Reality

I received many compliments on the photos that I had shot out at the tree farm. But the reality is, that you get to see the best ones...until now!

Here is about the 253 picture of these two adorable sisters...

You can see the frustration on Isabelle's face.

Let's throw some brothers into the mixture:

Nope: everyone is saying "No" or something like that.

Keep they eyes open...we're almost done here kids!

OKAY, I think we are getting close, just a couple more!

Uh, Gabi, we are not quite done yet!

So there you have it, the reality is that EVENTUALLY the odds will fall in our favor to get a good picture, just depends if we can get it before Gabi changes her mind.

my SINCERE apologies

YOU--yes YOU, my active reader--YOU have my sincere apologies!

When I posted the last Who Said That?, I was so ashamed over my child's behavior that I could not bring myself to reveal the answer! So I thought about it for a week...I mean I really thought about it!

Would YOU really judge me by something that my child said...I mean REALLY could you???
Would YOU never check my blog again after I revealed the answer?
There was a lot of shame, and guilt and questioning my parenting skills. AM I really fit to be a parent? It has been a long week!

After much chanting and threatening from YOU the reader, I have pondered whether or not you could handle the answer. (Husband, hang on--I am about to make you proud!) So to my READER out there, go along, say your part, as directed...okay?

ME: You want answers?
YOU: I think I'm entitled to them.
ME: You want answers?
YOU: I want the truth!
ME: You can't handle the truth! Son (or daughter), we live in a world that has walls...

Alright already...you really want to know which child of mine used the word "nuts"....
Read the next post!

psssttt...

hey, YOU, good thing you stumbled onto this blog!

It is really exciting here! I try to post once every 3 months or so...it really keeps the readers coming back for more!

SO I was going to do a whole Chicago series, because there are tons more photos...but something happened...not sure what, then I forgot I HAD a blog...then my hubby reminded me about 10,000 times that I did...SO here we are.

I will just go ahead and write up some wonderful, quirky interesting facts about our family, for HIM to read, because that is just easier!
HEY, wouldn't it be a great idea if the hubby would add a post once in a while? Yeah, I thought so! But you know he is a REALLY busy guy! Like RIGHT NOW he is VERY busy...playing Metroid!
(For you NON nerds, that is a Wii game that I bought for him!)

So like everyone else in the world, we have been BUSY! I can't tell you with what, because I have NO idea, but the summer is coming to an end, and I just know that we have been BUSY!

We do have a new nephew/cousin on his way within a week or so (Callie thinks it will
be on 8/4, since that is Barack O.'s birthday, and that would be cool, since Barack is one of their final name choices!)

AND, we have a very important wedding coming up at the end of the month! Gabi is flower girl, B is the ring baerer, lil Will and Isa are handing out programs, mom is the personal attendant, and daddy is in charge of video! WHEW!

So I just wanted to stop back and say HI! I will be back again...within a day or two to add more posts...pinkie swear!
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On a serious note, anyone wanting to send out some thoughts or prayers, here is a family in need! Take a couple of minutes to read back on their story. I have been reading this blog for sometime, and have really been checking in on them almost hourly...
http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

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Thanks for stopping, and I will be better...Promise!

Chicago: Parking and Mini Coopers

So Chicago is full of fun times... Bright lights, Great places to eat, and great opportunities to learn how to parallel park!

Here is Uncle Chad parking Grandma and Grandpa's "boat"!

P.L.E.N.T.Y. of room!

Also, we did not get photos of the ridiculous amounts of MINI COOPERS that we saw...the kids counted at least 19...I do believe in signs from God!

Please stay!

It's okay, you are at the right place ... Mom just likes to mess around with the blog! She finds great joy in moving stuff around ... so sit it out a while and try to deal with her creative curiosities.

OH, and we are ~ again ~ going to try to make a better effort at blogging more frequently.
So get your reading glasses ready. We have got some great posts coming!

LOVE ~ the V family!

Time Out! Show me the love!

This is a little glimpse into the daily moments that occur around our place!

Some are loud, some are crazy, and I mean crazy, other times are so sweet.

THEN there are times when YOU are laughing, have to fetch the camera....& THEN discipline!

Example#1 this IS a reenactment!


Gabi is in timeout....
She has served her time...
*what did she do again?*
Oh well, maybe she will remember...


"GABI"


muffled..."hhhmmm???"
"Gabi, can you tell me why you are in time out, but 1st you need to turn around, so I can hear you..."







~yep, she has and had Mr.Potato Head lips in!~

:)

OUR PRINCESS!

"HEY Gabi, smile!"

"No, Come on! SMILE!"

Gabi =1
Mom =0...
or is that
Gabi=2
Mom= 0

The times they are a changin!

Daddy...uh "MASTER" ... has found some very TRUE and telling secrets on how to run our household.

Yes, "Master," you provide our family with all the tools, and I will have your meals waiting at 5 - on the table, with your pipe and brandy ready!

Yes, I remove the curlers, put on my housecoat, and tiptoe down to make your breakfast!

I will grab that feather duster you got me for Valentine's Day! How thoughtful...it is even in tan, my favorite color...or the color that you told me that was my favorite...

The babes will hand out, and light your favorite full-flavored smoke !

And I will not question, nor stray from your guidelines, that worked for your dad, and will work for our sons!

This is how we are able to do it! It just WORKS for our family!!!

hee...hee...hee...

The following post was for ALL to read, but only for one to actually understand!
I do enjoy the Wii, but the pictures taken were of Will's Valentine's present.
I purchased Guitar Hero 3 for him, he seems to enjoy being a punk rocker!!!
The pictures are telling the story...not necessarily the words!!
Will did catch on to the post...all the more fun!

i LOVE my Wii!

I am not sure if I have told you BUT :
we just love our Wii!!

The games that are made for the Wii are made by trusted companies:

Wii rates the games, so you know what is appropriate for your family!

AND (daddy) they TradeMark their creations so no one can copy them!

One of the best things about the Wii, and it's games--they are wireless!! You don't have to be connected to some machine!!!I would love to hear my husbands thoughts on us owning a Wii, and the games that we enjoy!
I know he loves the Wii as well!!!

one for the books...

I thought that I would add a little "Callie-story"...something that everyone could laugh at!




A couple of months ago, I broke my glasses, in half...duct tape was holding them together for 2 days.
I needed to have an updated prescription, and during the exam then technician said:
"So what kind of protection do you wear for the sun?"
I was puzzled, but wanted to be a good patient....
"Uh....SPF 30, at least!"
Now he LOOKED PUZZLED!
"On your eyes??"
"OH, uh, none..."

Just thought I would let you know that I am not always as smart as I appear to be! ;)

Snow, anyone?

It has been a while, so here is a small taste, before I submit you to ALL of our families goings-on!!


It has been snowing-raining-blowing-snow thundering-hailing in our parts here for sometime...and I think I am done!
This picture is from the kids this morning out in front of our hefty pine that has lost 2 more HUGE branches! :(

Brandon and I were "stranded" in Iowa City on Sunday night...
*Thanks Tim & Becky for hosting, Elaine for playing with the LONE child, and Austin for NOT changing his plans and hanging out with unexpected visitors, but going to your friends' house anyway! :)*
I was forced to watch the Super Bowl and Will was forced to watch the kids...not quite how he had planned to spend his evening! I did give him a play by play over the phone...you know --since we have one channel (PBS) and I am so football inclined.
"OOOHH, the blue guys they got the ball!!"
"That one threw it to the other one, OH this IS a good game!"

ENJOY the SNOW, cuz I hope it will be gone soon!!

It helps to have some...

~Will (7) and Sassy (12)~
The whole point of this blog was to capture some of the daily happenings or goings-on, if you will, in our house. And a great way to keep our family and friends in tune with our kids, and their individual personalities!
So with that here is what was said this morning as I was trying to get a point across!
Will came up to me and said:
"Mom, I'm really not that good at juggling"

~GREAT CHANCE FOR ONE OF THOSE LIFE LESSONS/PREACHING....~

"Well, Will what is it going to take to get GOOD at doing something?"



"Balls!"
(he is referring to being good at juggling)

Right....on more level than one!

A dedication to the one that holds my heart!

Okay for those of you who TRULY know me, know that I like to joke around...so this page IS dedicated to Barack Obama, but REALLY TRULY Will is the one that holds my heart! So no worries!

What a great caucus night...all of my personal hard work, calling, talking, planning, postcard writing, button-shirt wearing....has paid off! As well as for all my family and friends that listened to me....over and over...and for all of us that STOOD for Barack...THANK YOU to everyone!!!

On Wed, Isa and I went to Muscatine and we got to meet Michelle Obama...she was simple wonderful, warm, open, honest....just one of us!!! Also barack's sister from Kenya was there as well....she was very sweet and took Isa in instantly!!! She even gave her own personal button to Isa! She LOVED that!!! (unfortunately no photos of this! )

But here are some of the last 24 hours in our Iowan world!

Isa, Michelle Obama, and Callie

These are the amazing cookies that my parents created!!!! They were a hit!

This is our Obama corner...at our caucus! Tipton has 3 precinct, we are precinct 2, due to our population IN precinct 2 we are allotted 4 delegates...due to total # of people in our precinct that turned out...we need to have 15 people in order to obtain 1 delegate and to remain "viable"...we actually had 2 delegates, HRC had 1, JE had 1 and BR was 2 people away from being viable....so 2 undecideds went with BR, to make him viable, so then we "lost " one of our delegates....so we got 1, HRC got 1, JE got 1, and 1 went to BR....I was fine with losing a delegate to BR, I have liked him! Get this...we had 87 people in our precinct show up...of that there were 35 for Barack Obama....19 for HRC, 15 for JE, 15 for BR...so we all tied, since we had lost our one delegate! The other precincts in Tipton only had 3 viable canidates, so Obama got 2-3 delegates in those precincts! But it has just been an amazing stand across the state of Iowa! We hope this keeps going....there is a lot that this man can and WILL do!!!

Here is a picture that I took of Barack on a stop in Muscatine a couple of months ago! I just love how the Iowa flag is in the background!!!

New Boots and Sawed Off doors...

It's 10:30 and we have gotten plenty accomplished for the day....
We bought new boots for a boy who takes his boots off by stepping on the back of the heel (in fairness...they were hand-me-downs.)
We also sawed off the bottom of our garage door--since the ice storm something happened to our cement that was not allowing us to open the door fully to get into the garage. So lil Will and I took matter into our own hands...we got out the hand saw and cut off the bottom of the door! Problem solved! When we phoned Daddy to tell him what we had done, he mentioned that he was going to do that as well...
We took care of it!
As well as-- My cousin's water broke this morning so we will have a new member of our family!!!

WHEW...naptime!

We all make mistakes!

Welcome!

I just want to mention that I am still trying to figure this whole how to put pictures on and stuff...so enjoy laughing at me now...I shall learn and make no further mistakes -- one day!

Take Care!!!
Callie

ICE- ICE-ICE!!!

Earlier this week, things kinda slowed down in our Iowa towns. We got hit with a light dusting of snow, then some ice, then some more ice, then a little more snow, and now the ice is melting during the day, and freezing again at night! SO this makes for PRETTY pictures, but treacherous for walking...yep, I fell today!

Still here...

So since it seems that I have not told anyone about this site~~ then I don't feel compelled to HAVE to update!

There is a lot going on the next couple of weeks, and I have over 175 pictures on my camera that I need to download...I will take babysteps, and get busy!!!

Stop

I love this idea of a blog. Not that anyone else will know about it, but I have always found writing a release for me! And currently I am looking for "releases"....
I don't know what has changed the last couple of weeks, but I am NOT myself! I am yearning for more...something. I am HAPPILY married, so that is not what I am "looking" for. But I do think that my kids are the center of my searching....the reality of it is setting in. I am a mother of 4, only 31...but what do I give to my children.
Myself...day in and out, attention, love, knowledge, silliness...
What will this all mean to them someday? Will they carry on where I left off? I remember my childhood VERY fondly, but I do things very different than my parents did. I miss having the carefree laugh of a 15 year old, I miss enjoying just a sunny day...not worrying about the little things....I remember being curious...NOW I seem to be so wrapped up in the miniature non- important things that shouldn't matter!
I LOVE my children, and forget that not all of them are not from me-genetically, but they are from and in my heart, and I never knew I could feel this way 5 times over! They are such individuals, yet they do so many of the same things, it simple does AWE me everyday!

Our oldest son has been having problems lately, and now we are debating what our next step should be! We had him evaluated last year after a failed attempt into public school, EVERYONE said that he had ADHD with Tourettes. Let me tell you first hand though that this child is like a ROLLER COASTER....I will touch more on this again!

Nothing of Interest

So I have been reading several blogs over the last couple of months...

Me? Why would someone want to read what I have written? I am doing this more for myself! I am a pretty selfish person...


I have 4 children, 7,7,5 and almost 4....I never thought I would be wanting more, but I am...I did always "say" that I wanted to have 10 kids...but the way our family came together was almost overnight, and we are still adapting.

Long story short--we took in a sibling set of 3, through foster care and since have adopted all three. Our bio. daughter is 1 1/2 mo. older than our son, so sometimes the comparisons start to arise, but then there are several factors that I need to keep in mind...I will touch on those later.

A few things that I would like to cover RELIGION, BOYS will be BOYS?, HOMESCHOOLING, WHY ARE 3yo SO ANGRY?....these are just a few...

Until then