Blogging Milestones

So how's this for craziness...

This is my 1,000th blog post!!! 

Yup.  As of the hitting of that "Publish" button, I have officially published one thousand posts...  (There are another forty or so that never made it past the draft stage, but those don't really count.  I have, however, been reading through them and seeing if there's any material there that I should revisit!)

I know blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside for most of the world-- facebook and instagram have taken over as a way to share our lives and keep in touch.  But I'm glad I've stuck to blogging.  Just this last week my big kids pulled out the blog books that Craig and my mom have published and spent several days perusing them.  And then I started re-reading what I'd written as I was putting the books away (because heaven forbid they put something back when they're done with it!), and I was just tickled reading about some of the things my kids did when they were smaller that I would have forgotten about otherwise!

I've come a long way since when I first started blogging-- back then (in 2008) Kendra was just a baby, I had two kids and lived in a little townhome style apartment.  Craig and I were already looking for our first home to buy, and within a few short weeks we actually found one and bought it and moved in.  That seemed like a miracle at the time-- actually, it still sort of feels like a miracle.  And then suddenly we were having oodles more babies and life just kept accelerating on us!  I'm glad I've managed to record some of the minutiae and I'm even more glad that I occasionally have pictures matched up with the memories.  There are so many time each day when I think, "Oh, I'll have to remember this!" but so often those things slip away-- like a few weeks ago when Craig was asked to help pass the sacrament at church, and Ryder spent the entire time enthusiastically waving to him, while Camille sat on my lap quietly chanting, "Go, Daddy, go!  Go, Daddy, go!"  You would think Daddy was a football star or something.  It was adorable.

These kids might want to make me pull my hair out sometimes.  But more often than not, they just keep me laughing.

It's a good life.

I want to keep remembering everything that I can.

And while I'm allowing myself to be a bit sappy, thank you for continuing to read along with our family!  I wanted to do some sort of giveaway or something, but that new HVAC is being installed as I'm typing this and I'm feeling very poor.  And besides that, I have no idea what I could possibly give you that you would want.  But please know that I value your friendship (otherwise I wouldn't have invited you to be one of my readers!) and I honestly do appreciate that you bother to keep up with me and my crazy family! 


P.S.  I have no idea why this is double spaced.  I can't seem to be able to undo it.  For posting 1,000 times, I sure do suck at actually doing computer stuff...!

My Kids as Caterpillars?

While we were in Hawaii, Tracy took the kids to Carter Mountain and snapped these pictures of them.  I'm not usually a huge fan of those wooden cut-outs for you to stick your face in, but something about these just cracked me up (it probably helped that I was missing my kids)-- so I'm going to put them up here, too-- mostly so they'll make it into next year's blog book!

Colton, sweet as always

Camille, barely able to reach it

And Ryder, looking like he might actually be that little caterpillar!

I know-- it's so silly.  But I love it!  These crazy kids of mine!

Remember Easter?

As seems to be happening more and more, I think we celebrated Easter about five times (back in the spring, when Easter happened.  Ya know).  And I even took pictures at some of those! 

The first was our neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  We haven't been able to make it in the past, so it was fun to get to go this time.  They overestimated how many kids would be in the three-and-under hunt, so Camille came away with a bucket spilling over with eggs!  She was pretty pleased with herself, although it led to Ryder and Colton feeling a bit jealous!

Look-- I actually did something with her hair!

It was bright outside, so everyone is squinting at the camera

I need to buy my kids some sunglasses

That's Ryder grabbing an egg out of the bushes

Kendra found one of the golden eggs that got her a big chocolate bunny!

Around the same time was Charlottesville's TomTom Festival.  We headed to the downtown mall to see all the booths that had been set up, and then of course we had to get pizza for the kids, and food truck stuff for me!  I love going to the downtown mall for stuff like this-- we always see friends (and it's not like we're even terribly social people, so that's really saying something!) and it all just makes me happy.  THIS is what Charlottesville is like, not whatever you've been reading in the news recently.

Craig and I are such scrubs here-- I didn't put on makeup and he hasn't shaved.  But I kind of love this picture in all its honesty!

And then on actual Easter we went to Craig's parent's home for Easter dinner.  We hadn't been able to dye eggs yet, so I brought all our stuff so we could do it there.  We thought we could set up in front of their house, so we wouldn't have to worry about spilling in the house.  But it turns out that this is a recipe for disaster-- we spilled more dye than we have in all our other years combined!  But at least it didn't really matter!  But in case you were wondering: using a table is key for a decent egg-dyeing experience!

Dinner was, of course, wonderful, and we all had a wonderful time!

Quite the fashion going on here: Camille is in the same dress as before; Ryder is wearing pajama shorts and his church shoes?  And I believe Tom's sporting duct tape on his shoe!  We're a classy bunch!

So, yes, we enjoyed our Easter!  But next time we'll use a table!!!

The Faces of Ryder

I'm not sure if it's his age or his personality, or both, but Ryder is currently our craziest child.  The other day, he told me to take his picture and this what I ended up with:

What a crack up!

5th Grade Promotion

On the last day of school (yes, back in June), they had a promotion ceremony for all the 5th graders.  I liked that they called it that, since I get a little tired of people having "graduations" for every minor achievement.  We were excited to see Bentley finish up his elementary school days-- that's been six years (more than half!) of his life!

No, I didn't cry when all the proud 5th graders came marching into the cafeteria.  Why would you even ask that???  And seeing that Bentley had actually put on his tie (like I'd asked, but which he'd refused to promise to do) for the occasion.  No, that wouldn't make me cry.  Sheesh!

Unfortunately, they lined the kids up so that that super tall girl was blocking my view of Bentley!  But Craig managed to snap this!

There he is shaking the principal's hand

Here he is with his certificate

Looking properly embarrassed

And then bolting

With his teacher, Miss McQuitty, whom we all adored (and who is also CRAZY tall!)

I tried to take a selfie, but he wouldn't smile since we were at school still and he didn't want to be seen smiling (I guess???)

So I copied his face, instead

Back at home he said he'd smile for me, but instead did this

I love this picture, even if it is slightly blurry

And here we are being super cool.  So.  Cool.

Anyway, it was a proud moment for me.  My little boy here is trying to grow up on me!

Camping with Daddy

Craig hasn't just been organizing our garage, he's also been busy taking kids camping!

It all started with the annual father-son campout.  Craig took the three boys, while Kendra and I planned a very fun evening for ourselves-- painting nails and watching a movie together.  This year the campout was at a farm.  They had a HUGE bonfire-- it was so big and hot that no one could go near it.

I'm just glad no one was hurt...

My handsome boys.  (Sigh.)

Colton takes a few minutes to sit quietly

I *guess* this is a pretty location...!

After that, Kendra declared that it was time for a father-daughter campout.   And we figured she was right, so the next weekend that was free, Craig found a campsite not too far away and off they went!  (But this time I didn't do anything fun with the boys-- I just put them to bed and enjoyed eating ice cream by myself!)

How cute is she?

Kendra loves her Daddy!

They set up their tent near this little creek

Craig's Home Improvement Projects

When we bought our house, Craig decided we needed one of those locker-style benches for the kids to keep their jackets, shoes, and backpacks in.  He set about designing and building it, and it turned out beautifully!!!  We love it so much!

And now it's time I blogged about it, don't you think?

Cutting and painting pieces, and storing them in the garage.  I had to be careful not to hit them when I parked!

Assembling it all...

The top part

And the bottom part attached, too, with the backing leaned against it for show

We spent a long time debating what color baskets to get-- finally we decided that teal worked well with the garage's yellow walls

Then Craig added LOTS of hooks (and notice how he fitted it to the electric outlet!)

And added each kids' initial.  You have NO IDEA how long it took us to pick those letters-- deciding between size, font, and color was too much!!!

Proud Craig!

While he was organizing the garage, Craig also built this nifty little shelf to hold our camping chairs

And he added these baskets to hold various sports paraphernalia (he built the bike rack last year)

And here are the kids actually using their bench!  Success!!!

Having a handy husband can be so great!  Our garage is looking awesome now!