{baby}

3.14.10
When did our {baby} grow into a big, big boy. Almost too big to sleep width ways in his crib. I am constantly checking in on my sleeping boys, and this is what I found this afternoon during Tian's nap time. Big boy Tian, having to sleep with his leg hanging out of the crib slats.

Tian, you have a mind of your own and you are strong willed. At the moment, it is hard to understand exactly what you want, but when you get a bit older, I am sure your perseverance will pay off in a big way.

You admire your big brother and imitate some things Trey does. You are lucky to have such a sweet big brother and Trey is lucky to have such a fun, brave, high spirited little brother like yourself.

{my boy}

3.14.10
My {boy} is slowly growing up into a school aged 4 and 3/4 yr. old big kid! He picked out this hat all by himself, he thinks being a big brother is pretty cool, and he loves to read. In 5 months, he will be leaving the nest and moving onto Kindergarten. How am I going to live without this blue-eyed boy keeping us company throughout the day?!



****If only I could get him out of these pj's. Grandma Bend, we are getting your money's worth out of these "I want to be a super hero when I grow up" pj's!

jeeps and brothers

3.14.10
It has been a long time coming (15 months to be exact) but Trey and Tian can finally enjoy the Jeep, together! They love riding around the yard, front or back yard, it doesn't seem to matter.

Today, Trey faked a jeep break down. This sight made me laugh, remembering many memories from Mexico. Thankfully, we never broke down, but we saw many, many broken down vehicles along the freeway and all different people pushing behind the vehicle. Trey was only 2.5 years old when we went to Mexico but I am amazed at the things he remembers.


Tian taking over the drivers seat before Trey could even kick him out.

Tian thinking Trey was pretty funny pushing the jeep.

Here is Trey and Tian cruising around the front yard as our friend and neighbor Kip drove pass.

I love you boys! I love how you play together. Hopefully, your bond will continue to grow throughout the years, whether over cars, sports, or whatever may come your way.

baby Isaac Photo Shoot

3.22.10
5 days after being born, with the help of my mother-in-law, we took baby Isaac's newborn pictures. I had been collecting props, digging out Tian's old baby blankets he never used and studying different newborn poses. To be honest, newborns aren't my thing; unless they are MY newborn of course. I was scared stiff walking up to Tina's home, but once we began, it was wonderful. Tina helped wrangle the children (4 in all, counting Isaac) while Isaac slept peacefully throughout the whole 1.5 hour shoot.

As I was driving out of Tina's driveway, I quickly called my friend/coworker/photography go-to guru Emily and said, "Emily, newborns is where it's at! They are amazing!" She too was shocked, the two of us have stayed clear of newborns up until this point.

THEN, my views changed with the next newborn pictures I took. Oh well, not every baby is the same, and not every shoot goes as plans! Alas, here is baby Isaac.

And, my very last shot that I am very happy with. Thanks to my mother-in-law for much needed help, AND, my youngest brother Taylor. Yes, without the two of them, this would have never worked!

Martjin, Jarom, and the scary Farmer

3.10.10
A few weeks ago, I put a post on my Facebook account asking for any senior age students who would be willing to be my model for the afternoon and receive free pictures in return. I have been taking pictures of children and families, but the closest I came to a "senior" photoshoot was with a 14 year old. So, I received a few responses, one of which was from a mom in our ward who has two boys in her home. One is her son, a 15 year old, and their exchange student from the Netherlands who is a senior this year. It was perfect, not only was I getting seniors, but I was getting male seniors. I also don't have much experience shooting male models, just the girly type! The night before our photoshoot, I scoped out the latest Abercrombie and Fitch ads to give me some inspiration.

I had a few places I wanted to take them. One of which was a property I pass nearly three times a week. We stopped at the property once to get a family picture and I loved it so much, I have been waiting 3 months to take someone back.

This property has everything you could wish for. It has multiple barns and sheds, an old desk in a barn which was perfect for the guys to sit on, like in this picture......

and hundreds and hundreds of tires. Hundreds! I wonder if the previous owner worked for a tire company.
I love how this old "barn" had windows and sage brush everywhere. First of all, Martjin, pictured below, didn't know what sage brush was. Secondly, I told him to sit on the desk so he could look "studious." Poor foreigner didn't know what studious was! He was one of the sweetest 18 year olds I have ever met. When we first met, he shook my hand. He also didn't like to get dirty, if you look closely, we found a small piece of cardboard for him to sit on while I took this picture.

Well, as I began taking pictures of Martjin next to the old house on the property, an old farming truck came roaring down the dirt driveway. My car was parked among all of the tires, away from the road and the home. The farm truck pulled up right behind my car and an old farmer jumped out of his car and went running to the back of my car. He started to inspect my car and then went back to his car to fish for something inside it. As the three of us watched this old man, I began to get scared. Have you ever gotten so scared you thought you might faint? Well, that is how I felt. Faint! I finally cleared my throat and somehow yelled to the old man. I told him that was my car and we were just finishing some senior pictures. (Like the old man knew what senior pictures were.) He told me over and over again that I was on private property (to clear the air, there was NO private property signs posted anywhere.) and that I needed to leave. I swear, I thought he was going to shoot us he was so blazing mad. I told him we were leaving, and that is exactly what we did. For the rest of the day, I kept looking over my shoulders for that old farmer and his nasty truck.

We resorted to taking pictures in downtown Nampa, at my favorite red door and alley way for the rest of the pictures.

This next picture screams Abercrombie in my book! Martjin, you just watch out my foreign friend. The girls will be knocking down your "adoptive" parents door soon enough.

Thank you Martjin and Jarom for the adventure, the experience, and the laughs. You two are the sweetest!

Kid Fair 2010

2.26.10
The Brown's invited us to the Boise Kids Fair this year. We love our time spent with the Browns and look forward to the next adventure with them. Jaime is always thinking of our boys, and our boys LOVE Ava! We met up with them just as Ava had gotten her picture taken with Scooby Doo. The whole reason Ava was there was to meet Scooby. At the moment, Scooby is her favorite character. Trey on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with that dog. Nothing.

Here are some adventures the boys (mostly Trey) embarked on:

Not to brag, but I swear I married the greatest man, and even greater father! He isn't afraid to go down a kiddie slide just to make his boys happy! I love this man!

From across the fairgrounds we saw one of Trey's teachers from his Pre K "old preschool" classes Miss Christina. She was at the Monkey Do's station. We saw some boys walking around the fairgrounds with blue and orange hair, so Trey decided he wanted that kind of hair.

Trey was really interested in Spiderman. Earlier in the morning, he wanted NOTHING to do with Scooby Doo, but now wanted everything to do with Spidey. We noticed that Spidey had taken an interest in our boys too, which I thought was a bit odd, but kind. Finally, after Trey got enough nerve up to ask for a picture, Spiderman said, "Hey, you guys know me!" And after I heard his voice, I realized it was our hometeacher!!! Trey couldn't have been more happier!

Here is Justin, encouraging Trey on the Swings.
You see, as the swings began, Trey didn't seem that satisfied with the ride. As you can see in this next picture, no real emotion on his face.


I promise, he eventually began smiling, but I think the swings weren't as exciting as he remembered in years past. (and btw, as I was just looking at the above picture, I realized Trey wasn't buckled in. Then I remembered, this picture was taken after the swings ended. He had already been unbuckled and was just sitting there, contemplating his ride. He looks a little disappointed. Poor guy!)
I think a highlight of Trey's afternoon was petting this large, large turtle. At first, he thought it wasn't real!

We ended our afternoon in the McDonald's parking lot with Tian puking his guts out. Yeah, I think he either drank too much chocolate milk from the Milk Station at the Fair, or he was too overwhelmed with the days events. Needless to say, as we were waiting in line to place our order for lunch, Tian started to throw up, while in his car seat of course. I jumped out of the car and ran in the back, rescued him out of his seat, and ran him over into the median of the drive thru window line. Tian puked and puked while people drove by us, probably loosing their appetite. Tian rode home in only his diaper, and we rode home with the front windows down. The smell was enough to make me puke. Poor little guy was feeling all better after his nap.

be thankful

It was Brooklynn's first Activity since turning 8, (the blond on the far right. She is Trey's friend Tyler's sister. She and Trey look like they could be somewhat related with their blond hair!) so we had cupcakes and displayed some of her birthday party decor for the Activity! Trey, as always, in his pj's. I bet the girls just think he lives in his pj's, but actually, he is fully dressed before we leave the house each morning. It is just when he goes down for a nap that he decides to wear his pj's. Then he changes into normal clothes for the rest of the afternoon, and then another change of pj's to go to bed. And I wonder why there is always laundry to be done?!

The postcards prior to the girls decorating their "thank you" boxes. Brooklynn's in the front from a photoshoot with their family last Oct/November.

2.23.10

This week's activity was held on Wednesday, due to Trey's "Drug Eruption" which I thought was chicken pox! The mom's were so kind and patient while I changed the days and times around!

The month of February's Activity Days Theme has been Be Thankful. At our second activity of the year, I took individual pictures of each of the girls. In photoshop, I typed on their pictures, "Thank You" and made post cards out of their pictures. Today's particular day's activity was to teach the girls how to write "thank you" cards. I have one special friend, Sommers, and one perfect mom, who have taught me the art of "thank you" card writing. Without these two influences, I too would probably be like most of these girls. I began the activity by asking how many girls had written "thank you" cards for their Christmas gifts. No one rose their hands. I thought to myself, "This activity will be perfect."

One late night or early morning, (I am not sure what time it actually was because I did not have my contacts in while I was feeding Tian.) I was watching a makeover show called "10 Things I hate about Myself." Terrible name huh?! This lady they were making over didn't know how to write thank you cards. So, an etiquette expert taught her the three rules about "thank you" cards. And, these are the ones I taught the girls:

#1. Write and send out a "thank you" card within three days of receiving a gift.

#2. In your "thank you" card, write three things about the gift. For example, why you liked it, what you plan on doing with it, and thank them for thinking of you.

#3. A "thank you" card should only take three minutes to write.

For the past few weeks I have collected cardboard boxes for the girls to place their "thank you" postcards into. They decorated them with paper, markers, and the three rules to "thank you" card writing on the front.

Who knows if they ever sent their post cards out. Hopefully, they learned a little bit about "Be'ing Thankful!"

drawing

2.23.10
Trey has never been one for coloring. He mostly scribbles just to get 'er done in preschool or in Primary. But, just recently, Tian has shown an interest in coloring. Therefore, Trey has begun coloring right along side his little brother. This morning, amid the runny noses and the watery eyes, Trey and Tian colored out of their Tonka Truck coloring book. I found it kind of funny one of the pages Tian was interested in said, "Raise the Roof" as the caption of the picture! That saying brought be back to high school days. Particularly, basketball season. I think we got in trouble for chanting that saying as we schooled a visiting team.


This is a picture of a "Rockstar Wall" where Trey says you can "rock out on." HMMMM.

Isn't THAT the happiest face you have ever seen?!

Drug Eruption

2.23.10
We woke up this morning, like any other morning, and start getting dressed. We are working on Trey's independence (unlike most children his age, he wants to do nothing by himself. NOTHING! Not even use the restroom himself. I know, too much info!) so I was helping him get dressed. As I was changing his shirt, I noticed he had a terrible rash on his tummy. Just as I was looking Trey over, I got a call from Trey's friend Megan's mom. Wendy said her daughter Ashlyn woke up with chicken pox. I just about finished her sentence as I was looking Trey over. I immediately called Trey's doctor and asked if we could get into him for an appointment. I immediately threw out all of the tooth brushes, explained to Trey he couldn't touch Tian or share anything with him. Poor Trey. I know I am a bit extreme, but I didn't want Tian to get the pox.

So, our doctor got us in that afternoon, I canceled Activity Days due to the pox, and we hid out in the entry way of the doctors office until our appointment. I didn't want to infect anyone in the doctors office.

We thought it was a bit strange for Trey to have chicken pox. He has had the booster and the follow up chicken pox shot and it is very rare, supposedly, for someone to get the chicken pox after being immunized.

Doctor Archibald gave Trey a very thorough over look and then went and got his Medical Dictionary. He pointed to some picture of Chicken Pox. He said Trey's rash didn't look like Chicken Pox. It was actually a "Drug Eruption" instead, due to the antibiotics he had been on. WHAT the heck is a Drug Eruption? Who knows, but supposedly the rash can last for weeks and weeks and it can also itch. Thankfully, the rash lasted only 4 days and didn't leave any scars. Trey was able to finish his antibiotics without any other ill effects.

bowl-less

2.23.10
Who needs a bowl when there is new flooring from wall to wall to dump your breakfast all over. Kix must taste better from the ground then in a bowl. I think my boys are part dog! (Trey has been drinking water out of a bowl, like a dog or cat.)

sunrise

2.23.10
I have been wanting to take a picture with some sun flair. So, this morning, Trey was up at the crack of dawn, literally, and we went outside in the front yard and got some pictures with the sun! Love that boy, and love that sun!



Trey, you are too cute! Love the bed head, the Small Paul pj's, and that sweet smirk.

swings

2.22.10
Tian loves to swing and could swing at any time of the day. Usually he swings in the baby swing, but today, he tried the big boy swing!