Get well soon Uncle Hes

My brother is in the hospital right now and in quarantine so we are not able to go visit him so I thought we would make him some cookies to send with my mom. Asher was my precious little chef. I so love cooking with my kids!

And then I made this cute little card with band aids for him to send a little humor his way since he doesn't know when he will be released.

He somehow got some kind of serious infection in his back and had to have back surgery to get all the infection out of his back. Poor guy! And they still don't even know what he got and how he got it. He has been in so much pain we are just hoping he gets better soon!

Being a Disney photographer

While at the beach with the family on vacation I got a call the The Disney Fine Art and Photography group wanted to do a meet and greet with me about possibly hiring me as a contract photographer. How exciting! I drove in for the interview and was excited when they offered me the job. So today was my first day headed out to get some training on shooting at Disney. It was such a crazy day running around all morningin getting everyone dropped off before heading over! I finally ended up at Disney around 10 after dropping all the boys off and Sydney with my mother in law. I met the team out at the hotel they were shooting at and jumped in. I was a little disoriented on a Canon instead of my Nikon and realized it will take me some getting used to. It also couldn't have been a more hot day to be outside shooting. But I'm so excited about this new opportunity in my photography carrer!

1st day of school

It's the first day of school and a super big day in the Whitman household. Not only are the boys going back to school (Boston 3rd grade, Dallas 1st and Asher preschool) but I am going to work as a freelance Photographer for Disney's Creative Event Team.

Getting pictures this morning was crazy but I was still insistent on doing it. My poor camera was all fogged up and didn't have time to deal with it so the pictures look horrible but at least I have some. (Maybe I'll fake some better ones later if I can talk the boys into it!)

Here's my big 3rd grader.

He wanted a Pirates of the Caribbean backpack and I couldn't find a new one so he said he wanted to use the one he used in Kindergarten. That was easy and cheap for me. But he did ask for the lunch box he has been seeing advertised on TV called so I splurged and got him that.

And here's spiderman Dallas himself all ready and excited about heading off to 1st grade.

And my baby boy is now going to school every day for a half day! He was very very nervous at his meet the teacher (the reason there are no pictures of him and his teacher.) But I was so proud of him this morning as he was so grown up and happy as he entered into his new class. And I'm super excited his little friend Jack from church is in his class as well since all but 1 of the kids in his 3 year old class are in other classes.

And doesn't he look so cute in his Mickey shirt.

Girls sleepover!

Friday a bunch of girls from my sunday school class headed out to my parents lakehouse to spend the night and have some good girl time. We had such a blast and I'm so blessed to be a part of such wonderful women!

Here's the crew (minus Lynn who hadn't come back yet) who spent the night. The rest of the crew came out Saturday morning. Of course they were all dressed nice with makeup on and we were all grungy, no makeup, in our pjs sitting at the kitchen table trying to recover from having stayed up way too late! (I think some of us forgot that we were much older than we were in the old days of sleep overs!)

Highlight of the night was playing "Imaginiff." There was a lot of laughter...some more laughter, tears from laughter....and for those that have had kids some might have peed a little in their pants.

Amanda (and her precious baby boy in utero!) and Carmen

Carmen and Heather

We all enjoyed Carmen's reading of the cards which usually included listening to her sing the questions

Yep...Heather laughing again....and for those there notice how she's sitting on one butt cheek!

Carmen got a little high on too much sugar by the end of the night

And Stacey's first night away from her first born...she was a brave woman

I can't wait to do this again girls!!!!

10 things you might not know about Aspergers

1. The conversation around the dinner table revolves around movie quotes and when asked to talk about something other than movie quotes there is a long silent pause and your son responds, "What DO we talk about then?"

2. When I say "Dallas you are smart as a tack" he responds "I'm not a tack!"

3. You cannot serve anything cold or red or smooth.

4. Your child would rather wear their too small, holes on the sides, shoes than change and get a new pair. Doesn't matter how great the new ones are....they aren't the same as the old ones.

5. When playing a game be prepared for the worst when your Aspergers child loses...including but not limited to: throwing, yelling, storming away, and slamming doors.

6. I now know everything there is to know about Spiderman, Star Wars, Roller coasters and Tornado's.

7. It's like pulling teeth to stop the bad habits: picking noses, smelling hands, flapping arms, etc

8. My children have higher IQs than me and I was in the gifted program

9. Everyone at the grocery store, YMCA, church or any other place we go to knows my kids names....even if I never told them.

10. The love expressed by them is so deep and wide that no one can even come close. It's an unconditional love that most people cannot understand. I've been up and down mountains but the joy of this gift from God is worth more than words.

Marble racing

What do you do when it's the last week of summer and you are running out of steam and ideas to entertain the kids and it's about 100 degrees outside?

Well it involves marbles and pool noodles....

I got the idea on pinterest and it was so easy and fun. You just cut the noodles in half and keep them together with tooth pics. Simple as that!

Of course engineer Boston decided to change the track and make it even better. I know he's gonna be some kind of architect or engineer when he grows up. It's amazing how his brain works.

Best part: this entertained them for hours. $3 spent = SCORE!!!

Meet the Teacher 2011

It's the time of year again....back to school!

Tonight we had meet the teacher and I'm excited about the boys teachers for this year. I cannot believe they are going to be in 1st and 3rd grade this year. Time flies!

Boston with his teacherDallas with his teacher

After meet the teacher we headed over to Perkins, like we did last year, for dinner. I guess that has become a tradition now.

Universal with new friends

Sunday we met our new friends at Universal for a day of fun.

We have been so many times and never seen the Mystery Machine! And my boys LOVE Scooby Doo
Here we are on Jaws.

Took up three rows on the roller coaster and 4 of us weren't riding. I think if we all had gone we would have taken up the whole thing.

Wheeee

Not a great pic because these were all iphone pics and this one didn't have a lot of light. But I wanted to capture them on the Jimmy Neutron ride since it will be closing soon.

We will miss our new friends! But we will look forward to next summer and planning a week at the beach again together!

Last days at the beach

Wow what an awesome trip we had last week. I was so sad to see it end. The older the kids get the more fun things they are able to do at the beach and it's just so fun to watch them explore and enjoy the beach.

We met an awesome new friend and her 3 kids and all 7 of the kids got along so well that we did most everything with them. Below is a picture of everyone except Sydney.




There was lots of crab huntingAnd wave jumpingand boogie boardingand playing with friendsand sand castle buildingMy dear friend Lynn came out with her two friends on Thursday and that just added to the fun!And here is my handsome hubbie who was such a trooper all week with so many women and kids9 kids hanging out at our place waiting for lunch Sean went and picked up some yummy subs from the French Bakery and chocolate eclairs and we all ate outside together!

There were lots of memories made this year

Thursday night we took all the kids to the new ice cream place Smores and there was this beautiful full moonAnd here's the kids waiting for their ice cream at the fire pit Friday night Sean's parents were nice enough....and brave enough....to babysit all 7 kids so us adults could go out! They even brought them KFC and doughnuts and ice cream from Dunkin Doughnuts and they all enjoyed a movie together.

Us adults on the other hand had a beautiful dinner at Oceanside on Flagler Ave complete with cocktails. We saw dolphins and a manatee and enjoyed some fun adult conversation. And I'm so happy to have made a new lifelong friend!