Who's ready for a pirate party?

We are!!!!!!!!

Our punks/pirates are ready to break out the booty and have some fun this afternoon! Party On!

Argh Matey! 

Bieber Fever

I can't help but sing, "Baby, baby, BABY!"
when I see these pics. :)

Here is punk #1 showing me some of his dance skills. HE (just to clarify that he picked this clothes out) changes his clothes about 5 times a day for whatever he is doing at that moment. (playing soccer, playing basketball, playing football, dancing, doing artwork, pounding on one of his brothers...) you get the idea.

Think he's gonna make me millions one day?
"oh baby, baby, baby oh..."
I'm off to watch another youtube video. :) 

My little models

Convinced two out of the three to let me take their picture.
Can't believe this first punk is going to be 5 this week! Crazy!!!!!!!!

This is his typical face. He rarely smiles. He is a happy boy just not expressive. He will make a great politician some day.

Choo Choo!

A blog reader wanted to see pics of my house. Well... I haven't been good about snapping any pics of it when it doesn't look like this so I guess I will just keep it real and show you what it looks like on a normal day before 7pm. Here are the punks with their Geotrax train that their cousin gave them. It seriously takes up the entire dining room. It also takes about a week for me to figure out how to get all the pieces together so it stays up for about 2 weeks at a time or until we are tired of tripping over it and I can't stand all the crumbs and dust in between all the pieces.

There is an antique buffet and dining table set in there somewhere.

So there you have it blog readers, my beautiful dining room, geotrax and this little mug.

peace, a

His "super" power

Apparently his super power is being able to magically get the snack cupboard open time and time again and get into the cookies when Mama isn't looking.

Brothers

My little punk rock band

I would like you all to know that I got 2 out of the 3 of them to smile at me by balancing an exercise ball on my head while taking this picture. Punk 1 was purposefully giving me his "mad" face.

Thanks to my friend Jill for letting us borrow Punk 3's sweater so we had a whole matching set.

# 2's pose for the camera

Almost Birthday Boy

And they are sick of the camera after 2 minutes...

My Quest to be Cool

Every girl desires to be cool in one way or another. Her definition of cool may be very different from someone else's but I think it would be hard to find a female that doesn't have that inward desire. 

Growing up, I was not a "cool" girl. I didn't have designer clothes. We were not poor but my family just didn't spend money on those types of things. You know the things that matter to every middle school girl- Guess jeans, shirts from Maurices and County Seat. I can still remember trying hard not to be envious of the pretty girls with their curly hair, big bangs, overalls with one strap left down, Guess t-shirt and the "Pump" Reeboks. Oh and they were dancing with a boy at "Fun Nights." You know what else every cool girl had? Wickets. That's right I said WICKETS. They wore their cool winter ski coats to school with all the wickets from their ski trips still attached. It was kind of a competition to see who could have the most hanging from their zipper. 

My mom begged me to go on the 4-H ski trips every year but I was too scared to go. I didn't know how to ski, it looked scary and plus I wasn't cool and I knew it. So... I never went. 

Well all you "cool" girls look at me now! :) So, I'm still not cool (notice my "Sensow" smile and rubberbands in my hair b/c I forgot hairties) but I have a wicket!

When I started teaching they begged me to be a ski club sponsor for 2 years. I tried to explain to them my "uncoolness" and how I didn't know how to ski! I finally caved in my third year. They dangled free season ski passes in front of Ben and he told me to do it. So... I went and took the ski lesson with all the other 6th graders and was completely terrified. But lo and behold I learned to ski! And guess what, I love it!!!!! So I helped sponsor the club for two years at WMS. Cabana Boy and I bought skis after my first lesson and have enjoyed this sport together ever since. We haven't been able to go for the last three winters b/c of us having baby after baby after baby... but his parents stepped in, watched the boys for the night and let us go ski! It was awesome!

Here's Cabana Boy on the slopes. Look at that form!

And here's cool me. :)

Ben asked what it would take for me to feel cool. I told him if I was a well known birth photographer someday I would finally feel cool. He said that most people wouldn't consider that cool. Just weird. Thanks babe.
Remember how I mentioned that what is cool to one girl may not be to another? Well my cool is birth photographers. I think they are way cooler than movie stars and pop artists. Maybe not Fergie but everybody else.

So what makes you cool? Mind sharing?

peace, a
ps. yes, i know I have terrible English skills. Don't tell my former Language Arts students.
I faked it for 5 years. I don't have to anymore. :) 

Pumpkin Story (turned birth story)

This post is LONG overdue and may not really mean much to most people but I think it is kind of a sweet story. If anything you might enjoy the pics. I actually wrote this in October but for some reason just never posted it. It ended up turning into a LOONNNGGG post. So... sorry for all my wordiness. I wasn't planning to write Brooks' birth story on here but it just kind of started spilling out. Enjoy or just scroll down to look at pics and skip the reading. :) 

On the day Brooks was born, I was lets just say in a pretty emotional place. I still have to control myself and not cry just thinking about this special day. Since I never shared his birth story I will give a very brief rundown of the day. I had prepared myself for a "Wham bam thank ya' mam" birth. Instead I got a 16 hour labor. Charlie was born in 10 hours, Sawyer 4 so I thought there was a good chance I might walk into the birth center and go straight to the tub. Well... it didn't happen like that.

I started labor at 2:30am. It was pretty consistent contractions for about an hour. I was so excited! I know most people dread the idea of pain in childbirth. Not me. I honestly don't get that. I have had people comment to me and say something to the effect of "Well, you must have had easy births to do it three times without meds." Um... no! I honestly resent that. I worked my butt off through those three labors. I did it out of love and because I know it is what was safest for my babies and me.

Anyway... back to the story... after an hour of good contractions, they sllllooowwweedd way down. ugh! I was in slow early labor all day. I took the boys to Fairfield to drop off cupcakes, went to Walmart, called the midwives, got checked, went to lunch. When I realized that I couldn't finish my lunch because the contractions were getting pretty strong I figured it was time to head home. On the way, I stopped quickly at the store because I had the idea to buy three pumpkins. One for each of my babies. I knew I would be bringing home a new little bundle that night. So... after an Aldi's stop we finally headed home. (looking back I think what on earth would I have done if my water broke???)

Once home, I cleaned up the house, plopped the boys down in front of cartoons and waited for Ben to get home. As soon as he got home, I went and laid down, no sleep. Just kept timing contractions. At 4 minutes apart I called and told the midwives and Ben's mom that we were on our way. We were all so excited on the ride there. I can remember us yelling, "Our baby is coming!" (between contractions of course)

Upon arrival at birth center, I kind of crawled my way in and sat on the floor crying. i was totally overwhelmed from being so incredibly happy, tired from being in labor all day and let's face it in some major pain. It was all worth it. I was having my third baby in the place I had dreamed of.

Unfortunately, once again the contractions slowed way down. Goodness. you have to be kidding me! I labored in the living room while bouncing on a birth ball. I talked to Rachel about birth and had her remind me why I was doing all this. :) I needed a little pep talk. She said, "You want the high right?" Yea, I want that. The total adrenaline rush of birthing on my own. Remembering all this. Experiencing this with my family right here with me. Showing my boys the reality of birth. And a whole lot more.

Ok, a few hours later, Rachel could tell things had picked up and knew if I was going to have a waterbirth, I needed to get into the tub NOW. So... in I went. My waterbroke within the next minute or so and after me yelling at Ben and Rachel in a little moment of panic, a minute and a half of some major pushing, Rachel pulled Brooks out of the water because I was just staring at him in disbelief. I cried and cried. I couldn't believe my baby was here. I asked if it was a boy or girl and Rachel said, "It's what you thought it was, A BOY!"

Fast forward to this past summer...

I randomly asked Ben what he had done with the pumpkins I bought on the day of Brooks BIRTHday. He said, "I threw them out back by the field. The boys and I went back and low and behold there were about 12 pumpkins growing right under the irrigation. I guess it was the perfect spot for them. Don't ask me why but I get choked up thinking about those pumpkins that I bought while I was going through the pains of labor for my boys and then watching them reseed and grow into 12 new pumpkins for our family to enjoy again the following year.

The boys and I checked on our pumpkins every day throughout the summer and fall. They kept begging to pick them. I wanted to be patient and wait for the perfect time.

October 14th. Brooks' 1st birthday was the perfect time.

I bought those pumpkins one year before and now I wanted to proudly display these pumpkins. 

So... after naps the boys and I trecked out to the little makeshift patch and picked all the pumpkins. I will admit that this is when I finally cried on his birthday. I had held it together the whole day. But not now.  

They thought it was a blast lifting up the big ones and rolling them around.

Look at those muscles Charlie!

Sawyer, I think that is the face I made when I was in labor. Actually I know it wasn't that cute. :)

Birthday boy Brooks trying to help.

Our harvest of pumpkins!

Right back where they started.

Afterward we waved at all the farmers working on their harvest. You know we love our tractors and farmers around here.

I made Ben promise that if we ever move I can arrange to come back and at least get one of our pumpkins in the fall to plant at a new home.

peace, a

Crayon making

Sorry for the lack of posts. I know I promised to do better with the blog but I needed a little break from it and hadn't honestly taken too many photos around the house here lately.
A have a few posts ready to go now so check back every few dates for an update on my punks.

Today's post is about a craft we did a few weeks ago. I have been trying to clean out and organize our craft supplies a little better. The punks have a bad habit of just dumping out all the crayons, markers, glue sticks, etc... all at once and then just making a huge mess without actually creating anything. So in an effort to organize we pulled out all the tiny bits of broken crayons and decided to melt them together to make some new rainbow crayons.

tip: double up the foil. A few of our pieces broke and we had wax all over my muffin tins.



When I told the boys to put their heads together so I could get them in the photo, this is what I got. :)

After baking them at 250 for about 12 minutes, I put the pans outside to cool and we ended up with a bunch of these beauties!