My Family '09

Yeah! We're all in a picture together! This NEVER happens - so it's really, very exciting to see all of our faces in one picture . . . happy! This weekend we took some pictures off my parent's back deck - so I've got some more coming!

I just love them so darn much!

So, I know that life has been insane lately and I've been bad at posting, but I found an opportunity to have my kids tag along at a session last week so that I could get a few pics of them after I finished the session. I do regret giving them free-reign with the large bag of suckers while I was shooting, and I only got 2 or 3 images of them all together (mainly because Jake can't hold still for more than a second!), but I got a few pictures that I just cherish -- so I'd say it was worth the extra hassle to have them tag along!

I asked the boys to show me their "tough guy" faces and apparently Sam is "looking for anyone who wants to fight" when he's being "tough".
Look! Jake stopped running for one second! I think he ate 20 dum dum suckers!
Jake's not quite 2, but his personality is very obvious and strong. He is absolutely in love with horses, elephants, and football. I never pointed him in that direction, I just noticed him playing football with himself one day out in the yard. This was about a month ago - so I'm guessing he'd been watching Colten and Sam closer than I thought. He'd get down and say 3 unintelligible things, then yell, "GO!" and he'd get up, run as fast as he could, throw the football ahead of himself (while running), and then tackle the football. Sometimes he'd even lie there acting like it was a "big hit".


Chloe even likes to get in on the football action (even though she has her own little girly way of playing).
Colten turned 9 a few days after I took this picture. I just LOVE seeing him grow up! He's turning into such a great helper and such a funny kid!
Seriouly, this was picture number one and picture number two has Jake running towards me. I really can't get a great pictures of all my kids together to save my life!







Geez - I just love them! I know I'm biased because they're mine, and that's how all parent's feel about their kids, but life is so exciting and funny with these little kiddos in my life and I feel so blessed to be trusted with them!

I remember pink curlers!

My mom used to put my hair up in 2 high-piggy-tails with thousands of pink sponge curlers every Saturday night so that my hair would be huge and fluffy on Sunday mornings. I could NEVER sleep! Well, being the girly-girl Chloe is, she was so delighted to see that I picked up a few pink curlers -we had to put them in right away! (And, YES, that's a wart bandaid she has on her arm. Don't ask me how she got one - I have no idea!)

I had to post this picture of Geddy because he's driving me crazy eating everything he can get a hold of -- this picture reminds me of how darn sweet he is, too!

Christmas for grown-ups!

I've decided that there really is such a thing that can cause that giddy, excited feeling in an adult that was once only claimed by small children . . . . . gardens. It's this crazy thing - you have dirt, you put a seed in the dirt and say a little prayer that something will happen if you pour water on the dirt. It's absolutely mind-boggling, but in a matter of weeks, green stuff GROWS! Seriously!
This was my first attempt at a garden, so I kept it small. I actually have no idea what I planted, but I got corn, 5 million tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, cucumbers, thousands of peas (a favorite of the kids!), and the most enormous pumpkin patch ever! I didn't really know how big these plants can get - those seeds are so tiny, you know? So, now the garden is growing all over the place, but it's like Christmas everyday!!
Jake has loved helping me pick the veggies! He tries to feed it all to Bo, our horse. This is in my friend, Kim's, garden. He picked a few tomatoes that he shouldn't have and he was really excited about it! Sorry, Kim!
I just think her dog is so funny in this pic!
Jake and Jack liked hiding in her corn.

They congratulated themselves on a garden well done!

The peas were our favorite. The kids would go out and just plop down next to the plants. I really don't think more than a few actually even made it into the house!

Jake would get a pea and go hide on the other side of the garden so I wouldn't "catch" him eating them all up!
Living with a field means that you need to have cats to keep the mice away. Sometimes, the cat will bring her catch closer to home. I am so dang grateful that our cat likes to eat her mice right in front of us. I especially like that sometimes she leaves a little for us to discover. It's so great to learn about the insides of mice. It's a great teaching tool. I really, really, really can't tell you how much I absolutely love that the kids are fascinated by what the cat is eating. It's just awesome.
But, I DO love my corn!



Jake loves to go out and pet Bo. It's a little scary because Jake would run right out there and hang onto Bo's legs if I'd let him. He's completely obsessed with horses. I love that Bo actually knows when Jake is at the gate - he rushes over to sniff Jake every chance he gets. One more thing about my crazy-man Jake. He's the dirtiest kid ever. He could just THINK about an oreo cookie, and his entire face would be covered in cookie sludge. He has lots of "mini-baths" just to keep the rest of the house clean. He's so messy that I'm afraid I might still have to be doing this when he's 18 years old!

First Day of Preschool and dance!

It was a big day last Wednesday - Chloe finally got to start preschool! She has been ready for this for a long time, and as sad as I am to send her off to school for a few hours a week, I know it's going to be great for her!
Don't let this look fool you - she wasn't nervous at all. You know that feeling when you get so excited about something that a tiny little scream builds up in your throat and it kind of tickles? That's what she was going through out on the sidewalk before starting school. She is definitely a "social" girl who really loves her friends (I just hope she doesn't ever have to experience the "time out five times a day behind the piano for talking too much" that I did in preschool!).
She was so happy to discover that they do a lot of painting! She could color and paint and build things all day long - so it was heaven for her!


We all just love her teacher! She's known "Teacher M" since we moved up here 3.5 years ago and started having her daughters babysit. It's great to have a solid relationship with your teacher even before school starts!
After lunch, she got to start up dance again. Last year was so fun, and this year she'll be doing more clogging and tumbling. She was so dang excited!


Check out these moves!





I just love how happy she is all the time!