November Randomness

Our neighbors, the Barbers, have a little dog that is always playing in the front yard with the kids. Our street is the worst with cars zooming by way faster than they should and sweet Ginger was hit by one of them at the beginning of the month. We were so sad for them to lose Ginger – I know they thought of her as a member of the family. Ben decided to write them a note to express his condolences. My little man did it all by himself. I’m so proud of him for his compassion and for how well he is doing with his reading and writing.

The note says, “I’m sorry that Ginger got runned over by a car. From Ben, To Cole and Elise."

Ben was a big helper during Noah’s 8 month photo shoot.

Grace is TERRIFIED of this mask. I tried to make it less scary by putting it on Noah. It didn’t work. She's still terrified.

It looks like Grace is trying to get Noah to give her a foot massage. He is very amused by this.

We bought our Christmas tree when we came home from Lubbock and Ben & Grace did a marvelous job helping me decorate it.

Ben used a stool to get the ones “up high”. Pretty soon he won’t need the stool… he’s already almost taller than his mama. Sigh.

Noah took in a few naps…

…whenever and wherever he could.

Thanksgiving in Lubbock, Pt 2

Brad came home Friday evening and we had a fun family movie night watching Elf. Our goal for Saturday was to use the timer on the camera to get some family pictures. The setting outside was perfect  (thank you to Brad & Jess’s neighbors for the use of the side of their house). The only problem was the gale force winds. Wind blown does not begin to describe how we looked in these pictures. This was the best one… in the rest of them all of us are looking the way Grace does in this one. (BTW – Grace’s face in this picture is hiLARious.)

We moved the picture taking party inside. We didn’t have great lighting, though, and I’m the world’s worst indoor picture taker.

Grammy & Grandad’s arms are full!

By this time, Noah was OVER it!

I love Addison’s sweet smile in this one!

The next item on the agenda was to make these little turkeys that I saw on Pinterest. True story… Diane had the same idea I did and also brought all of the supplies to make them. Great minds think alike.

The kiddos needed a bit of help, but they were super into it. Addison was super into reallocating pieces of candy corn to the "must eat now" pile. I may or may not have encouraged this behavior by sneaking her extra pieces.

Wayne looks like he’s more interested in BEING a turkey than building one.

They were so proud of their finished products. PRECIOUS!

It was a wonderful holiday! The kids played so well together and we were sad to have to head back home. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving in Lubbock, Pt 1

These thanksgiving posts are going to be ridiculously picture heavy because we took a ton of pictures that I just LOVE!

We spent the holiday in Lubbock at Brad & Jess’s house and Diane & Wayne met us there. While we (and by we, I mean mostly Diane & Jessica) cooked the meal on Thursday, the guys took the girls to the park.

This picture is SOOO Addison. Grace is like, “LET’S GO!!!” and Addison is probably thinking, “Hold on now, Grace. We can’t just take off down this slide like two crazy people. Let’s evaluate the situation and make sure it’s safe.” Oh my gosh, I just love her so much!

Uncle Brad was a little more willing to throw caution to the wind!

Even Grandad went for a slide or two.

By the way… where are my child’s shoes?

It was a little cold & windy for these two at the park, but they had their own play date on the living room floor.

Don’t those two have the sweetest baby faces EVER? Their cheeks and eyes turn me into a big marshmallow.

We ate our yummy dinner that afternoon, and then Brad had to leave for work. Not to worry, though. We were able to visit him the next day. As you can imagine, the kids LOVED their private tour of the fire station.

A relatively successful group shot!

Love this pic of the Lubbock Barricks!

Cousins make great friends!

Beautiful girls!

I couldn’t be in this picture because I didn’t get the memo about wearing pink shoes!

Leap frog!

Ring around the…. flag pole?

Uncle Brad is both a fire fighting hero and a prairie dog expedition leader!

Family Pictures

A month or so ago I scheduled an appointment with our friend and photographer, Amy Elkins. I was excited to get some updated photos of our family of five to put around the house. I also needed a picture for our Christmas Card. Unfortunately, Amy had to cancel because she was in a car accident (with her entire family in the car – can you say scary?). Thankfully, her kids escaped without a scratch, but she and the hubby were a little banged up and her broken finger was preventing her from being able to use her camera.

So, what to do, what to do? Since I already had “picture clothes” and a Saturday set aside, Brian and I decided to attempt to take some pictures ourselves. I was pretty impressed with what we came out with. They’re not professional quality, but I like them a lot better than what we would have gotten at Sears or Portrait Innovations… which was my next best option.

These are a few of my favorites from the day:





Oops… it was really hard to pick “a few” favorites.