Letter Learning

I'm almost caught up with the blog but wanted to take a break from past pictures and events and post a video, fresh from this morning before breakfast of Tyler's letter learning progress.  He is absorbing school like a sponge.  He sees letters everywhere now and is constantly sounding things out.  At this rate, I think he is going to be reading before he gets to kindergarten!!  Megan is right there behind him, trying her best to learn everything he knows but is naturally a bit behind, though, she is picking up a lot!   Enjoy the video...even with all the outtakes. ;)

Fall Family Pictures

We debated for a long time whether we should have family pictures taken this fall. Its always so stressful, especially with the ages of our kids, and so I had kind of just figured we would get pictures of just the kids and wait until Christmas time or the spring to get pictures with all of us.  But when we realized that the only family picture we had so far with Ryan was the hospital picture, we decided to go through with it and take advantage of our friend Sarah again.  After all, she had just put out a special deal for a session. :)

We couldn't be more pleased with the results. Due to rain canceling one of my client's sessions and having to move my schedule around, we had to move our session to a different night which just so happened to be after Ryan got his first set of shots...that was a horrible idea. I should have canceled his appointment but we have had so many issues with him and had so many questions that I just couldn't risk not being able to get in to see the doctor for awhile. By the time all of us were dressed and out the door, all I hoped for was ONE good pictures of the kids and ONE good family picture.  As you will see below, we definitely got that and more!

I thought this was a great last minute pose...however, the kids were having none of it.  Ryan started screaming and the rest followed suit.  So, Tim and I embraced the moment. :)

This is real life. :)

Definite favorite right here...though, the one with us standing under the arbor is definitely a close second. I just like this one better because you can see Ryan's sweet, though, not really that happy, face. :)

A bit of randomness

I took pictures of every day of Tyler's life until he was several months old. I hate to admit that I simply do not pick up my camera enough for day to day moments now.  Sometimes, I think that is a good thing, other times, I don't.  I hate that I don't have as many captured memories of the kids as we have added more children to our home, however, I am learning more and more how important and how truly priceless it is to treasure memories in my heart, special just to me.  The little giggles you just wish everyone in the world could hear, the precious smiles, hearing your oldest sound out words for the first time, hearing your daughter recite perfectly the Pledge of Allegiance...They are the moments I wish I had time to take pictures or videos of, but am learning how to just treasure them in my heart.  I have never more thoroughly understood Mary's words when she "pondered all these things in her heart."  There are just some things that can never be explained in pictures or videos.  Some moments you just have to soak up. Some moments that a picture just couldn't do justice.

That being said, I do still take a ton of random pictures of the kids, especially Ryan as his looks are changing every day it seems.  He was particularly happy and distracting to me while I was trying to edit pictures one Sunday afternoon while the rest of the kids napped so I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. :)

 

 

 

 

Tyler was sitting in Ryan's bouncy seat and wanted to hold Ryan.  

 Brothers...I can't wait to watch their relationship grow!

 Morgan is currently our biggest trouble maker...mainly because she is so quiet when she is getting into stuff she shouldn't :P Well, when Tyler and Megan are at preschool and Ryan is napping, it is very easy for Tim and I to take advantage of the more empty house to get stuff cleaned up, projects worked on, computer (Editing) time for me, etc.  However, with our little curious Morgan monkey, we literally can't turn our back for a second.  She has never been interested in watching movies like the other two, that is until we started putting in Baby Einstein.  She will only sit and watch for at best 10 minutes, but it is totally worth it!  These pictures though are quite sad...she looks so sad!

 

 

We don't watch much TV in this house at all...maybe for 30 minutes every few days. I hate how empty the kids look when they are watching it.  I know that some TV can be very educational, which is the only things we have them watch  for the most part (learning letters, numbers, reading stuff, or Baby Einstein).  But even then, I just would rather them use their imaginations for creating things with the legos or doll house stuff or something.

Morgan, though our current handful, is such a sweetie.  She loves to snuggle with her bear and baby and one night, I just couldn't resist snapping pictures...she looked so sweet, so cuddly...

 They grow up so fast...learning to truly cherish as many moments as possible with these babes of ours.

No Training Wheels!!

At the beginning of the summer, we started really working with Tyler to try to get him able to ride his bike without his training wheels. We tried the old fashioned way of just walking behind him holding on to him and hoping that he would just take off but with a 6'5" father and a very pregnant mother (at the time), neither Tim or I were able to do that very often and we were all just getting frustrated. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if Tyler wasn't going to fast.  He was falling a lot with the training wheels because they are simply not designed to be able to go as fast as he was going.

Finally, we took off the pedals and made his bike more like Megan's which is strictly a balance bike.  Apparently that was the trick because just a couple months later, Tyler, completely on his own, started riding his bike without training wheels! He did this the same day as Megan's field trip actually, so October 9th. Once he started, he didn't want to stop!  Now he wants to ride his bike all the time!

These pictures were taken the morning after he started riding. He couldn't wait to get outside to ride again, even though it was pretty cold out!

 His favorite is being able to ride in the grass

 Megan on her wheels

 and Morgan on her wheels

 

Here's the video proof

Megan's 1st field trip

Back in the first week of October when the weather was still nice and fallish (we had snow this morning!!), Megan had her very first field trip!  She was so excited about it and couldn't wait to ride on the school bus for the first time.  This was one of those mornings when I was truly thankful that Tim had off work in the mornings because he was able to go too.  Since the babies couldn't ride on the bus though, Tim drove them on the way there and I drove them back.  That way, we both got to experience her first bus ride with her.

A little apprehensive at first

 Once we started moving though, she just thought it was so exciting!

 Sorry for the poor quality pics...

10-15 minutes on the bus and we arrived at Bair Dairy Farm

 Megan, and Morgan too, got to feed a little, less than 1 month old calf!

That little calf was seriously vicious when it came to eating!  It downed that bottle in minutes!  

 Both girls were just in aww

 the little cows were so cute!

 Next, we got to go milk one of the Mommy cows

 I was surprised Megan walked right up for her chance to try.  I happily stood back to just observe while Tim took pics :)

We finished off with the barnyard shuffle (a clever way to get the mud off your feet) and Tim and Megan made there way back to school on the bus where they got to get some fresh milk and cookies from the farm.

I LOVED this field trip!  Such a neat place to go and really perfect for Megan's age. She loved it and still talks about it now, weeks later.