Mat & Beth Photo shoot

Yesterday I went out to the Hallows, near Lago Vista to take some pictures of the big Hames family. They were big like Rick's family. 10 adults & 8 kids. That's 8 kids 3 yrs old and YOUNGER. ha! I will post each family on the blog individually because there are so many good ones, and I don't want to leave anyone out. This is Mat & Beth's family, I just picked 5 of my personal favorites, but there are many many more. I had to limit myself. :) If you would like to see them all here is their link, just make sure to turn your volume on its pretty cute.

http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/HamesFamily/

The New "Tacky"

Today I chose Carson to come along and run errands with me. He says the most funniest things out of the 4 kids. We were in a store looking at Christmas lights for the house for next year. Carson came across the solid green ones. He said "Oh Mommy, lets get Green!!" I said no I only want white on the house. He replied "But Mommy Green is the New Tacky". Where did he get that? We don't even use that word tacky.

Yes I believe so, maybe if we did green it would look a little tacky.

Later on he and I were having lunch together and I said "We've had a great day together" His response was "Yes, so when we go home we don't have to spend any more time with each other"

It was so funny I had to call Rick and tell him.

I guess we reached our quality time quota for the day!

Baby Its Cold Outside...

So I took down all of Christmas last night. I know, I know, its pretty early to do that, but really I was sick of seeing it all. And I bought some new stuff to decorate the house yesterday and so it was time to put it all up. Rick hung up new curtains for me & we rearranged the living room & it looks great! Now I just need to take some pictures to post for you all.

Tomorrow the kids and I are going up to Waco to spend the day with my cousin from FL who will be visiting Dallas for the long weekend. We are meeting halfway in Waco for lunch. It was going to be all of us, but Rick got the times mixed up and he has too many patients to reschedule. So it will be just me and the kids. Should be an interesting 2 hours. Especially since after our Houston trip on Sunday, Griffin has been saying "Mommy no more trips". But lets just say thank you to the person who invented the DVD player for the car. Whoever that is, is a rock star. We just bought Charlotte's Web yesterday, perfect timing. The boys and I just finished that chapter book a month or so ago and I really wanted them to see the movie. Its very cute by the way, we watched it this morning.

Here are some winter shots of Cooper by the window with frost on it. It was a whopping 21 degrees this morning in Austin. Burr to us!!

Brown Family

These are our sweet friends that used to live a few houses down from us in The Woodlands. We became friends when we just had puppies (Maggie and their Ruby) and were pregnant with our first babies. I went back to the Woodlands this past weekend and did a photo shoot of their family. Here are a few of my favorites. If you want to watch the slide show of all their pictures here is the link, just make sure your volume is on. http://cozyimpressionsphotography.com/BrownFamily/

Christmas Morning at our House

Twas The Night Before Christmas...

This is what our house looked like after everyone went to bed.

The stockings were hung, all homemade of course! :)

The tree with all the loot...
Parker's new bike from Buck's Bike Shop, a little Della Cruz
Pink with Hawaiian flowers, its a mini beach cruiser. Its just precious!!

Read Between The Mats

On my Mom's side of the family we draw names and give a gift to the person or couple that you choose. This year we had my cousin Doug & his wife Carla. Since they are newly married, they have all the kitchen goodies etc.. so I wanted to give them something really special. I went out and took pictures of letters in nature and spelled out their last name FRENCH and framed them. It turned out to be a beautiful creation. They will open it on Sunday at a family gathering in FL, I hope they like it! (they don't read the blog so no worries on spoiling the gift for them)

This is also the same gift I made for the all girls gift exchange party back in early December. I spelled out LOVE. I just forgot to get a picture of it! ha!

Leftovers

The other night Griffin said the prayer at dinner. We were having a leftover pasta casserole that night, they loved it the night before but this is how his prayer went.

"Dear God, Thank you for me, thank you for everybody. Please help us to get along, please help us to no talk during the prayer. Please help mommy not to make this meal again. Amen"

Cooper turns 16 Months Old!

Our baby turned 16 months old today....

16 things to know about Cooper

1.Cooper weighs 21 lbs 10 oz, and is in the 15% for his weight, he is tiny!!

2. He is 30 3/4 inches tall placing him in the 50% for height

3. Word count~ Cooper says 17 words!!

4. He has learned to make the noise of a truck, "brum brum"

5. Favorite thins to do: Eating, taking a bath and going "Bye Bye"

6. He thinks that any car that passes our house after nap time in the afternoon is "Dada"

7. Calls all food "More" when he is hungry he says "More" when he is thirsty he says "More"

8. Loves to "wrestle" Griffin onto the floor.

9. Has an obsession with opening doors, book pages & cabinets over and over again.

10. His attention span is longer than any other baby I know

11. He will stand at the table rolling a train around for at least 30 minutes

12. Loves to take a bath and has been known to sneak in & get back in the tub full of water with his pajamas on, yes this has happened more than once.

13. Cooper looks the most like Rick than any of our kids

14. Cooper's personality is the most like Griffin's

15. Says "night night" when he is tired and wants to go to bed, this is true, he is so easy!

16. Cooper is definitely a mama's boy & if I am in the room, no one else can be holding him but his mama.

All photos were taken at the Anderson Mill park today

Park Walking

We took Cooper to the park and he walked and walked around. Here is a video of him, its much easier to see than the last one. He had a great time with his new found freedom.

It's Official...

It's official...After 15 months and 28 days Cooper finally decided to walk for us. We had a little chat with him and let him know that on Wed. he would be 16 months and we were going to turn him in to ECI (early childhood intervention). They were going to come out and find out why he was taking so long. It turns out he just wanted to wait until he was good & ready. Here is a cute video of him tonight. The quality is really bad but you get the idea anyways. I'll remake it in the day and re post tomorrow.

Christmas Cheer?

Each year at church our children come home with a homemade ornament with a picture taken by the teachers. I think the ornaments get funnier and funnier each year. For example...

People are always saying "oh your kids must be so good at having their pictures taken" NOT TRUE! At least not for Parker, she really puts on an attitude when the camera comes out. This is the face we get (above) when we get the camera out. This face says it all. "I am a difficult 3 yr old girl, that wants to do the complete opposite of whatever you ask me to do"

Ornament of the Year

We gave the kids their ornaments for 2007 the other night. Here are some photos to capture the moments...

Rick gave me my hand painted one from the collection that I have been collecting for 8 years now. When you hold it up to the light it shines right through.
Griffin was given a tent with a camping moose. This year the boys went on the father son camp out in October and had a great time with their daddy. So this ornament symbolizes their fun time together.
Before we opened the ornaments, Carson kept saying "I want a soccer ornament, I want soccer" I thought, "oh no, what am I going to do I got him a fish!!" So I gave it to him anyways and he loved it. His ornament symbolizes the great time he had fishing with Granddaddy this summer in IL, he also was able to fish for a short time at the camp out.
I always choose the girliest one I can find. This year it is a *pink* sparkly pig. We just finished reading Charlotte's Web, for our nightly chapter book last month and we think it reminds us of Wilbur.
Cooper's ornament is super cute this year. Its a wooden Noah's ark with the little animals all over it. As many of you know I have a sailboat/nautical theme going on all over the house & his nursery is all decked out in a sailboat theme. So last year his ornament was a sailboat & this year its an ark! Maybe being raised in FL & then living in Boston for a couple of years has something to do with it. Or maybe I'm just feeling a little land locked here in TX!!

Girlfriends

Last Thursday night we had our annual Girls only Christmas party, hosted by the one and only Jonna (bottom far right). She went out of her way for us all once again, she organized the party, made all the invites by hand & all the amazing food!!! Thanks Jonna it was a blast & we are all so thankful for you and your friendship. The one unique thing about the party was that you were suppose to bring a homemade gift. It was a lot of fun seeing what everyone made, and how crafty these girls are. I don't have any pictures of the gifts, but I do have one of the great group of friends.

Three Faces

I took the kids on an adventure to the park when it was in the high 40's! It was fun we ran around and played. Here are some cute face shots of them. Its more like an Old Navy add for fleece hats!

Sweet Family, Precious Children

What a sweet family they were! Their little girl just blew me away with her little poses, she is a natural! And her sweet brother was happy to do whatever we wanted him to do, odd for a little busy boy. I was able to capture many, many gems, here are a few... Maybe little B should become my new model for the year! ha!

Goofy Family

When I say "goofy" I'm not referring to the mama here, I'm referring to the dad & the big brother, they had us laughing. What a fun family these guys were. The baby is a doll & the teenager was so cute! Here's a little peak...

When I grow up...

Carson came up to me today with a very worried look on his face. He said "I just don't know what I'm gonna be when I'm a man. There are just too many choices, how will I know?" I told him that when he goes away to college he will do what he has the most interest in. His reply was this "I thought I wanted to be a cowboy, but then I changed my mind. Then I thought I was going to be a baseball man, then I changed my mind. I do like accidents, maybe I'll be an ambulance man. I think I'll just be a doctor." *Sigh*

I was trying my hardest to not roll on the floor with laughter. He was so worried and concerned. I told him he has a lot of time to think about it. This little guy has a lot on his mind. :) Anyone who knows Carson, knows he is always thinking of what's next. What's the next meal, what are we doing next? Where are we going after that? And he even has their next 3 birthday party themes all mapped out. The boys talk daily about what their 5th bday party will be, and their 6th and their 7th. They even have Parker in on it and apparently she is having a lady bug party for her 4th. next October.

Daddy at work...

The boys are always really interested in what Daddy actually does when he is gone all day. They know his title, but really don't "know" what he does. So two nights ago Carson said at dinner "Daddy, what did you do today?" Rick says "I saw my patients & I helped them feel better" Carson replied "Daddy, tell me about your patients, what are their names?" Rick replied with "I saw an 11 yr old girl and she needed help with her feet". We thought it would end at that, but his questions continued until Rick had named like 15 patients and what their issues were. Then again tonight at dinner "Daddy tell me about your patients" Its so cute, but anyone who knows Carson knows that his list of questions could really go on and on forever!!

So today I was checking my email and Griffin was at the computer with me and these pictures popped up from Rick. So at the dinner table tonight Griffin says "Daddy I saw you on the computer with some lady and I don't know her name" We laughed so hard, it was too funny.

Anyways this is Rick & nurse Bobbie doing surgery on Thursday.