It's snowing in Springtime!

This is our 3rd day of on again, off again snow. The first day we got an inch or two, it was enough for the kids to go out and get soaked and cold. Tate is absolutely bewildered at what's going on. He's been taught in pre-school that it's spring. Spring means sun and flowers blooming. So he keeps asking over and over in Tate language...is Spring? The sun has shown itself a few times, when it does he screams with joy...is Spring! He may not be able to verbalize everything but It's nice to know he fully understands what he's taught.

Easter

Easter was fabulous. We did an egg hunt and BBQ with Alans family on Saturday. It was so nice not to have to split ourselves between families on Sunday this year. Sunday we did our thing at home, went to church then drove up to Marysville to see my family. We had a nice relaxing day. Oh, and I did dress the kids for under $50, props to me!

BABY NAME

Ok so many of you don't know the babys name. A friend asked and I thought I would write a post about it. Apparently I just tell random people, my poor sisters didn't even know until this week. I hadn't realized I'd never told them. Her name actually started as a joke. Taylor and I would tease Alan that we were going to name the baby Tallula. He hated it! Anyway when we found out we were having a girl my Mom asked if we'd picked a name and I told her it was Tallula (joking), I think she almost passed out! The look of horror on her face was classic! So Alan thought that it was hilarious that my Mom hated the name and he was sold on it after that. The kids had become attached to it to and it just stuck. By the way my Mom is fine with the name now. It's a love it or hate it kind of name and we love it. So her full name will be Tallula Belle Rigtrup. Baby Lula to Tate, Lu to me, Taylor and Tanner haven't come up with a nickname yet, Alan is the odd man out and dosn't like nicknames so Tallula to him, were not sure what my poor mom will call her!

St. Patty's Day Dinner

It has become a yearly tradition to cook an all green dinner. This year since I can hardly move anymore Alan took on the challenge. He took all the kids to the store and this is what they came up with.

MENU
Green Alfredo
Green Mashed potatoes
Green Guacamole chips
Green Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream
Green Apple Jones Soda

Not exactly healthy but very green!

THIS IS FOR ALL WHO DARED ME!

You wanted to see how huge I was so here you go! I don't take dares lightly! I made Alan get behind the camera. I was mortified to see what I really look like and I would never under normal circumstances let the public see such horrible pictures of me. A dare is a dare though and I couldn't chicken out.

My Nephew

I took a couple pictures of my nephew today. He was way to busy to sit still for more than a few minutes but I got a couple good ones out of it. I put some on my flicker page.

Easters Coming!!!!!

Holy Cow Easters going to be here in a week and a half. I have done NOTHING! I hardly leave my house, how am I going to waddle my way around getting clothes and basket stuff? I've scrounged the boys matchy, matchy outfits. I now have to find something to buy Taylor. I have and obsession with my kids matching. The boys probably have at least 4 or 5 matching outfits at all times. Why? I don't know, maybe I secretly wanted twins. No I would die if I had twins, that's Alans not so seceret wish. I think I just want to dress twins. So my twins that were born 4 and a half years apart can match no problem. Taylor is another story. She's in a transition stage. She hates Gymboree and all things little girl (that's been going on for years now) but I don't want to dress her in some diva outfit for Easter. It's a fine line I have to walk with this one. I'll post pictures and show you what I come up with. Let's have a bet that I can have them all decked out for under $50, ooh I love a challenge! Ok now I must come up with basket ideas!

I think I'm going to explode!

I really don't think there's any more room for me to grow. My skin has reached it's stretching capacity. If my belly gets any bigger I WILL tip over. I purchased a "maternity support belt" today. It's quite the contraption, I've never had so much Velcro on my body before. I've always made fun of those things and here I am wearing one. I must say sorry for making fun of them though. It really does hold me up better, I'm grateful for anything that keeps me from tipping over. I had 3 people today ask me if I was "about to pop", not a record day but it's up there. The day's I work in the office I get a lot of that. I love the shocked, eyes bugging out look when I tell them...no,no, I still have 7 weeks (this has been going on for 2 months now), next comes the usual reply..."are you having twins?"...my reply..."no this is my 4Th, I'm just huge"...usual reply..."4?"...again the shocked, eyes bugging out look. I guess in the world today saying I have 4 kids is just like saying I have 10. I can see their minds working, they're either thinking she must have started as a teenager or she must be crazy. I know because they'll either say, "you must have your hands full" (translation = your crazy) or "how old are you?" (translation = I'm nosy and I want to know how old you were when you had your first). I've never had to say my age so often in my life. I turned 30 not even a month ago and I swear I've said "I'm 30" at least 20 times since then. Who would have thought once you turned OLD (30 was the cutoff for old age in my mind as a child) you would have to constantly declare your old age to the world over and over again. Oh well, at least I still look 20 according to all the nosy ladies out there that seem to think I had my first child at the age of 14. How else could I have 4 by the age of 20? Oh wait didn't I mention, I'M 30!

MORE Photoshop

For those of you who don't know I'm really hitting my photography hard lately. My camera broke so I had to get another one. I upgraded just a little. Hopefully I can upgrade to what I really want in a year or so. I'm going to be assisting a photographer who doesn't want to do studio work anymore. So hopefully I will get her studio clients and give her a cut. Alan bought me studio lights for my B-Day and I finally got to play with them today. I also bought two new lenses, NICE lenses. They make a world of difference. Hopefully it will work. My friend Nena's kids were over so I let them model for me. The link to my flickr page is on the right, you can view some of the pictures there.

Photoshop

I've been trying to teach myself some photoshop techniques. It's really beyond me. I love the creative part that starts in my head. I can see the image I want to create but then I'm faced with the technical and I just can't do it. I'm struggling with my photography because of this. By nature I'm creative and I have a great eye. On the flip side I was not blessed with a mathmatical mind and I have the hardest time creating the image I see in my mind. I'm not giving up though. I'm going to teach myself even if it takes years. Here's some of my very first photoshop experiments.