I know, I’m sorry….I’ve been a bad blogger.
I thought I would share what I just downloaded from my camera and maybe you all can piece together the last few months of my life.
Levi is 7, he has the largest two front teeth in the history of front teeth and he knows it. When we make fun of his teeth he sticks them out and starts acting like a monster. I’ve never seen a kid so proud of his giant front teeth. He LOVES to play with my camera and the result is usually an hour of filming everything in the house and about 85 pictures of himself making weird faces. I spend a lot of time deleting his stuff, but making sure I don’t delete all of it because he’s pretty funny.
Then I have about 5 billion of these photos on my camera. This is one of Clay’s jobs. He snatches my camera from time to time and takes photos of his job sites. I hate deleting them because sometimes they are of beautiful buildings and details that only an architect’s wife could appreciate.
After I cleared all the photos from Levi and Clay off of my camera I came to the few photos I snapped during Thanksgiving. That very small woman sitting next to Clay is Carmen, my childhood friend. She lives in the same town as my parents and her husband’s business intercedes with my mother’s business on a daily basis. That means Carmen’s husband owns a FedEx route and he picks up the puppets my mom is shipping out to her customers. Carmen’s husband adores my mom and my mom likes Carmen’s husband more than she likes me, so it was a winning situation to have them at my parent’s home for Thanksgiving. Carmen and her girls taught us how to play a dice game called Farkle. Guess who lost?
Yeah, that would be me. The loser of Farkle has to complete a task that is decided before the game begins. I had to go to the same house that Carmen and her family had mistaken for my parent’s home just a few hours earlier. With all their Thanksgiving food in their hands thinking they were at my parent’s the older gentleman that answered the door thought that maybe my parents did live there, so Carmen and Charlie went in and quickly realized they knew absolutely nobody in that house. The loser of the Farkle game had to take a pumpkin pie and basket to the door of that house and ask if my parents were home. It was very embarrassing to say the least, but we got a years worth of laughter out of it.
Many of you have asked,”How’s Salt?”
Here she is helping to decorate the Christmas tree.
And here she is helping to decorate Ellen’s leg with a few puncture wounds.
Never has a kitten been loved so much by so many people as this little fluffy-wuffy-kitty-witty. I swear we worry about her far more than we worry about our children. And if that’s not enough to make you hurl a bit of stomach acid, then you should also know that we call her, “The Baby” and periodically use The Baby as an excuse not to help others, “I can’t fix dinner, I’m holding The Baby” or “I can’t do my homework because The Baby is sleeping on me” or “I’d love to help you do the laundry, but The Baby doesn’t want me to leave the room.” You can understand how difficult life is when you have a baby in the house.
I made my yearly batch of beirocks or beirochs or beer rocks. We ate them for four days. I found out my oldest son was giving them away at school and then I asked him why he hates me so much.
This is Levi taking a snooze at our second home, aka the basketball gym. My friends, I have a serious case of Bleacher Butt, it has caused my butt to be big, flat and also…ginormous. I could use a good drug to cure me of this awful disease. Here let me show you how I got it.
*All the DECENT basketball photos are courtesy of my sweet and talented friend Mrs. Mama.
I’m the mom that says (and by says I mean yells) things like, “DON’T TRAVEL!” and “HEAD FAKE!!!” and “DON’T FOUL!” and the more than occasional, “USE THE BACKBOARD!!!!” and then my daughter’s favorite, “MAKE YOUR SHOTS!” I know, it’s almost like I’m a coach with all my helpful input. Honestly, I don’t understand how my kids can play the game without me there.
This is her senior year and I promised I wouldn’t miss a single game.
Nothing could keep me away from watching #24 do what she does on that court.
Or watch her coach the girls from the bench. And in case you didn’t see him, that’s Clay up at the score table taking stats…..for every single game home and away for the girls and boys varsity teams. He takes his job very seriously. And yes, I love this picture of Ellen’s coach.
This is Big John, he’s one of our home court refs. He looks really scary until he smiles, and then fahgetaboutit the whole room melts under his charm. I love this photo of him.
Oh, how I am going to miss this next year.
Are some of you wondering why I’m all, “Ellen this and Ellen that…doesn’t April have a son that plays basketball too?”
Well, yes I do. So, let me show you the great shots I got of him playing and the reason I posted my friends photos instead of mine.
I think I might put this one in his baby book.
I love this action shot of him.
This one is worthy of some sort of award. I’m there people. I’m am right there getting the best shots of my kids on the court.
I let my kids request what kind of cake they want. I used to spend an entire day building and frosting complicated designs and then I had a 4th kid. Isaac wanted a gold dragon on a two layer cake. I frosted this in about 10 minutes and we ate it all gone.
We took Ellen to Build a Bear for Isaac’s birthday.
We told her it was Disneyland.
And now she can cross that trip off her bucket list.
Her enthusiasm was not to be dampened by her father or brothers who quickly grew weary of her.
I tried to take a fun Christmas photo of my family. But……yeah.
My family doesn’t do “Nice Family Photo”. Look at Levi’s feet. Yes, his shoes are on the wrong feet. I can only do so much people.
We love the show Parks and Recreation. I gave this t-shirt to Seth for Christmas. He thinks Ron Swanson is the perfect man and quotes him much too often, “I like dark haired women and breakfast food.”
Seth helped me turn this floral atrocity into….
This very vanilla landscape.
And uh, it still looks like that minus the broom in the shower. I know, I know, I suck at finishing projects. I promise I’ll get it done before I die.
And that my friends has been my life according to my camera for the last several months. You’re welcome.
Need a Chicken Doctor?
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Thanks for the update. By the way, that wallpaper is exactly the same my gynecologist has in his waiting room bathroom. I thought you would want to know.
love love LOVE the pics of Ellen at “disney” aka Build a Bear!! my fav pics in a long time…coulnd’t stop giggling!!
I wish Build a Bear really was Disney. Great to see all the photos. I’ve missed you.
judging by those sethy pictures, you would be an awesome photographer for the witness protection program! =o)
You make bierocks toooo!!! I thought i was the only one. They are fantastic. So yeah.. that’s about all i got out of that. Good to have a new post from you!
Oh, the Build a Bear pics…LOLOLOL…I laughed myself silly at the poor menfolk….
I have missed you, woman!! And is it weird that I think of you when I shop at Aldi? Probably. But these days what do I do that’s NOT weird? Not much.
I have pictures of my boy’s ball games that show the top of his head, maybe, behind a great shot of the opposing player. Glad to know it isn’t just my great picture skills.
I’ve never heard of a bierock, but it seems like a cross between a Polish pieróg and a Chinese bāozi — both of which are family dishes that I love.
I’m sure those hooks are helpful with towels and such, but my goodness, they’re just an injury waiting to happen. I can picture someone slipping on the wet floor…
You had me laughing myself silly this morning. You are just too funny! The pictures of Ellen at Build a Bear and the action shots of Seth. You are a great photographer!
Keep on posting – it’s fun to glimpse into the lives of another crazy family of six. 
So much funny! Love the cake. I have also spent half the birthday making whatever Jonah wants on his cake and now I realize what I’ve started… Poor third-born Andrew…
Thanks for the ketchup!
Thanks for starting my day off with giggles. Love it all!
Thanks for showing us the camera contents. It really did help get us up to date with your life!
I enjoy your site so much! The picture of your husband and son after the excited pictures of Ellen are so dang funny. Thanks for giving us a little glimpse of your life, and making the day to day happenings we all go through, so humorous.
You’re right, you are a Bad Blogger. But you have a silly sense of humor and your honest, matter-of-fact writing will always keep me coming back for the next post. Thanks for the smiles!
Who’s Ron Swanson?
Send those beirocks to me! My mom used to make those for us with this great French Onion gravy for the top. Sigh…I miss those.
I have no idea why reading about someone else’s daily life is so riveting. It’s pathetic really….and somehow it never gets old. I have no idea, seriously. I’m sure it is a sign of the apocolypse, a foreshadowing of the decline of modern society, and a first clue of the end of intelligent life.
All I know is I can hardly wait for the next update. How about updating us on how your sister Rechelle is doing, or what your plans for the farm are for 2012, what Clay is up to, how the never ending battle against debt is fairing, how couponing and your basement pantry are stocking up, and most in demand, without a doubt: WE NEED A NEW DANCE VIDEO. There, I said it.
Tracy B.
When Levi’s teeth fall out, he could use them as Ninja weaponry! Did you get the porch fixed and the brick path built?
You have been missed, but this pictorial update was worth the wait!
Caleb turned 10 in December and he loves dragons too!
Yay! Yay!! Yay!!!
Finally a new post!
I was worried, but not worried enough to stalk you….
I think you should yell at Seth, “hold still for a photo op” during the game.
Just a little photog tip for ya. I think it will go over swimmingly! Ahem.
Big squeeze to all of you!
I should email you our Christmas photo….. yeah.
Yeah, exactly what Tracy B up there said!!! Welcome back – you are back now, right?!
Thanks for the update! I love the bathroom!
And, I totally want Ellen’s coat.
So glad you’re back – you are, right? Since Levi likes your camera so much, why not get him started on the blog!???
Nancy in Iowa
Great post..loved all the photos, especially the B-A-B with Ellen. And your big tooth-ed son is darling!
Thanks for sharing the pix! Totally understand about the senior year of the first-born. Kids don’t get it, but moms do. Bless you! And…mom-to-mom…when the blogs get a bit scarce because you’re going to EVERYTHING your senior is doing, you’ve made the right call!
April I love your family! It seems so close to my own haha
I understand the bleacher butt totally..and I don’t even have kids that play! We go to watch my neices and friends! So I am sacraficing my butt for the greater good of the team. Your children are beautiful!
Those pictures of Ellen at build a bear are my favorite. Glad to hear you all are doing well and busy!
I have missed you!!! I have been checking every day hoping and waiting for an update!! I love the pictures of Sethy…and your daughters enthusisam is amazing! Glad your back!
I am so glad to not be the only one who has fallen a little behind on my blog. I honestly don’t know how you do it all! I love all the pictures and seeing all of your cute faces. You are so busy but busy with all of the important stuff that your family will remember for ever.
Your cat hanging from your leg is hilarious! I have had my cat do the same thing, it’s fun to look back and laugh but at the time it is not fun at all while the claws are dug into you. I hope all your little puncture wounds have healed along with your “bleacher butt”.
Thanks for making me laugh!
Oh April: I had the biggest grin on my face reading this post. What a bunch of characters all of you are! Loved every minute. Keep your sense of humor and you’ll get through all these seasons of life with flying colors. Good Job!
Just read this in bed with my partner sleeping next to me. I tried to silent laugh but shook so much it woke up the sleeping beast.