Saturday started with Mike and LG outside planting trees. Remember that cool flowering pear and flowering plum we got last year for my birthday? Dead. :( So he got new ones and planted them in different places this time. Hopefully they make it.

While they were doing that, I ran to the bookstore to get gifts for my nieces and nephews birthdays that I had managed to miss over the summer. Yes, I am a failure as an aunt. They liked their presents, though, so maybe that makes up for the lateness? :)

When I got back, we decided Melody was long overdue for a bath, but we were out of dog shampoo, so off I went to the pet store to get some. Then she got a bath. She was thrilled, can you tell?

Then we came in and got to cleaning house since people were coming over on Sunday. Mike was cleaning the pantry/putting things away when he found what he thought were signs of a mouse. Freaked us all out. Ended up being a gecko, though…lol!

As I was walking out of the room to put something away, I happened to glance out the window and spied what I thought were hawk wings on the ground of the empty lot next door. Ended up being vultures!

We never did figure out what they were eating.

Did you know whey they’re circling, they’re called a kettle of vultures? There were seven all together.

That afternoon, we took LG to see:

It was cute!

Afterwards, we stopped by the fabric store and picked up about 5 yards of very wide white muslin to use the next morning at the photo shoot.

The next morning, we finished cleaning and set up the living room for a photo shoot of Mike’s siblings and their families. The main purpose was to get a photo of all six of the grandkids for Mike’s mom’s birthday in November. The last time we did a grandkids photo was when LG was a baby and there were only 3 grandchildren back then. Now there are 6.5 (one is on the way!). We also did shots of all the family groups, as well as the girls by themselves and the boys by themselves. It was a lot of fun. The funniest part was listening to my in-laws all making silly noises over my shoulder as I was clicking to get the kids to look at the camera and (hopefully) smile. With six kids aged 6 1/2 all the way down to 1 year, it was a challenge. But it was fun and we got some cute shots. If I had permission, I’d share, but I don’t, so you’ll just have to take my word for it!

Instead, here’s a test shot we did with LG when we were getting things set up:

After the photo shoot, we all went to Mike’s parents’ house for a September birthday get together. Then Mike and I left LG with Grandma and went to church. It was a bit emotional because my BFF’s son who is leaving for Iraq next weekend was there, and they did a blessing at the end of the mass. We were all in tears, and I’m still not sure how we pulled it together enough to do the closing song, but we made it through.

Then we picked up LG, came home, and realized her sheets were still in the washing machine so we had to wait for them to dry before she could go to bed. Finally, they were done and she went to bed. I fell asleep with the TV on and the laptop in my lap, but finally got myself to bed. It was an exhausting, but fun, weekend, proven by the fact that LG took a rather long nap today (something she rarely does).

This morning, LG and I went to Verizon to look at new phones for me. I get a bigger discount if I buy them online, but I wanted to physically see the phone before I made a choice. The salesman was actually very helpful and gave me some good advice. I came home and ordered the new phone and should be getting it tomorrow! Woohoo!

So that’s why I wasn’t online too much this weekend. How was yours?