Ritz Bitz Newz

CHEESE!!!!!!

Anyways, I had completely forgotten about it.  Until recently when my Aunt sent it to my mom, and she shared it with my sisters and I.  We got a kick out of it!  My sister Brooke is next to me, with pig tails, and our brother Isaac is crammed in the front, most likely with his legs dangling through the leg holes.  

I feel so much emotion when I look at this.  My mom and I are super close.  She is one of my best friends.  We talk almost every day.  Many of our conversations revolve around the joys, stresses, happiness and misery surrounding motherhood.  She understands me, my job, my stresses, my sense of duty and my desires to be the best mom. 

We are in completely different phases of motherhood right now.  She is the mother to seven adults.  I am a mother of 2 teenagers, 1 adolescent and 3 wild little boys.  It is very comforting to know that she did this before me.  I actually remember a lot of her experiences, from the perspective of child.  

Sharing this motherhood gig with someone like her helps me get through the day to day.  She can match or top each and every story/experience I share with her.  For example, I tell her a story about how awful my son was during church, and then she retells one of my stories about the time when one of my brothers stood up on the pew, in the middle of the meeting, and started pretend shooting my dad....LOUDLY!

Or I call her crying and upset because I left my sons hand slammed shut in a door for about 10 minutes because I thought he was just throwing a tantrum.  She then tells me about the time she did the same thing with my brother in the car door.  She thought he was just throwing a fit on the way to the store, and she did her best to just block him out.  She realized it when they got to the store.  I felt a little better about my horrible misjudgment.  

One of my favorites is when I call her on a rough day, and she says, "Well, I told you not to have any children."  It always makes me laugh.

One thing is for sure.  Thank heavens for carts big enough to have a two seats in the front!

Here are some Pinterest finds that I love.  These are just perfect for my life right now.

For Christmas Jason got me a cradle to hold my phone that mounts onto the windshield.  It is fantastic!  Don't worry.  I do not use or look at my phone while driving, except to hit answer and speaker phone.  

I spend A LOT of time in my car with my little boys.  We drive the older kids back and forth and all over all day long it seems.  Someone always needs to be somewhere.  I miss the days when I was bored at home with just two little kids, and nowhere to go!  Oh how I miss it! 

As I was going through my pictures to blog I found a lot of car "selfies".  My little boys are cute, even in the car, and often my mom or sisters will text me to ask what I'm doing.  So when I am stopped at the grocery store, or I'm waiting in front of the school I will send them a car selfie.  

As I was going through my pictures to blog I found a lot of car "selfies".  My little boys are cute, even in the car, and often my mom or sisters will text me to ask what I'm doing.  So when I am stopped at the grocery store, or I'm waiting in front of the school I will send them a car selfie.  

The older kids are not so sure this is cool to do.

Often after I take a "car selfie"  I look more closely at the picture, and see at least one hilarious expression on someones face!  

In this one Bennett made me laugh.

Am I the only one who does this, or are all these car pictures just proof of all the quality time we spend in the car together?

It is not just selfie's, but I also found a lot of pictures just taken in the car!

The only one really asleep was Theo.  Harrison always rips his tie, shirt and suit coat off before we get home.  Lily told Bennett to pretend he was sleeping.  He just couldn't do it for quite all of the pictures.