The Story of Us

Once upon a time {about 15 years ago} there was a 14 year old girl and a 16 year old boy. They had some big crushes going on for each other. He called her. He asked her "out". She said yes. Their parents thought they were pretty young. Thought they didn't know what they wanted. They fell in love. The boy was always telling the girl that he was going to marry her. She liked the idea but really didn't want him telling her what she would do. So she broke up with him. She started to believe her parents, that they were too young for this kind of relationship. The boy was heartbroken. He was mad. He decided that he would get her back by making her incredibly jealous. She went on with her life, having fun with her friends. But there was always that little spark of love in her heart for him. Meanwhile the boy started to lift weights, get a pickup, start to hang around some other girls. After about a year of being without each other, the girl started to miss the boy. She started seeing him with his cool pickup, his big strong muscles, hanging out with different girls and she got jealous { just what he wanted}. He wasn't about to ask her out again, so the girl had to call the boy up this time and get him back. The good thing was, he still wanted her back so it wasn't too hard. They fell in love again. They were a little bit older and knew what they wanted.

They dated for a few more years. Then one night the boy came over to her house and sat on the porch swing with the girls dad. He asked for the the girls hand. The dad said "Are you sure you want her? She's kind of a handful" Thankfully the boy said "Yes".

The next day the boy and the girl were going to go take some carpet to her sisters house. The girl picked up the boy. He said he had to run up to his room to get some socks. She followed him. Instead of pulling out some socks he pulled out a ring. He asked. She said yes.

Ten years ago, she wore a beautiful white dress, he looked handsome in his black tux. She walked down the aisle. He was waiting. He smiled. She smiled. They both said "I Do".

Ten years later, the boy and the girl now have 4 boys and 1 girl and 1 more little one on the way. He works hard to provide what his family needs. She takes care of their children. They have gone though the trials that most married couples go through, but they've made it through with more love than they had before. They might not have alot of money, may not live in a fancy house {or even a big house}, but they have a big love.

They would do it all over again.

I've been wanting to get on here to write for a while but just haven't mustered up the mind power to actually come up with anything interesting. This little baby inside of me is sucking out my brain ( what's left of it anyways after the 5 previous ones did there best to rid me of it!).

Random things that I can somehow remember that have happened since my last post. They will probably not be in order of when they actually took place. I'm too lazy to look at a calender to try and recreate the order of events.

{1} There is in fact a real live baby inside of me! I heard the proof! The little heartbeat was be-bopping away in the 160's range:) Such a fun moment! I LOVE hearing my babies heartbeats for the first time!

{2} As most of you know- I have had to deal with Blood Pressure issues since they made their appearance when I was pregnant with the Oyster (Owen). I've been on medication since then and have figured I would always be on it. But when I found out I was expecting again I stopped taking the med mostly because there was a warming to NOT take if you are pregnant. I hoped that things would be ok until I would go to the Dr. So when I had my first appt. my BP was really high- like 160/96 or something. They figured I was just freaking out a bit from worrying about what my BP would be like at the drs. They let me lay down for a few minutes and took it and it had dropped quite a bit. So now I'm just monitoring it myself and it hasn't gotten out of control as of yet. I"m really hoping I won't have to go back on the meds because the ones I can take when your pg have annoying side affects. Please pray that I can avoid these this time around!

{3} Last night at last minute we decided to go to the carnival in a nearby town. They kids were super excited and I just really wanted some mini- donuts! When we got there people were lining up for a parade that we didn't know was happening. We had some really happy kids to get parade candy and they made out like bandits with all the sugar they were able to score! The kids got to go on a couple rides each ( because when you have 5 kids I gets spendy really, really fast!) They enjoyed the ones they got to go one and Ethan was screaming and Blake was pretty scared but they had a blast.

{4}I feel like I'm getting out of the sick stage of this pregnancy. I usually have a bad day every other day now. I'm 13 weeks now so I'm guessing it should end very soon ( I'm hoping!). I'm so tired though- I have to try and get a nap in everyday or I end up feeling really sick by the evening. Its nice that Owen and Audrey still take naps and I can usually get the older boys to watch a movie or  do something quiet while I rest.

{5} Ben and I are looking forward to this week. We will be celebrating our 10th anniversary on Thursday. We have always said that for our 10th we would do something BIG like a cruise or a some other amazing vacation. But when you add 5 kids in, more bills than you can handle and Ben's busy work schedule with no vacation time trying to make that dream possible isn't very easy or realistic. I had at least hoped to get out of this state! But alas, it was not meant to be. I'm just thankful that we are able to get away, just the 2 of us, for some fun and be able to relax. We are doing it major cheap-O! We are going to pull our camper to Taylor's Falls and go camping and maybe some canoeing, go on a ferry boat tour, try the Alpine slides and if I can convince Ben, maybe some go-carts:)  I am sooooo excited about this time we get to spend with each other. We haven't went anywhere just the 2 of us for longer than one night since we got married so this will be a very big treat! I'm so thankful to Ben's sister and her husband for their willingness to stay with our kids for a couple nights and fro Ben's parents for taking them for a night also. It is insanely difficult to find people to watch all your kids for 1 night much less 3 nights!

{6} We have some new pets. I do not like them. I despise them. Raccoons. Two of them. A couple weeks ago we had a whole family of them living in a tree next to our house. Ben went out with his manly self and disposed of them in a typical manly way. With a gun. Of course it had to be his biggest, baddest gun because let's face it, he really doesn't have enough chances to use that spendy, scary gun enough. While he was out ridding our place of those pesky varmints, I was crouched on the floor covering my ears from the scary thought of him missing the raccoons and the bullets going into the house. Thankfully my Benny is quite an excellent shot and was able to get a few of those naughty things including a big mama coon. Unfortunately, this left a bunch of baby raccoons wandering around our yard wondering where their mama went. We killed a couple of them but then the boys decided they wanted them as pets and caught 2 of them with fishing nets and put them in a pet carrier. They've been feeding them and yesterday when I demanded that they let them go, the stinky little things refused to leave. Now we have to raccoons sticking close by our place. I'm really hoping they leave so this Mama doesn't have to take things into her own hands and dispose of those creatures! Coon Skin Hats anyone??!!

So now Audrey just informed me that she has a messy pants so I'll leave you for now and hopefully continue regaling you with all the very exciting happenings of our crazy household. ( being very sarcastic of course, our life is not very exciting- just loud!) I will for sure be writing some mushy stuff about my dear Hubby this week, I'm sure you all can't wait to read ;-P.

{Newborn Photos} Paizli

You might remember the pictures I took of my sister Jaclyn when she was pregnant.

She had her baby!!!!!!

Little Miss Paizli Adelle is here!!!

I had the most fun taking pictures of her. I think I was there for 4 hours. It took a while to get her to sleep but after that it was like a dream taking photos of her. She was like a little doll, so perfect! I could have spent even more time taking pictures of her but the card on my camera (which is actually quite small) only held about 300 shots.

Paizli is so absolutely beautiful. It made me very anxious for my little baby to get here:)

I had a very hard time picking out the pictures I'd share with you but here are my favorites....

 I love her little face in this one...she look like a little baby elf:)

{Newborn Photos} Jacob

So about a month ago, I had the opportunity to photograph a little sweet new baby boy.

Up until then, I hadn't taken pictures for anyone other than family  so when this mama asked if I'd take her baby's pictures when he was born I was really quite nervous about it but really excited too! I hadn't taken any pictures of babies before ( besides my own) and none since I had gotten my DSLR camera.

The family was very pleasant to work with and they were patient with my own inexperience. I think things went well and the pictures did turn out good:) Although the little guy decided he wanted to be awake during his session, we were able to get some good shots of him. His mama told me afterwards that he slept for hours! He just didn't want to miss out on all the fun I guess:) He is one cute little guy!

Happy (belated) Birthday to my girl!

I'm extremely late is posting this. I will take the bad mom award for this. But I have been feeling pretty lousy lately with this pregnancy going in full force right now so maybe I have somewhat of an excuse.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Audrey Elizabeth!

( her birthday was last Friday- you can get on my case if you must! naughty mama!)

You are such a blessing to us. You are indeed our little girlie-girl! Always loving anything frilly, pink, and sweet! You are so beautiful. Your smile lights up our hearts and gives me the butterflies! I love how your little girlie arms will wrap around my neck with a big hug and your kisses are the sweetest thing ever! Your brothers are so in love with you, they can't believe how fun it is to have a sister. They would protect you with everything in them. You are Daddy's little princess. He loves his "girl"! We love watching you as you are growing out of being a baby and into a little girl. We look forward to seeing what a beautiful little lady you will become. Happy Birthday my sweetie pie, I hope you know how much you are loved and cherished! 

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We had her birthday party at a nearby park and invited lots of cousins and friends to celebrate with us.

It was a very sticky, humid day, but we had lots of fun!

Little stinker was trying to sneak a cupcake before everyone got there!

We went though almost 6 gallons of lemonade! I did say it was hot out!

I made 72 cupcakes and there were only a handful left!

Mama and the birthday girl:)

Audrey and Owen with a few of their cousins.

She was so ready to blow out those candles we didn't even make it to the end of the song:)

Only part of cake Audrey will eat....the frosting! She gets that from her Daddy!

She received many lovely things from her guests. She loved every single thing!

And she ate almost an entire tube of chap stick!