Isabella's birthday

Happy 4th Birthday Isabella! You were so excited for your birthday this year and counting down the days. It was a little confusing having your birthday one day and the party on another. You came in our room the morning of your birthday and went back to sleep for a little while. When you woke up you gasped and the first thing you said was MOM?!?! Am I this many now?! (holding up 4 fingers) So exciting! :)

 She picked out some glittery jelly princess shoes that I thought would be for dress up, but she has wanted to wear them all the time. Haha!

 Number 4 sprinkle pancakes! 

Michael was really sick with shingles on the day of her birthday. We went to Walmart and Target looking for the elusive Elsa doll and finally found one at ToysRus. She had never been to toysrus before and that was interesting to see her take everything in. We had a simple dinner of some of her favorite foods, and Cappy and Nana came by for a visit. We had left over cupcakes from a family birthday celebration and just had those since I was planning on making a cake for her party.

She was so happy and enthusiastic all day about her birthday. I should have written down all of the things she said. She was hilarious!

Her party was the following Saturday. She wanted a princess/my little pony party. I tried to keep it small for another year since our family alone is several people. But I think this was the last year for that. She really wants a party with "lots and lots of my friends there and games and a pinata and pin the tale on the donkey".

I didn't take many pictures but there was a game of pin the cutie mark on pinkie pie.

Making a wish

 Happy 4th Birthday baby girl! You bring so much laughter and fun to our lives!

State Fair 2014

We love the State Fair! We went on Tuesday for $3 entry day. We shared a root beer, corn dog, and a cinnamon roll. Michael got some fried pickles, which Isabella loved. I'm not a pickle person, so I can't say how they were. Then we went to check out the AGtropolis.

Getting to play farmer 

 My mom got Disney on Ice tickets for Isabella for her birthday for that evening. My dad came to the fair and picked Benjamin up from us to take him home to bed. 

While Michael took Benjamin to meet Dad, Isabella got her face painted. She chose an Elsa design.

The wonder of it all. :)  (Thanks for the photo bomb, Michael;)

We had a great time at the show!
I didn't feel like we got to have our full "fair experience" this year with not having much time before the show. But Isabella got to go back the next day with Dad for senior citizen day and see the pig races and do some other things we usually do.

Meeting Jillian!

Happy 33rd birthday Michael!!! Which also turned out to be the day my niece Jillian was born! :)
(And peanut butter sheet cake might be one of my new favorites!)

 September 4th is a good day! I got to go up to the hospital in the day and then Michael went to meet her that evening after his birthday celebration.

 I took the kids up to meet her the next day. Isabella was excited as she had been waiting to meet Jillian for a LONG LONG time!

How sweet is she?!!

So happy and thankful for her healthy and safe arrival!

OKCCC Arts Festival

Our Summer begins with our family trip to South Padre and the book end to the Summer is the Arts Festival at OKCCC. We got a cinnamon ice cream dessert to share and Isabella got a snow cone.

 Isabella wanted to get her face painted again. It was the same guy who did it last year. He is really fast and good!

Waiting for the philharmonic to start.
They played one set, and Isabella loved the music and dancing with a little friend she made. The wind was so strong they stopped the show and waited to see if it would die down, but ended up having to cancel. The good thing was they moved up the time for the fireworks. I wasn't sure if we would make it to see them but since they were earlier we did! 

The last time Isabella saw some she thought they were scary, but this time she really liked them. Benjamin was pretty quiet but enjoyed his first firework show.  We had a great night!

Its always a big deal if she's going to wash off the "faint pace" or leave it on. This time she decided to wash off one side and leave the other.

16 months

Benjamin's 16 month pictures from last month went about like this...

 Whomp whomp...
Tried again at a different time of day. He was still not happy.

 So I let Isabella get in the bed with him to see if she could cheer him up.

No great ones for the series, but that's OK. :)

Here's a few other random ones from month 16:

 He loves playing in water.

 And he loves to the drink water. In the pool, at the splash pad, in the bath....YUCK!

 He wanted to brush his teeth one day while Isabella was brushing hers. So now they squeeze onto the stool together and brush. I think he loves feeling so big.
Also in month 16, he tried raspberries for the first time and loved them. He started attempting to color with a crayon (when he wasn't trying to eat it the rest of the time). He likes to play in Isabella's play kitchen and has been doing that a lot this month. He also got pretty sick the week of his 16 month check up and we had several rough days with a rash and some temperatures. He's cut three new teeth through all the way and one more is still breaking through the skin gum but is almost all through.

When I turn my back for a minute or two he is often found doing something like this. This time the light had been on for a while and was really hot but he kept touching it and jumping his hand back and touching it again. So, that's been really fun.

 And that is a face that says- I'm giving my Mom a run for her money! ;)

Heather's Maternity Pics

My sister asked me to take some maternity pictures for her. So I started reading about maternity photography and everything I read said to not wait until after 35 weeks for several different reasons. Since she was already at 39.5 weeks I was a little nervous on that front and also just nervous, as I am still learning photography, about wanting to take some good shots that she would be happy to have to document this sweet time in her life. There were some shots I tried several times that I'd hoped to get, but they just didn't work as I was envisioning. And then there were some that I was really happy with. It was a hot, late August night, but it really wasn't too miserable, and its always fun to take photos of people that stand still and don't move around or require lots of silliness to get good shots! Here is a small sampling of the 242 pictures I took. :)

I love the golden hour for pictures. :)

My beautiful sister and niece Jillian!!

I would say I can't wait to meet her, but I'm so behind in posting she is already here and two weeks old. And perfect in every way!