbin, is the President of the organization so she asked me to take photos at their picnic . I had a great time and really enjoyed all the little guys and gals. This is one of my favorite shots of a little doll named Brady.

Lovely Lilly-Bug

Lilly is out of school now and ready to be a kindergartner. She forgets sometimes that Corey is 18 months older than she is and my guess is that will be true for a long, long time. She's a real princess and very concerned about what she wears and how long her hair is. She has no interest in sports or anything else that could be considered "boyish". She's a little chatterbox and I keep telling myself "what goes around, comes around" since apparently I was the same as a 5-year old. :-) She did great at school this year and her teachers really like her. They always comment on how friendly she is and she does seem to get along with everyone which is so nice. Unfortunately, none of the kids from her class will be going to the the same school as her next year but we already know that she'll have the same teacher that Corey has this year and there are quite a few kids from the neighborhood who are starting Kindergarten also so she shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting...especially with big brother Corey around to show her how things work!



I've been taking a lot of pictures recently to practice my photography and Lilly is my favorite subject. She struggles with giving me silly grins but if I can catch her in a real smile, she looks beautiful. And she can pull off a hat great which I love!

Back From The Dells

We had the last week of our 1-year Dells package last week and it was great. The place we stay is a 3 bedroom/2 bath condo with really big closets that we use as bedrooms so we each have our own space...not to mention a full kitchen and a great view of Lake Delton. There is so much to do there and the highlight is always the waterpark, although really the attraction to the park for our kids are the rides! Well, the following pictures show you how that worked out:

Corey (and I) did all the big coasters at Mt. Olympus and had a ball. Sadly, I'm getting old and those wooden coaster really do my head in but I was so proud of Corey for being so brave so I sucked it up and we had a lot of fun!

Rob got off a bit easier but not too much! There was one of the bigger roller coasters that Lilly could ride and she did....again and again and again. Sometimes she was the only one on the entire ride and she would sit in the front seat with her arms high in the air! I was proud of her, too! Any athletic ability these kids get is from Rob but any sense of adventure they get is all me so I love to see it!!!



We convinced Lilly to try go-karts. She started the first lap in tears but after about the third lap she was having a ball. By the last lap she was back to tears because she didn't know how to get the go-kart to stop. Poor girl.


Clare loved the rides too. She was too small to go on even the smallest rides without either me or Rob riding with her so we had our share of twisty turny rides. Her favorite was the swings (she called it the Up-Down Ride) and we would just sit there for ages while Emma napped and Corey and Lilly did their roller coaster across the way. We could see them so it was very convenient. The park was practically empty so we were able to ride multiple times without even getting off.


Our other big adventure for the trip was horseback riding. The kids had never been before and Corey was old enough to have his own horse. Lilly rode with me. Rob took this photo with Emma in his arms so it's not too good but he did so great....totally confident and not the least bit nervous. Lilly was terrified!! Rob was looking at me like I was insane for dragging her on that Cliedsdale but I KNEW she would like it once she got over her fear and she did. She's a lot like me in that way so I want her to do some things like that...something that challenges her to overcome her fear. It took her about 5 minutes but then she totally relaxed and really enjoyed it. Thatta girl!



Emma's big adventure for the trip was her 4 new teeth! She did great and was a real trooper.

A great week overall. Nice to have the view of the lake back now too (after it washed away last spring). It was a nice kickoff to the summer and great family time! We're going to miss that place.