Stolen Stole

Well. It is cold outside and all.

Ummmm, not exactly. What we really have here is yet another addition to Wyatt's ever growing blanket collection. It's seriously getting out of control! There are a few simple rules we have learned to follow during the accumulation process. Here they are in no particular order...

1. If it's satin... it's Wyatt's
2. If it's soft... it's Wyatt's
3. If it's fuzzy... it's Wyatt's
4. If it belongs to you, but has any of the above three qualities... it's Wyatt's
5. No blanket is off limits & No pattern or color is too girly. If Wyatt likes it... it's Wyatt's
6. All laundry (clean or dirty) is subject to search. Should an item of interest be located therein...
you guessed it... it's Wyatt's

Pretty simple really.

Oh, and you want a actual count, you say?!?!? Here's a quick 'Blankie' roll call...

3 Small Army Green Camoflouge Blankets With Satin Trim
1 Small Blue Satin Blanket With Multi-Colored Satin 'Taggies'
1 Large Off White Blanket
1 Pair of Size 4t Satin Dora Pajama Pants
1 Pair of Size 4t Satin Pink Pajama Pants
1 Pair of Size 4t Satin Turquoise Pajama Shorts
1 Pair of Women's Satin Pajama Pants (Stolen from a bag of stuff I
was going to donate to Goodwill)
1 Cars Child-Sized Fleece Blanket
1 Pair of Men's Basketball Shorts
1 Light Blue Faux Mink Stole With Satin Lining (Ahhh!! A twofer! You can't beat that with a stick!)

Yes, that's 12.

You can only see 5 of the 12 in the pictures. The others are either in the crib or being are being washed. You know, before he notices they are missing or anything.

(oh, and if you look really hard in the first picture... you may catch a glimpse of my favorite pink bedroom slippers. Classy, I know. But yes... he LOVES them, too!)

Tomorrow, Tomorrow....

That seems to be the story of my life lately! October has been SOOOOO busy... I have not had a minute to myself in I can't tell you how long. I've been shoving things off on tomorrow's to do list for weeks, so naturally the current list is about a friggin' mile long now. It has been an awesome few months to be in the photography business though, and considering the current economic state... I can't complain a bit!! I have been taking so many sessions here lately and have even had two preschools thrown into the mix, adding an extra 130 or so kids on top of it all. Oh well...aside from the fact that my head has not hit the pillow before 3:00 a.m. in weeks I can't complain.

In my daily mad-rush to get everything done, naturally blogging has been on the back burner. (Back burner... like... one of those things you use for cooking, right? Well, that my be kinda a bad analogy for me... my burners are always open since most of you know how much I adore (gag) cooking! LOL!) Anyhoo... sorry about that, dear blogging buddies! I promise I am going to try to do a little catching up. It may take a day or two (or four), but I am going to try to visit everyone's blog and play some serious catch-up.

Until then I thought you may want to see some updated pictures of the kids, so I figured I would post a few to hold you over until I can get back into the swing of things.

And now I present to you the Halloween costume selections for 2008!








XOXO,

Annie and Daddy Warbucks

Blessed

Today has been a tough day to say the least. Michael's grandmother, Meme, passed away this morning after suffering through a series of illnesses which gradually weakened her over the past few months. Now I find myself trying to come up with words to describe what an amazing person she was. To simply say that she loved and cared for her family, or that she selflessly gave of herself to help others, or that she was patient and kind to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren cannot begin to describe her and what she meant to our family. In fact the only thing that's seems more difficult to me is putting into words how much she was loved. Or how much she will be missed.

I feel very blessed to have gotten the chance to know and love Meme over the past ten years. I used to kid with Michael and say the only reason I married him for his amazing family ;) If you have a minute tonight, please say a prayer for us all as we go through this difficult time.

Once Upon a Potty...

Today, while sifting through the abyss that is my hall closet, I came across Allie's old potty training seat. I didn't think much of it until I saw Wyatt's curiosity peak. Well, you better believe that I seized the heck outta' that lil' opportunity and promptly stripped Wyatt of his diaper and set the seat on the potty to show him what that gem was used for. I didn't think anything was actually going to happen... but I figured what the heck? Any chance for changing one less diaper was worth two minutes of my time. Well, to my surprise... he knew just what to do and within seconds he was down to business! I was shocked! The funniest part is each time he would go, I would cheer and clap for him... then he would stop and cheer and clap for himself... then quickly return to his 'game face' so he could try to go more. He finally spotted a magazine on the floor and pointed at it. I think the kid may be catching on. Not bad for 19 months!

Beacuse the cat never has her tongue...

Allie always knows just what to say... and just how to say it. (Be sure to watch the video all the way to the end...)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Well... does anyone have room in their home for a beautiful black kitten? It is a little stray that befriended me as I walked in the neighborhood tonight. It has the best disposition and LOVES kids. I would love to keep it... but Turner strongly opposes that notion. Way to share the love, T. So... any takers???

My Indian Outlaws...

Michael actually had the weekend off last week, which a weekend off in the middle of the summer in his line of work is almost unheard of... but seeing as how WE HAVE NO WATER IN OUR FRIGGIN' LAKE AND GAS IS $4.00 A FRIGGIN' GALLON SO NOBODY CAN FRIGGIN' AFFORD TO BOAT ANYWAY... (whew!!) he managed to swing it.

We wanted to do something different, so we decided to go to Cherokee for the day. Not to mention that there just happens to be one of our favorite BBQ restaurants on the way and we were totally craving it.

The trip was tons of fun! Here are a few pictures from our day...

We started out at all the little shops in town. We let the kids pick themselves out a souvenir. This was Wyatt's first choice but he ended up settling for a toy police car and a cowboy gun and holster. He was satisfied, but thought we were total cheapskates.

This souvenir was a big negatory on Wyatt's end... or should I say "yippie-ki-yo-NO-WAY!!!"

Here they are with Chief Mega-Rip-Off. This dude actually charged 'per camera click', so needless to say I took what I could get with ONE shot. Good way to make a buck (or five...) I guess. Allie is modeling her new headdress and princess necklace while Wyatt watches to make sure the Indian doesn't try anything traumatic... like trying to hold him! (yeah... that was a TOTAL no-go!)

Since it was hot as crap, we decided to take the kids to the river to run around for awhile. This was the hit of the day! They played in the river and had a blast throwing rocks and wading in the water.

If you have seen a picture of Al or read this blog lately... you had to know this pose was coming. I guess it's her signature pose.

Here Wyatt offers step-by-step instructions on the art of rock throwing.
1. Select a rock.
2. Here's and example...
3. Throw the rock.
(repeat as many times as desired)

One last one of Big Al. That's my girl!

Hope y'all have a great weekend! Oh, and Katie... if you are out there in blogger-land... I TOTALLY miss your blog!!! What's a sista' gotta do to get an invite?!? (and getting a sausage of my own is outta' the question!)

Thought some of you Mamas out there might be interested...

I came across a great deal on Stephen Joseph toddler backpacks on Ebay and wanted to let you all know about it in case you need one for your kiddo or as a gift. These are adorable and the lady who sells them will even personalize them for free with your child's name!! I've seen a friend of mines order and they are just precious. I ordered two today and can't wait to get them. Anyway, $21.90 will get you the backpack design of your choice (and there are lots to pick from), along with FREE embroidery and FREE shipping! I've seen them elsewhere and with shipping and monogramming the total comes to over $35.00!! Anyway, I wanted to pass it along...

While the Cats Away...

With Allie gone for the night at Camp Meeting, Wyatt seized the opportunity to explore the forbidden treasure chest that is 'sister's room!'


(Please note that the green motorcycle in the picture did eventually trump all. He really is all boy...no really...I swear!!!)

Don't Blink...

I was passing through the bonus room today heading towards my office to do some work when I saw something that stopped me in my tracks...
It's amazing what can change in the blink of an eye... and even more amazing perhaps is the way things seem to stay the same.
Man, how time does fly.

Been There. Done That.

Got the T-shirt!!Well, I did it! I ran my first Peachtree and it was AWESOME!! I have never seen so many runners in all of my life. If you have any interest in running (or walking for that matter) I definitely recommend trying it at least once. There is so much excitement in the air and there are so many people who show up just to cheer on the sidelines. I really wish I could have had my camera with me to take more pictures, but needless to say I wanted to carry as little as possible. There were tons of photographers there though and they will be posting their pictures on a website throughout the week, so hopefully I will have more to show as the week progresses. In the meantime, here are a few from the day...

Me, along with my brother Tim and my sister Pam in the hotel before the race...

Pam and her hubby, ChrisI decided to drop back so I could start with Tim's group so we could run together. Here we are moving ahead to the starting point. Woo Hoo!!
Mom and Dad kept the kiddos while I ran. They looked too cute and patriotic not to get a picture of... They even had their house dressed up for the fourth. This was them waving goodbye as we drove home last night.

Once we got home we met up with Michael and went to celebrate the fourth with some friends. Living as close to South Carolina as we do, fireworks are easy to come by, so it has become somewhat of a tradition to have a fireworks show each year. Truth be told, the men just like to light things on fire and so this presents the perfect opportunity. There are usually about 30 families contributing to the firework fund, so the result is usually pretty awesome.
Happy fourth, everyone!

Four Days and Counting...

Beach Bums

To quote a little Soul 2 Soul (ahhh yeaaa, baby!) it's 'back to life, back to reality' here at the Rich household. We're back from a week at the beach and missing every minute of it. Apparently I missed a lot. (You know who you are and I really, REALLY want a update and especially a picture... but I guess I'll be patient given the circumstances.) Anyway, we had a great week and tons of fun with our friends. All total, there were seventeen... yes that's s-e-v-e-n-t-e-e-n people that went with us and yes, we all stayed in one beach house. The kids had a blast and we were very fortunate that they all got along so well. Now, let's get to what everyone really wants in a blog entry... the pictures. Here are a few of my favorites...

Allie and Wyatt, taking it all in...

Allie LOVED the waves!

Allie & GeorgiaThe jellyfish were really bad one day. Here's one of the four we caught for the kids to look at...

The kids were bummed they couldn't swim much that day, but Wyatt had no problem finding other ways to occupy his time...Allie Loved putt-putt, which btw, I WON. It came down to the all the men and me in a very heated match. On the last hole I came on strong with a hole-in-one to tie the game with Michael. So... on to a tie-breaking hole we went... and guess what??? I got another hole-in-one to secure my victory. Oh, sweet, sweet victory!! (What?!? Me...competitive? Nahhh.)

Here's Allie... my little golfer-in-training.

Allie showing off the pose she now does in all of her pictures. The girls even got hair wraps. Allie learned to jump off the side of the pool! Next step... no life jacket!
I love this shot I got of the two of them!My little beach bum...

I also figured it was about time we had a family portrait taken since... well... we have NEVER taken one before. (Well, other than the d.i.y. one I took for the church directory, but that totally doesn't count. Plus, it was many pounds ago...LOL!) Since I'm usually the one taking the pictures, I never get to be in them myself. So we hired a photographer to come and take some family portraits of us on the beach.

Well, as a photographer you can probably guess I kinda had in mind what I wanted. After a long search, I found just what I was looking for at Beach Bum Photography. David and Jessica are a husband and wife photography team and they were awesome! They were both so sweet and wonderful to work with. Plus, they were totally affordable! Their session fee included a disk with all the images on it so I could crop, Photoshop, and print at my leisure. If you are ever in the Pensacola, Navarre, or Destin area, I TOTALLY recommend them! Here's a few shots from our session...
O.K., so that was more than a few pictures... but what did you expect? I was really happy to get so many shots. They shot hundreds of images... way too many to post so I had to narrow it down as much as possible. Seriously though... If you need some beach pictures and you're in their area you should totally give them a call. You won't find anyone sweeter!

Now, I'm off to comment on some blogs before I start loosing friends...