Where did he learn THAT?

After an hour or so of giving Ty piggy back rides, Sarah fell to the ground all red faced and sweaty. Where Tyler proceeded to pounce..

find her belly button..
and dispense zerberts like a pro.
I have no idea where he learned such shenanigans. I mean, I would never blow zerberts on his soft, squishy, irresistible, perfectly round, baby tummy! It must have been Brent. Yeah, definitely Brent.

Brent's lonely birthday

After three days of dressing them up, hauling them to various parks, and great, GREAT coersion on my part, I finally got three pictures.   In our back yard.   Not in the parks.  Where I took approximately 4oo pictures trying to get the perfect shot.  Will I never learn to keep it simple?!  But here they are.  Brent celebrated his birthday all by himself this year because his wife and kids were off galavanting through Utah and Idaho.  So we left him something to remember us by. 

Lovely lovely home!

We swam..

and ate..
and fished..
and just had a good time in general with family and friends!
But we also missed Brent like crazy and are so, so, so glad to be home!

The family rounds

Three more days until we leave on our Big Trip through Utah and Idaho.  I'm taking the kids.  By myself.  Please pray for me.  And wish me luck.  

Actually, I'm super excited.  Aside from being "on call" 24 hours a day for the next three weeks, I think it'll be a  blast!  I remember my Mom taking us kids to Seattle (or was it Portland?) to visit her brother when I was just a little kid.  I know it wasn't easy for her.  We were ornery little punks.  But I remember that trip quite fondly.  So even though Brent has to work and can't come with me, I'm going anyway.  So please..please.. pray that my sanity will hold out for three weeks.  And that my kids will remember this fondly.

If I had a picture of Sarah etched on my heart right now, it would look exactly like this.

pink flowers and such

My goal is to learn something new in photoshop every day.  Today I learned how to bring a touch of color out of a black and white.  Lovin it!

Sweet, sweet Lauren..

We love bugs round here.  Or rather, my kids love bugs.. and I work hard to be ok with that.  This week we had three ladybugs, one orange grasshopper, and an enormous moth come to visit.  Lauren found this little guy yesterday and promptly named him Rosy.  All ladybugs that come to our house are eventually named Rosy.  I have no idea why.  You'll have to ask Lauren. 



I just gotta say it.  This kid breaks my heart every time I look at her!  That gorgeous hair and perfect skin!  And she has freckles.  I love freckles!  I am in so much trouble.

I think I'm in love...

What I really wanted was photoshop CS4.  Downloading other peoples lovely photoshop actions sounds so wonderful.  Fabulous effects.. very little work.  Some call it lazy but I prefer efficient. After much thought, I decided Elements would have to do for now.  And you know what?  I love it!! It meets my needs.  Here's one of my first attempts.

Before..

And after.  
Happy Tuesday everyone!