Summer Fun

Just some pics of us enjoying our last few weeks of summer. Alyssa is a nanny of four kids and they occasionally come over to play with Arlie. She loves it when friends come over to play.






Here are some pictures of the kids that Alyssa nannies.



The kids went on a bike ride yesterday with daddy and our Neighbor's Tom and Sebastion. They love bike rides.

6 Years

Josh and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary this past weekend. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I love him more and more each year that goes by. I feel so blessed to have such a great husband who loves me for who I am and completes me. He is such a good dad and he helps me out so much. Thanks honey for all you do! I love you.
For our anniversary we started out our day by running a 10K together. We haven't ran a race together for a few years. As we started out, we were running together. I thought he must be being nice to me since it was our anniversary. But I just had the urge to go faster. Soon I was 20 feet then 50 feet ahead. I was wondering if he was saving up his energy so that he could kick my butt in the end. Or if I should hold back and run with him. But I just wanted to do the best I could so I kept going. Not only did I finish the race but I ran the whole time. And not only did I run the whole time but I ran it in 58 minutes!!! That is faster than a 10 minute mile! I am so pumped! I ended up beating Josh by a minute and a half. This is the first time that I have ever beat him running. Sorry honey but it feels really good.

Fellow ward members and friends that ran the race also.

After the race we took the kids to six flags to the water park. It felt so good because it has been super hot here lately. Then we went to dinner at Pei Wei. It was our first time there and it was really good. We will definitely go back. We also went to the movies and saw The Proposal. Awesome! It was hilariously funny and such a good date movie. Josh loved it too.

Forced

The forced cheeser has begun with my sweet little Arlie. It is hard to get a natural smile out of her now that she has learned to smile on comand. I guess that it is all part of growing up. I love this little cheese ball!

Deacon is 9 months old!

I can't believe my baby is already 9 months old!!! It is going by way too fast and I just wish he could stay the way he is right now forever. He is so much fun and so sweet I just love him to death. It is so different this time. With Arlie I couldn't wait till she got to the next phase or stage and with Deacon I am not ready for him to grow up. I guess I feel like I just haven't had enough time to enjoy him as a baby. So I took him to his 9 month check up and he weighed 18 lbs. 13 oz and I don't remember his height but I know that he is 40% for height now and 25% for weight. It has gradually been dropping off. He started out 75% for height and 50% for weight. Also he has an abnormally large head for his body. His head is 92%. But that's ok he has a cute big head. Here are a few pictures I took of him today in the studio.

Catch up yet again...

Can I just say I am dreading this. I have been putting off blogging because I know how long it is going to take. I have been super busy lately with photo shoots and trying to keep up with editing and the kids that I haven't had time to post or edit my own stuff lately. So today I decided to make time. I guess I will start by saying we had a great week with Josh off work. We went down to Annapolis and walked around down town and hung out at the docks, we went to Ocean City for a couple days and enjoyed the sun and water. We rented a boogie board and it was so much fun catching the waves. It reminded me of when we lived in Hawaii. I don't think I have boogie boarded since then. The kids had fun too. We also went to a place with Go carts and other fun things for the kids to do. We had a blast. And then we spent a day at six flags. We rode a few awesome roller coasters and then went to the water park to soak up the sun and cool off. The kids had a blast there too. Especially Deacon. He couldn't get enough of it. It was fun to watch him. Here are some pictures from the beach. Deacon relaxing on the beach. Here are some pictures of the kids together. I took them with my little point and shoot camera so the quality is not as good. I was just wanting to see if it was even possible for me to get a good picture of the two of them together. It took a lot of tries to get what I did get. Now I just wish I would have used my nice camera and background. Arlie got her first hair cut. The other day. She did really good and enjoyed getting it cut. Here is a before and after pic. So I guess that is about it. We are enjoying the nice weather here. Oh and I joined weight watchers 3 weeks ago and am really excited about my progress. So far I have lost 6 lbs. Maybe I will finally be able to get back to what I weighed when I got married. We will see.

Just playin around

Here is a picture of Arlie in one of my new dresses for my prop box. I decided to let her wear it to church today. I guess I was too excited and wanted her to try it out. Josh is home and it is so nice to have him back. We missed him so much. We had a nice fourth of July even though he was not here and Arlie loved the fireworks. We haven't done anything too exciting since Josh got back accept we did go to a Baysox game. That was fun. We are planning on going to the beach tuesday and wednesday this week. Not sure which beach yet and then friday we are planning on going to six flags. I am sure I will take lots of pictures. We are enjoying our summer so far. The weather has been really nice this year, not too hot and not too humid. IT is going by way too fast though. Deacon is growing and changing so much everyday. I think he is going to be walking in about a month. He likes to stand up on things and then let go and stand all by himself all the time. I was walking with him holding his hands around the house and he stopped and pushed my hands away so that he could stand there all by himself. He also has a little push car that he has started pushing around and walking with. I am sure it won't be long.

8 months old today

Wow I can't believe Deacon is already 8 months old. It has gone by so fast. He is growing and changing so much. He is so much fun and he has such a sweet spirit. I am enjoying everyday I get to be with him. It is going to be over before I know it.

For All you Fathers out there

Getting into Mischief

This is what happens when my kids are left unattended.

Some videos of this month

IT was Arlie's last day in gymnastics so we had to get some shots of her doing her thing.
There is a video at the beginning of the month right before Deacon started crawling. He has been crawling now for a week.
And a couple of videos of Arlie on her birthday. We had to get a video of her riding her car. THis is a nightly occurance at our place.
And of course singing happy birthday.

Trying to catch up

Wow it has been a really busy month so far and I haven't had any time to post about it. My mom and brother Travis came out and we had a really great time. It was so much fun spending time with them. We went to the National Zoo,


toured around DC,


went to the Temple,


went to Six Flags,


and celebrated Arlie's 3rd birthday.

I can't believe she is already three. First I will start this post out with a few pictures of my growing girl.
She was born June 8th, 2006. This picture was the day we left the hospital.

Here she is at 1 years old.


On her 2nd birthday:


And this year on her 3rd birthday:


THe past three years have gone by fast and I can't believe I am now a mother of two. Arlie has been such a joy to have in our family. She is so funny and sweet. And I love the new things she comes up with everyday.
Thank you to my mom, Travis, and Alyssa for being here and celebrating my beautiful girls big day. Also thanks to Alyssa for making the yummy bday cake.

We also decided to plan a last minute party with a couple of friends. We got the slip and slide out and made princess crowns. THe kids had fun but it was a crazy party. I did a retarded thing and decided to show the kids how to use the slip and slide with my clothes on.
THis is what happened to me.



I told the kids to stand and watch and my neighbor kid came out of nowhere and I think I got a knee to the nose. IT doesn't look that bad in the picture but it was gushing blood and bled for a few hours. 2 weeks later and my nose is still tender. Also we had a glass plate fall off the island and shatter into a million pieces. It was like an explosion. So needless to say it was an eventful party. Good thing it was a small one. I took a lot of pictures while my family was here but I am just going to post a few of my favorites. Of course I had to get some nice pictures of my mom and my brother while they were here.


And here are a few fun ones from the zoo. A butterfly landed on Arlie at the Elephant exhibit and it drew just as much of a crowd as the elephants did. It really liked her and kept hoping from her hand to her shirt to her shoulder to her eye and then back on her hand until she finally blew it off. It was very pretty.


Sweet baby Deacon and Travis hangin out.


And this last one is of Deacon looking through the glass at the monkeys. They were his favorite.