My Niece Kristin

Here is a sneak peak from my niece's American wedding reception. Kristin and Jack were married in November in a castle in Mancester UK. Jack is from London and they met at college in Boston. They now reside in London

The weather didn't cooperate all week for out planned photoshoots, but we were able to sneak away at the reception and steal some shots.

 I'll have to have a separate post for all the photo bombs....this is one of my faves

Braces

My little boy has braces!

Karrick's mouth is too small to accomodate his adult teeth. I think he has 13 + plus teeth that need to come in. Also, his bite is off where his top teeth on one side bite inside his lower teeth instead of the reverse. If we waited until he was a teen, his teeth would be a disaster due to lack of room and he's be looking at 3 years in braces.

He has an expander to widen his palette...I have to use a key to turn it every night.

Hopefully by putting braces on at age 9, he will only need them for a year.

There is also a chance he may need braces again as a teen, but it will be much simpler process

He isn't really in pain like my other 2 boys were. Maybe teeth move easier when they are younger and not all adult teeth are in?

He is as proud as a peacock with them!

2 kids with braces at the same time and all I can say is

Thank God for Ortho insurance!!

Doing the "Dance Mom" thing

Karrick is officially a member of the ADC Fierce Competitive Hip Hop Team.

He starts a 2 week dance intensive technique camp in July. His teacher  Miss Kelly (the owner of the studio) suggested Karrick also take the all boys hip hop/break dancing class. Which I probably will sign him up for that too

Karrick really wants to do this, so we are giving it a try. I hear it is expensive as hell to compete...Ugh!

The kid is a natural performer so he should fit right in. 

This ought to be interesting

Happy one year anniversary Cal and Katie- Karrick's Recital

Quite possibly the worlds cutest couple celebrated their 1 year anniversary. 

No small feat for a couple of newly turned 14 year olds.

I must say they are both extremely mature for their ages.

I love watching them together, Cal is very tender nad loving towards Katie

We started the day watching Karrick's dance recital. When Karrick's was done with his dance, Tim, the boys and Katie left. I stayed another 2.5 hrs so Karrick could bow at the end. Tim dropped Cal and Katie at Stoney River for a nice dinner. Then they all stayed in Long Grove overnight. Katie upstairs with all my nieces and Cal downstairs with Tim.

I was so impressed with Karrick's dancing. Not even 3 months ago he started and he went straight to the intermediate class and held his own with the kids that have been in there for years

Hip hop, singing and audtioning

This has been a huge week for Karrick.

He took his 1st two private singing lessons to audition for a professional theater role.

Then audtioned for that role at the Equity Actors Building downtown where he went into a room with 7 adults, sang then did dialogue.

Gutsy kid!

Karrick had his ADC Fierce Hip hop competition team audition and tonight he has dress rehearsal for his hip hop recital at Downers Grove south HS.

The recital's theme is "In loving Memory" Karrick's group is doing a tribute to Left Eye from TLC

Us against the wild

Holy Cow! Actually a cow would be better. We have a family of 3 Raccoons that live close.

My guess is somewhere under our deck, it's hard to tell due to the massive size of our deck 600sf. There is also lattice that covers the lower perimieter so we cant see under the whole thing.

Callahan and friends were in the garage sitting at "the table" in the dark , candles lit with soda's and chips late one night. A giant Oppossum jumped out of a box and growled at them.

I would have given anything to see 5 teens scrambling to get out of the garage at midnight via the side door.

OMG, to hear Callahan tell the story made me bust out laughing.

Cal said the tail was a good 2 inches in diameter and it was the size of a medium dog. It also had 1 baby with it.

We also have a skunk that has to be close. Once or sometines twice a week it blows, usually while Tim and I are in bed with the windows open. We are on the 3rd floor and our windows overlook the driveway. The smell is so strong that our eyes water. Im not sure where he takes up residence.

The Raccoons are so bold. They would walk across the deck rail and look in our kitchen window while we sta at kitchen table. At night we can hear them going in and out of cans.

Now the squirrels have chewed large holes in the lids.

Now that summer is hear and kids are outside it has become a safety issue.

A) I need new cans

                  B) I hang ammonia soaked rags

      C) I sprinkle red pepper

I have put Mouse poison little bricks all around 

(not for mice, because we have none)

I do have the fear of the animals eating the poison and just becoming insane

We never had this problem when our dear Patrick was alive

If none of this work it's time to call the professionals

I haven't seen or heard from any of them since the ammonia, but Im not convinved yet. 

I also hear mint garbage bags help.

# 1 is cut off food supply

a day downtown

 Had a nice drive downtown with the TJ, top down with the wind in our hair.

TJ's had a good month

Life is good!

Black and White or color?

answer?

Both

Big Weekend for Karrick

all these pics were shot with my cell phone...so against my principals

 Friday, Karrick had a huge movie audition. There has been a national seach for a little boy to star in a new movie adapted from a popular childrens book to be shot in LA this Fall.

I'm not holding my breath. 

He marched in there and gave it his all....like I have time to go to LA?!

Of course I do! ;p

Clair Simon Casting collected supplies for Oklahoma and the little actors help load the truck. Clair Simon wanted a picture for her facebook page of all the kids in the truck

Saturday my budding actor/model had his 1st editorial photoshoot shot by 

 Nicole Thomas Photography

They shot for 3 hours! We couldn't watch, but I sat with my kids manager and all the moms of the kids he manages. It was super cool, I have been spending time with these moms lately.

The teen editorial shoot is coming up, which TJ and Madie will be in

there was probably 8-10 kids and I cant wait to see these shots. Karrick was the only boy for the 1st half. Isn't that every boys dream to be surrounded by a mass a girl models?
In the car he told me the 11 year old was "pretty cute" Arrgh!
God help me with this one

 Below, Karrick kept everyone amused with his magic tricks. Um, I'm talking about the adults. The kid is too much.

 TJ's girlfriend Madie bought Karrick a little magic set.

Scott, their manager is sitting across from Karrick and he was highly amused.
I'm telling you Karrick is a piece of work

His and Hers

A month and a half ago both of our cars drowned in the Great Flood of 2013...not to be confused with the great flood of '09 or '11.

We never lost our cars before. Water was at least a foot higher this time. We found out the hard way that only my car (damn cute little Audi A4 Convertable- RIP) had rental car coverage.

Whatever...we played pioneer once again and shared 1 car. I drove Tim to the Metra in the am and picked him up from the choo choo after work.

About 10 days after State Farm towed my car away, they declared it totaled and gave me a quote . You then get 7 days more on the rental car once you are quoted..thats bullshit!

We kept the rental and Tim started to work his magic

My Tim has an incredible gift when it comes to fixing and knowing how things work...this also applies to the auto industry.

Tim found our recently deceased cars online. He knows every cars worth. He spends 1-3 months searching everywhere for an old car that looks and runs like new for rediculously low prices. That allows us to have great cars wothout payments

He could not find my same Audi, but did find me a  beautiful BMW 330 CI Convertible for less than what SF gave me for my Audi. Holy smokes my car is fast! Not that I need that in a car, but I spend most of my week driving on the highway. With the convertible I don't feel like I live in traffic...Pop in a CD, but down the top and soak up the sun.

Tim wanted the same car that he had, now he got that for a steal so we knew we'd have to pay up. Insurance gave him $1900 more than what he paid for his other car.

After a solid month of searching day in and day out he found the beauty above in Milwaukee...it came from Texas, so no snow or salt.

He took the Amtrak from downtown to WI and drove her home.

We both have new BMW's...a fine automobile and we again have ZERO payments!

We did have to go check out some cars and didn't get them for whatever reason...My worst nightmare I might add. Tim can look and test drive a car and know whats wrong....people can be shady.

It helps that Tim can do the majority of maintenance on the cars himself...saves us a ton of money
Both our new cars are 2001's

We are recovering from the flood. The lower level is cleaned. We are leaving the laundry room gutted, may slap paneling up, but no insulation or drywal/cemant board. The bottom 4 feet of the family room is gutted, Tim will slap up paneling (bottom have of room only)...cheep and easy to pull off and toss next time we flood.  The air, hot water heater, and washer came back on. We bought a new dryer and are dragging our heals on having someone come out to quote the furnace (I think just the computer panel needs to be replaced)

This time we didn't lose as many personal items, because we brought a lot of stuff up prior to the rain

Not a bad way to earn your driving hours (I just hopped out to take picture) TJ will get his licence in November

Fashion wars

This past Sunday Karrick was booked as a model for Fashion Wars. The event was help at Dave and Busters downtown. There was food, photographers and venders. Channel 5 news was even there. The money raised is for the charity RAINN It was fun and cute. The kids were adorable and really had a good time

Callahan and Katie's 8th grade photo shoot

Friday I had the day off, so we had a photshoot. These are the outfits that Callahan and Katie wore to their 8th grade dance on the "Spirit of chicago". I love how they are color coordinated.

I just love the above picture, it is genuine and sweet.

The chemistry these 2 have is fantastic and they are very comfortable together.

I shot at Babcock's Grove Cemetery and Terrace View Park both very close to our home. These two were so easy we were done in no time.

Im having picture withdrawls, been so busy that I've only done a handful of photoshoots lately