If You Could See...Then You Would Understand

If you could see how much frozen pizza my family has eaten lately, then you would understand why I haven't been blogging.

If you could see my despair over having both cameras stolen out of my car (and my wallet, but it was found a few streets over), then you would understand why I felt too sad to blog. I did find that I just enjoyed watching the kids do things without worrying about trying to capture them on film (though I think I'm pretty good at controlling the picture taking...Jeremy might disagree...but I have a strategy: I always take pictures right away when we get somewhere so that I can put the camera away and relax). Pictures I lost, which equals blog posts that will never be, include our trip to Carlsbad, our family's first camping trip, and Sam teaching Evan how to play school (so cute!).

If you could see this in my yard,then you would understand that there have been some interesting conversations in our home lately. We watched "Wild Hogs" one night and suddenly it appeared. Just kidding, we talked about it for a few days first...Jeremy's close friend, Jason, got one and he helped Jeremy get one (i.e. as soon as I said okay, it ended up in the yard). There are talks of a cross-country road trip in the air (just the guys), so I think I might begin negotiations on a Mom-sister-me-and-the-kids trip or something.

If you could see this......you would understand that we've been spending a lot of our free time preparing for our trip to Europe, which somehow involved buying lots of new clothes even though we are going back-pack style and taking like 3 outfits. Well, Jeremy is not taking outfits, he does not wear outfits. This is a fact that has been established a long time ago in our relationship. He also doesn't wear "tops". We're going to London, driving through England and up through Scotland to St. Andrews, then down to Edinburgh, then flying to Munich, then ending in Prague. United's Frequent Flyer program, Jeremy's careful savings plan (which also explains the excessive amount of frozen pizza lately--it was on sale!), and the grandparents' courageous babysitting services have made this trip possible. I'm just showing up to look cute in the pictures.

In order to prepare for our trip, we have also been watching lots of UK-filmed movies. The ones we've enjoyed have been The Young Victoria (LOVED IT!!! Well, I loved it, Jeremy thought it was nice, "but there were no wars or battles"), Shakespeare in Love (edited by Kaci because there's a little too much "love" in it); the ones that were "meh" were Sliding Doors (interesting concept, depressing when you stop and think about it), What a Girl Wants (cute for the teenage crowd...for the record, I did not subject Jeremy to that one); and in the thumbs down category, The Remains of the Day (I did not remain for the ending of that one, Jeremy suffered through it), and King Arthur (Jeremy finally got his battles, but we were both like "what?" at the end of that one. At least I know who Pelagius was now).

If you could have seen this last Thursday...



...then you would understand that I've been a little busy. This was the scene at our first MOPS meeting of the year, and seeing as I am co-leading it, I was QUITE busy these last few weeks.

If you could see this...

...then you would understand that opening packages that are sealed tight at high altitude can cause explosions.

Here's some other pictures of recent activities and general cuteness by the kiddos:Annie's first black eye, due to her independence and climbing abilities

We have some fun while Sam is at school...
Evan getting to eat a muffin tin lunch in front of the t.v. (don't tell Sam!)


Going to the fair. Evan got to play on all the bouncy things, Annie played with other kids' shoes.





Outtakes from Annie's 13 month photo session:




Three good friends in a rare moment of peacefulness:


Evan wears his Batman costume pretty much every day...Jeremy doesn't understand why I always let him go out in it...I guess I like the compliments and comments we get! (Vanity, yes, I know)


And finally, I love the busyness and imagination of this picture. It captures their play so well...Sam was overheard saying, "Batman, I'm going to have to do something VERY important. It might hurt. (very seriously) I'm going to have to cut off your feet."
Notice the frisbee-footrest, Annie in the sled, and Sam's arm (don't ask about that one...but it turned out to be fine in the end. It may or may not have been related to one of the previous pictures in this post.)
The end.