Kids At Home

Dan had wanted to do a video for Ellie's birthday, and since it's almost Owen's birthday, we finally got around to making it! So, we've decided that we'll make Owen a video for Logans birthday and everything will work out just fine. :) These are pics from Ellie's first year. We love our baby girl!

Now that Halloween is over (still have those pics to post one of these days too!) we are all enjoying what's left of Autumn, which means we are spending a lot of time outside! I wanted to practice with the fall lighting yesterday so I took my camera out with us. Here's the advendtures of one random day at our house!


What day would be complete without an almost three years dress up as an "Elmo Monster"?

Raking Leaves.

I can tell these two are going to be close already!

And then of course, a rake fight.....

Which makes its way to the back of Daddy's truck.

And then some bike riding.

I liked the sun in these shots. Linc is so cute with his helmet on!

Watching the wheels.

As we were walking I noticed this fire hydrant and had to look twice. Somethings just not right here. :)

Happy boy.


Ellie's turn in the leaves.

Yum.

After the leaves we did some rasslin'.

Later inside with Daddy. Ellie kept begging for his food, she'd open her mouth like a birdy everytime he took a bite. I missed it, but still liked this one.

Still trailing everything.

At first glance you may be decieved (like I was) and think that picture is soo adorable until you realize that Ellie isn't giving kisses.....

She's going for blood! Poor Linc. It took me a minute to realize she was biting. He had a welt mark on his face. Ellie is now nicknamed, "little piranha," better watch out!

Left is the loser.

So I was helping Owen wash his hands with a dish cloth yesterday after lunch. Owen looked down at his hand and proudly told me that I was washing his right hand. I was pretty impressed that he knew which hand it was and asked him the name of his other hand to which he firmly replied, "this hand's my 'loser' hand." I busted out laughing, and he got the sweetest shy/pleased look on his face. I have no idea where the idea came from, but for the rest of the day he kept showing me his "right hand" and his "loser hand!" To all you left handed people out there...don't worry, I'm sure he'll grow out of it!

Here's my silly Owen with a mohawk for any of you who might think he's as funny as me!

Yesterday I dressed Ellie up in her pink poodle costume before our church "Trunk or Treat" party and had to snap a few of her against her pink wall. Check out all of this pink!

















Some friends of mine called me the other day and told me there was a hot air balloon floating over head, so I grabbed the kids, camera, and zoom lens and headed outside. Who doesn't like a hot air balloon?

Here is a letter Logan write me this week. He has never written me one this long before. It is very phonetically accurate in some places, so have fun reading it!


And finally, I wanted to add these last two landscapes to this blog because I drive past this spot everyday to take Logan to school, and I want to remember it! Beautiful huh?

Playground

I was going to hold off on these pictures because I already posted my fall kids pics today, but then Dan told me he really wanted to see them, so here they are!

I took the kids to a cute park in Harvest yesterday after their fall pictures to get them out of the house for a little while. Owen stayed on the swings almost the entire time...he likes to go HIGH. :) Logan made it all the way across on the monkey bars for his first time, so he kept doing it over and over until I made him stop before he got blisters. (Remember those days with me Mom?) Linc just did his own thing and was happy to be there, and Ellie, bless her teething little heart, was not feeling well so she slept in her carseat. She is already over thirteen months, but she is only eighteen pounds, so we haven't put her in a forward facing carseat yet. The doctor said she was in the 5th percentile for weight, and the 75th for her head and height. I can't remember if I ever posted that. Anyway.... We had a good, cold time. Here are some mooooorrrreeee pics!

Can't believe this shot worked! :)

I love this picture because look at Owen in the background. He's always one step behind his big brother.

Monkey.

Where can I buy a set like this for our backyard!?

I did have the boys in shoes, but they got all muddy, so we had to switch to sandals!

Eyes.

Tired little girl.

This is such and Owen face!

Fighting over the baby swing that neither of them will fit.

"higher Mommy!"

Right before I got a camera kick. (not cool by the way, but it was an accident!) It could have been an America's Funniest Home Video!

Happy boy.

Upsydown.

Ellie Bellie's main mode of transportation these days. She'll scoot around the kitchen for an hour using a chair for a walker.

Fall Pictures

It's a beautiful day today. I drove to church and was literally breathtaken by how gorgeous the landscapes were the entire drive. The colors and hills have completely erupted in red, orange, yellow and everything in between. I love it.
Yestereday I decided I wanted to get a few Fall shots of my kids. I was by myself, which always makes it hard, but I brought along a container of bubble gum, and was able to get some pictures I will love forever.
Dan's been gone for the past week and for some reason I miss him more than usual. He'll be back this week, so I think I'll drag him out to take a family picture in a full cotton field somewhere. I am still fascinated with the cotton. Fields of it, everywhere draped in white like they are covered in snow. It's beautiful.
Well, nothing new to report really. Church went pretty well all by myself, although Owen was a crazy kid, as usual. Ellie just dumped out an entire bag of Cheeze-its on the carpet, but she's not crying so I'm getting a minute to post these....I'll clean them up when I'm done. Logan poked Lincoln with a sharp stick (one of my house decorations he had taken apart....grrr) and that was dramatic for a while, but they've calmed down and are playing really well in the playroom now. That's about it I guess. Here come the pictures!

For Dan

Here are some pictures for you Hon!



A Halloween party at the library with Ashley and Maclane. Thanks guys, we had such a fun time!

Crafts.

Story time.

My favorite shot of the night I think.

Treats!

Up close Ellie after breakfast! hungry?

These two don't actually share a bed, but Owen always sneaks in with Linc. He doesn't like to be alone!

Big Boy.

Baby girl.

She always sleeps with her little bum in the air, and she has to have her pink Teddy Bear! She knows when it's not there and is not happy until she has it. I think I'll have to go by a spare in case something happens to it!

Happy 200th Post!

Wow, I can't believe I have 200 posts already! I think it took me much less time to get from post 100 to post 200 than it did to get from 1 to 100. (confused?) I've been posting much more since the photo bug bit me. I was reading in one of my photo books the other day. And the man said something that has kind of stuck with me. He talked about every day being full of moments and as soon as each moment passes, its gone forever. His goal was to try to capture as many of those moments as he could so he could preserve them in a way nothing else could.
I look at my children and I get the most unusual happy/sad feeling when I see how fast they are growing up. I want to capture as many of these little moments as I can, so one day, I'll have something to look back on and remember.
On that note, I wanted to also record a few funny exchanges I've had with my kids recently.

Logan: Mom, I've been thinking, and I've decided that kids are better tasters than grown-ups.
Me: Oh, really, why do you say that?
Logan: Oh, you know. Grown-ups always pick the yucky foods, and kids always pick the foods that taste good, so they are way better at tasting.
Me: Can't argue with that!


Lincoln: Can I have a drink of Apple Juice?
Me: Not until dinner honey.
Lincoln: No, you mean not until next Tuesday!
Me: OK (everything to Linc is "next Tues.")

Owen: Knock, Knock.
anyone who will respond: Who's there?
Owen: turkey (or any other object within his line of vision)
anyone who will respond still: Turkey who?
Owen: (with his silly grin) Turkey on your head!

Logan: Mom, my PE teacher says that everyone needs to bring Souffle to class on Friday and if you bring a souffle you get to be first in line.
Me: Are you sure she said souffle?
Logan: Yeah, you know, those wrappers around the soup cans.
Me: Oh, you mean "soup labels!"
Logan: That's what I said mom. :)

Okay, enough funny phrases for now. If you're still with me, here are a few fun pics from this week. I've got to run!

These two were taken on Sat. I got to take some pictures for a friend of mine (see my photo blog for those) and Logan tagged along to help me make their little girl smile. He did a great job too!

I love this picture. The other day Owen came up to me holding this CD container on his head and said, "look Mommy, I'm Abraham Owen!" He so clever.

These last pics were taken this afternoon from a second story window. Logan had his basketball evaluation today and he wanted to practise before I took him. We're putting him in Upwards B-ball. It's his first time and judging from the look of consentration on his face, and the hour he spent practising today, I think he'll like it!

Monkey see, monkey do.

Okay, this one was my favorite!

Linc joined them with his K'nex creation.

I love this one too!

Mooresville

Since we only had two days to go places with my parents we spent one day with the rockets for my Dad, and another looking at old houses for my Mom. Although, I think I might have been even more excited about going to Mooresville with my camera than my Mom was. Sorry Mom! ;)

Mooresville is this beautiful little town (a few blocks really) just south of Madison on 565 W. I think there was a movie filmed there once.....Huck Finn? It is simply beautiful and antique. I love walking around there! I wanted to get a good picture of my parents, so they were kind enough to humor me a little bit. Here they come! This is my last post for today. I just wanted to get caught up, and now it's back to homework. I'm already taking midterms...it's nice to be half way through the semsester! It makes me all excited for Christmas!



This little old church is so quainte. We were lucky this time to be there when the doors were open and we could quietly peek inside for a moment. It was very beautiful.

You can see the cracks in the ceiling and the wavy windows.

It even smelled old.

My parents!

Linc fell asleep in the car and had a hard time waking up.

Logan's been looking so big to me lately, but every now and then I get a picture like this where he still seems small!

Patient Ellie.

I loved how O is standing in this!

O is obsessed with fire and electricty......knowing his personality I'm not really surprised. I'm trying to push him away from the "pyromaniac" spectrum and toward the "fireman" spectrum. So far I've been pretty succesful. I asked him this morning what he wants to be when he grows up and he answered, "fireman!" right away. Whew.

Dan's favorite.











Big Blues.

Ellie's new grin. This one was at Golden Rule BBQ! Gotta love Oreo's!

Space and Rocket Center

We had a very fun weekend hanging out with my parents! I think I mentioned before, but it was my Dad's first time ever meeting Ellie, so he and my Mom spent a lot of time just being with her and the boys. We miss you guys already....can't wait for December!

While they were here we took another visit to the Space and Rocket Center. I think we've been there at least six times, but I still never get sick of it. My Dad is a big science and technology guy. He had a really good time there, although I think he could have stayed longer! We had a huge storm hit and pushed all inside for the last half an hour or so. Gotta love an Alabama storm!
I took a lot of pictures for my Dad because his bag didn't quite make it here with him, so all you space junkies out there will be happy to see ALL of these pictures. The rest of you? Well..... sorry. :)

Seeing Grandma in the morning! Their flight was delayed due to a broken airplane part, and since they were flying stand-by they were delayed about eight hours! At least they got here.

What's Miss Ellie looking at?

This is the new exhibit they have. It is my new favorite part of the center. Very cool.

Inside the space simulator thingy.

Logan brought money to smash a penny, but then he lost it in the space simulator and was very sad. My mom told him she had a few quarters for him and this was his reaction. Logan has a thing for smashed pennies!

Smashing.

I thought this view of the outside rocket was pretty cool.

Any of you who know my kids can imagine how excited they were when they saw this poster!

And even more so for this guy.

It's funny to see how many people are looking up at the Space and Rocket Ceneter!

The Shuttle.





And then the storm clouds rolled in.....

....and we all ran inside. The wind got very strong and I'm pretty sure I witnessed a small tornado working on some of the leaves. I got a picture of it, but it was too fuzzy.

Logan is now big enough to climb the rock wall!

Look at those legs. He is getting to be very tall.

Logan was too nervous to go all the way up, so Dan tried it out to show him how it's done. :)

He made it a lot farther the second try!

Till next time!

Pumpkin Patch

Nothing says Fall like a trip to a pumpkin patch! I got to visit my friend in Atlanta this week and we decided to go see this cute little pumpkin patch up in Lumpkin County. (I loved the name of that county, especially since it rhymed with pumpkin....too cute!) Okay, but anyway, we had a crazy time getting there, and we had a few camera problems (ahem, Dia brought her camera bag, minus her camera and I brought my camera with a dead battery..oops) but thanks to a sweet lady at the front counter who let me plug in my battery for a few minutes, we were still able to get some pictures. Thanks for all your ideas Diana, you really are so creative! I love taking pictures with you. :)

Our trip was short but sweet, and now we are excited to welcome my parents tomorrow! This will be the first time my Dad has met Ellie. Crazy, huh? One of the negatives of living so far from family. We are glad they are coming though! Can't wait to post some pictures of them. Well, it's way too late for me to be up, so I'll just post these and head off for some much needed sleep. :) Bye!

Dia's fantastic pose idea. :) Look at my lil' pumpkins.

Loved Ellie in this one. Does she looked thrilled or what!?

A lil' personality!

Love these kids.

Me and my girl.

We're trying!

This was the only photo I did in b&w. For some reason I just liked it.

Scrunchy Ellie and pretty Dia.

This is Diana's beautiful little girl. She liked the little pumpkins best. ;)

O did too.

"When you wish upon a pumpkin..."




















I think it's a safe bet to assume that my kids had a fantastic time. Thanks Diana!