Playtime with my little ones!!!

Welp, we didn't have much of a winter around here, so we've decided to embrace Spring!!! Playing for hours outside in the beautiful sunshine is not so bad! Blake and dirt are becoming the best of friends. Payton is learning crazy tricks on the play equipment including "bailing out" of the swing while swinging super high. Its gonna give me a heart attack and her a broken arm! Ugh! We are having a great time, but missing Maci of coarse!

Payton convinced Blake to help her pull up some clover she found in the yard...this is one of her piles of it.

Blake and Payton hard at work with all that clover. They sure are playing well together lately! He's gonna miss his "sissy" when she goes to kinder next year!
Pretty girl posing for me!

After all that hard work, the dude needed a drink!

Hahahaha! He makes me laugh!

Look how big he is jumping on the trampoline!

Falling is plenty of fun too!

Handsome son of mine!

Love him!!

She's a daredevil! She is even attempting front flips, which make me cringe! (Papa, forget you read this part!! :))

He's grinning because he thinks its funny to not look at the camera when I ask him too...turkey!

My fearless girl...

He's gonna get ya!

I think Blake looks 4 years old in this picture! He is growing so fast!

A couple of weeks ago, Alan dressed Blake for church, and this is the product...the most handsome cowboy I have ever seen! (Thank you, Nanny, for his belt!!)

My 3 Valentine's were all dolled up so we had to snap a picture of them! Aren't they super sweet!

This is my boy and his friend, the dirt!

Adore the Pioneer Woman's Actions

So, I love to take pictures of my kids. That is kind of obvious, I suppose. I am not very good at this picture taking, and even worse at knowing how to edit my pictures. My taste leans toward bright colors, lots of light, and pretty eyes. I only know a couple of tricks to help me out with that, but I plan on learning more. (I ordered a book to teach me more.) :) I got a brand new 35mm lens for Christmas, so I also plan on reading more about how to take better photos. I'd hate to have all of this nice equipment that my husband bought for me, and not know how to use it. Anyhow, in an attempt to dive a little deeper, I have downloaded some stinkin awesome "actions" from the Pioneer Woman. Can I just say how cool it is to have someone else do all the hard work for you in the editing? Very cool. So, I have been playing with a few of my favorite pics with these "actions" and came up with these results. I really enjoy having pictures all over the house, and I like to keep them fresh. Since I actually print my pics, I am happy that I will be learning more about how to make them better! Enjoy these photos from my first day of learning to use "actions!"Confession: Alan took this one of Payton while I was shopping.

Giving Thanks

Well, this Thanksgiving I had a heart overflowing with things to be thankful for. My salvation, the salvation of my husband and daughters, my amazing family of five who I am just humbled to get to spend my life with, God's provision for our family through my hard-working family-loving husband, and the list just goes on and on and on. I am blessed. Before we left for a fun Thanksgiving in Austin, Payton had a Thanksgiving day feast at school. She loved trying all the different food (weird, she never tries anything new!!!) We met my grandmother in Dallas for lunch and then went back to Austin for Thanksgiving with my mom and dad. It was a lot of fun and there was so much good food and a sweet time together. Blake had a pretty rough time while we were there. He got pneumonia and was really very sick. After we had an early Thanksgiving with my parents, we headed back home to have Thanksgiving with my amazing in-laws. We spent a lot of time playing, eating, shopping, and really just enjoying being together. We are really looking forward to getting both families together for Christmas in the mountains!! I will post when we return! Till then, enjoy these pics!

Payton's table centerpiece Silly turkey!Maci got to go with my mom, my sister and me to the Christmas Affair in Austin for some girl-time! She was a perfectly amazing shopping partner. She and I had a blast sampling every single piece of candy available to the point of making ourselves sick! We shared some serious laughter there! I loved my time with this beautiful girl!This child, adorable as she is, is not a shopper. She was not invited on our little outing because once we entered the building, the first words out of her mouth were sure to be, "My legs don't want to walk anymore." Therefore, she stayed behind with the men and played in the leaves, raked the leaves, watched movies, ate cookies, and had the attention of her favorite people all to herself! Trust me, everyone involved got exactly what they wanted! :) LOVE this kid more than words!This is just a random picture of my handsome little stinker covered in his Oreo cookies! He makes me smile!

Too Far Behind to Catch Up Now!!!

So, I took my gorgeous (I may be a little biased) family out to get some family pictures because it had been a while. Alan's parents were kind enough to shoot some that I could be in as well. I have to say, that little boy of mine was a little turkey, but the girls were angels! Anyway, I did get several printable pics for my house. I like to have fresh pics in frames, they make me smile!A shot of Mr. Blake protesting this photo shoot! Ha! Love him!These pics are from a little mother/son play date at the park! He and I really had a great time running around and sliding and swinging! He is a fabulous little sidekick to have around. He puts a lot of effort into making me laugh! Love it! My dad and sister came into town a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to go over to the pumpkin patch to get some fall pictures of the kiddos. I spent most of my time there chasing a little blond-headed boy around the pumpkins.A picture with me and my beautiful children! They are fabulous and I adore each one of them! Could a girl be more blessed!!!Blake is 18 months old in these pictures!!!My dad sat down in this chair with Maci and Kendall and started reading and singing. Payton came over and we threw Blake in there and, bam!!! An amazing picture of a granddaddy and his grandchildren was captured!Payton just turned 5!!!! Its funny, it seems like she's been 5 for a long time now. Although it doesn't seem possible that that tiny little baby girl is now a 5 year old...this year she has really grown up so much. The older Maci gets, the older Payton seems. She thinks she is just as old and capable as her big sister. Anything Maci can do, Payton thinks she can do too! So, it seems like she's been 5 for a long time! That said, I think I will only ever see her as a 2 year old when I look at her. She's my baby girl always! For her birthday, we had a cowgirl party at a local equestrian park. She and about 9 little girlfriends spent a couple of hours riding horses led by a trainer. It was adorable and my little cowgirl had a fabulous day!