Family Photo Fun

I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to get a good family picture.  Part of the problem is that there are so very few opportunities for family photos.  Well, without going through the trouble of scheduling an appointment and paying gobs of money and quarrelling with your spouse about it, then there are very few opportunities.  

I decided that as Aunt Miranda and Uncle Dan were here, by golly, we were going to make them take a picture.  Alas, I had forgotten that it requires some semblance of simultaneous cooperation from all parties involved.   I'm not sure if an "accurate" picture is really as treasure-worthy as an attractive one.  Miranda took about 7 pictures.  Here is a sampling of them, and unfortunately, the first one IS the best!

Yes, this is as good as it gets for us.  Okay, maybe I just like it because Dan and I look best here! Delaney looks confused with no thumb in, and Callie looks zonked. Heh heh heh!  Marian wouldn't put on her sweater and I decided it was not worth the fight.  Once we got to church it became worth the fight, so she did wear the sweater once we left the house.

Yeah, I'm a goof.  Miranda was being silly, and I could not resist. Marian and Callie look cute....

This is our Silly Shot.  Delaney didn't get the memo.

And yes, the chaos of getting it all done.  Good thing I know I have a cute family, cuz you sure can't tell just how cute from our family picture!!  (Thanks Aunt Miranda!!)

Callie's fun day

I actually meant to blog about yesterday;  It was my 10th Anniversary, you know!  Dan and I had a fantastic date, but the pictures are inaccessible right now, so you get to see what Callie did this week.

Uncle Dan and Aunt Miranda took Callie to the Zoo!  They took the bus to the Metro and the Metro to the Zoo.  Callie had a marvelous time.

Callie had fun with Aunt Miranda on the Metro.

They met friends at the Zoo.  It rained off an on, but that didn't dampen the fun!

Super-cool!  A fuzzy pelt they could touch.  Callie said she liked everything.  She had a "gweat day!" with Aunt Miranda and Uncle Dan.

And she fell asleep on the way home, marker in hand.  So cute!

Okay, totally out of order.  This is Callie, waiting for the bus, and it should have been the first picture.  But I am in a hurry and I'm hungry, so this is what you get!  If you are lucky, I'll get our anniversary date pix up soon.

Miranda's Fault

My sister Miranda is visiting! She brought her husband too. I like them both, very much. They have been pretty busy doing fun things in the area and I have gotten to spend time with them. We have feasted upon such divine tastiness as chocolate cookies and chocolate truffle pie (I'm sensing a theme here!). And I introduced them ti Five Guys. Mmmmmmm..... 5 Guys burgers.....

I have neglected to take pictures, and I have neglected my blog. For that, I heartily apologize to the 3 people who get excited to read it. I shall repent immediately and go take more pictures. For now, you will have to make do with some recent pix of the kids.

Joshua at the park during Spring Break.

Marian in her favorite fuzzy purple shirt, enjoying a donut and wearing a donut goatee.

Fabulous Callie at the park!

My 3 funny girls in the tub. Marian always asks to make "soapy solution" in the bath and last week I said she could. She poured half a bottle of shampoo in the tub. Ug. It certainly was soapy!

There's a New Sheriff in Town!

Joshua and Marian's school held a very well done Barn Dance.  We paid for dinner, and it was tasty.  Then you could buy tickets so you could buy other fun items.  I didn't know there would be ticket purchasing, and I only had $6, which was spent very quickly!  I let the kids each choose one of the fun items to get with their tickets.  Joshua chose a Sheriff Badge.  Marian got a fabulous mustache, and Callie chose a cowboy hat.  I will admit that it was a lot more work than I expected, taking all the kids without Dan. (He is having a wonderful time visiting his brother, now that his week of training in LA is done.)

So, here are the kids, all ready to go, dressed in their cowboy finest....

.... Okay, Joshua was the only one in his cowboy finest!  (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa White for the hats- they have lasted what, 3 years now?!)

During gym class, the kids had been learning the dances.  There was a Square Dance Caller who kept things very fun.  Joshua is showing me the moves he learned in class. 

Callie had no idea what to do, but she was out in the middle of the crowd, shaking her thing for most of the time.  Here, I caught her doing the "Hokey Pokey".  She's so cute!

Since Marian had a marvelous mustache, everyone had to try it on.  Here is Joshua.

(Dangit!  My pictures are out of order and I can't figure out how to move them on the Apple!  The drag and drop isn't moving them.  So, this was not the order these last ones should be in!)

Delaney is having fun with Callie's hat.  Marian is just having fun!

Yes, even I had to put on the 'stache!  And Callie's hat!

And last but not least, is Marian, rocking the mustache.  She loved it and wore it most of the night.  It was the coolest part of the evening. Well, that and Callie boogieing! 

Family

First, some gratuitous play-doh pictures (sorry about the red eye.) and then on to the real post.....

I occasionally visit the "Mormon Mommy Wars"  blog site and the other day they had the topic of, would you want to live by your family.   There were a lot of responses to that and I read many of them.  Some people liked living by family, others were vehemently against it.  Some felt that a little distance was good, but close enough for short visits.  I found some so sad.  And it made me feel very blessed.  I have a wonderful family.  I would love to live near any and all of my family.  That is actually my dream.  My ultimate dream would be to live on a compound with all my family and to be self sustaining and live off the grid, powered by windmills and solar power, and to have cows and chickens and all that good stuff!  But, as I said, its just a dream!

And I want to be clear that I also would love to live near my in-laws.  Dan and I got to live with both our parents for varying amounts of time- a summer with his folks, and then I stayed alone with them with 2 small children a few months while he was in RI.  While actually living with family is not ideal, I think it would be so great to be in the same neighborhood, same ward, same city.... any of it is good.  Same thing goes with my family.  We keep going back- a summer here, a few weeks there, and we stayed a while when we were waiting for Dan's bar results.

It is true that we never HAD to stay with them, it was just monetarily advantageous and, well, we like our families.  I was so sad for the people who could not live in the same place as their parents and/or siblings.  It made me feel really blessed.  I am so glad to have family (both mine and Dan's) who are healthy, happy, good people.  I'm so blessed that they are people I like to be around.  There was one person who wrote that she would not let her parents move into the same ward she was in.  How sad.  I loved it when we lived with Dan's parents those few months and when we went to church, the kids could sit on their grandparents'  lap, or they could go hang out with Uncle Mark, and Aunt Star and their cousins.  It was fun to have Sunday dinners with the whole family too.

I did agree with some of the comments about moving away for a while after you get married.  I agree that it is good, especially if you have parents who are into your life a lot, or who can't seem to let you go.  We did not have that problem.   We lived pretty far away anyway, but that was due to school and stuff.  The other issue I hadn't thought about was that some people who live by family are not interested in developing other friendships because they don't need to.  I think that may be true.  I love making new friends and meeting new people when we move.  And when you can't fall back on family, I guess you may make stronger friendships.  I'd still rather have my sisters around though!

Growing up, knowing your grandparents and cousins is such a wonderful thing.  I got to see my cousins and grandparents a few times a year until I was a teen and we moved from CA to NJ.   When I got to college, I got to know my cousins again, and now we have great family reunions.  I am so blessed to have a large extended family that I enjoy being with.  I am double blessed to have in-laws who I also like.  I take it all for granted, and yet, it is a marvelous gift that I have been given.  I would love someday to live by as many of them as possible.  Unfortunately, I have my parents and 5 siblings who all live in different states.  Dan's parents and siblings also all live in completely different states.  So it looks like my compound is going to take a lot more work!