My Baby Had a Baby!

When I was 11 years old I scored my first babysitting gig (at home under my mom's supervision, of course) with the Wilson family for their first baby, Tabitha Casey.  Over the next several years, I pretty much became a member of the Wilson family and Tab and I became more like sisters than anything else.  We spent long weekends together while her parents played softball tournaments, we spent summers together while her mom was at work, we went to swim team practice for Tab and t-ball practice for her little brother Zach.  We had dance parties to Carman songs (Zach still knows "Who's in the House?!"), played Mary and Joseph with towels on our heads, and ate countless cans of ravioli.  Somehow along the way we grew up and the baby I once was cuddling on my living room couch became a grown-up married lady having a baby of her own...

It was very special for me to be able to visit Tab and Brigham in the hospital.  He is just as sweet a baby as his mommy was...

I feel kind of like a grandma...

Welcome to the world, Briggs!  I have a whole house-full of people who are just going to love you!  

 

Christmas Cards

Most years our Christmas cards are done by a professional at least a couple of months ahead of time, but this year a move and just the general busyness of life with 4 kids got to me and I ended up in December with no card and not even a family photo with which to make a card!  Aaaah!  I decided to take matters into my own hands, and one Sunday after church I dragged the kids to Capitol Park with my phone in hand to make it happen!  

We had been there about 5 minutes when Watts stained his new khakis beyond recognition by rolling in the grass...

The children were all laughing because I was threatening them.  Yes, this photo shoot with a mom (Dad stayed home to nap, if you can believe that <insert eye roll emoji>) and four children went south in a hurry...

We took about a million photos...

I made sure to take individual shots to fall back on in case the groups didn't turn out...

Just coordinating outfits for 4 kids of different sizes and ages is a feat for any mom and one that I believe is very under appreciated in our society...

As you can see, we were working with varying degrees of cooperation...

Like this one of the girls, Watts is not in it because he refused to be...

This is one of my all-time favorites...

This one captures Corinne's personality perfectly.  She is like a living bubble of happiness...

In the end, we got it done.  I would not recommend our methods to anyone, but I am glad that we at least won't miss a year of Christmas cards, and I am thankful that the kids are still speaking to me after the afternoon we had together.  Merry Christmas!