The Photo Shoot Where No One Cried.

This one has to go down in the history books.  We set up a little no stress, one stop session for my mom's Christmas cards.  At the last minute (no joke) I told the hubby to put on something that went with the kids outfits, and I took my hair out of a ponytail and put on matching gear.  We literally jumped in ten pics with our kids, and I think we got some good ones!!  They were happy and smiley, and no one needed a spanking.  It's ironic that the shoots where I stress for weeks about what to wear, and how they'll behave end up turning out HORRIBLE, but the one where I throw on a brown cardigan six minutes before go time end up being my favorite.

We keep telling Livi she has "Justin Bieber Hair" or as Sissy puts it:  Justin Beaver.  She needs a hair clip, but won't hardly last four minutes with one on. 

This girl.  Sigh.....we're just at the sweetest phase with her right now.  She's the best sister to Livi, and so sweet to me.  Lately, it's been nothing but "Okay Mommy."  She's been so agreeable and fun, and I have loved every second of being with my four and a half year old girl!!  She is my mini me....she does so many things exactly the way I do them, and makes faces all the time that are like looking in a mirror.  Plus, she over reacts, and Mommy knows all about that. :)  She's wearing her first piece of big girl jewelry now...a necklace with three charms on it.  She's so proud of it, and has been really careful not to break it or hurt it....just another way she's growing up, and becoming my big girl.  She acts like mommy, but looks like Daddy (with a tiny bit of me mixed in).  

These eyes!!  Where did that color come from?  I'm not sure, but I love it!

To be honest, we're not at the easiest phase with Bub.  Luckily, he's adorable and hilarious, so even when he's being a toot, I can't help but laugh at him.  He does things that are SO Shawn....he is stubborn just like his daddy, focused, and particular.  Today he was picking tiny pieces of black grilled spots off his chicken, and my mom said, "Who does that??"  I had to ask her if she remembered who Cale's father was!  This kid is all Shawn!!!  He blows us away with his drawing, coloring and writing lately.  He's going to be an overachiever at school, this one.  If my blog readers could be a fly on the wall in a "day in the life" of this kid, your side would hurt from laughing.  He comes up with thoughts and phrases that you wouldn't believe.  

And then there's my baby.....talking up a storm, not that interested in the potty, still wants a paci when she's in the car seat or tired. (or falls down and hurts herself)

Loves her sissy and bubby, and tries to show her momma who's boss.  She remembers everything, and has the sweetest, kindest little heart.  She's getting too big, and it's happening too fast.  I guess that's why I'm not in a big rush to potty train, or get rid of the last five bottles in my house.  She doesn't ask for one every day, but when she asks for one, she generally gets it.  It's one of the last "baby things" she does....just today, I was thinking how big she seemed...getting her own snack out of the fridge, throwing her trash away, putting her cup in the sink.  

And this is what I really love about pictures.  

The fact that they capture these fleeting moments in time with such perfection, and with no words.  

What they looked like with their baby teeth, or before their hair grew in.

When they still had "baby fat".

Before they were embarrassed to snuggle up close to their mommy and daddy in a picture and smile with no reservation.

I'm so thankful for these people....five years ago, these babies didn't even exist, and now they're my world.  Each of them is SO half me/half Shawn....I can see us both in all three.  Even though they're only four and two, I am so proud of the tiny people they are becoming.  I can already see glimpses of the kind of big people they are going to become....they are the same characteristics they had when we brought them home from the hospital.  It's funny how you parent the best you can, and teach them the things you think are important, but their core personality, who they really ARE on the inside, is just who they are.  

From day one, Sissy was sweet, loved to sleep, and so smart.

Cale was particular, and unsatisfied with sitting still.  He was silly, but hard to entertain....you'd have to be really ridiculous to get him to crack a smile.

Livi was content and happy, and knew when she was making us laugh.  

I couldn't be happier about these babies, these blessings, this LIFE. 

Busy, busy days...

This is hands down the busiest time of the year for my photography business....things get pretty complicated around here, figuring out who has kids, who's watching who, who's picking whom up from school....luckily we still seem to find lots of time for nonsense....just listening to these babies play puts a smile on my face.  For example, Shawn let me know what was going on this morning when I was working.
Cale:  "Daddy?  Can you walk by my door 1,000 times so I can try to kill you?"
Shawn:  "Um, no."
Cale:  "Please?"
Before you start thinking my four year old is a budding sociopath, let me explain.  He loves to play rough with Shawn, and thinks it's HILARIOUS for Shawn to get hit with the foam hatchet and fall down on the floor theatrically.  So what does Daddy do?  Indulge the boy, and play hatchet fight all morning.

Today....

I am obsessed with:

Candy corn.  Seriously, this stuff needs to disappear from my kitchen island.  If you call yourself my friend, please stage an intervention and dump the bowl into my trash. 

My new camera.  

This lotion.  It's about this time of the year that my hands start looking and feeling like those of a four hundred year old.  I've put this on four times today already.

My neutrogena at home microdermabrasion kit.  Oh. My.

You want your face to feel like your baby's rear?  Get yourself this thing!

My autumn scented BBW candle.  I love it!  It smells amazing....but I think this one is a bit of a dud because the last one I lit I could smell from my front yard.  

I found a box of Mr. Sketch markers in my office stuff, and now I'm unnecessarily highlighting things in my planner just to smell them.  If you see me in public with rainbow colored dots on my nose and upper lip, please refrain from pointing.

Sofia champagnes....tiny champagnes with a little straw attached.  It's momma's Capri Sun!!

The tiny cat.  She's always good for some laughs.

I'm obsessed with the idea of eating a double doozie from the cookie company at the mall.  This all started on Saturday when I had to leave a birthday party to shoot a wedding, and realized the cake was a huge cookie cake.  I'm not kidding, I thought about that thing at least twice while shooting the wedding...resenting that I didn't get any!

I've also decided I need:

Tall brown boots.  I love tall boots, but they create quite the issue.  For one, it's hardly ever cold enough here to warrant tall boots.  Last year, I sweated my way through many an event because of camel colored sweater Uggs.  I know they're impractical for south Texas, but I need them anyway.

New aviators.  I had some at one point, but I'm not sure where they went.  I know this aviator thing has been going on for awhile and is probably on it's way out, but I want some anyway.

A silhouette machine.  I salivate thinking about the crafty amazing-ness I could create with this thing.

A flip video.  I know I can take video with my iphone, (and I'm reminded of this all the time by the DH)

but I really want a camera ONLY for video, and one that will fit in my purse.  I'm done with the video camera with the little tiny tapes that have to be transferred and burned (real time, no less) onto DVDs.  Ugh.

A big brown bag.  To match the aforementioned boots, of course.  I love all the buckles on this thing.

A portable light kit.  Looking at this set doesn't make me instantly think of "ease of transport" but it might not be that bad.  I just need softboxes to use, especially with newborns.

To think, this whole blog post started with me googling the nutritional content of candy corn....

Shawn and I were just talking about how much we love this time of year.....it feels so much cooler outside, and of course; there's football.  My kiddos are all about Halloween, so for their benefit I've tried to decorate more for Halloween.

My instinct is to just do generic autumn decorations like pretty fall leaves everywhere....that just doesn't cut it for little ones.  They want Halloween specific decor.

Cale even asked for a "big, sparkly skeleton" to hang in his room.  

I said no.

Momma's gotta draw the line somewhere.

They are IN LOVE with the giant inflatable things they sell at Lowe's....since we have neither the storage, or inclination to own such a giant piece of Halloween fun, we compromised and let them pick out a small one.  They get a huge kick out of seeing it lit in the front of the house when we come home at night.  We also have three little jack o lanterns in the window, for our three tiny ones.  They are the new school plug in variety, which are GENIUS....I like them much better than the old school variety that end up rotting on your front porch.  (although we'll probably do one of those, too.)  Fun times!!  We have our Halloween costumes bought and ready, and have several activities lined up....

Presenting Chewy Louise...

We weren't in the market for a kitten.  

Sure, I like cats, but more of the grown variety...the kind that curl up somewhere in your house, and you never know where they are.  The kind that stalk past you every three days or so, somehow managing to look irritated at you for letting them live in your house.

Like you're not doing THEM a favor.  

I kind of get a kick out of that....how entitled and jerky a cat acts.  

Don't get me wrong...I think tiny cats are adorable to look at.

They're just a lot of work.  

But this one...well, she chose us.

We were putting out some Halloween decorations Monday night, and Shawn found her crying outside. 

She looked SO pitiful. 

No more than two pounds, and skinny as a rail.  

I don't think she would have lived much longer had she not found us.

She came to us when we called her, (like a dog) and purred like crazy.  

Hayden ran up and down the sidewalk outside, screaming "My heart is BREAKING!!"

So after THAT oscar winning performance, how could we NOT adopt the thing?

Hayden immediately decided her name was "Chewy".  Not my particular style, but I am a huge fan of letting kids name animals, mainly because the choices are so random and irreverant they end up being hilarious.

We didn't know if she was a girl or boy at first.

Hayden's suggestion was to put a tutu on her, and if she left it on, she had to be a girl.

Despite the obvious scientific validity of such an experiment, I went ahead and took her to the vet anyway. The vet managed to determine she was a girl, (without a tutu)

So, "Chewy" it was.  (I added Louise after we found out she was indeed a girl)

She's about ten weeks old, and healthy as a horse.  

We are trying to feed her slowly, (per the vet's instructions) so she doesn't gorge herself.  

Girl can eat.  

She clears her little bowl in about four seconds, and then goes looking for the dog food.  

I guess that's a good sign.  

Tiny kittens aren't the easiest thing to take care of, but they're certainly not the hardest.  

(Not like when Wyatt was a puppy, and I questioned my will to live on a daily basis)

She immediately knew how to go in her litter box.  

She loves my kids.

She purrs like a machine, and makes biscuits on all of us. 

She adores me, and follows me around everywhere.

My kids are obsessed with her, and want to bother her all day long. 

Cale can't remember her name, and has called her "Chili Soliz", "Chewy Feliz", and "Chewy Sanderson" which confuses me a little, but entertains me a lot. 

Of course, we've now continued the tradition of "over-naming" our animals, and today we decided she was to be called "Chewbacca Louise Hatter-hyphen-Sanderson".

Around here...

We've been keeping busy, with stuff like:

trying on Bubby and Sissy's soccer gear....

licking queso off our plates.....

eating spaghetti....

getting in dog kennels....

getting the most miles we can out of our remaining pacis....

hanging out at some high school football games....

enjoying a church picnic...

and enjoying the sunset....

...dressing up like a knight....

....and getting some more miles off said pacis....

...taking our baby stuffed elephant to the doctor....

...and sleeping in the hallway because clearly it's a ton more comfortable than your own bed.