She's done it again!

We had another photo shoot with our photographer Sarah. Yes, "our photographer" kind of like "our hairdresser" or "our mailman." We think she's amazing and we plan on using her as "our photographer" as long as she'll let us.

Anyway, she nailed it. Again. She is seriously amazing. We were in practically the worst of circumstances as we had a huge storm roll in right as we showed up for the pictures. She used her expertise to work out the lighting and make the pictures turn out incredibly. It is SO exactly what we wanted. She even figured out how to catch the rainbow in those pictures with Isaac which I didn't even think was possible. Check out her website if you haven't already www.bitsylanephotography.com. It doesn't even seem right that we can get such incredible pictures at such a ridiculously good price.

You may notice that there are only 2 of the 4 boys in these pictures. Just a few days before the pictures Henry fell out of our kiddie pool on his nose and scraped it all up. So he got cut from the photo shoot. But we are planning on getting another photo shoot with her in a week or two with all of the boys in more casual clothes. I can't wait.

Check out these handsome little boys.

Centerpieces

I couldn't help it. As soon as those gorgeous Peonies opened up, I went out there and cut them. I love fresh flowers on my table, but never pay for them. I can't quite believe how huge that big pink one is. It's probably 5 inches in diameter. I put these Peonies in a vase that came with Peonies in it from Natalie's wedding. Her centerpieces looked pretty similar to this, so I'm pretty proud of myself. I've got a pretty good lineup of fresh flowers to cut and keep on my table this year. After the Peonies comes the pink roses (Kind of like a desert rose?). Shortly after that will come the Shasta daisies, then probably some different roses. I'm hoping to have the Dahlias not too long after that, and I have some red Crocosmias that are absolutely incredible that I'm hoping will produce enough that I can cut some and leave some. And towards the end of the season I will have the Hydrangeas. If anyone has any advice on some other flowers that would make good table centerpieces, let me know. I'll probably rush right out and buy them. Oh yeah, and next summer I should have some Flowering Almond and Forsythia to cut in the spring. Hopefully they are big enough by then. And I've got some Lilies that will be good next summer as well.

Aunt Mame asked about my garden. I'm not thrilled with my garden this year. I got off to a late start, never made it out to get my heirloom tomatoes, a hail storm damaged most of my plants, and I decided that next year I am building raised beds. So I kind of fell out of love with my garden for this year. Hopefully next year will go better. But it definitely isn't a blog-worthy garden. :(

Missed Air France Flight, Only to Die in Car Crash

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/us_world/NATL-Woman-Who-Missed-Flight-447-Killed-in-Car-Crash.html?yhp=1

My husband and I recently had a conversation about people's "time" to go and whether there is such a thing or not. This story kind of makes me wonder.

Note to self

11 extra pounds is too many to try to squish into your skinny clothes, so quit trying. Perhaps the diet of hamburgers and cookie dough isn't working. Hmmm.

Some simple things that make me happy.

They say that "things" don't make you happy. I beg to differ. So today I walked around my house taking pictures of some of the simple things that make me really happy.

Of course I'll start with thing 1 and thing 2


And almost always, without fail, this thing makes me really happy.


Our porch swing that I always sit on with at least one of my 5 boys.

My house. I love almost everything about it. We custom built this house and it fits my needs almost perfectly. I have a love/hate relationship with my wood floors. The only two things I love about it: that it is soft enough to not give concussions and broken teeth when little boys fall on it, and it is very beautiful for about 5 minutes after I clean it. I hate everything else about my wood floor. Other than that though, Dave was very smart in thinking through every last detail of it, and it is remarkably functional. Thanks Dave for building me such an awesome house! Oh yeah, and it isn't crooked in real life. Those are just my wicked photography skills.

Also notice the perfectly thick, green, lush grass in the front yard. Our backyard needs some recovering from last year's neglect, but the front is great. And the awesome landscaping, done by me. It's taken me a long time, but it is only about 2 years from being exactly where I want it to be :).


I must mention my plants. If you think you know me, and you didn't know that I have a ridiculously uncontrollable, overflowing, unruly maternal instinct, then you didn't really know me did you? I satiate this instinct by having loads of babies, and obsessing over my plants. Every morning I walk all around my yard to see how things have grown, I can tell you every change with every single plant in my yard. Yes, it's weird. But it makes me SO happy!

My dirt perennial garden which consists of burning bushes, shasta daisies, chives, oregano, jonny jump-ups, barberry, peonies, dahlias, lilies, daylilies, white dragonflowers, crimson coral bells, carnations (which haven't flowered yet, so I'm still a little unsure about them), hostas, hmm anything else? I can't remember. But I do LOVE my flower garden.

My weeping Cherry tree. It blossoms with millions of white flowers in the spring and just looks cute the rest of the year.


My fruit trees in the back- plum and apple. The other two fruit trees don't make me very happy. grrr. But these two are doing great.

My Honeysuckle that climbs up the lamp post. Isn't it cute?


My hydrangea that my neighbor compliments me on every year. She always makes me feel good for being able to keep it alive.


My weeping red rose tree. I think I need to cut off that long branch a little bit. But it is about to burst out with red beautifulness. I think I made up that word.


My only really flowering Peonies. They are going to be really beautiful in a few days. And notice those huge Hollyhocks in the back. I think I'll like those, at least I hope.


Our bistro set on our front porch. It definitely makes me happy.


Our first year with our Bing Cherry tree. I LOVE cherries, and I can't wait until this tree gets a little bit bigger so we can have tons of cherries. Right now we only have about 50 cherries on it, but not terrible for the first year.


So in a five minute walk around my house I found a lot of "things" that make me happy. I'll have to post more pictures in a few weeks when my plants start getting some colors.

We're getting a rock wall!

They just showed up to dump our rocks and our boys are so excited. For three years our yard has sloughed off in the back and we are finally getting our rock retaining wall. After they are done we will plant our lilac hedge in front of the rocks. Okay, maybe I'm even more excited than the boys