2012 Week 19

I pulled the camera out for some photo practice more than once this week, including during a rain storm we had one day.  It's kind of fun to take photos, just for the sake of taking photos, especially with models as cute as mine.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, which is usually a pretty good day.  This year was no exception, in fact we kind of celebrated the whole weekend.  When Sam asked me a few days ago what I wanted for a gift I told him most of my top items I wanted to pick out myself.  So that is exactly what he did - he and the kids took me shopping at the Outlet mall on Saturday.  I ended up with a new pair of athletic shoes, 2 new shirts, door mats for the screen porch, and even a new swimsuit (which was surprisingly easy to find despite the fact that I haven't managed to get myself completly in shape as I had hoped by this point).  And of course the kids gave me some great handmade gifts and cards for Mother's Day as well.  (the flower pot and handprint pot holder in the photo are from Ty, the rest from Kate)

Kaitlyn has been waking up at 6AM and Mother's Day was no exception.  In fact, Tyler even managed to roll out of bed on his own around that time.  Kaitlyn had been sure to pull her Dad aside for a planning session Friday night, so he knew she wanted to make breakfast.  By the time Sam had forced himself out of bed to check on the kiddos, Kaitlyn already had the muffins mixed and in the oven all by herself.

After taking our time getting started with the day (and putting in a little time planing down a board we were hoping to use for countdown blocks - ick.  I ended up with sore arms and some bruises and scrapes on my forearms from handling the big 6x6) we decided our fun thing for the day would be making a couple different kinds of cookies.  So we loaded into the car to hit the grocery store, stopping first to get lunch at Sonic and let the kids play on the playground.  Then we all helped make the cookies, and lick the bowl :)

Kaitlyn is getting pretty good at food prep.  She did the eggs all by herself.

Sam bought me flowers while we were at the store.  He also had a nice dinner planned, including ribs on the smoker.  But sadly one of the wood chips decided to burn instead of smoke and the poor ribs ended up practically unusable crispy critters.  In the end we had chicken nuggest and fries.  Not ideal, but still a good day.  I love my kids and husband!