A life worth celebrating!!

It has been so incredibly long since I last made a blog post, over a year actually! Life's been busy and the time has just disappeared. But, I am going through some real heartbreak that I want start to heal from. I know it will never go away but talking about it and reminding myself how incredibly lucky I have been to have such a person in my life is really helping. Anyone reading this who knows me, is already aware that a little over a week ago, I lost my grandma on her 87th birthday. She meant the world to me. I had the privilege of doing her Eulogy at the funeral mass where I was able to share with our community so many of the wonderful things that made her the perfect grandma. I have decided that I would like to share the (extended version, I shortened it up for time restraints) of my Eulogy here as well for others to read the story I shared.

On her 50^th birthday, my grandma made a wish, she asked for a grandchild. Shortly after making that wish she not only received one but three healthy grandchildren in a month’s time. 

From the moment we met in that packed hospital waiting room, Grandma and I have been kindred spirits.

As a child, Kate and I spent many hours dressing up in her and Aunt Rosie’s first communion dresses and veils and walking around in her countless pairs of high-heeled shoes. One special pair of those shoes are her 63 year old wedding heels, that myself, Kate and LeAnn have all worn on our wedding days.

My grandma’s favorite place to be besides church, was her kitchen. She never cooked a bad meal, although she often critiqued herself but none of us noticed the mistakes at our weekly Sunday dinners. She was especially talented at baking. We all bonded over stuffing cabbage leaves with venison, stewing tomatoes for ketchup, cracking eggs for mayonnaise, adding cream holes to kuchens, rolling out crust for pies and sprinkling colored sugar crystals onto her perfectly fluffy and white frosted cut-outs. She then would reward any helpers with peppermints, mint chocolate chip ice cream, endless jars of maraschino cherries and pickles from her fridge. 

As I grew, I eagerly volunteered for new jobs helping her decorate the Christmas tree, wrapping presents and typing her annual Christmas letter. There was never a lack of time spent with her, I was her shadow, her mini me, her munchkin watching every meticulously organized move she made, soaking up every ounce of her many talents.

In Junior High and high school, I spent most Saturday nights with my grandparents, eating dinner, watching Walker, Texas Ranger and Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman. I woke on Sunday morning before church to the smell of cream of wheat with brown sugar and butter on top, still my favorite breakfast. Those memories in high school with them, are some of my best. Both grandma and Dubby supported me at my highest and lowest points. It was an unsettling time in my adolescence when I struggled with debilitating migraines and overwhelming panic attacks. My grandma was always there with open arms, a warm hug, a shoulder to cry on and words of encouragement. She was my backbone for so many years when I was scared to share my anxiety secrets and who I turned to when I needed advice.

She really was involved with every aspect of my life from taking me to my first movie in a theater- Cinderella, to coming along for my first hair perm and even an occasional match making. She encouraged a close friends son to ask me to our freshman homecoming dance. She was not only active in my life but my brothers and cousins too, attending our first sacraments, sporting events, dance recitals and EVERY college graduation. When I was unsure of my future, she was adamant, maybe even a little forceful that I attend Miami University. She had a way with making people choose what she felt was best, and years later, I learned that she had convinced my high school principal to call and make a verbal recommendation to ensure my college acceptance.

After college we continued to share many dinners together discussing the many details of life,  especially when she found out I was having twins. She had endured the heartbreaking loss of her infant son, John Frederick Keller, and I know that memory plagued her when the several babies in our family spent time in the NICU. But through it all, she remained a pillar of strength and beacon of light during that very trying time. I know her endless prayers and support helped each of us. It was always my passion in life to be a mother and how could you blame me when I had a grandmother such as her. She was the perfect role model in every possible way and I strive to be just like her.

She taught us all, family, neighbors, strangers and friends to be loving, compassionate, generous, thankful, respectful, kind, responsible, and loyal. She made everyone that surrounded her feel special, from birthday cards, to flowers for special occasions, and small tokens of her gratitude. She built the foundation of our rock solid family and leaves behind a legacy of people who all possess characteristics of her servant’s heart. She was a giver. She constantly shared her talents and donated her time to our community. She never asked for anything in return except that maybe we take a family photo every chance we get. I’ve started to wonder if subconsciously she led me to become the photographer I am today. Ensuring that once again she would get her way one way or another.

She lived a story book life with many splendors and great hardships along the way. Her last day with us was one of greatness. She received phone calls, texts, flowers and gifts. She enjoyed her final birthday meal with family and heard the good news that her 7^th great grandchild had arrived home from the NICU. She went to meet Jesus surrounded by loved ones. If we could all be so lucky. I find it hard to be sad when I know she lived and loved life to the fullest and is well deserving of her heavenly home. So no matter if you called her Mrs. Keller, Margaret, Mom, Grandma, Gigi or the Kuchenlady. I know that she positively impacted each and every one of you. So today may be goodbye but she lives on through us all. I love you grandma and I’m so proud of you!

(END)

For month's prior to her passing, I had an overwhelming feeling that she wanted to me to be the one to offer up these last words to her. I had been pondering in my head what I would plan to say that would be worthy of her outstanding life. When it came time to write these words, I found it so easy to list all of her amazing qualities. Many, many times last week, I fell to my knees in pure sorrow and wept. Each time that I did this, our daughter Kelsey would be the one to console me, she would hug me and tell me, "Mommy, I am sorry you are sad." When it came time to read her Eulogy at church, I chose Kelsey to be the one to stand with me to keep me strong and from sobbing. She is my new backbone. I was able to keep my composure and Kelsey even offered up some comic relief, professing during the Eulogy to the whole congregation that she, "needed to pee!" She made everyone at mass chuckle just when I was about to break down. 

I am so very thankful for every person who shared a story, card, flowers, condolence or hug at her showing and funeral. Thank you so much for your overwhelming support and it warmed my heart to see how many people loved her just as I!

Austin is 5!

Let’s rewind a bit. It was just another day when I arrived at work on Tuesday, January 24^th 2012 to babysit my best buddies Ellee and Drake. As Julie (their mom) was leaving for work, she expressed to me that she had a “feeling” (a very real feeling) that today was THE day. Being a couple weeks early (38 weeks gestation), I didn’t think much of it but did get a little excited about the thought of it “maybe” being possible. The day moved along and before I knew it, I was in my car driving back home to Lakewood from Huron for the night. We at dinner and I went upstairs to watch American Idol. Once it was over, I went to use the restroom to get ready for bed and my water broke in the toilet. (Just about the best possible place for that to happen!) I yelled down to Paul and we were shortly on the road to the hospital back in Sandusky. As soon as we got in the car, it dawned on me that Julie was right! (well, kind of).  We made a short pit stop to drop off our cats for the next couple of days at my parents and we arrived at the hospital at about 11:00p.m.

In labor with Austin

My best friend Laura arrived at the hospital shortly after we did to help aide in my planned all natural birth (I was crazy)! My contractions had been regular and strong from the get go and I walked, rocked and breathed through them for a handful of hours. When the nurse checked me at 3:00 a.m., I had not progressed from the Doctor visit a WEEK prior! It was then that I through in the towel and got an epidural. We then all tried to get some rest and in the morning (around 10), I was checked again and had progressed to 9 cm and stayed there for many hours. I received some Pitocin to help finish dilation and at around 2:00 p.m. started pushing. I had developed a fever and the shakes from the epidural and I was code pink for delivery. This meant that everyone possible was in my delivery room. My Doctor, the Resident Doctor, the Pediatric Doctor and a Resident Pediatrician, a handful of nurses for the baby, a nurse holding my leg, Laura holding my other leg and Paul at my head. With every push, I looked out into the crowd of no less than 10 people as I delivered our baby. It was Laura, who exclaimed with tears in her voice, “It’s a boy!”

Daddy and Austins very first photo

 Paul very quickly grabbed the video camera and left the room to avoid seeing anything he wished not to see. He made the short walk to the waiting room where my Parents, my Grandma, my Aunt Cindy, Paul’s best friend Josh and Paul’s Mom all awaited the news. As he entered he announced, “Welcome to the world, Austin Hunter!” My grandpa had passed away shortly after we had announced that we were pregnant. He was an avid outdoorsman and hunter. We felt this was the best way for him to live on through Austin. If Austin had been a girl, we had chosen the name Sloane Elise (a play on the name Lisa, after my mom) something we had chosen not to share at the time and didn’t end up using when the twins were born.

Our first photo as a family

Fast forward to now! So much has changed in just five short years. Our once very pudgy baby and non-verbal toddler is now a thriving, intelligent, talkative preschooler. He continues to catch up to his peers in speech but is now lacking in other areas such as fine motor skills and processing/following directions. We have pretty much determined through his Speech and Occupational Therapists and teachers that he has Sensory Processing and Motor Planning Disorders. He will be re-evaluated later this spring to decide what assistance he will qualify for moving into Kindergarten next fall. We recently started setting personal language goals for him. Right now he starts his sentences with, “Me Austin” so we have been teaching him to self-correct and say, “I” want, need etc.

CHUBBY BUBBY

He continues to eat like a rabbit and prefers raw vegetables above all other foods. His favorite foods are tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, carrots, avocado, pizza, cheese, Cheerios with milk, salami, fish and anything chocolate. His favorite activities are playing with playdoh, building with Lego Duplos, watching and reading Charlie Brown, taking real showers alone and helping me bake. He has started to make friends and tends to interact more with girl peers. He has recently started sounding out and reading three letter words during our quiet time together. He is afraid of the dark and prefers to, not sleep alone. This makes bedtime very challenging. He more often than not falls asleep on the couch (amongst the noise and lights) and then we carry him to bed. When reading in his bed at night or laying with him to help him fall asleep, he often tells me funny or interesting tidbits, like just today he said he would like to go for a ride in Uncle Chow’s car (my brother Ryan). He has taken to giving people nicknames and has named my other brother Dylan, “Uncle Pickles.” All in all, he is just like any other child with strengths and insecurities that wants to learn, be comforted and loved. This past weekend we celebrated his birthday with a very small, just immediate family party. Like last year, he did much better with a small group of people whose faces he is very familiar with. He seemed to really enjoy his birthday again and I am very happy to keep the party small for him to enjoy and not get anxious. This year we had a Charlie Brown (he calls him Chuck) birthday because those are his current favorite characters. Tomorrow on his real birthday (the 25^th) we will be having a playdate after school with his friends and a treat, “Charlie BrownIES.”

Showering this morning before school

With his Charlie Brown cake and snoopy shirt for his birthday party

Next up to bat, we have Kelsey. She could not be more of a girl if she tried. She loves to wear dresses with tights, lets me brush and curl her hair, she is attracted to anything pink or sparkly, whines ALL the time and never stops talking. She is very polite and genuine often saying, “Please mommy, Thanks mommy and sorry” (which absolutely melts my heart). She would prefer to live on my lap and climbs into my arms whenever she gets the chance. Her favorite toys are anything she can “collect” such as play silver wear that she carries in her fists or blankets by the arm full. She loves music and will dance to any funky beat and has started to sing songs like the “ABC’s, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. In September, I potty-trained Kelsey and she is completely day trained. We are able to leave the house and she can tell me when she needs to go and stays dry when she takes a nap. She has several dry nights during the week so we are getting closer to night training likely this spring. In December she climbed out of her crib so we decided to combine and convert their beds into what we call the “king toddler bed.” They seem to enjoy sleeping together, probably because they feel the comfort of touching someone else while they sleep. Kelsey only recently started sleeping through the night. I had an epiphany one night to put her in the Halo walking wearable blanket we had from Austin and she has slept through every night since. (Who knew, the child was just cold?) Still, we often play “musical beds” as we call it. Each and every night, (and I mean EVERY) at least one child wakes up at one point or another. If laying them back down doesn’t work the first child moves to the cot in Austin’s room for the remainder of the night. If the child is Austin then he moves to the cot in our room. Sometimes someone ends up in Austin’s bed if he’s not in his but mostly by the morning all 3 kids end up with us. This is because the twins tend to naturally wake-up at 7:30 but we let them lay with us until 8:30 when we generally all get out of the bed. They don’t sleep through the night ever but at least our kids will sleep in most days and sometimes even until 10:00.

King toddler bed

Selfies with mommy, always in my arms!

Like I said, ALL girl even fast asleep!

As Kelsey is the girly girl, Logan is very much all boy. He loves cars and anything with wheels. He enjoys building, especially with real tools. He often follows Paul around grabbing up the tape measure, hammer and random screws and pretends to build and drill things. He is very interested when Paul plays basketball with our garage hoop and tries so hard to lug around the (gigantic to him) basketball. He is very sure-footed and fast on his feet. He can walk up and down the stairs without holding on which always startles people. He was the first twin to give up napping. He will still take one on occasion but if he does then we have an extra hard time getting him to bed (like 11pm or later type of hard time). He started Speech Therapy in September and has already met all of his original goals. His speech needs are not as severe as Austin’s and he shows no signs of the motor planning concerns we have with Austin. His areas of concern are expressive (talking) and receptive (understanding) communication (which Austin did not have). Each day he’s added new words to his vocabulary and is steadily catching up to Kelsey. His current goals are to follow two-step directions and understand the concept of opposites and say- big, little, hot and cold, etc. He is very much a momma’s boy. The kids have all had phases were they favor one parent or another and right now he favors me. He like Kelsey likes to cuddle with me and falls asleep the fastest when I am holding him.

Mommy snuggles

Babies feeding babies

For months now, Logan has been asking to use the potty. He has been seeing Kelsey use it and would ask to sit. I mentally was not prepared to train him until after the holidays. He started to sit on the potty with all his clothes on so that was a very nice start. This week we are taking the plunge and finally training him at almost 2.5 years old. I had tried a couple times in the past handful of months but the concept was over his head. Let’s hope this time it sinks in! He has had quite a few successes already (which is far better than before). Logan is our best eater. He is the least picky of the three and usually asks for more food or finishes one of the other two kids meals. Unlike Austin, both twins prefer fruits over vegetables. They all love salad, pickles, cucumbers, broccoli and green beans but that is the extent of the green variety for the twins. Their favorite foods are: just about any fruit, rice, beans, cheese, fish and milk. We have been trying our best to come up with new recipes that everyone will eat at dinner. We usually make a couple additional sides just so that the kids will eat more than just the protein option. They only recently started to eat a little bit of starch or carb foods but it’s still a hit or miss scenario.

Potty time

And there he stayed for 10 minutes watching tv upside down!

A little bit about me, the business is going very well and I have been continuing to gain a steady flow of current and new clients. I had a couple of nicely profitable months this fall, which prompted Paul and I to decided to upgrade and completely remodel my studio. We’ve had the idea in the back of our minds every since the news anchor posted “behind the scenes” photographs of her sons newborn session on the Fox 8 news website. It was then that it dawned on us that maybe we needed to make my work space more professional, welcoming and appealing. In December after I wrapped up holiday card sessions we closed the studio for a whole month. We ripped up the old carpet, removed the old basic trim, laid a new laminate floor, added wainscoting to an accent wall. We extended an existing closet into the eaves for more storage, cut and painted new trim, baseboards and chair rail, painted the ceiling and bought new storage pieces to hold all of my blankets, and lastly added my logo to the wall so clients will see it as they walk up the stairs and into the studio. The difference is NIGHT and DAY! I say that because my studio used to be very dark and I needed to use extra lighting to get the proper exposure for photos. Now, it is bright with new sheers on the large windows, which provides perfect crisp ambiance. For Christmas, Paul and my parents bought me a new full frame camera body (our old camera is a crop body and was actually my wedding gift to Paul) and with Christmas money from my Grandma, I bought a new lens (85mm) for outdoor family photography. The new camera body has proven to be worth the money. The quality of my photographs has been considerably different and much more sharp.

Sitting area for moms to feed and change baby during newborn photo sessions

My studio backdrop area

The logo and infant posing bean bag

After sanding the closet ceiling!

In November, I was voted as the new Co-Leader (like a President) of my mom’s group and non-profit organization More Than Moms. I have been on and off the board of directors over the past few years between the kids. I have said on numerous occasions that joining this group has completely changed my life in Cleveland and that continues to be the case. I have built amazing friendships and work/professional relationships. As a whole, the group is the perfect support for any mom. I can only hope that I can help continue to allow the group to thrive and help other mom’s.  Speaking of mom’s, we have a new mommy (and daddy) in our family. In November Paul’s brother Jason and wife Mira welcomed an adorable baby girl, Morgan. She is cute as a button. Although we have not been able to meet her yet (they live out of state), I love seeing all of her pictures. She is a perfect blend of her parents and has lots of dark hair. We look forward to being able to meet her someday!

More Than Moms Christmas Party

I close this blog post with some sad news. This fall we had to say goodbye to the “Lady of the house,” our cat Chloe. For more than a year, she had developed the symptoms of early kidney failure. She had steadily lost weight (from 12 to 6 or so pounds), ate less and less and started going outside of her little box. As the year went by, we had to confine her (and Willis) to the basement in the evenings and when we left the house because her accidents had become too frequent. Luckily, I am home with the kids all day long so she spent lots of time with us and I was able to catch her when she needed re-directed to her box. All of sudden in a short couple of days she stopped jumping over the baby gates, stopped eating and hid under our couch and in our closet. We had to make the very difficult decision to put her down. I had never experienced anything like that before. Growing up on a farm, I didn’t grow attached to my animals (knowing the facts of life) and I certainly didn’t ever have to watch one pass away. It was far more heart breaking than I ever imagined. I was snorting, sobbing crying in the veterinary office with Paul, as we said our last goodbyes and give her a final caress. She and I had a love/hate relationship. I would often get very irritated with her because she had a bit of a sassy temper and would pee on our rugs when she was not happy with us for one reason or another. I really truly loved her though. I have extremely fond memories of her, one being that she was the one who presented me with my engagement ring on her collar, as Paul proposed to me after dinner in our dining room. She will forever hold that piece of my heart and the sorrow I felt for her when she passed is not a pain that I would ever like to experience again. Paul decided that she will remain with us and she’s buried in our backyard in Lakewood where we can visit with her and remind the kids of their once beautiful companion. In the end, a good thing came out of her loss of life. Willis has become more friendly with the kids now. While Chloe was alive, he never let any of them touch him. Now, he might not be very fond of it but he tolerates them giving him random attention (a tug at his tail or ears and a rub on his head) when they walk by.

A tribute or two to Chloe

One of her last photos

Paul on the way downtown to watch the Indians in the World Series Game 2

When mom has her car at work and forget to leave the kids coats and shoes!

These 3 amigos are always in cahoots

 

Time to soudle!

The Twins are 2!!!

Summer Lovin!

Our family portrait by my colleague and friend Valerie

I want to start out this post by saying, I am sorry for leaving you all hanging for nearly 5 months with NO updates on our lives. We have been quite absorbed with tending to wild, carefree toddlers and a pre-schooler who has finally found his voice. In the past six months they have all really upped the ante on annoying the crap out of us and wreaking havoc in all possible ways, hahaha! They are full force, whining, rambunctious, non-stop eating machines who only calm down when restrained in a stroller or crib and when subdued by their favorite cartoons! Logan is currently climbing all over me at my desk while I type. *Picture* Don't mind the giant hole in our ceiling, our guest toilet was leaking, another story for another day!

Living proof!

The twins turned 2 at the beginning of this month and we celebrated with a very small family dinner and dessert at our house. I honestly, can't handle much more than that these days. These kids are so time consuming, I can't offer much in hosting large parties anymore, I just don't have the means to pull it all off! We also celebrated with a water playdate with many of my "More Than Moms" group friends in our backyard with a cupcake treat. Developmentally, they are mostly on track. Kelsey is a mockingbird and repeats just about any word you throw at her. Logan is lacking slightly in the speech department. He is not as behind as Austin was but he is not keeping up with Kelsey so we have been referred to Help Me Grow so that he can have a speech evaluation and we can nip this in the butt!

Twins Birthday water playdate

Two year old photo

They both are eating at the table with us for meals, sitting in their booster seats, using utensils and open cups. Kelsey has mastered her open cup and only spills occasionally. Logan on the other hand, prefers to swim in his meal beverage, so he only gets to have one sometimes for practice. Their favorite foods are: Salmon/Trout, steak, avocado, cheese, lunch meat, black beans, rice and any fruit. They currently aren't super big fans of vegetables but they do love broccoli. The two foods they pretty much won't touch are pasta and potatoes, apparently not starch fans. On the growth chart, Logan has really started to pull away from Kelsey. He is now 26 pounds and 33 inches, Kelsey is on the small side at 21 pounds and 31 inches. Yep, you read that correctly, Logan is 5 pounds heavier and 2 inches taller, such a boy! Both kids have lots of curly hair and have had numerous haircuts.

Eating dinner together, we try to every night!

Back in June, I gave potty training a go-round. After 4 full days, the concept just didn't sink in, so to end my frustration over a million piles and puddles on our floor, I decided to hold off a couple months until the fall when it's still warm-ish and try it again. It really should be a fairly easy concept. Austin mastered it in 3 days and was completely trained in a matter of weeks. The twins, I don't think have control yet so hopefully a couple months of maturing mentally and physically will do the trick, fingers crossed! So since we didn't progress with the potty training, I opted to do away with their pacifiers. Really, Kelsey was the one who decided it for the two of them, she took a nice bite of her nuk and left a nice hole in it. That prompted me to just cut the ends off so they could still hold them but not actually suck them. It has been a fairly effective way to handle the transition, they still ask for their nuks but realize they can't actually use them. It has taken them longer to fall asleep but that will change as time passes.

When Drake and Ellee came to visit and stayed the night in June

 Logan continues to be our little "speedy." He is a pro at running to and fro. Luckily at this age, he has no chance of out running his ex-sprinter momma but there is no doubt that in time, this boy will be a star runner and I will have to sick his uncle Dylan on him instead! He is a handsome little dude and makes funny faces especially when he knows you are looking at him. He tends to fight his naps and often goes down well after Kelsey has fallen asleep. The twins seem to be getting more and more different from each other every day. For as much as Logan moves, Kelsey seems to stay put. She doesn't usually venture too far from us but shes is our daredevil. This child dives off of things, climbs, slides and always has bloody scraped knees! She is very dramatic, in true female fashion, she constantly whines and lets you know when she is not pleased! They both love to cuddle and would prefer to sleep with us if they could. Kelsey continues to wake up every night. We are weaning her off the Hemangioma medication and she's down to one dose a day for the month of August and then she will be done. Hopefully that will bring a better night's sleep. In the meantime we bought a folding cot for our room. The last handful of months when she wakes up, we bring her in and lay her on the cot for the remainder of the night, which has worked out really well! Kelsey continues to be our hoarder. She is quite obsessed with all of her blankies and must have an arm full of them when heading up to bed or lounging on the couch.

Our little SPEEDY

Swimming at Grammy's

Noodles, hours of endless fun!

Logan's favorite toys, cars!

Kelsey hoarding her new clothes from Uncle Jason and Aunt Mira

Austin is a changed child. He continues to surprise us each day. He mimics the majority of words we ask him to say and he has added ending sounds to his repertoire. The most exciting advancements have been the words, water and yes, which until very recently were wawa and uh huh. We have opted out of getting him tested for Autism. His special education teacher has indicated that she has no reason to believe that he is on the spectrum and that his deficiency is only speech and language delay. We are going to see if his new teacher agrees with her opinion now that he will be attending an integrated classroom. One of the co-teachers in his class this year is an intervention specialist. This school year, Austin will be attending the afternoon session while the twins nap, that way I can have a true child break. We are excited to see if he can catch up to his peers this year in time for kindergarten next fall. His tantrums have lessened and usually only occur now when he is overly tired which are more in line with the average response for his age group. He prefers to wear his pajamas all day so he has spent most of the summer doing so as you can see from the photos! I am not looking forward to getting him dressed for school this year but at least we wont be rushing out the door! His flavor of the month are his new collection of beanie baby animals that was received from a friend. He loves telling us what every animal is and his favorites are Panda and Otter.

Austin making cookies with mom!

Austin the photographer, he grabbed his play camera while I was setting up a session

The boy can fall asleep anywhere

On top of the daunting task of tending to our children, I have been professionally working my butt off. I started advertising for my photography business and it has been paying off. I joined a Cleveland women's marketing group and have learned many valuable tips on how to get more exposure. Some of those being the proper use of keywords in my SEO settings, blogging my business on my website and using instagram and hashtags to reach a wider audience. My biggest customer draw continues to be word of mouth and facebook photo shares but hey, whatever it takes!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE working. My biggest news is that a certain news anchor (without naming any names) from Fox 8 has asked ME to take her newborn photographs! I am so very excited about this opportunity which will be occuring next week. This being my very first high profile client, I am unsure right now if I will be able to share those photos BUT I wonder, just wonder if my photos will make the morning newscast?!?! Wouldn't that be something if I get a shout out?? So keep your eyes peeled the next couple weeks and we will see! With the business is full bloom, I have cut back with childcare. I had been working 5 days a week with children and photographs on the weekend. That is just TOO MUCH. I am now down to 3 days a week with kiddos and the weekends doing photographs. That gives me at least 2 days off a week to be lazy, HA! And when I say lazy, I mean catching up on the 8 or so loads of laundry a week, actually sitting down once and awhile and stuffing my face with as much food as possible! Today is my "lazy" day, typing away at the computer and watching the Olympics while the kids run amok, dumping out every possible bin we have!

Off to work I go!

In family news, my cousin Kate and husband Chris welcomed their baby girl Penelope Ellen nicknamed Penny into the world in July. We are beyond excited for them. Penny is about the cutest little peanut I have ever seen. We have not officially met yet but we will get the opportunity in a few short weeks when most of the Keller family will be together to celebrate my Grandma's 85th birthday. Her actual birthday was in April but we will be celebrating when the majority of us can make it home to Ohio to be together.

Some other fun random facts, I learned how to make sourdough bread from scratch this summer. Paul's cousin Kathy taught me earlier this spring how the process all works and I have kept it up each week, baking 3 loaves which is the recipe. I have added different flavors(garlic,rosemary and dill) and changed the shapes(free-form and loaf pan). I have taught 6 friends how to make the bread as well and I give away one loaf a week to a rotating list of friends who also enjoy sourdough. Let me tell you, there is no better way to take out your frustrations than by kneading a ball of dough for 15 minutes. It sets my mind right for the week to come, true natural stress relief, hahahah! I recently sold my weekly loaves in a fundraiser to end child hunger and would willingly do it again! The fundraiser was held by More Than Moms, which I have joined the board of directors again. I stepped back into the role I had before the twins as Director of Member Recruitment and I handle all aspects or attracting new members to our organization. I am excited to be back helping run such a great support group and "village" as we call it!

My donations loaves

Learning how to make sourdough while Aunt Cindy and Uncle Rick visited in June

Paul got crafty this summer and created some neat water sprinklers for the kids out of PVC pipes. Since it's very tricky for us to venture out with all the kids we have opted to spend lots of weekends playing in the backyard with the hose. The kids have a ball splashing in their pool and making a wet mess! Paul also had the most amazing Father's Day he could have asked for. The Cleveland Cavaliers won the National Championship. He was home for the game and most of you saw the video of his jumping for joy when they won. He then went downtown to celebrate with friends and didn't arrive home until nearly 5a.m.

Paul watching the CAVS win the National Championship!!!

Daddy and his babes

More photos from our family photo session

Brandich ladies luncheon this July

On the way to a rare dinner out sans children

These two couldn't look more alike and in almost matching clothes too!

And evening walk at the Lakewood Solstice Steps

That's it for now, I promise to post sooner next time, maybe after the family is all in town at the end of the month!