Kaitlyn talks to the camera!!

A big lunch out at Steak 'N Shake. MMmm...

My trip to Austin to see the Powell Family!

I took a little trip to Austin to see my new godson, Sutton Powell. I also wanted to go there to photograph the family, for a gift to Courtney for having another BOY. :) Sutton is adorable, just like his big brothers. No... no way in heck am I having another baby... yet. Ha.
I had a lot of fun there in Austin getting to play with the boys and be able to help out with daily things like making dinner, etc. One night we had Grandma Casey's turkey noodle bake... man was that good!
Here are my favorites from our photo shoot at the Powell house... Steve was too busy for us... just kidding Steve. Ha.
















Love you guys!!!

Aw-rite...

Kaitlyn's new favorite word is "alright". She says it without the "l" sound though, so it's more "aw-rite". One of the funniest times I remember her using this was last week at bed time. She has this slightly irritating way of constantly repeating "MOM?" one after another until I come up to see what she needs while she's in her crib. Literally, "Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom?" (also can be DAD?- ha). Fully annoyed, I went upstairs one night to tell to stop, and I went in and said, "Kaitlyn, now that's enough, you need to go to sleep." and she replied... "alright" and laid down. I nearly fell over in laughter. I also was taken by surprise that she didn't cry when I left. Since then she uses "alright" a ton... do you want breakfast? alright... do you want a drink? alright... you need to eat some asparagus first before you get any more hot dog... alright. :)
She also is attaching the name of the person that she is so politely thanking. "Thank you, Mom." or "Thank you, Dad!" If she looks at me and says, "Thank you Dad!" she immediately fixes her mistake and says, "Thank you, Mom!" However, when she says, "Thank you, Mom!" to James, he fixed it first before she even has a chance by saying to her, "No, I'm JAMES!" then she says, "Thank you, Deem!"
Her favorite ritual now at night is running around naked after her bath. It's so cute to see her tooshie swinging back and forth as she's running through her room and around in the hallway... usually carrying Lovie. That's just one of those cliche things that kids like to do, but it's just do darn cute!
Kaitlyn will be 2 years old one month from today!!!!!!!!! Sheesh.

Oh to be caught up on the blog...

So I've really been bad about blogging the last few weeks. My schedule has been ramped up with a new MOMS group that I'm facilitating, which requires a lot of time for preparation, etc., plus photography work time, and a trip to Austin, and throwing parenting all in the middle. :)
I flew to Austin on Wednesday morning, very early, and by noon, I was there having lunch with Courtney, Molly, Aunt Bev and sweet baby Sutton.
I had a great trip there, filled with lots of laughs, lots of baby time, some photography, and much more food. Ha. The last thing I wanted to be was a burden while I was there so I jumped on the wagon and made dinners for the Powell family, earning my keep. Ha.
My goal of the trip was to photograph Sutton and anyone else that would have been willing. It turns out that Alex and Gabe are excellent subjects when they are having fun... we just talked, causally, about cars, favorite foods, school, etc, with me snapping in the middle of conversations. Turns out Gabe and I have a TON in common... we both favor chocolate ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and PORSCHES! :)
Sutton doesn't have a career in baby modeling... that's what we decided. ;) Courtney would get him fattened up and asleep and when we'd try to photograph him, he'd cry almost immediately. However, it turned out, that the last day he cut me some slack and modeled with his Mommy for me. I did get some super cute photos of him by himself too, so I'm anxious to have some time to work on those here at home. To answer everyone's question, NO, I don't have baby fever now from seeing Sutton. HA.
As for the Powell family, I wish them luck finding and getting rid of the ever present sour-milk funk emitting from the back of the van. Good luck! Ha ha.
I was excited to get home yesterday after a few days away from my sweet kids. James came down with some kind of sickness while I was gone, so the mommy-guilt of being away was tripled. I hate having my kids with someone else when they are sick! Booo. They did fine, though, and all is *hopefully* better now. I did get to video chat with the kids when I was in Austin, and it was nice to see James all cuddled up on my side of our bed. Sweet.
I came home to a full dinner already prepared by my wonderful husband. I ended up waiting for my bag for an HOUR so it was time to eat when I got home. It was the best Valentines present I could have asked for... along with a good hot dog for dinner. Mmmm.
Today, Nathan is off to the Daytona 500 with Rich, Kevin, Cameron, Ben, Jack, and Ben's friend Peter. I hope they have a great time... and hope they have good weather, since it's a bit ugly outside right now! Hopefully it's nicer farther North!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Grandma Kathy gave the kids M&M beanie baby bears. OOOOOH, what a hit!

A scolding

Kaitlyn was walking down the stairs the other day with Daddy when Daddy tried to reach out a hand to help. Kaitlyn looked at him with a stern stare, pointed her finger up in the air and shouts, "IIIIIIII! I do it!"
Silly Miss Independent.

Ca-raaaazy!

The kids and I went over to my parent's house for the Superbowl... well, not really for the game, just for dinner. The kids had baths after dinner, thanks to Grandma, and then we piled in the car. Grandma and Papa followed us out as usual to see us go, and when we were all strapped in and getting ready to drive away, James spits out, "Mom... those kids are ca-raaaaazy!" Kids? ;)