Ten Things to Smile About: June

June isn't even over and I have a long list of happy things for the month.

My little man graduated Kindergarten!  He picked his own outfit for the ceremony.  Funny that he REFUSES to wear the jacket to church but he wanted to look really nice for the ceremony. 

We had an even bigger graduation, our oldest graduated from high school.  Getting decent pictures that day turned out to be almost impossible but we are so proud of her.  

Schools out for SUMMER!  What better way to celebrate than with ice cream??  This also shows little sisters "cheese face".  

Started a summer schedule - so far we are having lots of fun with it!

One of our "Make Something Monday" projects - gake!  This was a HUGE hit. 

 Loved capturing this visual depiction of my kids drastically personalities.  Two are non-stop, always part of the action kids and the other would much rather find a quite corner and take things at his own pace.  We were at the library summer reading kick off and that's exactly what happened! 

Love all my kids and the littles especially adore their big sister.  

They are going to be very sad when she goes off to college. 

 Celebrating Father's Day with my husband and the crazy kids! 

The little kids helped make the carrot cake from scratch. 

Teachers!  My kids have been very blessed with some wonderful teachers and 

now that it is summer - I appreciate them even more!!!

I got to go back to my old job and serve as a volunteer chief for a multi-day full scale disaster exercise. 

It was great to be back and most of all to be with some of my old staff. Miss them! 

  

 Linking up over at Emmy Mom's Ten Things to Smile About...

Project 365 - January Highlights

The last few months have been an evolution for me.  You see, I had 3 kids in 4 years and worked out of the home for most of those years.  It felt like most days I was surviving and not trying for much beyond that!  In September I hit the one year mark of being a wahm (very limited consulting) and have been drawn to focus on those things that have slipped away in the chaos of the last few years.  One of the things that has been neglected is a deliberate effort to document our life.  I love taking pictures, especially on my on phone, but that's about as far as it goes.  Literally... the photos sit on my phone.     

I decided that January was a great time to change that and start documenting our life in a more deliberate way.  I like bite size, easy projects so I decided to jump on the Project 365 bandwagon and try to take one photo a day and share via instagram. I wasn't perfect but did about 95% {so that's still A range work right??}.

I thought I would start sharing a few of my favorites each month on the blog as another way to document and share the story behind the photos... 

This picture describes my little girl perfectly.  We had to go straight from church to a 
family birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  So here she is all dressed up, trying to 
play a car racing game. Didn't matter she couldn't actually do it, she loved it 
and would push off any boy that tried to play with her! 

New Year - Time to get back on track!  Luckily both myself and the kids love
green smoothies. Great way to start the day or as an afternoon snack. 

A not so fun part of life!  Our first experience with LICE... I wasn't messing with the nasty bugs
so the boys got their head buzzed.  An unintended consequence, you can really tell how
huge his eyes are and those beautiful lashes!  Why do boys always get the gorgeous lashes???

Living in Vegas normally means nice mild winters.  This year we got a true cold
front for several days.  Walking the kids to school in 27 degree weather was a
new adventure.  Hey, for once the kids didn't fight me about wearing gloves and hats!

January was the month of things breaking - cars, vacuum, pipes
(thanks to that lovely cold weather), flat screen TV and our washer!
This was after it got fixed - a great day for a mom of 4.
I would never have survived pioneer days!

Trying out a new system for organization.  I use my phone for a lot of things but there
is something about getting it all on paper than helps my ADHD brain get focused.
After several weeks I'm still liking it. 

Big sissy picked up little man from school and took him on an adventure...
Just a quick trip to the corner store, but when you are five that seems amazing.
He thought it was AWESOME and they brought home ice cream
for us all {everyone else thought that was awesome}. 

Little Miss finally has enough hair to put up and use clips!  Hooray.
It might be past her eyes by the time she is two. 

Afternoon cuddles with this little man - one of my favorite parts of the day.
His sweet spirit make me grateful I get to be his mom. 

One of my 2013 goals is become better at keeping a clean house.
First habit I am working on is going to bed with a clean sink.
It really does fell good, especially in the morning!

Noah was an old pro at the dentist.  Of course his favorite part was getting to watch cable TV
{we don't even have basic at home}. I love this picture - kickin' back, so perfectly Noah. 

This is disgusting - NOTHING like Starbucks! Enough said. 

A brief moment of cuteness on a morning of errands with the kids. 

So proud of my guy!  He wrote his name all by himself in his preK journal.
He was so proud of himself and his fabulous teachers made a big deal out of celebrating it.
{I know - hard to look at anything but the crazy tiger hat...
a Christmas gift he begged for! I'm hoping the weather warms up soon..}

Part of documenting, I started a "One Line a Day Journal" and completed January!
It tracks 5 years and I'm looking forward to seeing how life evolves.  

10 Things to Smile About: April

After a comment on my blog I discovered this meme and it sounded like something I wanted to do!  One of my recent goals regarding blogging to is to forget the "rules" (one of the main reasons I don't blog very often) and just start writing and recording our life.

One of the best parts of motherhood are the smiles! Those everyday moments that I love, but all to often forget.  

So here is my list for April. 

1 - Signing Student Loan papers!  Doesn't sound exciting but it means that my husband is back in school full time as of today, which is important for our family. 

2 - Amazing time learning, growing and laughing at the Power of Moms Premium Retreat in Vegas. 

3 - My little Lucy girl - trying on her outfit for her "I Love Lucy" first birthday party in two weeks. 

4 - Winning a 42" plasma TV during a family outing to the 51s Game.  And my brave stepdaughter sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game in the 7th Inning Stretch!

5 - Dying Easter Eggs with the Kids

My stepdaughter's Humpty Dumpty Egg - notice the crack and suspenders!

6 - My boys having fun! They always make me smile.

7 - Spring Break Family Home Evening.  It wasn't anything crazy or elaborate. We had ate dinner, had a short lesson and popped popcorn while we watched Dolphin Tale together as a family.  The part that made me smile was the spirit in our home.  That night we were bonding as a family and that ALWAYS makes me smile!

Not the popcorn from that night but I took this last night and had  to share.
I love popcorn!

8 - Black Eyed Susan's at the Springs Preserve. I took the kids to the Springs Preserve during Spring Break and saw these black eyed susans.  These always bring back my memories of growing up in Maryland (it's the state flower) and a family vacation incident of my mom picking them on the side of the road and getting a ticket from a State Trooper!

9 - Science experiments with the kids during a playdate.  3 little boys playing with vinegar, food coloring and baking soda - I got serious cool mom points for something so simple (thanks Pinterest)!

10 - My kids in their Easter best!  I love seeing them all dressed up:)  Twice a year they all match in new clothes (Christmas & Easter)... 

Of course they decided they didn't want their picture taken so this was the best out of about 20 tries!

I'm linking up over at Emmy Mom.

Rebecca