The Macdonald Family

I ran away from my blog. I actually sprinted away and took to Instagram.

By designing blogs, I got to see hundreds of them each week. (I actually sold Leelou Blogs last year, so that's a wonderful thing of the past.) It seemed like many blogs were starting to become a place of deceptive happiness and perfection, which to me equals "fake" and then equals "unfollow". Blogs started to annoy me and I ran away because fake bugs me.

I forget to change diapers. I go weeks without shaving my legs. My kids eat hotdogs far too often. We shop at Wal-mart. I don’t know how to thread a sewing machine. I can’t arrange flowers or paint. Sometimes the laundry sits in the washer for far too long. Sometimes I substitute baby wipes for a bath.

And I think 90% of these bloggers I run into have the same wonderfully dirty sinks that I have. I'm just here to share it. And really, I'm just too darn lazy and old to stage and edit photos.

I love our loud life and sharing all that crazy makes me happy.

So here's to you internets. This is the real us. Sometimes we get to do really cool things and go really great places, but most of the time we look like this:

And I can't wait to document it all so my kids can remember the fun we had being normal.

Catch Jeremy and I on instagram now - @Julie__Mac and @mrmacnology

Blog catch up, Summer 2012. Let's do this.

Most of my posts will now be my instagram pictures since these are pretty much the only pictures I take now. I'll try to tell a little more about them so my children have some sort of record of their lives. Sorry if you've already seen most of these.

Macie and Kelson graduated preschool together. Awwww.

Jaime, my Mom, Landyn and I took a girls weekend trip to see Aunt Jan in California. Seeing as how we were raised in Oregon, Jaime and I both don't know how to pump our own gas. Luckily my Mother showed us how. And by "showed us how", I mean she yelled instructions from her backseat sleeping quarters.

This girl loves the water. And so did Landyn.

Allen fed us ridiculous amounts of delicious food and BBQ goodness for 3 days straight. We did not complain.

The pool wore this baby out. This is just before 9:00 am and she's out cold.

Jaime and I had never been in the Sacramento Temple so we decided to get out of the pool for a few hours and spend a day there.

Where the temple is now used to be a big rec center. We grew up swimming there all summer when we lived in California so it's always cool to go back and see how everything has changed.

The rest of June was filled with us running around like crazy. School got out and we made trips to see Papa Lynn at the dentist.

Dane decided to put 2cm long surf boards in the Wii. Mr. Macdonald liked taking the Wii apart more than he'll admit.

Landyn had a sucker for the first time and as a result her jowls kept sticking to her shoulders.

But she cleans up good.

This child loves his picture taken more than any other child I've known. I'm not quiet sure if that's a good thing or not. He's a poser.

I was able to review a big movie screen and we put it to good use every week this summer.

We had to run Kelson up to Portland to have one last check on his kidney/bladder. Instead of being cleared and never having to come back again, they told us he needed surgery in August. We'll chat about that later, but I never get over the cuteness of children in little gowns.

We were able to see Rosie Rose and of course had to meet up at Carver's Cafe so we could sit in the Twilight booth. And so I could shake my booty in front of the window like Mike Newton. That will never get old.

Back home again we went and Dane was so tired one day after shopping that he just couldn't bare to walk up the stairs. So I left him outside standing there for 15 minutes. He may be a little stubborn.

You know you have a lot of kids when you have to invest in a bike rack.

A group of mom splay old lady ball every week. We are insane, listen to bad 90's music and sometimes dance. Best night of the week.

This summer we decided to make our own biker gang. We rode bikes to bball and then to Dutch Bros. afterwards. Cause we could.

Poor Daner Doo has some major stomache issues. We had him tested and everything came back saying he had no allergies. Except when we give him fruit or milk, he cries alllll night long. So I'm glad we have some answers here.