Weekend favorites

JUST GIVE THE BOY A SWING

AND A DIRT PILE




AND HE IS HAPPY AS A CLAM. :)

I think this shot takes my breath away because it is the embodiment of him right now. Scab on his elbow and Scooby Doo band-aid on his ankle to cover all the bruises of a summer of fun. Cute cute sneakers that took me forever to get him to put on and now he absolutely adores. Blue jean shorts from the Children's Place - his standard uniform because they are the only ones with an elastic waistband to pull tight enough for his tiny frame. A fist full of dirt. Caleb at 4.

I'll take more of this :)

It was a GOOD day. For the first time, in as long as I can remember, we both vowed NOT to work. We went to Willow and heard an inspiring message from Andy Stanley on Phillipians 2:3-5. We surprised the boys with lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe at Woodfield. Caleb SQUEALED and set off running when he realized where we were going. Lunch was just ok, although expensive, but sitting next to the fish tank made it all worthwhile. A new snow globe for Caleb and Sponge Bob legos for the boys from the Lego store (I know, I'm weak). A nap and some downtime. And all good days need an adventure so we headed out to find the park in Yorkville with a Zip Line. We found it and found ourselves at the park nearly alone. The zip line was such fun. Daddy gave us a spinning fast start and we whipped down the line to bounced back from the other end. Caleb and I rode together and giggled ourselves silly. Nathan rode until Daddy was exhausted. We tried to play tag but Nathan cheats :) Chinese Take Out for dinner. What a good day. We definitely need more of these....

the sign of a good day

it is indeed a good day when you find the time to search for a bunny hidden in the clouds.... :) He looks like the creamy white chocolate kind...no?

Real quick

It's amazing how productive I can become when I know I have just a few hours. No fussing. No dillydallying. Just pictures, paper, and a few important things to say.

My favorite time of day

it could be the peaceful silence that envelopes me making it the only time of day I can hear myself breath and think
it could be the gorgeous light that floods through the windows in the kitchen and family room blanketing everything in it's warmth and brightness

it could be the promise and hope that today will be a good day and after a solid night's sleep, optimism has found new life
it could be a fresh opportunity to get it right
it could be the simple fact that God made me a morning girl
it could be

he sincerely is...

So much of my story telling and ranting here is devoted to Caleb. Yes, he's small and cute and full of mischief. He sends me over the edge on some of my best days. But in the course of those trials and tribulations with Caleb, I never want to overlook the sweet son who is so easy to get along with who often takes a back seat to the attention-demanding, trouble-getting-into, crackin-us-up hysterically Caleb.

Last week, I had the chance to get away with Nathan, just he and I. We went to Six Flags Great America for a roller coaster riding adventure. It's a two hour drive each way and then we spent over 8 hours in the park. One of the things that struck me over and over again that day, was purely and simply, Nathan is just so very easy to be with. He is a quiet when he has nothing important to say. He has a calm presence about him that is relaxing. He is sincerely funny and witty. He is kind and caring and takes into consideration how to make the day fun for everyone, not just himself. He is interesting and thoughtful and creative and well, you get it...he's just so easy to be with.

I absolutely love and adore Nathan and I sincerely appreciate how easy he is to hang out with (even if this is just a fleeting phase). He is an incredible blessing to me. He allows me to relax and breathe, to enjoy myself without giving thought to what antic or tantrum I'm going to have to deal with next. That is truly a gift.

Thank you Nathan.

ride. ride. ride. would you let "him" ride.

Got that song in my head.
Look at this little guy go.
You can absolutely NOT make Caleb do anything he doesn't want to do.
Nathan had SUCH a difficult time learning to ride a two wheeler (he was actually 9 when he finally got it). It left a mark on me.
So when Caleb (who never does anything he doesn't want to do) said he wanted to ride a two wheeler, we got RIGHT on that.
Picked this little cute thing up at Toys R Us. An hour later, he was cruising around the circle across the street.
Amazing.



He totally WAS NOT into letting me take photos, however.

Yes...they STILL call it the streak

Can you just see the mischief in these eyes?

We were out in the backyard on Saturday afternoon "beachin" (not to be confused with bit..in - which is the other thing Caleb does). I turned my back for a minute and this is what happened....
I SWEAR, he does own swim trunks....he does!!!

And this is Nathan's response to the whole incident....can you blame him??? :)


yes. I am well aware, WE ARE IN TROUBLE!

And just so you know...we do buy our boys clothes ;) Nathan can attest to that.

This is what our summer looks like

one of our favorite things this summer has been long bike rides to the park in Downtown Oswego. We play a bit at the park, throw stones in the river, feed ducks (or at least hope for them to show up) and ocassionally get ice cream at the Dairi Hut.

This past Sunday, we were gone for over 3 hours riding from one park to the next and playing along the way. This is one of my favorite ways to spend the day with the two of you. IAYB.

Boys...

...on the 4th.


It is probably the one thing I miss about Missouri. Legal firework fun. I can't believe I just said that - me, the mom who's worked for 2 Plastic Surgeons and can run down the list of all the bad things that can happen thanks to firework play. (that is actually a joke in our house - my hyper concern about that stuff). But, in Missouri, fireworks are legal and we developed a tradition of giving ourselves a budget of about $200 (alot of money for us), making the trip to the Firework Store and each of us picking out our favorites. Scott and Zach always wanted the BIG, LOUD stuff;Carah usually went for the BIG, PRETTY stuff; Nathan was so little he was afraid of it all and I just liked the Pooping Turtles. Then on the 4th, we'd gather in the front on the cul de sac and the fun began. We were able to put on fire work displays which rivaled some of the small shows around here and tt was dangerous, good, safe (thanks to Daddy) fun.

Flip forward to Chicago and we find that not only are fireworks not legal but the Oswego Police are on a mission to ding you for illegal fireworks (not a bad thing according to that hyper concerned mom in me). Well, mix that with a superbly raining 4th and what we ended up with were a few smoke bombs, party poppers, snaps and some sparklers. No matter though, in true boy fashion, my boys made the best of it. We had enough smoke to kill a man in our backyard and party popper/snaps mess all over the place. It's all about the male bonding :) so it was well worth it.

Luckily, the rain did let up so that we could watch fireworks from a couple of different places (including a neighbor, who managed to dodge the Police) from our front yard and everyone, except Gracie (but that's a story for another day) not only, had a good day but managed to stay out of the E/R.

It felt good

It has been a good six weeks since I've done anything creative besides playing with photography (not that, that's bad of course) but last Friday, the boys gave me a few hours in my Art Room uninterrupted. I actually had to force myself to go in there. For me it's so true that if I don't create a bit each day, that part of me begins to shut itself off and become blocked. But once I pushed myself through the door, the flood gates opened. These three pages came together in just a few hours - that's unheard of for me. And I used just what was in my Art Room collecting dust these past years (that felt good too). But most importantly, the desire to create...it's back! :)

These will probably go down as some of my favorite shots of Caleb. His unique personality and sense of style are "front and center".

This one has been sitting on my desk since before Amy Jo visited...yikes!

It is just one of those things that my honey started which I found frustrating at first but we've all embraced and now give him back in spades. It's a family "quirk" that I want to remember.

My Birthday Boy

The love of my life
The best daddy I know
The one who inspires me to be better
But stands behind me when I fall
My biggest fan and encourager
The laughter in my life
My very very best friend
...turned 40 today. Happy Birthday Babe!
I ADORE YOU!

Photo Essay - Take 2

OK, for my last photography assignment, I REALLY wanted to challenge myself to actually SAY something with my photo essay. And while, I'm really happy with the photos of Nathan and Caleb reading (it's such a tender moment between them), I was working on some pictures of Caleb holding hands with important people in his life and just wasn't sure I'd make the assignment deadline. Well, he cooperated and I did it. Aside from the fact that Zach is missing as am I from the photos, this is what I really wanted my assignment to be. I get a BIG old lump in my throat when I look at these pictures and know the relationship that he has with each "hand". The center bottom photo is especially meaningful to me (and was the hardest to shoot). It is Caleb standing at Samuel's memorial in our backyard. This summer, I've found him there often, just leaning up against it thinking. I can't help but think about the relationship those two would have if Samuel were with us (would Samuel reign him in or would he be mischievious alongside Caleb?). Sigh.

I am sincerely grateful for this photography class. It has opened my eyes and heart to not only developing better photography skills but what it is that I am saying with my photos.