jacob's home from work today and that basicallyyyyy makes my life:)!!!!! Especially because I have 3 extra kiddos at the house today - 6 total, 4YRS to 1YR in age. I woke up unsure of how today would go but after a quick walk alone this morning - that involved sunshine - I decided it WOULD be a good day:)
happy Monday, Friends:)
a portrait of my children, once a week(ish), every week(ish), in 2017
homer - cold enough for snow but warm enough for a fire:)
theo - the only 40MIN that her and Homer played together nicely, was out in the snow last week!
rocky - he was, unusually, fussy and so I took him for a walk:)
have I mentioned how ready for warmth and summer we are?!:)
so someone totally DID puke in the freaking lazy river!!!! My brother-in-law, Dave, witnessed it while we were waiting for tubes to come by and made me aware. I thought maybe the guy spit up a bit but Jacob was still further out in the water and so I said to Dave: DO NOT TELL YOUR BROTHER. Anyone that knows Jacob or has ever seen him change a shitty diaper;), knows that he has a very weak gag reflex!!! I hardly finished my sentence when Jacob looks down and sees full on puke/chunks/crap floating by - this guy fully puked:/! Dave and I immediately died laughing, while Jacob stands perfectly still with a frightened look on his face saying: What's going on?!?!? What IS that? IS THAT SHIT?! WHAT THE HELL!!!!????. Omg, Dave and I were dying! Poor Jacob;)
and so....year3: the water park!
lets start this post with a little flashback, if you will...one of my favorite Dells photos:
this was year1 - which you can see in full HERE. Theo and WillB were just a few months away from turning a year old, which means we would very soon find out we were expecting RockyP!!!!:) We've come a long way in our planning and finessing of this trip! In 3 years we've created a pretty great system and when we remember to bringgggg all the food - Courts forgot a few meals this year...not like she has anythinggggg else going on in her life...9 kids or anything?!;) - things go pretty smoothly!
you can check-out year2 HERE - where Rocky was with us and only 3MO old:).
2 outta 3 ain't bad;)!!! - Court and Jacob's faces!!!;)
this year we changed things up a bit and got 2 - 3 Bedroom Deluxe rooms at Glacier Canyon Lodge. Link to where we stayed - HERE. It was magical! In the past, we've stayed in 4 Double Suite Wet Bar rooms at the Wilderness Hotel. Those were also so nice but ultimately, we're SO glad we made the switch to the Deluxe rooms because there was so much more room! Courtney and I - mostly Courtney;) - make the main meals and bring the coffee maker and we also have ALL the kids between us;)...so it's just been easiest for us to have rooms next to each other and then this year...shared! When they run to church, we can watch any kiddos they leave behind in the morning and with Jacob and I having left for our Tulum Getaway early the last morning of our Dells trip, Court and Dave were in the same space to watch our sleeping kiddos after we left for the airport!:)
not to mention, our sister-in-law - who helped do all the research on rooms this year, Thank you, Renee!!! - saved our mother-in-law - who has graciously paid for the rooms for the last 3 years, which acts as our 'Christmas', instead of presents and such, which we all LOVE! - a BUTT-Load of money. Almost $1000!
We think that it's so cost effective because the Deluxe rooms are a bit further from the indoor water park, compared to our old Double Suites, that were much closer. But this was a non issue for us...saving that much money and gaining that much space, was absolutely worth the walk:)
rocky lovedddddd the wave pool - UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!;)
i can't really express to you how closely this swimsuit resembles Theo's entire personality! I struck gold finding this swimsuit of amazingness!!!;)
rocky loveddddddddd the lazy river - UNDERSTATEMENT;)
family photo or BEST PHOTO BOMB?!;)
we got a GoPro recently - purchased HERE - to take on our Tulum getaway, and so the kids got a kick out of playing with it all weekend! I was seriously impressed with some of their shots and video! In the quick movie I put together, at the end of this post, you'll see some tube clips that Lia got!
jacob wasn't impressed with my song selection but I'm still new at this and my song list is pretty limited and I had babies hanging off me and I wanted something upbeat and SO THIS IS AS GOOD AS YOU GET!!!!!;)
we missed out on an opportunity for a photo of the entire group, unfortunately! But I'm thinking we'll have to at least make this a tradition!:)
it was a 3rd, wonderful, year! We all look forward to this Annual Tradition so much and Homer's already asked several times since, when we can go back! Jacob and I have talked about maybe taking them again this summer! I think a few of our 'followers/readers' are seasoned Dells goers! If you have any tips or tricks, please pass them along!!!!
post by casey. having a week where I'm quite confident my children will surely turn out to be bullies and jerks and the kid no one likes and the one that doesn't show up for work and the one that doesn't finish anything and steals other kids' mittens and sets cats tails on fire and laughs at dogs with 3 legs. and my fucking fingers constantly smell like toddler shit. And I JUST had a vacation from this. I JUST had a few hours to myself yesterday. Do these breaks do more harm than good?! Do these breaks make it harder to get back to reality?! point: my kids (minus Rocky, cause...#thankgawdforrockyp;) have been huge dicks and I've been a crazy-person right back and I'm just not proud of the tone or volume of my voice - my passive way of admitting that I've been yelling at them non.stop.:/ i'm not sure what I need. FYI. I need something. So that's where my head's at:)
a portrait of my children, once a week(ish), every week(ish), in 2017
homer nicholas scott smith
anyone know where I would have put his Birth Certificate?! Guess I need that for his Kindergarten Registration!
Also...hard to believe, from this photo, that he could ever do any wrong...DON'T BE FOOLED!!!!;)
theo daisy smith
stills obsessed with Frozen! I've been researching used Aladdin DVD's...would love to introduce some 'old school' Disney into their lives:)
rocky peyton smith
impossible to believe he'll ever sass me...only a matter of time;(
heyyyy oohhhh, we're still over here. just doing day to day things. all while trying to downsize/declutter/minimize. remodeling/adding a second bathroom (before/after photos to come). prepping to paint the entire inside of the house this spring. you know... a little of everything. oh... and a weekly photo of each of my children. each of those things is an intense job in and of itself. and most of those things I'm only partially doing day to day.
so here goes...
one of these days I'll post something here of some interest other than my children ;)
idea! comment below or email some ideas of what you'd like to hear about!
a portrait of my children, once a week(ish), every week(ish), in 2017
pondering life. pondering a movie. you'll never know. ;)
she refuses to acknowledge me while I have the camera anywhere near.
also set some new limits on electronic use this week. they're reallll happy about it ;)
the beginning of her class Valentine. creative soul.
Tayt made Nash hold this submissive pose for just a bit. you know... for the photo. boys.
drawings especially for me are my favorite.
intense coloring.
apparently we did a lot of coloring and painting this week.
i'm quite late in getting to this post (even Theo's photo was taken well after her 34th month)...but alas, I've committed and so here we are. i was actually thinking/talking with my cousin about being a few years (2015 and 2016) behind on my Photo Books as well as Theo and Rocky's 1st Year Photo Books and now I'm told My Publisher is shutting down?! Best to look into that if you've printed through that site...I believe if you call, they'll get you a digital copy of your books to save. Anyways. This is somewhat off-topic...but I can't help but wonder what I really need these books for? I only stress about being 'behind'. And really, I can't remember the last time anyone looked through them...and will the kids even want them someday?! Arg. I'm torn. In my minimizing haze...I feel a strong pull to just throw them all away. I feel like I print my most favorite photos for framing and hanging on the walls. Maybe I should put more of my efforts into organizing my online photos (on my hard drive, etc.) so that those are more easily accessible to the kids...someday!? You can see HERE, that this isn't the first time I've lost sleep over the topic of PHOTOS and Digital Copies and Photo Books. Arg! moving on... onto these children of mine! Growing older by the second!!!!:) They've both gotten hair cuts since last month, which only ages them so much more!
so there's Theo Daisy! Man, what a spit-personality spit-fire;)! She hasn't yet learned that being/screaming loudest doesn't always mean that mom will automatically think you're the victim. Been there, done that;) her and Homer fight...constantly. She still loves her baby dolls and goes to bed with no less than 4, every night. She's testing boundaries and being defiant and sassy and good lord...I've got my hands full with this bunch - as I type this, her and Homer are shooting Nerf guns and I just heard her yell at him: "Don't.Shoot.My.Wiener!!!!!".
she turns 3 in a month.
and RockyP:) He's still a wonderful little boy and addition to this family! He's becoming more brave in his personality, bigger, louder...feistier;) Weighing in at 21-1/2lbs, food is his friend. He's our healthy boy:)
he's still not quite walking. He's walked several times but he's not ready to commit. Which I'm okay with. I thought he'd have his siblings beat but it doesn't look like he'll be fully walking till at least 16MO as well;)
he still wants to get up about once a night. At least. We're working on that. I think the 3rd time around we got a wee bit lot lazy and threw a bottle at the problem when he woke-up in the middle of the night...now we're paying for it and I'm waiting on the 'ideal' weekend to detox him of that awful habit:/
*since writing this post, he's slept through the night for the last 4 nights!!! His ears must have been ringing:)
most of the time, I can hardly believe we're already 3 kids in. When was the last time I got to just cuddle with Rocky? He's hardly a baby anymore. It goes by way too dang fast. I'm so looking forward to a summer of bumming with these kiddos!!!!:) our goals for the upcoming months: save for a family vacation - Homer's requesting a beach:) and enjoy...just...enjoy:)
