{p,h,f,r} & Theme Thursday: Crack (me up)--My Boys

Oh these boys. How I love them.

And I also love when they are running around the yard, expending all their energy, playing happily together, totally entertained... for all of, you know, three minutes.

But this week we received an especially wonderful hand-me-down from my brother- and sister-in-law. And playtime in the yard has reached a whole new level of awesomeness. Which is to say, we are actually playing in the yard. Multiple days in a row. For hours at a time.

{pretty} / {funny}

As I was taking this picture, Michael was yelling: "Mama! Come back! You're in GREAT DANGER! You went away from us and you're going to get a BIG OWIE!" Obviously the long talks about how it's important to listen to Mama and Daddy and stay close to us when we say so have made an impression. The gift of Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales for Children to the boys from Liam's godfather may have helped as well... 

Also linking this one up with Cari for Theme Thursday because that totally cracked me up. 

{happy}

John Paul was loving the outside playtime as well. I was all set to take a picture of him sitting up, because this week he hit my all-time favorite stage of development: sitting up by himself with enough balance to play happily for extended periods of time, not losing his balance and falling over, but also not getting back down onto his stomach on purpose yet (and scooting away to chew on things he shouldn't)... but as I was taking pictures of him sitting up he very gracefully and deliberately leaned over and started scooting off the blanket. 

*sigh* 

I guess I should be grateful I got two whole days of stable-stationary-sitting.

{real}

Very real. Also real? Baby now awake and wanting his post-bedtime-pre-midnight snack.

Theme Thursday: Good Job

One of the most affirming things in my life right now is when Liam is eating something and tells me, unprompted, "Ashishus!" (that's "delicious," for those of you who don't speak two-weeks-shy-of-two-years-old).

I know as a parent I'm just setting myself up for problems if I consistently (or exclusively) look to my kids for affirmation... like a few weeks ago in Mass when Michael pushed me away with a whisper-shout of "No! I don't want to sit with you" and promptly scooted over to sit with Papa. It's hard to compete with Papa and Cici, I get it. And I'm okay with it. Really :)

So I try to seek affirmation in healthier ways. Like asking Alex multiple times in the course of a few minutes if my outfit looks okay, or posting tons of pictures of the boys on social media and basking in the attention as the likes pile up...

But I can't help but feel a huge amount of satisfaction when the boys clearly enjoy what they are eating--especially since that generally means they finish their meal on their own with little or no prompting/cajoling on my part. Definite parenting win, in my book.

So here's my "good job" from the boys for today. Peanut butter waffles for breakfast. Ashishus.

Linking up with Cari @ Clan Donaldson for Theme Thursday

Theme Thursday: Lights

One of my favorite things about Advent and Christmas is the lights.  Lying on the floor under the Christmas tree watching the lights and the shadows they cast, driving around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights, candles (okay, that's a year-round thing with me), etc.  In fact, tonight I really wanted to bundle us all up and hop in the van for a neighborhood Christmas lights tour.  I would have, too, if it were above zero.  Instead, I'm enjoying the virtual our over at Clan Donaldson tonight!

Alex got me this statue of the Holy Family for Christmas last year, and the infinity candle was a gift from my mother-in-law a couple years ago.  Obviously, great taste in gifts runs in that family (lucky me!).  Please ignore the fingerprints and dust on the glass--was not expecting the camera to pick that up.

So, that's it!  Happy Thursday of the first week of Advent, and head over to Clan Donaldson to look at the lights!

Happy birthday, Liam!

Linking up with Cari at Clan Donaldson for Theme Thursday: Shaming because I'm waaaay ashamed that it took me almost three weeks to post about Liam's birthday.  I don't even have a good excuse...

I think Liam is ashamed that he has a mother who insisted on stuffing his poor one-year-old head into the same hat
he was forced to wear for Christmas pictures at 7 weeks old

It was a day of profile shots--all the pictures of Liam actually looking at the camera came out blurry

The last in the series.  At this point he finally decided that the playground mulch
looked too delicious to be ignored any longer.  Also, those are "I need a nap" eyes.

Dearest Liam, I can't believe you're already one year (and 2.5 weeks) old.  This time last year your daddy and I were marveling over how you would fall asleep and then stay asleep when we put you down.  Now we're rejoicing that you are (finally) sleeping through the night (somewhat) consistently.  But sleeping or not, you are such a joy.

From the very first months of your life you were the most ticklish baby I had ever seen, and I still can't resist tickling your ribs every time I pull a shirt over your head (mean, I know--I'll be sorry when you're big enough to tickle back).  You have always been such a happy little person, and it is so exciting to see you express your personality more and more every day (even your temper--I know it's hard to wait for food and deal with a brother who is still learning how to share).

Speaking of brothers, Michael absolutely adores you, and I love to see your friendship developing even now.  Including the mini-fights over toys.  I hope you keep that special smile just for Michael forever; and I know you'll have another one for John Paul when you meet him (and thanks for not caring that mama's belly keeps getting bigger and bigger).

I love how you clap and try to say "all done" when you're done eating, and how you raise your arms and say "Dah!" for tada (and how all done and tada sound just about the same).  Your occasional "mama"s and "dada"s melt my heart.  I know I'm not supposed to wish the time away, but I can't wait for you to start talking more!

You are so precious to us, Liam Roderick!  I can't wait for all that God has in store for you.

Birthday cookies turtle

Not quite sure...

Oh, that was pretty good after all!

Mystery Ingredient Monday on a Thursday with a Theme... aka Deliciousness

Okay... are you ready for this?

So today's Theme Thursday is askew.  And I was wondering... how do I take a picture of my entire life right now?  'Cause I kind of feel like it's all askew.  But figuring out a single picture which would cleverly portray the ways in which I feel my like is a bit askew was taking too much time and effort, due in large part to aforementioned askewedness.  Askewity?  Whatevs.

So, I chucked that idea.  Moving along to dinner preparations, Alex and I made calzones, and Alex asked his dad for his super secret super amazing pizza sauce recipe.  Okay, so it's not necessarily super secret, but it's the type of recipe that never gets written down with any measurements or proportions, so that essentially amounts to secret in my book.

And guess what?  The pizza sauce has mustard in it.  (We're coming back to "askew," I promise).  Now, I didn't make any attempt at this week's Mystery Ingredient Monday mustard challenge because I don't like mustard.  And, askewity.  So when I saw that the pizza sauce had mustard in it I was soooo excited.  Yes, I know it's not Monday.  But the link-up is still open, and as far as I'm concerned that is essentially an invitation for late submissions.

So, I present to you mustard, askew, and deliciousness, all in one evening.

Look how he's holding the mustard bottle all askew--I didn't even tell him to do that!

Mmm...mustard (not).  So, the ingredients for the amazing pizza sauce (posted with permission, I promise) are:

• 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 medium can of Italian stewed tomatoes
• 1 small can of Italian tomato paste
• basil
• oregano
• Italian seasoning
• Worcestershire sauce
• yellow mustard
• fennel seed
• chopped garlic
• onion flakes

You'll have to figure out proportions on your own, I'm afraid.  I was in the garden picking basil while Alex got his instructions.  Sorry!  All I know is if you skimp on the oregano it will be too sweet.  And don't be stingy with the Worcestershire sauce either.

Also askew: Crane men and their sipping of Worcestershire sauce.  He is seriously taking a swig, not just posing.  A skewed taste if ever I've seen one.  Gross.

The end product (with sauce ever so precariously askew):  calzone recipe from last year's birthday present of The Best-Ever Good of Bread , with personalized fillings (mine had pepperoni, Italian sausage, green and red peppers, onion, mushrooms, Italian cheese blend, and fresh basil, topped with a rosemary garlic spice mix... are you hungry yet?).  I was so proud of myself--the calzone recipe was in the bread machine section of my book, and it turned out great made by hand.  The conversion wasn't actually all that much of an accomplishment--you just need to come up with the order of ingredients and steps yourself, which is pretty standard across bread recipes.  I was thrilled with how it turned out.  The crust was very light and slightly crisp and had a delicious olive oil taste.  The pizza sauce was the perfect accompaniment (not gonna lie--I can't taste the mustard which is probably why I like it).

So there you have it, folks: link-up-mash-up-deliciousness.  Check out the other (timelier) uses of mustard at Jessica's and the rest of the Theme Thursday gang at Cari's!

Theme Thursday: Bright

A bright summer's afternoon here in Colorful Colorado (at least that's what all of the signs on the state borders say--but outside of the well-watered lawn and the park behind the house the colors tend to range toward brown tones...)

sunlight through the lindens... isn't there just so elven about lindens?

splashes of color in the yard

fountain

flowers

a bright summer cocktail: vodka tonic with lemon

Go brighten up your day (see what I did there?) with Cari and the gang!

Theme Thursday: Water

Okay, full disclosure: I am going to be a Cheater McCheater Face.  This week's theme is water, which is a lovely theme, and I can't wait to look at all the other pictures of water hosted over at Clan Donaldson.

But.  This is Colorado (yes, we are finally home from our amazing three week Lincoln visit).  And we are a little short on water at the moment.  :*(

But when I was musing on my trip to Vietnam in college for this week's Mystery Ingredient Monday I got to go back through all the pictures from that trip, and Vietnam has some spectacular water.  Since I didn't manage to get a picture of the 1,000,000% humidity we enjoyed while we were there, I leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip: sunset over the water in Hoi An, Vietnam.

Go see Cari and the gang for more!!!

According to Alex on a Theme Thursday

After a long absence I'm back to remembering that Thursday is THEME Thursday before waking up on Friday morning.  Woohoo!  Excited to once again be joining Cari and gang.

This week's theme is Fathers--and I don't know if there is anything I love taking a picture of more than my boys with their amazing father.  Pictures of my boys with their amazing grandfathers and great-grandfathers come in a close second.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time: a 6 month old Michael with Alex, Alex's dad, and Alex's grandpa Charles.  Talk about a perfect picture for the theme of "fathers."

Be sure to check out the rest of the father pictures at Clan Donaldson!

And in honor of the father of my children, here are some recent gems.

"He sounds like a Chinese lounge singer!"  Upon observing his first born singing along to "Old McDonald Had a Farm."

When I admitted that eating chocolate chips by the handful(s) probably wasn't helping me lose the last of the baby weight: "You should put them in cookies.  Eggs, wheat, nutrition!"  (Yes, definite fans of Mr. Cosby in this household.)

With calm resignation as I was trying to relate something great I had read recently (a common occurrence): "I will never be able to keep your blogosphere community straight."  (I think it was his way of saying "You read way too many blogs and it's kind of ridiculous, but I love you anyway.")

"This is my pity face."  With an absolutely pitiless expression when I was complaining about something (something perfectly valid, of course).

Michael (from the other room): Mama? Help? Pease? A nammit (napkin)?
Me (while nursing Liam, to Alex): He's asking very nicely.  Would you please get him a napkin?
Alex: He's asking you.
Me: Oh, would you like to nurse the infant while I get the toddler a napkin?
Alex: Would you like to see me try?

Best Daddy ever!

7 Quick Takes (vol. 27) and a Theme Thursday... all on Saturday

--- 1 ---

Surprise, I'm late!  But in my defense this week has been ridiculous.  I feel like I use that excuse explanation a lot, but seriously.  It was.

Hey, look at that--Grace did a reverse order link up this week!  Lucky me :)

--- 2 ---

Speaking of defenses, Alex is DONE with his thesis.

Written. Submitted. Defended. DONE.

--- 3 ---

He only has one week left of class, a presentation, and one exam standing between him and his MA.  I am so incredibly proud of him!!!  And so incredibly ready for him to be done.  I don't know who is more excited for graduation--him or me.

--- 4 ---

I'm pretty sure correct grammar would be "he or I," but that sounds silly.

--- 5 ---

Speaking of silly (and grammar, for that matter), M's current obsession is Veggie Tales.  Ergo, I have rediscovered Silly Songs, and I think I'm enjoying them at least as much as he is.  Maybe more.  Especially this one.

And I love it even more because we did School House Rock Live! my senior year of high school (and I got a part without having to sing a solo... probably because I was a senior and president of the Drama Club, but whatever) and this is way better.

--- 6 ---

I completely missed Theme Thursday this week, despite it being the easiest theme ever for the Corner--boys.  Seriously Ashley, how did you let that one slip past you?

Reference Take #1.

But anyway here are my boys playing, so I can go ahead and link up anyway despite being a super-duper late cheater mccheaty pants.  (I'm still loving fine-tuning my depth of field for close-ups.  I promise I'll do something different someday.  Maybe.)

Thomas! Our favorite!

Flutterbye!  Our favorite!

--- 7 ---

I had a revelation today: Michael already speaks Spanish!  Allow me to elucidate:

Ehmo = Michael's version of Liam = derivative of William = Guillermo in Spanish = Llermo for short = Ehmo

Didja follow?  Pretty impressive, isn't he?  But I'm still going to pick up those Little Pim DVDs from the library (I actually requested them... just need to get myself to the library before my hold expires).

Go see Grace for more quick takes, and continue to pray for Jen and baby Joseph (they're home!)!  
Happy Friday Saturday :)

Theme Thursday: Grow

Just a leeetle bit late with my Theme Thursday post this week.  I really did take the pictures yesterday, but just didn't get around to posting them.  It's actually somewhat miraculous that I managed to take five precious minutes out of the boys' overlapping nap time to walk around the yard and snap a couple shots of beautiful green growing things.  Hooray spring!

I should have take a picture of the daffodils when I first noticed them on Monday. Tuesday we were in (hopefully) the last death throes of winter.  We didn't quite get the 10-14 inches of predicted snow, but the daffodils were decidedly not a fan of the single digit temps.

The tulips fared much better...

Everything is starting to turn all sorts of green, but the willow is my favorite right now.  The buds are still tiny, but the branches are a gorgeous delicate green, especially against the blue sky (blue sky not pictured, because it has been MIA for most of the week).

Go check out everything growing over at Clan Donaldson!

Theme Thursday: Mud

Thursdays.  *sigh*  I suppose any day of the week that I knew I needed to take a picture (but never managed to take it ahead of time) would seem like an inordinately busy day.  But seriously, Thursdays are ridiculous.

This week's theme is mud.  And this is Colorado.  Insanely dry Colorado.  Which means we have lots of, well, dehydrated mud (technically different than dirt, I'm sure).  It actually did rain for about ten minutes today, but as the driveway was nearly completely dry within minutes of the rain stopping, I didn't bother to abandon the children and rush outside to try to find a patch of still-hydrated mud.  Pretty sure the ground soaked up every last drop of moisture and still looked like baked clay.

So instead of just taking a picture of dirt dehydrated mud, I'm cheating this week and pulling up an old picture to post (because I still want to be included... I missed last week and was very sad about it... once I remembered that I'd missed it).  And in honor of St. Patrick's feast day on Sunday, I present to you:

Irish Mud

The picture is even from a beach near Downpatrick, where the grave of St. Patrick is located.  I took this almost five years ago (oh my, has it really been that long?!) when I was in Ireland with some friends.  We figured it was June, we were on an island, and we should go to the beach.  Well, the island was Ireland and the beach was what you see above.  Technically a beach, but not really what we'd had in mind.  No idea the camera, settings, or what I did to it (except that it was probably in Picasa).

Next time I'll try not to cheat... I promise...

Go check out Cari and the other non-cheaters!

Theme Thursday: Piles

It was a busy day.  Crazy busy.

I remember sometime around 9:15pm that I hadn't taken my Theme Thursday picture yet.  The only piles I could think of to photograph were the piles of laundry (at least it's mostly clean).  Laundry folded and waiting to be put away... laundry waiting to be folded... laundry waiting to be laundered.  Blech.  Depressing, and kind of ridiculous that I have such piles of laundry (or at least slightly ridiculous how long each pile has been in its respective place without action).

Then Alex and I sat down to our nightly game of Settlers and I had a moment of inspiration.

Piles of cards > piles of laundry.  Even if Alex did beat me.  For the third time out of the last four games.

This was fun--it gave me another chance to practice playing with the aperture.  And how convenient--multiple red elements.

Check out Clan Donaldson for more piles!  It is so past my bedtime...

Theme Thursday: Happiness or Joy

Joining Cari and the gang for Happiness or Joy this Thursday (and I actually intentionally messed with the aperture for more or less the effect I wanted with depth of field, and I'm so so so proud of myself).  With a theme like that, taking pictures of the boys was a no-brainer (not that I don't manage to use them for pretty much every theme).  I was feeling a bit pessimistic about getting them to both smile at the same time; as discussed before Michael highly prefers to take the pictures rather than pose for them.

Several months ago I remember overhearing my sister-in-law mention bribing my nephew with chocolate to make sure he smiled for his three-year pictures.  God (and Jamie) forgive me, but I (quietly) turned my nose up slightly at the idea.  I can't imagine why... I've never had any problem bribing M with fruit snacks to trim his nails, and chocolate for pictures is hardly any different.  Well, as is generally the case when I find myself sneering (ever so privately and, you know, charitably) at a situation...

Before the bribe offer of chocolate...

...and, voila!

I think my favorite part is Liam's absolutely adoring smile directed at his brother.  Only four months old (!!!) and already his big brother is his hero and favorite person ever (unless he's hungry, in which case Mama still rates pretty high on his list).

I can't get enough of how much joy these two find in each other.  This is my happiness, right here.

Theme Thursday: Architecture

It's even more wintry today than it was last week, so I stayed in the comfort of my own home and went with a rather loose interpretation of this week's theme of architecture.

the house that Ashley built

Yes, it's a cardboard box.  My double stroller arrived this week, and there was no way I was going to let such a big, sturdy box go to waste.  

I learned several important photography lessons this week.

1)  Five minutes with the instruction manual does not this girl an expert photographer make.  I might just give up on any manual settings until Easter when my dad can teach me how to take fuller advantage of the camera he passed down to me.

2)  Even though I figured out how to play with the exposure on the camera itself, I still like automatic photos + Picasa better.

3)  I prefer taking pictures of my children to taking pictures of cardboard boxes (duh).

Mama is a better box-cutter than box-photographer

hanging out on the front porch

4)  It is much easier to take interesting pictures of real architecture than of cardboard boxes.

Apartments--excuse me, flats--in
Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia
photo circa 2007

Check out Cari and the rest for photos of not-cardboard-boxes!

Theme Thursday: Trees or Leaves

Colorado defeated me today.  I was planning on taking an incredible (of course) shot from the church parking lot after class this morning.  I was going to play around with macro and landscape settings, and even try out manual focus (after I dug out the camera manual to even figure out how to make it let me focus manually... manual, manually... there should be a pun in there somewhere, right?).  My shot was going to capture a beautiful evergreen in the foreground and majestic Pikes Peak looming in the distance.  It was going to be epic.  As I made my way into class (running just a tad late, otherwise I would have done my photography right away) I glanced excitedly at the view I would capture in two short hours.

And then the snow rolled in.  It was crazy windy and crazy cold. The mountains were completely obscured.  In just a few minutes my fingers were so numb it was all I could do not to drop the camera, let alone try to manually focus it for the first time ever, and it was so windy that even if I could have controlled the focus the darn tree wouldn't stay still enough for a macro shot.

Not what I was going for at all.

So instead I leave you with one of my very favoritest tree shots of all time.  I took this several years ago on a retreat in college.  I'm pretty sure I used the macro setting on my camera (whatever I had then... actually, it was probably my sister's camera).

Very proud of this one.

Go see Cari and the gang for their incredible pictures!