Our Family Photos Preview...

Caden didn't want to sit still or let anyone hold him except Mom and Dad, so here is one of the girls...

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I was able to hold Caden and the Girls went in for the kiss...

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Mr Caden in all his cuteness...

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Miss Eliza Mae in all her giggling glory...

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Natalie with her always sweet expression...

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Leah with nature, that's where we seem to always find her...

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Katija striking a pose, this girl is SO photogenic...

Okay I don't have the CD from our family photos back yet, but she posted them online and on her blog...our whole family is on the her website gallery (I guess I'm not wrong that we have adorable children :))! I just copied some from her blog, they have her logo on them and I'm going to put the link here so I don't break any copyright laws etc (also to give her credit for her great work). I know I'll have the CD, but I couldn't wait to show you how great they look; there's no family one I can copy and paste here so when we get the official CD I'll show you. It's just a preview, stay tuned to see all the CUTE pictures she took.

Website (online gallery): http://www.christinamaephotography.com
*Select the website, go to the bottom tab that says proofing, then enter the password:calance

You can see all our family photos and how great they turned out!! (you can order pictures if you want too)

Halloween Misc...

When Natalie got home from Kindergarten she had her goody bag of candy and toys from her Halloween party. I told her I would take a picture of her with black hair before we washed it out, before I went to take it I noticed something in her mouth. In her goody bag was a pair of vampire teeth, she wanted to wear them for the picture. So, we have one with and without vampire teeth, but I wanted to show you the one with the teeth :). I wanted to get a picture of the hair because it was very weird to see her with black hair. In the parade I had to remind myself not to look for a blonde little girl, but, "Black hair, red bow".
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After Trick or Treating the kids were playing and Eliza was of course wanting to talk with the grown ups. She saw a police officer hat on top of the fridge and wanted to try it on. I took a picture of her wearing it and she wanted to pull a funny face. She puckered her lips and when she saw the picture on the display she thought it was funny and asked me to take another one. I pretended to be taking her picture, but instead was filming her on video. I was trying to get her to say certain things that she says in a certain way, I thought it was cute so I decided to post it.

Halloween...

Well it was Halloween and the kids had fun and enjoyed their costumes. I wanted to post some pictures of the kids in their costumes and of Katija, Leah, and Natalie in their parade. We had an impromptu get together with my brother Halloween night. I was too tired from this week and thought it would be nice to have the help of my sister in law and brother. Their kids would keep ours entertained and Chad would have a walking buddy with BJ while taking the kids around trick or treating (thank you Chad and Uncle BJ!!). This was Eliza's first real outing...it lasted more than 15 minutes; Caden wasn't in the mood to go. He's getting more steady with walking, but he is still tripping prone and just wants to eat the candy as soon as he sees it. So, the idea of waiting to eat the bag of candy is completely lost on him. He was SO tired he went to bed around 7:30 PM; he had fun with all the cars at Aunt Jennifer's house though (they have 3 boys)!!
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Halloween Night (Chad holding Caden in the doorway)
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Katija - The Parade (Belle, with no updo...getting 3 girls ready for Halloween and out the door before 8:30 am called for a nice bow, the updo had to wait until trick or treating)

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Natalie - The Parade (Snow White)
Notice the black hair...this was a nightmare that WILL NOT be repeated!! The spray ended up everywhere and it doesn't dry, it just rubs off 0n everything and is horrible. I ended up washing her costume and hair after school before she went out trick or treating - lesson learned...WIGS ALWAYS WIGS!!

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Leah - The Parade (A Pirate w/out make up, again NO TIME!!)

Kids say the darndest things...

Well I have a funny Eliza story that I have to pass on. We were at Grandma and Grandpa Lance's house to celebrate the completion of their fire pit; most all the family was there. Grandma Lance has all the grandkids' pictures on the wall in order of their birth. As of right now Caden is the youngest, but Chad's brother's wife is expecting and another picture will be added. The frame after Caden's picture is a question mark written on a piece of paper (this was just added about a month ago). Eliza always climbs on the couch in front of this collage and points out members of our own family. She points to Caden's picture and says, "That's my baby brother". She then notices the empty picture frame and says some comment about the picture being lost or missing and asks who it is. Chad's sister Heidi then says to her, "It's for Aunt Cami's baby, it's in her tummy". Now Aunt Heidi is known for teasing and telling stories to the girls so she isn't sure whether to believe her or not; she looks puzzled at Cami and says, "Is it?". Cami pulls open her jacket and taps her tummy, "Yup, see there's a baby in my tummy". Eliza then looks more confused and says to Aunt Cami, "You ATE it?!!". Everyone had a great laugh...leave it to Eliza, you know she will come up with the funniest things.

Where's your nose?...

Well, Caden is learning to point out body parts and I was able to capture it on camera. I was actually capturing his new fascination with hats - or anything that will stay on his head. He will wear them all the time and cries when I take them from him (oh the crown incident :)). He thinks anything will work as a hat and will even walk around with his blanket draped over his head giggling. He sees necklaces and tries to put them on up over his head and drapes them around the back of his neck. I'm sure he thinks - hey, "My sisters do it ALL DAY LONG!". He has a few shirts that have a hood on them and loves it when I put them on his head. It's quite funny to see his face beam, he is so pleased with himself and will even say, "whoo whoo", because after all isn't he beautiful :)? This hood in particular was funny - it is very tight and reminds me of some 'Ace Ventura' character I can't put my finger on. In the middle of the video He started pointing at his nose and I got it on camera. In the beginning he says "Uh oh", but you can't quite hear it, you can see his mouth and see he is saying it. He can say nose too, but it sounds more like, "no". Right after this the battery died on the camera and so does the video - sorry his cuteness has to end at some point :).

Little update...

Well, we finally got our family photos taken on Saturday - good thing the end result of family photos is always good or no one would ever take them AGAIN! Two ended in tears, one in a tantrum and another only 45 min in refused to smile. Katija was the only one who cooperated the entire time and would have kept going. THANK YOU KATIJA!! It will be a few weeks until we get them back. My wonderful brother took our photos last time and did a great job, I didn't want to bother him again (our schedules don't always work together) and the weather changed SO fast I had to do it now or not at all. I want to learn photography (Eric is learning it too) and wanted to use this as an opportunity to learn how the photographer used photo-shop with all the photos etc. I liked her style and I figured we could learn from her and what she did, we would just break it down later when we got the CD.

I was able to get clothes for everyone and when it came to me I grabbed what I thought would work and found they didn't fit the way I wanted them to. I thought as soon as Chad got off work I would run to the 24 hr Walmart and look there. Well, Chad's original 1 am ending shifted ended at almost 5 am instead!! So, that was out the window and I was left to getting dressed in the van on the way there Saturday morning -- sorry if I flashed anyone :). I grabbed other clothing at Walmart before heading out to our 9 am appointment! My shoulders are big (courtesy of my Dad), but wanted a jacket for layering. If I get one to fit my shoulders everything else is too big, so this one the shoulders were tight and I thought since it felt so tight it wouldn't look right and I opted for the sweater instead. I didn't even get to look myself over to see what I looked like. When we got there I had to scramble to get everyone to the waiting photographer, so I didn't even stop to look at my reflection in the van windows; when we got home I discovered the jacket would have been the better choice and the sweater I chose in a panic...looked too big, matronly and frumpy. I also wanted to wear false eyelashes (I want to feel like a girl once in a while :)) since I get my picture taken rarely I wanted to feel all dressed up; the photographer was taking shots of the kids while I was still trying to finish my makeup. I had to scrap it and I still can't find where they are!! Last of all I wanted to pull my bangs up off my face, but again...NO TIME, I just had to get going even saying to myself, "Bag it Catharina, oh well there's no time!". At least the kids and Chad will look good, but I seemed to have dropped the ball with myself --- CRAP, another lost moment for me with family photos. Why is Mom ALWAYS LAST :)?!! I'm fearful for how they will turn out with all the things I missed, I'm just praying they will. I put all the effort I could in and am hoping for a good end result! I'll share them when I get them, I can't wait.

Go on and see how you do...

I got this from my friends blog, I thought I would try it out. I don't know how fast, fast is?! Anyone know?

49 words

Speedtest

He's turning into a little boy?!!

There's our little boy look!!

He is now learning how to go down the stairs on his own. After his rein of terror in the kitchen (as noted by the papers and rug scattered behind him), he is now onto the Family Room

He's back up and hesitant

Um, maybe I don't want to try this after all (he is NOT a dare devil). Look at those chubby legs though!!

Caden is growing up SO fast and is turning into a little boy. He is loosing the baby chubby face and his neck is now showing! He makes certain faces and when he looks just right I can see this little boy coming out of our little baby. It's bitter-sweet, but he is entering a really fun stage.

PS Don't mind the boogies and the crumbs all over him when you blow up the picture. I just saw them when I clicked on the pictures. He had just eaten lunch and is getting over a cold; real life people...REAL LIFE (no sugar coating here right? :))

Tempertantrum anyone?

He's smiling and happy, because he sees the camera...

And now he is SO mad that I wont let him have it, he somehow thinks this will break me down and I'll let him maul a $500 camera :)

Here he is as Katija tries to lift him up because he has now burried his face in the carpet

I don't know if it's mean but I love to get pictures of my kids throwing tantrums, I think they make the funniest faces. They are so irrational that they do the funniest things. He is so funny because he will plop on the floor but will look around to make sure there is enough room for him to sprawl and throw his legs out as his tummy hits the ground. Here He is being dramatic, this just starting in the last month - let the games begin :)!

Our Field Trip to Hill Air Force Base...

Look how HUGE those wheels are next those TINY girls

GO UTES - great shirts boys!

I'm trying to smile for you Mom, but the sun is in my FACE!!

Oh, that's better...CHEESE - see how cute I am

Jacob was such a good bbsiter for Eliza, I caught a few pictures with Him holding Eliza's hand :) - thank you Jakob!!

Katija practicing for her career on the catwalk

Chad is such a good Dad, here he is going up VERY high to show the girls the inside of the plane (I was on stroller duty w/Caden :))

AH HA!! I got one of Aunt Jennifer!!

Katija --- Trapped in Space

Future U of U Sports Stars aka B.J. and Jennifer's boys

Look at that olive skin...Jealous? I AM!!

Six kids between the ages of 9 - 5!

Look how cool...

I don't know how I did this but I was playing around with our camera settings and this is what happened. I LOVE photography and want to learn more about it, but haven't done a lot of research yet. They have the continuing education classes through our school district and I really want to take a photo class. I'm sure when I do I'll figure out what happened and how I got this photo. This is from our Hill Air Force Base visit, we were in a hub that had florescent lighting; whenever I am in a building like that I can't figure out the settings :(.

Selfish Birthday Rant...

Well there hasn't been much to report as far as change goes. Here on the home front things are still doing well and there have been no events or special occasions to report. I hope I have that right - sorry if I forgot about anyone :). I'm getting over my 30th birthday and didn't find it fun AT ALL!! It wasn't the number either, I really don't care that I have to say I'm thirty; I'm upset as to what 30 represented to me. My thirtieth birthday was to be a new beginning, back when most of the health issues started in 2006, my 30th birthday was in a weird way a beacon to look towards. It was a long enough away to accomplish the goals I set and I felt the time would be long enough for my body to heal etc. It's funny with health, you think to yourself, "Okay just 3 more months and it will get better right?"; then when that doesn't happen its, "It's been 6 months, by the time it's been 1 yr just think of how you'll be feeling and what you'll be doing". You keep going on this cycle until you realize it's been 2 yrs and your body isn't there yet; your still healing and you can't do those things yet. When turning 30 was far enough away, I figured I would be healed and my "new life" of health and energy would start. There would be times I'd get close to better health, then another wrench would be thrown in my plans; last was my Thyroid surgery. This really knocked me on my bottom! About 4 wks out I was feeling really well for about a week and then it was gone. They started me on the thyroid meds and about 10 days in I was feeling well, but it has too many rises and falls right now; this puts me back to the, "I have to see how things go on a day to day basis". I thought by now if I hadn't accomplished these things I would at least be in the process of getting them done; which don't get me wrong I am feeling better, it just isn't consistent and I can't start those things yet. It feels like a horrible prank sometimes when the carrot of good health and energy (my old self) is dangled in front of me, only to have it yanked from my hands when I reach it. I am grateful for all our wonderful blessings and in the grand scheme of things this will only be a blip right? I have our family and that is a great blessing and we don't want for much that's for sure! I just want to feel like I'm a contributor in my life, my family, the house, my church etc...The cleaning, laundry, and good mood fairy make their visit (very welcomed guests :)), I wish they could stay longer; I want them to be life time guests :). With the zap of energy I can't do the things I do as release and meditation. I'm weird and enjoy doing home improvement projects and accomplishing the projects that need to be done every 3 months or so. I haven't painted a room, furniture or completed a previously attempted project in such a long time. I would love to do that and I look forward to that time. By looking forward to the future I don't want to waste the here and now and miss all that is happening. I have to stop and enjoy the time right now, because this time in our family's lives will only happen once. I will do my best day by day, even when I know what I've been capable of; it's humbling to do this when you're not used to playing this role. I feel like others know me only as this person and I feel like screaming, "This ISN'T me!". It is me for the present and I'm learning how to be okay with that. Okay so my rant for my birthday is this...I wasn't able to accomplish things I thought would be attainable in a certain time frame; other things beyond my control interrupted this process and that's the reason I was unhappy for my 30th birthday. I'm okay with it, and the things that I'm not...I will be; it will take time I know, it just gets hard waiting for it.

New bios to come...

I am still trying to update this thing and retype the things that were zapped the last time I wanted to give the ol' blog a face lift. I only have three bios typed up on the kids and I will get to all of them - I didn't want anyone to think I didn't want to type a bio for the other two. As for now I am done, my mind is a blank, my bum is numb and I am all computer savvy DONE!! Hope you all have a good day and I'll check back later.

Before the clock strikes 12...

Well it's my big brother's birthday today and I wanted to say...

HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY!!

I did wish him a happy birthday, but wanted to make it official and tell him how much I love him and how amazingly in our older years (feeling older for me anyways :))...I enjoy spending time with him - did you ever think that would happen bro? Funny thing is, I think he married someone just like Chad (a female version of course)...no wonder mom always said we were so much a like - have a good one!

Love,
Catharina

P.S. It makes it nice that I love your wife too and enjoy being friends with her - the feelings are deep...we both have a love of Wal-mart :)! In all seriousness, I think you both are awesome and am glad to call you both my friends!

My Best Friends Wedding!...Teehee I finally get to use that title :)

Here they are just exiting the temple as husband and wife (she is waving at the boys)

I know I'm suppose to be done, but I had to post these pictures of my friend Stephanie. It was her wedding on September 5th - finally their marathon courtship (I have to tease her about it) - ended in a temple marriage for time and all eternity! It was a beautiful day and I cried more at her wedding than my own :) - I'm totally serious too. It's a tender miracle their paths crossed - especially when life had given both so much heartache to overcome. After all they've endured and conquered - both deserved this sweet ending. She looked so BEAUTIFUL and they both looked so happy! Even though I miss her terribly I'm so happy for her. Okay now the pictures are from my cell...again! I forgot the dreaded camera, I know one day soon it will be attached at the hip (it's a goal to always have it with us to capture all sorts of events). There is no zoom on my camera so the "zoom" is me running up really close, while trying not to be in the way or too annoying (so there aren't a lot of "zoom" pictures :)).

Here they are with the boys

Here Greg is with Logan (Logan was smiling wide for the camera when I called his name)



One of the twins grinning on cue :) - I think I know who this is, but I don't want to say and then be wrong!

My one on one with Stephanie - I couldn't see my cell phone screen after it took a picture (because the bright sun blocked it out), so I couldn't tell she was blinking. Doesn't she still look beautiful?!!

One on one with Greg just outside the temple



Greg's dad and step-mom, they had to take off early (it's candid, but I thought it was sweet)


Greg's immediate family



Greg's side of the family



Stephanie with her parents



Stephanie's side of the family



All the boys at the wedding (yes there was an all girls photo w/me, but Chad wasn't in love with the idea of running up for the zoom and snapping a picture with my cell phone - I LOVE YOU Chad! :))

What LUCK!!...Well, maybe more "SLOW DOWN" and things like this wouldn't happen?

Holy cow I am so tired, but can't put off posting for any longer. I still haven't added the bios of the kids back since they were zapped. Lucky for all of you I have a new "zapped" story :) - I know you've all been on pins and needles and are dying to hear what happened...so here you go:

We finally celebrated Caden's first birthday (less than 2 months late, but still during his first year right?!!) - I'm glad we were able to pull it together and do this for him. He was NOT a happy camper that day - he'd been cranky all day and the four teeth coming in didn't help either (we are happy to report they have broken through :)). Right before the party I saw the camera and made a mental note - so when I needed it I could grab it. Well picture time came and the camera was not where I left it and was no where to be found (we of course found it when everyone left and Caden had already gone to bed during the party, loosing all hope for any birthday party pictures :)). So, I used my cell phone camera instead - not the resolution I was hoping for, but...surprisingly it did a great job. I used it for videos too and was going to add them all to our blog to share with family and friends. I was moving the pics from my phone to my memory card so I could upload them and add them to our computer and blog. I thought I had picked copy to card so I had a copy on the phone and another on the card - but I selected move instead (leaving no copy on my phone). Then I thought while I had the card in my phone I would look to see if any of the files for my palm would work on my phone (it has an MP3 player and things on it - I know WHY multi task now?). I went to the mass storage section and thought I was selecting "change format" to view all the files on the card...but instead it reformatted the memory card and zapped all the info on it!! I had backups for my palm, but the pictures OF COURSE where GONE!! I was SO sick to my stomach when I found that I didn't select copy like I thought, but selected move and didn't have doubles. The good news is we got it all on our video camera - but that can't be uploaded...or SCRAP BOOKED (it's on tape). I had the cutest pictures of Caden eating his cake (chocolate of course) and the cake itself. I am so sick that they are gone, but I do have the video and luckily our friend took a picture of the cake with his cell and emailed it to us. So, thank you Phil - you're a life saver!! If you can't tell it is a choo-choo train cake, I had side angles and everything before *sniff* - it still makes me sad. Since this is all we have picture wise I hope you all can get an idea of what it looked like. With the lack of pictures I feel like we have nothing to show for his 1st birthday :(. I have to remember we will have 1 yr pictures taken - oh, you'll be seeing them mark my words!!

With all this craziness, I have to remind myself we do have SOMETHING to remind us of his first birthday (a lot for his first year really) - all is not lost...*exhale*..."BREAK!" (that was my team pep talk - I'm good now :)). That is all I have the energy to type about, I have more pictures to post later (My Best Friend got married - YEAH!). Have a good night - I'm exhausted (I'll share the story for that later too :)).

What did you do?!!

Well I was tinkering around - I knew I should have walked away :(. I was trying to change the background and ended up messing with the template and it deleted my side columns! At least the posts are still there but all the descriptions of us and the kids...GONE!! So, I'll be typing it all up again later. I've spent the last few hours putting the pictures back up and setting it up for the most part. Blah, I can't believe I did that; I guess the good news is that I now know more about html codes than I did before. I know it will come in handy, it's already helped me change the column sizes and adjust some things that bugged me about the old one. So, be patient and check back from time to time to see my progress. I keep shaking my head in disbelief...I can't believe I did that?!! I'm tired and need to go to bed, plus my bum is asleep; have a good night :).

What do all these things have in common?

Well, this is an overdue post and since I finally got the photos off my camera I thought I would post and share this story. Right around my thyroid surgery one of our toilets was plugged, and even the snake did nothing. There were still 2 other bathrooms to use so it wasn't a priority seeing how I had just had surgery. Well about 2 days later another one was plugged and Chad was obviously upset seeing how we had just replaced one toilet this year because of a constant clogging problem. You don't want to know the details - let's just say Chad is amazing, dedicated and deserved a vacation after that one. So since 2 were clogged, it became a bigger priority, but because of the last experience Chad said, "I am not taking another toilet off again!". I said that was fine, I had no problem doing it when I could lift things again (I'd done it before) - so he'd have to wait a while. In frustration Chad gave in and started with one of the two toilets, this of course was clogged by Eliza dropping an air hockey puck into the toilet and flushing. It was the perfect diameter to block anything from going down; Chad had to get it in just the right position to get it out. Then on to the other toilet; it would flush but it was really slow and anything solid wouldn't go down. So after working to clear it, it seemed something was stuck in just reaching distance. Chad's hand was too big so I bravely stuck my hand into the toilet (I know, I was surprised too!), as I reached in I found item after item settled on the bottom. I grabbed all I could reach and felt that the item we really needed to get to was just up in the bend of the tubing. I couldn't get my hand past it so I was able to convince Katija to try so we wouldn't have to remove yet another toilet (we have removed a toilet about 10 times in the last year - I'm not kidding). She couldn't get up that far either, so again Chad had to remove a toilet. At first he couldn't find anything, but after pushing the snake through over and over he felt something in the way. He had to push it a little at a time to get it to come out the bottom of the toilet. What did he find... a hair clip wedged in the tubing flushed by none other than...ELIZA MAE!!

I'm happy to say she hasn't tried putting anything else in - she was scolded and I think it finally took. So the answer to what do all these things have in common is...they were all flushed down the SAME toilet by Eliza. Some of these things have been missing for a while, I kept loosing tweezers and couldn't figure out where they were going. Now I know - and now they are kept under lock and key :). I don't know how the toilet worked with no problem for this long, I guess toilets are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get (or what's inside)!!

Does Mommy-work ever end? Do I get scheduled time off :)?

Holy cow, I've been trying to stay on top of everything at our house while catching up on the rest of things that have gone undone. Let's just say that this house hasn't been mom-ified in a LONG time. It's funny the things that I do when I am the one cleaning. Since I haven't been the one doing it and now I'm back doing it, I notice all the things over looked (from my view). I in no way am giving discredit to my wonderful hubby, who in the last few years has picked up more than his fair share of slack. It's more the small things that I do; I'll give you some examples. Okay when I clean I do small little things that help keep certain things maintained: When I wipe the counter I wipe the fronts of the cabinets below (especially the grooves that food and who knows what collect on), or when I "spot clean" the floor or even mop the floor I wipe the tops of the baseboards and the bottom 3-4 ft of wall, along with the light switch plates, electrical outlets, window seals and doors (especially by the door knob)...never fails they always look dirty!! With 5 little ones dragging their fingers across the walls everyday - I'm already out numbered! When I do laundry I keep a rag hanging above the washer that I wipe down the washer and dryer with because of the lint and over spray (from my pre-treating obsession) that collect on top of them, or even the floor right in front of the washer because the over spray attracts dirt etc. Then I throw it in the washer and it starts all over again - I know I'm weird (OCD as Chad would say). When I vacuum I always get the tops of the baseboards and edges, or when I pull the couch out to vacuum behind and under it I wash the wall above and behind the couch. I do this because somehow finger prints and spilling streaks find their way there - even if food isn't permitted downstairs :). So these things are well overdue for a good scrub down; I'm trying to do this gradually because with all that has to be done, I'd run myself into a 5 day resting period - pacing myself is SO important. From the scrubbing my hands are so waterlogged, red, dry and bleeding in some places. I just can't believe all a Mom does in a given day and how the smallest of things can take so much time. I've been out of the loop it feels for WAY too long I've forgotten all that is done. I did the bare minimum for SO long that the everyday thing was not the normal - even just above bare minimum amazes me (GO MOMS GO!!). I wont go into it all right now; it is too involved - but I'm amazed at the things I am doing, I can't imagine what all I'll be doing when I'm feeling even better. I can't believe the amount of laundry that needs to be done in a week (let's be honest...everyday) so that laundry isn't spilling over 5+ different baskets of laundry scattered all over the house! I am constantly straightening and picking up little things here and there because of how fast in can engulf a room. I'm just in awe really and can't explain it. By the time the girls get home from school, we work on their homework, reading, baths, dinner, brush their teeth, say prayers etc...it's already past 9 pm! I know I'll get better at this and faster; funny thing is as crazy as it is, I'm enjoying it and love to crash into the recliner at the end of the day and feel satisfied with all I've accomplished! I feel like a Mom again and I've missed her :); that is my little rant for today. So here is my shout out to any Mom out there, I've told my kids this and I'm starting to believe it..."Moms are MAGIC!". Thank you Heavenly Father for lifting us up and carrying us as we keep moving forward!