Monday Musing | More Photography Fun

This was kind of a laid back weekend for us.  We got a lot of work done in the garage and can almost fit both of our cars in the garage.  This will mark the first time since moving back to Va that we can both park our cars in the garage.  Yippee!!  Now if we can just KEEP it clean and de-cluttered...well, that's another story.  :)

I also had my second mentoring session with Beryl, from Be Young Photography.  While she is a fantastic photographer, she is also a wonderful teacher and I learned SO much from her and am so happy to have stumbled across her Momtography 101 Class.  When I ended up not being able to take that class, due to a scheduling, she offered the option of a one-on-one mentoring session.  While this was a bigger financial investment on my part, I am so happy that I went for it, b/c I think than it will turn out to be an in-valuable opportunity.

For the second half of our mentoring session, Beryl came to our house and we did a mock photo shoot.
I'm so excited with how these images turned out.  We started in the front yard, but quickly moved around back to the play set, when the boys started to get restless...it was fun for them to play, and I got cute shots....of Tyler and Kate at least.  Luke just wasn't interested this time!

Working with Beryl was amazing and I'm so excited to be on my way to making my photography dream a reality!

Monday Musing | More Photography Fun

This was kind of a laid back weekend for us.  We got a lot of work done in the garage and can almost fit both of our cars in the garage.  This will mark the first time since moving back to Va that we can both park our cars in the garage.  Yippee!!  Now if we can just KEEP it clean and de-cluttered...well, that's another story.  :)

I also had my second mentoring session with Beryl, from Be Young Photography.  While she is a fantastic photographer, she is also a wonderful teacher and I learned SO much from her and am so happy to have stumbled across her Momtography 101 Class.  When I ended up not being able to take that class, due to a scheduling, she offered the option of a one-on-one mentoring session.  While this was a bigger financial investment on my part, I am so happy that I went for it, b/c I think than it will turn out to be an in-valuable opportunity.

For the second half of our mentoring session, Beryl came to our house and we did a mock photo shoot.
I'm so excited with how these images turned out.  We started in the front yard, but quickly moved around back to the play set, when the boys started to get restless...it was fun for them to play, and I got cute shots.  Beryl is a FANTASTIC teacher.  I can't speak highly enough about her.  Not only is she a great teacher, she's a wonderful lady and photographer, too.  ;)

October Fun

We've been all kinds of busy having lots of fall fun lately....three visits to various fall festivals/pumpkin patches in the past two weeks!  Our first outing was to Cox Farms.

We went with their buddies, Austin and Logan.  They always have so much fun together, with the big boys and little boys just 2 and 3 months apart from each other.  This foursome always produces a lot of energy, but it's so much fun to watch them all together.  They enjoyed big slides

 

and a petting zoo with some friendly goats.  Well, Luke didn't think they were so friendly, but Tyler loved them!

In fact...he was in such a hurry to see them, that he wandered over there all by himself and gave momma quite a scare when I realized he was not longer at the slide with us!  I looked over to the goat cages and there he was asking for some food to feed them.  But, Luke did love the wooden train he could climb through and the small pond where he could throw rocks!

Our baby girl is here!

After 39 long weeks, we finally have met our precious baby girl.

Katelyn was born Monday, July 26 at 11:12 in the morning, weighing 7 lbs, 11 oz and measuring 20.5 inches long.  That's exactly how long I was when I was born, too!  She's longer than either of the boys have been.  Let me tell you, this little gal has completely grabbed us by the heartstrings.  She is amazing.  Here she is just a few hours old, being introduced to everyone.  Can you see Luke's face?  He was so excited to see Mommy and meet baby Katelyn.

 This weekend, daddy was scared of having a little girl and today, holding her...he looks as comfortable as can be.  Everyone told him that having a daughter was amazing, but I'm not sure he really got it.  I think he gets it now, though and it is so beautiful to watch.  Hmm, makes me get teary eyed just thinking about it!

 The boys are in love with her, too.  It is so precious to watch.  Tyler is the proudest big brother and very protective of her already.  And Lucas just loves her to death.  The smile on his face when he looks at "baby" (as he is calling her, hopefully we'll get him to say Katelyn before too long) is so incredibly precious.  He really is taken by her.  I remember Tyler not being too interested in baby Lucas, but Lucas is so VERY aware of her...in fact, I'm thinking we are going to have a little trouble helping him to understand that she's not quite ready to play with yet!!  Poor little girl, with Daddy and these two older brothers, she's going to be one very loved and VERY protected girl.

We are so excited to welcome this little girl to our family and can't wait to watch her grown!

Woo...Pig...Sooie (sorry if I butchered spelling, Pop and Aunt Rachael)!!

Aunt Rachael sent the boys these adorable U of A (University of Arkansas for those of you who don't know that Pop and Aunt Rachael are alumni) t-shirts. Tried to get the boys to model them for you Rachael...haha!

Tyler did a good job. Now, let's add Lucas...

Aah yeah...doesn't really want to sit still.

"Ok Tyler, hold onto him".

"And Luke, you've gotta look at the camera."

And that would be the best we could do until the silliness began.

Uh-oh...Luke took a little tumble. Good thing daddy is around.

Family Picture Favorites

Here are my favorites from our family portrait session back in the fall, that I promised I'd post after our Christmas card went out.      

And here was our Christmas card...if you like, be sure to look me up next year, so I can design a card just for your family.  Sent With Love Designs

Choo-Choo's and Fun in the Leaves

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I love pictures.  I love taking them mostly...but it's hard to take a "family" photo of yourself.  So, after lots of searching I finally found the perfect photographer for our family.  This lady is awesome.  Beyond her great photography skills, she believes that the images should belong to those who she photographed!  This was a great plus for me, as I was hoping to use one many of the images from our session for our Christmas card.  I was kind of fearful as to how the session would really go, since my boys no longer seem to enjoy being photographed.  Well, not that they don't like it...they are just SO busy, that the thought of having to sit still, look at a camera and smile doesn't really seem to intrigue them much.  But Carla was so fantastically patient with them.  She really made our day fun and it totally reflects that in the pictures.  She chose some great locations and really took time to get great images for us.  Here's a peak at a few...I will share ALL of my favorites AFTER I send my Christmas cards out.

Happy Halloween from our Disney Kids

We had a great Halloween with the boys.  It was such a good time to carve the pumpkins with them and to take them both trick-or-treating. 

Tyler dressed up as Lightning McQueen, surprise surprise!  He had wanted Lucas to be a little Chick Hicks, but since we couldn't find a costume that would fit Luke, he was Tigger instead.  He was so cute.  The first time we tried the costume on him, he loved it.  He did fuss a little when we put it on him to go out for trick-or-treating, but he got used to it and was just fine.

Tyler did so well, considering that his costume was a bit heavy.  He walked up to all (except for the two with scary monsters handing out the candy) the house all by himself and said "trick-or-treat".  By the time we were about back to our house, he was ready to ride in the wagon.  Lucas did walk for a little while, and he walked up to several houses, holding his bag out and mumbling what I'm sure he thought was "trick-or-treat".

Tyler had such a good time helping us carve the pumpkins.  Lucas wanted to help, too.

 

 

Our thematic jack-o-lanterns!

 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

In previous summers we have visited the local minor league ball park with the boys...each summer they have been around, in fact.  Both boys attended their first professional baseball game at just months old.  But...this summer we sprang for a trip to the Big League ball park.  The Washington Nationals built and opened a new ball park a couple of summers ago (this is their third season in their new home, I believe).  Les and my father have been to a game there at least once each summer, but this was my first time, too.  I LOVE baseball games.  Not that the action of the baseball game is all that exciting, but I really love the atmosphere.  And, it reminds me a lot of my own childhood, when we would take several mini-vacations to nearby ball parks throughout the summer.  My dad was (still is) a HUGE Atlanta Braves fan, so we would travel to Pittsburgh or Baltimore (before the Nationals came to Washington) to watch a series.  OK, enough reminiscing...hmm, wish I could find a picture from one of those trips.  I just may have to do some digging.  :)

Anyway, so this year we decided it was time to take the boys to their first "Big League" game.  We knew that Tyler was definitely ready for the experience, but were a little unsure of what Lucas' interest level would be.  He very much surprised us!

 We were fully prepared to make it just a few short innings and say "we tried".  Being a little shy of 17 months old, we figured this might be a stretch for Luke.  Especially being an evening game, not starting until 7:30 pm (and bedtime is normally a little after 8).  But, we don't want to not try these fun experiences with Tyler simply because it might become a disaster, with Lucas.  That is not fair to Tyler.  We ended up nearly making it through the entire game, leaving just after the 7th inning stretch.  Now, this is not to say that it was an EASY time.  It definitely was NOT.  Having recently become very mobile (walking), Lucas really wanted to be down exploring, so we spent LOTS of time passing him between Mom, Dad and Aunt Jenn (who came with us, and who's extra two arms, and purse, came in very handy)...but unfortunately for Les (as it was very hot and humid), Lucas seemed to want to be a Daddy's boy, again! 

Actually, I would have to say that the train ride was the worst part of the evening.  It was nice to not have to worry about parking or to fight all of the traffic, but it was SO VERY hard to keep Lucas entertained on our laps for the almost one hour train ride into town and out!  Tyler on the other hand, LOVED it...he's been asking to do this all summer long.  Maybe we will drive next time...or maybe we will try the stroller. 

Luke may not have had much understanding of the baseball that was being played, but he was working hard on becoming an expert on ball park food, sampling everything from chicken fingers and fries, to M&Ms, cotton candy and lemonade (and probably a few other things that I've forgotten about)!  :)  Keeping his snack cup filled seems to be the key to keeping this little guy happy.  Come on though...shouldn't he be growing...he out eats his brother, for goodness sake. 

 

 

I decided not to take my purse to the game, since we were riding the metro in and I knew I'd be carrying one of two boys (as we opted to leave the stroller in the car).  Well, thank goodness Jenn took hers, because I ran out of room in the camera bag quickly.  Her purse became the "mommy purse", I'm not sure we could have fit one more item in it!!  Oh look, I guess he had some Cracker Jacks, too.  

I think Tyler really enjoyed the experience and atmosphere of the big ball park.  The one thing he was very confused about was why he didn't get to go play on the big field, too.  We told him to keep practicing and that we'd love to be coming back here in 20 years, to watch him play on the big field.

All-in-all, it was a really good time and even though we were completely exhausted upon getting back to our car, I am so glad that were brave enough to attempt it.  And it must not have been all that bad, because we have now decided to take Tyler and maybe Lucas to a WVU football game this year.

Thanks to the fact that my sister was along (who is also just as photo obsessed as I am....must be a family thing) I actually have some pictures with me in them!  They aren't the greatest shots of the boys, in fact I am the only one looking at the camera in the first shot.  But, these days I just accept that fact that I've got two little boys with minds of their own, so being in a shot with them is good enough for me.  :)

 

 

And here's a self-taken portrait of Jenn and I.

The hard work of it all was so worth it in the end, as we now have a great memory of the boys being at their first big league game together.

Ka-Chow!!

As much as Tyler loves his trains, he love his cars, too! Maybe more, even. :) When the time came last year to pick a theme for his party, he wasn't really old enough to get it and be able to tell me what he wanted. He had yet to discover "Thomas" or "Lightning", but he was into cars and trains, so I chose a simple transportation theme that had a little of everything and made a cute little train cake for him.


This year however, it took him less than a nano-second to tell us he wanted a "Lightning McQueen" party. It's amazing what an opinion a little three year old can have!! I started asking about 6 weeks before his birthday and asked him several times through the course of a few weeks. Each time the answer was a resounding "Lightning" and once I even heard him say "M-o-m...I told you I wanted a McQueen party!" This year, he kept reminding me that he wanted a "race-car" cake. That was that and I got to planning. Of course I made the invitations and Daddy found some REALLY cool party decorations and supplies, that he ordered on-line. We are so lucky that he is such a gread Daddy!! He did a wonderful job.


I'm not sure who was more excited for the party...Tyler, or Mommy and Daddy?!? I had a lot of fun designing his invitation and Daddy did great with the supplies and decorations. It was fun to decorate the house with all the neat decorations. We started outside with cool flags lining the driveway
and continued inside with an awesome backdrop of a CARS scene,
and some balloons and banners.

Unfortunately, I failed to think of taking the photo before a few of our guests had to leave. :( I'm actually impressed with the success of this photo, considering there are seven, three-year old boys in this picture.
The day was perfect!! The weather was beautiful. (It can be kind of hit or miss in June...hot, humid, stormy, it's a toss up...but low 80 degree weather, with an ocean-like breeze, now that is nearly unheard of.) The party was a lot of fun, too. With the weather being so beautiful, the kids were very content to be outside playing in the moon bounce, on the jungle gym or with one of the handful of ride-on toys that we own. Turns out they came in very handy!!


I am so thankful that the weather was so beautiful, because I am not sure our house could have held up to the energy of 13 little kids. The three sweet little girls wouldn't have been a problem, but 10 boys, hmmm!!

We were inside for lunch (which turned out SO well...I decided to make brisket for the adults -- something I've never attempted before and my husband thought I might be a little crazy for taking this on. He is from Texas afterall...and a connoisseur of BBQ! Apparently it hit the spot for everyone, though...because there were not even a few straggling pieces left!! Darn it...I was REALLY hoping for leftovers for dinner. Guess I'll be making that again soon.) and made it through that without any major incidences,

but I did decide to return back outside for the eating of the cupcakes!! That was, maybe, the best idea of the day.

After burning off a little more energy (and sugar from those gobs of icing with cupcake), it was time for Tyler to finally open his gifts.

It was a struggle to convince him that we did not need to open every single gift right when he opened it, and to move on to the next gift. But eventually we made our way through them all. He got some really neat gifts, most of which we have already played with!!

I said before that three was hard for me, because my baby is growing so quickly and fastly. But this means that he is beginning to understand so much more and makes days like these so much fun!!