Finley & Hadley's Blog: Pictures

Outside of posting pictures here, I am so so so so behind w/ pictures. This blog is a blessing and a curse, because of it, I take about 400 pictures a month. The blessing - everything is documented. The curse - actually doing something w/ all of these pictures.

I used to have an annual tradition of printing a year's worth of pictures every July. A project I mostly dreaded. It takes a lot of time to upload and order thousands of pictures that arrive in a mixed up chronological order and then file into albums (it causes anxiety just typing that sentence). Albums that I'm making ONE of and my kids will have to fight over someday (I feel guilty about this, but eh, it is what it is at this point).

When I abruptly resigned last year, I had certain summer to-do's that went on-hold until school started. It made sense, I'd have more time on my hands to tackle this project. Unfortunately, I never got around to it. So as of today, I have 25 months worth of pictures (approx 10,000 pictures) electronically filed waiting to be uploaded, ordered, to be put in chronological order and filed into albums (anxiety X 10,000). And this is just my candid pictures. I also have two year's worth of professional pictures I haven't printed either...our frames are WAY outdated. This post starts w/ some professional pictures I never even got around to sharing here. Who am I?! I do not procrastinate like this. But at this point, I feel overwhelmed thinking about it and I'm pretty much avoiding it w/ anything else I can find to do.

School pictures came back and no retakes are needed. I think they turned out really well...I only wish I would've picked the blue background, they seem a little washed out. But, no worries we're having family pictures taken next weekend, which are way more fun...until it's time to print them. The struggle is real w/ pictures right now.

As always, we compare Hadley w/ me. This is my Kindergarten school pic, I see a resemblance :)

In May, Hadley had her tap/ballet pictures taken. Unlike school pictures that are printed and handed to you, you order a CD of pictures. Apparently the CD is handed out at the recital and I totally missed that announcement (even my subconscious-mind seems to be avoiding pictures). A few weeks ago I realized I never saw the pictures (I had it in my mind the CD's would be mailed to us), after a few email exchanges w/ the dance studio and photographer - what do you know, Hadley's CD was still in the recital box at the studio. She sure makes a cute ballerina!

A cute tapper too.

In June, my favorite photographer took Hadley's 5-year and Finley's 8-year pictures. I'm pretty sure I posted the FB sneakpeeks, but I never posted the rest after the CD arrived - yes, by mail this time ;)

Sometimes there is silliness involved.

And then back to business. This was by-far, the best photoshoot, the kids were (finally) easy to work with.

Laci wanted to try drippy ice cream shots and we were game. The weather was hot and sticky, perfect for making ice cream melty.

Time to eat and get sticky.

When Laci stood over the top, my thought was, this is why he wore that stupid helmet, we can show off his nice round head ;)

Back to the messiness.

I thought the ice cream pictures would be just for fun pictures, but some of them are my complete favorites.

I love them.

We have another trip planned in three weeks, but my goal is to actually start doing something w/ this picture project before we go. Because I know I'll take a zillion pictures on the trip and next Sunday is family picture day...oh what I would pay for someone to come in and tell me which pictures to print and hang where ;)

Back to real life, or not - snapchat told me I'm not actually home alone during the day. It picked up another "person" behind me - weird.

Finley is selling popcorn for Cub Scouts. He's so excited to sell and isn't nervous to ask anyone. Whenever he gets a sale, he quickly adds up the total amount of sales so far, such a nerd sometimes ;)

Finley had an AWESOME flag football game, he scored (twice) and threw a really long pass that assisted another touchdown.

The kids participated in two homecomings this weekend - we drove Grandma's convertible in North's parade Friday night...

...and on Saturday they walked w/ Dave and tossed footballs for UWEC's homecoming.

Our weekend was busy and tiring. Patrick was in the ER Friday night, he had an excruciating headache, pounding in his head, blurred vision and sky-high blood pressure. He had a CT scan done to check for bleeding or a large mass, all was clear. They gave him intravenous meds to control the pain and sent him home to sleep it off and instructions to follow-up w/ his primary physician (surprisingly, he made an appointment today and he'll be having a physical on Thursday). Unfortunately, our late night in the ER only allowed 3.5 hours to sleep before we left home at 4:00 a.m. for a very early flight to Chicago.

We went to Chicago to attend Patrick's cousin's wedding. It was a fun night w/ good food, drinks, dancing, and spending time w/ family. I didn't take any pictures, but thankfully Shawna got one of us.

On Sunday we had time to explore downtown before we flew back home. I really really like downtown Chicago. In my next life, I want to be young and rich and live downtown. I also want an accent ;)