First family of six photos!

Our dear friend Katelin Carter of Full Pockets Photography has been taking photos of our family for years now. Our first session ever with her is so fun to look back at now.

Last night we had her take our first photos as a family of six up at Mrs. Blonde's Aunt & Uncle's new gorgeous home in the burbs. Below are just a couple from her original sneak peek blog post.



All smiles! From left to right - LA, Mr. Blonde, Quatro, Mrs. Blonde, Trey and Boatboy



Can't believe how tall LA and Boatboy are getting.



To the smilers go the spoils. GIANT marshmallows!



Thanks, Katelin. We love you!

Oh Brothers Where Art Thou?

<-- Trey & Quatro being monitored while hanging out in utero together.

Prior to the birth of the twins, Trey & Quatro, brother was a term already used quite often between LA and Boatboy.

"Hey brother, come here!"

"You're handsome brother!"

"Brother hit me!"

"I love my brother all the way up to the stars and moon."

With the entry of the twins, the term is being used in, it seems, every other breath. I suppose growing up a member of the Four Brothers Blonde it will continue...forever.



Our last family photo of four, LA and Boatboy came to visit short after admission to the labor room.



...and provided some pre-birth dance entertainment for all those in the room.



Trey (in foreground) & Quatro under the "incubator" (as Papa called it) less than an hour after coming into our lives.



L-O-V-E this photo. Some of you likely already saw it via our Twitter account. One of my (Mr.) favorite ever, actually. A proud (& GORGEOUS) Mrs. Blonde with her two new guys.



Oldest brother LA came to the hospital to meet his two new little brothers. Including learning their names which he insisted for 9 months were Baga & Momen. 'Cause he's funny like that. He even convinced Boatboy that's what they were to be called. We thought he would take to them, but he was so much sweeter and into them than we had originally imagined. Some very very cool moments. -- So sad, but Boatboy didn't get to meet his new little brothers until they came home as he'd had a cold.



Sleep deprived and proud Mr. Blonde showing off half of his fleet of sons.



The twins in their take-home outfits.



LA & Boatboy playing with animals together while their new brothers were getting aclimated into their new home. This photo was taken right when Boatboy grabbed LA's nose and said "HONK!"



Boatboy making sure Papa is giving him as much attention as is being given to Trey.



LA stealing some cuddle time with Quatro while Nana is holding the wee one.



Boatboy says "I wanna see!" "I want to help!"

It's the coolest thing to grow up with a brother. Mrs. Blonde did it. So did Mr. Blonde. But, neither of us had more than one. All our boys get to each have three brothers! That's so cool! Stay tuned for a photo of them all together...at some point.

TGIF

It's the end of the week!



Bring it on, weekend!

Dog-gone-her

While this is a dog post I assure you it's not all puppies and rainbows. Turn back now if you can't handle life and death discussions regarding pets. It's also signficantly longer than the average post here at Blondes, Poop & Mascara. I'm feeling inspired. You'll see why.

Just before our 1st wedding anniversary, she showed up as a gift to Mrs. Blonde in the spring of 2005. A perfect white little cotton ball ready to love and be loved. And, she did. And, she is. Tremendously so really! Six years ago our little white westie, Chloe, was born into our family. Our first baby if you will.

I'm a dog person. (Which isn't to say I'm not a cat person. I don't dislike cats. But, I don't like them either. Where was I...yes. Dogs.) I've had a dog in my dwelling place my entire life except a few years in college. I've always loved it that way. They are after all man's best friend. But, their stories don't always end well.

Frosty (Westie): My first. Great little dog! I must have been 6 years old when I came home from the 1st grade to be told that he had to "be put to sleep" due to horrific skin conditions. Truth is, the dude was absolutely miserable most of the time. Scraping open sores to ease his pain. Sad scenario. Dead.

Cookie (Jack Russell Terrier): She had this crazy mixture of hair types. Long straight around her neck and slick throughout. Equals = a lion mane. Good stuff. She was high energy. A jack russel; high energy? I know. She'd had a litter of puppies; was let outside for a potty break and never came back. Dogs don't leave their young. Stolen. Gone.

Dundee (Jack Russel Terrier): One of Cookie's pups. Of course I named him after the hottest cinematic sensation of the day. Three weeks after moving him (and our entire family) from the city where I spent the first seven years of my life to the countryside where I spent the next 13, he got hit by a car. On Friday, the 13th. SOB never even slowed down before Dundee was plowed down. Not even a brake mark in the road. My Dad buried him in our pasture. Dead.

Yeller (Mountain Feist): Naming a dog after Old Yeller takes two things. Integrity (because that movie is full of it). And, ignorance...because the dog gets rabies and then a bullet to the head. Yeller had a calm temperment. He was incredibly strong for his size. We used to pick him up by whatever toy he was clinging to and dangle him in mid-air while he tugged and flipped about. He was a sturdy sidekick. He stayed inside most of the time. But, when he was in the back yard, he played with his big friend...

Bear (1/4 Huskey, 3/4 Timber Wolf, yeah you read that right): Bad ass dog! Huge! He never came inside. Well, when my brother and I were home alone he did. But, a 120lb wolf dog isn't the most elegant creature traipsing through the house. We could practically ride this beast like a horse. In the snow, he pulled us around on our sleds. People feared him. We adored him. One spring, it's theorized that he and Yeller got into a yard treatment chemical that was to have been killer on weeds yet safe for animals. Turns out, it wasn't safe. Seizures started up. Then, more regularly. Bear's seizures soon became accompanied by anger. Before long, he wasn't safe. My Dad couldn't trust him around us boys. He was euthanized farm-style (.22). Dead. Yeller - the same fate. The brain damage was too much. Dead.

Muffin (Jack Russel Terrier): She's the mainstay. Sweet. Kind. Not spastic-Jack-Russel in the slightest. When we would sing, she would howl with us. She ate food from my Dad's mouth. That's too much. I know. But, it was always funny. She had several litters of puppies. We loved it! Even watching her birth them was awesome. By the time the tumors became too much for her body to handle, she'd lost an eye in the battle, had her sinuses rearranged and been with us for over a decade. Not that there wasn't with the others, but a special deep set of tears came to pass when she did. Dead.

Butch (Jack Russel Terrier): One of Muffin's pups. A classic Jack. Good looking dog. Fine manners. Just a few weeks after I met Crystal in the late Spring of 2003, I got a call from my crying mother. He'd gotten into a loose bag of chips in the bathroom trashcan. While foraging for crumbs the bag got stuck on his head. He couldn't get out. Trapped; he suffocated. My heart still breaks for this guy. A disturbing end to his story in every way. Dead.

Then there's DOZENS upon dozens of coon dogs. Mostly Walkers. Some Curs. Skunk, Jim, Susie, Horny (my Dad named him), JB, Chopper, Pac, John, Slammer and there were more.

Mrs. Blonde's had one dog. Ever. Just one. Noel (Maltese) lived to be 37...alright...14. But, that's it. Just one dog. Recounting my dog days when Crystal and I first met, she thought my stories (and possibly me) to be completely insane! And, you probably do too. That's fine. So do I. They're not the norm. But, they're mine. Most are tragic. All involve loss. Yet I gained so much from them!

I'm a dog person and Crystal is for certain dogs. Noel and Chloe being a couple of them.

And, we have Chloe. Right now anyway. As you can read in the blog header, we jokingly began referring to her as our "White Afterthought" after LA was born. We're man enough to admit that at this point, she's become the thought after the after thought. And, that's just not right! She's perfect. Seriously. Adorable. Great with the boys. Leash trained, but you don't even have to use one. She just stays alongside you outside. Stays off the furniture (if you want her to). Goes for runs with us. Loves to ride in the car (and boat). Enjoys cuddling. Knows several commands by hand and/or voice. She's happy. All. The. Time. She's everything we ever wanted. Which is why it's so hard to consider seeing her go. And, why it's so right seeing her go. She doesn't deserve to not get the right amount of attention. We've neglected her.

Flipping through all our photos of her tonight, I approached the "2010" folder. Guess how many photos in almost 900 featured Chloe? ONE! And, that's only because she photobombed a photo I was taking of Boatboy.

To add to it, we started to notice a few months ago that whenever Boatboy is near her for very long he starts sneezing like crazy! We haven't diagnosed him as alergic to dogs. But, we know he can't be around her. [NOTE: Please don't mention this to LA or Boatboy if you personally know them. The last thing we need is for his alergies (or him) to be blamed for anything.]

As of yesterday, Mrs. Blonde found Chloe, what is likely to be her future home: A dog-loving single guy who has a Jack Russell and wants some more company for the two of them. We're all meeting each other tomorrow to feel out the fit.

As I type this, ol' girl is sleeping on the floor next to me and I'm feeling all "It's not you it's me." But, I'm 100% satisfied that her story hasn't ended like the others before her. Still pacing steadily ahead, she's just ready for another chapter.

-Mr. Blonde

Follow Blondes, Poop & Mascara on Twitter @mrsblonde1

I’m Disappointed In Me

I have a distinct memory of having been gifted a 3D puzzle of sorts when I was around 10 years old. It was complicated. It had brightly colored crazy looking geometric shapes all over it. It folded in obtuse ways. The goal was to get certain shapes and colors to align. It was fun. Think Rubik’s Cube meets Jacob’s Ladder.

The difficulty of the puzzle trumped fun when I got stumped by the trivia of it all and pressed so hardly on a piece of the game that it broke the entire puzzle. After my initial relief (“Ha, I showed you stupid puzzle!”), I remember an overwhelming sense of guilt form over my pre-pubescent heart. At a tender age, I felt the burden of my disrespect for the gift I’d received. I’d taken something I never earned in the first place…and trashed it.

I remember taking the broken pieces to my Mom (she’s known mostly as Grandma these days) and apologizing through the tears rolling down my face. I remember her abruptly ending the phone conversation she’d been on and her saying “It’s ok. You didn’t mean to.” While her grace felt nice and permitted me to relax a bit the fact remained that I DID mean to do it. I was frustrated and responded by destroying my toy. It was NOT an accident. And, I felt horrible over what I’d done.

This brings up two questions:

1) How are you at extending grace in the lives of your children? Are you quick to forgive like my Mom was grasping the moment following an indecent action as a time to teach? Or, perhaps you’re too quick to forgive (“Oh, it’s fine. We’ll buy another one.”) brushing aside the opportunity to talk through the importance of permitting people to make mistakes in life and grow through them?

2) How are you at modeling for your children how to receive that same mercy when YOU need it? Re-read that same question to make sure you understand what I’m asking here. I’m still learning how important it is to receive grace in my life so that I can teach our boys the same life lesson. If you’re a Christian, like Mrs. Blonde and me, then this is essential to the Gospel message because the more you get hung up on yourself and your own issues the less you’re giving Life to others. As Mrs. Blonde puts it so clearly, “Get over yourself!”

If you can’t answer those two questions in the comment section on this entry, how about writing your own post (including stories gets bonus points) and linking back to it in the comment section here? If you’re the Twittering kind, tweet your response(s) including @mrsblonde1 and a link to this post too.

-Mr. Blonde

Happy Birthday to my sweet love!

My amazing husband turns 32 today. As I was planning this "celebration day"...I have had so many emotions run through my mind. So here are a few....

Amos-You are such a blessing to me and all of our kiddos. I am so thankful God hand picked you for me. Thank you for being on this life journey with me. Everyday is something new and I love sharing each moment with you. I celebrate the gift you are to me and our 4 boys. You truly bring out the best in all of us. You love us so well! I love you so much!! Happy Birthday!

I love celebrating birthdays. This morning I made a yummy breakfast served with a candle and LA played his guitar to a Happy Birthday song to Dada. We are very excited for what the rest evening holds.....the boys are having fun preparing for their Dada's arrival!!

last "Family of Four" photo highlights [Part 2]

You saw Part 1 of our last Family of Four photo session earlier this week. This is Part 2 of our fav shots captured recently by Katelin Carter of Full Pockets Photography.



This is our favorite picture of the two boys from the entire session. They were playing peek-a-boo with "Dadda" and jumping up and down on an old park bench and caught being their playful selves so well in this shot. We're lucky the bench didn't break!



Family of Four (well, six if you count the bumps in Mrs. Blonde's belly visible here to the left of Boatboy).



For what we can recall this is the first hands-on-pregnant-belly shot we have on file. We didn't know Katelin took it until we got the final disc of images. Fitting that such a photo was taken of the last pregnancy we'll ever have (at least we're saying that now...nothing's done until it's done).



The boys



All teeth!



The family portrait classic. Everyone walking away from the camera. Why do we like this so much. Can't see any faces. Can see everyone's cans. Yet, we still like it.

last "Family of Four" photo highlights [Part 1]

I wanted to share some of our last Family of Four photos with you from a recent session with Full Pockets Photography. It was megahot out the morning of these photos. But, thanks to a willing aunt & uncle to assist, the wonders of blowing bubbles and bribery of marshmallows, we had a blast!

It is crazy to imagine there are going to be two more little guys in our next family photo session!

I've broken this up into a couple posts along with some other updates you'll see this week from Blondes, Poop & Mascara. We love you, your photography gifts and your friendship, Katelin!



Love this one!!



We found a trail we'd never been down. So, of course, off the boys went.



LA lovin' on the twins. Not a posed photo. :)



Boatboy carrying a stick bigger than him. Again, not a posed photo.

More to come later this week. Hope you all are well!

my wife is making me cheat

I mean, that's what it is, right? Circumventing one of the biggest surprises you can get in life is cheating. It just is. To me anyway. If you think I'm crazy or old-fashioned or just plain wrong, I think you're wrong. But, I might be wrong.

We've never done this before. We've never found out the gender of a child prior to birth.

Sparing you the details, I saw my oldest son's head for over two hours and didn't know he was a he until the final push. That two hours for me was otherworldly. It was as intense a situation I've ever been in. We were SO excited. So joyful. So scared. And, Mrs. Blonde was in serious pain (the typical kind of pain though...meaning no major trauma was taking place that God didn't design her to handle). After he was born, I was the one that got to walk out into the lobby and declare my son's name (LA here in blogville) to our closest family (August 2006). It was a defining moment for all of us. I think especially for me. When a new father gets to declare his firstborn son publically a pride from deep within emerges that he didn't even know needed to emerge to begin with. Think of that Lion King scene.

Then, we got to do it ALL OVER AGAIN when Boatboy was born in May 2008. I only got to see his head for like 7 minutes before we knew he was a he. But, still just as authenticating of an experience.

Two years-ish later (January 26)...

Mrs. Blonde: "We are so finding out this time!"

Mr. Blonde: "No we're not. It's cheating. We are NOT finding out!"

/ time lapses /

Banter back and forth. Often of the playful sort.

/ time lapses /

March 1 (excerpt from "discovery" post)...

A few ticks over 30 days since we found out. Ultrasound day! By 10:30amET we got the news we so desired...a happy-perfectly-growing-170bpm-heart-of-a-peanut growing inside Mrs. Blonde's belly! Life! Baby little nubs and baby little swimming...

Then...it happened....

A moment that will work to define the rest of our lives as a family. It...our little peanut...has a neighbor. The same size. The same movements. The same size little sac home as its little friend. We have two already. And, we're getting two more. By October 2nd or sooner we're doubling down.

It wasn't before we left the doctor's office I made two concrete decisions...

1) I'm getting a vasectomy for Christmas

2) You (Mrs. Blonde) can "find out."

Tomorrow: we "find out." Mrs. Blonde is out of her mind excited. I am too. But, I still feel like it's cheating.

***********************************************************************

For those of you (and there are SEVERAL) that just can't wait to hear from us, I am going to attempt to remember to tweet the news which should be around 2pET. Make sure you're following our tweetroll over @blonde1s

a hostage situation

We were good this year with our tax preparations. On top of it. Probably more so than any year since Mrs. Blonde started her own company - Beauty by Crystal. I bribed my friend with food scheduled a meeting with our accountant before folks were even singing carols in 2009. Like I said...ON IT!

Come mid-February, as expected, we found out we were getting a serious sum of money back from the Feds. I really need to rearrange my withholdings! Of course, two kids doesn't hurt either. And, there will be FOUR for our 2010 taxes. Can you say FO-THOUSAND DOLLA! I digress. Serious sum within this context equates to just under 10% of my annual income. That's serious if you ask me. Thanks to the IRS's fancy website there's a nice little Where's My Refund feature. A few days after we filed April 6 became a very important day. And, not just because it was right on the tail of our 6 year anniversary.

Jump from mid-Feb to April 5 (ONE DAY before we're getting our money back): IRS notification comes in via snail mail.

Hello Mr. & Mrs. Blonde...blah blah blah...confusing mumbo jumbo...blah blah blah...Form ROYGBIV8329...blah blah blah...delayed...blah blah..

WAIT!

WHAT?!

DELAYED?!

What?!

(sighing / obscure profanity / disbelief / Why does God hate me? / etc)

Numerous phone calls and emails to my accountant and the IRS reveal that we filed everything 100% accurately but there seems to be a missing signature. Amidst the next phone call into the IRS:

"Well, that's interesting. It seems that particular form doesn't require a signature. You see, sir.," the agent continues, "The forms go through our mail room before they arrive to where they're supposed to go."

"Uh huh."

"Sometimes sections of returns can be misplaced."

"Alright. So how do we fix this," I inquire trying not to absolutely freak out on this chick.

"Complete the notification sent to you and you should have your refund within a couple weeks."

I step by step then walked through the notification with her to ensure I was doing exactly what they wanted.

"Mam, the form here says this could delay the refund 6 to 8 weeks instead of 2 as you mentioned."

She replies, "You should rely on what the notification says, sir."

"...ok..."

"Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

"No, mam"

In summary: The Federal government is holding on to our money a while longer because the IRS's dog ate my homework. Let's not forget, I'm (along with you) paying their salaries to make these sorts of errors. Oh, and, they're making interest on it while I wait (think they'll pay me that interest back?) AND, I never even got an apology! Not to sound quite so cynical I'm extremely thankful for the U.S. government and the freedoms we have. Public schools, transportation, roads, voting...all of it. But, how is it that I can get better customer service buying a pack of diapers at Target, ordering something through Etsy or winning an auction on eBay than I can from my own government?

-Mr. Blonde

a Good Friday for fishing

We've already talked about how last Friday was an extra special Friday for us here at Blondes, Poop & Mascara but we had some additional fun that morning during our first fishing outing of the year with Papa and Nana!



Mr. Blonde and Boatboy rockin' their boat shoes on the way to the lake.



How can 3-year-old, LA, look like such a pro at such a tender age?!



Mrs. Blonde sneaking a squeeze while the little guy is trying to get down.



He LOVES it! (this pic is Mr. Blonde's current desktop wallpaper at the office)



Boatboy and Papa at the wheel.



LA telling a fish story.



Boatboy showing Nana how it's done.



...and, he's ready for a nap!

a magnolia & promises

We have this amazing magnolia that bursts with pinks and purples the first week of April every year without fail. Funny thing is that when we bought our house (April Fool's Day 2004) we didn't know it...



...until we got married two days later celebrated in Costa Rica for a full week and then came home. We turned onto our street for the first time together as husband and wife and this tree sang to us! "Welcome home! Get started on your life as one now would you?!" I get chills thinking of that moment.

The Magnolia to us is everything us.

It brings an unspeakable joy to see it blossom each year. It's a glorious tangible reminder of a covenant we took 6 years ago tomorrow.

A symbol of a relationship.

A romance.

A choice made to put the other first at all times.

A promise authored by God and made before wonderful friends and family.

And, for what we can recall, this is the first year it's come on Easter weekend which makes it extra precious.

Tonight we celebrate 6 years of our marriage union on a surprise date!

Now...if only my wife would get home from her NCAA event we could go eat!!

Check out some posts of our anniversary's from year's past...

pre-2010
2009a
2009b
2008
2007
2006 & 2005 anniversaries were P.B. - pre blog

bedtime storytime