Making Art Again: May 2014

Florida 2

While I was in Florida I got to visit with my Grams, and my aunt and uncle. It was such a treat to introduce them to Cooper.

They were delighted with each other.

My Grams amazes me. She has had a tough year with some health issues, but with some hard work and determination she is back to her old self. She is going 90 and is laying on the floor playing with Cooper.

My Grams lives in a magical, over 50, gated community in Florida.

It is always sunny there and people ride bikes and play shuffle board. There is also a memorial garden. Joe Reininger is my grandfather and he is remembered in that garden and in my mind.

He told great jokes. My Grams still talks about him. Her eyes kind of sparkle when she says "Joe used to..."

I love her.

I hope I'm like her when I'm 89.

A Landslide

It is true I've let this space slide.
My days slip by before I've left the kitchen. Someone needs breakfast, someone needs a kiss, someone needs me to stack something, fold something, scrub something and so it goes that my little space here gets pushed as far back as it has ever been.

For three days I've updated. No useful words, just the knowledge that is space is serving as my memory and as always I'm thankful that it is here.

Life will always be busy somehow. I just don't want to forget that we were living it fully while it blew by us.

Enjoy the pictures and the lack of creative writing.
Grace and Peace
xoxo

Florida 1

Some of my favorite people live in Florida. I was trying to find a way to get there all winter long so I could visit them. Kev suggested I go while Grandma was here to help with big kids.

So I took Cooper to see the Gulf of Mexico.

The first thing he did was try to eat a cigarette butt.

Then he yelled at me for putting his feet in the water.

Then Laura liked my face so much that she made the same one. (Look how sweet my friend Erin's kids are)

This is us making up after the feet in the water incident.

For the record, this is what Cooper P. looked like at 7 months old. Extremely handsome, if I do say so myself. Also for the record, he started crawling just before we left for this trip and he went from not crawling to lightning speed.

And while I'm adding thins to my record book, Cooper decided to get four teeth on this trip. That was fun.

This is his first time in a swimming pool. I pretty sure he would still be there playing if I had left him there. But who could leave this boy? He's fun...unless it's the middle of the night while he's working on four teeth.

These are my dear friends.
If you need a good friend, these are the kind to have.

This is my friend Erin's newest bundle. I love him. His name is Eli.

He is the most chilled out baby ever.

And this post lacked creativity.

Don't Be Fooled

Before you start thinking this is a post about how sweet it is when babies fall asleep in your arms, you are wrong. This post is about the rebellion of our son.
Let me just pause here and say that any and all times that I have bragged about my awesome parenting skills I have tripped and fallen spectacularly right after.

When Cooper was newborn we bragged about his sleeping skills.
Now just imagine me sprawled out on the ground.
Any and all sleeping has turned into a battle.
So here he sleeps best, curled up in someone's arms.

It seems hard now, but I'm sure we'll miss him curled up in our arms one day.
Right?

Grandma's Knitting

I love these pictures of Libby talking with her Grandma while she knitted a sweater for her.

I think they were making a memory together.

Grandma came for a visit right after Easter. We love having her here with us. Time always speeds up when we have company though. Two weeks went really fast. Faster than our liking for sure.

Easter Part 1

Or the post of 1000 pictures

Or the moment on Easter Sunday after church when I start yelling at everyone to go outside so I can get pictures of everyone all gussied up.

I sat down to scoop up the Coop and Kev snapped this picture. I like it. I look normal and not like I'm shouting orders at my family to pose for pictures.

Gus came. He was trying to supervise as usual, but was more of a nuisance...as usual.

Precious parents always let us invade their space at holidays.

Babs and Grandad posing with kids. Stop talking Grandad.

That's better, now Maggie look at the camera.

Messy hair don't care, our life motto.

Me and Daddy-o.

Here are one million family shots. I could have posted more. It literally took this many times to get one decent shot.
I say messy hair don't care, but clearly I do, because I am trying to fix someone's here.

Smile Cooper,

Libby, put the Lego's down.

Mom, point the camera at us.

That's it, the kids are done.

No, Mom, really, point the camera at us not the dog.

Kev hand me the baby, you take Maggie and Libby. Look at the camera kids.

The kids are not looking, but they look kind of normal, and Kevin and I do not look tired and that is saying something. Okay, maybe we look a little tired.