Trip to the Botanical Gardens (AKA "Revenge of the Giant Bow!)

Bear got quite a treat today, as our photo shoots took us to both the Botanical Gardens and Wilson Park, and he got lots of free time in between to play at both! While Jason was doing a Life Shoot at the Ozark Botanical Garden, Bear and I played around with the camera. First I snapped a few of him and Norah, and then he borrowed the camera to work on filling up the whole square, or filling up the frame, depending on whether you're 5 or not. : ) He did a great job! That boy is so smart it amazes me. I think he is going to be a brilliant engineer or something some day.

In the meantime, it was time for Norah to say 'Hello' in her enormous hairbow, and for Bear to be his adorable self, as usual. I love my kiddos!

Hey Jude!

I was just listening to this song on my iTunes, and was reminded of how much I just dearly love it. If we ever have another baby (a lot of trouble, but completely worth it, by the way), and it's a boy, we may name him Jude. I love that name!

Random Photo of the Day!

Hmmmm...

I have no idea what is happening here, but I appreciate my sister taking the time to document it! Disclaimer: Photo stolen from Jamie's blog!

Trip to the Circus!

I was very proud of Autumn for being so brave during her school musical! Last year she was not so sure about getting up in front of everyone, but this year she really seemed to enjoy it. She had quite a crew there to watch her... Aunt Jamie and (soon to be) Uncle Joe, Garner and Papa, Nana, Grandjo and me, Jason, Barrett and Norah. I think everyone may have thought I was insane, because I brought the BIG long lens with me, but I remembered last year that I ended up stuck at the back and that it was impossible to get any good pictures with a normal camera, so this year I came prepared! In any case, between Nana's video camera, Papa sitting in the front row, and us at the back with the long lens, I think her performance was well documented. : )Sorry there are so many pictures in this post, but I'm not very good at narrowing it down!

With no further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen... Children of all ages... It's circus time!

Here she is waving to me at the back.




We were apparently not the only ones who decided to document the occasion!































I love the clown jumping at the back during the big finale!



Here is her teacher, Mr. Folsom (who we absolutely love by the way), along with some lady who appears to disapprove. Of what we do not know, but it looks pretty serious!



Mrs. Jones, the wonderful principal.



Greeting her friends after the play.















Forget the pretty smile. This one shows the real deal! ; )



Garner and Autumn at Cici's Pizza after the show.



Autumn and me! 

Wow. I can't believe you're still reading this. That was a long one! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Norah The Baby Genius

It is getting progressively more and more difficult for me to nurse Norah anywhere except on the couch, with only family around, because she has become quite the little fidgeter! If she had her way, she would spend all of her nursing time standing in my lap, facing the other direction, while playing with a toy in one hand and pulling my hair with the other, watching the world pass by and occasionally giving me a love chomp for good measure!

This makes nursing in public a bit challenging, as she is no longer interested in being covered up, and wants to immediately turn her head to investigate every noise! It is even getting hard to nurse while I Photoshop (which is, by the way, the only way I can ever get any work done!), because Norah has become completely enamored with the keyboard. She loves it, especially the space bar. It is her very favorite key. Usually I try to discourage this, because if she hits one of my "hot keys" then strange things start happening to the pictures I'm working on! So the other day, I let her sit down and play with the keyboard for a few minutes, just for fun.

She composed an e mail to her Daddy! She is a tiny baby genius. Perhaps I should get her this too! (Thanks, Waffle House man, for the tip!)


Here is a transcript of the e mail:

hujiji mkknn gnybbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbe¸ccvqqqqqq, k











++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ d
*-------------dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd vvv z mk mmmmmbgf , zzzzzzzz xxxx


And here she is working on it. She was very serious about it. That baby cracks me up!





p.s. If anyone has tips on nursing wiggly babies, I'd love to hear them!

Conversations with Bear

Barrett: "Hey Mama?"
Mama: "Yes?"
Barrett: "I think when I grow up I wanna fly airplanes."
Mama: "Wow, that would be pretty cool!"
Barrett: "Yeah, and I would fly them way up, so high in the sky that I went all the way into space."
Mama: "Wow. That's pretty high."
Barrett: "Yeah, but I would have to be careful, or else I might bump into God."