Last of the summer photo shoot!

I thought I would jump in here between my updates and post something current. It was so nice out that I thought I should take the kids to our favorite spot for one more summer (end of the summer) photo shoot. It didn't turn out to be the greatest. I was a little pushy with the kids (which I can't stand, but I had no skills with kids tonight for some reason) and in return they protested a bit. Among many bad pictures from our photo shoot, I actually ended up with a few nice ones.

I think these first two are my faves.

For some reason I love this picture of Nora. It just cracks me up!

One of my tricks here was giving them marshmallows to share. I had to have Coen feed them to Nora, which led to some cute ones. That wore off after a bit... there's even a limit to how many marshmallows a couple toddlers will eat.

And now, the gag reel, the bloopers (whatever you wanna call it. It was the end):

"Really, Mom??? You're still taking pictures?"

Hope you enjoyed. ;)

BNU #2 - Nora's Birthday

Here it's been longer than a month and poor Nora hasn't had a proper "Happy Birthday" blog. I hope she will forgive us... ;) Anyway, we had her 3rd birthday bash the weekend before her birthday. It was nice. It was mostly family. Now just enjoy the pictures:

The pretty birthday girl.

Hi, there cousin. What's up?

The cake. I thought I'd try a made-to-order cake this year. Very yummy, much less work, but way more expensive. Jury is still out on this one. I bought way too much cake, though.

Nora's PT was there with her kiddos. Nora loves her. Can you tell?

Family picture.

Nora's new high chair. Thanks Papa and Gramma!

opening gifts.

excuse my poor posture.... still opening.

Thanks to everyone who came and sent cards and gifts. I still haven't written thank yous.... I'm a horrible person.

Thought I'd throw in one more. This was actually after our camping trip. We had done such a good job of keeping mosquitoes off of Nora and then while we were packing up she got eaten up!!! The bite is actually at the corner of her eye, but she swelled up all above her eyelid. Made her look like a boxer. Poor girlie. It was such a sad sight. :(

Badly Needed Update #1: Camping in the Snowies

So, it has been quite some time since an update. I have at least 3 I can think of including this camping update. So, hopefully in the next few weeks we will get all caught up.

As the title mentions, we went camping in the Snowies over the 4th of July weekend. It was the perfect camping trip of all times. Except I didn't catch any fish. In fact, I don't remember fishing at all. Hmmm... so much for my season fishing license. Yikes! I better go soon! Anyway, this picture is of all of us before our hike to the falls, but first we decided to get the truck stuck in the river, which proved to be as fun as it sounded (no pics of that, sorry).

Other events we took on were, sitting by the fire, of course.

Learning to walk. (Yay, Nora!!!)

Running up the trail being boys.

Running up the trail being girls.

Playing with fire.

Enjoying a hot cup of coffee in the morning light.

Escaping the suffocating grasp of the dreaded fire smoke. (Yes, my son is retreating into the arms of a girl...I have some work to do.)

Looking pretty for the camera:

Playing house in the truck bed.

Posing around the camp fire for a group picture.

Zonking out on the road home. Dirty faces and all!!

note: You'll have to visit the Aaron and Clan pictures for captured memories of our newly founded head dunking tradition.