Goodbye February

On this last day of February, I thought I'd catch up with some photos to show you what we've been up to.

Morgan's love affair with her babies continues.


Taylor's love of dressing up and playing with random objects continues. (You'll see what I mean later in the post)


This little guy got a new look.


He was in desperate need of a haircut and asked if they'd spike it for him this time.


We celebrated some February birthdays at Grandpa's house.  The kids have fun whenever the Williams clan gets together.  There's definitely no shortage of little girls for Morgan and Taylor.


And no shortage of people willing to rough house with Charlie.


I have been taking a photography workshop online this month and it has been fantastic.  I've been really focusing on getting it right in camera with regards to exposure, focus and white balance.  It makes a huge difference.


Taylor dug out her swimsuit and goggles and has been playing with them all week.




And let's not forget this little one.


She also found a new toy to play with.


We took the gets to Friches and I snapped this little beauty.  I've noticed (through my 365 project) that I really like converting images to black and white.


Seriously, how cute is this?


Morgan had a checkup at the doctor's office.  She is between the 10th and 15th precentile for height and weight which makes her official our biggest child yet.


She was so good and agreeable for the doctor.  Sister knows how to turn on the charm.




Another favorite image of mine.


She was lucky and managed to escape with no shots and one sucker.  Not a bad deal.


We made a quick stop at the store on the way home.


And we found this girl waiting for us.  She was excited to show us her clean room that Grandma helped her accomplish while we were gone.


I've been trying to use window light for my workshop and love the results.  Did I mention that I love black and white?






This one is so sweet.  Taylor was entertaining Morgan while they waited for me to get her up one morning.


Charlie began gymnastics this month just like his big sister.  Okay, not just like his big sister.  He is relegated to the jungle room, however, he loves every minute of it.




More practice on proper exposure and white balance in camera.


A very exciting acheivement for me this month was learning a technique on my camera called back button focus.  I have had great results and am now able to track focus with my very wiggly children.  I told the family about it because I was so excited and sweet little Taylor feigned enthusiasm for me.


Charlie playing ipad on the basement stairs.


Taylor's aunt found some beautiful dresses and one fits her perfectly.  I thought I uploaded the full length photo but I did not.  To see it, you can hop over to my 365 project page.


We started a new game with the Morgan in which we make animal noises and she guess the corresponding animal.  When it's her turn to think of an animal noise she always makes this face.


And then this one.


Well, that was our February.  It's funny because I used to despise and dread winter.  However, during the last two years, I've come to really enjoy it.  I love the way the pace of life seems to slow down a bit.  I've been embracing that and while it's still not my favorite season, it is now a cherished one.

Valentine's Day

As promised, here is my Valentine's post.  I reread last year's post and must say I did not have quite as much energy this year, but I still tried to make it special for the kids.  We started on Monday with Morgan's Valentine celebration at her Mighty Max class.  I dressed her in hearts and braids for the occasion.


She enjoyed passing out her Valentine's to everyone in the class.


And she certainly enjoyed receiving them.


At the end of class, her teacher gave her two heart cookies.  She was a happy girl.


The day before Valentine's Day, we spent two and a half hours making the big kids' Valentines.  We made molded chocolates for everyone in the class.  This is the third or fourth year in a row making these for Valentine's day.  I started the tradition because I remembered making them with my mom on Valentine's day.  The first year that I made them with Taylor was quite frustrating.  She was much too little to be of any help and I had not yet learned the secrets to making these.  We have certainly come a long way since then.  In fact, this is the first year that I pretty much let the kids to it on their own.




When I said we worked on this for over two hours, I was referring to me and Taylor.  Charlie lasted about twenty minutes before running off to play Mario Kart.  Luckily, he only has five classmates to make Valentines for!




Taylor was a trooper, though, and helped through every step of making valentines for all 25 of her classmates.  She told me to enjoy this year when we only had 30 to make because next year Charlie will have at least 17 kids in his class.


Finally the big day arrived.  I decorated the kitchen the night before so the kids could start off the day with extra cheer.


I attended Charlie's preschool party.


He made crafts, played games (I brought Valentine bingo), ate sweets, and sang/danced to his guitar-playin mama.


After school, I gave the kids some little Valentine goodies.


We finished the day by celebrating at the Wells' house.  We had a great dinner followed by nice fellowship.  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!

a quickie

How's this for you? Two posts in one day!  I realized that I left out one important event from my last post.  Last week I had the pleasure of attending another Mother Daughter event at Taylor's school.  This time it was a pajama movie night.


Grace and Jessica came too.


In true slumber party fashion, they served pizza, cotton candy, popcorn and M&Ms.


I had such a wonderful time with Taylor last year and this year did not disappoint.  I think one of my favorite parts is having my daughter choose to spend time with me.  There were lots of her friends there and they did sneak in the occasional group hug.


However, she much preferred to stay with her mom, making me laugh as she used her cotton candy as a microphone.  It made me realize how little one-on-one time Taylor and I actually have.


I think Jessica had a similar experience with Grace as the two snuggled on the gym floor for the movie.


Am I a lucky mom or what?