My family and photographs ... hmmm ...

Hi, I'm Heather and yes I can admit it ... I'm a photo-aholic. I love photography!!! I love photography books, photography classes, those great coffee table books of gorgeous pictures, and of course taking my own pictures (especially pictures of my children). Unfortunately for me, my children do not share my love of all things photography ... I mostly blame their dad for this and he gladly accepts the blame. He does not really like having his picture taken and his attitude has certainly rubbed off on our offspring. Hopefully they will also inherit his lack of allergies and very gifted mathematical senses ... I guess we'll have to wait and see about those.

But it was a gorgeous day here today and we have almost reached the end of the beautiful fall colors, so I wanted to get my crew outside to take some family pictures. Now, never mind that half of us are coughing and the other half have runny noses and sinus headaches. Boy am I glad that today is a Not Me Monday!
Becasue I could never be the mom who takes her kids out and snapps dozens of pictures of them while they are not feeling 100% Nope not me! And just what might happen ia a mother might think of doing that? I'm so glad you asked, this is what might happen if a mother might choose to torture her kids in such a way:

turned heads


closed eyes


itchy tushies


and adorable tounges hanging out



And if that was not bad enough I would certainly NOT then try to put the camera on a tri-pod with a timer and get a full family picture with my hubby and I in it too ... I would know better than that:







And after all that fun I would never turn to my hubby and say "its just the location ... lets try a different spot" Why would I ever think that would help?





Boy! Am I glad that today is a Not Me Monday! Please join us over at MckMama's blog for tons more fun and therapy with Not Me Monday! cofessions

Not Me Mondays!

I'm so very glad to be back online ... While moving from our old house into our new house (about 25 miles part) we were without cable, internet and phone service for a little over a week ... we're glad to be back up and running! Still LOTS of unpacking to do, but we are getting there and once again I can take part in:

But this week MckMama is changing things up a bit and we will instead be doing:





This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what her and everyone elses kids have NOT been doing this week.

My child would never figure out how to climb on the back of the sofa and open our music room window and climb out onto our front porch, especially NOT after being told it was time to stay in the house. And when I went out and carried in this child he certainly did NOT tell me, "but maaaaaaaama, Mary said I could". Please keep in mind that Mary is his 13 month old little sister.

This very same child would never great our guests out in the front yard in his birthday suit ... No, never! My children are always polite and properly dressed, one of them could never sneak by me and out the door completly naked!

This child's big brother would never stomp and pout about when being grounded from his bike and skate board because of hitting his brother and then tell his mother "in another family it wouldn't be ME they would punish! They would punish the kid who started it!" My child would never think like that, my children are always calm, quiet and well behaved.

That child's big sister did not stomp down the hall once while yelling "awwww mom, you are no fair! You never let me color on people!" Keep in mind she wanted to draw with marker on her three year old little brother. I know, I know, I'm such a terrible and unfair mother.

Got moments you'd like to share? Get off your chest? Then please come joing us at MckMama's blog for Not Me Mondays! each week.

Not Me Monday! (or umm Wednesday)

Its NOT Monday again??? Already again??? It can't be! Want to play along with us? Want a healthy dose of free, funny, and oh so refreshing therapy? MckMama came up with the hilarious idea to take our not-so-proud moments and spin them around in a delightful therapy session! Come join us!

So Here We GO ...
... No I did NOT start this post on Saturday lest I forget all I have to NOT write about. But then NOT get it posted till Wed. Hmmm ...

No, I did NOT learn this week that we will be closing on our new home July 3rd instead of July 15th! This is NOT great news (ok, it really is) and I did NOT hyperventilate when thinking of all the packing and sorting and decluttering I still have ahead of me.

No, I have not been allowing my almost potty trained 3 year old to run around the house and yard buck naked. You see when he wears clothes he pees in them but if he is naked he always makes it to the potty. Simple solution now that our land is no longer a frozen tundra. Simple solution while we are at home ... not so simple when we are out and about.

No we did not leave my sister's poor nanny with 10 children Thursday night when we went to benefit dinner for THIS wonderful non-profit. And no I did not get to meet THIS wonderfully talented artist:


No we did NOT take all 5 of our kids out to a wonderful campground last weekend for tons of fun in the water and sun and then deny them the pleasure of actually camping. We drove 5 miles down the road and slept at grandma's house instead. While at said park I did NOT employ the talents of THIS wonderful new bloggy friend to take gorgeous pictures of our little Mary which you can see here and here if you would like.

No, my children did NOT get tons of mosquito bites while 'camping'. But hey, we are Minnesotans, we can live with mosquito bites. What I don't want to live with is tick bites. I did NOT feel worried about a few of the bites on our little Mary for most of the week (oh yes I did) And on Thursday they did NOT start to take on that target sort of look and she did NOT start to run a fever (oh yes she did), so off to the Dr's office we went to hear what I feared: she might have lymes disease. So now we try to get her to take antibiotics three times a day for the next 21 days... UGH!

And just before Mary's Dr appointment we did not stop to play at one of our favorite parks and take this picture:



While at this park our 7 year old did NOT fall from the playground and knock the wind out of him. And he did NOT continue to complain of the pains into the night and I did NOT take him to my chiropracto/friend who quickly expected a broken rib and xrayed him to find that yes in deed he broke a rib (T9 to be exact) and he also fractures a vertabrate (L5 to be exact)

No that really was NOT enough excitment for this mama! Oh yes! Yes it really is!!!! Lymes Disease and a broken rib are really just too much at once.

But I did NOT come home only to get my son settled with an icepack on his back and proceed to make these signs to put along side the road that leads to the location of my great grandpa's 90th birthda party.























And no I did NOT promise to deliver a healthy dinner meal to my friend MckMama and then arrive almost an hour later than planned. Sorry about that, dear. And NO her darling charming little Stellan did NOT flip back into SVT as I arrived (oh, unfortunatly yes he did, but is doing much better and at the time of typing he is snuggled safly into his own bed in his owen room)

And then in my panic over the nearness of our house being done I did not decide to let the kids pick out the themes and colors for their bedrooms. Nope, I did NOT take all 5 kids to Home Depot, Menards, Lowes and then another Home Depot to look at paint colors and border ideas. Take my advice here ... 5 kids is toooo many to take with you into those sorts of stores.

Hope you are having a fantastic Not Me Monday or Wednesday or whatever!

Not Me Mondays!

I have followed MckMama's blog for quite some time

I'm thrilled that MckMama and all her MckKids are home, healthy and settling back in to their 'new normal'. Also thrilled she is back to hosting Not Me! Mondays.


Not Me! Mondays can be very theraputic. You basically 'fess up about a few things you've done that week (funny, embarrassing, sentimental)...and pretend that you totally did NOT actually do them! We've all done something we'd like to pretend we certainly did NOT do, so come on over and visit Not Me! Monday and see what we've all NOT been up to

As for me, I did NOT spend my Mother's Day with a horrific headache and a child who has 103 fever, that would not really be much fun for Mother Day.

I've also NOT been looking over my summer calendar and have NOT been increasingly frustrated to find that almost every weekend of June and July and August are already booked up with places we need to be and events we need to attend. When are we going to find time to move into our new house?

Which brings me to how I am NOT stressed about the whole moving process. Our current home is NOT so cluttered I can't think straight and I am NOT unsure where to start as far as sorting and boxing up all that either needs to be trashed, donated, or moved. I have NOT considered calling the Clean Sweep people from TLC, but then decided I could not handel the embarrassment of letting other people clean out my clutter on a TV show. So I will NOT press on with trying to declutter our current mess once I have healthy kids again.

And right now I am NOT headed to take several advil and a nap, while the kiddos watch Space Buddies

Happy Monday Everyone!

This is NOT my very first Not Me! Monday post, but yes it is

I have followed MckMama's blog since about the time their sweet little MckMuffin was miraculously born, and just as many many many of you out there in cyber/blogger land I've followed her blog and tweets quite closely these last weeks as MckMuffin was hospitalized. I'm thrilled that MckMama and all her MckKids are home, healthy and getting back to a 'new normal'. She is once again hosting her Not Me! Mondays. I have loved reading many of these, but just never got around to participating ... so heres to my very first Not Me! Monday

Nope I have not stalked MckMama's blog and Twitter page, watching for all the updates on Stellan these past 7 weeks. Wow, has it really been 7 weeks? I guess it has. And no I did not send her countless comments, tweets and emails letting her know I was praying and wished I could do more. No, I did not lift countless prayers for MckMama and her family. But YES, yes I really did and what an honor to lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ. What a great God we serve!


No indeed this has not been an incredibly loooong week at our home. No my dear dear hubby did not sign up for overtime both Sat and Sun, thereby completely eliminating our weekend. No I am not completely exhausted and about 100 hours behind on sleep. No I did not let the boys call him at work when the fighting over someones toy just would not stop. No I did not say "I don't know what to do ... here I'll dial, you call and ask your dad"

We have a teething 11 month old in this house and nope, no way do I allow her to chew on anything and everything just to keep her from chewing on me. Just a few of the things that I have NOT allowed her to hold and chew on do not include: her brother's socks, her daddy's empty beer bottle, my bottle of Coke, my wrist watch, the kitchen chairs, any number of bracelets, the egg timer, an unpeeled banana, lots of tupperware, and hair barrettes. And even before the teething began she really was the MOST oral child I have ever had (and I do have 5). I certainly have not ever fished newspaper, or LEGOS, or gum wrappers, or beads, or her brother's pet rocks out of her mouth. I would Never.Not.Ever. need to pull a chewed up ladybug out of her mouth oh no not me! ....oh no, not here! And then I did not shutter while yelling "ick ick ick!!!"

This same 11 month old had an ear infection that would not end (December-March), and we tried everything, so she finally ended up with tubes being placed in her ears almost a month ago. Praise the Lord she is ear infection free! But we have noticed a real lack of balance in her this past month. Related? Possible, but who really knows. As a result of this lack of balance she has her own Not Me! Monday woes to share. To read her Not Me! Monday post please visit her blog here:

www.myfirstdaysoflife.blogspot.com

Well, there you go, my first Not Me Monday. And I certainly did not enjoy writing that, it was not thereaputic at all and I will not be back next monday (But really, oh yes I did, oh yes it was and oh yes I will)

To enjoy some free therapy and hear what others have not been up to please visit MckMama's blog