Photo Shoot

This weekend we decided to experiment with our camera and do a photo shoot. Although I've taken tons of my own pictures of the kids this year, I never took them to a studio for their yearly pictures. The reason...a little baby girl we'll call Brikelle! I usually take them in the spring after their birthdays. Since it didn't happen this spring, I decided I would try to take them for fall pictures. I bought their outfits awhile ago and they've been waiting patiently in the closest to get used. Anytime I thought I had a good day planned, either someone would be sick or someone would have a big bruise or a big scab on their head! I think it just wasn't meant to be for me to take them and go through the stress and drama of trying to make a 20 month old cooperate and keep two others happy and patient while they waited for their little sister to stop crying and sit nicely! (This is a scenario I've had in my head...maybe I would have been pleasantly surprised...I doubt it tho'!). Well, since we have a nice camera now, Alan told me to forget the studio and lets take our own pictures. So for two days we got dressed up and headed out back and took hundreds of pictures. For amateurs I think we did pretty good...some pics turned out better than others, and little Brikelle reminded me why I never did take them to that studio! I thought I'd post a handful of the pictures we took.

Sa-Weet!!!

This is an item that Alan and I have wanted for quite awhile now. Well, the time came that we were able to make the purchase. So here it is...it got delivered yesterday and we are very excited! We also got a big ol' tripod to go with it. So hopefully it's time to say goodbye to dark and/or blurry pictures. Now, if we can just figure out how it works!!! It's kind of silly but I used our other camera to take a picture of our new camera!

The Flames

I'm a little behind on posting this, but Bailee's last soccer game was last Saturday. Her team was The Flames and aside from some drama at the first game, we had a really fun soccer season. We looked forward to the Saturday games. Bailee was blessed to get on a team with really awesome coaches...a husband and wife team. It was their first time coaching and they did great. They were super nice, fun and spoke gently. That's the kind of coaching Bailee needs...she's such a sensitive girl! All the kids on the team were good kids and it was fun to get to know their personalities and watch them during the games. The kids ranged from ages 4-6 (we thought 5 yrs old was the minimum you had to be otherwise we might have signed Braden up. But then again, we figured waiting until he's at least 5 would probably be better!) Bailee of course was the tallest player and her favorite position to play was goalie. It seems to be a natural talent of hers. We're amazed at how many balls she blocked, and as her coaches realized how well she did at goalie, her goalie playing time became longer and longer. Bailee scored two goals during a scrimmage game which was very exciting, but wasn't able to quite get the ball in the net during the other games. But that's okay, we just liked to see her out there having fun. At the last game, all the kids got trophies which was very exciting for them. Bailee is thrilled to have gotten her very first trophy! We would like to see Bailee continue with soccer each season, but we are letting the decision be totally up to her. Braden is really anxious to play soccer now (especially once he saw that the kids got trophies!), so we plan to sign him up next season.

Monday Makings

Happy November everyone! We liked our styrofoam witches so much that we decided to make styrofoam turkeys for our first November craft! They were fun to make and turned out really cute!

Like father like son!

This is a messy craft...Brikelle is pointing to all the little pieces that were falling onto her tray

Click on this picture to enlarge it and you can see Mr. Braden's mustache (it's a bruise from him suctioning a Gatorade bottle to his lip! You should have seen how purple it was on Sunday...)

Alan's new friend!

Our final product. It was raining so we couldn't get that good of a picture, but you get the idea!

HALLOWEEN!!!

PUMPKINS

Braden's on the left, Bailee's on the right

Dad's on the left, Mom & Brikelle's on the right

We had a good time carving our pumpkins on Wednesday night. Bailee and Braden had little help with theirs this year. They both drew the faces they wanted on their pumpkins and even carved them out themselves! They had some help on the harder parts, but they did a great job doing most of it on their own. Dad and Mom took the easy way out this year and used the jigsaw to carve their own pumpkins! We'll definitely use it again next year...that's the way to go I tell ya!

Monday Makings...Belated

Alan gets all the credit for this weeks project! I knew I wanted us to make witches. I thought and thought all week of something cute to do but just couldn't think of anything and didn't see any ideas online that I really liked. So my creative husband went to the store for me and half an hour later came home with all the fixins' to make these cute styrofoam witches! (If you're interested in knowing how to make them, just leave a comment or send an e-mail). The kids had a great time making them and coming up with their own ideas to make theirs original. I assisted Brikelle in making hers...she kept taking it apart so I had to put it all together while she took a bath! This is the last week in October and we have all really enjoyed our Halloween Monday Makings. Next week we move on to Thanksgiving crafts!