Family Photo Session, 3rd Ed.

Remember back when it was just the two of you? Someone would snap one or two random shots of you and your spouse (not even digital!) and you'd wind up with a gorgeous Christmas photo. No planned photo session was required, no new clothing purchases, no one reminding you to smile, and no one photoshopping the drool marks from your sweater off the final image. I'm not sure if we're getting better at this, or just getting used to it from our previous experiences here and here.

Yeah, I don't remember it either.

Here's family picture day, part 3:

1st Birthday Princess

One beautiful Sunday afternoon, we took the most gorgeous baby girl home from the hospital. She had big blue inquisitive eyes, made the sweetest little noises (well, most of the time), and we loved her instantly. We named her Lauren Elyse, and she has grown into the most joyful girl, bursting with smiles for anyone who will glance her way.

That was 3 months ago. Oh wait, 6 months ago. No, uh...9 mos? I can't believe it's been A YEAR! Where has the time gone?

Little miracle














Big miracle














Happy Birthday, Big Girl!

A Wonderful Weekend

Jared, Rachel, and sweet baby Judah came into town for the weekend for Rachel's 10 year high school reunion...and, of course, to see us. We shopped at a swanky outdoor shopping plaza, dined on homemade chicken piccata and gourmet paninis, drank a lot of coffee, saw old friends, and used Rachel's new birthday camera to attempt family pictures. But mostly we just took a ridiculous amount of photos of our children.

Lauren and Judah played/ate trucks and legos:













Jared taught Noah how to be an airplane, and scared the crap out of Noah's mom:













Here's nephew Skye lovin' up on his cousin:













Trey and Noah posed while discussing their next football play:













Lauren enjoyed being the only girl cousin and getting lots of attention!













We're SO much cooler than when we were in high school! Here we are at the homecoming football game:













Thanks for visiting!

The Second List

Okay, so we all have a shopping list, and then we all have that fun shopping list. The first is basically groceries and toiletries, and the second contains things we simply need for various functions coming up, or because our current selection has worn out. Items like new sweater for the holidays, new jacket, and new running shoes make this second list regularly, and even new coffeepot or lamp for the living room were fun to buy and didn't break the bank.

As I've gotten older, however, I've learned the painful truth that the fun shopping list isn't very fun anymore, and it seems to threaten the bank quite regularly. No longer do I write lists for clothing for myself, and I've been wearing the same running shoes for 2 years (maybe that's why I'm blogging rather than using the treadmill that is staring at me from the living room). Here's a sampling of what my second list contains at this moment:

1. Two nice chairs for the office and loft. Ever priced these? Holy crap.
2. New vaccuum cleaner. Ours won't even pick up lint.
3. Toddler 5-pt harness carseat for Lauren. She's squished in her current one.
5. Twin bed for Noah. Almost 3, almost potty trained, and still in the converted crib.
6. New garage door motor. We're the ghetto neighbors that have to manually lift it up and down b/c the motor blew last week.

Seriously. It's such a catch-22 because while all of these things are annoyingly expensive and not very fun to shop for, they would all make me very happy if I had them! Is this a sign of age or maturity? Maybe I should just screw the fun list and go visit an old friend I fondly refer to as Banana Republic.

My Georgia Peach

Lauren is eating "grown up foods" now, and has found a fast favorite. If her mouth was bigger I think she'd try to fit the whole thing in at once: