mini fall photos + mosquitoes

As you all know, I am the worst at lining up family pictures. We've done it once. Three years ago.

And here it is the middle of October and yet again, I didn't get around to or even think of scheduling family pictures. 

(Maybe every 4th year is the ticket?)

Recently I helped a friend take some impromptu newborn photos. She literally texted me one day and said, "You have an expensive camera, can you take some pictures?"  I said yes, and then quickly tried to learn all there was to learn about our camera in the course of two hours. 

Long story short, I took the photos, Jared did some hefty editing to make up for my lack of eye/knowledge-of-anything-camera-related and they turned out much better than I ever expected.

So I've been suggesting we take a few of our kids. And by "we" I mean Jared.

There was beautiful weather out one evening, so we fancied up the kids and took them to a local walk park with lots of trees and fields in the background.

They were pretty decent sports for about 30 seconds.

Because while we had accounted for the sunset and their clothes and all that, we didn't really think of bugs, specifically mosquitoes. And they were out in full force.

In almost every photo, one child or another is swatting one or scratching somewhere.  We were able to get one or two acceptable ones, but we will definitely need to retry another time.

And the biggest mistake on our part was that school photos were the next day. And the poor things already had bites on their cheeks and foreheads showing up that night. So I had the pleasure of shelling out an extra $6 a piece for "touch-ups" so their school pictures wouldn't showcase the massive welts on their faces.

Lesson learned.

Back To School {3 hours of Quiet!}

As of today, the girls have been back to school for a full week. Thankfully we have all slipped back into the familiar routines fairly quickly and painlessly. 

Bailey is now in 1st grade. She was the most excited and ready for school. And if her pose doesn't already spell it out, she had zero hesitation about jumping into a new school year.

Avery was okay with the idea, but not overly excited about it. 

{Hence that over-done forced smile.}

Avery has the same teacher that Bailey had last year, so Bailey had been giving her all kinds of "tips" about what to expect in kindergarten. 

Sometimes it really pays to have a big sister.

I tried to get Avery to contain her enthusiasm, but she just couldn't manage it...

*insert laughing with tears emoji here*

And man, I just can't believe it, but our BABY(!) started school this year too.

Graham already loves school, and proudly shows off his Paw Patrol bookbag to everyone he sees while walking through the halls.

Wasn't it just yesterday that we were taking this exact same photos on Bailey's first day of preschool?

That first morning, after preschool was over, I stood waiting for him in the school entryway at pick-up time, and he ran up to me for a big hug, telling me immediately, "I had the BEST day!"
Music to every parent's ears.

So with Graham off to school four mornings a week, I'm left with almost three hours of silence. And while I've actually only really had one morning so far, it was amazing. Just amazing.

My goal with my newly found "free time" is to accomplish things and get them out of the way so that I don't need to worry about doing them when I can be spending time with the kids or Jared. So like doing laundry without a kid helping me put in each and every single piece of clothing in separately (and slowly). Or scrubbing the floor and enjoying the two hours it stays clean. Ya know, truly exciting mom things like that. 

May photo randoms

Birthday Breakfast: Daddy's Famous Cinnamon Roll + 5 candles

Grandma Snuggles

Grandpa Wheelbarrow Rides

New in the Solko household
It's like that weird extra room was just waiting for this piano to show up and complete it.

Ladies' Tea at church

I thought digital cameras made it fool-proof and virtually impossible to cut off someone's head. 
Guess not. 
Boo.

Tiny bowls for tiny chefs

The hat and pink aviators. 
Be still my heart.

Planting with Daddy

A scolding from Daddy

 Back yard chillin' and cupcakes with Papa Alan

Always Fighting/Kicking/Pinching/Hitting/Arguing

"Push me, Papa!"

 Painting

Photography by Bailey

 Photography by Graham

Photography by Avery

Workshoppin'!

Avery's 5th Birthday Weekend

Avery is five years old.
That seems way too old and not quite old enough at the same time. This child has been acting five for at least two years.

It was a full weekend, let me tell ya. 
For the first time ever, we had every grandparent present at the same time for a birthday party. (With the exception of my grandpa Lyle who was at home being a sick party pooper.)

And since everyone was present and this might never happen again, I made everyone pose for a picture. Cathy and I planned the spot in advance, I put it on rapid-fire-self-timer mode, and even Tucker was nice enough to hop in and humor me. 

There wasn't really a theme. Since Avery loves anything art, we took all her drawings and paintings and threw them up on the wall. Add in balloons, and other randomness and there ya have it. She requested a strawberry cake and I made chocolate cupcakes for the chocolate addicts on the Ellis side, along with a big supper for everyone.

Happy 5th Birthday, Avery Josephine!

More weekend photos coming soon.

Mother's Day

I got some cute things for Mother's Day. 

Avery made me a heart necklace at school. The heart was a mold of her thumbprints. 
Really sweet. 
The not so great part, she decided it was for her to wear and lost it within an hour.

Bailey made like approximately 21 cards in the days leading up the Mother's Day. One of them featured a picture of her and her dad holding hands. 
Hmmm... okay...
She did make a very beautiful painting at school complete with a rainbow and a portrait of me. With a bright red face. (Apparently she was picturing post-workout Vanessa when she colored that one.)

Jared is a very thoughtful gift-giver and this year was no exception. Along with scoring a sweet clearance deal on a make-up bag I was wanting/needing, he also made me this sign with my favorite verse from Romans 12:12.

And it's so cute, why not make more for sale on Etsy too, right?!  :)

Since we had family here all weekend for Avery's birthday party, it was a full family Mother's Day. We went to church, ate lunch out, and spent the afternoon outside planting and enjoying the sun.

I love these little people who are all just as crazy as their father and me. (And aunts. And grandpa Jeff.) 

found on my phone

I don't take photos with my phone much. If it's handy, sure. But if the photo is even somewhat important, I try to get out the good camera. 
So that means that lots of the photos on my phone are slightly blurry or downloaded from a Snap I took and sent to family.

And what usually happens is that I forgot I ever took them, and I am surprised to randomly find them months later.

Like this one last month before Boo's first concert.

Easter morning, anxiously awaiting the egg hunting

Have I mentioned this guy is obsessed with stealing my coffee?
Some days I will take one or two drinks, leave to do something for a few minutes and come back to find the entire mug empty.
And then I find him, and he is smiling really, really big.

This lady taking a nap on me in the doctor's office (Hour #2).

It seems there are seasons in parenting: all-night feeding season, diapers, constant activities, the teen years... 

But is there supposed to be a UTI season?

We're still trying to get to the bottom of all the issues, and we're trying whatever we can think of.

Currently: chiropractic. 

Photography by Avery Jo.

She really captured his essence, don't you think?

spring cleaning

This is the post where I dump random pictures on you in an attempt to add to some content to this slightly neglected blog.
Listed in no particular order:


Graham's first farm sale.

Carhartt cuteness overload!

Graham has been potty-trained for about 3ish months now - shortly after he turned three. We bought him underwear last year, but he was never very reliable when it came to using the toilet. (Remember how he pooped on Batman?) 

So I didn't push it. 

But one day I did tell him that once he was out of diapers he could start going to sales with Papa. Papa doesn't change diapers. (Once while I went out for a morning of garage sales with my mom and Jared, my dad volunteered to watch the kids. It all went well except for the dirty washcloths in my bathroom sink. My dad panicked at the thought of a dirty diaper change and didn't think to use the wet wipes next to the stack of clean diapers in Graham's room. So instead Avery gave him about 4 washcloths from the linen closet to use. Please keep in mind that this man has four daughters... )

Anyway, long story long, Graham started actually giving a crap (pun intended) once future farm sales were on the line. He got to go with Papa Jeff to his first one this past month. And unfortunately for all involved, my dad still hasn't improved with the whole Graham going #2 situation, but that's a story for another day.

The Father Daughter Dance

The girls attended their first father daughter dance recently. My dad came along as as extra set of hands for Jared, although since the girls ended up only wanting to dance with their friends, neither man felt overly needed that night.

This candid photo

They're both making get-outta-here/geez-Mom/seriously?! faces to some comment. And it cracks me up that it was caught on camera.


Be still my heart.
I love these people so much. ♥

Jared is back to honey-doing lately. I've wanted a bench for a boring spot in our front landscape since we moved in (ie: 2012), so he built me this bad boy. He also built another planter bed for our backyard along with getting back into a busier Etsy schedule after two months off.

Bailey's first "informance"
(ie: an informal performance/concert)
Don't worry, I rolled my eyes just as hard as you probably just did.

She did a good job. It was slightly odd to us. The teacher sang more than the kids did. It was a lot of them going around in circles or jumping and random stuff like that. But Bailey seemed to be enjoying it, so that is what matters.
She did sing a little solo part, which was sweet to watch. 
And the two songs the kids did sing (really, they sang 2 songs in 35 minutes) were good. 


Do not kum in heer. X

Yeah, sta awt!

The kids (aka - Bailey wielding a dry erase marker) have been leaving us notes all around warning us to stay out of their areas, mainly their bedrooms or the toy room. They haven't tried to enforce their warnings so we haven't been annoyed by it yet. I still love finding little notes around the house with Bailey's writing. I particularly love the challenge of phonetically sounding out the messages and trying to figure it out. 
Kindergarten decoding 101.


The Grandpa Version of Dress-up

My dad is getting a lot of blog play here today, folks!
If you're going to just sit around at our house, there is a chance you could get decorated like a Christmas tree. Or look like the dress-up cart threw up on you.


And in case you're wondering,
we're still loving hats around here.