Ten on Tuesday

1. Jaden had a rough night last night, it happens at least once a week. I'm pretty exhausted today though. I feel like it's so much harder to function on such little sleep than it was with the previous babies. But, getting up at 7 and getting three girls ready and two off to school, then taking care of JJ is really wearing on me. I miss sleep!:)

2. I got to go to muffins with mom this morning at Peytons preschool. It's so fun to get to go and spend time with that little cutie pie. I wish I could do it without the other two tagging along, and really spend some time with her, but either way, it's fun to get to go and see her as a big girl at school.

3. Soccer also started last week for Peyton, it is so much fun to watch all these little kids and their different personalities out on the field. Some are way aggressive and want to always kick the ball, and others hate the thought of being on the field. They seem so small to be there running around on that field.

4. I was cleaning out the car today, and found 7...yes, 7 sippy cups/water bottles in there. No wonder I haven't been able to find any in the house, now if only I could find all the bows that are missing.

5. One of my favorite things that Jaden does is when he almost sneezes. He takes a breath, and closes his eyes, and you think he's going to let out this big ol' sneeze, and then he just kinda makes a sweet noise as he blows the air out of his mouth. I'll have to get it on tape, it's so incredibly adorable!

6. I'm having so much fun with photography! I've been having more sessions lately with it being the fall and almost christmas card season. I feel like I'm learning so much with every session, and the more I learn, the more I realize there is so much I don't know! It's great to be able to have a creative outlet that pushes me and challenges me to improve all the time.

7. I am SO excited that it's cooling down this week a little bit. I hope this is the beginning of fall! I may even pull out all the fall/halloween decorations this week to really get in the fall mood. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and some yummy hot cocoa sound delish right about now!

8. We had a fun FHE yesterday that the girls just loved! Did you ever play restaurant as a kid? I loved it, as a mom not so much, but yesterday we did it for FHE. The girls came to 'Aprils Diner, where manners matter'. They had to keep their bums in their seats the whole time, say please and thank you, and there was to be no burping at the table. You wouldn't think that would be a problem with girls, but oh, it is! They did really well, and hopefully the lesson will last more than a few nights, I'm really tired of not having any peace at the dinner table.

9. Lexie, lexie, Lexie, I don't know what we're going to do about that girl, but she is hilarious, and quite exhausting. I've said it before, but she is one stubborn girl that is really giving me a run for my money right now. If anyone knows any tricks let me know. She hates holding my hand in the parking lot when we're headed into Peytons school, or the store. She has no volume control and is constantly screaming, she LOVES to say no to me, and she is the worst listener ever. But she loves me, and is completely adorable when she wants to snuggle. She wanted to play with the mole on my neck the other day after I finished insanity, and when she put her hand on my neck, said "ewe, is all wet!" so dang cute!

10. And now, I'm off to make-out with this hotty I know...heheh;)

Our weekend at the lake

my inlaw's were gracious enough to let my family come in and take over the lakehoue for labor day weekend. It was beautiful weather, quality time spent with my family, and some very spoiled little girls!

The day we got up there was my dad's birthday, but there had been three summer birthdays and a couple other birthdays coming up later in the month so we did a big ol' birthday celebration for all of them. My mom made yummy giant cupcakes, and they all dug in, some of them literally dug in!

This littl girl started it all. She made a mess of her cupcake, and everyone else thought it looked like fun!

THAT'S how you eat a cupcake!

When you can't make a big enough mess just eating...use you fingers!

After being pregnant, and not having gone wakeboarding for a few years, I finally got a chance. It was so much fun, until I looked at the pictures later, sorry if my massive white legs blind you!:) I was incredibly sore the next day, I hadn't used those muscles in YEARS! But it was totally worth it, so much fun!

The boat is the best, always putting kids to sleep, I love that!

Then everyone took turns on the jetskies

We were able to sit around and relax, enjoying the great weather we had, and time with family

Jaden enjoyed his first trip to the lakehouse. Next time I need to remember to bring a bouncer or something for him.

I love getting to see my girls enjoying everything up there. These are some lucky kids!

Jaden got to take one trip on the boat, when we went to the pier for dinner. He slept the whole time, so adorable!

We had a wonderful weekend, and I've learned that I'm not very good at getting pictures of everyone when we're all together. My mom, my sister and her little girl, and my brother, his wife and their daughter were there as well. I need to be better about that, maybe when I'm not carrying a baby with me everywhere I go!:)

Miss Peyton turns 4!

A couple weeks ago (yeah, that's how good I am!), our little sneaky girl turned 4!

I wasn't doing birthday parties this year, and the girls all knew it. With a new baby being born right in the middle of all the other kids birthdays, it just wasn't gonna happen.

But, Peyton got lucky. We were going to bless Jaden the first weekend of September, which is when her birthday is. So she was able to spend her birthday at the lake house with her aunts and uncles and grandma Shauna and Grandpa Logan. She was SO excited to get to go to the lake house for her birthday, these kids LOVE it up there!

Halli, being the wonderful (most of the time anyway) big sis she is, decided to help Peyton ride her bike that morning. I wasn't going to put on training wheels at all, and just teach her how to ride it from the get go. But then Kevin reminded me that she can't even pedal yet, so the training wheels were put on as soon as we got home.

What do you do at a lakehouse on your birthday? Spend the day on the lake of course!

Love that awesome hairdo.:)

She doesn't love to ride the tubes, but she loves to hold the flag, obviously.

After heading to dinner at the pier, where they get to feed their leftovers to the catfish, (I'm assuming that's why she choose to go there for her birthday dinner), it was home for cake and ice cream. It was a little rushed due to an incident with the dog when we got back, and it was already really late. But she loved it, and is lucky for me, a very easy girl to please!

We love this little munchkin and her happy little attitude. There's just something about her that's quiet, yet a little bit sneaky, that makes me just adore who she is. She is a truly beautiful little girl and I can't wait to see just who she'll become when she grows up!

Happy Birthday LaNea

My super cute niece is one today! I'd been wanting/dying to do a cake smash session for quite awhile, and she gave me the perfect opportunity! It was tons of fun for both of us, and I think she may have gotten the better end of the bargain, that cake was yummy!

Happy birthday cute girl!

Ten on Tuesday

I'm stealing this idea from my sister-in-law Jamie, cause I need to be better about remembering the little things. I'm pretty good about posting big stuff, most of the time, but it's all the little things that I don't want to forget. So here are ten things that have been on my mind, or things going on around here lately.

1. Halli has a very overactive imagination, which I love. Seriously, she's always creating something, and she's awesome at getting her sisters involved. She's essentially bossing them around, but they like it most of the time. It's the HUGE mess that comes with her overactive imagination that I have a problem with. On any given day I'll find a fort made in some random room, homemade signs all over the house featuring different stores or shops that she's created, or one of her MANY handmade books that she creates for anyone or anything. Someday I'll figure out how to contain the mess, but for now I think it's just part of her creative process.

2. Jaden had his 2 month check-up today. It was 2 hrs at the doctors office, I don't have time for a 2 hr appt. that should only take 30 min, but whatever. He's a little worn out from the shots, but he did great. He's also a whopping 15 lbs., off the charts, and a little over 24 inches which put him at 85th percentile. He's an amazing baby that is generally content with whatever, thank goodness. Now we just need to figure out how to get him to sleep through the night.

3. ahhh, sleep, how I miss it. But I did finally get to take a nap on sunday, it was awesome!:) Between school, preschool, Lexies naptime, which is never when Jaden is sleeping, and errands that I have to run, naps are way too low on the totem pole.

4. Lexie has anew nickname, it just comes out of my mouth about 5 times a day...she's the "little pill". Not quite the nicest name, but this girl is REALLY trying my patience lately. We have tried to get her to color on paper, and only paper, but she's two. I think she's colored on pretty much every wall in our house. One day she took a marker and colored on every step, all the way up the stairs. Nursing a baby is seeming to give her way too much free reign in our house. She's also learned how to push a chair up to the counter in the kitchen which then gives her access to anything and everything on top of the counters. That used to be my safe spot to keep things away from her. I may pull all of my hair out soon.

5. Basketball is over. Summer of Seals is over. We'll have the new renters in the house tomorrow, so no more cleaning up the rental house. Besides anything pertaining to Young Mens, or work, I have a husband again!:)

6. I saw Peyton playing with a magnet toy the other day, and then, when she was done, she put it away. All by herself, I didn't even have to ask!:)

7. I'm making new pillows for our couches, cause the ones we have are awful. The best part, I just bought some placemats at target, and took part of the seam apart, and filled it with batting. A brand new pillow for $4, that takes very little sewing, and they're cute too.

8. There's a pile of laundry on the floor in my room that I need to fold. I've been either running around like crazy so I haven't done it, or when I've had a few minutes, I just choose to ignore it. Is that bad? Maybe tonight it'll all get done.

9. I've started insanity workouts. They're SO very hard, and I should have some amazing looking legs by the time it's done. I'm enjoying doing them though, and feeling like I've actually had a really hard workout. It's been a long time since I've felt that worn out. But I do think that when you're nursing and not sleeping through the night, it's a little hard on your body. I'm taking fenugreek every now and then and trying to drink enough water so I don't lose my milk. Being exhausted from no sleep will probably not go away till he can make it all night.

10. I've had tons or orders lately for the lil' pumpkin baby shower invites from my etsy sight. Must be that time of year! It's so fun having a way to earn some extra money, even if it's not alot. Someday when I have more time I'd like to make more of an effort with graphic design, I really enjoy doing it, and would love to be able to somehow have that translate into some sort of income. But for now, I've got my hands quite full with these 4 little munchkins!

some recent photoshoots

These are just a couple of the photoshoots I've had recently, I'm still editing some other ones. But this first cutie pie is my newest niece, Adelyn, and my in-laws 13th grandchild! She is super cute, and I just love her already!

These cute kids were my first shoot after having a baby, and it was august in houston, and HOT! But they did great and were tons of fun.

For more previews from these sessions, check it out here.

Peyton's in preschool

In all the craziness of the past two weeks, more of which will come later, I didn't post about Peyton starting preschool. There are so many times when I feel guilty about Peyton. She is seriously the easiest child ever. She's quiet, obedient (most of the time), good natured, and just so easy to have around.

I love, love, love that she's like this, but I so wish that I was better at remembering and making a big deal out of more things with her. She is the proverbial middle child, through and through, and I feel so bad about that sometimes.

She wasn't nervous for preschool, she didn't even really say much about it, she was just excited, for the week or so leading up to preschool. She'd been asking me since last year if she could go, so she was more than ready.

I waited till the last minute and the night before her first day I was running around trying to get leggings for her first day outfit. She loved it cause of the tutu, she's wanted one for awhile! I must say, it looks adorable on her too.

Her best buddy is in her class, and she introduced him and his favorite color to the rest of the class before he could do it. Poor Braden, Peyton was just looking out for her man! Little did she know it made him a little sad. She thought he was doing him a favor, silly girl!

Every day she heads into class with a smile on her face, happy to be there. Then when I pick her up, her face lights up, and she yells 'MOM', and runs to give me a hug. She adores her teachers and loves to be able to play on the playground like a big girl. Yet again, I can't believe how fast she's growing up, I just adore this little girl!