Sweet Moments

I wish I had a picture like this with each of the boys. I love it when they are so little, finally fall asleep in your arms, and you can take a deep breath to drink in the peace of that moment in time.

My Cute Boys

Trying to look ahead to Christmas Card season we went with Kaley, Chase and Madi to take pictures. This being the Year of the Rockstar, I decided to use that as the theme for our cards. So here is a smathering of some of my favorite pics!

Happy 6th Month Birthday, Brett!

I don't know if the tradition started because of wanting to celebrate family milestones or just because we like to give presents but in our family we celebrate EVERYTHING! So today, we celebrated Brett's 6 month birthday. It was pretty low key, for a Rockstar. One Happy Birthday Dude wrapped gift with a DJ Club Penguin inside. I'm sure he was elated!


So obedient to pose first and tear open second!


Trying to figure out how to get around the tape.


Not really sure it's worth the effort because he knows Grandpa has ice cream somewhere nearby!


Yeah, ice cream sounds better right about now.


Happy 6 Month Birthday!

A Rockin' Halloween!

Halloween and I have a love / hate relationship. I love being with my kids, ignoring homework and laundry, dressing them up crazy, dressing Scott and I up crazy, and spending fun, family time together. I hate all the candy that comes in the house and all the candy that goes out of the house for school projects and parties. I hate the hassle of kids who whine because their costume isn't perfect. They should've learned by now, if it's perfect in my head, it's going to turn out (at least) OK. And so this Halloween I continued my Totally Unfair tradition of picking out the kids costumes for them. I REALLY wanted them to be Rock Stars in honor of our cute little Brett. A few were not so thrilled but in the end everyone was happy. (Ok, the bribes of colored hair, blow-up guitars and funky glasses definitely helped my plea!)

So here is my Totally Scary Rock Band of Boys:

Bradley--The Classic Rocker


Bryson--The Punk Rocker


Blake--The Hottest Rocker


Brock--The Grunge Rocker (check out the Pleather Pants!)


Brett--The REAL Rocker (He'll "Poison" your heart with his cute smile!)


After invading Mom and Dad's Halloween Carnival in their neighborhood, we went over to Grandma-ma's and Grandpa Long's to show off our costumes. After pictures and treats we wandered around and ended up at Chris and Cassi's house where we tagged along with them Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood. The kids had fun going around together collecting more candy than they could ever eat.


So, another successful Halloween was crossed off the calendar. Good thing I have a whole year to think of how to top our Rock Star Band!

Fall Fun!

I'll just say that Groupons are Great! Mom and Dad found a Groupon for the kids to visit the DeWitt Ranch for some Down Home Fall Fun! One of the first things the kids ran to was the mini horseback rides. They loaded kiddos up on ponies and rode around a little track--so cute! Kaley, Dad and Bradley went on BIG horses for a 30 minute ride. I think Bradley's only complaint was that it could have been a longer ride.



They also rode tractors and roped and lassoed things to their hearts content, bringing out the inner cowboy and cowgirl in each of them.


I toted Baby Brett around in our nifty babypack which proved to be an excellent back and abdominal muscle workout! He's a very sturdy little boy!


We piled into a covered wagon to go to their pumpkin patch where the kids got to pick a pumpkin. On the way there, the driver let Blake drive the horses--scary! On the way back all the kids got a turn. It's a wonder we made it back alive! Here I am with my little pumpkin, looking at a little pumpkin-Ha Ha Ha!


Yeah, this is about right if it had been back in Pioneer Days. Some people happy, some not so happy and of course all of that would change 2 minutes after this picture was taken. But it was a lot of fun to be down on the farm for a while and enjoy a simpler way of entertaining the kids!

Rice Cereal Vs. Ice Cream

You can probably guess how the score of this game is going to turn out. The first feeding of rice cereal for all the boys has been fun to watch unfold. I was pretty much a one man show trying to feed Brett, take pictures and not spill the cereal all over. As is so his personality, he was very patient through the process and willing to endure the unfamiliar taste and texture I was forcing down.


He's definitely thinking about giving it a second taste.


Nope. Second taste not so good.


Do we really have to have a third bite?


Patience is beginning to wear thin.


Contrast that to this picture of Dad giving Madi her first taste of ice cream. Brett (who knows the goodness that comes from a spoon on Grandpa's lap) waits anxiously for his turn!

Baby Madicyn is finally here!

The end of August brought a cute pink bundle of fun for my sister when Madicyn Joy was born. I got to play photographer for Miss Madi's first outdoor photo shoot. After 2 days and a million pictures later we captured some great shots for Kaley's Baby Shower. It will be fun to see she and Baby Brett grow up together. We call Brett her Body Guard because he is so much bigger than her! Anyway, there aren't too many things that are more fun than taking pictures of cute sleeping babies!