I Heart Faces - Dramatic B & W

I Heart Faces' theme this week is Dramatic B&W.  There is already milllllions of entries ( OK, So I exagerated a little, but there are a bunch!), so here is one more of our pianist, Daylor.  I liked the contrast of his creamy skin and the blackness of the piano.  The mood of this image fits his personality and his seriousness of his music.    

Head on over to I Heart Faces to check out all the drama!

iheartfaces - "We are Family" Photo Challenge

iheartfaces is having a photo challenge this week about families. My submission is of my parents with our kidos. Family is so very important to us and our children are so blessed to have two sets of amazing grandparents that insist upon (with no arguments from us) being part of our kids lives. They adore each other!

Head on over to i heart faces for the family reunion and join in the fun!

Annual Christmas Pictures - Balentine Style

Alas, 'tis the season of Christmas carols and hot cocoa, evergreen trees and tinsel, stockings hung with care and ......the annual Balentine Christmas picture in front of the tree. We have done this year after year and then take the picture and put it in a frame ornament to hang on the tree to commemorate the year. It's always the same procedure: we come home from church, everyone is in a great mood and excited to get their picture taken! We set up the tripod, do a couple of adjustments to the camera and Viola!...A lovely picture...Oh, if it were only that easy.

Me: "OK, guys! Are we set?"

Them: "We are ready. "

Me: "OK. Now remember to sit still and put your best smile on when you see the red light start blinking. Ready?"

Them: "Yes, Mama. Is this gonna take long?"

Me: "Only as long as YOU make it take. Here we go! Smile!!!" (click)

Me: "OK! Not bad. Duglin - maybe sit up a bit and smile a little more!"

Them: sigh.....

ME: "One more time! Smile, everyone!" (click)

Me: "Well, we are getting there. Honey (Duglin)- I still think you have a better smile in there. Can you show it to the camera next time?"

Duglin: "I guess."

Perri: "How is my smile, Mommy? Is it a princess type smile or should I show more teeth?"

Me: "Whatever you were doing before looks fine, sweetie. OK. Now let's try this again. SMILE!!!!!" (click)



Me: "Umm, Duglin. That maybe too much of a smile, honey."

Duglin: "But you SAID to smile bigger. I smiled bigger."

Me: "Yes, you did, but it looks, well, like you are in pain, not smiling. Let's try this ONE MORE TIME! Everybody set? SMIIIIIILE!!"


Me: "Duglin."

Duglin: "Yes, Mommy."

Me: "You look like you are are gritting your teeth, not smiling."

Duglin: "Mommy, I'm trying really hard!"

Me: "I know you are, but I think that might be the problem. Just.....smile. Ahhh! I have an idea. Think of how you might look if Santa Claus were here and how happy you would be! OK?"

Duglin: "OK."

Me: "OK! ONE MORE TIME!!! Everybody say, "Look! There's Santa!"

Everyone: "Look! There's Santa!!!!"

Me: "Wow. Umm (trying not to die laughing). That's an interesting face there, Duglin. OK. I can see this is not working. Let's do this one more time." So I devise a plan to say something funny right before the camera shoots. "Everyone ready?"

Them: "yes.....(moans, rolling eyes, whimpers)"

Me: "OK, camera's counting down. What's something that's funny?"

Daylor: "You mean like Daddy tooting?" (click)

So can you tell by the flare of my nostrils I knew it was over? As the famously, overly used cliche saying goes:

"If you can't beat 'em....."

OK - So, we did finally get a decent one. So what if Duglin looks a little constipated? Life imitating art...or is it art imitating life? Hmmmmm, I need to think about that one!

Merry Christmas!!

Love,

The Balentines

2009

Disney Vacation 2009 - Day 3 - Epcot

So, I feel a little bad. Here's why. I am finding such little time to blog right now. I have a ton to catch up on, but I don't feel like I can post anything until I finish my Disney pictures. Why?Because I am obsessive.

I have this thing that I do to myself. I call it discipline. Others might call it looney. But, whatever. Anyway, I don't allow myself to do things I really want to do until the one thing I really need to do gets done. Even if the thing that I think really "needs" to be done, really doesn't need to be done. For example, I won't eat anything in the morning until all my lamps are turned on and my blinds are open. If I don't do those things I don't allow myself to eat. Or, I don't allow myself to craft in the evenings (unless my crafting circle ladies are at my house) or blog unless all of my 3 clothes hampers are at least half empty and the kitchen is clean. OR, I don't allow myself to sit down during the day unless I am teaching a lesson or until the kids go to bed. Just keepin' it real! At least things get done! I may not have breakfast in the morning, but at least I have a super-duper bright and shining living room to pass out in, doggone it!!

So, I have not allowed myself to blog because I have yet to have time to post all of my pictures from the trip. IT'S SO GOOFY!!!!!!!! But I seriously can't do it because I have ingrained upon myself that it has to get done! I'm the only person I know that grounds herself! So, maybe after I get all my pictures edited and posted I might blog be able to more! But until then. Sigh... Being grounded sucks. :)

Anywho, now that I have shared that little tidbit of info about myself, here is day 3of our trip at Epcot.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

DisneyWorld - Finally!

Yay, me! Two posts in a week! Trying to get back into the swing of things! So, today's pictures are of the Magic Kingdom. This was the day I was most looking forward to! I wanted to see the kids eyes as we first saw the castle and watch them be bewildered by the front gates and beyond of Main Street. I have to say, my little fairy tale of what it would be like never happened.

We woke up that morning in plenty of time to get ready and get to the MK. I had envisioned Perri all dressed up in her Cinderella gown that her grandmother had made her with her hair swept-up and encased in her tiny tiara. After all, we had reservations to have breakfast with the princess herself at 9:40. I thought we would have loads of time getting pictures of the kids as they walked through the gates all wide-eyed and innocent. Blah, blah, blah.

Instead, that morning when we put on Perri's gown and she informs me (after wearing it for almost the entire week before we left) that it was now "itchy" and she really would "prefer for it to stay home this time." Her exact words. Alrighty, then. Let's just put your hair up and wear your crown. "Ummm. I think I just would prefer for Cinderella to see how long it is, so I would like to wear it down." Translation - "Mommy, it hurts like h. e. double hockey sticks when you put my hair up so I will officially throw a fit if you so as much show me a hairpin." (Deep sigh of surrender. ) So, not wanting to upset the morning, I decided that it could be her choice and went with just the crown. Whatever.

Well, the little altercation cost us about 30 minutes, so we had to book it to the park. Our reservations were at 9:40. We walked, umm, ran through Main Street pushing photographers and tourists out of the way to get to the castle on time. Fortunately, we made it just in time. Not exactly how I pictured it, but that's OK. It was still wonderful.

It was such a great day. The kids were so well behaved and precious to watch. So, here are a few shots of our first day in the Magic Kingdom. Day three will be coming soon!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Double Digits

September 29th, 1999 at 3:26 in the morning my life changed forever. I went from being a daughter, wife, and sister to a daughter, wife, sister, and now, mother. Four weeks early, the tiniest baby I had ever seen, much less held, was placed in my arms and forever the make-up of the Balentine household was repurposed. I remember packing up the 4lb. 10 oz. sleeping bundle and putting him in his carseat thinking what do I do now? He's so tiny. He's so fragile. He's so perfect.

The days following were exhausting and scary, but amazing and wonderful.

Now here we are entering the double digits in age, an official "tween", and how the time has flown. He's no longer that tiny little bundle as he stands taller than my shoulders. He no longer is fragile as he can "throw down" with the best of 'em. And although he isn't perfect in character, he strives everyday to please his Maker and that makes him perfected in Christ. I adore this boy and the past 10 years has been the best of my life.

I am grateful for the gift of you, Daylor. We are so glad God chose us to be your parents. We look forward to what God has planned for your life. Happy birthday, D! We love you so much!

I Heart Disney World!

It's great to be home!!! I'm having a hard time believing we have been back almost a week. We had such an amazing time and it flew by in a blink of an eye. In fact, I have been feeling a bit off kilter because we have been planning and saving and planning and saving for almost two years and now that it's over, I am not sure what to do with myself. But with two birthdays in the next two weeks, Trick-or-Treat, Thanksgiving, and Christmas around the corner, I am sure that feeling won't last long!

I REALLY love Disney World! Everything about it is completely over the top and fabulous. The kids had such a great time, but I think it's the most exhausted they have ever been in their lives.



We were also able to visit Sea World and head to Sarasota to spend some time with some precious friends of ours. It was a wonderful, amazing, and busy trip! I ready to go back!

I took TONS of pictures. As in 1000's. I will try not to bore you with all of them, but I will be posting several as the weeks go by so you can get a taste of all we were able to do and see! It's going to take me awhile to get them up, so I am just going to spread them out over several posts.

So, until I get caught up here are just a few pictures!

I look forward to sharing more with you in the next couple of weeks!

Summertime...Parting with Such Sweet Sorrow

Where did it go? Our summer just flew by this year. We kicked off our break with the great Disney World reveal, and I assumed the time would creep by in anticipation of the trip. But I was SOOOO wrong!

I made a poor judgement call last summer in thinking that summertime was the perfect time to clean up and "catch up" (whatever that is) on getting my house in order. Can I say that it was the most boring and miserable summer I have ever had?! I totally had my priorities all screwed up and decided that this summer the kids and I were just going to have fun. And we did!! So much in fun, in fact, that I have gotten WAY behind in my blogging.

In order to catch up, I am creating one great big, huge post and cram some of the highlights of our summer. So without much further ado? A due? Adou? Whatever. Here is the most random post in the history of Balentine Bliss. (Which, BTW, is celebrating it's one year anniversary this month! Yay, me!)

So, this summer we went to the dog park with the puppies and the parents,

Visited some of our relatives in NashVegas,

Had one storm that had hurricane force winds and another that dropped a twister a few miles away from our home,



Grew and ate bunches and bunches of this stuff,



Played for hours & hours in the backyard,

Rescued and watched these little guys grow up then subsequently learn to fly away,

Had a long and fun (and exhausting) week at VBS,

Went to the sprinkler park several times,


Had a fabulous 4th,




Picked, pealed, and froze about a million peaches,


Did some serious swimming,

And first handedly (yes, I know it's not a word) learned the definition of "belly-flopping,"

Got a not so extreme make-over,

Before:


After:

Visited our downtown "Riverwalk,"


And rode the trollies,

Hung out at the bird exhibit at our fantastic zoo,


Had some family worship time,


And spent the whole summer just being together, loving each other, and having a wonderful time.

We started school yesterday and now have only 30 days until DISNEY!! If the time goes anything like this summer's did, it will be here in a jiffy!