Nothing Much

So I don't really have much new going on here. It just has been SOOOOO HOT that we have been melting here. We wake up in the morning soaked it was so hot and that is the coolest point of the day. The new pool has been life saver these days. Mike went in it for the first time today and what a wimp he was about it. Oh sooo cold. Hello that is the point!! Haha it was really funny and then Ben dunked him under (see pictures below) Mike almost blended into the water he is soo white from working indoors all the time. Mind you Mike did get Ben back :) So other than that not much new here so I included some pictures I took of some flowers today. Enjoy :)

Oh here is a little message from Sam for all of you reading this :)
LOL :)
small joke.... what do you call a unidentified flying cow?
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a Moo-F-O. :D :D :D LOL!!

whats a frogs favorite magazine?
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Warts Illustrated :D :D :D :D LOL!!

Cloes pony tail (I know not a great pic but I just love that I can do that)

Ben Dunking Mike

The revenge

Fancy Bleeding Heart Ben gave me for mothers day

Cloes flowers

My neighbors Day Lily's

The gerber growing wild around here

Daisy

Finally Done!!

Yep that's right 654 pictures later.. 2.6 Gigs of space I am DONE editing Chris and Marina's photos.. ok actually I got to the point where I finished the color correction and making the basic photo look good but didn't get all the prettying done that I wanted but really it has been almost 2 months... 7 weeks they have been waiting to see them. I figure now that they have the basic ones I can go through and finish the others as I have time or they request them. Now this is not ever happening again where this many get going as I just don't have the time... and I would be getting paid for it too next time.. if there is one. I will make better choices and choose just one of each that I love. I think I did more this time because it was my first plus it was my wedding gift to them to do my best to document this day for them... I really hope they like the pictures. I have posted a few of my favorites along the way and so today I will post my last pic of that day.. It is more of a creative picture... not my total favorite but I liked how it turned out and it is different. There was a painting at the Art Space they used for their reception called 25 weddings. Now I took their picture with the painting but they were so tired it just didn't look right so I took the picture I had of just the painting and put one of my favorite pictures layer on top and faded into the painting and I just love the effect. It might not be something everyone else likes but that is why I made choice for them right ;)
So to celebrate this day.. the day I put all their pics on a USB drive for them and handed them over the kids and I had a mini celebration.. we bought a new mini pool.... no swimming laps but deep enough to cool off on hot days and we won't loose Claudia under the water when she get in. And we had a B-B-Q :) I just love pulling out the grill any chance I get so really why not when I want to celebrate with that... plus since I have been focused on just getting them done... I didn't have a clean pot in the house :S Tomorrow celebration includes tons of cleaning!! ;) So I took a few pics to share with you.. and Yes the goofy guy is Bill.. My step Dad and now everyone will know why he is a Psych Nurse (or is nurse just a cover for why he has to go spend time with the crazies?? you be the judge)
Well off to Bed.. enjoy the pics :)

Random moment

So here I am again... 1:00am and taking a break from doing pictures again. I have 182 left to look at. this includes the wedding cake pictures and the formal shoot pictures. I want to be able to give them to Chris and Marina so they can do what they want. It just is hard to get that many done with all the other things on my plate. What is the average time pros make people wait? and I bet they trash more photos than I did too. I am just going to do the basic fix up and I am sure I have given them enough examples of what I can do that if they want something else done they can ask for it. I am just tired of feeling rushed and my house being mess because of it.

As for life.. I am back to driving for all three flower shops again as of tomorrow since my mom is going on yet another vacation. I am getting tired and worn out and everyone else is going on vacation while I am left behind to do the work. When is it my turn??? Oh well at least I have cute kids to keep me smiling through it all. Here is the latest cute pics. Matt was teaching Cloe how to color and she had so much fun copying him I had to take a pic or two and here is my latest fav from the wedding pics too. Enjoy as I get back to work and try to finish the cake pictures and then head to bed.

Tommytoes Birthday!!

We had a blast yesterday celebrating Thomas' 4th birthday!! Can't believe he is that old all ready. He still seems so little to me, his not talking much helps with that ;) Ahh but he is really working on talking more and actually tries to say more words and some he has down pat like Apple.. his new favorite food especialy when made into Apple Pie which he also says. But back to his birthday, it was a GREAT day as the railway museum had it's annual Friends with Thomas the train days. So booked his little family party and headed over there. We invited our very good friends along to join us the wonderful Polzer family since we could have 12 people there. It made things perfect. We bought Tommy a new train engineer hat that had Thomas all over it and he was soooo happy. We went around to all the little activities and the 2 favorites were the cookies decorating and the train ride where they made a special stop for the kids to do a mini treasure serch and find thier own special goodie bag. The tunnels were soo cool. They even feed the kids popcorn, juice and hotdogs. Then on the way home instead of a cake Thomas wanted dipped cones from Dairy Queen which made for the perfect end to the day of fun. It was a nice break from doing the photos too since I had done over 100 photos the day before and my head really wasn't into doing anymore.. I did finish another 20 yesterday.. today me goal is to get through the reception pictures before I touch the actually wedding shoot pictures. I have over 250 of the reception to go through but it should go quickly as most of them are just casual pictures and won't need anymore than maybe a little brightening because the room was soo dark. Well back to work.. enjoy some pictures of the fun we had yesterday.

Tommy With his Hat and face painted

Claudia Painting her own face

The Puzzlers

Thomas was really working hard at putting pieces together

Matty finds a cool truck

Thomas decides to take everyone for a ride :)

Tommy trying to read about the Snow Plow train

Mmmmm Cookies

Cloe putting her icing one

Sam sat behind Thomas and did a great job of keeping him safe.

Getting ready to ride.. Matty rocks!

My favorite.. through the tunnel

Tommy finds his treasure but isn't sure it is the right one

Back on the train.. Love the face

A Special Thanks to Al, Alexia, and Paul for joining us for some fun :) You too Ben

Present for Caitlyn and Erica

Okay I took these almost a year ago.. I know... but I took one of my wedding photo breaks to finish up these for you guys. Enjoy :) Happy first year Caitlyn!! We miss you guys.

Brief Break

Well I have been buckling down on these photos. It is hard when you don't have much time on your hands. So Today I have ignored my chores ( not always a good idea) but I have sat down and really tried to get as many done as I can. I keep wondering if I should take these to a pro and ask for advice on 1. if I am choosing the right pictures and 2. How many of all these ones I should really be keeping and giving to them? I have 109 from the Church I am currently doing... 109!! now I know I will cut that back a few.. and some are just casual for them.. nothing to do but maybe fix the color. I am hoping to have them done by tomorrow... My goal is to hand over the pictures by the end of the week. But I have 533 still to go through and either delete, edit, or just put on the drive for them... it will take time.

I am grateful that my younger Sis Krys has come to help.. although my Mom stole her away for a couple of days to help her first... yah... I should be doing chores then.. but I'm not. Will I truly be eternally punished for that? So I took a break yesterday to take a couple pictures of Krysti's Emmae and Cloe together in some matching dresses she had bought the girls. Now it did not go the way Krys or I would of wanted because Emmae decided she didn't want to do it. But I did get a really great picture of the two girls So here is the pic of the day :) and now my break is done.. time to get back to work. I have also included on of my favorites so far from editing today. Enjoy :)

Family and Art

So my Aunt ML came to town for a short visit.. and I only saw her for an even shorter time as she spent most of her few days out this way at crystal lake with my Mom, Josh, Matt, and girls (not including Claudia). It was great seeing her but sad too as we just didn't have enough time to do much are say anything. I am really missing being able to just sit down and chat with her like I normally do when I take my annual road trip. I am missing all my friends and family that I usually see this time of year more than ever. Sunny is having baby number four this August and I was suppose to be there during that time and would of been able to catch them. Ruth had cute little Cathrine over a year ago and I still have yet to see her and not seeing Ruth for 2 years is hard as well. And Crystal who ended up in the hospital this past month and almost died on us has been over 2 years as well. We were suppose to be heading out for a family reunion this year but because things are tough on everyone it was postponed. I am grateful because then we won't be missing everyone... but sad because we are missing everyone :( The worst part is that I think this stress is getting to Mike even more than it is to me. He is changing into to the guy I don't know... He is Angry most of the time now and so hateful to me and the kids. He has said that he wishes he could just be like his buddies at work who don't have families or the responsibilities it has brought. He is saying things and words that the kids are catching on. He is behaving like some teenage kid who is rebelling against everything. But he is mean,, so mean about it all. I just don't know what to do, it causes fights, because he wants me to back him up with the kids but how do I do that when I don't agree with what he is doing? Things are just getting worse and how do I raise 5 boys to be honorable young men and some day husbands with this kind of influence? And then I give myself the guilt trips for even thinking that way because we are commanded to keep our families together and that Satan will try everything to tear us apart. But can I do this on my own when m husband is the problem I need to solve? Where do I go from here? I talk and talk and really try to talk to Mike about all of this be takes it all as me attacking him and calling him a loser and he gets worse. I am so confused and that just makes me miss my friends and family more as I could really use their support right now as I struggle with this. I don't know, maybe that is part of my test too... maybe I shouldn't even be writing this here but I just can't keep it all inside anymore. I have been trying hard to still keep things good for the kids even though I feel this way. I am not great at it and Ben has been a great helper when he senses I am having a bad day, Josh as well. I have been trying to still do activities with the kids trough the summer like we usually would of done, but it is hard. Still this past weekend I took the 4 kids I had at home to Kids Art Days down at the 2 rivers gallery and we had a blast. We did have to leave in the middle for a flower delivery but we came back and finished up. It made for a great day with the perfect end of ice cream and movies later on with My aunt before she headed home today. So I am going to end this post on a good note and share some of the fun we had with the photos I took and I will look forward to having a better day tomorrow. I truly hope.

Tommy making his bracelet

Claudia really wants one too :)


Ben Made Cloe this mask and she wouldn't wear it so when she fell asleep in the car while delivering flowers he couldn't resist putting it on
Cloe making her hat

Tommy's finished hat

Claudia mad because we wouldn't let her eat the felt

Slimy Science

The boys showing off their Slime.. Ben seems grossed out LOL

Painting while sitting

Ben learning how to set and hammer in nails properly

Sam and Tommy Painting.. This was Thomas' favorite activity

double brushing it this time

time to let someone else paint ;)

This picture actully scared me for a second with his red eyes as well.. just his allergies acting up though.. really he isn't a devil... really

Thomas' scary tiger.. isn't it soo cute!!

Cloe checking out to make sure her butterfly is good enough.. she approved LOL

Ben's Uhm.... I honestly don't know??? But it cracked me up

The days end... check out the clay creations

After a nice hot day of activities of course we bought ice cream.. just Cloe had her own ideas on how to eat it :)