Autumn Photos

Last night I pulled out a few dresses and skirts that I had put away for Kaylen to grow into and she completely fell in love with one outfit that I had bought from a friend when her daughter outgrew it a couple of years ago. She pranced around in it last night and then this morning, when it was time to get dressed, it was the only consideration.

I have to say - she is pretty darn cute in it. :) And no one is more surprised than me that she even wore the tights! She hit on the idea of having her picture taken and since we were heading to the mall anyway we decided to go ahead with her plan. And no surprise here but the tights were ditched shortly thereafter. :)

She's cute, don'tcha think?

This is my favorite one!

Love this one, too!

Love her smile so much but the leaves on her head? Hmmm.....! This was Kaylen's favorite though she we got it just for her.

This is really great too. I was standing to the side letting leaves fall on her. I think it would have been so much better without the falling leaves but it's great just the same. :)

Through the Years

This tradition got started without my even knowing. When Kelton was a year and a half he and I went in and had some photos taken. I loved the one of him on my back so it's the one we bought. The next year I was pregnant with Kaylen and I wanted a photo to mark Kelton and I together alone and we ended up with the same post because it was easy and looked good.

Then Kaylen was born and the day after her first "stop breathing" episode I had a primal need to document the three of us together. So - we went in and Kelton remembered hanging on my back and wanted to do that. It worked. And it has continued to work through the years.

We went in this morning for our annual photo and when I was putting it in the frame the stack of years gone by was waiting for me. I thought I would post and share them. I can't tell you how these photos fill my heart.

My babies and me.

Kelton (20 months)

Kelton (2.5years)

Kelton (3.5 years )
Kaylen (11 months)

Kelton (4.5 years)
Kaylen (2 years)

Kelton (5.5 years)
Kaylen (3 years)

And now...this years:

Kelton (6.5 years)
Kaylen (4 years)

This is a pose Kelton wanted. It didn't turn out half bad....of the kids. :)

Nice Photo, Don'tcha Think? :)

I love this picture. So, so much.

And guess what? I took it! :) Yes, it's true. Kelton's art stuff was spread all over the table and my camera was sitting right there so....

Isn't it cool? :)

First Day of Summer Vacation Means....

...new photos!! :)

I took the kids to the Picture People this morning in the hopes of getting a photo of Kelton alone. It's been a long time since it has been just him in a photo and I wanted to have a picture to commemorate the end of his kindergarten year. As it turns out, neither Kelton nor Kaylen could abide with her *not* being in some of the shots so....


Sweet, sweet ,sweet!

Muscle man! This is Kelton's favorite pose because he thinks he looks "amazingly cool and super tough". I got a sheet of two 5x7's and framed one for his room. He is thrilled!

This pose was Kelton's idea. Isn't it just too much? :) I kept hearing little "I love you, Kaylen!" and "I love you, too, Kelton!" coming from them. So cute!

And I have to once again sing the praises of Picture People. With their club membership giving me one free 8x10 and $10 off another sheet and their coupon giving me a free 10x13 and 25% off portrait purchases I was able to get all three sheets for *insert drum roll here please* $5.30. I love their membership cards - they are so, so, so worth the $39 (and you can use one of the $10 off to buy the membership card so really, you can get the card for $29 and on it you get three free portrait sheets, a couple percentages off and a few $10 off coupons to use. I'm telling you - it's the way to go! And don't forget the coupons they have all the time on their website for a free 8x10 or 10x13! Those ROCK!! And now that the studios have gone digital, there are so many fun ways to enhance your photos....and no, this is NOT a paid advertisement for them. I just love going there! :)

If you know me in real life and live here, I have some great coupons to share for a free photos. We'd both win - you'd get a free photo and so would I. Let me know if you are interested. :)

My April Fools

Pictures to Share

I am not feeling all that inspired to write anything tonight. I'm tired and in a fair amount of non-comfort from stuff so instead of struggling to come up with something interesting I thought I would just post some recent pictures.

Let's start off with a couple of Kelton and the dogs:

Awwww! Could this be any sweeter? See that blanket? It's the BEST blanket in the world. I found it at Target a couple months ago and it has become the all time favorite cuddle blanket. They all like it but it's MINE MINE MINE!! :)

So much for "no other dogs on the couch!"

Kelton dressed Jordan up in his pajamas. No worries - Jordan didn't complain one little bit. :)

When we learned for certain that Kaylen was a girl, Dakota began to fret about "having to play tea party" and how she really didn't want to have to do that. Ummm...fast forward to this past weekend when I walked into the room to find this scene. I think it's fair to say Dakota has adjusted quite well to all things girly girl. :) And don't you just love that Kelton is drinking directly from the tea pot???

Saturday afternoon brought rain so the kids raced to get out to splash in the mud. As you will see, Kaylen was dressed up in her party dress. She flat out refused to change so I let her go. I'm happy to report that I was able to get out every drop of mud and the dress is picture perfect again....which is good because I want to take her in for pictures and this dress is what I want her to wear. :)

I still haven't finished up Kelton's invitation (it's on tonight or tomorrow's To Do list) but I did get a couple of decent photos. It's hard to do these days because every time I try he acts all goofy and makes silly faces (case in point, check out a photo in the slideshow below). I like these two for different reasons - once because it really lets his personality shine through and the other because he looks so gosh darn innocent. :) I'm not sure which one I will use yet.


And finally......today Kaylen attended her very first non-family birthday party. Her friend, Katie, turned 4 years old and had a princess party. Since it was in the afternoon, all the kindergarten older brothers were invited as well. Everyone had a really good time and Kaylen cannot stop talking about it!

Photos From Today

This is my favorite!!

The annual photo of the kids and I. I started this when Kelton was 2.5.

This is a goofy look we see *all* the time!

My babies!

My goofy boy teaching his sister the tricks of the trade. :)

My Cuties

Yesterday afternoon we set about trying to get one decent photo for the ol' Christmas card and while I was setting up the timer on the camera I happened to catch a couple of Dakota and the kids. I have to say, I think I have the cutest, and definitely the goofiest, family on the planet. :)

Everything is OK

Wow - I'm touched by the emails asking if everything is ok since I haven't posted since ummm...Thursday. Thank you. Yes, everything is fine. Great, actually. It's been a really good few days with tons of fun but along with tons of fun and great times comes a lack of time available for posting. Monday morning keeps me busy in Kelton's classroom and afternoons are packed with all the stuff I didn't get done in the morning, plus the afternoon stuff and of course my daily phone chat with a friend. Time just slips away.

But yes, everything is ok and I promise to get an update posted soon. Kaylen is giving me a run for my money today and actually ended up taking a virtually unheard of hour long nap this afternoon. Might have something to do with the fact that she has recently taken to waking up way too early in order to see Dakota in the mornings *yawn!*. I know she misses Dakota and all but darnit - 5:50AM was just too early this morning. Of course now that she has a nap under her belt, bedtime is anyone's guess. She's been so clingy and needy this afternoon. Hopefully she isn't getting sick and this is just a lack of sleep issue.

But even so - life is good (minus the car seat struggles for Little Miss Kaylen - more on that another time. Maybe someone has a good suggestion for me.). Here are a few pictures to share with you:

Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

Miss me? :) As you may remember, we traveled up to see my family this past weekend and I have to tell you, I had a great time! My brother's house is amazing and beautiful and perfect for hosting a family of four. :) We had free run of the entire main floor (two bedrooms, a gigantic bathroom and a living area complete with couches, TV, tons of floor space and a piano). It seriously couldn't be a more perfect set up. Upstairs is three bedrooms (well, a master (and bath) and two other rooms used as offices). another gigantic bathroom, the living room, dining area and huge kitchen. The view from the front deck is even better in real life than in photos and the back deck has a hot tub and stairs leading to the backyard which was equipped with a trampoline and play structure (not yet moved out by the previous people). The kids were in heaven on that trampoline and I have to say, little Miss Kaylen can jump! I'm not sure where she gets her coordination and balance from but that girl can jump circles around me...and everyone else!

Besides the amazing house though I had a really great visit with James and Cara (and I don't think we drove them *too* nutty! *grin*) as well as my sister, brother-in-law, niece (and kids), dad and a cousin and his family. I kid you not, we packed a lot into not quite 48 hours.

We arrived in town Friday around 1pm and we stopped by Cara's office so that we could follow her to the house. We unpacked and settled in a bit and then the kids went wild in the yard for a few hours. Soon, it was time to head over to my sister's house (about 50 minutes away) for her birthday bbq. I was glad to see that she looked so well after her surgery last month and while she is still recovering, she looked good! When we first arrived there Kelton's cousin, her mom, brother and my brother-in-law were down the lane on the water and Kelton couldn't wait to see them so I agreed to walk with him down to meet them. Oh the joy that arises when they see each other - it just never gets old!

We stopped on the way back to pet and feed a couple of goats who have a pasture down by the water and, as you can see in one of the pictures below, Kelton ate a couple blackberries. :)





We got back to the house and settled in for dinner - which is crazy nutty when you have a 6 year old, a 5 year old and two 2 year olds plus 10 adults. My dad was there which I was really happy about because it gave me a chance to visit with him. About 8:30pm we said our goodbyes and, taking Cara with us (James took my dad home), started out on the hour drive back to the house. We hadn't gone all that far when I thought to ask Cara if they had a coffee maker (I suddenly remembered that Cara isn't a big coffee drinker and James doesn't drink it at all.). They didn't - so I made a stop at WalMart to buy one and all the necessary fixings. It's not pretty thing if I go without coffee in the morning and there were no nearby coffee places that Cara could think of.

We finally arrived back at the house about 10 and amazingly enough, the kids hadn't fallen asleep on the way back. I'm sure it had something to do with all the silly songs we were singing. :) We got them to bed without wasting any time and we quickly followed.

The next morning we hung out at the house and played A LOT on the trampoline. Around lunchtime my cousin and his family, along with my dad, showed up for a bbq. Again, it was crazy nutty but a lot of fun. The kids (and Dakota) all got to play in the hot tub which they loved! Then it was food time and more play time. At one point on the trampoline, Kaylen noticed that her cousins toes where painted pink, just like Cara's were, which made her want HER nails painted pink. It wasn't long before all four kids were lined up getting finger and toe nails painted. It was too funny!

I left to take my dad home about 4:30 (it's about an hour drive each way) and I really enjoyed having that time with him. Once we got back to his apartment I went inside for a bit to see his new cat. I'm so glad he has a cat and I can clearly tell how much those two love each other. Mr. Tom Cat was even waiting at the door when my dad opened it. Very sweet.

I stayed a bit and then said my good-byes and headed back to James' house. Since it was an hour drive I decided to call my sister and she and I talked the entire way. It helped the time go by quickly and it was nice to be able to talk with her without having to say "Hang on a sec...Kelton, please give that back to your sister." or "Hang on again....Kaylen, we don't hit!" a million times in 10 minutes.

By the time I got back to the house the kids had already had their dinner and were getting ready for round two in the hot tub. They were both so tired though that it took only about 10 minutes before Kaylen was asking to get out so she could go to bed. Both kids were out cold by 7:30pm.

The adults had dinner and then we settled in to watch a slide show of the photos taken during the day. Cara took control of my camera early on in the day and all I can really say is this: my memory card hold 1168 photos. Why do I know this? Because that's how many photos Cara took. (ok - I took maybe 60 of them) She got some really good shots too! I deleted about 500 last night when I downloaded them but that means I kept 668 - with most of them being from ONE day! Pretty funny!

Yesterday morning we got up and packed up everything. We had breakfast, played for a bit (yep - you guessed it. On the trampoline.) and then hit the road at 11am. We drove for an hour and stopped in at my sisters for about an hour (we had made plans to go through mom's jewelry box). We hit the road again for about an hour and then made a stop at the cemetery before driving 3.5 more hours home. We arrived home around 5pm and we were all exhausted!

It was a really good weekend though and I already want to go back. :)

This morning was Kelton's first day of his second session of day camp. He is loving it just as much (maybe more now that he knows what to expect and knows some of the kids) as the first week. Hard to believe that in 22 short days my baby will start kindergarten.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

My Beautiful Boy

As promised, here are the photos of Kelton that were taken earlier this week. Aren't they amazing? I love, love, love them!!
















(PS - if you havne't read todays saga, then keep reading. You are in for a treat! :) )