January Birthdays!

Drake's birthday is January 5, and Tessa's is January 6.  This year, they turned 4.  We had a joint party for them, at a local store that sells play sets.  They have a party room, and host parties on weekends, letting the kids play on all the fun play sets!  We had a minor monster theme, to celebrate the two little monsters.  And as always, cupcakes from Polka Dot bakery.  They are the best!

Totally blurry, but you get the idea.  I HAD to put her in a tutu for her very first birthday party.  I simply couldn't resist.  And let me tell you--she loved it!  She had a cute number four shirt made into a monster!

I love this little stinker with all my heart.  He made me a Momma, and he has me wrapped right around his finger!

Eli and Tessa LOVE these swings.  They are mounted really high with long ropes, so they swing really wide.  It's their favorite part!

Their cousin Pryce came from SC.

Eli just wanted to play basketball.  Fortunately, Grandpa was there to lift him up (repeatedly) and throw the ball in the hoop.

Cousins Pryce and Piper!

Eli swinging with his cousin McCall.

Aunt Maggie and Piper

Sweet Baylor

Drake and Mar-Mar, babysitter extraordinaire!  We love Marley!  A-A is in the background, and the kiddos have become a HUGE  A-A fan.  (Their names are actually Marley and Aidan)

Tessa's friend Anna came; she is from China as well.

Drake loved blowing out his candle.

But then he tried to blow out Tessa's as well!

So I had to manhandle him and hold him back!

Sweet little brother got a cupcake

Eli kept wanting to roll the ball down the slide.

Future gymnast!

And I had to capture my big four year old girl the next day!  Drake ended up in urgent care the next morning with strep throat, so I'll spare you photos of him the rest of that weekend.  He was pitiful!

Her serious face.

Back to January!

In a sad and pitiful attempt to go back to January and capture this year, here we go!  It's strange to be blogging photos of kids in long sleeves, and trees with no leaves--when it's 90 degrees outside!

These photos are from back in Jan when I was taking the photo class that FINALLY taught me to shoot manually.  So many lightbulbs went off in that class!  I love these b/c they capture our daily life.  LOTS of crafts around these parts!  They are the surefire way to get my three to actually sit down and be still for a few minutes.  Only until the craft is over!

 Those sweet baby chubby cheeks.  He's losing them more everyday, and getting that thin little boy face.  Momma is sad.

Summer Fun

I'm taking an eight week class to hopefully learn some more advanced photography skills.  This week was about capturing some summer shots, and focusing.  While I haven't taken the time to investigate my camera's alternative focusing abilities, I did capture these three stinkers having some sprinkler fun.

 This is where Eli was teasing me (and his sister), threatening to throw her boot in the water.  I guess he forgot they are rain boots, and neither of us cared.

 The sprinkler got him!

My heart!

June trip to Florence

You will all have to bare with me for a little while.  As I've become a little more advanced in my photography skills, it's required me to become more advanced in my computer skills.  See, 99% of the world take regular pictures in jpeg's.  I've started shooting in RAW, which gives me more control over my photos in post processing, but you can't put RAW files online.  They have to be jpeg.  I'm finishing up a class over at clickinmoms.com that has been super helpful- Lightroom 101.  It's a post processing program by Adobe, who also produces Photoshop.  LR has a lot of the same features of photoshop but it lets you organize your photos!!!  In any case, I am playing around while on vacation, and hopefully I'm going to develop a smooth workflow for shooting, editing, exporting, and blogging.    So, with that said, I hope to blog a lot in the next week as I figure things out.  

 Playing around with lowlight photography, with my new camera.  Got a Nikon 600 with a ROCKIN' Iso!

 Tell me you can't look at this without laughing.  Oh my.  My funny girl!

 Double rainbow.  Immediately thought of August and Rhiannon, the two little girls my friend has lost through a failed adoption and full term stillbirth.

 Attempting to get these three to take a picture is hysterically funny.  Grandma made their outfits!

MIA

I have no real reason for being MIA.  There is plenty I want to share and say, but the time just gets away from me.  I guess it's that business of raising three kids.  I hate doing anything during the day that takes my attention away from them, but I just crash when they do at 7:30 most nights.    I really am going to try and pick up the pace soon!

More I-phone

This is what happens during the exhausting Christmas season!  Drake falls asleep at the island at 5:30.

We did gingerbread men rather than houses!

Red velvet cupcakes- yum!

We took the firemen some cupcakes!  We have station right down the road, and Drake is obsessed with going slow past it.  So, we took them some treats.  They were SUPER nice and went above and beyond.  They wanted to take a picture with him, and let him try on their boots/pants/helmet, but Drake was too shy.

So, Drake is a massive Momma's boy.  He fell asleep in my office one night while I wrapped presents.  He would NOT go to sleep without me, and I had to get some stuff done!

They loved sprinkling these pretzels, and my coworkers loved them!

Christmas from I-phone

The kids LOVED the lights on our house, and thoroughly enjoyed turning them on each night.

This was the first night of Buddy's return.

I let them have total free reign with icing and decorating the upside down ice cream cones, also known as their "trees".

Before preschool one morning.  Drake did NOT want his picture taken, and I refused to leave the house until I got one of the three of them.

I actually put forth some effort and set the dining room table-all official.  My MIL gave me some adorable reindeer Christmas china last year, and my Mom gave me the red.  Love it all together!

Her grandma made her this dress when she was still in China, and gave it to me at the surprise shower my coworkers hosted.

Y'all.  I have a talented cousin.  Who happened to move to Charlotte a few months before Christmas.  So of course, I called her to come do the mantle.  And she certainly did!!!  Thanks Keli!