Reagan's 6th Birthday

In January our good friend Reagan turned 6 and we were invited to a carousel party in Faust Park!

Regan's Mom, Valerie

Birthday Girl!

The Butterfly House

Kids,

On President's Day I found myself at home with only the kids I gave birth to (vs. the two I babysit), so we went and celebrated with a rare field trip to The Butterfly House.

Here is Logan inside the cockroach dome - ick!

Claire's turn!

This is the first time I've been to The Butterfly House since I got my fancy new camera. And I even had my telephoto lens that Grammy and Pappy gave me for my birthday! SWEET!

In between telling Claire to slow down and quit running, I had a great time playing with my camera!

Pretty!

Claire met a little friend about her own age who was visiting with her Grandpa.

Wheeee! I'm having fun!!

000000000!

Lunchtime for butterflies! They are snacking on some nice mushy bananas. Maybe instead of baking banana bread and muffins when I have mushy bananas next time I'll throw them in the backyard and see what happens!

Catching the butterflies in flight is still challenging, and chasing Claire around didn't give me much time to play with my camera settings! GRRRR When are you kids going to grow up, anyway?

(just kidding, kids!)

See if you can find all the butterflies in this picture!

Quick time out for a brother-sister hug!

Then back to shooting butterflies!

I swear, Claire probably didn't even notice there were butterflies at all. She was just happy to run around the garden path! I love this shot of her leaving butterflies in her wake, even if it is blurry!

I believe the sign said this was the largest moth in the world, but now I can't remember the name of it. Dang, that's what I get for waiting two months to post the pictures!

Eventually the kids grew tired of learning of butterflies (even if Mama was eager to learn more about shooting them!)

So, it was off to the gift shop for butterfly lollies and back home again.

Yay for butterflies and telephoto lenses!!

Love,

Mama

Midwinter Boredom

Claire,

Now that the excitement of Christmas is behind us, it's time to settle in for a couple more months of isolation before spring. Some days when it's just you and me, and the kiddos I babysit are napping and Logan is off at school, there's really not a lot to do except play a little photo tag in the kitchen.

I'm sneaking up on you....

Gotcha!

Love,

Mama

Our Family Tree

Every year since your father and I have been together I have gotten a special Christmas ornament to commemorate the big event(s) we had during that year.

For our first Christmas I surprised your dad by showing up at his door with a bunch of brand new ornaments, lights, and tree decorations. That night we went out shopping for a tree and had fun decorating it! Even though we had only been seeing each other for a couple of months, I had a feeling our relationship was going to go places!

I was right! The next year we got married in St. Lucia!

And the next year our sweet baby Logan was born...

....making us a family!

In 2005 we built our house and moved in!

I also got this ornament for 2005 because when Logan was a toddler he had a big stuffed giraffe to ride, just like this little boy does! I even have a picture of Logan on his giraffe somewhere. If I find it I'll have to post it on here later.

In 2006 Dad and I took a trip to Hawaii and had a great time!

In 2007 Dad and I went to Vegas to celebrate his 40th birthday - and don't you know I forgot to take a picture of that ornament! I'll have to take it next Christmas when the tree goes up again!

In 2008 of course we had our sweet little Claire Bear!!!

and again, I forgot to take a picture of the snowman family of 4! That's another picture I will have to remember to take next Christmas!

In 2009 I quit my job to stay home!!!! Yay! I took in a couple of kids to babysit for a little income, hence this Santa with all the kids crawling all over him!

2009 was also the year Logan went off to kindergarten!!! My baby!

*sniff*

In 2010 Logan and Dad took a very special vacation,

and Logan got to go to the National Aquarium AND see the ocean for the very first time!!

I love my special ornaments. Hanging them every year reminds me of all the things we have done together and how we have grown. I love you all so much!

Mama