Have a Good Weekend!

I came across this picture of Jayden today when I was looking through some of the files on my external hard drive...



I fixed it up a little but the original file is not so great... I had just started taking pictures on manual and at that time, it was basically a guessing game! (And who am I kidding, sometimes it still is!!). The pictures from this little window of time on that day early last summer are almost all overexposed--- some really, really badly overexposed. It's really.... yucky.

But she's still cute.

Have a nice weekend!!

Sugar and Spice...

And everything nice! Here are a few more pictures of the sweet 3-month-old baby girl I got to take pictures of two weeks ago...





These next two are especially precious because most of the time, her big sister wasn't really that interested in being in front of the camera.





I love pink and brown together, and the little bow on her head is just perfect!





Just a beautiful little girl...

The Twins Meet Kenai

Last Sunday we invited Andy's family over to hang out and watch the playoff games at our house. It's really nice to get everyone together and just relax... and Kenai loves it, because there are more people to pet him! He usually makes rounds around the room, going from one body to the next so he is pretty much getting touched constantly. It's so cute (but also irritating at times)...



A few days before this, Corey had slipped on some ice outside our house and banged up his ankle pretty good (which obviously made me feel awful!). But luckily for us he came back to our house anyway and here he is, hanging out with Landon and looking at a book I had made of some of my pictures from 2008~



I was sure to snap some pictures of Andy holding Peyton, too, to keep for evidence that Andy doesn't just love Landon, he loves Peyton too! (At Christmas, every picture I took of Andy was with Landon, except for one where he's holding both of the boys).







And here's a sweet picture of Landon~ he was giving me the absolutely adorable "look" he has! Wide eyed and innocent... such a doll!



But the best part of the day for me was definitely Kenai with the kids... I was a little nervous because even though Kenai is totally sweet and wouldn't hurt a fly, I wasn't sure how it would be with the twins~ would they be scared of him? Would he be too aggressive? etc... Fortunately, he was just amazing and as soon as he came over to give Peyton a quick kiss, Peyton started giggling out loud!







Landon wouldn't giggle at Kenai the way that Peyton did, but he was still just fine with the big fluffy dog running around, and didn't seem to mind as Kenai gave him a quick kiss, too...



Sometimes, though, Kenai would take a break and just lay down in the middle of the room. Even later, when Jayden and Natalie were trying to ride him like a horse, he just stood there calmly and let them play by him or pull on him, etc. Nothing phased him, it was just awesome. Love you, Keenie!!

Another "Coming Soon"...

Here's a preview of my current project:



I've been unfortunately slow at getting these pictures ready from a session I had a couple of weeks ago. It's so hard to get things done when you're sick! (Seriously, pneumonia is a total bummer!). But I'm feeling better and I hope to have more pictures from this session ready to post by this weekend. Isn't she sweet?

And to answer your question before you ask~ No, I will NEVER get tired of close-up baby faces!!

The Big Brother

As promised, here are the pics of the big brother from my photo session a few weekends ago...





He's totally adorable, and how is this for a "cheese"!?!?!

Project 365

Have you ever heard of Project 365?



Project 365 is a fun, creative project that I am doing along with my two closest friends. I created a separate blog for it, so check it out by clicking here.

The Sweet Sister...

This little girl is just too adorable for words!!





Even though we weren't sure how willing she was going to be to sit for me for a few minutes, she was entertained by her mom ("Who has stinky feet?!?!") and was totally, absolutely perfect in front of the camera.





I would take pictures of her all day long if she'd let me!!



Seriously... she's just beautiful.



Thanks Abby, for being so good and letting me take a few pictures! These are among my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

The Baby Brother & Blog Challenge #3 Answer

First things first~ the baby brother from my photo session last Sunday. This little guy was so sweet...!!







Can you tell how enamored he is with his mama? She stood behind me making funny faces, and he just loved it...



And I really like this next picture, he just looks like such a peanut!!



And here's one more sweet close up... (you know how much I love those!!)



Isn't he adorable? And I'll post the pictures of his big brother & sister soon, too....

And now, the answer to my blog challenge. First, thanks soooo much to the brave souls that took a guess!! I'm so glad you did! Everyone that guessed had wonderful, very true answers. Yes, I do love the angle of the photo~ very much! Yes, I loooove the look on Tom's face because you can tell how much he loves his grandbabies. It's just awesome.

But, "THE" answer to the challenge is......... I love that you can see my reflection in the mirror! And no, I didn't know I was going to be in the picture, but I think it's neat that I am. And I'm sooooo impressed with how many of you got it right!! You guys rock! Thanks again to everyone that took a guess.

Coming Soon...

Last Sunday I got to take pictures for three of the sweetest, cutest, most adorable siblings EVER!



This group shot was just an afterthought, but it's still super cute... aren't they sweet? And yes, that's dad's arm in the background, but the little peanut in the middle is not even 6 months old yet and therefore needs assistance with the whole 'sitting up' thing.

I am so excited to post their pictures, but that will have to wait just a little bit, so keep checking back! I'm going to give each kiddo their own individual post because there are sooooo many cute pictures! Wait til you see them!

***AND, I've decided to wait a little bit to post the answer to my blog challenge (see my previous post)... if you haven't commented yet with your guess, please do! I've gotten a few responses but I know there are more of you out there lurking in blogland, so I hope you'll decide to give it a try, too! I promise it won't be painful!

Challenge #3

It's time for another blog challenge!!

Okay, check out the following picture:



The challenge is to leave me a comment with the answer to the following question: Why do I love this picture?

Okay, I'll give you a little help: there are many possible answers that are probably all very true, but I'm looking for THE answer. One very specific answer... Do you think you know it?

Also, I know there are a number of people that check my blog from time to time, so I want to see some comments coming my way!! I will actually be gone for a few days so I'm not going to post any of the comments that people leave until the end of the weekend. So, if there are no comments and you've left me one, don't worry! I'll post all the comments at the same time at the end of the weekend.

Click on these to see my previous blog challenges: Blog Challenge #1, and Blog Challenge #2.

Good luck!

Christmas Eve 2008

We were very blessed to be able to spend the night of Christmas Eve with Andy's parents, two sisters and their husbands, and of course all four kids!

These pictures were taken a little bit before Christmas (technically), but here are the girls in their Christmas dresses~





On Christmas Eve, the boys were just as cute as the girls in their Christmas outfits! (Andy was cute, too, even though he didn't have a Santa hat...)



The party officially began when Santa came to visit~



He offered to let the kids sit on his lap, but this year the only two willing kiddos were the twins, and they loved it! Can't you tell?



Then the presents that Santa brought got passed out... I'm not sure if Jayden was trying really hard to be sweet and help pass out the presents or if she was trying to grab some extra ones for herself! (Who can blame her!?!?)



Then, once the girls got their gifts from Santa, they were so excited to color they forgot for a while that Santa was sitting in a chair near them~



But, when Santa said he had to get going, he got a big squeeze from Jayden...



And then he didn't get to leave without playing ring-around-the-rosie with Jayden and Papa...



And then when Santa was out on the porch having a little drink with Papa before heading back to the reindeer, we played more with the kids~



And Jayden admired the nativity, where earlier that night she had helped Grandma and Papa and Natalie put the baby Jesus in the manger...



After all that, we went downstairs to watch the little girls open their gifts, which was really impressive because they took their own turns and didn't have any big issues with sharing toys. (Although they watched each other closely!)



And then it was time for dinner... we were so blessed to have a beautiful spread (thanks, Karen!) and for those who like to drink wine, we had our choice of wine from the bottle shown here (or the other one, which was 'Fat Bastard.')



Luckily for me, I don't drink wine, because that would have been a hard choice! We definitely had a Merry Christmas, and we felt very blessed.