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.

O Christmas Tree...

We decorated our tree on Tue. night. The kids had a great time this year. The boys really understand and remember from last year. If you look closely you will see that we had to place all the ornaments halfway up the tree to keep our curious toddler out of it. Funny because he's not really the problem! The other 3 can't seem to leave the ornaments alone. I keep finding random ornaments in random places in the house. Yesterday I found a glass one behind the couch?! Carson said "oh that was me mom, I did that". At least he's honest. :)

The tradition for our family is that we give each member in our family a new ornament every year. When I go shopping for them I try to pick out one that has to do with what they were into that year. Then I write their names on the bottom, the year. When they grow up and get married I will give them each their box of ornaments.

Parker's are always really pink & girly, the boys have some great wooden planes, trucks, trains etc.. Rick aways get some sort of a Dr. snowman and I get a hand blown glass one from Pier One every year. I started my collection back in 99 and have bought a different one every year. (Those are all on top, for 4 obvious reasons).

Boy on the run...

What a sweet family... These were taken before Thanksgiving. They not only have one of the cutest boys ever, I think he is one of the busiest too! He kept us on our toes. Thankfully we were able to come up with a few family shots for their Christmas cards. The almost 4 yr old girl was sweet as pie and did whatever we asked her to. :)

More Houston Shots

Rick's parents have an amazing park just a block from their house. We will enjoy that every time we go. Here are some more photos from our trip.

Cooper & Nano at the park
Griffin balancing on the "plank" with Granddaddy's help
Carson in his "Bad Guy" hat, that is what they call camouflage, Bad Guy gear. Even though we told them its for the good guys. They still insist.
What a Pris she is strutting her stuff.
Cooper loves to swing!!

Cousins, Cousins and more Cousins

More pictures from our trip. Rick is one of 4 children, giving his parents 12 grandchildren. 6 boys and 6 girls ranging in ages from 15 months-14 years old. Here are some pictures of the kids in Houston.

Our kids in the bath tub having a great time.
Here are 6 of the 12 playing at the neighborhood park. From near to far: Avery, Carson, Cole, Griffin, Will and Bailey is standing in the background.
Good buddies, Griffin, Cole & Carson
Cooper Ben playing at the park. It was SO cold outside!!
Silly Parker on the swings

Triple The Blessings...

Triple the love, triple the blessings, triple the work! Our great friends Greg & Misty who live in The Woodlands have their hands full with 9 month old triplet girls and a 4 year old boy. We had fun visiting with them while in Houston this weekend. Here are some cute pictures of them. It was raining and super cold so we just did some quick indoor shots to blog about. I will go back in Dec. and get some of their family outdoors.

How cute are these girls?!
Harper, Emery & Addison
They have sweet personalities and are all different. Harper reminds me a lot of Cooper, she is so laid back and calm. Doesn't ask for much. Emery is going to be a fun girl. She kept trying to crawl away and had the biggest smiles when the camera came out. Addison is like Carson was, she loves to be held.
Brings back memories of when our twins were little babes. Fun times. Really its all a blur ha! They are all doing great, the girls are on a good schedule and mom & dad have lots of good help!

Back to Austin with A LOT in tow...

Just a quick picture of the family today. We had a fantastic time in Houston with the Warpula Family. The kids LOVE their cousins so much and play so well together. Rick's parents just moved to TX only 2 weeks ago to a beautiful home right in the city. It fits all of us so well. The sister-in-laws and I had a great time decorating the house for them, hanging pictures, moving furniture etc.. Those girls are REALLY good too and know what they are doing. :) The dad's had a fun time playing racket ball at the club house only a block away, it even had an outdoor heated pool. We did not get in this time because there was a lot of rain and it was well you know a whopping 43 degrees. burr! Nano & Granddaddy had a great time keeping kids, walking to the park & finally being able to host the family. Judy has been dreaming of their move back to TX for 7 years now and it was really nice to see her dreams come true. She even tried to keep some of the kids there, we offered her Maggie but she wasn't interested! I wonder why not?? :)

On Friday the ladies & I spent the day shopping in Houston. It was fun and I am pleased to announce that my kids Christmas shopping is DONE except for the stocking stuffers. We found all the great deals. I never stopped to think "How am I going to get this all home?" until Rick, Tim & Steve were trying to get it all in the car. whoops! It fit but the kids were sitting with tons of bags in between their feet & seats. More posts to come with more pictures of our trip. Its late and this is all I've got left. ha!

Set The Table Mable

Happy Thanksgiving! As you can see my children have been busy "setting the table" It looks like they are expecting A LOT of company this year. :) (This is about what my house looked like today as the kids ran wild while I baked and baked). No actually we are headed to Houston for a few days to be with the Warpula's. Everyone is excited to see their cousins. It should be a fun time, there will be about 20 of us or so. Anyways have a safe and happy holiday with your loved ones!

It Rained on our parade!

This family was GREAT! The rain came down and it came down hard. But they were willing to wait it out. It was worth it in the end.

This baby is really the happiest baby there ever was! It was almost too easy to get him to smile, he was so happy to have his mom & his dad with him. Thanks guys for being so flexible.

Blue Eyes

This was a fun shoot, well for the mom & dad and I. We basically put on a circus act for this little guy & he still didn't give a smile. :) Its not that he was unhappy, he was just not in a smiling kind of mood. The good news is he had a pleasant face in all of the shots so that made us all happy. Here are a few little gems I was able to capture...

Thu Family Session

What a sweet session I had with the Thu Family. These boys were great, little troopers . Mom & Dad were looking for mostly candid shots, captured life, non-posed stuff, which is a lot of fun. Here is a little peek...

Peek at the Heath Family Session

I'm still here! I've been super busy editing pictures for different families for their Christmas cards. So needless to say blogging has not been first on my list these days.

Here are a few from a session I did almost 2 weeks ago. The Heath Family. How pretty are they? Both boys did amazingly well and remained happy the entire time. Which can be a challenge for a 2 yr old and a 3 month old. Here's a peek...

Trick-or-treat

This was the first year we have allowed our children to trick-or-treat. I know, we are so mean!! It seems a little silly, to us, to trick-or-treat with toddlers. This year the boys at 4 1/2 knew what everyone else was doing and so we gave in and went around the block. There was a fun neighbor party on our street, we love our neighbors, they are so much fun. So we started out with that and then did the entire block. Cooper was so done right around 7:00 and fussed most of the way. We still managed to get them all in bed at 8:00 on the dot, so it wasn't so bad. And they only had 2 pieces of candy each! :) (except for Cooper got none!!)

Our family on the way...

3 boys excited, and NO Coop is still not walking, but he loves to stand up and clap.

Oh and please admire the pumpkin it took Rick a few hours to complete. Its pretty good huh? Can you tell he's a surgeon, he's good with the knife! ha! I told him not to be so perfect, its just a pumpkin already!! But that's him, he had fun and the kids loved to watch.
Parker still not into dressing up, which is completely fine with us!
Benny & Mommy
He's pretty cute
At the party with the neighbors. Getting dirty in the driveway. He's actually smiling. It seems like I hardly ever get those shots of him.