April through December!

OK, I lied about not catching up. I like what I did last time I fell behind, so I'm going to try to update with the highlight of each month.

I'm going to let myself off the hook about the pictures though. Most of them are plain and simple crummy snapshots. Super crummy. And that's ... OK.

April
Ella turned three! We had her party in the backyard with a bounce house by the golf course.






Also, Easter was fun! Both girls ADORE Aunt Pat.








May
Avery finished kindergarten. She had the best year! I made a little side by side comparison of the first of the year vs. the end of the year.









June
Avery turned six! She wanted to get her nails done and have me put makeup on her. Her party was at "the gymnastics place" again.









July
Ella got to start taking gymnastics because she finally was POTTY TRAINED!!





The girls spent a ton of time together. Lost of fighting, but lots of loving, too.



(I never got around to editing these two, but I still think they're cute.)










August
Avery started 1st Grade!

(don't know why these colors are so horrible ... yuk!)





September
Ella started preschool again and I'm a horrible mommy and didn't take any pictures. So I'll just show some cute random ones of her I snapped. I forgot to mention that her tooth came back down! Praise God!









October
We had our family pics taken by a photographer friend ...



Went to an SFA game with all our alumni friends ...



Avery won a 67 lb. pumpkin from her school carnival ...




Picked out pumpkins ...



Trick or treated ...









November
Had our yearly Thanksgiving get together in Grapevine with the Conklins. I can't find any of those pics. (Seriously hoping I didn't delete them off the memory card!) Attempted to get some good pics of the three granddaughters.






And now we're back up to date ... sort of!!

I've been absolutely busier than I ever could have imagined with my business. SUCH a blessing, but also super time-consuming. Now that things have slowed down, I'm hoping to do a better job of documenting my OWN family's precious moments.

Trying to get back into it ...

Wow! Last time I updated was March! Oops! So much has happened, and it's way too overwhelming to think of trying to catch up on blogging all of it, so I'm just going to jump right in where we are now.

Business has slowed down. This week has been so much fun just shooting the girls again!

Avery lost her 5th tooth on Saturday. I took her that evening to see The Nutcracker Ballet and she loved it. Between that and the impending tooth fairy visit, she told me that night, "This was the best day of my life!"

Unfortunately, the following day she told me she was having the worst day of her life. Dramatic much? ;)

Poor Ella can't catch a break!

Last week Ella fell on the playground at school. It's a very long story, but the gist of it is:

She fell in the morning, they thought she had cut her lip, no phone call to me, no pain meds.

When I picked her up that afternoon, a teacher walked her to the car and told me about the accident. I noticed her lip was extremely swollen, but took the teacher's word for it.

About a minute later, Ella starts to talk to me and I notice this:





Long story short, apparently they didn't notice. They thought her tooth was "already like that."

Really? This looks normal? This is the same way she's looked since school started in the fall? With a tooth shoved up into her gums? Really?

>









Poor baby! She is such a trouper and I'm so proud of her! She's doing much better now, and we're waiting to see what her next set of x-rays show.

She will not be returning to that school.

So, one month before her 3rd birthday, she's got a new look.

It's only been 5 months since my last post!

Yikes! My busy season started, and to be honest, it hasn't slowed down yet. I am VERY thankful and feeling very blessed, but it doesn't leave me much time (or desire) to take, edit, or blog my own family's pictures.

So, in less-than-stellar photos, here's what's been going on since the last blog post:

Avery started kindergarten.

Ella started preschool

Halloween (they love to play kitty and puppy at home)

fall family stuff

Thanksgiving - playing golf and driving the cart at Nemaw and Grandpa's house

Avery lost her 1st tooth!

Ben got a birthday gift card to the Cowboys store, and decked himself out.

doing Christmas stuff

Christmas Eve, on our floor waiting for Santa

Avery really, really wanted a Nintendo DS

All Ella asked for were cars.

January - lots of sickness

February - visiting Grapevine to play in the Conklins' leftover snow

and meet their cousin, Kendall!

Avery LOVED her! (Oh, and 3 teeth gone now.)

And here we are! Life is great, everyone is trying to get well, and we are very blessed! Hopefully it won't be another 5 months until I post again ...

Love y'all!