Moo Cow?

A little birdie told me that this family was hoping for a little sneak peak of their pictures.  Well, I am here to deliver!  Meet the Petty family.  Could they be any cuter?  Little Jack wasn't so sure about this whole picture taking thing in the beginning, someone (uh hum, mom) mentioned finding a "moo cow" in the barn and he was BOUND AND DETERMINED to find that "moo cow".  Only problem…there was no "moo cow".  Eventually he forgot about that cow when we found some rocks to throw and some sticks to use as swords.  Then he thought taking pictures was not so bad after all!  

  

And finally, the money shot.  Sun glistening in on them, three bright smiley faces looking at the camera.  Ahhh, sweet success!

The Hungry Caterpillar

As I write this I'm wondering where time goes.  I say that not only because I can't believe Mr.Logan is already one, but I also say it because he turned one a LONG time ago and I'm just now getting to posting some pictures.  Sad.  He'll be driving before I post pics of his second birthday probably, sorry kid.

Anyway, Logan had a very festive party with a theme of "The Hungry Caterpillar".  Poor kid's scheduled birthday party got snowed out (yep that's how long ago it was), so it was rescheduled for the next day which happened to be a Monday.  I can't lie, I'm a fan of a Monday night party.  Pick the kids up, bring them to someone else's house to scream and get this…they feed them.  SCORE.  I'm just saying, I wouldn't say no to a middle of the week party if you were contemplating one.  

Here are some of the details of the party, complete with cake pop caterpillars, "dirt" pudding desserts and caterpillar grapes.  Oh the things we do for our kids that they will never know or appreciate…

(don't worry Kim, I appreciated it all)

Then it was on to the cake smash.  There wasn't so much smashing, as Logan wasn't a huge fan.  But at one point I do remember him having a hammer…though I don't have a picture.  But that, my friends, is a true cake smash.

Some of the party goers...

I made the picture on the left black and white in hopes that it would draw less attention to the fact that I have "that kid" that was smack dab in the middle of all the presents.  Kim said "he's such a good helper".  What she really meant was…"get your annoying child out of my kid's way".  Lucky for her I speak "passive aggressive parenting" too, and I swooped him out whenever possible.  Obviously AFTER I took this picture.  Timing really is everything and I have never been good with timing.

Sit. Smile. Awesome.

I got to do an engagement session the other day.  Let me tell you something, it was awesome.  Wanna know why?  These people listened to me.  Quite the concept eh?  I'm used to shooting kids, mainly my own, who are more often than not straight up running from my camera.  These two did whatever I told them.  Sit…done.  Kiss…done.  Look madly in love…done.  Hold hands…done.  It was almost too easy (but don't tell them that).  Perhaps I should have asked them to do flips…think they could have?  I'll save that for their wedding day I think.  Anyway, here are a few of the gems from the day…

Oh yes, I forgot.  Act like you're racing eachother…done.  Seriously, I should have asked for the flips. 

Wishes

A couple of weeks ago Chad found a playset on Craigslist.  We had been looking for one off and on, but nothing serious. Apparently (though I didn't realize it)…it was indeed getting serious.  So Chad and I packed the boys up and went to take a look at the playset.  Turns out the dude selling it was super nice, we tugged on his heartstrings a little with bringing the boys I think.  He got all nostalgic on us with the "this was the age of our boys when we bought it" spiel.  They have a Goldendoodle...we have a Goldendoodle.  Put it together…it was meant to be.  Anyway, dudeman ended up shaving the already amazing price in half without us even asking, I guess it was our charm.  Needless to say, we took him up on his offer, told him we would be there Saturday to pick it up and were on our way.  As we were walking away Nolan said "I sure wish I could have a playset like that".  Well buddy, today is your lucky day….look what just rolled up!

Confession: These pictures are actually about a week old, and the playset is actually up and functioning now.  But I'll save that for another post because the suspense I'm certain is just killing you.  Happy Friday!

Easter Part 2

Easter Part 2 took place at Chad's Aunt's house.  They have a huge yard perfect for egg hunting at it's finest, EXCEPT there had been a lot of rain and therefore there was a lot of mud!  Some of the children, uh hum Stephanie's kids, were more prepared than others with their rubber boots and all (show offs).  My kids are tough though, they were just fine tromping through the mud in their regular ole' tennis shoes…that are still sitting in the garage with mud caked on them.  Anyway, muddy feet or not I think the kids had a grand old time.  

Before the hunt I made all the kids pose for a group picture because…I'm mean.  Most of Chad's cousins are quite a bit younger than us and therefore have not dove into the joyous stage of life with kids so you'll note it's really just our immediate crew here with one extra little guest.  Poor girl, didn't know what hit her…and she sat next to Bennett (bad move).  Here is the best shot I got, sad but true...

  

And here is one of the outtakes, I mean look at Bennett's flexibility.  That's just downright impressive.

Then they were off for some egg hunting fun...

Bennett was more interested in the football and would not let it out of his sight…or hands for that matter.

Here are some of those fancy boots I was talking about...

And now, as much as it pains me, I have to give props to my sister in law Stephanie.  I gave her the impossible task of taking a family picture for me.  And believe it or not…it's decent!  Not that I didn't have faith in Stephanie's photography skills, that's not the case at all.  I didn't have faith in my children's ability to cooperate with photographs!  But look at them go (I mean they are at least both looking)…note the football still made the picture ;)  Happy Easter!

Easter Part 1

I've been a bit overwhelmed with the amount of Easter pictures I have taken, so I'm going to go ahead and brake up the posts…again.  That's my way of flooding you with pictures, but trying to make it feel like i'm not flooding you with pictures.  Is it working?  So today's post is Easter morning at our house.  It was pretty low key, and dare I say…RELAXING.  The boys hunted eggs, we at breakfast, played with their loot and then headed out for the rest of our crazy day.

This last picture is just to prove to my family that I actually cooked.  This was the first year that we weren't with my parents for Easter.  My mom has always made what we call "Special Eggs" for Easter.  I decided that was one tradition that could not fall by the wayside.  "Special Eggs" are just that, special. But quite honestly we're going to need to arrange for my parents to be around here next Easter because preparing said "Special Eggs" is not special at all, it's just a total pain.