Sweet baby E {Newborn}

I was able to take some photos of the most adorable little newborn boy this weekend. He was a doll, and did great! Not to mention his mom and dad, who are first time parents were WAY more relaxed than I remember being with my first.

It was fun holding a newborn again, and kinda got me feeling like I may just be ready to meet our own little boy in a couple months! Yay for that! Check out some more photos here, on my photography blog.

I'm also going to be starting Summertime Mini Sessions for June only. They'll be 30 min. Sessions for 1-2 kids only, 6 months to 18 years, no family portraits. If you wanted to do more kids than that, email me and we'll work something out.

This is a great chance to get some updated shots of your kids, especially if you have any sort of birthday or other celebration coming up. The sessions will be $25, and will include the CD with your digital images on it. this is for June only, cause after that, I'm hoping it's not TOO long before we get to meet our baby boy!:)

A girl and her car

Tonight, I was making dinner, Halli and Peyton were upstairs playing, and Lexie was outside on the trampoline. We (meaning the adults, including my sis. Brittany who's here for a few days) looked outside and happened to see this little munchkin playing with her new favorite toy on the trampoline.

The girls got a barbie car for christmas, and just recently Lexie has taken a liking to it. She even took it out today to play on the trampoline.

I love her tongue, and that it's always sticking out of her mouth when she's concentrating on something.

Seriously, look how happy she is with her car!

She even tried to jump with it. She really loves being out there without her sisters, although, because she jumps with them alot, her coordination on the trampoline with older kids jumping around her is pretty amazing!

She likes to take it with her wherever she goes, too bad it's not more compact.

I just really loved this last picture of her, and how completely involved in her jumping she is.

Man, I have the cutest kids ever! :)

Why I love being a mom!

Let's be honest, this past week was kinda long. I had three sick girls to take care of, who of course all seemed to need me at the exact same times. Then, just as they were all recovering, Kevin headed out of town for two nights, and didn't get back till saturday evening. This meant that I had to take the girls to the swim meet on Saturday by myself. It wasn't too bad, and luckily the weather was nice and cool, but being pregnant, I just have no patience, and just having dealt with them being sick all week, I had even less.

Let's just say I was ready to bolt as soon as Halli finished her last race. But I will say that she did awesome, and I love watching her compete and try her hardest to do her best. It really is so much fun! I don't have any pictures cause I figured with three kids and ho hubby, I wouldn't get any anyways, so I didn't even bring the camera.

Later that day I took Halli with me to Sams club to get a few things for mothers day that I needed, especially since Kevin was out of town and couldn't do anything, (he may have planned that on purpose, I don't know.) While we were there Halli kept asking to buy me somthing for mothers day. I told her no, but she could point out what she would buy if she could.

She then tells me that she knows daddy got me something. I was pretty skeptical, cause, really Kevin isn't usually on top of the holidays that well, (although he has suprised me a few times in the past). So I asked her how she knew, did she see it? she says no, so I ask her if daddy told her what he got, and she says no. So I have no idea why she thinks Kevin got me anything, and then comes the answer..."it's not something you can see, it's LOVE!"

She literally said that, and she's right. I know that my husband and my girls love me, and the fact that Halli ran into our room on mothers day and woke Kevin up to go make breakfast proves that she was more excited about the day than anyone else. The girls made me some great homemade cards, and Kevin got me some roses, and a promise to get tickets to go see Wicked, which I have been dying to go see. He even said he'd go with me, yay!

So while my kids are keeping me busy, and as this pregnancy gets farther along I'm more exhausted than ever, I know they love me, and sometimes they actually appreciate what I do :)

I really do love being a mom more than anything. It can be so hard at times and at those times I'm also so thankful to be surrounded by so many amazing mothers to help support me and give me the advice I need, especially my own mom.

I'm also incredibly thankful for Kevin, and for the support that he gives me as well, that he's such a great dad, and for the fact that he has the energy to wear the girls out after having a long day at work himself. These early years are hard, and exhausting and I really do want to be able to cherish them and enjoy my kids while they're home with me and I can, sometimes I just need a good reminder that that is where I really need to be.

lil cupcake

I know I haven't blogged much about the girls lately, but they've been home sick all week, so nothing fun going on here. I'm just sad Halli's missing her field day today at a school, but she seems to be taking it pretty well. It seems like we're on the mend with Lexie and Peyton, so hopefully by the weekend we're all healthy again and maybe ready to go jump in the pool for the first time this year, can't wait!

While we're trying to get healthy, here's a little freebie for those of you that are digital scrapbookers.

Last month my sister-in-law had a fourth birthday party for her twin girls, and it was a cupcake theme. She asked me to make some party circle/tags for her, and they turned out so cute that I decided to make a scrapbook kit to go along with them. Not only that, but I've got the party circles, the party invitation, and a few other party supplies for those that want the whole party package. It's all available for sale in my esty shop! For now though, enjoy the scrapbook kit!

Papers

Embellishments

Our family room

I've come to the conclusion that I can't buy things for my house without having a specific plan of what I want to do with it. Mind you, this is in regards to decorating only.

This can be a good thing, I don't spend money on things I don't know what to do with. Hopefully I'll have a purpose for the stuff I do buy. At the same time, it seems to take me a long time to atually come up with a plan, so my house looks kinda blah.

Take my family room for instance. All we've had in there since we moved in were our couches, a glass table that belongs to my mother-in-law, (and I don't love glass tables), a bookcase, and our armoire for the TV. Plus, my fireplace mantel was kinda sad looking.

Just not very inspiring, although Kevin did splurge on that mirror for christmas, so we'd have something pretty up there. I just didn't know exactly what to dowwith it all, plus I wanted to keep it cheap.

I love thrift stores, and tjmaxx. You can find some great stuff at a GREAT price! I started collecting a few things and this past week got to work putting it all together, and I kinda love it!


basicaly everything on that mantel is under $5. Except the platter and the candle holders, that don't hold candles.:) i just need to get a vinyl 'W' to put on the plate, and some pictures for the frames by the mirror. Those white pitchers were really gaudy looking cheap ones I got at thrift stores, then just spray painted white, you'd never know to look at them. The topiaries and the wreath were made by yours truly, and that was pretty much all there was to it.

Then it was time to get rid of the glass table. We're moving furniture around upstairs anyway because of the baby, so I moved this dresser down from the guest room. It was black, with all the drawers, but no drawer pulls. I thought it would look better cream, and with some baskets in it instead. I still need to make a burlap table runner to go on top, but otherwise, love it!

Last, it was time to finally finish that coffee table that we got before christmas. I've painted lots of things, but had never stripped paint before, so I was a little worried about how it would turn out. It took quite awhile to get it all off, but it was well worth the effort.

Now it just needed paint and stain!

We LOVE this coffee table. It's cozy, the girls can do no harm to it, considering how distressed it looks on top, and it was only $50 on craigslist. It's amazing what a little elbow grease can do!

Lest you think I came up with the mantel display on my own, here is the picture that inspired me. Check out Layla's blog, the lettered cottage, for tons of great ideas. She has AMAZING taste, and they're remodeling their house on the cheap. I love her style!

So, there are still a few things that I need to do, and curtains will eventually make a HUGE impact in this big two story room, but for now, it's finally feeling a little more homey, and I love it!

Look-a-like

When my mom was a baby, she had some photographs taken of her that are absolutely gorgeous. They were taken when she was under 1, but the more I look at them, the more they remind me of someone else I know.

Mom, or "Grandma Shauna" as my girls call her.

I tried to repliate the photos, I got close, but someone is a little older, and didn't love sitting still having her picture taken. These two look so very much alike, although I will say that as I look at the picture of my mom, Halli has those exact lips. The other two girls haven't had lips quite as full as that.

Our little Lexie, or a grandma look-a-like.

It's so interesting when you can see the grandparents in your children more strongly than you can see yourself. Most people say Lexie looks like Kevin, so I may have to dig up some bab pictures of him and see just how similar these two are as babies too.

When did this happen?

Today I was wanting to play with my camera, because really, it's kinda fun.:) Lucky for me, Halli actually decided that she wanted to be my subject. I know I'm seriously biased, but really, she is one beautiful little girl.

But here's the thing, after editing the pictures, I have no idea when she grew up this much! She seems so much older in these pictures. She doesn't seem like the 6 year old that she is. I know, she's almost 7, but she is still a 6 year old girl. But somehow these pictures are giving me glimpses into what might be our preteen/teenage daughter, scary!

I am so in love with this little girl! If you know how, feel free to tell me how I can keep her as my little girl longer, I feel like it's just going by WAY too fast!