how about...

an overload of wedding pictures?!!

I love the walk out after the ceremony.  Every one excitedly watching and snapping pictures of the new love and the genuine faces of newly weds.

This is what happens when the second youngest of eight kids (Brett) and the youngest of 8 (Shawn) get married.  Instant aunts and uncles to over 30 nieces and nephews combined.  There are a few (Alli included) not in this picture of chaos, and yes, that is James screaming while being held by a nice niece of Shawns

I caught her, and even with the promise of yellow cotton candy she wouldn't be a part of that.

Can you believe how stinkin cute?!!

James was a little spent too!  It was HOT that day.

The fam ( i know, nobody is looking, but it's the only one)  

The gals

The family pic that didn't really happen

The decor, or the decor.  It was actually a lot of fun decorating an outdoor reception.  And I had fun making a whole bunch of the flower arrangements.  (don't look too close Melissa B) 


Just about to start!
I think we did pretty good covering the chain link fence.
And can I tell you of my new love for yellow?  My wedding had a lot of yellow and daises too, but this THIS was yellow like never before and I LOVED it.

Did you think that was all?!  Nope!  The next day we got to do it all again!  And we thought it was hot for the first wedding, we were roasting the next day for Roger and Karie's wedding.

Brett married into a ton of those nieces and nephews, and Karie got to marry into all this. (Plus all the spouses and almost 18 grankids too!)  And we couldn't be happier.  (I'm pretty she couldn't be happier either.)

Aunt Jeanie giving all the kids gum to keep them under control in the 3pm heat of that day.

I forgot to get someone to take a picture with all the grandkids in it too, I'm crushed.

Both of the days we so fun and everything went perfect!  It was exhausting physically and emotionally, but so so fun.  I'm so happy for Brett and Shawn and for Derek's dad and Karie.

Ok, so there it is!  Another couple of Baldry family weddings!  Austin better wait at LEAST 6 years before we do this again.

i'm vain, i know

Roger and Karie got a new camera.  Alli asked Karie to take her picture when we were out for Drew's 1st birthday party on Sunday.

This is a before picture.

3 little girls were in the other room for a long time crafting away making cards for Drew.  I guess we left them crafting a little too long.

Brooke found them in the act.  

I started screaming, 'NO NO NO ALLI!'  But it was too late.  Alli started bawling, luckily I did not.  

How handy to have the new camera around to document this.  

There is another big chunk out on the other side, but not as short.  I just kept pulling out more and more little blonde curls as held back my emotions.  Her hair is even more thin now.

Sarabeth pulled out the video camera for Ava and she just smiled away.  

Here is what 3 little girls can do.  I think it's mostly Ava's hair.  You can hardly tell with Natalee's hair, I have no pics of her.

I'll get over it, but I'm still not smiling about it.

I went to bed really early that night, hoping to sleep it off as a bad dream.  But I still woke up to the freak hair.  I can't believe how much this affected me.  Am I the only devastated vain mom?Everyone I tell just laughs and says 'haha, they all do it at some point.'  But no, they don't all do it, they shouldn't get away with this.  I never cut my hair and neither did either of my sisters.  (Then again, my mom might not have noticed if we ever did.  You know what I mean if you have ever seen any of my childhood haircuts.)  Please, everyone tell me how you truly felt when your child cut their hair.  Please tell me that all your kids did it and it and I'm not horrible for caring so much about how my child looks.  And don't tell me about when your boy did it.  Because James got a hold of a pair of those scissors and I quickly took them away and gave them back to these so called 'older' kids who were allowed scissors.  James has worked long and hard to grow hair, but c'mon, boys can just shave it.  

No pics of cute little Drew on his birthday, sorry bud, I found myself distracted for the rest of the night.

the blur

I don't even know where to start.

Since father's day, (in no particular order)

• we've had plenty park trips (checking out the bugs here)
  

• Derek finished his 1st year of teaching
  

• golf, golf, golf (still none for me yet)
  

• kids festivals
  

• a couple bridal showers
  

(the bride is on the left, but their outfits just needed a pic together.)

(and yes, it was as good as it looked, mmmm)

• 10km road race
  

(derek had to go play in the family softball tournament right after he finished the race)

• gave talks in church
  

• cousin Caroline got baptized
  

• about 5 birthday's were had
  

• July 1st celebrations
  

• a couple weddings to follow those showers, and the planning to go with it!  phew.  The weddings are getting a post of their own coming soon.
  

• a 7 year anniversary for us (no pics cause we did nothing...yet)
  

• various picnics and family bbq's (and yes, james has had a haircut since this picture.  actually we all have)
  

• cousins, cousins everywhere
  

• cooling off when it actually got hot enough
  

• camping in Kelowna (minus me and James, we're bums)
  

• plenty of girls time (as in plenty of late nights to turn me delirious in the best way)
  

• a supposed to be fun filled gals and kids day outside got rained out but was still fun inside with a million kids going wild.  (this was about a quater of the people who came.)
  

• keeping up with these 2
  

• one single shift at work which actually made me miss out on another family fun day, so that was no fair
  

• weeding of the garden which was completely neglected during all of the above
  

Is that all?  It's such a blur, I can't remember it all.  I missed a lot of photo ops, but I think this is more than enough here.

James took a nice looong nap in his own bed for the first time in like 3 weeks today.  After a morning of cleaning and thunder and lightning storm, the rest of us decided we needed one to.

I feel like we did so much in first couple weeks of summer there is nothing left to do, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find a way fill it.  

I LOVE summer!

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.