I have this thing about not having professional pictures taken of our kids (unless someone else is paying, of course.) Too expensive. I have a decent camera so I subject my children to photo shoots from time to time. I took advantage of what may have been the last "warm" day of the season, made the kids kick of their socks and shoes and took some shots in Gam and Papaw's, sunny green back yard. The only thing I can't decide is color? or black and white?

Fall is my time of year.

I took the kids to a nearby park with our pumpkins and took some fall pics. Unfortunately, my camera battery died before I wanted to be done, but the kids didn't really care about taking pics anyway.



I know the beautiful weather won't last much longer. We just want to take advantage of it while it lasts!

Em got a new outfit from Papaw Vinnie and Grandma Laura in Missouri. Since they can't see her wear it in person, I'm showing it off on the blog. Pretty cute.

Thanks, Papaw and Grandma!

Catching Up.

It's been a very bloggy day. I had to get caught up. And I also wanted to change up the look of our blog. So here it is, updated with lots of new pics and videos....enjoy.

(sorry to our out of town friends and family, for keeping you waiting for new pics.)

Pumpkin Patch Junkies

Okay, this post should be 3 posts because we have been pumpkin patch junkies! Last week we hit 3 pumpkin patches in 3 days! And we have a ton of pics to show for it! So here we go....

First patch...J's preschool field trip to Russell Farms. He got to hang out with his best bud, Blake
who goes to the same preschool even though they're not in the same class.

This is the cheesiest pose I've ever seen my hammy son strike! I love it! I honestly don't even know where he came up with this, but I'm so glad I caught it!

The kids got to do some farm chores. Here's J pitchin' some hay.
His class. (At least the ones that would sit for the picture.)
The last thing he got to do was probably his favorite: racing the John Deere around the track. He left that other kid in the dust!Day 2--we visited another pumpkin patch with a big group of friends and family.

Here's J in his usual form, surrounded by girls...

Em gets to work inspecting the pumpkins.



J and Papaw on the sunny hayride to the pumpkin patch.

J was so sure about this pumpkin. It was the perfect one for him. It took him a whopping 5 seconds to pick it. So we spent the rest of the time picking one for Em.

Gam and Papaw with the kids in the patch.

They had a cool "pumkin tree" with what must have been 100 or more pumkins hanging on it.

Day 3: Back at the second patch, but with more things to do. We went with our neighbors this time. This is one of J's new friends who lives next door. They're riding the pumpkin train.

Strong man.
Driving the tractor.
Again, the hayride to the pumpkin patch. This time we had no intention of bringing back any pumpkins, but the ride was still fun.

So we are all pumpkin patched out! We have a nice array of pumpkins on the front porch to show for it too! I just love the fall!

Birthday Party!

We had Em's first birthday party in the park on a beautiful evening. We got to share the celebration with Em's sweet twin cousins who turned 2 the day after Em's birthday.

Aunt Jenni make these adorable cupcakes....

This is E on her birthday having her first birthday ice cream. There's a video below of her loving it!

Birthday girl eating dinner at her party.

Jen and I made these tissue paper pompoms to decorate at the park. They were easy and adorable and pretty afordable, by Martha Stewart. Plus we took them home, so they hang over Em's bed and she loves to point at them!

E playing on a blanket with her friend Lily.

A couple days later we opened Em's presents at Gam and Papaw's house.

It looks like she felt the need to taste test all the new toys.

Happy Birthday sweet Em!