Family Self Portraits

I just cannot tell you what a relief it is that I FOUND MY DRIVER’S LICENSE!!  I had misplaced it probably 5 weeks or so ago.  I noticed it was gone when I went to the bank and then couldn’t get my money because I didn’t have any ID!  I had a few days before then taken it out of my wallet to show at Joanna’s school.  My best thought was that it had fallen out of my cargo pocket on the walk home since I didn’t actually remember what I had done with it.  I was very sad to discover that you have to go in person to replace a lost Driver’s License.  I wasn’t looking forward to that trip!  I was just crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t need it before I had a chance to go.  I also stuck my passport in my purse to use as ID.  I was thinking this week that I really needed to clean out my purse and make doubly sure it wasn’t lurking inside before I made the effort to go to the DPS.  {Wow this is getting to be a long, boring story!  And yet, I continue…}  Yesterday Matt and I walked to the Elementary school to have a conference with Mrs. McKinnon.  Right before we needed to leave I quickly grabbed handfuls of stuff out of my purse {seriously needed cleaning out} and stuffed them into a shopping bag to sort later.  So today I was clearing off my kitchen counter and sorting through that stuff that came out of my purse when my Driver’s License fell to the counter from a pile of papers!!!!!!!!!  I was so excited!

I was reading a blog post about how important it is for those of us that are the picture takers in our families to get out from behind the camera.  I think I do a decent job of this, at least when Matt is around, but I know I cherish those pictures of myself growing up that my mom and or dad are in also.  So I’m going to try and be better!

I have a tripod that I don’t use enough.  It’s not particularly fancy or sturdy, but it does the job, and I need to pull it out more often.

Until then… here a few things I did today to get myself in some shots.

Joanna and I went outside.  I put her where I wanted us, set my camera on the table out there, and fiddled with my settings.  Then I set the auto timer and ran to get in the shot.

Joanna took the next one for me!  I’m a bit nervous about handing her the camera, but in very controlled situations (over carpet, close to the ground, not in a crazy mood), I’m okay with letting her take over!  I set the camera to auto/no flash and reminded her how to look through the viewfinder and autofocus.  This is not the most flattering shot of me, but I think she did a great job!

This one isn’t of faces, but Natalie and I are both in it!  Due to my lens not being a wide angle at all, it’s pretty hard to get in a picture where I’m holding the camera.

I can’t think of a good title.

Saturday morning after I teach my Musikgarten class, I have to set up the room for an adult Sunday School class on Sunday morning.  Normally this is not a problem.  James runs around the room while I push back the room divider and set up a few rows of chairs.  But my back was (still!!) bothering me, so Matt came up with the girls to do the heavy lifting.  :)

After that he left to get some work done on his car, and I headed home with the kiddos.  On our way out we stopped in the prayer garden.  The weather was soooo nice!

Natalie cracks me up with her automatic crazy body response when I go to take a picture.  :)

That’s better – three kiddos looking AT me AND smiling!!

It’s usually better to take a picture of Natalie when she doesn’t realize it.

James always says “water in there” when we pass the fountain.  They all were so thrilled when I told them they could touch it!  (I hope that was okay!)

Today I put James in this soooo cute romper and I just had to take some pictures.

Best part?  Love it!

He was in a very cute mood today.

James was pretending to pick up something from the ground and…

eat it.  :)

I think it’s kind of amazing that a two year old can have such a since of humor!  And he has really for months now.  Love that boy!

And it’s good I took a few pictures as he spilled a lot of milk on himself later on.  His second outfit of the day was very cute too though.  I sure am thankful for little boy hand-me-downs!  And of course for little boys!

Trunk or Treat!

This is the church’s second annual Trunk or Treat, and we had a wonderful time! 
Joanna is planning to be a zebra for Halloween.  Natalie is planning to be a mermaid but has a plethora of other costumes in her arsenal.  James… well, whatever.  :)  So I’d been thinking and thinking on how to coordinate the costumes they all have to make sort of a theme.  I realized they all have animal costumes, so I thought we’d go for that today!  They can be uncoordinated on Wednesday.  :)
I was even feeling ambitious and decided to paint their faces.  I have no idea what came over me.
I googled images of zebras, giraffes, and tigers as well as people painted like zebras, giraffes, and tigers.  Then I went to work!
Matt was kind enough to take process shots for me – wahoo!

All done!  My zebra:

My giraffe.  I did not find much in the way of giraffe face paint ideas so I sort of made this one up from here and there.

James did not end up getting his face painted due to him needing to stay asleep.  :)
In the costumes, outside for a photo shoot…

I picked this giraffe up at Baby Daze in September – I couldn’t resist!

Kinda makes you think you might be on a Safari expedition, no?

There’s the elusive tiger!  I realized at some point that they were dressing up as the three animals that are their loveys.  Joanna is dressed as James’ lovey.  Natalie is dressed as Joanna’s lovey.  And James is dressed as Natalie’s lovey.  :)

We remembered to park away from direct sunlight this year.  Yay for shade!
I left Matt manning our very undecorated “trunk” while I took the kids around to the cars.  I didn’t take many pictures.  Making sure not to lose one of my wild animals took most of my concentration.  :)  People really went all out on the trunks.  It was fun!

James was soooooooo cute getting his candy and putting it in his man bag.

We hit pretty much all the cars then headed back for some refreshment.  I had stuck a few snacks from the pantry in the car, and I’m glad I did. 
Here are my zoo animals eating their rice cakes.  If I’d been more on the ball, Matt and I could have dressed up as zookeepers.  :)

We met up with the Vandengirls – A bride and Cinderella.  So pretty!

I started feeling like heading home about 5:30, and as soon as Natalie said “I have to go to the bathroom”  we were out of there!
It was  fun time to see friends and trade candy.  :)

Lately

So my back has been killing me since Monday morning.  I’m not sure what I did, but it wasn’t good!  And you know what doesn’t mix with back pain?  Child care!  Ow!  I felt quite a bit better yesterday, but I’m pretty sure that’s because from about 8:45 until 1:45, I was sitting on my couch.  :)  I’m so thankful for that time to rest!  My house is a PIT though.  It’s very sad.  I’m not really losing sleep over it though.  I know I need to strengthen my core muscles, but I’m pretty sure I also need to wait until my back is better.  But then I really am going to exercise or something. 

For real. 

Really.

We picked up forty pounds of organic Fuji apples this week from our co-op, and today I got around to making some applesauce.  I didn’t really feel up to putzing in the kitchen today, but making applesauce is very easy and it needed doing.  I hadn’t returned my MIL’s crock pot to her, so I went ahead and loaded up hers as well as mine with apples this morning.  Here’s my lazy easy method for making applesauce.  (Do not be alarmed that it’s a very long paragraph.  Apparently I’m feeling blabby.)

Ingredients: apples, water  :)

Core and roughly chop the apples.  There is no need to peel.  I basically cut the apples into eight slices then chopped each slice across in half.  You just want them to be uniform-ish so they’ll cook evenly.  I took no pictures because the light in my kitchen makes me sad.  Put as many apples as you can fit into the crockpot and add about a half a cup of water.  The apples are going to be plenty juicy; the water just keeps everything from sticking.  Today I cooked the sauce in the crockpot because of all the kiddos around, but you can easily do it on the stove as well.  It just takes a little more babysitting and it’s done faster.  Put the lid on the crockpot and set it to low.  Mine were done at about 3 1/2 hours, but there’s plenty of wiggle room there.  When the apples are very soft, you’re good.  I have an immersion blender (love!) but you can do it without.  I just used the stick blender right in the crockpot to puree it.  I like the applesauce very smooth.  You can also just mash it with a potato masher for a chunkier style.  Before I had my handy gadget, I would puree it in batches in the regular blender.  It’s messier, but just as effective.  Each crock put full yielded 4 pints (pictured above).  Because of my back hurting and the 4-5 very small “helpers,” I decided not to can these batches.  Instead, I let the sauce cool, put it into jars (because I love jars), and stuck them in the freezer.  They’ll keep there for several months and I have no doubt they won’t last that long.  :)  I was thinking it would be pretty space-efficient to pour the applesauce into gallon ziplocks and lay them flat in the freezer.  It just wouldn’t be as good for the earth.  :)

I also made some apple “chips” in the oven, but I need to tweak my method a bit before I try again.  The kids liked ‘em though. 

In totally unrelated news, Natalie has been thumb-free for almost three weeks!  Her dentist said she could come back and get a prize after she stopped sucking her thumb for two weeks.  We finally had a chance to stop by Thursday after school.  See what she picked?!

She is so proud of herself and I am too!!

This picture’s been sitting in my “to blog” folder for several days, but it just doesn’t fit with anything.

 

Poor James is pretty good at walking in heels!

Hee hee.

The Girls at the Pumpkin Patch!

We tossed the kids in the car this evening and headed to the pumpkin patch to get pictures of everyone before pumpkin season is over!

Joanna the super model.

This was originally a shot of everybody, but I cropped Natalie and James out because they looked squirrely and Joanna looked so pretty.

But here they all are!

I’m always putting Natalie in black and white.  She’s so beautiful!

I love this funny face of hers!

I looooove this one.  A REAL smile!!!  It happens so rarely, but I managed to capture it!

The sun was getting low in the sky, and I wanted to play with some back light and all that fuzzy stuff.  It was hard.  I have much practicing to do.  :)

I love that funny face!

Joanna picked out a little pumpkin and mediumish pumpkin to take home.  She very graciously let James think the little pumpkin was for him to hold and carry home.

Natalie wanted to pick a little one – she’s searching for it here.  :)

We had a fun little trip up there – I love pumpkin colors!  And I could pretty much take pictures of my children all day long every day.  :)