Melissa's Bridals

My cute sister, Melissa is getting married on the 21st and she let me tag along to her bridals. Like I've said before- I am NOT a photographer- but I am trying to learn how to take better pictures of my own kids, so I got to shadow her "real" photographer. While we were waiting for them, I got to play around with my camera and Miss let me take a few pictures of her all dressed up. Thanks Miss!

These are in no particular order... just the way I took them.

Here's a closeup of her gorgeous ring... Way to go Jeremiah!

I am in love with her shoes and want to steal them after the wedding... do you think she'll notice?

I love this picture- she just looks so happy!

She's freakin' gorgeous too...

4th of July 2011

You know we love holidays right? You can't be a reader of my blog and not know that I love holidays. My kids do too and Shaun is coming around. We got to celebrate the 4th of July up in Declo this year with Shaun's family, which was a lot of fun. We got to have a huge lunch and go to a parade and watch fireworks- the kids were in heaven!

We started our day off with Red, White and Blue pancakes and waffles. Jacki was nice enough to let me take over her kitchen long enough to make these for the kiddos- my kids love waffles with whipped cream and fruit (we did strawberries and blueberries in keeping with the red, white and blue theme of the morning) and any excuse to have me make it is a good one.

Then we headed out to Rupert for the parade- the boys love parades- and they think Grandma Jacki does too- so they made her sit down on the curb with them. She's such a good sport. The kids got lots of candy and we saw some pretty cool floats- my favorites are always the ones that hand out popsicles.

Later that day- we had a little time to kill so the kids sat down to make decorations for our BBQ. They handmade some flags and some lanterns to hang from the trees.

And... drumroll please... my favorite part... FOOD! We had a big family BBQ with grandmas and grandpas- and everything was soo good!

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.

-Erma Bombeck

I was VERY patriotic this year!

Then we pulled out fireworks! Chase and Dani got us the hookup with fireworks this year and Ty was just beside himself with excitement. He even got his dad to help him light some of the bottle rockets off.

Ty with a sparkler...

We even got Ryan to come outside with us. Anybody that knows Ryan knows that he is kind of a Chicken Little when it comes to fireworks. He literally thinks the sky is falling and will either cover his head with a blanket or make a run for the house. We coaxed him outside under the lure of snakes and smoke bombs because they don't make any noise. He was leery of the sparklers- but did eventually light one of his own. And then he tried to make a run for the house when we pulled out the tanks and the rockets and the fountains.
Grandma Jacki came up with a creative solution for this though... Yeah... those are the earmuffs that she uses when she goes shooting. Ryan was in 7th heaven. He couldn't hear the noise, but still got to be a part of shooting off fireworks.

Kate didn't care about the fireworks. They didn't bug her and she didn't really watch them. She just sat on the blanket with me totally content to be my little buddy.

As evening fell- I snapped a quick picture of her and her dad. He loves to do what he calls "Rub Rub" with each of his little ones. Ty and Ryan think they have outgrown it- but Kate still humors her dad and will rub his nose when he picks her up.
And one of these days I WILL have a picture that has all three of my kids looking at the camera...

Finally as darkness started to fall- we made our way to the Burley golf course for the BIG fireworks show. Ty was in awe from beginning to end. I love how much he loves fireworks.

Ryan was a little miffed that we forgot his earmuffs, but settled in with grandma to watch them- towards the end he finally took his hands down off of his ears and just sat and watched. Cousin Deja would keep pulling his hands down from his ears and point to the sky- like she was telling him to relax and enjoy the show.

Kate made it through the first round of fireworks before she zonked. And she didn't move the rest of the night. She didn't open her eyes when we put her in the carseat, and she laid as limp as a rag doll when we tucked her into her bed. I guess it had been a long day.

At this point- I would like to say thank-you to all of our service men and women out there who are serving our country. It is because of people like you that we live in the country that we do and have the freedoms that we enjoy. It is my sincere hope that I will be able to pass on the message of hard work and patriotism to my children so that they too will know how important you are.

a

Pictures by the Red Wall and Train Tracks

Anyway- like I said- we had fun playing around with pictures. I am by no means professional- but I love having tons of pictures of my little ones.

Kate on the other hand wants me to have NO cute ones and did THIS most of the time...

Pictures from the Back Pasture

This Ain't No Hay Ride...

Name that movie folks... If you guessed Robin Hood- then you watch too many movies. I know I do.

We went to Declo this weekend for the 4th and Uncle Chase took us for a ride on the four wheeler... kind of... He hooked up a trailer and we all got to ride on it.

Granted it was for another purpose (we were trying to get to the back pasture to take some pictures of the kids), but it was still fun.

The Cardiac Unit at Primary Children's Hospital

The title makes this post sound scarier than it actually is. Thank goodness.

Kate had her one year checkup a few weeks ago and the Dr was still hearing a heart murmur (they found it at her 6 month checkup), so he sent us down to a Pediatric Cardiologist down at Primary Children's. I had hoped that we had seen enough of the inside of Primary's to last a lifetime- but apparently not.

Kate had to have an Echo-Cardiogram in order for the drs to see if the murmur was benign or if it was more serious. So we stripped our baby girl and the nurse hooked Kate up to the machine and let it do it's tests. Kate was seriously ticked- and let the nurse know it. This however, was the reason that I brought my secret weapon... Tyler John. When Kate cried- he held her hand and talked quietly to her. When she was irritated- he made her laugh. There is something so special about that boy- he had the same effect on Ryan when Ryan was in the hospital. I am so grateful for him and his talent.

The tests were run, and the cardiologist came in and took a look at them and at her and told us that she would be fine. That in all likely-hood she would outgrow it and the murmur was no cause for concern.

YAY!! Way to go Kate's heart! I have to admit- I was worried. And I could have kissed the dr when he told us to go home and play.

Tornado Warning

We had a tornado warning the other night. Here. In Montpelier. We don't live in Kansas- we shouldn't be getting tornado warnings! I fully accept the fact that when Yellowstone blows up in a mondo volcanic eruption that we will be burned alive- but we should NOT be getting tornado warnings. I don't want to be sucked off to Oz.

Anyway- tornado warnings aside- we also had a crazy thunderstorm that swept through. Check out the size of the hailstones!

We are safe however- there was no tornado at my house and nobody was blown away.

Big Boy Bed No. 2

I know that I should be embracing each milestone that my children hit, because I know how excited each of them are to be getting bigger- it always seems to take soooo long to grow up when you are little. But I just can't. Each milestone reminds me that they are growing up and I am losing their childhood all too quickly. My nostalgia aside....Ryan was finally able to talk us into taking down his crib and getting him a big boy bed. He has been begging us each night to let him sleep in Ty's bed because it wasn't a baby bed. So we've been playing musical beds each night. We would put Ty to sleep in our bed, and Ryan to sleep in Ty's bed. Then once they were both asleep- we would move Ryan into his crib and Ty into his own bed. This was always fine until morning and Ryan would be sad because he wasn't where he wanted to be.

We gave in- and Ryan was so excited as we were taking the crib down- he kept bouncing around the crib trying to help so that it would "go away" faster. Shaun and I finally got the crib down and the bed up- and it was the first time EVER that Ryan was ready to go to bed before he actually needed to. He got his jammies on in record time and was sitting on his bed with a story. It took a few nights for him to get the hang of it- the first night he was in our room four different times during the night (I thought Shaun was going to hang Ryan from his toes out the bedroom window by 4:00)- but now- he's an old pro.

And I guess I'm happy if he is.

Another Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Thankfully- Ty finally lost one of his top front teeth. The one that came out was getting pretty gross- it was almost sticking straight out (you know- when they are just hanging on by a thread- how they just look soo gross). He looks so BIG now (I kind of hate that part) and it throws me off every time I see him smile. The story of how it came out was pretty funny... I had worked on it one morning and Ty's mouth just wouldn't give it up. So I told him that we would work on it again later. He jumped up and ran off to play- he came and found me about 15 minutes later with his tooth in hand. I asked him what had happened and he sheepishly told me that he had tripped and fell- and hit his tooth against a board game that was sitting in the middle of the floor and it knocked it out. I guess his stumbly moments paid off for him this time! He was so stoked in the morning when he looked under his pillow and I was pretty stoked that the dollar went straight into his piggy bank instead of a request to go to the store to spend it!

Boise

About the middle of June, we got a call from Shaun's brother, Chase and his wife Dani... Chase got a new job that was allowing them to move back to Boise!! Yay! While we're not super close- we'll at least get to see them a little bit now. So we told them we would bring Ty and come help them move into their new house. I was a little leery of taking Ty- knowing that the reality of him "helping" was probably a long shot- but it was a LOT of fun having some one on one time with him! I forget how much fun he is when he isn't being tormented (and tormenting) by his younger siblings. He was so funny though- we got to the hotel we were staying at and he walked into the room, grabbed the TV remote and climbed into the bed (it was probably 3 o'clock in the afternoon)- talk about making yourself comfortable!!

It turns out though, that I didn't have anything to worry about. Ty was an awesome helper- he helped Dani clean the new house by wiping down all the window sills and the baseboards- never once complaining when he was asked to do something. I love that kid- and the trip was a good reminder as to why you need to put some time aside for each of your kids.

Happy Father's Day Photoshoot... No Peeking Shaun...

For father's day this year- I thought I would get some funny pictures for Shaun of the boys being... well... boys and a cute picture of Kate. We went with a Super Hero theme...

Is it summer... finally!?

We have been waiting not so patiently for summer to finally arrive. Today was one of the first really nice days (no rain clouds even) and I snapped a picture of the boys' feet as we headed inside for dinner (Mesquite Barbecue Chicken Quesadillas... Mmmmm)- I think summer is here!! Nothing says summer like filthy feet (to me anyway)- it just embodies the spirit of warm days running around on the grass and tripping over the sidewalk- Ryan stubbed his toe late in the afternoon- he told me it hurt so bad that we better just cut it off! He's so funny!

Anyway- what do you think? Can we pull out the shorts and put away the coats!?!

Birthday Girl (Again)

I had a few more pictures that I have taken of Kate recently, and I thought I better put them on the blog for all to see! This is Kate right before her 2nd birthday party. She didn't like the cupcakes any better this time than she did the first time. Though she was excited to see the candle again.

I took the boys outside today to get some pictures for a Father's Day card and snapped this super cute one of my baby girl- she just sat in the middle of the lawn watching her crazy brothers.

Love you baby girl- here's to another great year!

12 Months

Did you know that my baby turned 1 today? I don't know that I'm all that okay with it. I understand that there is nothing I can do about it- time marches forward whether we're ready for it to or not- but, I just feel like we just had her- there's no way she can be 1 already.

I think I'm having such a hard time with this because I have in my head that she is our last one- and all of a sudden- my "baby" isn't really a baby anymore. She's moving forward into toddler-hood without even a glance back over her shoulder towards her baby days. It just feels like I'm trying to hang onto something that is determined to slip through my fingers. I wish someone could figure out a way to freeze time, so that these days could last longer, stretch this part out just a little bit more.

I remember last year, we spent a lot of time on the couch (not much else for a beached whale to do) under the air conditioning vent. We watched the NCAA Women's Softball Championships- I loved looking at the rosters and the players as they came up to bat because I wanted to see their names. We were totally at a loss for a name for our baby girl- so I kept playing with the names of the softball players, trying to see if there were any that kind of fit. I remember I liked Katelyn. And Kelsey. I did NOT like the name Taylor. Funny how you remember things like that. I was probably the least uncomfortable with this pregnancy than I was with any of the others, and I was soo excited to finally meet my baby girl. I remember how sweet she was in the hospital after we finally did have her. I couldn't let her out of my sight- I was just in awe at how beautiful she was. And her pretty pink bow that the nurse glued in her hair. She was so tiny. I think you forget how little they are until you are holding a newborn in your arms.

I remember watching her sleep one night- everybody had gone home and the nurses had already done their rounds. All was quiet. And she was sleeping so peacefully- I remember thinking that there was so much ahead of her. Like any story- hers has a thousand pages that I cannot yet read. It's just amazing to me that something so small can be greater than the sum of all its parts and that with the addition of each of my children- my heart becomes more and more whole- even though I never knew anything was ever missing.

Katie fills all of our hearts each day- her brothers love her more than she will ever know. They love to make her laugh, they love to bring her toys, they want so badly to share their snacks and treats with her- thoroughly convinced that she will love Cheetos just as much as they do. They love it when I put Kate in their beds with them. She snuggles right up next to them, and their noses come together- it's almost like there is a magnet hidden in the tip of each one, and the laughs begin almost instantly.

I wish that I had the words to better explain how much she means to us. Her spirit in our home has brought so much joy, and our lives will never be the same.

Love you Baby Girl!