Quiet

Perhaps we should have chosen to watch Sleeping Beauty instead of Up, oh, I guess I did.)

And this deep thinker who now wonders how many balloons it will take to float his Lego house.

I am hoping we are all on the mend of a head and chest thingy. I have found that when I focus on a project (like sewing) I don't notice how much my throat hurts, it's a natural analgesic I guess LOL. Then when I stop and turn to whatever my distraction might be I swallow and cringe, but really it is 90% better tonight so I'm very thankful for that.

I now must join my sleeping prince and princess....

Just one more...

Since March I've been reading a photo workshop book called Photographing Children given to me by my fabulous sister. Applying the things I've learned has made a vast improvement in my photos. My husband has a knack and a raw talent for photography, he really enjoys it and he's good at it. For me it wasn't so natural and I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted from our family photos. I was also frustrated that we could both use the same camera but my pictures never looked as good as his.

This year it was easier for me to communicate what I wanted. Even though we were not all dressed (coordinated at all) for family photos the ones we took turned out cute and these ones of the kids on the stool are priceless. I finally was able to convey to Adam that I wanted the background out of focus, and he easily did it where it still takes me a minute. I'm slowly learning how to take the photos that I desire.

I just happened to turn the stool backwards when we were just about done and I like it better than most of the ones of their front. Even though it seems like most of the photo is of the bars of the stool, to me it brings the focus to their faces, not their clothes. We were also fighting clouds vs direct sun so without having any excess equipment we did our best. Again I'm using the term 'we' lightly, I really must say thank you to my wonderful husband for being patient with me and truly amazing. He really rocks! It will only take him a minute to photoshop the people in the background out, I'm still a snail at that stuff!

No more pouting about bad photos...

Wondering What this says about me!

Out of 653 photos my husband took of all of us yesterday, this one could just very well be my favorite.

Something about fall says 'family photos' and after two parks and a ton of casual cute photos this one speaks to me. Maybe I'm just a backwards gal! We did get TONS of cute ones of the kids, SEVERAL out of focus, MANY pouting faces but this is my FAVORITE family shot.

I'll share my second favorite tomorrow :!)

Ants

Hopefully NOT in their pants! ;-)

I didn't even notice that they were both sitting the same way when I took the picture.

Resourceful Little Buggers!

Pleeeeeease!!!!

She does this little side to side thing with her head when she says it that makes it hard to refuse.

Photos actually two months old :)

May I have this dance???

Why do I wear my babies?

International Babywearing Week starts in a couple of days and Babywearing Steph is asking for our favorite babywearing photos. (Could I have fit in the word babywearing one more time into that sentance?!) Go link up your favorite pictures too and you can be entered to win a sling from Nonny and Boo. I have a couple from there already but can you really have too many slings?

I love my babies and I love having them close by me but really, really the main reason that I carry them on me is that kissable little head. I could (and do) kiss the little head many, many, many times a day. Oh, and that little baby head smell is just about the best thing ever to keep me happy!

My favorite pictures of my kids in various carriers!

Last November at the San Diego Zoo.

Last Fall!

This past Spring.

This past summer at Auntie's wedding!

Loving Fall

Apparently once I lose my small chunks of writing time it is really hard to get it back!

A couple weeks ago we went to a local park and took some Fall pictures...here are some of my favorites. (I know there are still some people out there reading. right?!

You can tell I had a hard time picking my favorites!

They both were not very interested in looking at us - ducks are apparently more fascinating! It turns out this is one of my favorites even though they aren't looking, it brings back the relaxed feeling of our stroll through the park and gazing at ponds and leaves!

Even the baby girl walked with us!

Loves for Daddy!

Life goes on...

With no time to blog. I've been cleaning my house like crazy for pictures etc. We had one showing but they wanted a downstairs master (it says ours is upstairs in the listing thankyouverymuch!) Anyway, this is way more low key when we don't have to get out of it like we did the last time we sold a house! I just do my best, maybe I'll even take some pictures of it to prove that the house doesn't always have some sort of clutter around!

Some pictures of life around here...

Trick or Treat!

Tender moments

Eight days old.

A Beautiful Day

A couple of mornings ago my son lifted up my shirt a bit and looking at my belly said "growing bigger and bigger and bigger." I unable to keep a small smirk off my face replied with "yes, your baby sister is growing bigger in there."

We had a fun family day today, we packed a picnic and ate at a local wildlife conservation area by a river. Then we did some hiking and off-roading - using our SUV for what man intended it for I guess. It was a ton of fun. After awhile I was done with both boys begging for more and bigger hills - I said they'd have to make a day out of it when Mommy and baby were at home resting!

I'll leave you with some pictures of our day and my belly (20 weeks and 4 days along) if you want to compare it to 4 weeks ago here's the link.

Where's your baby sister?"

Watching for another fish to jump.

Kissing baby sister

A refreshingly beautiful day.

We're having a .......

Here are some new ultrasound pictures of our precious little one. Linds there really didn't turn out to be a great picture for you to try to guess since the Dr typed on that one and I'm too tired to blur it out tonight! I also forgot to ask hubs to take a picture of me today at 20 weeks so I'll have to remember tomorrow!

It's a GIRL!!! It's a GIRL!!! It's a GIRL!!!

Our little one

We went in for my second ultrasound yesterday and it was so much fun. It was so crazy seeing all the little parts- hands and feet and fingers and toes! Of course the scanned in copy doesn't look too great but the wee one had his legs crossed and was waving hands and jumping and wiggling all around. I guess she better enjoy it while there's still room to do all of that!

The little foot measured 0.83 cm! Just a true itty bitty one in there.

My goal was to make it to 12 weeks without getting out the box of maternity clothes and while it might be close I'll be 12 weeks on Tuesday so I think I might just make it!!!

UPDATED: I'm adding this link because has some interesting info about fetal development so you can see what's been happening in just the last 11 weeks.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Wishing all a very happy and wonderful Thanksgiving! That gratitude will fill our hearts not only this weekend but spill over into the days, months and years that follow.

Love Thursday

I have really loved the images and stories of love every Thursday at Cookooloonks mine is a bit late this week since my computer wasn't cooperating with me this morning!!

This moment I spent with my son was one of those that I wish could last forever - at least in our memories.

On a recent rainy afternoon (we've been having some cold wet days) we turned on the fire place and snuggled under some blankets to read some books. Little did I know that I wasn't going to be the one doing the reading. My son took the book out of my hand and started to read it to me!

Click here for more Love!

Wordless Wednesday