Anna's First Day of Kinder!

What a bittersweet day.  Although I teared up a little, Anna's first day of Kinder was super exciting for her.  She's got a fabulous teacher that's very huggy and affectionate with all of the kids.  Anna responds so well to that.  Her very first teacher in pre-school was the same way, and she really flourished, so I'm very excited to see what this year holds for her.  

I was only able to get a handful of pictures.  We had our hands full with all 3 kids that morning.

Now that I look at this...I should have had her wear her backpack...  "/

It's a pretty exciting pack!  Rainbow Dash has ears that stick up off of it at the top!

I've asked her all week if she's made any friends, and she says "yes!" and counts them for me, but she can't remember their names yet.  :)  

Anna's pretty bad about telling me about her day, but I've figured out that if I ask her as we are laying down to go to sleep, she'll open up and start talking...probably because she's trying to avoid going to sleep.  ;)

Macro lenses - Faking til I make it

My buddy Jen bought me a set of macro lens filters for my birthday this year!  It's a set of four filters that range in magnification for my favorite lens that I use all the time.  They're pretty neat!  I had a little trouble with the 10X though; for some reason every picture I took with it came out foggy, but that might have just been because I was in my bathroom at the time, and the kids were taking a bath...

I don't know why I did this, but I chose not to read the instructions and just went with trial and error.  I honestly didn't know what she'd bought me until I put them on the camera...then I was all concerned because the autofocus didn't appear to be working, but it was because I was just too far away from my subject.  Ha!  I kept changing out the lenses and getting frustrated until I finally figured it out.  :)

I haven't had a lot of time to play with them, but I have gotten a few fun pics!

So every time I get anything new for my camera, or if I'm trying to figure out some new technique, I end up taking a picture of my lens cap on my camera bag.  Ha!  I have lots of pictures of it.  

I tend to take pictures of eyes when I'm using a macro lens.  And in this case a closeup of Wallace's new scar.  :(

Ha!  Hilde was super interested in what was going on, so I got a picture of her eye as well. Apparently I'm partial to left eyes.  :)

I can't wait for the spring when there are some flowers out...or maybe some bugs!  It'll be nice to get some bees on flowers or something.  :)  

Thanks for the fun new filters Jen!  

Swim School...not so scary these days! :)

Swim school has been going much more....swimmingly these days!  :)  When Wallace aged out of his baby and me classes the swim school recommended we put him straight through to the Preschool 2 class.  Likely it's for 2-year-olds, so for Wallace that's probably right on target.  "/  He cried for the first 3 and a half sessions.  He'd search us out in the small crowd of parents behind the glass and pretty much make us feel like we were torturing him.  So, we started hiding behind stuff...  You could hear his moans and wails...it was horrible...  I would apologize to his instructor when he'd meet me at the door with him after class.  The guy never seemed phased by Wallace's crying.  Then suddenly, in his fourth week, he just stopped crying and started enjoying himself!  

He used to even cry before class.  Like as we were getting changed at my Mom's house, and in the car all the way to class, and in the lobby as we waited for class to start...  Not so much these days!

Who is that kid!  He's so confident.  :)

Guess the crying is fairly common for newcomers.  That girl on the right has nothing on Wallace in those first 3 weeks...you couldn't even hear her through the glass.  ;)

Anna continues to please us with her fish-like abilities.  :)  

She's so comfortable in the water!

After swim school we headed to Houston for a sing-along screening of Grease in the park with my sisters and some extended family.  I will briefly gripe about the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion....  This is a beautiful venue....but it is a place of "NO".  For this being a "family-friendly" event, I was a bit miffed by a few things.  

1. No fancy pants cameras!  What the spank!?  You're screening Grease, not the new Star Wars movie...who doesn't already own a copy of Grease?  So I got no fun pics of the family, and I was really looking forward to it because the lighting before the movie started would have been beautiful. 

2. No strollers....  Do what?  Why the heck not?  I can understand it down in the seats so people don't injure themselves if there's an emergency evacuation, but I am struggling to understand what would cause the need for an emergency evacuation at an outdoor pavilion.  And why can't you have strollers on the lawn?  I'm not really a stroller person, but if I was I'd probably be even more miffed by this one.  

3. No having fun!  I might be exaggerating here a little, but here's what happened.  My little ones were extremely stir crazy, so we would walk them way up the hill where very few people were (just other running kids like mine and my sister's), and we'd dance and let the kids play.  The girls were running around and log rolling down the hill when the buzz-kill workers came along and said "someone might get hurt."  Ugh!  Are you kidding me!?!?  I hate our litigious society.  My kids can't even roll down a friggin hill!  I am a firm believer that if my kids get hurt doing something stupid, no matter where it occurs, that's pretty much on me and my kids...  Am I the only person in the world who wouldn't hold the facility accountable?  Apparently so...

Aside from that, and the near-TSA screening to get in, we had a pretty good time.  But I can't show you any evidence of that since my camera was in the damn car.  

Okay...I'm off my soapbox now...

Back at Sarah's house the kids had a great time playing together!  

My kids are enamored with chickens.  :)  I really want to get some, but I'm worried I won't have enough time to take care of them.  Maybe when the kids are a little older we'll get some hens.  

I went to take her picture, and Cora immediately did a face frame.  Haha! 

Sarah's kids are pretty outdoorsy!  :)

Oh Meredith...Homegirl loves to play in the dirt.  And eat it too...  "/

Did anyone else do this with their sister?

Cora loves it about as much as I used to.  :)

Meredith is getting a little better at travelling!  I bought a brand new full-sized pack and play, and that really seemed to help a lot with the sleeping issues we had at the Frio.  :)  Yay!  Now we just need to keep getting her out of her comfort zone I guess.  

Baby Lauren!

For the past nine months, my good friend Rachael has been cooking a baby.  :)  She's been getting the house and everything ready.  She's honestly awesome about having her babies' nurseries all ready to go and perfect.  I just love it.  I was never that prepared.  Rachael, Justin, and even James have been ready and waiting on little Lauren for a while now.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in passing to Rachael that I would love to photograph the birth, but I figured if she was anything like me there was no way anyone extra was going to be in the delivery room.  So, when she texted on the morning of the 29th to let me know that she was having a lot of contractions, I went ahead and took my camera to town with me just in case, so I could at least stop by and take pictures after I got off work.  Imagine my surprise when she called me just a couple of hours later and said that I could indeed come and photograph the birth!!!  What an honor!  I'm tearing up now just thinking about it.  

Since I don't like the thought of leaving my camera in my car all day downtown, and the bag is pretty heavy to tote around, I left it with my Mom when I dropped the kids off that morning.  Rachael's labor with James lasted nearly 24 hours, so I figured I would leave downtown when she was around 6cm, and head to the hospital. 

They checked her upon arrival and she was at around 2cm, and then an hour or so later she was closer to 4 or 5cm.  Justin was texting me updates, and once she got her epidural which was close to noon I figured things might slow down, so I planned to go workout like normal, and then head her way.  I was on the elliptical when I got a text that she was at 9cm!  Holy crap!  I just knew I was going to miss the entire thing.  I literally sprinted back to my office to grab my things, and rushed to my car.  Called my Mom on the way and begged her to meet me at the hospital with my camera.  Then I called Justin to see if Rachael was already pushing.  To my surprise I appeared to be the only person freaking out.  :)  He was perfectly calm and said "she's right here, do you want to talk to her?"  Ha!  So, typically when I'm at 9cm, I've completely lost it and am screaming for a doctor, but Rachael was cool as a cucumber.  You'd never of guessed she was sitting in a hospital bed about to have a baby.  Maybe I should have given the epidural a try after all.  

My Mom had literally dropped everything and loaded all three kids up to meet me.  Two of them were in just diapers.  She and I ended up getting there at the same time, and I ran upstairs to meet Justin.  I got there just after 12:40, and baby Lauren arrived at 12:58!  To say I nearly missed it would be an understatement.  

Since she had the baby so fast, I contemplated going back to work and finishing out my day, but decided to stick around and keep taking pictures of Lauren.  :)  I'm glad I did too!  The hospital was very accommodating.  Justin just told them one little white lie (that I was his sister), and I was allowed to go with him for Lauren's measurements and her first bath!

Rachael and Justin are very popular!  They had sooooo many visitors and grandparents!  Such a blessing.  :)

I brought Anna up the next day, and she was all in Rachael's business. :)  Haha!

I feel super blessed to have gotten to be a part of something so special!  Not many people get to be a part of a birth that's not one of their own children.  :)   Thank you so much Rachael and Justin!

Another Great 4th at the Frio!

The kids, my Mom, and I all celebrated the 4th with Josh's family at the Frio!  :)  Although she was struggling to clear up a case of strep throat, Anna went on ahead of us with Big Momma like she does every year.  She wasn't going to let a little thing like strep hold her back!  

Before the rest of us could head that way Hommie managed to do this to himself!

:(  This is straight-up going to scar, and we have no idea how it happened.  I was giving the baby a bath and Josh was in a different room.  Only Wallace and Hilde will ever truly know what happened...

Anyway...I took a half day and we headed over to the Frio on the 2nd.  Wallace was so excited to hang out with his cousins!  Finally some boys!  And apparently, the cool new thing is to pick Wallace up and swing him around.  :)

He loves it!

So many cousins...so much play time!

I believe this group took face painting to an entirely new level this year....

You can kind of tell Anna wasn't at 100%....but her face paint looks cute!  

I'm pretty sure Joe may have started this trend of the adult faces becoming art canvases for the kids.

Man....did he get it this year!  ;)

She let him paint her face too!

There were about 5 hands involved in the creation of this masterpiece!

It wasn't just faces this year!

And it went on for days....  It was like when you have a puzzle set up on vacation and people walk over occasionally and find a piece.  But it was face paint.  All the time.  :)

We had some first-timers this year!  This was Eric watching them paint Mark's face and saying.... "don't even think about painting my face!" 

Lyle showed up too, and even helped string up the pinata!

Wallace hasn't quite figured out the sweet spot of the bat.  ;)

I just love this shot of Bodie.  :)  He looks like he's about to knock the crap out of Mickey.

Tanner got the best photo with candy falling this year.  :)

Meredith sat in the grass nearby and played the entire time. She seemed completely oblivious to the craziness that was going on 30 feet away.  She was battling strep too though.  :(

The pinata pieces doubled as hats!

As usual, Wallace would play until he fell asleep.

And he made sure to get cozy with the lady bearing Doritos.  ;)

Aunt Lynn was the baby whisperer.  :)  Poor Meredith.  I apparently don't get her out of the house enough.  That coupled with the strep thing was about her limit.  :(  She was miserable...and fairly miserable to be around.

It wouldn't be right if I didn't get pics of kids on swings!  :)

Haha!   Wallace had a love/hate thing going on with the swing.

So with all these kids with strep I guess it was just a matter of time...I ended up with it too.  :(  I immediately felt terrible for the kids.  Strep hurts!  I just started going downhill about a day after we got there, and got progressively worse.  

So, unfortunately, I missed the parade.  :(  And I missed the talent show.  Not that I wanted to be in it (let's face it...I'm kind of an introvert), but I love to watch it, and I was excited to try to get some pics of it this year.

But I did get some cute pics of some of the kids tubing.  The river was WAY up due to all of the flooding this year.  I've never seen it like this.  It wasn't the quiet little river it's always been.  So, the tubing was excellent, but the swimming holes were non-existent.

What is usually a waterfall near the cabins was a fun little chute.  So, the kids would ride down it and then get out to walk back up and do it over and over again.  Made for some cute pics that I wouldn't normally be able to get!

Although he suddenly seems to hate the camera....

...Tanner is ridiculously photogenic.  

Anyway....a GREAT time was had by all!  And I really pray the kids and I didn't pass our strep on to anyone else.  "/

Thanks for bringing us all together Big Momma!  Looking forward to next year!