More from our shoot.

I'm saving our "money" shots for closer to Christmas (aka, after people receive the cards I haven't designed or ordered yet... yeesh.)

In the meantime, enjoy some random shots.

 Abbie is totally my mini mommy... she takes such good care of Libby.  I'm really not sure what I'd do without her.

 What a cheeser!

 Love, love, love.

 Can you believe she's nine months old now?!!?!

 My girlies!

 Watch out! Here they come.

 Honestly, one of my favorite pictures, ever.

 We still like each other. More than just a little.

 I can't get over how grown up my girls are getting. It's so wrong and I'm completely unprepared.

 See what I mean?

 Abbie is wearing a sweet little cuff I knitted for her. This is the only picture you'll see of it, because she took it to school and bartered it for something else as part of a project. She is demanding one in every color now.

 This kid is giving us all a run for our money... cute as can be, but evil inside. I kid. A little.

And Miles. Miles has a girlfriend. But he promises that he loves me more. Eyeroll.

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Typical

We made an attempt at a family Christmas pictures (which eventually did yield something profitable).

But for awhile there, I was certain that we were going to have to send out our Christmas Cards with the following letter:

Dear All -
We know you appreciate honesty and laughter. This image is both. It also represents all five of our children. Please enjoy at your own risk.

The Us.

We have:
1. Abbie posing as though she's SUPER COOL, instead of a child who continues to wear sneakers that are too small because she decided to grow after Mom made the executive decision to buy her nice Nike's and now can't bring herself to afford another pair.
2. Anna bawling because her older sister has the audacity to pose in the same picture as her. Or maybe the breeze blew her in the wrong way... either way, tears.
3. Miles holding Libby because he's recently decided that he's big enough to take care of her all by himself. Yes, my heart flutters in fear.
4. Lucas picking a fight with Miles. 'Nuf said.
5. Libby going with the flow. Because that's what she does.

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our chaos.

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Take Two.

Just about a year and a half ago, I talked about taking self-portraits. I hope many of you took me up on that challenge.

And I realized that I hadn't really shown my face around this here blog in quite some time. And I thought I could make you all laugh. You deserve it.

So, I got myself all dolled up and fluffed my hair just so.... pulled out the camera and started snapping away.
Here's me.

 My hair. It's gone crazy.

 After each of my children, my hair has gotten weirder and weirder.

 Curlier and curlier.

 More and more coarse.

 So, I've given up and embraced the weird, curly and coarse. (And my dead tooth, courtesy of a root canal I had done over 10 years ago... lovely. If you want to send me the money to have veneers put on my front six teeth, shoot me an email. ahahahah).

 My husband loves the curly girl.

 And mostly, I think she's okay.

 Even if she is a bit crazy.

 At least I can take pictures that show off my best feature: my neck.

 What?? Your neck?

 Well, that's what someone told me once.

That someone married me.

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The Rest

Sorry. I got sidetracked with life.

I'm back.
Anna decided months ago that she wanted to be Tiger Lily. I put off her costume and put off her costume... and then went and bought all the stuff for it, and as of the Wednesday before Halloween, hadn't started a thing.

Fortunately, I have an awesome friend who had purchased this costume for her daughter for a school project. Done and done.

 Yes. I know. I slacked. I figure I deserve one or two easy costumes per year, right?

 And more importantly, Anna loved it. She should, since she's totally 1/32nd Cherokee Indian (what? you can't tell?)

And to be totally politically incorrect...

In other Halloween related news, my Bibs (her most common nickname) was just the cutest little bug. 

I know, right? Those cheeks lure me in every time.

 And finally, a group shot. Because nothing says Halloween like realizing with 4 out of 5 kids getting candy, you're bound to gain some weight.

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Costume #3 - Halloween Fairy??

In my efforts to encourage Abbie to read books on her actual reading level (more like 5th grade), I told her that her Halloween Costume needed to be from a character a book. I suggested lots of awesome ideas like Laura Ingalls, Ramona Quimby, etc... She would have none of my suggestions.

She brought me this book (which, to be fair, she did actually read.) Ugh! Fine. Whatever. I didn't have the energy to fight anymore.

 Close enough, right? Just say yes. 

 I took a size medium adult woman's shirt, cut a hole in the neckband casing and slipped some elastic in to cinch up the neckline and I cut the sleeves off diagonally. We reused a sash from our ninja costumes from last year. The tights were a blessed find from JoAnns and honestly, I would have paid whatever they were asking because I was seriously stumped as to a homemade solution. The wings were also worth every penny I paid WalMart for them, because while I know you CAN make your own, I just wasn't about to.

I made the wand using tried and true methods of paper, cardboard, hot glue and duct tape.

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We be Piratin'

Every year I feel an intense amount of pressure to come up with handmade costumes for each of my children.

Why do I do this to myself? The answer is that I just don't know. It's totally unnecessary. And yet, every year... here we go.

 Miles decided on a pirate. That is, after I talked him out of Super Mario (because I know that at least 3 of his friends were being Super Mario... I prefer at least a teensy bit of originality... sorta.) He took his job seriously. There were a lot of "Ahoy Mateys!" and "Shiver me timbers" going around.
And Matt took his job of fashioning a Spanish-style sword very seriously.
Here's a closer shot of the hilt:

The hat was fabulously easy thanks in large part to a tutorial my sister sent.
I also made the vest and sash, but lets be honest... nothing special there. Overall, it was Miles's overacting that made this costume awesome.

 

And because, if one pirate is good, then two is great, right?

 Lucas loved it. He has been telling everyone for the last week that he's a pirate. A bad one.

But how could a pirate this cute, be bad?

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