You've gotta love him.

This kid right here.

Look at that face. Even in this shot where he's being a stinker and sticking his tongue out at me, I'm still very much in love with this rotten little man (just as I am the rest of his siblings).

We got his teacher a small gift for the end of the year. A framed, customized print.

In full disclosure, I bought the digital file from an Etsy seller. I was being super lazy, and I don't yet have a knack for design. It was well worth the few dollars I spent. Anyway, that guy in the picture was super excited to give this to his teacher. I kept reminding him that we would wrap it up nicely and give it to her tomorrow; the day of the class party.

Fast forward to this morning. He empties out his backpack, and since it's the end of the year, I don't question it. He asks for tape, but he's always asking for odd things. When we are ready to leave, this picture is missing from my mantle. "Ezra? Where is the photo?" He replies, "Oh, I have it in my backpack!" I reminded him that we were going to wrap it, and his eyes lit up as he said, "Oh, but I already wrapped it!" I regret not taking a picture of his handiwork. This is one of those "Don't sweat the small stuff" kind of things as a parent (one that I would've previously stressed about), and he was so terribly excited to give this gift with 10 feet of silver wrapping paper loosely attached. "Okay, you can go ahead and give it to her today." 

And I didn't have to wrap it. So, there you go. I love that kid.

The Halloweenies - Yeah... I'm Late.

I apologize now. I have a lot of pictures of these gorgeous kids in their costumes. I got lucky, and had other people get some great shots, especially since I kept forgetting my camera.

Here they are at our church's annual Trunk or Treat. They get to do the Trick or Treat thing and we don't have to freak out about them getting candy from random strangers. And they get to hang with all of their friends. One of our members is a photographer. He got a couple really great shots of the little ones.

Here is Princess Anna, after she flagged him down. Really. She sees cameras, and she thinks they all need to be pointed at her taking pictures. While I can't blame her... I mean, look at that face... I am really trying to get her to stop. It might be just a *smidge* embarrassing.

And here is Iron Man Ezra. We watched the movie, and he's been fascinated ever since.


Here are the two pictures I took. Yeah. I forgot my camera, so you'll have to forgive the quality. Still not bad for a phone.

I had planned to take the little ones to a local photographer who was doing portraits at a local coffee shop. First come, first serve. I spent for-freakin'-ever on Anna's hair. I spiral curled it. Used half a can of hairspray getting it set just right. Then we got in the car to make the 30 minute drive, which ended up being an hour drive because of traffic. When I pulled up to the coffee shop, this is what had happened to those gorgeous spiral curls. *sigh* Thank goodness for the extra bobby pins I had. All ended up working out.

Here are the Halloweenies right before they had their portraits done...

And here are the portraits. Aren't they gorgeous? I hope the photographer (Jennifer Mazy) doesn't mind, but I screen captured the images from the slideshow. She did a great job on their shots and on everyone else's (See the full album). And my two little ones don't even look like they fight 92.4% of the time. I look at these shots when I'm frustrated, and it prevents me from selling them on the black market. Oh, I kid. Maybe. Sorta.

Oh Ezra... *SIGH*

Ezra is a handful. A wonderful, gorgeous, loving little handful. But I hit the end of my rope Monday. I have a ton of stress right now from outside forces (mostly financial), and this was the icing on the cake.

I put a VeggieTales movie on, and went to the bathroom. Well, I left the peanut butter out. When I came out, there was peanut butter EVERYWHERE. All over him... All over both sofas... All over the rug, carpet and walls... I saw RED. I knew then that I couldn't touch him, and it was hard to even speak without yelling. I just looked at him and said, "You go sit in time out, NOW." It was then that I could see how people lose it and hit their kids (not simply spanking, but really hurting them). It's not an excuse, and it's never right, but I knew at that moment, if I touched him, I could hurt him. I sat at the computer (he was still in sight) and IM'ed with Hank... It was the only thing I could do. I would deal with the mess later. Hank told me to take pictures, and I was like "What?", but I did. And now I'm glad. It's funny now. And I'll keep it as proof of what a handful he was... LOL!

Here is the proof...