May 29

You know how sometimes you invite someone to a party, thinking they'll never actually come? And then they come, and you're shocked?

That was us this weekend, I think. We were invited to a graduation party in another state, four hours north of us. It was Memorial Day weekend, our calendar was empty, and so Chris and I decided to go for it, with a whirlwind 36-hour trip.

We started the trip with a breakfast date with Chris' aunt Maggie and cousin Molly. Then we loaded the kids in the car and enjoyed a pretty pleasant drive, thanks to the van's DVD player.

Everything was going great, until lunch time. When noon rolled around and the kids were getting hungry, we realized that we were in the middle of nowhere. The only place for 45 minutes in any direction was a Denny's, so we stopped there.

Big mistake. HUGE.

(Well, not really. But it was annoying.)

The only issue was that it was the slowest Denny's ever, and we were there right at noon on a Sunday. It was packed, our food took forever, and our quick lunch break ended up taking twice as long as I had hoped it would.

The kids drew pictures for us, and Daisy photographed things.

Daisy drew this picture of Chris and me. He is the big blue person with curly hair. I am small, orange, have long hair, and earrings. Isn't it a remarkable likeness?

Before we left the house, I asked each kid to pack a backpack full of toys for the trip. It was a brilliant move on my part, partially because then I wasn't responsible for their entertainment. But also, it meant that things like these goggles came along for the ride. The goggles alone were pretty entertaining.

Not to be outdone by Daisy, Caleb drew this picture of Chris and me, holding hands. Isn't it sweet?

(Yes, Chris and I routinely look this tired. Four children is no joke.)

And then Daisy drew my portrait, and even wrote my name - twice! Eventually we finished our meal and got back on the road. We got into town in time to spend a few hours hanging out with my Grandma at her house.

My four duckies with their Great Grandma! Euny told me she thinks her great-grandchild total is 16 right now, and she even has a few great-great-grandchildren!

I know my sisters and other two nephews would have loved to be in this picture, too.

Hi, Ryan!

And then it was time to check into our hotel room, get cleaned up, and go to the graduation party! It just happened to be a s'mores party, so the kids were stoked. 

Doesn't that look like an absolutely perfect s'more?

What a mess!

Double mess! After seeing these two, I didn't let Eli even try a s'more. I did let him have an untoasted marshmallow, while he was wrapped on my back. Another mistake - washing the marshmallow out of my hair was no fun!

We had fun, and were so glad we came up for the party!

May 27

I was barely functional this morning.

I woke up with a migraine, and it was all I could do to feed the kids breakfast. Even that barely happened. I called Chris to see if he could come home, but he had meetings all morning.

It was not a good morning.

Eventually I got enough medication and caffeine in my system that the migraine went away. I had signed the kids up for their monthly gymnastics class, and was thankful that 

1. I didn't have to entertain them all morning.

2. I would get to hang out with Amber.

3. I could stop by Starbucks on the way and pick up a really big coffee.

All of that caffeine ended up working to my benefit. I spent the whole afternoon working on this:

When we renovated the living room two years ago, I had to take down my photo gallery wall. I've been waiting, waiting, waiting for the room to be "finished", but it seems like that may never happen. So finally I decided to bite the bullet and put my pictures back up! The gallery wall is now updated and expanded, with fresh pictures, and even a piece of our house's original linoleum in the center of the arrangement. I love it!

May 25

I'll be honest:

I'm so far behind on blogging that I hardly remember what happened today.

I'm still recovering from a broken computer, getting caught up on photo editing, and trying to figure out my new Photoshop and Lightroom and how best to process my images. It's really tricky. Plus, we went out of town for Memorial Day and now I'm even more behind.

This is the best I can do.

I have no idea what happened on May 24. Something must have happened, but I have no pictures or recollection of it.

Today, my friend Jill came over with her two girls for a playdate. The kids - Lily especially - were so excited. We played outside, even though it had been rainy and yucky. Jill and her girls left, and my kids continued to play outside, getting messier and messier. Eventually, I had no choice but to throw Eli in the tub. Crawling in muddy grass will do that to a baby. The big kids would have been fine, but I offered them a chance to play in the tub, and they gleefully accepted. 

We are reaching a point now where I am acutely aware of the "lasts", rather than the "firsts". This may very well be the last time I put all four of them in the tub together. Soon, they won't all be able to fit! I'm thankful to have a picture to help me remember how much they love the tub, being together, bubbles... and to help me remember that water always helped my little crabs.

After lunch, I got the little ones down for naps and Gayle came to take Caleb and Daisy for their special Grandmother time. I had no computer, so I couldn't edit photos. This is what I did instead:

I climbed into bed and took a nap. It was so quiet in our house that the cat even came out! Lovely.

May 23

Do-Nothing Monday ended up being Do-Everything Monday.

At 9:30, we loaded into the van for a trip to the library. When we got there, I realized that I had left my wallet in Chris' car, so we couldn't check out new books or spend any money or do anything, so we returned our books and got back in the van.

My phone rang right after I got the kids buckled in, and it was the computer repair shop. They told me that they needed to wipe my computer and reset it, which meant I would lose all of my data. Luckily, they could back up the data first - for an additional $100. Of course.

The kids and I raced home to pick up our external hard drive, then zoomed to the computer shop. I thought it would be a quick in-and-out: drop off the hard drive, sign a paper, leave, but it ended up involving a fifteen minute wait, with four antsy children. Boo.

Then we got back in the van and headed to the diaper place to drop off our used diapers from a paid study we're participating in.

Then we went to the post office.

Finally, we were finished, with 45 minutes left before lunch time, so we headed to a new playground for 30 minutes. The kids enjoyed their well-deserved play break!

We returned home for lunch and naps, and then Caleb and Daisy played with Play-Doh while I rested on the couch. This whole computer situation has been emotionally exhausting for me, but thankfully it seems that the supplements are already helping my moods. Thank God!

Daisy can't resist a resting mommy, though, so she soon came over to snuggle and selfie with me.

The kids worked diligently on their Play-Doh creations.

And I tried out some new macro filters I got for my camera. Pretty cool!

Daisy made this jellyfish.

Caleb created his new pet snake.

And Daisy made this delicate girl!

When the little ones woke up, it was time for baseball practice.

This picture is dark, and I'm too lazy to fix it. Still, I love it! Eli thinks walking is the funniest thing ever, and anytime he practices, he giggles uncontrollably. It is too cute!

After practice, Caleb held Lily's hand as they walked back to the van. I love these kids.

May 22

Computer is still broken, and Chris finally conceded that we could not fix it. Yesterday, while Chris tended to the children and took Caleb to his baseball game, I did a photo shoot, took the computer to the repair shop, put Eli down for a nap, and did another photo shoot. It was a busy day, and thus, no pictures.

Today was church, and it was our turn to serve in the nursery. Afterwards, we did our traditional family Costco trip, and then home for lunch.

As I worked to make lunch for four hungry kiddos, I looked up and saw this:

They were just snuggling. You know, because that's what kids do while they wait for their lunch. I love that my children love each other so much, and that at least fifty percent of the time they prefer to snuggle and be close to each other.

Daisy, meanwhile snuggled with her fruit salad. It's a new concept for her, and she was really excited. Honestly, I don't blame her. That fruit was really nice!

Yum.

Then we had an impromptu dance break.

Eli's turn!

He loves to dance!

Yay, Eli!

Also, we drew with chalk today, and this happened:

This girl is an imp, and I adore her.

It has been three nights now that Eli hasn't nursed, so I am saying he is officially night weaned. Each night has gotten easier for Chris than the last, and now he will work on getting Eli to sleep in his crib without being held. That husband of mine is a good man.

May 20

This was a dead computer day. I spent all day trying to revive it, to no avail. Thankfully, my mood/hormone supplements arrived today. Also, Chris desperately wanted to do something to help me feel better, so he decided that now was the time to begin helping Eli learn to sleep through the night in his own crib. 

Last night was Night 1, in which Chris began working on night weaning Eli. It basically involved Chris sleeping in the recliner in Eli's room, where he held Eli most of the night. It is not ideal for Chris, but he loves me and knows that I need a good night's sleep. I appreciate his sacrifice.

Caleb had a baseball game today, so my pictures are all from that. I was scrambling to get the children fed before the game, and I failed to bring adequate entertainment for them. In the end, I gave Daisy my camera to keep her distracted. Here is the world from Daisy's point of view:

Mommy. Boy, do I look tired. I suppose it's accurate.

The boys warming up.

This one is my favorite.

Me distracting Eli.

As she grew increasingly confident with my camera, I grew increasingly nervous. In the end, I took it away and gave her my iPhone to continue documenting things.

Watching the game!

This is my other favorite picture she took. I love the crop of it - it's very trendy. It's Lily in the leggings and boots, and her friend Cora in the Belle costume. Cora is one of four children, also, who are all the same age and gender of my children. The girls love playing with their friends at games and practices! Even better, Cora's mom is way more prepared than I am. She always comes prepared with books and chalk and games for the kids.

Eli is trying to climb up onto the bleachers. There was also an obnoxious drunk dad at this game, which was very uncomfortable. Luckily, he moved elsewhere pretty quickly.

Ha! Eli finally got up on the bleachers, and was so happy with himself!

Lily was riffling through our diaper bag, looking for anything she could find to entertain herself. I have no idea what she's putting in her mouth. Mom of the Year, right here!

Daisy brought her new ball and glove, and insisted on wearing her new soccer cleats. Doesn't she look fabulous in the dress that Chris' mom made for her birthday? She definitely felt fabulous in it.

Oops! Missed the ball!

Post-game team picture. One of the things I love about the league Caleb plays on is that most of the time, we can't even remember the score, or which team won. I have no idea if they won or lost this game, just that Caleb got some hits and had a lot of fun.

(that's him in the bottom right, with the red cleat and white sock.)

Silly boys!

May 19

You guys.

I have been absent for over a week now because MY COMPUTER DIED.

It was awful. Yesterday, my computer updated to Windows 10 without my consent. It has been asking me to update for months, but I kept declining because really, who likes change? Not me. But apparently my computer grew tired of being denied, and did it without my permission. I was not happy, but I'm a big girl, so I put on my big girl pants and dealt with it. I didn't like the update, but I could handle it. After using it for a day or so, there were a few things I especially didn't like, so I poked around a bit in my settings to fix them. Suddenly, I saw the solution! A button that said simply, "Revert to Windows 7".

I swear I heard angels singing; that was exactly what I wanted to do! I clicked that button without a second thought.

And then my computer died. Blue screen of death. Nothing I could do to fix it. Horrible. Awful. Terrible. So I am writing this one week, $250 in repair and data recovery fees, and a new computer later. Boo.

So. May 19th was the day I clicked that button and my computer died.

Luckily, before my computer died I was able to order some vitamins and supplements that I think will help boost my mood and balance out my hormones. They should arrive tomorrow, and I am optimistic that they will help. If not, I will be seeing my doctor again re: Angry Mom. But really, how obnoxious is it that something as stressful and frustrating as a computer meltdown has to happen when I'm dealing with emotional/mental health issues? Especially when I have a full calendar of photo sessions scheduled? Not cool. But I will survive.

I have mostly cell phone pictures today.

Lily is my snuggle bug. But whenever I call her Snuggle Bug, she corrects me: "No. I not 'Nuggle Bug. I Lily Clare."

Alright then!

Two happy duckies! I think I took this picture while Caleb and Daisy were off having special time with Grandmother. Caleb and Daisy love their special time with her, and I love it too. Lily is so jealous that she's not old enough for Special Time yet, but her time will come.

This boy. Did I ever mention that he took a few steps on Mother's Day? May 8th is the day he took three steps to me. He hasn't really done much independent walking since, but he has really mastered walking while holding on to hands or fingers. Soon he'll be a real walker!

And then I got to leave. The girls from my MOPS table got together for an end-of-the-year celebration at our mentor Liz's house. I have known Liz since I was probably 10 years old? We went to church together back then, and she helped with the youth group when I was a teenager. Now she is one of my favorite people in my MOPS group. I feel so thankful to have people in my life that I've known for that long!

My MOPS girls, minus one. It was a good group!