Rather big!

I have to tell you guys a funny story. A friend of mine recently described my kids as "rather big" (we were discussing carpooling to a RAD mom get together and she was explaining to the other moms why we wouldn't be able to fit both our broods in one vehicle). This massive understatement made me laugh so hard I nearly peed my pants.

Kitty (far left) is 5’5” and 168lbs (she's lost a little weight!), Bob (seated left) is almost 6 foot now and 156lbs (she's lost quite a bit - she and Kitty were both 178lbs in April), Bear (seated right) is 5’9” 225lbs, and then there’s little Ponito (far right) who is the size of a normal 11 yr old which means he looks so tiny next to his siblings!

My friends response:

"Well, what was I supposed to say? “As 3 of her kids are actually from the planet Sequoia?” Glad it gave you a laugh."


"Planet Sequoia!!" Snort! Mppht! *giggle*
You probably had to be there. Gotta go change my Depends!

Confirmation

The problem with having a family of 6 is that the odds of getting pictures of everyone smiling, with their eyes open, and looking at the camera are like a billion to one. Bob got fussed at for this picture (we didn't even realize that Ponito was hiding his face).

Except for being able to see Ponito's face in this one, I have to say I liked the first one better!

At this point the 3 older kids weren't allowed to talk. Can you imagine? Three teenagers - not being allowed to talk. And they stayed at Grandma's that night so we didn't reap the benefits. They weren't allowed to talk until they walked into the sanctuary for church the next morning.

The brownies and cookies were a big hit at the reception. I ended up making 5 dozen brownies (we ate one dozen covered with "healthy" pecan coconut icing) - so that was 4 dozen brownies. Then I made 17.5 dozen chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. I think I only "lost" about a dozen to tasting and bribes. All told, 20.5 dozen cookies and brownies made it to church. We only needed 18 dozen so that was good.

The kids seemed to like the Love Letters. Bob really likes hers a lot and has hers taped up in her room with her confirmation sash, a certificate and some other stuff. They got somewhere between 10-15 each. The ones I read were great.

Wedding pictures

The gorgeous, happy bride and groom. My poor sister has to choose from the many absolutely gorgeous pictures taken by our favorite photographer Cousin Jenny! I do not envy my sister.

Since in real life my sister has a teeny little waist and is built like Dolly Parton, I have decided that the camera (like TV cameras) adds weight. In my case 50lbs! In real life I look like Twiggy. *grin* OK, not really. I have gained quite a few lbs, but somehow despite the wedding and seminar I've managed to lose and keep off another 5lbs (bringing me to 15 lost). Yea!

I do not think I like my "natural" look. I've always been dark haired and this grey just seems to wash me out.

The bridal party. This was as far from daddy as we could get the little flower girl. Gave the photographer a tough time trying to get pictures of just the bride and groom.

This is me comforting the flower girl, trying to get her to go down the aisle.

Bob was the "lookout." Her job was to tell everyone when it was their turn to start down the aisle.

Kitty with my new niece the flower girl. Kitty was so excited to have someone to play with since my sister's daughter refuses to interact with anyone but Bob and my sister's son is only 6 months younger than Ponito so they are perfect playmates. Unfortunately the groom's children still aren't around as much as my sister's kids.

My niece, as always on Bob's lap.

My nephew doing his "moves" with Ponito, my new niece (on the far right) and my new nephew (front) who was the ringbearer. Don't they look cute in their tuxes?! Can you tell that Ponito's suit was a woman's jacket and pants altered to fit him?

I don't care how fat I look or how gray my hair is, I love this picture of me dancing with my dad. I think it's the first time we've ever done that (didn't have dancing at my wedding reception).

Dancing with Hubby! Don't get to do that very often. My wedding shoes were evil so I ditched them the minute the ceremony was over. These are my regular shoes that I kicked off toward the end of the evening. Kind of a weird shot, but that's what photographers do, right?

Whee!

Family photo

My guys just hate getting dressed up. They hate ties and jackets. Occasionally Bear likes dressing up and feels he must be perfectly matched. (When I made him change before church because I don't allow the kids to wear blue jeans - yes, Bear even denim shorts - he was very upset that his shoes had a blue stripe that no longer matched his outfit! He likes wearing his JROTC uniform. Did I mention I wonder about a possible diagnosis of OCD for him?

All my guys are from Nebraska and are always hot. They don't own sweaters and have only one or two long sleeve shirts. They wear hoodies at the most and don't own coats.



So I came at it from a different direction with the girls. I asked them what they liked about the evening gowns. They didn't really answer, but I asked if they'd be happy with just getting to wear a dress, and the answer was yes. So yesterday we looked at Salvation Army for dresses and skirts. I told them their outfit could be red, white or bluejean (or a combination). They didn't really find anything (although I did find a cute bluejean dress - Kitty liked it too, but it was too big for her). We've got plenty of time though.

See?! We really didn't used to have formal pictures with evening wear!

LOL Making of a family photo!

Here's the final photo. The one we chose for our adoption family photo.

Following are some of the pictures it took to get this final shot. Now imagine this with 6 of us!! Poor photographer!