He's SIX!!!

I love being able to take pictures of my own kids.  For Thanksgiving we drove out to a family ranch in Washington where my Mom grew up.  While we were at the Ranch, I had Carson stop his adventuring long enough to snap a few photos of him for his birthday.  It was COLD but fun (for me at least)!  Happy Birthday Carson!

This is my favorite.  I love those blue eyes!  He's a little lover boy.  He always gives me a kiss on the cheek each night and is constantly giving me hugs and telling me he loves me.  He enjoys his one on one time with us and loves to help us do whatever we might be doing.  He's full of questions and non stop chatter.  He keeps our life interesting and we love having him as part of our family!

My Little Trick-o-Treaters

The whole crew!  This year Hayden went Trick or Treating with a friend.  But I made him take pictures before he left.

 Batman and Scream

 A tiger and Cinderella

I loved Hayden's nerd costume this year.  It makes me laugh.  Someone said they have seen Deacons dressed this way at Church on Sunday, so his costume could go either way I guess!

Family Picture Swap

This beautiful lady and I swapped taking each other's family pictures this year.  She has a lot of experience taking family pictures so she was a HUGE help in posing her own family!  It was fun to take her family's pictures and a great experience for me.  Thanks Lana for taking a chance on little old me!

Seriously cute kids...

18 Months

I love this 18 month old boy.  He loves to wrestle around.  He wants to be heard but has no words.  He follows the older kids around and copies everything they do.  He loves to chase and be chased.  He doesn't like to sit still, which is why Nursery Day is going to be a joyous day at Church!!  He is a happy busy little man!  We love him so much!

Carson's Big Adventure

I got a call on Monday morning from Hunter Elementary telling me that Carson broke his arm at school.   When I got there, the fire department was already there.  When I got inside, one of the fire fighters told me that Carson not only broke his arm but the bone had punctured the skin and so he had an open wound also.  Then the ambulance got there and I found out that he was going to have to ride in the ambulance to the ER.  Once we got to the ER, they took x-rays and saw that both his bones were broken between his wrist and elbow and with the open wound, he was going to need surgery.  So Monday afternoon around 4:30 Carson went into surgery.  The doctor had to put titanium rods through both bones to stabilize the arm.  He's in a splint and sling right now and will get a cast next week.  We stayed the night in the Pediatric Unit and are glad to be home.  Carson is doing awesome and was so brave and calm throughout the whole ordeal.  The only time he really lost it was when the paramedics had to put in an IV to get him some pain medication.  I was really impressed with Carson.  I think it would've been a more traumatic experience if he would've been freaking out through the whole ordeal.

They gave him tons of free stuff.  He got this dog, 2 books about that dog (I guess his name is Ike LaRue...we never had read any of those books), a bear, two cars and a sports fleece blanket.  We had to check to make sure they were really "free" and not that we were paying for all those "free" things!

Here's what his bones look like now.  Those black lines down the middle are the titanium rods.  That little dark speck off to the left was a piece of bark from the playground.  The doctor did take that out..

Crazy stuff!  But Carson is doing well.  He'll miss school this week and he's done playing soccer for the rest of his season but he's taking it well.  Also, it's his left arm, so he'll still be able to write in school which is really great.  And...it's not his leg which I've heard is even a bigger pain.

Mother's Day Compliments

I was looking through papers/cards that I have saved from this year and I came across this little gem.  It makes me laugh...

Alena

I never got around to posting Alena's pictures.  Greg's cousin, Jeni, asked me to take her baby's pictures!  She is so sweet and LOVED those hands of hers.  We couldn't keep them out of her mouth.

I loved using all my baby girl props on this little one.

This is my favorite one...she has such a cute little face!

Congratulations Jeni!  She is so beautiful and it's fun to see you be a Mom!  

Keepin' It Real

We're just busy around here....

Everything is cute about this girl...even when her booty's crackin'!

He is such a busy happy little guy.  Nursery cannot come soon enough though!

I LOVE this picture of him.

He makes himself laugh.  He thinks he's pretty funny!

She loves to dress up and have me take her pictures...

I had to be quick with the hat...it didn't stay on very long...

We canned peaches (33 quarts) and salsa (22 quarts) and froze some corn (75 ears) from our garden and I've been drying peaches and pears.  It's a lot of work.  Not sure it's worth it just yet!  But the cans are so pretty all lined up in our pantry!

He's playing soccer for the first time.  He's had two games so far and if we can get his shoes to stay on during the game and keep him from falling so much we'll be in good shape.  He's our most aggressive athlete so far (big surprise).  He doesn't mind stealing the ball from other kids, kicking them or tripping them!  He's fun to watch!

Her first day of preschool!  She goes to a friend who lives just around the corner from us.  She just LOVES it.

First Day of School 2011

Our summer is over and school is here.  I wasn't really ready for school to start but last week the boys were getting really  hyper and so it has eased my sadness of them being gone all day long.


He's a big 5th grader this year.  He's king of the school...his words not mine!  I am having a hard time knowing this is his last year at the elementary school.  Next year at middle school will be really hard.

 Jason's in 2nd grade this year!  He's king of the smaller playground (Hayden's words again)!

 Carson starts Kindergarten this year.  Can't believe I have 3 kids in school this year.  Carson has been pretty excited about starting school.  I had to wake him up this morning to get ready and as soon as I told him it was time to wake up for school, his eyes lit up and he jumped out of bed!

 I love these boys!

Hayden and Jason wanted to ride bikes to school with their friend.  I drove Carson to school today.  I am not so sure about him riding his bike to school.  He seems so young!

Happy First Day of School!!

Oregon Coast

We spent a week at the Oregon Coast with Greg's family!  The weather was perfect...we didn't have any rainy days!  The kids had a blast and didn't want to go home!

Beautiful sunsets...

I couldn't believe the kids played in the water so much.  I was impressed!

I even packed clothes so I could take their pictures.  I am so glad I did!  I had to bribe with a bunch of tickets and they didn't complain too much!