Bath Buddies

Today was the first of many baths together! I love how these two LOVE each other!

Shutterfly

As most of you know Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love the music and decorations and food and gifts and parties...the list goes on and on! One thing I love is giving and receiving Christmas cards. I love hanging them up and looking at all our friends and families' pictures throughout the holiday season. Photo cards are my favorite!

This year I am ordering our cards from Shutterfly. I have had so many good experiences with them in the past. I have ordered a photo book, a photo mug, a calendar, and tons of prints over the years. I've been pleased with everything I have ordered. You can imagine how excited I was to hear I could get 50 free holiday cards just by blogging about them!

If you have a blog and are interested in getting your own free cards go

And be checking your mail! You should be receiving a very cute card from the Blantons soon!

The Cheeks

Sometimes they are more than I can take! You do...sometimes you DO have to squeeze them!

And the double chin!

A Picture Post

Sweet Braden posing for me.

Carving our pumpkin with a Dremmel tool. Ha ha! Only Ben!

Our trick or treaters: Henley the freshly hatched chick, Kate the sleepy flower, Braden the Army man (aka Uncle Andy) and Gavin the farmer

Two and a half years old and his first time playing with Play Doh.

My big baby in the swing.

Oh Kate! You spoil me. Thanks for still loving to swing while I cook dinner.

Bed head!

Laurel came to play a couple weeks ago. They had a great time playing...

And eating doughnuts....

And watching Toy Story 3. Then we all took a nap! Fun times!

"Braden, write only on the paper!"

Two little buddies playing while I get ready. Note Braden's shirt half tucked in his underwear. Love these kids!

Kate's first pony tail! Poor girl only has action figures to play with!

Six Months

What can I say about our Kathryn Lillias? One thing is for sure, her short six months of life has flown by! It really is going much faster than it did with Braden. I am enjoying Kate so very much! I love her huge gummy smile, her coos, her slobbery kisses and her squinty eyes. She really is happy most of the time...but be very afraid if you catch her in the rare instance she isn't. This girl has quite a set of lungs! Her scream is so loud! In the night when she wakes up, there is no letting her "cry it out." Once she gets worked up, she will scream for an hour or more. I'd much rather just feed her and go back to sleep in ten minutes. Once in a while she will sleep through the night and thats good enough for me right now!

I have finally started feeding her baby food, sometimes. I must admit I'm not excited about it this go around. However, it must be done now! So far she hates rice cereal, thinks apples are too sour, but will eat pears. Poor second child has no pictures being fed yet. I will work on that! Kate can now sit up, roll all over the floor, get ahold of things you swore were out of her reach, put her paci in her mouth and copy lots of sounds you make. She used to be quite the smiler, but now she is starting to save more of those just for me, Ben and Braden. Now she likes to stare at strangers and figure them out rather than charm them with her smile.

Here are a few pictures of her sixth month of life in no particular order.

I love how content she is in the stroller. It makes life much easier. She likes to look out at observe the world.

Leave her alone for one minute and she gets herself into predicaments. I mean really, getting tangled in the blanket is understandable, but how did the wipe box get on her legs? Braden was asleep!

These two love each other!

Letting Kate take the 4runner for a spin! Only 15.5 years until she can drive!

She has the unique gift of falling asleep anywhere...even in the jumper!

My little friends!

They are just SO sweet!

Two words: Chunky Thighs!

New head band.

This girl loves to swing! She seriously will stay in it for an hour. Very helpful when I'm trying to coordinate their nap times!

I can't tell if she is going to be a thumb sucker or not. Some days she is all about it and others not so much. Either way, it's pretty cute!

What a wonderful six months it has been!

Today is the Day!

Praise the Lord, Uncle Andy is home! We are thanking God for bringing him home safely from his second and FINAL deployment! We are aware not every soldier gets to come home so we thank God for protecting Andy.

"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways!" -Psalm 91:11

Andy, THANK YOU for your years of service in the Army! Thank you for sacrificing time with your loved ones and risking your life to protect our great country!

Becky, THANK YOU for being a brave, supportive, faithful, loving and prayerful wife! What an example you are to me personally and to so many others!

Family Fun Day

Today we spent some much needed family time at a Corn Maze. Of course, we didn't even do the corn maze, but we did do lots of other funs things. We saw lots of fun farm animails, rode a little train, jumped on the inflatables, picked a pumpkin and the highlight for Braden: riding a horse!

Checking out the goats. Unsure about them at first, but did pet them in the end.

Kate looking precious in the stroller.

I love this one! I always post smiling pictures because they are so cute, but you can never see her eyes! Well, here they are!

Braden riding the "train." He is on the orange car in the back.

Having the time of his life!

They had this sand box type thing full of corn. It was really neat, and much less messy than sand!

About to slide.

My boys!

So thankful for our little family of four!

Look at my big girl sitting up!

Looking more confident with one arm down.

Sweet.

He was running through the pumpkins but I made him do a quick turn for a picture.

I love how Braden is leaning toward Kate. That's usually what she does to him. He loves his sister!

Possibly my new favorite picture!

Future cowboy! Taking this very seriously.

He hasn't quit talking about his pony ride yet!

Time to go home. What a fun day!