A project

I am working on a project for Abbott. Here are a couple from the first set, but still a work in progress.

Working on some of that skill

We finally got the new basketball hoop up and Bug couldn't be happier. That's the first thing he does when he gets home, and would he would be more than happy to stay out there until bed time. Okay, well that might be a slight exaggeration, but not too much! And he's actually pretty consistent on the shots. Way to go kid!

Seeing red

I can't believe it's been nearly a week! I seem to go in streaks around here. Not much has been going on either. Just busy with life. I've been working on a commissioned project and happened to get a few cute ones of the kids. Too bad the background of Nutmegs looks like a rug!

He's found his sport

Since he doesn't have a competetive bone in his body, it doesn't seem to matter how much he likes to play basketball (or any other sport for that matter) he won't fight hard enought for a chance at the ball. Then came tennis. His own side of the court, and no immediate competition. He begs to go every free chance he gets... which his dad loves since he too was a tennis player. Besides, what better excuse to get to hang out without the girls!

I was wishing the court next to them wasn't being used, so I could sneak in and get some pictures of them playing, but all the courts were full. So I had to shoot these from across the court next to them, on the outside of the fence. Got some okay ones though... and I'm sure I'll be begging the girls to sit through another practice so I can have another chance!

There's a first for everything

And I guess this was our weekend:
Our first camping trip with the whole family = very little sleep.




Ase actually sitting down for a meal.




Nutmeg holding a bug of any type. And when she did, she really latched on. She cried for quite a while when this little guy finally jumped off...



Daddy getting "stuck" with Ase for more than 24 hours. She wanted nothing to do with me!



And finally, rock climbing and repelling. We harnessed the kids in and everything. I've been dying to do this forever, but now the kids are getting old enough we can actually make this happen. And they all want to do it again. Yea!








(can I just say I love taking pictures of her....)

Of course Ase couldn't really go up, there isn't a harness small enough for her.. but she was more than happy to just hang there and swing herself. She LOVED hanging there, and upside down was even better!

5's a crowd

Sunday after a long day at church (that should have been the first clue this was not a good idea) and with no pre-planning (the second clue) we decided to snap a few quick family pictures with a friend of mine. We needed one (we haven't had one taken for 3 years now -which shouldn't have been the third clue), and we had three other people who needed one for projects they were working on. So I figured, what better time! It wasn't until we were in the thick of it that I remembered why.... 5 is a crowd when it comes time to taking group pictures. Atleast these 5 are. We did end up with ONE that was okay, and a bunch that would have been good, except.. notice who's not there? Most of what we ended up with where the ones we would have to crop Her out because of the "funny" stuff she was pulling. I'm one for candid personality shots and all, but these were more than that. And to give her some break, the lighting really wasn't that great. O-well. We'll give it a try again some other day year!

One of my favs.

A hurricane and a day

Thank you to the hurricane, we finally got some rain here. And it was a good hard rain for most of the day. And the next day. Once it tamed down just a little, the kids decided to head out with their umbrellas. Oh the mess to clean up when it's time to come in! I forgot what Georgia clay does to clothes. I guess we have some new play clothes at our house!

I will say, it was a blast taking pictures of the girls (Bug was there, but for some reason, I focused on the girls this day)without them even paying attention to me. And I enjoyed showing them how to walk in the water barefoot, just like when I was a kid!

So you think you can... dance?

So Nutmeg really wanted me to take pictures of her in her "dance costume" and her "dance mat". Or in other words, Brittany Spears and yoga mat. Yoga she has seen, but NO she has not seen Brittany!
Or so I hope. And you should have seen the poses she pulled out. On second thought, maybe she has seen her somewhere.
Sigh. Atleast I have some good black mail pictures! The last two are keepers though!

I went inside to put Ase down for a nap, to come back out with BUG mowing the lawn! He did the entire yard himeself! The turns were a little hard for him, but he did it.

All of it!

Is he really that big? I guess the bigger question is: how long is he still going to think it's fun to mow the lawn? ;) Oh, and don't you love the earplugs?!

What happens if.....

You take a two year old, a cord, a keychain and an outlet? Give up?






The plug and the keychain actually were "welded" together and took some doing to get apart. We didn't have any power on our top floor for quite some time and she won't go NEAR the outlets now. She's never played with them before, but I guess when you have two older siblings you watch, you're bound to be taken by the curiosity at some point. Poor thing. It actually sounded like glass breaking through the entire house. Oh, the relief of knowing everything worked out okay... once she realized this same thing.

Kids.

First Day of school has come

and gone. It really started on Monday, but I'm a little slow recovering from the lack of sleep (aka, me getting up before 8 am!). I am most definitely am a night owl, and will need to rework my 1 am bedtime. Back to the kids... they love being in school and Ase loves having the house to just the two of us for atleast the 3 days Nutmeg goes. It's been quite a change here, but one I think we can all get used to! I tried to take some quick pictures of the kids before school. Bug cooperated until the sprinklers turned on, so we got ONE of him and, well, you know how the other one works. I think we just talked about her and pictures a few days ago. Well, lets just say this was the best of them all. She just wouldn't give me anything else. Ahhhh, love that girl. Really- I do.

Ham anyone?

Oh wait, that's my kid! I don't know what it is, but anytime I try to snap a quick photo of Nutty here, she decides she's either going to run, or pull a face. It's near impossible to get an acutal picture of her. There is no such thing as "candid". You have to beg and plead to get her to stick around, without the antics. I happened to be looking back through some photos and couldn't help but laugh at her. I guess those faces are good for something! I figured we could all use a smile!

half a dozen

This kid has given us probably the easiest six years any kid will give a parent. He still is the most mellow and agreeable kid you'll meet. His sisters both adore him, and he makes friends easy (as long as they initiate the contact). I really am proud of this kid. He has grown so much over the last year, and I'm sure he's only going to grow more over the next. I am so proud to say he is my kid. He's the one that makes you feel you must be doing something right as a parent! I do love this little man. He has now started playing tennis, which he loves, so hopefully we have found a sport he'll feel comfortable playing! He loves basketball, but I just don't think he's aggressive enough. Poor thing! The girls will love him a few years though!

Happy Birthday Bug!

timber down

I am so excited. We are finally getting our backyard put together. Someplace for the kids to be able to go outside and play. Someplace that has a fence and grass. Up until now it's been nothing but a fire hazard and a bug incubator. We are finally clearing all that out. In the process we ended up taking out 6 trees. That was really sad, but we put in 10 more along the back. So in a few years, it won't be quite so vacant back there. The kids can't wait until they can actually walk on the new sod (pictures will come, don't you worry!), they actually call it "super grass". It's cute. Two weeks and they can have at it!!

You got me, again.

Okay, so I was tagged a LONG time ago, and have been trying to avoid eye contact ever since. So I'll just get this off my chest....

6 random things about me...
1~ Cannot stand feet. Ugh.
2~ Cannot share cereal. If Matt takes a bite of it, I'm done with the bowl. Silly really
3~ I REALLY want to learn to break dance. Badly.
4~ Cannot force myself to go to bed before 11 pm. I just can't.
5~ I don't like chocolate, or vanilla. I'm not trying to be difficult or anything!
6~ My nickname growing up was Jonsey. I actually thought it was my middle name through most of grade school.

There you go. So you read, you've got it on you now!

Two eyes, two ears, two hands and two feet

And now two years!

I can't believe my "baby" is already two. I know we all say this with every birthday for each of our kids. But for some reason the speed of time never ceases to amaze. Ase is such her own little person. She has got to get into something requiring a lot of bouncing around everywhere like a spaz, because she has enough of that plus some. It'll be fun to see what she ends up doing. Danceing, Cheer (if we stay in the south probably since that is HUGE here), Gymnastics, the Circus... who knows! And she is all girl. She loves dancing, stuffed dolls, making stuffed dolls dance, and anything pretty. She was trying so hard to be "pretty" in this picture she didn't even want to move. It cracked me up. So we have a very serious, but underneath that a very happy two year old.

I will say she is the quickest kid we've had yet. She pickes up on things SO fast. She already pumps herself on a swing for goodness sake. I am still trying to help the older two to get that down! And her favorite thing to do right now is tell knock-knock jokes. No kidding. And you think they're not funny when a 5 year old tells them. Try a two year old's. We've all got that courtesty laugh down around here!

So there's my Ase. She is the most fun, outgoing little kid I've known. But of course there's always the other side to that, but we won't go there! We didn't get a lot of good photos from the birthday "party" because there were too many kids trying to help(aka, brother and sister) and Ase not pausing for a second to breath.

O-well. A cake picture is good enough.