These beautiful people.

Because I have a nifty camera (a very basic one, but nifty non-the-less) that I am fully capable of pointing it at people and pressing a button, and also because I have a super-fun editing program that I can kinda sorta use... (that's officially a very, very confusing sentence) I get to snap pictures of my sister and her lovely little family.

Look at these ladies!

It's so fun watching these two take care of twins!

I've seen just how much work two four-month-old bambinos can be.  Seriously, when they both work themselves up into a screaming tizzy... holy hannah!  Cover your ears!  Run for the hills!

But these two?  They handle the stress of it all so stinking well.  Whit has the particular skill that I am jealous of: she just does this grimace-smile thingy and starts humming and just plain manages.  I have always been the start-sweating-and-begin-taking-shallow-breaths kind of mom.

Love this Lish family!

Oh soccer season, you have come and gone. Again.

I had plans to put Porter in a real soccer league all summer.  I wanted PG to be able to really learn the sport, to see if he really enjoyed playing it.  I had the super-professional website bookmarked and I was ready to sign him up the second registration opened.

And then I forgot.

Until I received a reminder on Facebook that the old neighborhood league he usually plays on was now open for registration.  I hurried over to my super-awesome soccer league... and they were full.  Crap!

So back to the neighborhood soccer team we go (I may or may not refer to them as the "hippie league" since they don't keep score and everyone wins a metal at the end of the season).  But the awesome part was that Porter got to be on his best buddy's team.  Yay!

Here is a condensed version of Porter's best moments... with only my favorite pictures.  Because it's my blog and I can, that's why.

   
Water break!

I really, really loved PG's coach this time.  He made sure to rotate the players through every position.  Porter happened to prefer the high-action ones.  He seemed to get a little bored as a sweeper and goalie...

Porter's cheering section...

And when Wyatt gets mad that he can't run around free-as-a-bird in the street?  Momma makes a phone call to Nana and let's Wyatt talk away to her :)

When you give your ten year old daughter your camera to take pictures, you get awesome shots such as these:

And 500 more just like them!

See what I mean?  Hippies! :)

And yes, my son is wearing a Rolling Stones hat.  I am a horrible mother.

Now that soccer is over, we are in heated debate over the next sport he'll be playing.. any suggestions for a ball-hogging six year old?

In which Piper shows off her mad skills...

I was planning on doing on mega-post with tons of pictures that will bring this online family journal of ours up-to-date... and then I got bored just thinking about it.  So, instead, I am trying to do mini-posts of what I deem to be the most memorable things from the past few months.

Please feel free to exit the page at any time.

Still with me?  Then let us begin.

Piper began playing her violin back in September.  Now, just for posterity sake, I must share the fact that we must have Piper to school by 7:25 in the mornings- since Beginning Orchestra begins at 7:30.  Which means leaving the house by 7:10.  Which means the pressure to have five people clothed, fed, hair-did, beds made, scriptures read, prayers said, lunches packed, and teeth brushed by this time is on.  Fortunately, there are a couple of other crazy moms in our neighborhood who like the early morning rush as much as I do... thank goodness for carpools!  When it isn't my turn to drive carpool, I just have to focus on getting Miss Pip's all pretty by that insane time and the rest of us have an extra 30 minutes.  Wahoo!

Now, onto the main event:

Beginning Orchestra's first concert.

Isn't she angelic?

Her fan club:

Adi and I figured out how to use Windows Movie Maker to put these four clips together.  We're getting smarter!

Pipes was pretty discouraged after her performance, and she was listing all of the times that she had messed up.  This poor little girl is quite a perfectionist.  But she's been pushing herself harder in her practicing, so I'm hoping that this one of life's "you reap what you sow" kind of lessons.

I can wait to watch this girl blossom into a musical genious!

Halloween

I am officially combining all October activities into a single Halloween post.  And mostly I am just going to post pictures, because I am so far behind in this recording my family's history thing that I am overwhelmed.  And I just don't seem to care too much about describing the stuff we did.  But I do feel the mommy guilt for not putting the memories down somewhere.  And journals and myself?  We just don't get a long too well.  Mostly because I lose them.  Every single time.

Isn't it funny how it takes me a paragraph to state that I will not be writing a lot?

I must tell you, however, that this year marked a big Halloween event in the Merrill household:  I did not make everyone's costumes.  I also did not take "Courtney Official" Halloween pictures.  Really, I cannot explain my laziness.  Except that we saw an "Army Guy" and fireman costumes at Costco for the low price of $20 and I jumped all over them.  Piper wanted to be a biker chick from Teen Beach Movie .... and my sewing skills- while they are amazing (just ask my heavily used seam ripper)- are not at the leather-jacket level.  I do score points for Adi's 50's girl skirt (and the twin one I made for her BFFL).  And the picture thing?  I planned on taking them a couple of times, but... it just didn't happen.

Anyway, now... onto to the pics!

First up: a trip to Vertuccio Farm.

Where we spent $50 to go down slides, swing, and play on a teeter-totter!

There was also a corn maze:

 And please do not ask about my children's clothing choices.  I am trying oh-so-very-hard to not micro manage their choices.

It is very hard.

Next up:  Mom's Annual Halloween Party.

I seem to have forgotten how to focus pictures.

See Mr. Wyatt down there in the corner?  He flatly refused (read:screamed his head off) to put on his fireman's costume.  So he went to the Halloween Party as a spoiled brat instead.  Wyatt: 1, Mom: 0.

  

Selfie!  I hate myself right now...

 
On the morning of Halloween:

Thank you, Walmart, for these awesomely cheap photo props!

For their lunches...

And, finally, Halloween night...

Wyatt decided that he would dress up as a Miner (aka: Daddy).  Luckily, Orrin had already brought him a hard hat, head lamp, and a safety vest.  I just sewed up the sides and bottom of the vest, and: wah-la!  A Halloween costume!  That he kept on!  Without crying!  It was a Halloween miracle!

Adi's best friend had a matching skirt, but she got to my mom's house just as we were leaving to go Trick-or-Treating, so I never quite got a pic of them together.  Sad Mommy :(

So there ya have it!  Halloween 2013!  Yeah- it's over!