Friday, November 30, 2012

Photo Favorites

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Gone Fishin’

An unexpected bonus on our trip to SC this year came in the form of fishing. When the boys got a little bored one afternoon, they headed down to the lake to do some fishing. Little did I know how much they were going to enjoy it. They ended up fishing for hours and hours and even brought the boat out at one point.

That’s Jaron, Landon and Brandon out there. Looks like Brandon is releasing something. I know each of them caught a few fish.

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Landon LOVED it. On the way home he told me how much he couldn’t wait to get back down there and go fishing again. (You have no idea how much I LOVE that picture of my boy fishing. Sweet.)

When Landon caught his first fish, he was pretty excited. He didn’t want to hold it, but my brother taught him that if he was going to fish, he’d have to be big enough to take the hook out of it’s mouth and release it. Kyle showed him how to hold the fish and remove the hook and even how to release it, and Landon did great.

Jaron was awesome and took a picture of Landon with his catch out on the boat.IMG_8595[1]

I foresee a lot of fishing next time we’re down at my parent’s house!

Out of Doors (2)

The weather on Thanksgiving day was truly exceptional. It was just completely gorgeous. While waiting for the food to get done cooking, we made our way outside to hang out and we even had the dogs out for a little running around.

Tish is playing tug of war with Fancy while my dad, Kyle and Tisha’s pug, Bruno look on.

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Bruno and Fancy started to wrestle around playing in front of Dakota and she just thought it was hilarious! She laughed and laughed!

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I’m not sure what these two were doing, but I thought it was a sweet moment.

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Landon was happy to have a soccer ball to play with. He and Brandon spent some time kicking the ball back and forth.

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Out of Doors

We spent a lot of time outside while we were down south. The weather was a bit warmer than at home, so we made the most of it.

Harper just loved walking along the rock wall outside my parents house. He made us all a little crazy doing it though! We were all so worried he was going to fall off.

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Dakota was content to sit outside watching all the kids run around. She loves to be outside.

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Zoe had a paper to write so she found herself a comfy spot on one of my parent’s porches. (Apparently she had some texting to do, too.)

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Koko and I did a lot of swinging on the front porch. I just love their swing and Koko really seemed to like it too. I was able to swing her to sleep on several occasions.

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When she wasn’t snoozing with me, she could sometimes be found rocking and bonding with her Meme.

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When the kids grew tired of the rock wall, they made their way back to the lake. Throwing rocks into the water was a huge hit. (Yes, the next photo is focused on the tree trunk, but I absolutely love it…and I didn’t take it, my brother did.)

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Mr. Imagination

I just love Harper’s imagination. There are moments during the day when I can’t give him my full attention, and it’s so nice to know that while I’m attending to Dakota’s needs, he’s happy to play with his toys. Today, he got out a couple of his cars and drove them along the back of the couch and down the arms for nearly 20 minutes while I changed, fed and rocked Kota to sleep.

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I was sitting in the living room with him the whole time, but I was just sitting and listening to him play. He just talked and talked the whole time he played. He would ask one car where the other was and then drive all over the couch to find it. He’d open and close the doors and pretend to fix boo boo’s on them. Every once in awhile he’d look up and make sure I was still there, but once he saw me, he’d go back to his playing.

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I love that he has such great imagination and is so content to play with his toys. I hope Dakota will see how much he loves his toys and will follow suit. I hope too, that one day he’ll let her play with him. I love these moments and look forward to watching this little boy continue to blossom.

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Santa Baby

Harper wore this Santa suit when he was just a little thing, so when I came across it and realized she’d be about the same size at Christmas that he was when he wore it, I decided to hang onto it. So glad I did!

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The top three pics I took using my Canon. All the pictures in the collage below were taken with my cell phone. While I went to get my cell to take the pics, the hat slid down over Dakota’s eyes and she just looked so darn cute! She wasn’t moving a muscle…just waiting for someone to rescue her! I rescued her, but only after getting a quick picture!

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Here’s a picture of Harper wearing the same outfit:

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Cute, huh? He was only 3 1/2 months in his photo and she’s just a few days away from being 5 months. I just love that she gets to wear something that he did. Gives me the warm and fuzzies.

Indoor Chalkboards

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Mom was really thinking of ways to keep Harper and Dakota comfy while we were visiting, and one of the things she thought to do was make a giant chalkboard area for Harper to draw. He LOVES to play with his chalk outside, but since it’s colder, it was awesome to have an area he could play inside. She put chalkboard paint under the island in the kitchen, and also on a part of the wall above the kitchen. To get to the top part, you have to stand on the island though, so it was adults only…and the picture at the top of this post is what Kyle had drawn when we arrived. Cool, huh?

Jaron and my mom had the bottom chalkboard decorated when we showed up, and it was so cute!

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Harper did enjoy drawing on the board, but I think he liked erasing more than anything.

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Although the chalkboard was meant for Harper, I think everyone had some fun with it. Here’s the picture that Jaron and I drew:

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I’m already thinking of where I'm going to make our indoor chalk area…

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Uncle Ky-Ky

It isn’t usual that my brother is off for an entire week that we visit, but somehow he was able to get the time off this year. It was the first time he’d met Kota, and he kind of had to re-introduce himself to Harper since it had been awhile since they had seen each other. (But, Harper did remember Kyle; he never forgets people it seems.)

The kids were so ready to get out of the van after 8 hours of traveling and it was so nice that my parents and Kyle were there to help us unload and get the kids running around and using some of that pent up energy. Kyle ended up taking Harper on a tour around the house and then outside to explore the yard. He showed him the rock wall out front (which was an instant favorite!) and then the vegetable garden.

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Harper was happy to follow him around while we got ourselves situated in the house, and when I came back outside to check on them, I found Kyle, Landon and Harper outside on the porch swing.

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I hate that the picture came out blurry, but love that I managed to grab that shot of the three of them hanging out.

Once we went back inside, we let Dakota stretch out on the floor with her toys (she was so happy to be out of the car!)  and Kyle decided that was a good time to meet his niece.

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*Zoe has called my brother Kyle Uncle Ky-Ky forever now. She couldn’t say Kyle way back when and Ky-Ky stuck. All my kids call him that, even Zoe still says it!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Pink and Rust

For some reason, every time we visit my parents, I end up taking countless photo’s of the lake behind their house. There is just something so calming and beautiful about that water and scenery.

Here are a few shots I got on the first day we got there. It was late afternoon, and the pink in the sky made all the tree’s appear to be rust colored. It was really pretty.

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Meeting Santa

I wasn’t sure if I’d get a chance to actually blog today since Dakota was having a rough day and barely slept a wink all day. Luckily, she passed out around 8, so I’m finally getting my chance.

I knew we were going to be going to the mall today, so I made sure to get everyone up and dressed and ready to go so that when it was time to roll out, we were ready. We got to the mall, hit a few stores for some Christmas shopping and then made our way over to see Santa. I’d been telling Harper that we were going to go see Santa for awhile now so that he’d be used to the idea. He’s been telling me for weeks that he was “not gonna sit on Santa’s yap”. I told him he didn’t have to, that he just had to stand by Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas and have his picture taken.

When we got to Santa, there wasn’t a soul in sight. Not one other person was there waiting for a turn to see Santa. I couldn’t believe my luck! We walked over and Santa was so sweet. He waved to the babies and Harper ended up running right over to him. They talked and then Santa picked him up to show him the big wrapped presents behind them. It was so cute. Harper happily hopped up on the bench next to Santa, and Kota was happy as she could be on Santa’s lap.

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It was like a Christmas miracle. (Harper doesn’t have shoes or socks on because I had just let him blow off some steam in the kiddie play area…and I wasn’t in the mood to put his them back on!) Both kids are smiling and so darn adorable! They’re both looking at me and laughing at me being a fool, but I’m loving those happy little faces.

Monday, November 26, 2012

We Decorate

The time has come to play a little catch up since my unforeseen blog hiatus. I can just hear my mom now “Quit acting so busy and blog so that I have something to read”. Smile Right, mom?

We’ve been busy as usual, but then we also threw in a quick trip to South Carolina to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was wonderful, but over so quickly I can still feel my head spinning.

I’ve got so many stories to share. So many memories I’d like to write down to remember. So, bear with me…lots of yammering and photos coming up!

I’ll start with a few photo’s of the kids “helping” me decorate the tree this year. We put nearly all of our Christmas stuff up before we left for SC so that I wouldn’t have to worry about rushing that when we got home. I feel like it’s too much work to only have up a short 25 days…

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Kota wasn’t really much help, she just kind of hung out looking at the lights. Zoe wasn’t able to be home to help either since we did it on a Thursday night. So, really, the boys put a few ornaments on the tree, got bored, and left me to finish. Hopefully it won’t be like that every year.

Somehow I was able to convince Harper to put on the Santa hat so that I could get pictures. He was willing to wear the hat, but wouldn’t look at the camera no matter what I did! Kota was more compliant. I think she just wondered what the heck was on her head.

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I put up my little snowman tree again this year.

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But, these large Christmas balls are a new addition.

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I hung all those balls while Harper was napping and when I was carrying him downstairs he said “Hey! Those boons (balloons) are hanging upside down!” Haha! Such a cutie!

April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...