forgot

Left my camera in raymond following the father's day festivities. I did take a couple pics of the kids and their daddy before church, so maybe later. But we sure do love our dad and all that.

And on that note here's a pic of me, haha.

I do have a few from that trip to waterton if you care to browse.

I'd like to confess that I FINALLY got James off the bottle.  (my confession is not that he is off the bottle, but that he was on the bottle until 2 weeks ago) I know, he's 2.  I think I had to wait until I was ready.  It was my comfort for making bed/naptime easier.  Now, bedtime pretty much sucks and naptime is almost non existent.  Sad, very sad.  But with some kind force he is napping right now.  Oh James.  I haven't bought milk in a week and there is still a quarter of the jug left, now how do I get him to drink milk during the day?

(grandma with all her grankids minus sadie. hurry and get back here sadie!)

I have to say some things that James does right now, because he's been doing it forever, and I probably won't forget, but just in case, because I think it's the cutest.  He always puts his hand down the back of his pants when he is tired or sleeping.  And he is obsessed with tags.  When he is tired and sleeping the hand that is not down his pants has found some sort of tag from his shirt on the side or the back or his little stuffed animal tag, he has ALWAYS loved a good tag.  BUT, the little taggy blanket, no go, never liked it.

(there's his hand's spot, no tag feel in this pic though. and let's not even talk about the soother ok.)

Alli is growing up before my eyes, and I can't deny that she is turning from a toddler to a preschooler.  Kinda sad.  She asks me probably 27 times a day what time it is.  And half the time after she says, "What?!  are you serious?!"  I didn't get any pictures of her playing in her soccer games.  I know I suck, but I was kind of busy being a fool coach.  They cancelled the last game of the season yesterday.  I think I'll re-enact a picture this week for the blog.  (i'm serious) 

My house is for sale if anyone wants to move here.  I'm sad, I love this house.  I'm not stressed about selling it yet, maybe because deep down I wouldn't mind staying a while longer.  But I know once Derek is driving out to Raymond everyday for school and to coach football I'll be stressed.  I should be cleaning it right now because every time I leave the house for the night we get a call to come see it then Derek has to clean it up by himself, and I'm going to a bridal shower tonight.  But if I have it all clean and ready I'll jinx it, and no one will come right?  Hmmmm... 

We've been busy with a million random things and we've got a couple of even busier weeks here.  It's gonna be crazy and fun and everything else!  Derek has 3 more days of school and then the crazy busy and some play time and then I think I'm gonna be a (kinda) workin mom for the summer.  We'll see how that goes.

I'm really looking forward to this summer, now just give me some REAL heat out there and I'm set!

i can't help help how cute they are

I cannot even describe how much I love these kids.

This face (and this mullet) say it all.  

And it is saying, I am as crazy and as hyper as my dad at this age, so what are ya gonna do about it.

And this little darling...

who was feeling the chill of the icebergs at Cameron Lake, is a lot like me at times. (more than I might like to admit)

I'll post a few more of our fun in Waterton later.

random sampling

Here's a random sampling of the past week or 2 around here.  And the pics are completely random too.  I haven't had the camera out much at all lately.

This is my sis Brooke's husband Brett.  From the time she was a baby Alli has always loved Brett.  I think it's his deep voice, or the fact that he will do pretty much whatever she wants him to.  Alli was so so SO excited that they got the same shirt.  So naturally, a photo session was a must!

I thought I hadn't been up to very much lately, so I jotted it down for the random sampling, turns out we've been having fun.

• planted a garden
  
• flowers too
  
• got the backyard seeded (again...)
  
• killed masses of dandelions on the front lawn
  
• a few bike rides (the hills are still killin me in this town)
  
• lots of walks to the park
  
• a fun family party in raymond with Derek's fam 
  

sneaky sneaky with the bag of oreos.

random sampling of a few baldry grankids

• a girls shopping trip to Calgary with Derek's sisters
  
• james learned take off the little child lock thing on the front doorknob, unlock the front door, open it and run out into the street or over to the neighbors as he pleases.  This has led to me in complete confusion for a few minutes of my childs' whereabouts, yelling out the front door at him while I in my towel, and him climbing into derek's car and pushing the garage door opener to open the garage door to name a few (me being VERY confused while getting dressed when that door opened as derek was at the golf course at the time)
  
• oh yeah, Derek getting in A LOT of golf, me none so far.
  
• then watching the snow fall and my flowers and tomatoes get frozen.  (really?!  3 inches of snow in June!?)
  
• Derek got a job...in RAYMOND!  (very VERY bittersweet for us, but his job was only a temporary here)
• put the house up for sale, single tear (wait, LOTS of tears for this one)
  
• did random stop bys and visits with friends and family and playdates
  
• watched James ride a training wheel bike for the fist time
  
• ran (ok, slow jogged) beside Alli as she cruises around the block on her bike.  
  
• cracked up at my little 3 year soccer team I coach
  
• watch all the other moms who were smart enough not to volunteer to coach crazy 3 year olds as they laughed at me for their entertainment as I chase the rats around cheering them on getting my 30 minutes of embarrassment for the week.
  
• learned that Alli is set in the self confidence department. 
  

Teacher at church: "Alli you look so cute, that flower in you hair looks beautiful on you."

Alli:  "I know, everything looks beautiful on me."

My friend after the soccer game :  "Alli, you played such a good game out there."

Alli:  " I know, I'm the best soccer player ever.  I scored 5 goals.  And I won."  (she did not score 5 goals, and if we were keeping score, we did not win.)

and i found this one, i just had to put up to let you know the hugging continues.

So there you have it.  Just the usual uneventful eventful stuff.  I was cruisin around the blog world a bit this weekend as Derek was away, (cause I NEVER cruise the blog world when he is around...) and I realized something.  There are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of really talented people out there.  And I feel as though I am not one of them.  I do not sew or craft of any sort.  I'm no Bakerella, or Pioneer Woman.  I'd like to be a little more organized, but I really just fall in the average category in pretty much all I do.  And while we're on the subject I can't sing or dance either.  

BUT, I gotta say, that when I go around and check out everything that is out there, it doesn't get me down.  I find I am genuinely happy for these people and their talents.  (I sometimes wish I could do what they do, but usually I just want to buy it from them.)  I don't think they are perfect because they can make amazing quilts, or that my mouth waters when I see their dinner plans, or because the can raise 7 kids and still blog on the side!  I know they are really just like the rest of average joes, and by that I mean doing what makes us happy.  If it makes you happy to clean your house top to bottom every day, then do it.  If you are always planning the next cute photo and how your gonna scrap it, then keep planning!  and scrap it too!  I hope we can always do what makes us happy while going through the rest of the sometimes mundane, sometimes hard, sometimes sad times in life.  Even if all I have in me is to just think about the things that make me happy, I find I'll be making time to DO those things because why not?!  

I love that I don't care what other people think of me (ok, to an extent...)  I hate putting on a show.  I think I'll rephrase that.  I do care what people think of me, but I won't put on a show to give them what they want.  I care what people think because I want them to know what kind of person I am.  And I hope their thoughts are good!

I'm not sure where I am going with this, I guess it's just a random sampling I felt like sharing.  It seems this topic of being perfect in some form is often what I rant about.  I wonder if subconsciously I do have this secret desire or need to actually be perfect and these are my justifications on how it is not possible, hahaha.  Plus, I have nothing else exciting to talk about.

But i'm sure these 2 gentlemen could carry on quite the intellectual conversation.