Selena

That's right. I'm awesome!

J's birthday is coming up at the beginning of September. Usually for their birthday, they get a sleepover with a friend or two, family dinner, and then a night out with just mom and dad. We normally take them to a nicer restaurant, one we can't afford to go to all together, and then they get to pick a movie of their choice, maybe we'll do some shopping if we have time.

This time, there was a concert that J really wanted to go to, and two days before the sold out concert, they released a few more tickets and we scored some! This resulted in a very excited soon to be 11 yr old. Dave was already doing security for the concert so we only needed two tickets thankfully.

M had been at camp for the previous week and he actually just came home Friday afternoon,  I didn't expect he would want to stay home that night so we had a girl a few streets over come and help Seraiah babysit her brothers. Turns out he didn't go out after all, but that's ok.

We got ready to go, she was just bouncing the whole day she was so excited, and went to the Enmax to pick up the tickets. This was her first concert, and quite frankly it was only my second! My first was just this past spring at the Eric Church concert, lucky bugger!! While we were waiting to pick up

our tickets she could hear Selena rehearsing....OH my goodness, just so exciting!!

We ran to Costco quick to grab a snack and went back to wait in line, man that place gets hot in the summer!!  Once inside, we were happy to see that our seats were pretty good. I opted for first level as opposed to some floor seats that were available because I was concerned she wouldn't be able to see very well, and I'm glad I did!











From where we sat we had a clear view of the stage, we could actually see Selena, we didn't have to look at the screen at all! We grabbed some popcorn and pops, which of course we promptly spilled as people filed past us to their seats, what a sticky mess!  J had fun playing 'where is daddy now' as he did his security thing, she thought it was pretty cool later on once the music was playing that he was right at the stage as all the screaming tweens tried to mob Selena lol.

As the opening act started...Carrie somethingorother....J looks at me and says alarmed...'I thought this was a Selena concert?!' I supposed I should have explained to her the concept of the opening act. After the first girl was Emblem 3, a boy band that set off shrieks that made me more than slightly deaf, of course at the point my cellphone died so that was the end of pictures for the night. While watching this boy band, I did feel old as I really just wanted to tell them to pull up their pants...I have to say though as for Selena, it actually wasn't a bad concert, it was entertaining and the music was not too bad, I did recognize a few of the songs. J bopped happily along to the music, waving her light-up microphone thingy she got from the concession and dancing in her seat. For one night, Dave and I were the coolest parents ever.

J was wearing this neon orange top that really glowed in the lights, and she was so thrilled when they flashed her face on the screen, it totally made her night!

Going back to that spilled pop though, once the concert was finished, we went to get up and join Dave, and were stuck solid to the floor lol.  Thankfully my hubby was watching out for us as always and had some of the other security people earlier bring us some bottled water, we used what was left to unstick ourselves! We took J out for a quick dinner after the concert then the two of us drove home, Dave was dj'ing the next day so he stayed the night at his friends house. We didn't get home until 1am and I was happy to see the older kids held down the fort just fine while we were gone, it's the longest we've ever left them alone to babysit their brothers, so it was nice to see they were well taken care of and the house was in one piece while we were out of town for the day.  I think this could be the start of a lot of fun for the kids as I'm already looking for the next concert to take one to!

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Here they are!

Technically, these were done as Dave's birthday present. His birthday isn't until the end of September, but frankly, that time of year is pretty iffy around here weather wise...as our wedding would so tell. No snow in 10 years on Thanksgiving weekend...except the year we got married, naturally.

All 5 kids together.

 

 

 

 Of course, getting these pictures done turned out to be more difficult than anticipated....as mentioned in the last two posts. Even more so one we got there. Trying to get pictures taken of the silliest, most active 3 yr old on the planet is no easy task, and he was buzzing like a bee that night! Despite that, I think we did manage to get some good pictures, I'm so pleased with how they turned out! I always have a sort of picture in my head as to what the end result might be like, and if it turns out even close, I'm happy!
 As anyone with siblings knows, it's not all roses growing up with brothers and sisters, especially with so many of them. We have a wide age range from oldest to youngest which can make for a unique situation in our home. The two littlest boys simply adore their big brother, a feeling he returns despite sometimes getting a little frustrated with them, but it was hard to get a good picture of the three of them together.

 I like J's attitude in the one below...so her lol!

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

The two girls are in the middle of a

love/hate relationship with each other at the moment, they are fighters. At the end of the day, they really do love each other and I don't know what they would do without the other, something I think one day they will figure out on their own...I hope. someday. They sure did like taking their picture together though!

 

 

 

I always like to try every few years to take a picture with each parent with some of the kids. I'd like to think somewhere in the future the kids will like to have a photo with just a few of us...call me crazy I guess. Again, it was way easier to get pictures with the girls than with the boys. Poor M was so patient! I was impressed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 Here is the real reason we had these pictures done; Grandma. Everyone just adores Dave's mom, and it's hard to imagine there ever being a world without her in it, but we realize one day, just like us all, there will be. What better way to appreciate Grandma than to get some photos done just to honour her. I hope she likes them as much as we do!

Of course through all of this, I can't stop singing the praises of our photographer Kristina. She is simply so talented and seems to really enjoy what she does. She is also extremely patient, something that suits her trade well.

Oh Jeshie. This pic to the left is him blowing raspberries into his sisters hair! It's been a bit of a thing for him lately.


If you notice that in most pictures Jesh is being held by someone, it's because we are attempting to physically pin him down so he will be IN the picture! Usually the job fell to Dave, but Grandma tried too.











Dave and his Mom <3

J and Grandma

 We call this one...Oh Jeshie!




Ash and Grandma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M and Grandma

S and Grandma



 

 Feels like just yesterday we met but also like we've been together forever!

We really love how the over/cast cloudy sky added to these pictures, what  a cool effect you couldn't plan/pay for if you wanted!

 Well, that's it for today! Way too late for this lady. I hope that one day these pictures serve the purpose for which they were intended, to give everyone some great memories of their family and all the people that are in it, and I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we do!

Pictures

Any one who knows me knows that I'm pretty simple, I love to cook/bake, red wine, and my family. I also loooove pictures, taking them, looking through them, and having them taken of my family. I think documenting our everyday life as well as having actual professional pictures done is important. Especially since losing so many pictures of my older kids to our flood a few years ago, and the fact that I know how fast these kids are growing up and soon enough they will be moving out and starting their own adventures and we won't always have everyone together or be able to get pictures of all of us, I want to get real family pictures done of us whenever I can. I also want them to reflect our family as it is and what is going on in our lives at that particular time. The last time we had pictures done, we did them with my sisters family. This time, we had Grandma join us.

Dave comes across often as being a bit of a harda**, it only takes a little bit of scraping the surface to realize he's all bark, no bite lol.  He loves his family very much even if he's not always very good at verbalizing it.  Dave loves his mom to the moon and back and fact is, she's not getting any younger. He lost his dad some 20 yrs ago and due to fires and just life in general, he doesn't have many pictures of his dad. So as a very early birthday present, I hired a photographer to do some photos of all of us and Grandma.

Seems simple enough right? Not a chance.

Rather than wait until his birthday when the weather is much more unpredictable, we decided to do them at the end of July. Then life started to happen. First, it started with J, who got the black eye of all black eyes. She has this terrible habit, has been doing it since she was little, and silently stands behind you, I swear she doesn't even breathe. For such a loud kid, when she is behind you she just goes into stealth mode. So one day at the pool, she went into stealth mode, standing behind her very big brother while playing water basketball. For those who know J, the disparity between her height (she's very little) and her big brother (who's very big), is a lot. So as she stood behind him saying nothing, he brought his elbow back, and caught her right in the corner of her eye. Hard. It started turning black immediately. By the time she got home, she already had a good shiner going. By the next day, it looked like this: