Me . . . "Girls, you need to go downstairs and clean up your mess befor you go outside."
Audrey . . . "Rach, c'mon, let's go play with our mess so we don't have to clean it up!"

The Best Builder award goes to . . . .

James and I spent an entire week putting together a swing set for our backyard!!! We had beautiful weather and a lot of fun but we never expected that it would take us this long! One night we even stayed up until 11:00 p.m. with a flash light because we just had to get it finished. The girls were supposed to be in bed, but with us outside and out of sight, what could we expect? Just after we had gotten the swings up, the girls tip toed outside in their nightgowns. There were shrills of joy and songs of praise! We let them come out and swing at 11:30 p.m. Rachel was ecstatic and exclaimed, "I'm so happy to have a park in our backyard!" She then said, "Daddy, for your Birthday, I am going to get you an award for the Best Builder! Building is your best talent!" James looked at me and then said under his breath, "If that's true, we are in big trouble!" Audrey was equally as excited and impressed.

The kids were loving that we spent every day for hours outside! Adam and Rachel are best buds while Audrey is at school. He loves the extra attention!

Getting there . . .


Our #1 helper!

One of the great blessings of spending the week outside! We got some amazing sunsets!

One of the casualties of neglectful parenting! While we spent time outside, Rachel had free reign of the house. If you look at this picture closely, you will notice a tub of sugar with a spoon in it, sitting on the table that Rachel moved right in front of the TV! CPS???

We also couldn't be bothered with things like dressing our children.


It has been so much fun for the kids to have a place to play! Now that the days of sending your kids down to the neighborhood park by themselves are long gone, it is great to have somewhere for them to land in eyeshot.





If you build it . . . they will come!! After completing this project, we had the whole neighborhood in our backyard!


These last two shots were taken when we were taking down the tree.

If you look closely at Audrey, she has finally lost her first tooth! She was so excited!

Finally Posting Again!

Gorgeous Rach on Christmas Eve.

Look how cute my sister is! One of my favorite things about my family . . . music!

Half of the clan on Christmas eve. I was so happy to have my whole family at my house for Christmas! We had the best time staying up laughing and playing games! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard! I literally wrapped my big belly with one of Rachel's ace bandages because it was so sore from laughing!


Adam was all smiles with all of his "big boy" toys that he got for Christmas. After surviving two years with barbies and my little ponies, Santa thought it was high time he got some manly things to play with. (I also cut his hair a couple of days before Christmas)

Beautiful Audrey with the new doll house that Santa Clause brought for her and Rachel.

Uncle Tyler being really excited about opening his gift!

The girls were really excited about these perfectly awful fluffy pink purses that Aunt Britt got for them.

They were so cute Christmas morning. They were so patient to take turns waiting for everyone to open their presents one at a time. They were so grateful and appreciative of everything that they got. They hugged each other when they gave each other their gifts. They behaved so well that it made me feel better about spoiling them.

Aunt Chels and the little man. He looks so much older to me with shorter hair.

Rachel and Uncle "Ty Ty" are best buds! They have some kind of quirky connection!

Cheese!

Just to prove that James and I were there, I thought I'd throw in these last two. I hid from the camera most of the trip. (You won't see any pictures of me on here until after the baby is born) I don't know why this is the only picture of James - sorry honey!

Dad, I'm sorry. I had to do it! My Dad was pushing out his stomach so hard in the picture I think he might have pulled a muscle! Here is me in all my pregnant glory!


Introducing . . . Brittany and Garrett! My little sister is engaged! He proposed on Christmas eve! The best thing about Garrett . . . he's a Texan! They met over the summer while Brittany lived with me. That means that they will be moving here when they are done with school! I get to have family here!! Thank you Garrett! I had a great time photographing them. We took a bunch of engagement pictures. I left out the best ones because I didn't want to spoil the announcements but I had to share a few.





My Mom and Dad having a little fun with the whole engagement picture idea. They were trying to show Britt and Garrett how it's done!



Rachel learned how to pump all by herself! No more pushing her on the swings!!! Yeah!

I'm not Blogworthy . . .

Tonight is one of those nights that I really shouldn't post. I am very unhappy at the moment. Tonight has been a terrible night. Do you ever get the feeling that despite your best efforts you are failing miserably! So this one is for you Katy (Kempton). This is a post to let you all know that by no means is my life perfect. My family is not perfect, my marriage is not perfect, and sometimes life aint pretty! The good news is, tomorrow is another day and if I am lucky, I will wake up in a better mood, my ribs won't ache as they do right now, my husband might not be mad at me, and the sun may even be shining.

Photoshop . . .

Okay ladies, those of you who are many steps ahead of me with photography, I need to know what version of photoshop you are using. I took some really cute engagement pictures but one of our favorites needs some serious editing with the lighting! Their faces are glowing white! When I take out the brightness it dulls the rest of the picture. I do not know what I am doig! Help!!