My cousin, Alyssa, took our family pictures a few weeks ago, something that hasn't been done professionally since Emma was 6 months old.  If you want to see more of Alyssa's work, you can check out her website.

After all of this (and more)...

We were excited to get this...

ER Visit

Here are the pages from John's trip to the ER for stitches.  You may have to click on the pics to fully read the text.

John's Scrapbook

Getting Old?

On the way to church yesterday, John asked me some random question.  At the moment, I don't remember what the question was, but this was our conversation.

me: I don't know, John.

John: Why not?

me: Because I'm getting old.

John: You're not old, Mom.  Daddy's (pause) not old either.

me: Oh! Well, that's good to know.  Thanks, John.

John: But Grandpa is old!  Not Grandpa VM or Grandpa-Great though.

me: (trying to control my laughter) Why don't you think Grandpa VM or Grandpa Great are old?

John: Well, they don't have holes in their pants and shirts.

(If I hadn't been laughing so hard, I should have responded by saying that John must be old too since he keeps getting holes in his jeans.)

Kentucky

Our

 trip

to

Kentucky

provided

plenty

of

opportunities

for

fun,

cute

photos.

I

 told

you

so.

Brittany and Andy Ashcraft's wedding

My cousin Brittany got married Thanksgiving weekend.  It was a beautiful wedding with the best DJ...my wonderful husband!

John's Scrapbook

Emma's Scrapbook

John and Emma's Scrapbook

These pages were created using the Dinner Party kit by Sara Carling for Shabby Princess.

A Rough Night

Last night, John woke up several times.  These are some of the conversations we had during the night:

What's wrong, John?

(sobbing) Mater's broken.

What?

(pointing to the wall at his CARS wall decals piled on stacked on each other) Mater's broken!

 Mommy will fix him in the morning.

Fix him now, Mommy.

(peeling apart some of the decals) Okay, he's fixed now.  (I wipe away his tears as he's calming down.  Then suddenly...)

I want my mommy!

John, I'm right here.  What's the matter now?

I can't read!

You can't read?  John, you read better than most 4 year old kids.

(hysterical) But I can't read a whole book.

Do you want me to help you read tomorrow?

Okay.

A couple hours later, John woke up with a fever and coughing.  He moved to sleep on our floor and his breathing was very rough sounding as he tried to go back to sleep.

I can't stop my snoring, Mommy!

Then after some medicine, John decided he wanted his bed again.  As we walked into his room...

Say prayers with me.

We prayed that he would feel better and get a good night's rest so we could have a fun day.  As I'm leaving, I told him I'd check on him in a little bit.

(whimpering) Will you check on me 100 times?

Sure, John, I'll check on you 100 times.

But I want you to check on me 107 times!

Okay, okay, I will.  Now go to sleep.

He was quiet just long enough for me to write down his funny sayings that night and crawl into bed.  However, he soon woke up again.  I rocked and sang to him, laid on the couch with him, and finally moved into our bed where he slept well until morning and has been fine.  I, on the other hand, did not sleep well.


Fortunately, John has been fine since then, so I don't know what was up with the fever.  After supper though I was slightly concerned because he sat down on our step stool and said,

I feel nauseous.

You feel nauseous?  Do you know what that means?

No.

It means that your stomach feels sick.  Do you feel nauseous?

Well, no.  I just feel sad.

Ice Storm of 2010

 

The doodle on the side of the pages came from Jillcreation's fait d'hiver kit.

John's Christmas Snapshots

 

Emma's Christmas Snapshots

I'm still planning on doing traditional scrapbooking for our Christmas album.  That way I can easily include the pictures that you take the time to send us at Christmas time.  Thank you!  (and sorry we didn't get around to doing that this year...again)  Anyway, I'm still going to do two pages for the kids' books.  It was hard to narrow down Emma's pics, but here's what I came up with.  (If you'd like to see the pictures larger, you can click on them and they should open up larger.)

I created these pages using the Holiday Magic kit by Shabby Princess.

A Scrapbook Page...More Photoshop Fun

Merry Christmas

Playing with Photoshop

 

Fun For (Almost) All in the Fall

Even though we had snow early in October, this fall turned out to be better for raking leaves.  It probably helps that this year both kids can play outside and be entertained while I rake.  I even raked two days while baby-sitting other kids.  It was fun for all...well, almost all.

Notice Emma in the upper left on this picture.  See how she's smiling?

What happened to that smile?

Tate and John had fun jumping and rolling in the leaf pile.
Tate, John, and Emma had fun running to the big pile of leaves.

But Emma would turn around before jumping in the pile.  She's not a big fan of the leaves, which is too bad because I love taking pictures of the kids in the leaves.  I think I have more than 30 of John and Tate playing.

At least I got one cute picture of Emma...even if she wasn't in the leaves.

John wanted me to take a self-portrait while he threw leaves on my head.