Family photo shoot

Here are a few of the pictures from our most recent family photo shoot last weekend at a local park. My brother-in-law is the awesome photographer.

The First Half of April

Well, I'm going to go off for a second into a complaint against my cell phone. I don't have a smart phone and don't want one, but apparently the cell phone manufacturers don't really like that about me. They build a phone that looks good enough for what I want - a glorified camera/video camera that mostly just sends texts but occasionally takes a call - but they make it so that it doesn't work really well. Eventually they know I will just cave and buy a smart phone and all the data stuff that goes with it, even though I have absolutely ZERO desire to look at the internet on a screen small enough to fit in my hand! Sigh... Sorry for the tangent, but the fact of the matter is, my phone and all of its problems makes blogging harder. This is because even though I can take pretty good pictures on my phone, sometimes they don't save, and I have to go through about 12 steps to get a picture off my phone and onto the computer. One by one different functions of my phone (purchased new in January of this year!) have ceased to work making it a real challenge to move a picture from the phone to the blog. So I am reduced to transferring photos every few weeks and updating the blog in big photo reels like what follows.

Don't let me fool you, though. If the phone worked flawlessly, the fatigue from keeping up with the house and the kiddos and my desire to have at least a little time each day with my hub or for myself would probably keep me from updating the blog as I should. Still, I will keep plugging away, so thank you for being faithful to check for new pictures once in awhile.

 I do believe Buddy's tooth count is around 12, which includes his one-year molars. All that remain to come in for him to have a full set are his canines. For reference, at their first birthdays I am fairly certain Claire and Evie each had 4 teeth.

 Party in Buddy's Room!

 Claire's first real dental procedure - a filling. I know, I am a failure as a mother for letting my 3 year old get a cavity! I have repented and she now sadly has to give me her uneaten sucker after every dance class. (She loves dance class - I can't understand why they think they have to bribe her with candy every single week!) Yes, I have become "that mom" that doesn't let her kids have candy. But since I already don't allow TV, and am planning to homeschool, I suppose a candy ban doesn't seem so strange...

 They sure love Daddy's shoes - especially any kind of boot!

 Claire wrote her name on the trampoline with no help whatsoever on the spelling or the writing - not bad!

 And then Buddy got the blue chalk.

 Claire is all ready for dance class. Evie had to wear a "ballerina skirt" too. To be truthful, the girls almost always want to wear frilly skirts. They balance that by wearing crazy socks and sneakers and often Auburn t-shirts. I blame Fancy Nancy. And yes, I let my children dress themselves 99% of the time with complete and total disregard for matching or seasons. I figure they can learn that "fashion" stuff later and what does it hurt?

 Buddy's first real haircut - he was the center of attention and all he really wanted was to suck on the spray bottle.

 Post haircut ice cream. Evie very willingly shared her first ever soft serve ice cream cone with Buddy. She seemed to really relish smooshing it on his face, and pretended not to have any idea that the goal was for him to get to ingest and not wear some of it. As it turns out, Buddy is the first of my kids who is really into ice cream. My girls will eat TCBY once in awhile but would usually rather have a Sonic slushy. Buddy thought ice cream was the most glorious thing he had ever tasted.

 Sweet Claire after a good day - her first hair cut at a real salon, followed by her first soft serve ice cream cone.

 This is how Evie dressed for dinner. Nothing like a swimsuit top and sunglasses to fancy up mealtime!

 Modeling her ballet costume in anticipation of her recital two weeks from now.

And there she is - Mommy's big girl all decked out in her tap costume and ready to "break a leg" on the stage in a few weeks. Dance class has been so good for her. We are looking forward to her coming recital.