Our family is now complete!

On Sunday, Craig and Kaedo set out to complete our family of deer, by creating me and Sterling (sounds weird, right?) I just love how they turned out. Sterling, far left, is a little bigger than Kaedo, and I'm a little shorter than Craig. As I read this I realize how nuts that sounds. When I asked Craig why the hell they made my legs so fat, his quick retort was, "Be happy, I shaved off some of your ass". Lol! So funny. Trust him to come up with something like that. (and thank you for doing that!!)

I just love them so much. Originally they were going to sell them and they asked me what I thought before they added the antlers. When I told them I loved them, Craig told me that they owed me a complete family, so I could keep them. Yay!

Here they are in the back yard

Mom and baby in the wild

Dad and baby in the wild

So stinkin' awesome!!!

Such a Romantic

Last Thursday I was sent home for being too sick to work. My sweet husband stopped at Costco on the way home and brought me some flowers:

While I have seen these before, I was never too sure what to make of them. I have since learned that this is a new breed of flower giving. This particular one is called the" Grow Your Own Damn Bouquet" bouquet. It has a lovely selection of bulbs and apparently to complete the arrangement (7 months from now), I simply cut off pieces from other plants to provide the greenery. You learn something new every day.

My sweet husband has also advised me of the bonus gift that comes along with this: the fact that he will be a hero every Spring going forward.

So there you have it. The gift that just keeps giving!

ps. Craig - best gift ever! You still take my breath away and amidst my teasing, you know this is perfect. Thanks!

Wow!

I agree, it has been a while. lol. Life has gotten away from me, and while I only work part time, carpooling, soccer games, soccer practices, staying up waiting for my son to come home from work (yikes - did I really say that?), and trying to get a handle on the crazy schedules of a gorgeous husband and two teenagers has definitely kicked the shit out of me. So, I apologize. On an up-note, I am extremely organized, so everyone's phones are synced with a calendar that lets us know where everyone is and when and we run a family group chat that allows us to send messages to all four at once. It makes communicating super easy!

So, what have we been up to?

- Sterling officially started his regular shifts at his new job and is loving it. Funny the kinds of maintenance jobs you'll do for money. Gross.

- Kaedo made the school soccer team (but of course :) ), and is loving it. They lost their first game but he has been doing awesome. Next game is tomorrow afternoon. He even misses school to play. Don`t love that but what can you do.

- Craig's football league has started and he was given the title of El Presidente. He says he doesn't like being the president, but I secretly think he does. 

- I have nailed down this job thing pretty well I think. I am working hard and 27 hours in 3 days on concrete and brick (no sitting) has been good for my ass but not so good on my knees. I am getting about 14,000 steps on my work days and the weight is coming off. Woot woot! I think I will go up to 4 days in November.

- Craig was home sick yesterday. Only the second time in 11 years. S & S, he's fine. Back to work today!

- Sterling is loving his car and is taking auto shop in school and as he is the only one in his class with a car, a lot of work is being done on it.

- Kaedo had his phone stolen from the Y 10 days ago. That's a real pisser as it was our Christmas present to him. On the upside, he's been put in charge of some of the teen programming on Friday nights and is loving the fun and responsibility that comes with that.

And just because I love this picture I am posting it. Summer 2004.

Lots of other things to write about and will do that soon. Thanks for sticking around!

Lastly, a couple of shout outs:

Happy 70th Birthday to my Father-in-law! Hope you have a wonderful day.

and 

Sending a big hug to my sweet daredevil niece E. Thinking of you, sweetie!

Family Pictures

For years we have taken our own family pictures, usually at Thanksgiving. We do this for a few reasons - I have a lot of pictures of the boys (LOTS), but we don't often get those shots of the four of us. In planning to have family pictures, we ensure that at least once a year we get some of the bunch. We do them ourselves, because we don't personally know any photographers and often wonder if they will capture the real us without the personal relationship. And we are cheap and would rather do it our way. lol.

For Shirley's birthday this year, one of the things we did was a family photo shoot. Shirley and I wrote down all the groupings of photos she would like, and we made sure we got shots of all those.They turned out amazing and you can't tell that it was done by a bunch of amateurs. These capture the real us. We had a lot of laughs and I am loving these. Shirley came away with 24 photos in a book and 2 framed 5x7s of the day.

We are lucky to get the opportunity to do this again next month with my mom and dad, so we will have some great shots of our family with them.

I haven't asked Shirley for permission to post the group shots so today I am posting our photos. The boys are gorgeous not that I'm biased) and it was so fun. The ones of the jumping are hilarious. I wish I had videotaped it.

Is Sterling taller than Craig? Perhaps.

Dreamboat!

My Boys!

So them!

Signature pose

Look at them...sigh

LOL!

LOL!LOL!

Heartthrob!

First Day of School

OK, WOW!

These guys are just gorgeous, and top the 6ft range to boot. I wanted to make sure I got their first day pictures, so I shooed them out the door before before they got their shoes on. lol.

Kaedo is heading to grade 10 and was excited to get back to school and his friends. I will be car pooling with another family to get him and a friend back and forth this year.

Sterling is heading into grade 11 AND drove himself to school in his very own car today. Then the bugger didn't text me to tell me he got there! He is loving the freedom but cringes at the gas. Welcome to reality my love.

People have commented that we have quite a few rules, although I think my in-laws may disagree as far as dirty jokes and the use of swears are concerned. haha. One of the school based ones is that in grade 9 you get a free pass from school extra-curricular activities. Come grade 10 you have to choose a year long activity, or one for each semester. This semester, Kaedo is going to play soccer for his school team (hopefully), and Sterling has already been tapped for a cool job doing some tech/photography work for the drama/REAL depts.

Both boys will continue their volunteering with the Y and Interact and Sterling starts his new job on Thursday. Kaedo will be playing indoor soccer all winter starting next month, Craig starts league play for football next week, and I am working again, crocheting and 'vintaging'.

Lets just say we are so busy that I downloaded an app for everyone so we all know everyone's schedule. Ahh, the modern world!

I like routine and schedules and I think it is good for kids, especially the age of mine.

It is an exciting time for us!

Lastly, I want to wish my gorgeous, kind and generous husband a Happy Anniversary. Thank you for everything you have done and everything you continue to do. I am truly blessed to have you in my life. Apparently 19 years is big for our generation. Hmm. We make it look so easy, right? lol. Here's to 19 more. Then another 19 and another after that.  I love you. Always and forever!