Childhood Randomness

To conclude my week of childhood pictures, I have one final post. After scouring through my baby book, photo albums, and scrapbook, I have a few random pictures. I noticed that photography today is a 1000 times better than back then, because everything was so dark, so blurry! So many of the pictures I wanted to share just didn't come out right! My kids will be super lucky to have so many wonderfully documented pictures of themselves (probably more than they'd like!). But I did find some fun ones to wrap things up!! Hopefully over time, I can go through more pictures and actually scan them onto the computer to really preserve them! 

Hope you've enjoyed getting a glimpse into my childhood, if you weren't there to live it with me!

School Picture Day

Or maybe I should call this post Bangs! Because holy moly, I had alot of them!!!

As I was going through old pictures yesterday, I came across a lot of our school pictures. Not all the years, but many of them! Can I just say I am soooo thankful for flat irons these days?!? My hair was a dark and frizzy wavy mess as I got older! 

I remember in third grade battling my mom on how to do my hair on picture day. I wanted my signature ponytail braid, but she said no because I'd look like a boy. I also didn't want to wear a dress, I wanted to wear my green Gap sweatshirt. So, she let me have my way and my pictures looked exactly like a boy in my class named Michael. She was right, imagine that?!? Moms are always right!! So from then on, picture day was the one day out of the year when my hair was not in a ponytail!

(clockwise from the top left: Kindergarten, First Grade, 6th Grade, 4th Grade, 2nd Grade) 

(clockwise from the top left: Freshman year, 8th Grade, 5th Grade, Senior Picture (finally without bangs!), Sophomore Year, Junior Year in College)

I guess I should also mention I didn't wear a drop of makeup until I left for the college. Even then, I was armed with one palette of neutral shades eye shadow and one tube of mascara that I didn't even know how to put on. But they did invent flat irons my sophomore year in college, so things were looking up from there!

Things I've learned from School Picture Day: always listen to your mom because she IS always right! I hope my boys don't learn that lesson the hard way. 

(And I tried to find that third grade picture...if I do, I will update this post and give you all a good laugh!)

Matchy Matchy

Sure, I match my boys' outfits on special occasions. I don't try to necessarily make them look the same, but I do like to coordinate them. Although, sometimes I go against my better judgment and put them in the same outfit (ahem, HERE!) I never thought I would be like that though, because my mom ALWAYS made us match! Sometimes, even her outfit matched our outfits! Now, I would never go that far with my kids... or maybe I would if I had a girl, who knows! Either way, Sara and I have a LOT of pictures where we are matchy matchy! I remember a certain Laura Ashley photo shoot (the bottom middle) where my mom wore the same outfit as us and I told her our picture was going to turn out like a three-headed monster. And it did. But it really wouldn't be the 80's without a matching Laura Ashley photo shoot, right?!?

 Oh, and don't forget the "sailor look" in our family photo! I don't think I liked it when I wore it. But I probably didn't like anything my mom made us wear at photo shoots because it didn't have a Nike swoosh on it and I couldn't wear my high-tops.  And can I point out my non-existent waste in the bottom right picture with my sister and my Dad? That was Father/Daughter dance in 1996. I remember buying that skirt at Old Navy shortly after they first opened and it was a size 0. Yep, at one point, I wore a 0!!! Ah, the good old days! That's about as cool as my dad's "Vette" belt buckle. Really Mom, you let dad wear that belt buckle (while wearing two shades of denim!) to a Father/Daughter dance?!! But I guess its '"SO" him!! And the picture on the top right with my mom, not sure who's First Communion it is because Sara and I are BOTH wearing First Communion dresses! See, matchy matchy!

But I guess my mom knew that she would look back at all these pictures and love how they turned out. Just as I do when I look back at my boys photo shoots and love how they "match." I guess its just one of those weird things moms like to do. I wonder what my boys will think when they look back at their photo shoots from their childhood. Surely, there won't be anything for them to make fun of.....

My Birth-Day

I was born April 18, 1981 at 5:25pm weighing in at 5lbs, 8ozs and 18.75" long. I came about 5 weeks ahead of schedule, leaving my mom a bit surprised!  According to my baby book, my mom wrote: "My water broke at 2:00pm. We were on our way to Oak Park Mall (I'm glad we didn't make it!). I couldn't get a hold of the doctors or Grandma to watch Sara until 4:00pm. I was barely packed. I had to do a load of laundry before we left. Daddy was nervous (again). It had rained really hard that morning and had standing water in the streets. We made it ok though! The staff was waiting for us when we arrived."

My mom wrote, "I finally got to see my baby as she was born. I felt so much joy and happiness that it is hard to express. I know that I love Laura Beth with my heart and no one could ever replace her. Laura Beth, you are beautiful! Daddy sure does love his little little girl. You look like a little elf, with the cutest pointed ears."

Funny how I think those exact same thoughts when I think about the day my boys were born! Well, maybe minus the elf part ;-)

Now I get it! :)

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On a different note, if you can't see the resemblance, Wyatt looks EXACTLY like me!

Birthdays of My Past

Boy, do I have a treat for you! In honor of my birthday today, the next few posts will be all pictures from my childhood! This blog features my boys and their daily life in childhood, so its only fitting a few of my childhood pictures are featured as well!

My mom made me a scrapbook for my 21st birthday and each year, I like to pull it out and look at all the pictures she so beautifully preserved for me! As I was looking through them, I was wishing I had digital copies to put on my blog. But since we were still living in the land of Polaroids back then, I did the next best thing- I took pictures of the pictures! HA! Not high quality by any means, but it does the job!! 

So, sit back and enjoy the pictures to come!!

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Birthdays have always been a big deal in our house! It was our one special day that belonged to only us. Well, except for my mom and sister- they have the same birthday. (Ironic that my boys too share a birthday!) But my parents always did an amazing job of making our day special! We always had a cake, presents, special meals, birthday parties, the whole shabang. I remember as we got older, my mom liked to blare The Beatles "You Say It's Your Birthday" song to wake us up in the morning. Always a day to look forward to!

These were a small sampling of the pictures I found! The top left is my 1st birthday, the top right is my 2nd birthday. The bottom left appears to be my 11th birthday, if I can count the candles right, and the bottom right is my 7th birthday. I lost both my top teeth that day!

Can't believe I'm now celebrating my 32nd birthday! I still remember those bottom two pictures so well!! Amazing!!