Valentine Cards

I new I would be a bad blogger, but oh well, I'm trying.

Here's the boys' Valentine's cards quite after the fact. Gotta love the laziness of only making one template and using it for both. :)

Carson's First Steps

In the week or two prior to this, Carson would attempt 1 or 2 steps, but nothing spectacular. Tonight we decided to bribe him (that's right, pop cans, just like we used on Avery!) Here's some video of Carson's success:

Happy Valentine's!

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day! Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures before a few roses in the bouquet started wilting, but happily most still looked good and afforded some nice close-ups. :)

Our Christmas Card

Family pictures are a nightmare, as I'm sure many would agree, so for the last 3 years I've waited until we got to my parents house in the week before Christmas and forced my family to let my Mom attempt to take a few pics (a lot, actually, to try and manage a decent one - and for the last 2 years I've had to photoshop a better Avery head into each anyway!). Then I throw together a card last minute before Christmas and email it out. I don't get a letter together, or take care of this ahead of time so I could actually mail the cards, but I tell you it just gives me nightmares thinking about getting the family to take pictures. I think the only pictures we have of our family posed together are the ones that get forced at Christmas and the one for the annual Parkway Ward picture directory. Very pathetic... and rather sad really... Anyway, here's this years:

New Wall Hangings

Well, soon I hope. I've got to get a mix up in picture frames fixed, but the pictures are ready to go in. I'll have two frames which each hold 4 pictures - one frame for each kid. Here are the shots I'm going to use:
Avery's:



Carson's:

Here we are

Well, I guess this will be the new family blog. Let's see if I can give this any little attention before sharing it.

Blogging...

Ugh. Blogging. So Travis kept saying "Wait, we can host our own now with Windows Home Server!" Great, big deal. When's he gonna set that up? Do I really want to give up my 1-2 hours (maybe) of free time a day to figure that out on my own? Obviously not. So, what am I going to do with this blog? Just start making it a family blog and later have to switch? Maybe actually do the digi scrapping thing with it (probably not - that's not really my favorite, I much prefer to just Photoshop pictures)...
So, I suppose if you (friends and family) stumble upon this, it's probably not going to become the family blog. I think. :)
I guess if I'm already sharing pictures thru Win. Home Server, I may as well do the rest of it.
Congrats, or I'm sorry, to those who actually made it thru that little ramble.

Shooting

Dec 29th we went shooting with the family. Ben, Travis and Kevin each got an AK-47 for Christmas and of course they wanted to try them out.
Travis with his new AK the day before when we scouted out a good spot for everyone.




This was also Avery's first time to shoot


Once Avery had the experience, all he really wanted to do was go sledding, but the place didn't work out to be any good for that. Plus, the snow was pretty slushy and getting more so as it rained, or rather misted, on us. It was really hard to keep my lens clean and fog free!


We did have a hot lunch though!


Someone thinks they're cool.


Since DeAnna has bad reactions to the cold, she mostly stayed in the truck with Carson and occasionally Avery. I jumped in for a bit so she could have a turn to shoot.






Avery liked shooting:

Avery On His First Shooting Trip from Laurie H on Vimeo.

The shooting finale!

Shooting Finale from Laurie H on Vimeo.

While I was up on the hill videoing the finale, I also saw some sort of plant peeking out of the snow and had to photograph it.

2 Years Later

It's been two years since we last made it to Ohio to visit my uncle, aunt and family, so we went again for Thanksgiving this year. At an adorable eight months (okay, he's a few days shy of that), Carson was a big hit during his first visit with the Cabe's

MaKenna and Sarah "fight" over Carson

Avery loves their spa tub!

Ivy was actually afraid of Carson!

Avery had way too much fun with Julia

Darla and Carson

I think it's funny to find Carson is wearing the same
clothes as Avery was in our last Thanksgiving in Ohio.

Ivy, Cameron, Jenna, Carson, Sarah, Julia, Del, MaKenna, Avery

Jenna, Carson and Sarah

Our last pictures on our last morning got a little silly

Thank you Cabe's for another great visit!

Desitin

Say it with me now: UGH!




Some also got on the carpet and it does not come out!

Reading

Quick comment on book club.

So Twilight was great - I'm a total addict now. I'm definitely looking forward to book 4 next fall.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves is a great book. I couldn't agree with the author more; although I don't know what we'll talk about at book club... It really doesn't seem like much of a conversation carrier.

Pumpkin Picking

Today we went pumpkin picking at Barthel Fruit Farm for playgroup. It was good fun but I completely forgot my camera. Many thanks to Pam for emailing these to me!No luck getting Carson to look...They don't look a very happy bunch, do they? They did have fun, honest!

Milwaukee Zoo

We're having some great weather so today we went to the zoo with several friends. Here's our little stroller convention in front of the "ZOO" bush.
The older kids in front of the "ZOO" bush. Notice there are also animal shaped bushes!

This snake was really active.

When we had lunch the peacocks showed up.
Trying to feed the peacock, not a great idea as far as I'm concerned.

They don't like to be chased Avery!

Hello smiley Carson!

One last try for a group shot of the older kids.
Thanks for driving Mandie, we had lots of fun!

Mr. Darcy or Edward?

So yeah, book club list. I've got it now. These were the ones we finally chose:

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Newberry’s (TBA) (We're gonna do 3 Newberry's this month TBD by that month's host)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
These is My Words by Nancy Turner
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriett Beacher Stowe
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

So I knew I'd like Twilight (and New Moon and Eclipse which follow it) the way about half of the girls were gushing about it. So I got the first last Monday and had finished all 3 by Saturday. It's now Wednesday and - pathetically - I've only got a titch of book 2 left on my second read of the 3! Good Grief! I think these books have just joined the few others I consider to be my gold medalists.
Can I just say here that I think my beloved Mr. Darcy has some serious competition now. *big sigh* Edward... you can dazzle me anytime!

Need a Tractor?

So here's a digi scrap freebie for you. If anyone ever finds me here that is! :)
Thanks to a little toy tractor one of my sons have, you now can have this cute little guy. I made it to use on one of the father's day cards this year. And since the pattern to it doesn't resize well, I've given you 3 sizes to choose from in the one zip.
Download here.