That stinks

Well, it happened. I was just waiting for the day when Liam would notice the wrinkles on my face or say something terribly truthful about myself. This morning he told me that I look like the Queen of Narnia. Ouch!

I don't take it too personally; it was the morning after all, and my light eyelashes and lack of mascara most likely played a roll. He said it was my hair too. If I shower at night my natural curly hair does kind of turn dread like by morning!

Now that I look at the Queen, she does kind of look like she just woke up. I had a good laugh.

Mink Creek

We took the boys on a walk about 20 minutes from our home. I thought of all our friends from Pharmacy school. We were such a close knit family and loved this area. I miss you guys so much! We think of our Cedar City and Missouri friends often too. I miss the sarcasm and funny jokes of all Tanner's friends!

The outdoors (or waiting for a fish to hook) inspires us all. Check out Julian's He Man impersonation:

Trip Back Home

My brother graduated and gave the BEST 2 minute speech ever. It was all about defining real intelligence. "Why don't we have a class on common sense?" he asked. Everyone just sat in awe. I loved it.

Check out Chris' lei! My Grandparent's friends they made while in Tonga were thoughtful enough to ship one from there. Totally awesome and thoughtful.

 

Seriously?! 

It goes without saying that this kid reeks adorableness. Having him accidentally hold the wrong end of the bat doesn't help. Just today Liam was chasing him around trying to kiss him "because he's adorable." Sheesh.

Grandpa had a great idea to go explore the desert and look for treasure. Surprisingly enough Liam found this water gun. It was a beautiful day with memories made for sure.

It's funny to see the boys try something then not know how to handle it. I forced Julian to hold this pose while I took this picture.

That's Oily

Dying from thirst, Liam looked around in a panic and grabbed the first thing he could find to quench it. (At least he got 45% of his daily value of Vitamin E along with some Omega 6 and not a spec of cholesterol. You got to try this stuff.)

I can see where the confusion came from. The delicious sweet grapes on the front is pretty deceiving to a kid who can't read. Yuck!

Scrapbooking? NEVER!

Several years ago I vowed to never eat at McDonald's again. I've now done the same with scrapbooking.  Backing up pictures and journals while keeping a "scrapbook," and then keeping track of dates at the same time is a headache. Thanks to an idea by a friend I've just simplified things by setting up a personal/private blog for (1) me and Tanner and (2) the boys. Here's the reasons why I've decided this route:

1. I can add pictures and video to my entries.
2. All my writings and pictures I use are backed up because it's online.
3. If our house catches on fire my years of work won't go up in flames.
4. I can access my writings anywhere the internet is and potentially post from my phone.
5. When you post you can use labels like Liam, Halloween, Funny Sayings or whatever subject/happening you're writing about and then pull up your labels when you want to see just those specific posts. 
6. With the search tool I can search my journal. 
7. I know a lot of people who use a blog for keeping up on their journal but have a hard time sometimes because they want to be more private in their posts. I can be more specific in my personal blog and more general in our family (this) one.
8. You can easily export your existing/old blog into a new one and publish only the posts you select. This will keep your old blog up and running too.
9. You can also edit your post date and time in case you write about something days late. 
10. And like my sister, when you're done you just have a company print it off in a small professional hard bound book. Love that!

You could even simplify more and not do a private blog/journal for your kids as long as you label all your writings. You could then pull up the labels with your kids names. Sometimes I want to write to them so that's when I'll use their blog.

I understand and love hand written journals and scrapbooks and even have a baby book for the boys, but  after their first year this seems like a good way to record the rest of their/our lives. With any form of journaling or scrapbooking if you like doing it and it works for you then move forward. If you feel overwhelmed or way behind then try little by little to catch up or look into some other alternative. Just thought I'd share in case any of this could help any of you.