Carson's First Lost Tooth

Carson lost his first tooth! We went to dinner at McDonald's after Carson's second to last t-ball game last night and his long-time wiggly tooth (that I wouldn't let Travis pull earlier) finally got super loose and obviously only needed to be plucked out. See it sticking up past the other teeth? I don't think it was connected at all anymore.






And with that, it was out!

No Training Wheels

Early in May Travis took Carson's training wheels off. Carson was so excited!


And Travis helped Carson some that day...








But after that day he didn't help him again for a full three weeks! Poor Carson, (yeah, yeah, I know I could've helped him but I just never felt the need to run behind him, and not be able to take pictures I guess). In the end it turned out to help Carson, although I'm sure he could've been up and going sooner had we helped. During those weeks Carson was still riding his bike but just pushing himself along with his feet on the ground instead of on the pedals. Doing that helped him figure out balance without the added pressure of pedaling so when Travis got back out there with him this weekend all Carson needed was a good push to and he was off! No more help needed!


Look, Mom! No training wheels!


And another for Instagram


Now he's a bike riding machine! Go Carson!

Sock Hop

Avery's school holds an annual sock hop fundraiser and encourages the kids to dress in their '50s gear for the day and that evening. Avery had baseball practice that evening from which we went straight to the sock hop so instead I dressed Carson as a greaser and had fun taking pictures of him during Avery's practice.

This was definitely my favorite shot. What a perfect expression!


But we had lots more fun...








I took some with my phone too to try for a good one to post with Instagram.




In the end, I just used my phone to take a picture of the screen of my camera of my favorite shot and posted it.


Then I gave Carson a break and let him blow dandelion seeds.


AH! It hit my eye!


But I'm okay...




Carson had some pretty good hula hoop moves... for a couple seconds anyway.


He never took his jacket off, but we did have his sleeves rolled under his shirt too.


Meanwhile, Avery won one of the drawings! He won "pizza party" and of course was super excited.

Millipede

The boys found a millipede yesterday.




And of course had to capture it.

About Us Blurbs

Oops. I meant to update the About Us blurbs on the right side of the blog at the beginning of the year like I did last year, but failed at that along with keeping up the rest of the blog!

The previous editions are Jan 2011 and Jan 2009.

I met Travis in Institute at Oregon State University in 2001 and we were married Aug 2002. We have 3 boys, Avery, Carson and Emmett. I love photography and run a business, Laurie Marie Photography. We live in Salem, OR where we love to enjoy all the green and hike the waterfalls or head out to the coast. I love nature and feel like I can't get enough of its beauty. Going to the dunes has always been a favorite where I get nature and driving fast on a quad or in a sandrail! I'm also a scuba diver now and always so excited to explore this new area of the outdoors and new opportunities to create beautiful pictures. I'm an avid reader and love book club.

Travis is a dentist at Hunsaker Dental with offices both here in Salem and in Aumsville.
Travis loves going shooting, going to the Oregon dunes with his quad and homebuilt sandrail, working on/fixing things, hunting, fishing, crabbing, snowboarding, and water sports... but his new big love is scuba diving. He's has training through Rescue Diver and will finish his Divemaster training in 2012. One of his favorite parts is going spear fishing and we all enjoy the return on that!


Avery was born in Dec 2004 and is now 7 and almost a 2st grader. He loves being a big brother to Carson and Emmett.
When he grows up Avery still wants to be a dentist. He's still big on science and loves watching any and all science or nature related shows. He's always had a love for money (think Mr. Krabs on Spongebob or Scrooge McDuck) and now his new fascination is with gold. He has his own gold pan and has received some pay dirt but really wants to get out and pan or dredge for gold. He loves swimming lessons and has no fear at all of the water (all the more reason we need him to learn to swim well) and tells me he's made for swimming.
Avery continues to be off the chart tall, and while he's not as skinny as he used to be, he's still skinny.

Avery tells me what he loves: playing in the water, swimming and diving, playing outside, going in the dry creek with friends, making forts out of pillows, going on hikes especially to waterfalls, everything science especially finding bugs and doing experiments and watching science shows and going to OMSI, watching the fish in our aquarium, riding my bike and playing in the snow, I want to find gold, going to the beach and seeing the tide pools and playing in the sand.

Carson was born in March of 2007 and is now 5 years old.
He loves his brothers and doing whatever his brothers are doing. Carson is still an incredible puzzler and loves doing them on a regular basis. He also loves swimming lessons but has a lot more respect for the water and is reserved. He's still a picky eater but loves fruits, vegetables, chicken nuggets, nachos or any type of "nacho" soup, pb&j and that's about it. At least he loves fruits and vegetables! Carson's new obsession is Star Wars. He just can't get enough. Carson has had the best of best friends in Theo for almost two years now and they remain thick as thieves. They've gone to school together and Carson's favorite day has been Mondays when they get to take turns going to each others' homes to play for the day after school. This fall they'll start Kindergarten at separate schools, but we're keeping play dates. Carson is still tall, but not off the chart like his brothers.

Carson tells me what he loves: going on hikes, doing bike races with my brothers, going to the end of the creek, playing with Star Wars Legos, playing with Theo, OMSI, playing with my brothers, getting fish for our aquarium, swimming lessons, going to the beach and seeing the tide pools and playing in the sand and running in the surf, watching tv, and music.

Emmett was born in September of 2008 and is now almost 4 years old.
Emmett is still Mr. Mischief but at least he's not the run-away escape artist he used to be. He loves to pretend to be different animals, but especially a cat and curl up in your lap. After a rough start Emmett loves getting to have his turn at preschool. He's still a go go go kind of boy, but really likes to be with Mom or Dad. Especially Dad. Emmett continues to be off the chart tall, but while he's skinny he still has more breadth than Avery.

Emmett tells me what he loves: You and me shopping, getting married with you (um , married to Daddy bud, but I love you!), watching tv with you, sitting next to you, riding my bike, going to the beach and seeing the tide pools, playing with toys, building forts, picking flowers for you, when I'm a grown up I'll scuba dive with Dad, going to the movie theater with you, going hiking, Grandma and Grandpa Benjamin coming over. -My sweet Emmett, he's so much mischief, but so much love!

Scarface

I mean Scarface Hand? Scarhand Face? Either way he looks happy even if he doesn't have a nose. (Avery noticed he had scabs on his hand that worked well for eyes)

A Pirate And His Mouse

Silly Emmett, you're so cute. Honestly, I don't know if he intended to be a pirate or what. Usually they have me tie bandanas on them for that, but I didn't know what else to call this.

Rainbow Halo

Yesterday I noticed the sun had a rainbow haloing it so I pulled out my phone and tried to capture it.
I think it looks very cool.


Stepping back onto my porch to try and shield the sun, here's another view of the pretty sky. Who knew the noon-day sky could be pretty instead of just harsh?

Awesome 3000

Last weekend Avery ran the Awesome 3000, a race held for school kids every year here in Salem. The older kids do 3000 meters, but the younger ones like Avery do 1500 meters and it's even less for the littler kids (Carson could have done it this year too, but we decided to wait until they're Kindergarten+ to start them).

And they're off!! Avery's in the red pants. And the shaggy hair. The kid needed his hair cut badly and I have since taken care of that.


Along the way they have photographers taking pictures and here are the ones I found of him.


Back on the track, you're almost there!




In the final stretch, go Avery, go!




Crossing the finish


You did it Avery! His time was 9:25. Not bad for a kid who's never run that length before (and better than I can do!) but we told him if he ran more between now and next year he'll do even better.

Carson's Spring Tea

At the beginning of May Carson's preschool had their annual "Spring Tea" in which they sing, gifts are given to Mother's (Mother's Day being around the corner) and lots of yummy treats are eaten.

Here's Carson ready to sing.


Afterward, I took pictures of Carson with his best friend Theo. I love how dapper Theo looks and turns out he chose his outfit for the special day himself!


Such a big hug they fell over.


I just love these guys!


Then I took a picture of Theo with his Mom Bambi.


And then Bambi took the camera for me and took some pictures of Carson and me.


Fun stuff!