Kate's 3 year old pictures

We had Kate's pictures done today at JC Penney. I must say I was completely shocked at how adorable and cooperative she was today. The past couple of years, good pictures have been due to purely talented photographers who could make my kids look like angels when they were actually being little devils. Kate was soooo darling today. All morning I kept telling her that they wanted to take her picture because she was so beautiful in her Easter dress. She got so very excited about it. She really loves that dress! She was happy to see the photographer (Miss Lisa) and did everything she asked. Dallin was equally well behaved in the waiting area! Hooray! Consequently, we have loads of beautiful pictures! Enjoy!

Pictures We Did Not Order (but included here for your viewing pleasure)

Yes, by this point she was done doing pictures and was going crazy with the tulle.

This one was tough to pass by, but we had so many beautiful pictures we had to cut some somewhere.

These are the pictures we ORDERED!

Love her big beautiful blue eyes in this one!

This one is my favorite shot of all. I don't think I would have thought of that pose, but it totally worked.
This one is so totally Kate. Her confident determined little face, sparkling impish eyes and grin and little hands on hips! Love my little diva!
I loved this shot because she looked like a little angel fairy dancing around (which she does A LOT at home)

Ta-Da! It's the taco tongue!

Such a little girly princess. On her tippy toes showing off her pretty dress and looking like she just knows she looks great!

Enhancements that we did NOT order (these are shots you already saw all fancied up)

Enhancements we DID order (again, pictures you already saw that they fancied up or grouped together)

It says Sweet, Silly, Smiles on the 3 little pictures on the side

Ok doesn't she look like one of the little fairies herself? LOL I thought it was so fitting.

Remember When...Cone of Shame

So on April 16, Macy got spayed. That's right, no puppies for us! She was dropped off early this morning at the vet. There was some definite action going on as one of the dogs there being dropped off bit another lady dropping off and then bit one of the vet techs. I didn't get a good look at the dog, but it was german shepherd sized. I didn't even realize it bit the first lady. I just thought she was mad about something that I didn't know about. She just started swearing and threw down her keys and check in paper and ran out. It was only after she returned that I realized she had been bitten. Anyways when the vet tech tried to take the dog back, he totally bit her hand. I mean he REALLY got her. There was lots of blood and you could see that there were deep punctures. Blood was spilling all over the floor. It was gruesome. I have never seen a dog bit in person before. The vet tech went to the back, got stitched and bandaged and came back out...she kept right on working. I don't think I could have. I later learned that she went to the ER and that the dog was put down (apparently he was a repeat offender).
Anyways, Macy had an uneventful surgery and I picked her up at 5. It was really weird spending a day without her. It seemed so quite and slow at home (even though both kids were there). When we went to pick her up, we had to purchase her first ever.....CONE OF SHAME! This was to make sure she wouldn't lick her stitches until they healed. So after we had the vet tech help us pick the right size, they brought her out. At first she wasn't going to come for anything, but then I called to her and she perked right up. She was soooo excited and didn't let me leave her sight for several days. She wouldn't leave her stitches alone so she ended up wearing her cone of shame for several days--until they were on their way to healing. It was HILARIOUS! As soon as we put it on her, she hung her head. She would just drag her head along the ground when she walked and she looked so so so humiliated. I felt bad for her, but I was very amused. They told us not to let her run, jump, play or anything for a week. I kept her pretty still for about 3 days. After that, it was a lost cause. She is a puppy. She is completely back to normal now and the scar is barely noticeable. The cone is a distant memory....except when the kids find it and try it on. Then Kate runs around the house saying "I the cone of shaaaame!" Ha Ha! Gotta love that!

Kate's Life of Crime

You may not realize it, but you are looking into the face of a hardened criminal. Don't let those baby blues and adorable pouting lips fool you.
Kate is goin down a bad road. She has committed a crime against the state at the tender age of 3(almost). The picture is proof positive. She's been caught red (well blue) handed.
Yep....Kate picked a bluebonnet...the state flower. A big no no in Texas. Where were her parents (especially her native Texan mother who should have known better)? Well, apparently they went on a walk last week during nursery class at church while I was teaching my own class. That was when Kate committed this crime. You think your kids are out in the right places with the right people and BAM! a life of crime begins. LOL
After church she came running up to me saying "Mommy! I picked a flower! See how beautiful!" I think my look of horror kind of freaked her out a little. I gently told her how beautiful it was and that we don't pick those flowers because we want everyone to see them. Then we took our smooth criminal and her pilfered pansy home. Yep, we kept the flower. It really was beautiful, and she was so precious. Hopefully, they won't go to hard on her when these pictures surface. :)
On a side note: the bluebonnets here are amazingly beautiful they just take my breath away. Everywhere there are fields of blue flowers all over. It looks like giant waving lakes of blue in the grass. People don't mow them here so they are growing all over the city. Austin is bathed in blue and I am loving it!

Happy Birthday Grandma Faye!

We had an extra special treat last week. We got to celebrate my Grandma Faye's birthday with her here in Texas! Grandma came down for a visit and stayed all week. The kids were completely out of their minds with excitement over her visit. Kate kept coming over and talking to Grandma.....and talking...and talking....and talking. Grandma hung on every word. Kate adored it! Dallin really loves being around Grandma too. He threw his arms around her right when he first saw her yelling "Grandma Faye Grandma Faye!" and he cried when she left. On this visit, Dallin made a discovery--Grandma only has 1 complete hand. The other has only a couple of fingers. It has always been this way, and it has never been something that I can really say I have ever even noticed. My Grandma can do anything anyone else can. Anyways, Dallin noticed this during her visit (maybe the 2nd day?) and was just mesmerized. He kept talking and talking and talking about it. After lots of questions and asking if he could touch it and shake it, he let it go. Thankfully, Grandma was very patient and gracious about it. Later in the week, Dallin asked me if his hand would be like that when he grew up. I thought he was afraid and told him no. God makes people all different ways. Well, before Grandma left, Dallin announced "I wish my hand was going to be like Grandma's. Grandma is soo lucky! God made her really special!" I can honestly say I never really thought about it that way, but I think he's right!
On Sunday we had our big family dinner on Grandma's birthday so we had a big birthday party! It was really fun!
There was wonderful food and family.There were lots of hugs. The hug between Maddie and Kate is monumental since they have only recently begun liking each other much. Also, Kate seems to have an aversion to hugging (except from me...of course) There were even some games (like ring around the rosie)There were presents. Even my kiddos got in on it and colored Grandma a picture. They were very proud of their works of art and Grandma LOVED them!Grandma got mostly pictures from everyone. She LOVES pictures (and they are really easy to fly with!) We had a really swingin' time!And, of course, we had a delicious German Chocolate birthday cake (Grandma's favorite) with really snazzy Happy Birthday candles. It took all 4 guys to light them up quickly. Unfortunately, the first time dad wasn't quite quick enough and as I was telling my children NOT to blow the candles because Grandma was a big girl and could do it herself.....my dad's match got to his fingers and he starting huffing and puffing and ended up blowing out ALL the candles in addition to the match. My children totally gave me a look like "why does HE get to?" So they lit them again (this time we told dad that Grandma was old enough to do her own candles LOL)
Before we left, the missionaries took pictures of our entire family with Grandma. That was really awesome and I am glad that we got those shots! We sure love Grandma! Grandma Faye now has 2 daughters, 1 son-in-law, 6 grandchildren, 3 grand-in-laws, and 3 great grandchildren in all (with one on the way---Tammy and Will's). Happy Birthday Grandma!

Sunday Photo Shoot

So I thought that this past Sunday, the kids looked TOO TOO adorable in their cute Spring/Easter duds. Fortunately, Kate was being SUPER cooperative and I got some adorable pictures of my little princess. Unfortunately, Dallin was not. The above picture was the best one of them together. Enjoy!
He was so absolutely adorable that I HAD to get some pictures of him all dressed up. The only way I could get him to stand still and look at me was if he was holding Kate's hand....hence the floating hand in all the pictures.
Thoughtful AND handsome!
Got A LOT of this. I don't know why he was so ticked on this particular afternoon. Normally, I can't get a decent picture of Kate on a Sunday.
Here is Kate's cutie patootie butterfly hairdo. It is our quick fix when we want to look really fancy and are out of time before church.
See! See my dress! The mice made it! I am Cinderyeya!
What a beautiful princess! I really do like having a girly girl (most days....NOT the days we fight ALL DAY long because she won't wear anything but her best dress). She is even getting big enough to wear some of the beautiful jewelry her Grandma Faye has sent her (notice her pretty necklace and bracelet!)
LOVE MY WONDERFUL KIDDOS!

Remember When......Naughty Naughty Naughty

So, my children are in this nasty habit of stealing my camera and taking pictures all over the house. Dallin especially likes to pretend that he is Peter Parker and is snapping shots to sell to the newspaper. This session happened back in January. You will have to ignore the mess. Our room is never particularly clean (which I am working on changing) and my children do not know how to frame the picture so as to minimize the mess. Normally, I would not publish these messy pics, but....they are pretty funny (looking back...way way back)
Anyways, apparently on this particular day.....Dallin/Peter Parker, my naughty little photographer, terrorized the dogchased down the cat and took pictures of her under the bedtook pictures of Kate pretending to be a Princessand the piece de resistance.......they decided to open the VERY FULL paper shredder, have a "snowball fight" with the paper inside AND Dallin took pictures to make sure I knew it was them(or at least Kate). Ummmmm....haven't you ever heard of destroy the evidence. I just remember them yelling "Snowballs snowballs! It's a snowball fight" Then they came downstairs covered in paper. In case you can't tell, I had a layer like 2 inches thick of shredded paper over the ENTIRE upstairs. Paper is still migrating out of places...STILL! LOL Crazy naughty children!

Snoozin

Yep....that is Christopher sleeping on the couch under a blanket which is under the dog which is under my clean laundry. How can this be comfortable? LOL Maybe it helped that he wasn't feeling well. As for the dog....she LOVES the clean laundry straight from the dryer. Maybe I should be mad....maybe I should shoo her away and yes I realize that many non-dog lovers (and even some dog lovers) may think this is all kinds of nasty, but part of me thinks "ahhhhh clean laundry straight from the dryer" and I think that if I were a dog or could get away with it...I would snuggle under the freshly dryed laundry on the couch until it was all magically folded as well. So I simply pull bits of laundry out from under the dog until it is all folded. She always looks a little disappointed then, but she never grumbles as I rumple her toasty warm "bed". I suppose she knows that it never lasts forever.....or that laundry never ends anyways...there will ALWAYS be more! LOL