My Photography Tutorial

As a mother I try to capture my Little Lams on film (or digital photo card, I guess we should say) as often as possible. I want to capture these sweet moments when they are little so I can look back on them someday and remember how cute and tiny they were. When we had Katie, it was super easy and I got some great shots of her. Then Patrick came along and it was a little more challenging, but still we got a good one every now and then. But now...now that Baby Lam is here, trying to capture all three of them in a good photo is next to impossible. It's like a three ring circus--each Little Lam has his/her own ring and mommy is running around like a crazed monkey trying to take photo.

Here is what often happens when I'm trying to get a pic of the kids for Christmas cards, to send to grandma, for a daycare project...whatever the photo taking occasion is (perhaps to post on the Blog)...

As you know...I'm all about keepin' it real (so don't judge me as a mother because of the antics caught on camera). It goes a little something like this...

Sometimes to get this...

You gotta go through this...
When taking photos of children, expect a lot of this...
Or this...


Sometimes they hide just as you are getting ready to take the photo...so you gotta be QUICK!

(that's Patrick hiding under the pillows)

Prepare for a lot of "poses"...

(oh my!)

Sometimes you'll tick them off...

But Lawsy Mercy...I sure hope you never have something like this...

(Oh my goodness)

It's time to hire a professional!

It's a J-O-B

Sometimes I don't like my job. I only work part-time so I can stay at home with the Three Little Lams, so I really shouldn't complain. But there are days that I really just want to pull my hair out. But then I as I'm sit in my corner office with nice, natural light coming through the windows and think about what I do, I realize it's really not so bad. I mean, I actually enjoy what I do, I just have too much to do, so I get frustrated. And I love where I work and what our mission is. Where I work, what we do is not to make a profit (though it helps and makes my job less stressful), it is to continue the healing ministry of Jesus Christ and to service the sick, the powerless and poor. Which at the end of the day, isn't that a great reason to come to work?

So, I got to thinking about some jobs I would NOT want to have...

1. A garbage man--ick--I know what's in my trash can (loads and load of dirty diapers). I bet after a couple weeks on the job these guys have lost their sense of smell. At least I hope so.

2. A road construction worker in Oklahoma in late July--you know these guys/gals. The ones standing out in the blazing heat holding a sign that says "STOP" and then about every 10 minutes they turn it around and it says "SLOW". Wouldn't be so bad if it was 70 degrees out, but I can't imagine standing out there in 100+ temperatures. That would stink (literally--I bet those people stink). I also would not want to be this same person in, say, North Dakota in January (I don't like being cold--I'm running a space heater right now).

3. Mortuary people--just not sure I could deal with sad people all day. I'm a really compassionate person, but dealing with that day in and day out--I'd think that would take it's toll.

4. Road kill picker upper people--Again, the stink factor. And the gross factor. It's not just a dead animal, it's an animal that got creamed by a Mack truck going 65 m.p.h. Gad, that's gotta be gross.

(Apparently I have a thing about smells and things that stink).

Or how about this guy?
Nope, don't want that guy's job either.

He's the window washer at our building.



I'm not afraid of heights, but I can tell you this...I WOULD NOT want this job. Look at him. He's sitting on a little bitty board, not even holding onto anything. Sure, he's all strapped in and I'm sure he's completely safe, but really??? My office is on the 11th floor of a 14 story building and here's this guy just dangling outside my window. I was going to take his pic when he was eye level with me, but I thought that might freak him out and I didn't want to be the cause of him getting startled and flipping over upside down...causing his bucket of soapy water to go splashing down 11 stories...where it might accidently soak an 80-year-old woman going into the building...causing her to fall down and hit her head on the concrete...and...and...ALL BECAUSE OF ME and my camera.

It was also 101 degrees out when he was washing the windows. That would stink, too. As a matter of fact if you look at the photo closely, I think he was wiping sweat out of his eyes. Hope this guy gets paid a lot.

Bet he doesn't.

Bet he would if he wore a K-State hat!

Update on Sally: Spaz-dog has returned and eating her weight in food in the morning and evening. So I would say we are recovered and our days of chewing, crazy puppy are back!

Top 10 Songs That Get Stuck in Your Head

Every morning I wake up with some random song stuck in my head. Normally it's a children's song that I've heard over and over and over while driving in the car, but occasionally it'll be a TV show theme song or even a (GASP!) grown up song that you'd hear on a regular radio station or iPod. So, with that being said, here are the Top 10 Songs That Get Stuck in Your Head if you hear them. Now...a little disclaimer real quick...I agree that most any song can get stuck in your head, but these are the ones that if you hear them, they are guaranteed to be playing in your mind for a least a couple days.

10. Call Me--by Blondie. I don't know why, but Debbie Harry's voice is like a magnet to my mind. Once you hear this song you will be hearing "CALL ME, call me...call me, call me, call me anytime."

9. It's a Small World After All--I think it must be the catchy little tune or the visuals (if you've ever been to Disney) but this one will at least make you feel good about wanting to pull your hair out because you can't quit singing it.

8. Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis--Leona Lewis is the winner of XFactor (the British version of American Idol). If you've never heard this song get ready, it will leave a footprint on your brain...FOREVER! I was a cool song the first time I heard it, but because it's been going on and on and on in my brain I'm not so crazy about it.

7. That song that goes "Hey, hey, I wanna be a rock star" by ???--I don't know if it's the song that stuck in my head or if it's that it's on the radio EVERY SINGLE TIME I turn it on, but it just won't go away and the dude's voice is like fingernails on the chalkboard. Please--stop singing about it--you ARE a rock star!!!!!

6. Like a Prayer by Madonna--of all the Madonna songs I don't know why this one is the one covered in glue that get stuck in your head. Maybe it's the be-boppy little beat or that you can actually understand and know all the lyrics, but, darn it...it's stuck again!

5. The theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies--"Now listen to this story 'bout a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed..." Betcha it's stuck! (You know that you are singing it right now...)

4. That Mathis Brother's Furniture ad song--if you don't live in Tulsa/OKC you don't know what I'm talking about, but it's this really annoying song at the end of one of the local furniture store's TV commercials. Math-is Bro-thers Furn-i-chur. As a person in the advertising field I have to admit, even though it's a very annoying, brain sticking song--it's effective, if you hear the tune, you can immediately identify with the company.

3. Oh Canada--the Canadian national anthem. I don't know if that's even the official name of their national anthem, but besides people from Canada, does anyone in the world no any of the words to that besides "Oh Canada, da da da da da duh." I bet there's Canadians out there that don't even know all of it. But in the spirit of the upcoming Olympics, I thought this is one of the most mind numbing national anthems (even though we probably won't hear it much--Canada isn't much of a force to be recognized in the Summer Olympics).

2. We're Off to See the Wizard--it could be because the kids and I just watched The Wizard of Oz on Sunday night, but darn it if this isn't the song that I've woken up singing every morning. I grew up in Kansas, so I, of course, know every single word to it. But even if you're not from Kansas, this one is a keeper in your brain.

1. American Pie by Don McLean--"Bye Bye Miss American Pie..." No matter how many years pass between the times you hear this song, once you do you'll be singing, whistling, humming it for many, many months. Maybe it's the kitchy lyrics or the toe tapping beat or the great melody, I don't know, but this one will become a fossil mark on your mind and you will be singing it.

Which song are you singing right now? I know that after reading that you are humming one of them...

Yes, you are...

Which one?

Or tell me, what song is stuck in your mind right now?

Oh Sally

As everyone has read about, I'm sure. We have a new addition to our family. Miss Silly Sally our little black lab mix puppy. She's a real cutie, but she has scared us that she isn't well. If you don't like to hear puppy stories then this would probably your cue to that we are finished. Thank you and have a great day...check back tomorrow for a new, intriguing blog.

For the rest of you...thank you for hanging around and showing your concern. Here's what's going on. From the moment Weather Man (WM) brough Sally home, I always thought that she looked a little skinny, but I just told myself that she came from a place where the people didn't really care about her health and that we would feed her some delicious, fattening puppy food and we'd be good to go. That's kind of how it went the first day or two, but then on Thursday she was just picking at her food and not eating much. So I called and made her an appointment with the vet on Friday. We needed to take her in for her routine puppy shots and check up and we would just mention that she's not eating well, too.

Friday she ate a tiny bit in the morning and was starting to becoming somewhat lethargic...good thing we had an appointment.

Enter Uncle David! Uncle David is my brother-in-law and awesome vet!! He did some tests and gave her some shots and said Sally generally looked good but was a little thin. Oh--and she had worms--YUCK--SUPER YUCK--ICK. The thought just kind of gives me the heebie jeebies. Blah--just typing the words creeps me out. But Uncle David gave her a de-wormer and gave us a heartworm pill to give her and we were on our way.

But Sally didn't eat Friday night...

Or Saturday morning...

Or Saturday night...

Or Sunday morning...

Or Sunday night...

We were starting to get really worried and she was getting skinny, skinny, skinny. We had tried everything! She was drinking water but was still pretty lethargic. She would have brief moments of puppy spazziness. Mostly she slept. We told ourselves it was the heat...the de-wormer...the food...the heart worm pill...but no matter what we told ourselves, she wasn't eating and it wasn't looking good.

Enter Uncle David, again! Now, the glorious thing about having your brother-in-law as your vet is that you get to call him whenever, even if it's on a Sunday afternoon. But it's probably a good idea to chat with your sister first so she doesn't feel like you don't care about her and what she's been upto and that you just want to talk to her husband about your non-eating puppy. Uncle David gave us some tips and some crazy food mixtures to try, but told us that she should be eating and to call him back and let him know how it's going.

Still, nothing worked. We went to bed with heavy hearts not knowing what the morning would bring and that we'd most likely be back at Uncle David's office.

Monday (today) morning arrives. WM is taking today off but he rose early...as he always does (how does a non-morning person like me end up with an early rising husband)? I still love him! :) I could hear him getting Sally out of her crate and going outside and coming in...and going out...and coming in...and going out. When I finally got up he said Sally had eaten 5 pieces of lunchmeat. YAY!!!! And this morning there was definitely a noticeable change in her spunkiness.

So we're hoping we're over the hump and can get her eating again. We're hoping her tummy was just not feeling good because of all of her shots and the (YUCK) worms. We'll see...she's a little cutie and we've all really started to fall in love with the little brown eyed girl. Even Baby Lam loves her!

I'll keep you updated...

Check out the bling on that collar--what a Diva! Ha (as you may recall...Katie picked the collar).

If you want the name/number of a good vet--I've got one!!!! Let me know and I'll get you his info.

Backyard Casualities

I feel like a new mother with a newborn baby. Oh yeah--I still kind of am a new mom. If you have a baby under the age of 1, I still consider you a new mom. But this new addition to our family makes me feel like I'm in those first few weeks of new-mommyhood.

Sally is coming along. She only woke up once in the night last night and cried for a little bit. Weather Man got up and hushed her and all was quiet again at our house. But that was not the case earlier in the day. On the day that Weather Man brought Sally home to us, after the shock wore off, I started really watching this little dog and trying to decipher what her personality/behavior was going to be like. And I was impressed. She was super calm, took nice long naps, no biting, jumping or chewing. I thought, "maybe I can handle this." I actually thought "maybe she isn't well, puppies aren't this calm--especially lab puppies." Yesterday Sally's puppiness definitely came out. She was running around like a spaz, chasing poor Lucy and nipping at her heals, and chewing on whatever she could get in her mouth.

Here are just a few of Sally's casualities...

Katie's princess bouncy ball (we had some tears over "Sally popped my princess ball!").

The yardstick (which I'm not sure why it was in the backyard).

The badminton thingy (what's it called? A shuttlecock? I call it a birdie.)

Barbie needed a visit from Dr. Ken to fix her nearly amputated hand. (more tears from Katie).

Weather Man's golf club cleaning scrubber (one must ALWAYS have clean golf clubs!)

Poor Mulan barbie...she didn't have a chance (again...tears; and again, mommy said "you need to pick up your toys so Sally won't get them." Ah hmm--Weather Man, that goes for you, too!)

Have you noticed how all our Barbies are naked? What's up with that? Katie probably has 20+ Barbies (I'm not kidding) and 99% of the time all of them are naked. I don't know...???

So anyway...Sally has begun the destruction of our backyard. Good thing she's cute!

I promise I won't blog on Sally tomorrow.

Maybe.

Ok, I won't.

Unless you want me to.

I promise.

(I promise I haven't decided yet).

A Blissful, Perfect Day...um....

Have you ever had one of those days where you actually stop in your tracks and think "hey, we're having a great day!" As in...no one has peed/pooped their pants...no one has talked back like a teenager to her mother (even though she's 5)...no one has pulled all the folded laundry out of the dresser...no has yelled "mommy, Patrick/Katie just hit/kicked/bit/took my..." We had one of those days yesterday! It was GLORIOUS! Sunday was a very trying day at our house thanks to the sassy mouth of one beforementioned 5-year-old. But yesterday we went to the library...everyone behaved beautifully; we went to Sonic...everyone told me what they wanted with their nice voices; then, the miracle of ALL miracles happened...we were almost all down for a nap...

When this showed up...

Now, let's talk about this and how my blissful day came to a screeching hault!

At 1:45 p.m. Weather Man calls:

Weather Man: "Are you taking the kids to do anything this afternoon?"

Me: "No, Katie is watching a movie quietly and I've almost got the other two asleep, why?"

Weather Man: "You said you were going to take them to the library today."

Me: "We already did that, I think we'll just hang out at home this afternoon since it's so hot out and the pool is closed today."

Weather Man: "Okay, well, I'll see you later."

Me: "Ok, love you"

Weather Man: "Love you, too. Bye"

Me: "Bye"

About 15 minutes later, Weather Man shows up with a little black lab puppy in his arms. Our house quickly went from quiet and peaceful to screamin', jumpin', tail waggin', tummy scratchin' mayhem! Weather Man knew not to tell me he was bringing it home because I would've said 'no'! And he knew that if he just showed up with it that the kids would fall in love with it and I would look like the ultra "Mean Mom" if I sent it away. And he also knew that I'm a total softy and sucker for baby animals and that if he got it into our house that even I would have a hard time turning her away.

And just as I knew would happen, Katie and Patrick instantly fell in love with her. Within 5 minutes Katie had named her Sally and Patrick couldn't stop jumping up and down with joy. Baby Lam wasn't so thrilled about this new addition, I think for a couple reasons...1). Baby Lam knows her place in the family as the Baby Princess and wants to keep her royal position (yes, my sweet girl, a dog will never punt you from your position as my Baby), 2). Sally is about the same size as Baby Lam, therefore, their first encounter was eye-to-eye, 3). Baby Lam was about 3 seconds from napville, in that blissful state that you hit just before drift off to sleep. Anyway, Baby Lam wasn't too thrilled with Sally.

But she's here to stay, and I guess I'm okay with it. Katie picked her out a pink collar that has sparkles on it. It's more of a poodle-ish type collar, not really something you'd picture on a black lab. But according to Katie, "she loves it because she loves sparkly things."

Katie found Sally's 'sweet spot' right away and got her leg goin'.

So bear with me...I'm sure there will be quite a bit of blogging on our new family member. Sorry if you're not a dog lover.

Laundry, Laundry, Laundry

As a mom to three small children it seems my life revolves around laundry. I love it when I talk to my friends and we're just chit chatting away about what we've been doing and they tell me that they "did the laundry." I always want to ask if they got it all done, as in, every article of clothing in their home is clean. I've come to terms with the fact that that will NEVER happen at our house; my laundry will never be complete. For several reasons:

1. My 5-year-old wears a minimum of 3 outfits a day, usually more...2. My 3-year-old is potty training...3. My 11-month-old has reflux, which involves numerous bibs and changing clothes at least once a day.

So anyway, Friday was laundry doing day at our house. I was minding my business folding clothes while the Three Little Lams were busy coloring, painting, listening to classical music and playing with age appropriate developmental toys.

Ok, I'm all about keepin' it real on this blog, the Three Little Lams were actually watching Noggin.

So anyway, I had two loads of laundry folded when I decided to take a 2 minute break and run to the bathroom. I swear, it was 2 minutes--maybe even quicker than that. And here's what I returned to when I came out.

Baby Lam with her brother's underwear on her head...

Patrick with Katie's shirt on and her panties on his head.

And Katie with Baby Lam's pants on her head and wearing one of her little shirts.

I don't know how she even got it on...it's a size 12-18 month.

(insert a loooooooong sigh here) So, instead of getting mad...what would be the point...I just took pics of them and then RE-folded the laundry.

Then I took all three of them to Target...

Clarification...

Weather Man says I need to clarify something about the blog below. The photo of Patrick wearing gloves with his underwear on was taken at the pediatrician's office. NOT the dentist's office. We do not take our kids to a weirdo dentist that requires children to remove their clothes. Patrick, Katie and everyone else at the dentist was fully clothed.

Sorry for any confusion! :)

"Calling Dr. Lam...Dr. Lam?"

Last week Patrick had his 3-year-old well child check up--which he passed with flying colors. But one thing we learned about our laid back little dude is that he has this thing for exam gloves. Normally I would've just thought he was interested in them because he needed something to entertain himself with while waiting for the doctor. But Tuesday when we went for his dentist appointment, the first thing he did when he got up in the exam chair was ask the hygenist "can I have some of those gloves?" So maybe he has as future in the healthcare industry.

"Nurse, could you please help me with my gloves?"

"Are you ready for your exam now?"

Well, maybe he doesn't have a future in healthcare. I think he needs to work on getting dressed. I'm not sure how well his patients would like them examening them with nothing but his Diego briefs on. Of course, maybe they'd like it. Might make them feel more relaxed--shoot, they don't have any clothes on, why should the doc? Oooooo....and if Patrick did end up as a doc he'd be one of those "Hot Docs" like on Grey's Anatomy, that all the girls swoon over--because he's so darn cute!

Or maybe not, maybe he'll just be a construction worker...

Also, I've decided to end my blogs (most of the time) with a quote of the day. Could be a quote from one of my kiddos (as in today's case) or a co-worker, or just something I overheard. But all day long I hear the funniest sayings, so I thought I'd share--and provide any background on the quote when needed for clarity.

Quote of the Day:

"Patrick, try chocolate milk, it's really good, it's not poop."

(like I would give my kids poop to drink...honestly, Katie, where do you come up with this stuff)?

What I Hate

You know what I hate...well, I hate the word "hate", it's a mean word and we're all about nice words at our house. But this is what I hate.

Random Stranger: "I hate you because you're skinny."
Me: "Thanks"

Ok, let's get the disclaimer out of the way first. I am NOT skinny. I am the master of illusion and concealing things. Honestly people, how can I be skinny? I've had 3 children in the last 5 years. I may be on the tall/narrow side, but skinny, I am not. If you've been blessed to see me at the pool this summer I think you will confirm that. That is, of course, if you could see past the glaring brightness of my stark white legs (dang, they're sexy--that's a joke).

Anyway...back to this hate business. Why do people say this stuff...

"I hate you because...(fill in the blank with something that would normally be perceived as a compliment such as 'you have great hair' or 'you look fabulous')."

Do people really hate other people they don't know just because they look cute, have great hair, etc.? Ok, secretly they might, but do they have to say it outloud? Seems a little rude to me. We're working on manners at our house these days, so maybe this one just struck me the wrong way and has kind of been bugging me all day. It just seems a little rude.

Is it just me?



Oh, here's Tulsa last night as the sun was setting (the view from my office window). I just think it's kind of pretty.

Birthday Week

Whew--we made it through another 'birthday week' at our house! If you didn't notice from the blogs below Katie and Patrick's birthdays are 5 days apart. Which means endless cake, mounds of wrapping paper, deflated balloons and other various birthday items scattered about the house. When Patrick was born I was so glad that he wasn't born on Katie's birthday--he needed his own day! But now after 3 years of dueling birthdays I'm thinking it may have been easier if they were born on the same day...at least I could've gotten it all done with one big bang on one big day. Not drag it out for a week. But, as tired as I am of coming home to a completely messy house, I really do kind of like birthday week. I love the excitement in their little faces and the sheer joy they get out of blowing out birthday candles.

So tonight when I fall into my chair with my plate of leftover cake after inconspicuously popping droopy balloons and throwing away boxes that their new toys came in, I'll remember how much I'll miss all this birthday fun for the next year. Oh yeah--not really, in one month Baby Lam will have her first b-day and all the balloons, cake, wrapping paper, empty toy boxes will reappear!


But let's not think about that yet...let me enjoy my cake!

Birthday #1

(don't you love Baby Lam's little foot in the background of this pic? I don't know, for some reason it just kind of cracks me up).

Birthday #2 (five days later)

Happy Birthday to My Big Girl!

Here's my birthday girl!

Today is Katie's 5th birthday. It's hard to believe, seems like she should be the baby. She's done a lot in the last 5 years...been born, been a baby, was super cute, got tubes in her ears, crawled, walked, talked, etc., etc. She got a little brother, then she got a little sister, remained super cute. I love each of my children equally and the same, but there's something about your first child and the day they were born, the day you were launched into parenthood, and how life has never been the same. I can't remember what my life was like before July 13, 2003. What did I do with my time? I don't remember, and quite honestly, it wasn't as important as what I'm doing with my time now.

But today is about my princess Katie. We played it low this year...no big "friend" party or anything. We just stayed home and let her call the shots. She even picked out what we had for every meal--she wanted fried chicken and green beans for dinner. Ha! If you've never met Katie you're in for a treat when you do. She is the girliest girl you'll ever meet. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES princesses and truly thinks that when she grows up that she will be a princess. She twirls and swirls and dances her days away and usually has a song that she's singing going along with it. She will only wear skirts or dresses--I only bought her 2 pairs of shorts this summer. She's delightful, bright, unique, beautiful...the list goes on and on!

I love her so much--Happy Birthday to my Big Girl!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Here she is on her new bike--princess of course.(notice she's wearing one of two pairs of shorts she has, because I wouldn't let her ride her bike with a dress on. Also, I didn't allow her to ride barefoot either, I took the pic after we came home from our bike ride).

Book Review, Yuck

I normally don't like doing book reviews, so it won't be too often that I do a true "book review." But do you see that book over there to the right? The one called "The Falls" by Joyce Carol Oats? Well, yuck...it was awful. Reading it was treading through mud. It was nearly 500 pages and the ENTIRE time I kept thinking "where is this going? Surely it's going to pick up and get better." But it never did. I'm a little surprised it wasn't an Oprah Book Club pick. It has everything that an Oprah book has...dysfunctional family, murder, death, a story line that is really in no way believable (in other words as you're reading it you're saying "yeah, right, like that much bad stuff would really happen to one person/family"). I didn't like any of the characters and mostly I just wanted to take them all by the shoulder and shake the marbles out of them and say "QUIT WHINING, GROW UP AND BE A HUMAN!"

So, my advice, don't waste your time. If you have and you liked it, I'm sorry...different strokes for different folks. Hopefully the next book I read will be better.

'Til tomorrow!
A.

Our Trip to Kansas

We had a great trip to Kansas last weekend! The car ride was fairly uneventful--they behaved and didn't scream and yell at each other. Yes, they started asking if we were in Kansas yet when we were only on the road for 30 minutes. But that's to be expected. Katie even got to pee in the grass on the side of the road. She now thinks that's the only way to potty when traveling. What a country girl. :)

We had fun shooting off fireworks with Uncle Michael and Papa Ron and our cousins. Katie was the only girl...well, Baby Lam, but she wasn't actively participating in the fireworks. When we went downtown to see the "big" fireworks, this is how it played out...

Katie: In the backseat of the car with me with her hands over her ears, crying "is that the last one, can we go back to grandma's now?" I can totally sympathize with her. As a child (and still now to some degree) I hated fireworks. So I was certainly not pressuring her to look at them or enjoy them. I just patiently sat there with her, helping her get through the ordeal.

Patrick: In the front seat with daddy saying "oh wow...cool." He was enjoying the fireworks but didn't want to get out of the car.

Josie: Papa was holding her outside of the car and she was bouncing in his arms and clapping and giggling at each giant explosion. I'm a little concerned about that...Josie is a little firecracker!

Look at Katie's face...she is NOT at all thrilled about doing fireworks (in her jammies). She held on to that sparkler for about 2.3 seconds.

We had a great time running through the smoke of the Smoke Bombs (the only firework that Katie had any interest in).

Now, I'm not sure what the deal here is, but see how all the boys are naked? What is it with boys and their desire to whip off their clothes at any given moment? Notice that my girl is fully clothed. That's right, Katie, you be a lady and keep your clothes on. Leave that crazy stuff to those neanderthal boys! (Those cave-boys are Patrick and my two nephews).

Speaking of being a lady...here's Katie modeling mommy's prom dress. Lawsy, mercy...help us!

Earlier in the day we went fishing...

Check out the size of the fish he caught...it's HUGE (but Patrick was super excited!)

But not nearly as excited as Weather Man was about the big catch...

Oh, my...I'm married to that maniac!

Katie and Weather Man mowed the yard...

And they all had a great time running through the sprinkler....

We had such a good time in Kansas, but the sun was setting and the cows were lowing, so it was time to go in and go to bed. We still had two more days of fun left to have.

I'll leave you with this peaceful scene to drift off to sleep by...ahhh, a Kansas summer sunset.

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Boy

Happy Birthday to my Patrick!

Today he turns 3! That's unbelievable to me, it really seems like he was just born. If I had one wish today I would wish for time to slow down. It's taking away my little ones and making them grow up. I will always remember July 8, 2005. The first time I ever laid eyes on my baby boy. It was love at first sight. He was a little tanker...9 lbs. 13 oz. The newborn nurses teased me that the OU football recruiters had already visited the nursery checking out their newest scout. He was my calm little guy, rarely cried, loved to be held and snuggled. We immediately had that special mother/son bond. And now that Baby Lam has arrived he and I have that unspoken familiarity of being a middle child.

I love my little 3-year-old! He's my little prince!

Here he is as a baby (about 2 months).

My baby Prince!

He decided to start growing up...

And soon turned 1.

A lot of mowing has been done...

And a little snoozing, too...

Next thing I knew, he turned 2.
He's acted silly...

Gotten mad...

He's let daddy take the clippers to him...

He's made best friends...

But mostly, he's been loved by his daddy...

And his mommy...

(he looks real happy, doesn't he? Maybe it's because of the horrendous hair-do his mom is stylin')

Happy Birthday, Sweet Patrick, we love you so much!!!