Stuff I Missed!

I was dumping some photos off my camera the other day and noticed a few folders sitting in my “to be processed” area in Lightroom. “/ I never do that. Somehow I just got behind, and I guess was never intending to get caught up. It was such a busy spring semester that I swear I’m just now getting myself together.

Way back in March we went to the County fair back in my hometown again to watch my niece’s show their chickens and to have fun at the carnival. The weather was so funky this year. A cold front blew through not long after we got to the carnival, and after that it just stayed windy and gross. So, I was bummed I wasn’t able to get great photos. Which is maybe why I left them unprocessed for so long. But today when I was sorting through them I noticed I did catch some pretty fun moments.

Like this one! Guess which two little’s were finally big enough to ride just about every ride at the carnival??? I think Wallace was most excited about the ferris wheel. But believe it or not he hopped up on one of those drop rides too before we were done!

We got the unlimited wrist bands again, so they pretty much rode everything they were big enough for.

Anna’s always a thrill seeker. :)

I was probably most hesitant to put them on this ride…. But they all got off safely.

She never holds on!

We finished it all off with some impossible ring tossing. Seriously…3 full buckets of rings and none of them got one on a bottle! I hate carnies.

I also noticed the folder of Meredith’s preschool graduation pictures had gone ignored.

I didn’t really get any great photos of the group because the other parents are just annoying. Everyone holds their phones up in the way. It makes me crazy. But look how adorable she is when there aren’t arms and cell phones blocking the view!

And then there was Anna’s birthday, which wasn’t really that long ago. :)

This girl’s been waiting soooo long for her birthday. The birthday season seems to kick off in our house with Meredith’s in March, and then it’s just agonizing for Wallace and Anna to wait on theirs to finally roll around.

Wallace made her a gift and wrote her the sweetest birthday note. She was all…”ummmm…hurry up Wallace. I know I’ve got an Alexa in this stack of gifts…”

Finally! They were all so jelly when Meredith got hers, and I’ve made them each wait for their birthday’s to open theirs. Lol.

Wallace helped Anna put together her Lego watch.

And they swam.

My girls were so excited to swim in their clothes for some reason…

Anna wanted a unicorn cake too.

And Wallace caught a massive frog! And this is what happens when it’s chilly in your house and very hot and humid outside. No time to wait for all the glass in the camera to unfog. “/

And now we’re all caught up again. :)

Wallace's Birthday

My posts are all out of order. Wallace’s birthday was back in April, but I got a little behind on my photo editing with Jesse’s wedding. Oh well.

This year Wallace basically wanted a repeat of last year’s birthday, so back to the train museum we went. :)

Anna had a soccer game that got in the way, so she missed the museum…But Meredith did her best to make up for her absence!

James, Lauren, and Rachael went with us again! Thanks for coming guys! It really wouldn’t be as much fun without you!

Hommie seriously seems to know all of the parts of the trains, and he was so excited to name them all off to me.

I’m fairly certain this little girl thought Wallace was about to get this train moving!

They loved all of the model trains again.

And this guy was the best about identifying and answering all of their questions about every little doo-dad they pointed at and said “what’s that?”

He rang the bell a hundred times.

So tired.

Cheers!

Yep. We’re classy train people now.

And then back to the house for cake and swimming. Wallace wanted the same train cake he had a few years ago. I made it a little longer this time!

Anna made it for this part of the party. :)

He got the engine. :)

Sometimes I look at him, and he suddenly appears to be 5 inches taller. But he still kisses and hugs me, and for now he’s bearing with me as I insist on reading Harry Potter to him at night, even though he’d prefer to read solely about trains. The Hogwarts Express was like Chapter 6…all of the magic in Chapter 11 is not nearly as captivating for this guy. lol.

You’re growing up so fast, bud! Happy birthday!!!

Granny's Birthday

This year for Granny’s birthday, I once again made her favorite cake….a chocolate boxed cake with store-bought chocolate icing. :) She’s so easy. It really is one of the best cakes. Why mess with perfection?

I got it all made the night before, and Meredith and Wallace helped me decorate it with sprinkles and candy hearts. And then once I got home from work on the 23rd, the kids helped me add the finishing touches!

They, of course, fought over who got to put on the candles (so they each got to put a few on there), and I added the Happy Birthday bunting that I’ve grown so fond of. :)

We did the whole cake and ice cream thing in a hurry because the kids and I had to run to make it to Anna’s soccer party on time.

Oh, and Wallace' added his train from last year again. :)

So, I really thought we had just enough distance between the candles and bunting….. Apparently I was wrong.

It was so funny. We were only like a line and a half into the “Happy Birthday Song” when it all caught on fire, so Granny was holding back from blowing it out! Haha! And so I quickly rushed us through the rest of the song!

We didn’t set off any smoke alarms, and the cake still tasted great. But it appears I need to invest in a new bunting. “/

Granny, we all love you so much and honestly wouldn’t have made it this far without you.  Thank you for all you do for us.  I sometimes still can’t believe that you just picked up and moved from Houston the day after Anna was born.  Talk about commitment!  I can only pray I will be as awesome of a Granny as you are one day. 

Happy birthday!

Jesse and Aaron's Wedding

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of getting to shoot another wedding! Jesse and Aaron actually got married on my anniversary. Good thing Josh and I are fairly terrible at anniversaries. I begged Jen to come and help me so I’d have an additional shooter, and I’m so glad I did. Not only did we get to hang out, but together I think we did a pretty good job capturing everything. Jen, I owe you one!

They were married in an airplane hangar! It was a great location. I’m just going to post a few of my favs here. :)

Meredith got to go along and photobombed a few times.

This wedding was so much fun, and so original. Everyone had such a great time! Thanks for letting me be a part of your special day Jesse and Aaron.

What we've been up to this year

I just realized I haven’t posted anything on here since December!  How did that happen?  Well, I guess we’ve been busy.

Anna had a great basketball season, and just like last year, she finally scored a goal in the very last game. :) It was sooooo exciting!!!! In my opinion, even better than watching the Spurs.

Valentines came and went, and it was kind of icky weather outside, so for their annual Valentine’s photos, the girls and I set up an indoor photo shoot for the first time.  They cut out most of those hearts in the background.  It ended up being a fun project!

Since it looked so cute we went ahead and did some sibling pics.

They all picked out their own clothes for the pictures, and I think they did a great job!

My bestie Jen moved back to Texas!!!! I still kind of can’t believe it. It’s so nice to be able to visit her whenever I have a free weekend, and also not have to wait 3-6 hours for a response to text messages.

The third grade at Anna’s school put on the most adorable recorder concert that she was quite frankly very nervous about. She did great though! They all did. I wish we would have gotten to do something like this when I was in school.

Anna’s been learning how to build a slide show on the computer, and she wanted a photo with her pet hamster, Chenille. She’s almost 2 years old, loves running on her wheel in the middle of the night, eating spinach, tomatoes, and grapes, and pooping on you when you try to hold her. She wore out her old cage and recently moved into a new habitat, which she loves. She had a very close encounter with our dogs yesterday morning, but she seemed to have no idea how dangerous the situation was. Thank goodness we had her cage up so high!

And yesterday we had our track meet!

It was another long, hot March day. How does it always seem to fall on the hottest day in March? Meredith did so much better this season. She was actually excited for practices, and didn’t run away to play in the dirt nearly as much. :)

Hommie was pretty young for his age group this year, and although he didn’t place, he had one heck of a good time!

Anna participated this year!

I’m so proud of her. She had her tonsils removed right in the middle of the season, and she was such a trooper about it all. Of course, her favorite part of the track meet was still all of the socializing in the racers tent.

Maybe I should commit to updating this thing a little more often.  The kids and I love looking back through it now and then.  I was talking to a girl at work who loves to journal, and I thought to myself, who the heck journals?…  Well, I guess I sort of do…just in a different format.  Lol.