My Bren-Man turned SIX Today

This kid.  I don't know what it is about the bond between a mom and her son, but this little guy is my joy and happiness.  He can brighten the darkest spot.  His heart is so huge and he has a smile on his face probably 80% of the time.  He is so crazy, happy, loving, and wonderful.  He is always doing something to make his dad and I laugh.  He is full of surprises and he has such a clever mind.  Happy Sixth birthday to my awesome little man.

My First Baby Turns 9

Today has been INSANE.  Seriously and Really.  This happens to be the birthday of my oldest "baby."  She turned 9 years old today.  My sweet little girl showed her true colors at a young age.  Everyone would watch her and tell me what an easy baby she was.  She still is one of my easiest children.  Independent and self assured.  She is smart and passionate about her interests.  This past year I have seen her go from loving La La Loopseys to loving bigger girl things like "Ant Farm" and "Gravity Falls."  She loves going to church and being a Jesus Nerd.  Matter of fact.  She has been called a "nerd" by school kids, and she doesn't mind.  She knows that the deeper meaning of that is that she is smart and not as concerned with superficial things.  I'm so proud of my first Princess Baby Girl.  She makes me so proud with each passing year.

Today is also Avery's 10 month birthday.  I usually do a photobomb, but I think I will put that off until I have some time.  Today I baked cupcakes with homemade icing for the birthday bash.

 I am actually stealing some of my "get myself ready" time to post this.
Tomorrow is my awesome little man's birthday... so more goodness to come.

Lunch Dates and a Well Baby

I am likely going to start a feature called Thursday Lunch Date.  My husband and I have started this tradition of having a lunch date every Thursday.  It's become something I really look forward to.  Yesterday we went to a small little sandwich place on the square in Springfield called "The Sub Shop"... It was pretty good.  The bread was super soft, but the meat wasn't deli sliced and the only vegetable on the sandwich was lettuce.  It was a cute little place, but for the price, there are better subs to be eaten.

So, in these features, we will try to visit new places and I'll let you know here what they are like. :)

Avery had her well baby check.

She is in the 97% in EVERYTHING!  Weight, height, and head circumference.  She's healthy.  She is on track with her development.  I'll be doing a 10 month post here in a few days.  TEN MONTHS!  What in the heck happened to the time.

Well. Happy Weekend folks.

Beautiful Days Ahead

October is a great month.  I'd have to say these last 3 months of the year are my absolute favorite.  The crisp morning air, the green leaving the leaves, the leaves leaving the trees, the pumpkins, the cider, the coffee, the candy, the costumes, the sweaters, the scarves, the hats, the smells, the holidays...(gasp for breath)... I could go on longer, but you get the point.  It's the happiest time of the year for me.  I realize a lot of people claim to love this time of year too, and I am not selfish enough to believe that this time of year is more special for me than anyone else.  However, I can say truthfully that I HATE the summer with a passion.  I can handle spring alright.  I LOVE Fall and Winter.  Now you know my feelings about the seasons. ha.

You will notice that I have a list of "blog friends" on my left side bar of my blog.  These are all blogs of people that I interact with or have interacted with outside of the blogiverse and find them to be great, interesting, and lovely people with pretty awesome blogs.  If I talk to you outside of the blogiverse and your blog link isn't up there, then PLEASE, kindly let me know via email, facebook message, or whatever way you can.  It took me a while to get links and blog names organized, so it's quite possible that I missed one or two.  Don't feel left out if your blog isn't up there... these are just the bloggers that I have a personal connection to and I want others to see their awesomeness as well.

Have a great day!
Enjoy FALL TIME!

Weekend Smorgasboard of Happiness.

This past weekend was spent with family doing fun family things... and school.  I start out with Thursday, even though that's not a weekend.  Thursday is Introduction to Basic Chemistry 101.  My Chemistry professor is hilarious.  He has this nerdy, dry, awesome sense of humor that I can relate to.  During lecture he threw me off while discussing Lewis dot structures and bonds...

...Well, I thought it was funny.

Friday Dave and I took the kids to their school's Fall Festival.  It was a bit of fun.  I got Cotton Candy.  Yum.  Lindsey Hula Hooped and Brendan tried to shoot some hoops.  They got to run around, bounce around, and have a bunch of fun.

 Everyone who has seen this says that I look like one of the kids. ha.  Oh well. 

My mom's birthday was the 23rd.  What a perfect birthday.  The day after Fall arrives.  Fall is my favorite because of the colors, smells, pumpkins, apples, candy, halloween, thanksgiving, sweaters, and temperature.  Love this time of year.  Well, it was a perfect fall day to be at Silver Dollar City so that is what I did with my mom for her birthday.  No kids, just us.  Riding rides, eating free cowboy food, and riding whatever rides she wanted to ride.  It was a great day.

Here my mom was giving the "eeeek face" because we were about to get on Powder Keg

She loves thrill rides... me... I used to like them until I started freaking out about my mortality ha.
We had a blast.
I'm so happy it's fall/autumn whatever you want to call it.  My favorite time of year.  It's the best.  Time for this...

You know your favorite season has arrived when all things "pumpkin" start hitting the shelves.  When you can't afford Pumpkin Spice Latte's everyday, this stuff is a wallet saver.  I also bought a can of pumpkin and a carrot cake mix to make my favorite easy peasy pumpkin muffins.  I am going to make a streusel topping for them and see if that makes them even more fantastic.

Happy Autumn you all!  Woo hoo!

I Guess This Needs a Title.

Just a few things to give you an idea of what is happening in my world.

First Chemistry Test was last Thursday.  I got an A.
First Math Test was yesterday.  I got an A.

All the iPhone 5 news has me starting to weigh the pros and cons and if I am going to go back to the iPhone or not when I am able to upgrade.  I use my phone heavily for school and my college is going to be releasing a blackboard app to iPhone and Android soon... that will leave me out... because I'm the geek with a Windows Phone.  Plus.  I miss having immediate access to Instagram.  Stupid that Instagram is that important to me in a smart phone.

First Psych test is this Saturday.  I should be studying for that instead of typing out this blog.

I've been doing photosessions again.  I feel a bit rusty, but I have taken some images I'm pretty proud of.  Like these images of Selah, Becca from Life in Technicolor's daughter.  She turned 21 months, so we chased her around for an hour.  She is so curious and her smile is like watching a firework.  It's just so big and bright, you can't help but smile too.

I also did a maternity session for Danielle from Flourish blog. 

I'm enjoying getting back into photography a bit more.  I missed it.

That's all the new happenings in my life right now.  What's going on in your world?  What do you think of the new iPhone, or do you not care about smart phones and gadgets?  Have a great Thursday everyone.

Avery is 9 Months!

First of all, I want to thank you who left me some advice and encouragement on my last post.  Don't worry, I am not giving up... I'm just regrouping.  I know it will all work out how it's supposed to.  I am going to talk to a guidance counselor tomorrow.

Avery!  She is 9 months old now.  It's neat to think that this time last year I was 7 months pregnant!  She is already as old as a pregnancy is long.

• She is crawling EVERYWHERE!
• She loves to holler, I am not even kidding.  If you hold a note out or say AHHHHHH really loud for a long time she will do the same thing, it's so hilarious.  She will even match your pitch!  Yes, my baby is a musical genius. Ha.
• She is eating regular food.  She never liked the mushy baby food.  She is a very good eater.  
• She is pulling herself up on furniture and cruising around.
• She likes PBS Kids cartoons, Yo Gabba Gabba, and listening to music.
• She is still a sleep fighter
• She is clingy to Dave and I.
• She has 8 teeth.
• She likes to make it nearly impossible to change her diaper and clothes by rolling, crawling away, and grabbing for things.
• She sleeps through the night very well.  Goes to bed at 8 and wakes up at 7am.

I think that's about all.
Here she is in her happy 9 month old baby glory.

Somebody asked me when I was going to stop doing the monthly pictures.  I will stop at 1 year.  Her birthday, December 9th, will be the last monthly Avery update.  After that it will just be whenever I feel like posting pictures of her.  Nothing scheduled though.

I hope that everyone of you has a wonderful week.