Fun with the self-timer :)

I don't let a whole lot of people touch my camera :) Kevin will take pictures every now and then when I ask him to, but I have come to realize I don't have a whole lot of pictures of me with my babies. So, we've been playing with the self-timer on the camera lately :)

Sammie sure is straight-faced in all the pics, but at least she's looking right at the camera :) trying to figure out what's going on I guess :)

My kids sure know how to make silly faces, and I have to remember to get all the smiling pictures in first BEFORE I mention silly face picture, because there is no going back!

 

 

Tammy's Baby Shower

I've been thinking about Tammy's baby shower ever since I first found out she was pregnant, and I can't believe it's already come and gone. I had so many ideas, some of which I didn't get a chance to complete, and now that it's over I still think of stuff that I wanted to do :) Tammy looked amazing, as always, and we were all eagerly anticipating little Ayden's arrival :) I made her letters to go above baby Ayden's crib, just like I have for all my kids.

Baby boy ribbon wreath

Beautiful Mommy-to-be!

Mini watermelon stroller, which turned out really cute, and then the terrible cake for which I kept apologizing :( I tried to convince Mom to stop by Walmart on the way to Tammy's house so we could pick up a cake at the last second, but she refused. She said mine was cute and "very homemade looking" - NOT a compliment :) Cakes never turn out like I imagine, even though it seems like a simple thing to do in my head! Oh well, it tasted yummy at least :)

Danielle, Tammy, and Jen

Mom and Tammy

Kristi, Sharon, Dad (crashed the party for some cake :) ) and Jan

Wonderful Diaper wreath that Danielle made

I sure love my sister and can't wait for little baby Ayden to come!!!

P.S. He's actually already here and I have to hurry and catch up so I can post HIS pictures :) LOVE him :)

Picky, picky

Gracie is like me in so many ways, especially when it comes to food. She wants it a very specific way and will take a very long time to make sure everything's right before she eats it. She also smells EVERYTHING, including everyone else's food. This night she took about half an hour to eat one hot dog because she had to peel the entire skin of it off :)

Playing in the sand

Gracie is 3!

My little Gracie is 3! I was telling Tammy the other day how she's so hard to describe because she is the sweetest little thing, but can turn on you in about half a second if she wants to :) She is independent and yet she'll run up to me multiple times a day and just say "I love you Mama" and give me a big hug, out of nowhere. She will try to be very pleasing and do things she knows I love and constantly say "you happy with me Mama?" but then turn around and purposefully, and for reason at all, do something bad and wait for my reaction. She plays SO sweet with her brother most of the time but then out of nowhere will take his toy and throw it downstairs where no one can get it. Tammy described her as the perfect blend of sugar and spice - and that's the best description I have heard yet :) She is amazing, I LOVE her personality. I love how she's strong willed and she challenges me, even though she makes things difficult sometimes. She's always been very independent but she's so nurturing and will put her arm around me and rub my hair when I lay with her in bed at night. She is HILARIOUS and always keeps things very interesting, I wish I could have a video camera taping her 24/7 - she could be a reality show all by herself :) On her birthday I felt bad because Sammie had just had her birthday party on her actual birthday the week before, so she kept asking when all her friends were coming. It took a lot of explaining for her to understand we weren't having the party that day but it was still her birthday. Her party got bumped back so we'll have more on that later :)

She does this thing lately with her eyes when she is trying (and succeeding) to be funny.

Her birthday brownies

Lovin' her new birthday present

5 minutes alone...

and this is what happens

I am a BIG fan of washable markers :)

Playing in the snow

Sammie hadn't really had a chance yet to experiment with snow, so the other day I took the half hour to bundle all of them up so that we could play in the snow for 10 minutes before they got cold :) She was very unsure about it, then decided to start eating it and seemed to not like it but kept going back for more :)

She sure has that same nose-scrunch that Gracie's always had!

Snowball fight :)

Lookout Gracie!

And we're done :)