Back into the blogging world...

Sorry I have been so MIA lately friends and family!! Life has been busy as usuall and the blog hasn't been a huge priority on my to-do lists. I do enjoy it and want it to become more of a habit...so we will be working it into my schedule! I thought I would start where we left off (kinda) and just try and catch up...so I apologize for the Christmas pictures later this January.

Everett turned nine months on December 23rd and I didn't get around to his 9month photos until 2 weeks later...so technically he is 9.5 months:-) It is getting hard to get him to sit still for these photos as he wants to just crawl around and play! I managed though. His personality has really come through lately and is proving to be a very intelligent baby! He communicates with us all the time and lets us know if he is upset about things. He is kinda a drama-king at times. He learned to wave and actually says "HI"....so that is is first word! I recently was at target and saw a little stuffed lion and I was "roaring" at him, making him smile, got a kick out of it and then walked away from it. Then all of a sudden I hear "raaaoooorr" come from Everett! I thought it was so cute and he kept doing it, so I HAD to get the stuffed Lion...he still roars for us when we say lion or show him the animal. I am having so much fun seeing the difference already in him compared to the other boys. The Best!

He is starting to get some eczema patches which is a bummer because we already have to deal with it for Austin. It didn't start up till after I started feeding him solids so I am curious if there is a food that aggrevates his skin more.
He has started wrestling with his brothers, and Logan tries to squeeze him all the time. The other day I told Logan to not squeeze him and he says "But I just love him so much!!" Hehe...gotta love it!

He looked so cute in the hat, but he was crabby at the time so I had to get one of him being crabby:-)
Check back soon for Christmas photos!!

Merry Merry December

Oofta! What a month so far! The testosterone led family is doing great...and the trying very hard to be feminine lady here is doing might fine too:-) I have started to try and take a new approach on things lately and bought myself a handy dandy personal calendar. I am tired of forgetting (still do) and procrastinating (working on that also) and want to cross things off a list (so accomplishing). It is hard to adapt something like that into my daily life because I am always on the go and don't have a set "station" or desk that I can leave the calendar. It is working for the most part though.

Other updates:

Logan just had his Christmas Program...which I had to miss because Austin was strangely sick just for that morning. Mike was able to go and video taped it. Logan and I watched it later together and he sang me every song:-) He was so proud! I had told Logan that I was sad I wasn't able to go and to prepare him for the worst told him gently that neither Mike or I would be able to go. I hoped that Mike would be able to and like I said he did. Mike caught Logan's reaction to seeing his Dad on the video and it was priceless. Soooo glad Mike went.

Austin is doing well...his old self. Still quite the funny guy with such an independent persona. He is enjoying Everett more and more and I think they will be good buds. Austin loves to pretend play and recently pretended to be a doctor "Mom...are you a boy or girl (girwal-is how he says it)" and then writes it down on a pretend clipboard. Love him!

Everett is cutting the top four teeth right now...seems like it has been over a month since this started and I can't WAIT for them to come through! He is crawling all around the house, and I am really enjoying this curious stage. He doesn't really crawl full force, just kind of meanders around putting random things in his mouth...like dog hair. He has pulled himself up several times, but it still isn't consistent. He still nurses, but is very active so it can be hard to get him to any where else besides his quiet room. I am struggling with if he is getting enough from my milk OR if it is just his teething...we are gonna give it some time and do some experimenting with other foods to find out. Other than that...he is still the happiest baby!

My photography sessions have slowed down, which is nice for the holidays, but I am so pumped for this next spring and summer...got some awesome new places to take people and new ideas! Somehow I do still have time to do some home-made crafts. This fall wreath (yes I know it is winter now) took me about a month, but I got it done in time for Sept! No one ever told me how much burlap sheds...it is awful...it turned into an outside project. One of my favorites though!

And since I didn't have much time to make a Christmas wreath...I just tweaked the fall one with some Christmas tree branches and ornaments and wwwhhalllah!

Funny story...I missed watering the tree one day and after that noticed that it stopped soaking up water. So, in my craziness I asked my incredible husband to help me cut some more off the bottom of the tree in case some sap covered the bottom preventing water being drunk by the tree. In his awesomeness...he did it with help from a friend. That was much more of a project than we expected. The tree is now about 4 inches shorter and lost all the bottom branches. It looks cleaner and healthier though! Oh well!
Hope you all are having a good December and have a Merry Christmas thus far! Miss you family and friends!

PS...oh I will have a good story for you guys next time hopefully...seriously...God is really wanting us to trust Him lately in the most crazy circumstances!! All Glory to Him!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!!

Yup...this season has been pretty good so far! Great decorations, beautiful tree, awesome traditions, telling and retelling of the REAL Christmas story, deals on presents, and MIKE is HOME for it! I saw a tutorial on how to make your Christmas Tree glow and I had fun playing with it...basically you close your aperature (F number...as high as possible) open your shutter speed to over 5 seconds, USE A TRIPOD and set your timer on your camera so it doesn't shake. I think my ISO was around 800. Only have your tree lights on and the rest of the house dark or very dim and shoot away! I believe my settings were "10 shutter speed, 22 F, ISO 800. Then I added a slight boost with photoshop...but it really didn't need it.

Then the bokeh tree...I may be wrong on this, but the way I did it was by manually making it out of focus and I could see the bokeh through my camera. I believe my shutter speed was 1/50 and a 2.2F, ISO stil 800. Good thing about this is that you don't really have to worry about shaking too much.

Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas season so far! Wishing we were closer to home for family, but we will make do this year...:-)

Unedited, SOOC, Family photos:-0

Love this place I found to take photos and I love fall colors! Oh...most of all...love my boys...

Chaos among the calm...

By the obvious lack of posts...life has been quite chaotic. Which is always good right? Well, in this case it is. I have had numerous photo sessions during the week and weekends for friends and friends of friends. I seriously thought once I started charging people, then it would slow down a bunch, but it is amazing how my second job now is to edit pics and be creative! Loving it!

The boys have found new ways to entertain themselves while I sit next to them on the computer..."little legos" is one of the things they do:-) Hence my table being full of them, while I sip on my coffee and enjoy the chitter of two imaginative buddies. This pic was also taken with my new prime lens...LOVE IT!

Mike has been enjoying getting the boys out and running around (still wishing for a swing set in our backyard) but the obstacle course will do fine for now. Boys sure will be boys!!
Such a big guy climbing the ropes!
Always a teaching moment for Daddy and Son. Austin is so independent and so brave...but sometimes he does need help! Notice the look on his face?

I FINALLY got to meet my wonderful nephew! And yes, my great sister and brother in law visited also:-) It was so awesome to see them as a family, growing their own precious boy. It is always so fun to have them visit because of how laid back we can all be, the video gaming by the men, and constant conversation for me and Jillian. They were amazing though...they saw a glimpse of my chaotic life and the messiness that goes along with it...and yet they still wanted to be here. Josh (my BIL) did the dishes several times, and Jillian as well. So great to have helpful visitors! Anyways, we stayed home a bunch, but got to take family photos of both our families, did a little shopping, movie watching, and mothering.

Here are all four boys together...Logan 4.5, Everett 7.5 months, Noah 3 months, and Austin 2.5!

All in the tub one night:-) Everett is obsessed with splashing, more so than his older brothers and poor Noah got so much water in his face! He was a trooper though...I know there will be pay back some day:-)

Crazy kids...Everett was a little interested in Noah, but mainly like to have something to climb on...the bouncer!

I got to hold him while he was sleeping one time...oh HEAVEN! He kept smiling and making silly expressions...love him!

Here are a few shots of Everett exploring...I think he really wanted to go outside that day!

On the move:-)

Beautiful Mommy and her handsome son!

Yes, Logan was in love with Noah and we had to keep reminding him to be gentle with him. "Noah doesn't have brothers like EVerett does" (who is used to the roughness by now).
Logan kept making the funniest faces when we were taking pics of them...Noah enjoyed the attention.

Stay tuned....I have plenty more photos coming!!

Pictures Galore of my sweet boys!

Everett's double chin. Gotta love baby chunk! So squeezable, kissable and lovable...

Everett is definitely his own man, but I see parts of his brothers in his face. He is so sweet and LOVES to eat. I have made him peaches, apples, bananas and sweet potatoes (need to increase the veggies for sure!) My girlfriend Laura gave us this awesome baby-food making machine and it is a breeze to whip him up some delicious goodies! I did it the old fashioned way with the older boys (hand held blender and ice cube trays) but now these containers have little smiley faces on them and a mini-blender to help! I will have to take pics for you.

These pictures are a little out of order, but when the hurricane hit last weekend we got OUT of here! We have several large trees in our back yard and they have been known to throw down massive branches that have broken our deck and fence. We did not want a tree coming into our house. So our good friends Casey and Joe graciously opened their house to us once again. That saturday we decided to give our friends a break and went to a Children's Museum (as stated in the previous post) and here are a few more photos of the wonderful event!

Austin having so much fun. I remember Logan being absolutely obsessed with Monster Trucks during this age, always having one or more in his hands. Austin is passionate about cooking and his food. We have a ton of play food here at our house, but no kitchen. So he just pretend plays where ever and almost always asks to help us cook dinner. He is so funny when he does help, always trying the ingredients (even the oil to heat up the pan) on the tip of his finger. We keep him safely away from the hot stuff, but he is a great helper.

Two mini chefs
It does something to a parents heart to see a child so passionate and enjoy something so much. I know he is only 2, but there is something special about this chef thing. At this huge kitchen at the museum, Austin was in a different world. He went right to work making his work station and gathering food. He sucked his cheeks in a bit and had a very concentrated look on his face. As you can see, we think he is going to be left-handed...always coloring and cutting with his left hand. If we could go to this kitchen ever day, I would just to see the happiness and joy on his face:-)

Mike went off with Austin while I played with Logan and built a jail around him:-)
This is what I came around the corner to:
Everett just chillin in momma's arms:P
LOVE my Beco! (the carrier)
Working with REAL tools...yes, REAL tools
Sawing the wood with Daddy (ooo those strong arms look good:-)

Building their own cars to race...this was a neat station that I would love to have in my house.

Grocery shopping.
Everett in the stroller...I think he looks like Austin here...just a bit. So edible though!

Fireman Logan!

Now just some random photos. This was before we decided to leave for the hurricane. Caught my hubby off guard, but so glad I actually get photos of him. So handsome:-)

The emergency light for the "big storm"
Austin...yes you are a character
Everett's arm chunk...or should I say muscles?
Logan...yes he is starting to be goofy in pictures. Now it all begins.

He starts three day a week preschool next week. I can't believe that next year I will be getting him ready for KINDERGARTEN! Oh how my sweet men grow up so fast!

Everett doing his thing...we are thinking he will be sitting up by the end of his 5 months and I think crawling in 2 months. We shall see if that holds up! (after I posted this I realized you can see some spit up...sorry!!)

This is what I have been needing the past several days to weeks...my lovely coffee in my clean crisp white mug. Everett has been making my mornings quite early while getting up a few time during the night still. I think we might have to start doing some night training. I was spoiled with Austin who started sleeping through the night at 6 months while nursing...but Everett likes the night feedings too much. Sometimes I wonder how long he is awake at night before he starts making noise...because he plays quietly a lot in his crib! ANYWAYS...going to go make myself some coffee right now. The boys just woke up and Mike decided to go run a half marathon this morning...just another day in our house!