Peek-A-Boo

Our new favorite game!

A special day

Today was a special day. We got to celebrate Sadie this morning with her baptism at church. I tried earlier to articulate some of the ways that I'm feeling and some of the thoughts of the day to my sister and I did a really poor job, so I think I will let the pictures do most of the talking tonight.

We got to church early enough to get seats near the front and let the kids get settled into the idea that they were going to hang out in "big church" for a while. I feel like this shot of my kids says it all...

Bo is off from the group reading and studying something. He is completely absorbed in his own world of ideas. Ella is busy mothering Sadie and making sure her dress is just right for the picture. Jack is watching the girls but asking me to "pleeeeease take a picture of him" as he sits there. Sadie is absolutely busy looking for the next thing to grab and try to stick in her mouth!

Some friends were gracious to take photos [and video] of the event for us.

Here's Carter [the pastor] explaining what is going on as we rally the troops. J did a really great job preparing them for what was going to be happening and he definitely deserves the credit for melt-down free stage time! Gigi and Papa also made the drive over from Hannah's volleyball match in South Carolina to celebrate with us and it was so fun and special to have them on stage with us.

I love this next shot. Bo looks absolutely terrified of the water, and I'm doing some strange mouth thing, but I just feels like it captures the essence of the moment and our current family dynamic perfectly.

And, we're off.

We continued the celebration after church with a big lunch. My parents were able to join us as well as some long time family friends. Kathy [or Ms. Tappy if you ask Jack] and my mom were friends in college and having her family here has been an absolute life line for us. We were so excited to celebrate Sadie with all of them!

Our growing family.



Anna suggested we take this shot of just us and Sadie and I am soooo glad we did. You can tell she was tired and hungry at this point, but she is such a precious little peanut.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Morning playtime

What can I say? The boy loves cars.

The girls aren't the only ones sharing clothes

Bo was totally lovin' the pajamas when Ella came home from the hospital...

Jack likes them just as much!


Once again, the clothing credit goes to Aunt Sarah.

so I have these pictures that I love

Once upon a time, I lived in Oklahoma. My sister, who does not live in Oklahoma sent me an awesome package of clothes for our then ten month old. They are adorable clothes from forever 21's kid line. I don't think forever 21 even makes kid clothes anymore, do they?

So one afternoon, I had Ella in this adorable dress and I decided to take a few pictures along with the hat I found at the one spot at target. It was one of those perfect combos of baby attitude, lighting, and cuteness, and they are some of my all time favorite shots of Ella.

I mean, could she be any more charming and adorable?

I don't think so.

Even though the dress is still swimmingly large on Sadie, I decided to give it a go yesterday and see if I could recreate some similar shots. I wish I had gone for the full commitment and pulled out the wooden bench. The sheet on the couch just didn't give me the same attitude as before. The lighting was good, but a little cool for some reason.

Still figuring out this whole photographing my kids thing :)

So without further ado, here's miss Sadie in her hand me down duds...

The lighting here is definitely a fave. Who knew the floor would be so much better than the couch?

Bye y'all. Thanks for coming by for a visit!

a boy and his calculator are not soon separated

Few things excite Bo more than gadgets and gizmos and technology related toys. [Almost takes me back to The Wizard of Oz..."gadgets and gizmos and buttons, oh, my!"]

Can you tell he's excited?

It's because he's just been granted access to the graphing calculator. Yep, it's serious fun. He enjoys it so much and gets so involved that we've had to put some restrictions on the amount of time he's allowed to spend "calculating."



Get ready, get set, graph something.

There's a brief period of brainstorming followed by some serious number punching as he figures out the right equation for his desired graph.


We watch. We wait.

He punches in his numbers and relocates for optimal comfort and creativity.

Sadie waits too.

A new location but the equations continue.

Hmmmmm....

Ready to graph?

Ready to graph, and so happy about it!

Seriously, we all get excited about it...

...because the most amazingly cool graph appears on the screen before all our eyes.

I think even for a million dollars I could not figure out how to make a graph that looks like that.

Reason #847 that I love this man.

He takes the big kids out to play while Sadie and I finish up making dinner indoors, and when I walk in the playroom to toss in some laundry, I notice this out the window.

He thought the branch was hanging a little low so he decided to do something about it. Ella informed me after they came inside that it was a "little too tight so daddy had to get the saw."
Love it.

G-O-A-L

It's officially time for another season of soccer. I am seriously anticipating a enjoying the games from the sidelines instead of having to be on the field as a coach. Bo is on the spider tigers and we had our debut game this morning.

I was so bummed that J had to miss the first game. This is his weekend to work and his week to be on call :( I am amazed at the difference a year makes. Bo is so much more involved in the game and runs around going after the ball. He even kicked it a couple of times today; I was so proud of him!

I managed to take five shots before I officially became the "meltdown negotiator." Jack was not really feeling the soccer this morning.


Here's Bo waiting to be announced with his team.


And here are the ferocious spider tigers getting set for the opening kick.

Oh, and just cause I couldn't resist...

She spent most of the game sweating and sleeping in my arms, but seriously, how cute is she??

Can't wait for next week!

On Learning

Her: Mom, I am learning new things every day.
Me: That's true. It's great to learn new things all the time.
Her: Yeah, I'm getting bigger so I learn new things.
Me: Mmmm-Hmmm.
Her: But you are big, so you know everything.
Me: No sweetie, I don't know everything and I still have a lot to learn.
Her: Oh, well it's a good thing daddy knows everything then!

Cooking with Hannah

Meet Hannah.

Hannah is J's totally fabulous younger sister. As the youngest of seven you can bet that this girl has some serious spunk. Hannah was three when we got married and it has been an absolute delight to watch her grow into a young lady. She absolutely adores my kids and they think she is pretty awesome too!

This is definitely pure speculation, but I think Hannah is happiest when she's in the kitchen. The girl loves to cook and help me prepare the food when she visits.

Can't you tell she's excited?

The last time we were visiting with J's family, she was hanging out with me in the cottage after the kids went to bed. We were watching a little food network [a luxury I don't get to enjoy at home since we don't have cable], and we saw a brief spot where one of the cooks prepared a quick dessert. We both sat there drooling, and I immediately declared that she and I would make the deliciousness together the next time she visited our place.

I made sure to have the ingredients on hand during her visit this past weekend:

oil, wonton wrappers, nutella, and powdered sugar

Here's the skinny on a super delicious and super easy treat, although I can't promise that you will be skinny if you make them often :)

Fill your wonton wrapper with a teaspoon or so of nutella.

Fold the pastry on the diagonal and seal with a little water to keep all the yummy chocolate inside. Hannah was an expert at the stuffing and sealing if I do say so myself!

Drop the little dough triangles into hot oil and let them get golden brown. This takes about two minutes per side.

Straight out of the oil, shower them with a little powdered sugar.

Yeah, it's powdered sugar on top of fried dough filled with chocolate.

They were almost as pretty as they were delicious...

...and they didn't last long enough for me to get another picture.

Thanks for cooking with me Hannah, and I can't wait for our next culinary adventure!