The Perfect Weekend

On the radio the other day they were discussing the movie "Ground Hog's Day".  They posed the question, "if you could live one day of your life over and over, which day would you choose?"  You couldn't choose the day your children were born or the day you got married.  I had a hard time coming up with a day that I wanted to live over and over.  What does your perfect day look like?  Well guess what?  Now I can answer that question.  I would want to live this weekend (especially Friday into Saturday) over and over and over again!

A Little Background:  Do you remember the HUGE Blizzard of 2003?  We started a tradition that year.  My dad was working out in California and we didn't want my mom to be stuck at home by herself during a blizzard.  Also, Julie and I were both pregnant and thought it would be best if we were all together.  So in March of 2003, the Luebckes and Lords all headed over to the Coombs' Party Palace for the duration of the blizzard.  It was AWESOME.  We got over three feet of snow over a several day period and we had fun playing games, watching movies and shoveling (done by the boys of course, the girls played the pregnancy card!).  Ever since then, when the forecasters predict a big snow, we pack up and head over to the Coombs house.  Of course now there are 5 more kids than in March of 2003!

So what did we do on Friday morning as soon as we heard school was canceled?  Yep....packed our bags and headed to Nana's house.  The kids were so excited to play with their cousins and have a sleepover.  It is so fun to create these memories with our kids!  I am so thankful that my family lives so close.

What did my prefect day look like?  We started the day by hanging out and chatting.  The kids played some wii and did some electrical experiment with Bapa.  Chris had to work, but the rest of the adults played The Settlers of Catan (Cities and Knights version-which took about 2 hours).....and guess who won (yep me.  I am EXTREMELY competitive so this again adds to the perfection of the day).  Then we all headed to the hot tub, complete with dares to go and run around in the snow.  We had an amazing dinner together and then settled in to watch a movie.  The kids played in the basement so we were actually able to watch an entire grown-up movie (I wanted to type adult movie, but didn't want you to get the wrong impression).  I can't tell you the last time the 6 of us watched a movie together that had more than a G rating.  We watched Red (PG-13).  It is a really funny movie.  I just love Bruce Willis.  The night ended with a stroke of genius on my part.  We introduced the kids to the game of Sardines.  We turned off all of the lights and I headed out to hide.  The other family members paired up (so none of the kids got scared) and tried to find me.  Once they found me (hiding in the secret room behind the TV), they got to hide with me.  It was so fun being all squished together trying not to giggle until the last pair found us.  We repeated this several times until it was bedtime.  The kids had a blast, but I think the adults had even more fun.  I am sure that this will be a new Blizzard Tradition. 

The next morning, Chris and I headed out for a morning run.  We never get to run together and it was so nice to be able to spend time together in the beautiful, quiet, snowy morning.  Definitely a highlight.  After the run, Chris headed out to Best Buy with Dad to pick out a new TV for the kitchen for the SuperBowl and Nana and I took the kids sledding.  The sun came out and it was a blast.  Then we came back to the house for another quick hot tub.

Alas, it was time to head home.  But the fun didn't end.  We relaxed (after shoveling our driveway) and then I got to go out with the "Corner Girls".  We had a blast having dinner out together and chatting about motherhood and life.  It was a great time! 



What a great weekend and it wasn't even Sunday yet!  Sunday consisted of church, more sledding and a Super Bowl party at......you guessed it, the Party Palace.  All in all, an amazing weekend of fun and family.  Here are some pictures of our weekend.

Experimenting with Bapa

"The Office"

Catan Anyone?  Watch out, Lisa is competitive!

Bare Feet?  On the way to the hot tub!

Too bad they aren't having any fun!

When you need refreshment, you need refreshment.

Wearing cousin Noah's, hat

Dan drew the short straw of climbing on the roof and clearing off the Dish

Awww..a nice picture with Nana

Hey Nana, what are you doing with your right hand?

Oh, that's what you were doing!

NANA!

Check out the Gnome hat!

Look how high that snow bank is!

Sledding buddies

Sledding buddies

I have heard of heads in the sand, but heads in the snow?

I had to get out from behind the camera for a second

It was REALLY hard to get back up again!

Measuring the snow for a school assignment.  13.5 inches at 5 pm on Friday.  By Saturday Morning it was up to 17.5 and it had already melted a bit.

Tanner's eyes are almost always covered by the hat.  How does he see anything?

Oh, the chunky

Makai catching some serious air!

Walking home from the sledding hill

JJ didn't really want to go down, but laughed all the way down (until he got a face full of snow at the bottom)

So he got carried back up like this while crying.

Getting a football hug from Uncle Dan.

  I hope all of you had a GREAT weekend too!

Happy Half Birthday!

I wanted to do something special today.  Makai's birthday is on July 31st.  Because his birthday is in the summer, he never gets to bring treats to school.  Couple this with the fact that he is allergic to eggs also means that when other people have birthday treats, he usually doesn't get to partake.  I feel bad for him.  So today I thought I would surprise him with something special!

So last night I baked up some chocolate chip muffins (his favorite) which happen to be egg free and dairy free (for poor little Jameson).  I contacted his teacher and let her know my idea.  She thought it would be fun if I brought it in at the beginning of the day and then the kids could have them for snack time.  I wanted it to be a surprise, so I dropped the kids off as usual and then drove around and parked the car and took them in.

Boy was he surprised.  He didn't really know what to do with himself.  It was as if two strange worlds were colliding and he didn't know how to react.  He just sort of sat there.  I said "It is your half birthday so I brought you some treats!"  His reply.  "Oh".  Not much excitement.  Oh well.  I am sure he was excited on the inside right?   I hope it will be one of those memories that he holds dear and knows that his mom loves him and wanted to do something special for him.  We all need memories like that.  I used to love when my mom would do something special for me.  I remember her making my favorite foods when I was having a rough day.  There is nothing like the taste of homemade mashed potatoes and gravy to make you feel better (or even mashed potatoes from KFC).  Thanks mom for the special little things that you did that added up to making me feel special (and for the countless times you had to eat mashed potatoes and stove top stuffing and chocolate cake, however I don't think that one was as much of a sacrifice).  I hope I am carrying on that tradition.

So Makai, Happy Half Birthday.  I love you!

Did I mention that I added chocolate frosting to the muffin?

In case you are wondering how to make these most excellent muffins, here is the recipe.  I used to use the box kind, but with all of our allergies I had to find a recipe that everyone in our family could eat.  Here is what I came up with.  I combined a few recipes and tweaked them.  They are SO good.  You would never be able to tell that these are dairy free and egg free.  Makai even said that all of his friends LOVED them and wondered how I kept the chocolate chips so big inside.  I guess he thought it was pretty cool after all.  He told me that the kids said I should bring them again sometime.  Perhaps for his 3/4 birthday?  Ah, no.  You really should try these.  They don't take that much more time than the boxed kind and they are WAY better!  I dare you!  Try them and let me know what you think.

Lisa Lord's Special Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins
1 1/4 cup oats
1 1/4 cup milk (I use rice milk)
1 egg ( I use one individual applesauce cup)
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I use Giradelli's semi-sweet because they don't have milk in them)
1 1/4 cup flour
4 tsp. baking powder (yes you read that correctly.  It seems like a lot, but it works)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine oats and milk and let stand while you get the other ingredients together and put muffin papers in the pan.  Stir the egg (or applesauce), oil, brown sugar and chocolate chips into the milk mixture.  Combine the dry ingredients and add to mixture  (or if you are lazy like me, just dump everything in together and stir).  Put into muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (or until brown on top and cooked through).


Enjoy!

Hope you like this Lord family staple!

Ava Grace- Sneak Peek

One of my favorite parts of my job is seeing people in their natural environment.  Kids are more comfortable in their own space, which usually makes for more natural looking pictures.  Not only that, but the pictures are guaranteed to match your house (because they are done IN your house).

It was so fun to go over to Erica and James' house and take some pictures of their girls.  Ava just turned one and she is a keeper!  I have watched her on a few occasions which made her even more comfortable with me.  Her eyes just sparkle!

Erica and James, I think you better start getting ready for the onslaught of boys knocking down your door!  Good luck.

The Fish Family Sneak Peak

I have known the Fishes for a long time.  They are a great family.  We are kind of related.  Jane's brother is married to my sister.....so that makes us sisters once removed, right?  Jane is a lovely person.  She helped guide me in my first year of college when I was away from home and needed to hang out with some amazing Christian young women.  I really appreciated that.  Jason is just a good ol' boy.  He has that southern charm that brings a smile to your face!  His mama taught him well and it was a pleasure to have her along for the pictures!  I had the pleasure of meeting the Fishes today to take some family pictures.  IT. WAS. COLD.  They were such troopers and other than it being cold, it was PERFECT conditions to take pictures.  It was a coats on, coats off, go inside the building to get the feeling back in your fingers kind of day.  But it was also one of my favorite shoots thus far.  We got some great shots!  Here is a little sneak preview of some of the magic that happened today.

One down, two to go.  Stay tuned for more sneak peeks!

One Year Olds- Cute but busy!

i.am.tired.  It feels like it has been a long day, and it is only 7:40.  Perhaps it is because I started my day early and took care of 5 kids today.  I watched a friend's sweet little girls today.  It was fun, but crazy!  I spent the day as a taxi and following around the one year old to make sure she didn't get into any trouble.  My house isn't exactly baby proof anymore.

Realization #1- I am glad that I don't have a one year old right now.  My baby is now 3 1/2 and at such a fun stage (most of the time, not counting the 30 minute crying spell tonight because he didn't want to eat his dinner.  Wish I could say that was an isolated incident, but he does that about 75% of the time at dinner.  Ready for that stage to be OVER!).

Realization #2 it is really hard to get anything done whilst taking care of 5 kids, however I did manage to make a blanket, finish a purse and do 3 loads of laundry.  Why can't I be that productive on normal days?
   

Just for nostalgia sake, here is a picture of my baby when he was one.  Really cute right?

Realization #3- I have some news to share.  Are you ready?  I just gave birth.....to a new website!  LiLo is on the web.  Come on over to www.photolilo.com and check it out.  I still have a few things to tweak (the font is really hard to read, sorry) but I really love the way it turned out.

Realization #4- I should be putting my kids to bed right now.  I better get going! 

The End of an Era

It has been brought to my attention that I have not yet blogged in 2012.  Oops!  Things have been a little crazy around the Lord household.

The last few weeks have been the ending of an era in our house.  For the last 8 1/2 years we have had a baby sleeping in the nursery at our house.  It has been repainted twice for 2 of the 3 kids (sorry middle child, you never get anything new).  The first nursery started with Buzz Lightyear blue on the bottom and then a cream color on the top with a chair rail seperating them.  Chris was going to draw a mural bears doing different things throughout the room.  Best intentions, but terrible follow through.  The bears were never drawn.

When it came time for #3, I was ready for a change.  I was tired of looking at a boring two toned room.  So, I re-did the room.  *Disclaimer- Chris Lord does not paint or participate in room overhauls.  HE HATES TO PAINT.  Lucky for him, I don't mind it (even if I was pregnant both times I painted the room).    So Jameson got a freshly redecorated room (thanks to his mom and brothers).

Look how little they are!

It was a periwinkle blue and green color.  One of the walls was striped with 12 inch stripes of blue and green.  I know I have a picture of the finished room somewhere, but I think it is on another computer (sorry), but here is quilt that came with the bedding set that JJ used and a picture of his name banner (see the striped wall behind).

But the time is done for having a baby in that room (yahoo!).  It is the end of an era.  There is a small (teeny, tiny) part of me that is sad that there will be no more Lord babies, but I am mostly excited about this new chapter in our lives.  NO MORE POTTY TRAINING......EVER!!!!  Can you tell I am pretty excited about that part.  I will miss the sweet middle of the night cuddles and having a baby told hold, but guess what?  I am a newborn photographer!  Therefore, I get my baby fix through the babies I get to photograph.  Sweet deal, hu?   Makai has been asking for his own room for awhile and we decided it would be a fun Christmas gift.  So this is what Makai opened on Christmas morning.  He had to assemble it in the right order to find out what his gift was.  Being a huge Lego lover, he had no trouble putting it together.

He was pretty excited!  The rest of the morning, he opened gifts that would go in his in Lego room.  Mimi got him a new mattress (she thought it was a lame gift, but Makai said it was his favorite gift- other than his room).  He also loved his new clock (thanks Fillharts!), radio (thanks Nana) and stuffed animal.

So, a few days after Christmas we headed out to find some things to redecorate the room and we went to the only place that would have everything we needed.....IKEA!  We had a great time getting mini rugs (oops forgot to take a picture), light fixtures, cork board and a shelf to make into a desk.  Then we headed to Walmart, JoAnn Fabrics and Home Depot to get paint, sheets, bed skirt, curtains (black sheets made into curtains), and fabric for a new bed spread.  Now do you understand why I haven't been blogging.  I have been shopping, sewing, painting, sewing, painting, reorganizing, and so forth.  This was a huge undertaking!  Now I am done (mostly)!  I still need to make tie backs for the curtains, glue lego duplos to the dresser for handles and finish a little paint touch up on the chalkboard paint border.  Not much right?  Here is the finished product.

Sorry, hard to get a good pic with the window light (South wall)

East wall

West wall

The best part about this room....the light!  Have I mentioned that I love IKEA?  They have this really cool light that has plastic around it so that you can fill it up with whatever you want.  So we filled it with, you guessed it, LEGOS!  I have to give a big shout out to my dad who came over and spent the day rewiring this room.  In our high quality house (did you catch the sarcasm), there are no in room light fixtures.  They just wire one of the outlets to the switch so that you have to plug something into the wall in order to have a light in the room.  Luckily, the attic access is in this room so he was able to climb into the attic and wire a box into the ceiling so that I could hang this super cool light.  He also installed the shelf so that Makai can have a desk for homework.  THANKS DAD!!!!  The light was worth it....right?

From the bottom looking up into the light

We finished off the room with a few Lego posters (that have seen better days, but what are you going to do) and a hand made quilt and Viola! a lego room.  This was really fun to put together and Makai loves his new room.  He did tell me that he misses sleeping with Tanner, but he does love staying up a little later than his brothers and reading in his new room!

So next time you are in the neighborhood, come on over and see the new room!