I saw this type of picture on a photo blog that I enjoy so I decided to try it out. It has been raining all day today...flooding as well, so there was no school...so I couldn't use window lighting. I took my SB-800 and bounced it off the ceiling. I love her expression, but the feet and hand out there bother me. I will be trying it again, once Nathan has some more time.

Cami turned four yesterday! She has been sooooo excited for her birthday. For months, Cami has been "blessing" her heart birthday party every time she prays. She even prays that she can have a chocolate cake. She was so happy when she saw that her birthday cake was indeed chocolate and in the shape of a heart. :)


She had a blast blowing out her candles. We did it several times so I could try and get shot without the flash. She would have done it all night if I let her.

As one of her gifts, I got her one of the David books. She just happened to turn to the page where he is running through the street without any clothes on. She of course thought that was very funny.

Four Months Old!

Kate is already four months old. I took her in for her check up this week. No big surprises. She has a very large head. It is in the 90th percentile. Okay, I lied. I was honestly surprised that her head wasn't off the charts. :) She is in the 75 percentile for both her weight and height. Too bad she won't stay that way. All our kids are in the 25th percentile or below for their height now. We have a bunch of shorties...just like me. :)

Kate is a very social baby. I think we have another Cami or Braedon on our hands. Cami came with me and was constantly trying to talk to the doctor even though I asked her not to talk to the doctor before we went in. At least she was polite. She would say, "Excuse me doctor" and then talk her ear off. That kind of made me laugh, but I was getting a little miffed that she wouldn't stop talking!

The "Um Face"

Cameron came up to me today and said that she was ready to go ride her bike. I said that I would love to see her ride her bike, but we had a big problem. She instantly recognized that she didn't have on her pants. I was glad she realized that was indeed a problem. We haven't always seen eye-to-eye on that point. I then told her there was another big problem. I wanted her to open the front door and tell me what the other “big” problem was. I though she would figure it out right away. I mean, it was totally pouring outside, and it was getting pretty dark. She had two big problems to choose from. Instead, she came back with her “um face” on (see the picture), and says, “Um, the leaves have fallen off the trees?” I laughed and asked her to go look again. Either she really couldn't figure it out OR she was trying to pull a fast one on me. To be honest, I really don't think she got it. I mentioned the fact that...hello...it is RAINING outside! She didn't see this as a problem. She told me, “I have my jacket on.” I thought to myself, “We have lived here too long! It is time to leave!” What do I expect though really? In order to live here, you have to learn to do things in the rain. The other day at one of Ky's soccer games there were a bunch of little kids running around on the playground in the pouring rain. None of them had hoods on, and each of them were totally soaked. At the school, they tell us that the kids will play outside unless it is totally pouring so we should make sure our kids are dressed appropriately. :)

One more funny thing about the kids and our weather is that every year during the rainy season, our children freak out if the sun ever happens to come out. "Look! Mom! The sun!" They seriously act as if it is some sort of spectacular event. How sad is that? Like I said, we need to move!

I am going to try and write more things about the kids. I tend to get carried away with posting pictures so why not write something as well?

The other day while we were getting ready for church, Nate was putting on his tie, and Cami was getting ready to put on her shoes. She tilts her head (looking kind of shy) and says, "Dad, will you be my prince?" I thought that was so cute. She has her dad wrapped around her finger.

Also, Cami thinks she has super powers. Seriously. If you ask her about her powers, she will say that she is fast and strong. We sometimes use this to our advantage. If we want her to go get something or to put something away, we ask her to show us her super powers. She is usually more than willing to show them off. Anyway, the other day we were watching a movie as a family. She was sitting on Nate's lap. A little bit of hair from his chest was sticking out of his shirt. Looking a bit confused she asked, "Dad, what are those? Do they give you super powers?" We both started laughing. Then Nate started blowing on her tummy. She of course loves that. She then wanted to blow on Nate's tummy. He lifted up his shirt, and she instantly became very quiet. She just stared at his tummy. Nate could see that she was a bit disturbed by the site of his stomach so he said, "I don't think you want to blow on my tummy. It is kind of hairy." Without taking her eyes off his stomach, she shook her head and said, "Yep, I don't think I want to!"

Well, I really like taking the kid's "school" pictures for the year. I guess that does sound kind of silly since I am constantly taking pictures of the kids. However, I don't just sit the kids down very often and take their picture. It is usually of them doing something. Anyway, I have edited Brae's pictures. Here are the three I like the best. I am into B&W right now.




Here are the pictures I took of Cami. I haven't gone through all of her pictures yet. She has cooperation (sp) issues so I have to take way more of her. She INSISTED on wearing her hat. That makes me laugh. Of course I also had to bribe her with a juice box. I let her take a little "rest" while she drank it, but the only problem was that she won't put the darn thing down. So we have some pictures of her with the juice box. :)

Miss Kate...


Well, she is almost 3 months old. I can't believe it. I have slowed down on the picture taking believe it or not. ;) I did take one photo last week that I actually like. She is smiling. She is sure a joy to have around...except for when she is screaming while I am trying to make dinner. Hee Hee. She loves being social. We might have another Cami on our hands here. She "talks" to anyone who will listen. She even laughs. I love this age!

Soccer started several weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to writing about it. This is the first time the boys have played.

Braedon's age group is so cute! I love watching them play! Notice how small he is compared to everyone else!

Ky's soccer games are more exciting to watch. He likes playing forward and goalie. I could care less if they win or lose, but I sure get nervous when Ky is in the goal. I don't want him to feel bad if he gets scored on. I guess it is good for him though. I can't always be there to keep him from getting his feelings hurt. :)

Road Trip!

We are back from our road trip to Utah. We had a great time visiting friends and family. I took thousands of pictures as usual, so it will take me a while to go through them all. I will post them here as I get to them. The kids start school soon, so I won't get a lot done until then.


Here is Aunt Debbie and Uncle Brad holding their two little ones at Bear Lake. I just loved it at Bear Lake! What a fun place!


I just love the look on Abby's face! She was being so funny. She kept trying to shove an entire handful of fruit into her mouth. It didn't quite work. Also notice the sand in her hair. :)

Well, Kate is looking better these days. She is now seven weeks old. Her next appointment is still a few weeks away, so I don't know how much she weighs now, but she is sure filling out. I love fat babies. She smiles and makes those cute little baby noises at us. The kids just love to try and get her to smile. She is pretty strong. She can hold her neck now which makes taking her picture a bit easier...and of course...she still loves her tongue!

Nathan and Braedon are building a shed. Braedon loves to follow Nathan around, and he especially likes to build things with him. Nathan is so good. He finds little things for him to do. He could probably do the projects a lot faster if he didn't take the time to teach Brae how to do certain things. Brae may be only six, but he really is learning a lot. If I ask him to get me a certain type of tool, he knows the name and gets it. Sometimes he even corrects me when I call it the wrong thing. ;)

Cami LOVES bubbles. We spent over an hour the other day just blowing bubbles together. She is getting better at blowing them herself.

After taking several pictures of the kids, I realized...

..that I can be happy with this one! :) It's okay that not everyone is looking. Four out of five looking at the camera isn't bad! They even look like they are actually somewhat happy!

We went camping last weekend, and we had a great time. Baby did really well considering that I forgot her binky! The mosquitoes were out in force though so I had to keep her bundled. Can't put spray on babies. :(

What is kind of funny is that when I was a kid, we could see a huge difference in the temperature and environment when we went camping. We lived in Tucson and going up into the mountains meant a break from the heat and trees! Now, we pretty much live in the mountains. The weather is nice and it is a pretty place to be. Camping for us now means that we leave the nice weather and head into the heat. Although the mountains where we camped are still green, it is a bit more barren compared to where we live. I just thought that was a bit humorous. Our kids will have opposite memories than we have.

Sha and Ky slept in the small tent. Dad, Brae and Cam slept in the bigger tent while baby and I slept in the van. That was very uncomfortable. I don't think I will be doing that again. :) At least not in that van. Our last van was pretty comfortable. The picture was taken in the morning. That is why we all look so fabulous!

The kids really enjoyed paddling the canoes. Boy was it windy though! I was seriously a little freaked out at first.

I really like this picture of Nathan and Cam. Cam loves to water the grass for us.