Always the last to know

 

Our very own insurance company sent us this today:

 

This was printed inside the “invitation.” Please note the question at the top:

Really? You DO have our stats, right Marketing Department? Remember us – the Worley family? Who needs three insurance cards to fit all the kids’ names? 

Don’t you know that we already have our hands full, and we know what causes that, and yes, they’re all ours, and no, we’re not trying for a basketball, soccer, football or hockey team?

And this, just 2 weeks after my 46th birthday and Mick is already into his second half century of life (now that sounds old!) :-D.

Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think we’ll be signing up for your Maternity Management Service.

P.S. I showed this Mick when he got home and his response was a weak “Heh.” 

Repurposing, Captain America-Style

Remember that really neat drum set we got for Grant’s 6th birthday? Well, who knew it contained a secret weapon… 

Our Boy Wonder and his Sidekick, Brave Bear

By day, he’s a mild-mannered, well-dressed, inconspicuous kid racing across rocky terrain, spiffy tie blowing in the wind, brim of his newsies hat turned up …

Incredibly, without the aid of a telephone booth, he can also turn into a red-caped marvel of a hero, scanning the horizons of the surrounding cornfields and lonely gravel road, searching … searching … for something – anything – to put his burgeoning superpowers to the test, while he provides entertainment to yawning cats and curious dogs. And several family members, watching with delight through the windows. :-)

Here we see Brave Bear taking on a treacherous, weed-riddled, rocky path to beat Boy Wonder to the front porch. Looks like Brave Bear has some pretty big shoes to fill.

Confident that the good residents of Worleyopolis are safe, our heroes take a much-needed rest, but only so they can be ready for the next threat. A message to all the menacing mice and bugs in the surrounding 2.5 acres: Take cover from Boy Wonder and Brave Bear! You’ve been warned! Their collective cuteness is completely disarming.

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Yesterday, Erica looked out the window and spotted the boys dressed up like this. Brooke told us they wanted to be superheroes, but they wanted to have some “Clark Kent” outfits, too. This is the latest craze in our house. In the past month, we’ve watched “Captain America”, “Captain America 2” and “The Avengers” and those characters have really been feeding their imaginations. Obviously. :-)

Prying Pup

We’re planning to put together a photo album on New Year’s Eve with pictures we’ve taken throughout 2014. Kind of a “Year in Review” thing. So, I spent literally hours yesterday combing through all the pictures we’ve taken, picking out the ones that give a feel for what the year was like. I think I’ve got them all picked out and as of now, we have 268 pictures! Here’s a screen shot of a small portion of them

Notice the one of Samson in that screen shot? Here’s what it looks like:

 

Cracks me up!  I’m not sure who took this – I’d bet Courtney. It gives you a good insight into Samson’s personality. I doubt you could get a picture of Jack like this – he doesn’t slow down long enough. But Samson is the slower, more calm one. And he’s always right there. HAS to know what you’re doing at all times.  Ha!

A new trend in feet pajamas?

Someone’s getting very independent around here and wanted to put on his own PJs this evening. When he was coming downstairs, he was calling for me, saying “Something’s wrong!” Uh … yep. At least he realized it. A couple of years ago, he probably would’ve run around with them like that. Ha!

   

These Eyes

The other day, the boys were sitting at the island eating their lunch while the rest of us were chatting about whether we should get Grant’s hair cut. Erica worried that if we let it get too long, he might be mistaken for a girl, because he has such big, beautiful eyes and long eyelashes. We were all agreeing and I was just staring at his eyes and talking about how lovely they are while he munched on his sandwich, unaffected by all of us staring at him. All the sudden, Mick started laughing and I noticed Trent out of the corner of my eye slowly leaning in toward Grant. I looked over at him, and he was staring right at me, eyes open as wide as they could be and eyebrows straight up.  Ha! With boys, everything is a competition!  :-D

This is fun. :-)

 

Ten years ago was a very busy time in our family. Kelly, Jennifer, Monica and I were all pregnant and due around the same time. I was due in January, Kelly & Monica were due a few days apart in February and Jennifer was due in March. The twins ended up being born two months early on December 22nd, Brooke came 4 weeks later on January 23rd, Mason was born 4 weeks later on February 20th and Erin was born 4 weeks after that on March 17th! Yes, a very busy time. We have a few pictures of all 5 babies together – none of which I’ve scanned on the computer yet (my print photos aren’t very organized ). But I do have a picture of the four girls that we took at Mom and Dad’s when they were about 1 year old. It was probably Easter and I’ll bet Mason was at his other grandparents’ house. Mom and Dad had bought matching outfits for the girls and they were all wearing them that day, although when we took the picture, they were in various layers. Since they all turned 10 recently, I thought it would be fun to line the the girls up again for a comparison picture. They’re all so similar and yet unique!

After they posed nicely, they started hamming it up.  It all started when I told them to look distinguished:

and then ANGRY …

and then, well, things just kept getting crazier and CRAZIER!!

 

 

 

          

Love all these girls!

P.S. Here’s Mason (“Mr. February”) taken around the same time as the girls:

P.P.S. And as if all that excitement from December 2003 through March 2004 wasn’t enough, Jordan was born in October of 2004! So, that makes 6 babies born in 10 months!!

Quotable cuties

 

Me: Grant, you can come out of Quiet Time now.
Grant: OK. Are you going to come up and clean up the glass?

Thankfully and miraculously, there was no blood. I think he was trying to see if one of the Little People could fly. It made it all the way up to the ceiling fan! I’m thinking of installing a hidden camera in his room during Quiet Time...

Grant, 3yo

I really don’t post these cute little quotes often enough. I’m afraid I’m going to forget them! I read something I’d posted on FB a few years ago about Claire, who was 3 at the time. It was this:

This morning Claire (3) sitting on my lap, hugging me, kissing my cheek, giggling ... looks at me and says "Wouldn't this make a cute picture?!"

I had completely forgotten that she said that. When I read it, I had a vague recollection of it. So glad I wrote it down then, but I need to be better about doing that here! Who knows, Facebook may be a distant memory by the time our kids are grown, kind of like 8-track tapes or home doctor visits. Although they promise us that whatever we put on there will be saved forever … {cue scary music}.  We’ll see.  :-)

Here’s a picture taken of Claire right around then.

Trent is at that age where he has a quotable quote a couple of times a day. I just need a personal secretary to follow me around and help me out with things like this. :-)

Little boys

Several years ago, after Grant was born, Mom and Dad got Mick a book called “What Little Boys Are Made Of” for a Christmas gift. It’s filled with little poems, scripture and words of wisdom about little boys.  The cover looks like this:

The book is filled with pictures that are similar in style to this cover. For years now, I’ve wanted to try to take some pictures of Grant that were modeled after the book, but just haven’t taken the time to do it. With the start of a new school year, I’ve been more aware of how much the kids are growing, especially Grant, since he is now 5 and will start kindergarten. So, I took advantage of a free evening with nice lighting and shot some pictures.

Typically, I prefer close-up shots because I love to see facial expressions, but I liked this one a little further back so the old barn door would be included.

He was a very cooperative model, especially considering the fact I had changed him out of his swim trunks into this outfit right before he was heading out to swim with the girls.

This next one has a fun Picasa filter applied to it called “Cinemascope;” I think he looks like a silent film star here.  At this point, he was looking for bugs, lost in his own little world.

Now, look closely at his expression in this next picture and imagine a light bulb over his head. This is the moment an idea came into his 5-year-old, little-boy mind.

I think it was just before this moment that he became aware of the sound of the shutter clicking and remembered I was there taking his picture. He looked up at me and smiled this smile and I snapped it real quick, thinking what a nice smile it was. Immediately after I took the picture, he broke into this completely silly expression and froze.

Right away, I realized he was posing for me. So, I took another one as fast as I could … and he did it again … and again, giving me every silly face he could conjure up.

 

I wish we had video of this because I think even the pictures don’t completely capture the hilarity of these moments. In spite of each huge grin or outlandish expression on his face, he was completely silent and frozen between each picture, waiting until he heard me take the picture, and then he’d make the next face and freeze again.

 

Inwardly, I was absolutely dying with laughter, but I held it together long enough to keep taking the pictures until he was all faced out.  :-D

 

I loved these so much, I had to crop each picture to be able to see his expression more close-up. Just imagine a completely silent, frozen boy making these faces and you pretty much have it.

    

   

   

I’ve looked at these pictures many times and they still make me smile each time. :-)  After all these crazy- face pictures, it might seem like an abrupt change to end with such a serious expression, but I love this last one. It’s my favorite of the group. Or maybe the Cinemascope one. Or the smiley one. Maybe I should just look through them all again. ;-)