A trip to Michigan

This is what Micah is doing right now...he loves to lay on the floor and grab his feet.

Beautiful Carly...

Talk to the hand, cousin.
We hate tummy time!





Uncle Bub, you're the best! We love you...



We took a trip up to Michigan on President's day weekend to visit my brother Nate and his family. It's become a yearly tradition...and it was such a blast! Every trip the guys watch the kids and Laura and I go to the outlet malls about an hour away for a day of shopping...the pottery barn outlet was amazing! On sunday night we got a sitter and the four of us (+2 nursing munchkins) went out to dinner to celebrate Laura's birthday at Carabbas. It was nice to go out with only one kid per couple. You can imagine when we go out with our 5 and their 3 what a rukus we cause. The cousins have so much fun together! We only wished we lived closer. Nate and Laura just recently remodeled a good portion of their downstairs. They put in the most gorgeous bay window in the family room. I put a blanket down and shot the pictures of Micah and Carly there...the light was beautiful and I thought they turned out great. Can't believe it's been a month since my last post...life marches on. Looking forward to spring...

Reading with big bro

Jacob just LOVES Micah. He is such a help to me with this baby. Everyone always told me that I would miss not having a girl first because they help so much with all the other babies that come along (you know, with that maternal instinct and all). I tell you what...I couldn't have asked for a better firstborn in Jacob. He is loving, kind and has a very good way with babies. At night, when I'm working hard to get the middle three kids in bed, Jake will take Micah for me and hang with him. He is such a blessing to me. I know these 2 will always be close.

Man in the mirror

Just some funny faces in his crib I thought I would throw in there...



Being blessed to be the 5th child, Micah doesn't have his own room. He shares a cozy little corner of mom and dad's room and his changing table is my dresser. Since I had a mirror over my dresser before it turned into the changing table, I left it there. Micah loves to look at me in the mirror, or look at himself. The other day after bath, I decided to shoot some of Micah in the mirror. In a few weeks, this will be impossible since he rolled over for the first time today! Next time I will make sure the mirror is clean...oops. Try not to notice the "who knows what" splattered on the glass. We'll call it artistic texture... :0

Sleeping Beauty

There's something about a sleeping child that makes my heart melt. I just love to stare at my kids when they are sleeping and marvel at the little miracles that they are. Mostly I marvel at the miracle that they are actually SLEEPING. :) Never wake a sleeping child...or dog. Sunday afternoon, I hadn't heard Abby's sweet voice in a while so I decided to investigate. Found her curled up in my bed sound asleep...all tucked in with her 2 favorite binks. Like any good woman would do...one is color coordinated to match the outfit...ofcourse. :)

A very rare snow day

I thought it looked really cool the way the snow piled up on these dead flowers.


Our charlie brown Japanese maple...
Post snowball to the face...
A brothers revenge...
Part 2...


Snow angel

Not sure what this scrub brush is doing out in the snow...
It was wonderful to wake up to 8 inches of snow last friday morning. It's a rare day in St. Louis when we get to stay home cause of snow. It was just 75 degrees yesterday...this place is extremely fickle. But we get out in it and have fun when we can. Not sure where son #2 was...obviously not in any of these shots. Must be inside warming up and playing the Wii. :)

What they love...

Why is the tongue being out so helpful when we're trying to concentrate? I still do this...

What a poser...

Okay, so in light of this new picture taking technique that I'm trying to practice, I've decided to start taking pictures of what my kids love. Because, as the years have gone by (darn it, if Jake isn't almost 10!!!!!!) I realize that I can remember how much he weighed and what percentile he was in cause I wrote it down...but I have the hardest time remembering what he was "into". Like, what he ran to in the toy aisle first when we went to Target (thus causing a scene when we had to leave)...or what toy he was willing to risk serious injury to get to first before his cousin did. Maybe it's the fact that I have so many children...but my memory is seriously failing me. Jason and I will have the best time laughing about a memory we have of one of the kids...then we'll sit there with confused looks and say..."wait, was that Grant or Jake?...no, maybe that was Gabe". I guess it's the boys that are running together. Starting to feel a bit like the "little old woman who lived is a shoe". All this to say...I want to start taking pictures of what they love...a nice bonus would be them in the shot with what they love. :)
I took these with my 50mm 1.4. I love this lens...however, we are having a DTR moment at this time. I am seriously behind the 8 ball and just learned what "DTR" means only a year ago. I never used that term in high school or college. (Define the relationship). Right now, what I love about Mr. 50mm is what I hate...as usual. My 1.4 lets me get that juicy, fuzzy background that I am a sucker for. However, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing...though very rarely. :) Thanks for hanging in there with me as I try to keep my little fingers from dialing in that LOW aperature every time I shoot. It's so tempting. I'm still learning the dreaded Aperature-shutter speed-ISO triangle...and I need to learn to manipulate it more to focus on the story I'm trying to tell with my photos.
The boys were playing with their Lego star wars "thingys" one afternoon in the kitchen...at the island. When I whipped my camera out, they asked me to take some pictures of their legos. So I did...next time I may want to focus in on them too. :)

Coming soon... "My Little Pony" photoshoot starring Miss Abigail.