Shoot of 3's

What a fun and very active photo shoot! I was able to get a lot of great pictures from the very active and handsome 3 year old. He was all over, but he gave some great smiles along the way! I also got some pictures of the cutest 3 month old and his dad who just turned 30 something. Oh and a goat that was 3 days old. Wait, I guess you could include the date we took the pictures...23rd. Did I miss any more 3's?























I forgot to take a blanket for the little one to lay on so we took a few extra indoor pictures yesterday. I wish I could just take him home!

Kendall

I took these pictures about a month ago, but just finished them last night. Sad I know, but it worked out perfectly to post on this little guys Birthday. Happy Birthday Kendall!!







Yes this next one is posted below, but I like the black and white better...










Kayti you don't get to see the rest until you see my little project on Saturday. Hope you like them! They turned out really cute.

Sneak Peek

Kayti, I won't be bringing these with me today, so I thought I would give you one to look at until I'm done.

Spring Skiing

We took the kids up skiing last Saturday and had a great day. We went with my Dad, a couple of my sisters, their husbands, their kids and my brother and his wife. We went up to Wolf Mountain (old Nordic Valley) where my brother-in-law is on the ski patrol. It is also where my Dad was on the ski patrol when I was little and where he taught me how to ski. It's a very small resort, but has a lot of great memories for me.

We took Brooklynn up a few months ago and she did ok, but didn't last that long since it was cold. I wanted to take her up at least one more time this year and was just waiting for the perfect day. I would say Saturday was definitely the perfect day. She ended up doing really well in the end. Here she is on the first ride up the lift...




Here's one of Kendall (my nephew) ready for a nap. He was super tired after a few hours.


After lunch Brooklynn couldn't wait to get all of her stuff back on to go play in the snow. The second one is of her making faces at everyone sitting at the tables.

We took a family picture so Braiden could take it for "show and tell" this week...

When we started skiing with Brooklynn I was holding her between my legs and she wasn't doing that well, so we used part of my nephew's harness and tied it around Brooklynn to try and keep her standing up on her skis. She didn't like it at first, but then she did ok. After lunch we took her back over to the "Magic Carpet". It is a conveyor belt that takes you back up to the top of a very small ski hill. Great for first timers. She did great and was skiing all by herself. I was skiing backwards and letting her come and get me. She was loving it.


Riding on the "Magic Carpet" back up to the top...

Braiden was enjoying skiing over the cones on the hill while we were working with Brooklynn. The cones are not that tall, and he didn't knock that one over, but he was jumping over some of them. He will sometimes jump randomly as he is skiing down the hill. I'm not sure why he does it, but it's pretty funny to watch.


After taking Brooklynn down the little hill a few times, we sent her back home with my sisters. We stayed a few more hours and I actually got in a few great runs with my dad.
Here's Braiden riding up the lift with my dad...


We ended up going a different way on this run. When we started heading towards this run there was a sign that said "More Difficult". Braiden seemed a little worried when he saw the sign and told me that he didn't think he could go that way. I told him he would be just fine. The first half wasn't any more difficult than anything he had done before, but the second half of the run had a pretty steep hill. I'm sure he was probably tired by this time but he seemed a little hesitant. I asked him if he wanted me to go down ahead of him and do a video of him. I thought maybe if I distracted him he might forget about the hill a little. He did great. He really doesn't have much fear on the slopes and is a great little skier.

Swimming Lessons

I have been telling my mom I would post these for a very long time!!!! Well I finally did it. We signed Braiden up for swimming lessons last fall and then Brooklynn in February. Both kids did amazing. This video of Braiden is his 12th lesson...

After he did three weeks, we kept him going once a week for a few more months. He has improved even more since then.

The first video of Brooklynn is from her 14th lesson. I ended up doing 4 weeks with her. She was doing well, but had a little hesitation during the middle of the 3rd week, so I decided to do an extra.

This next one is a few days later. We did a lesson in her clothes so she would know what it felt like if she were ever to fall in the water.

The lessons are geared towards basic survival and safety. She teaches them to find their "safe place" on their back and helps them to become comfortable in the water. The kids loved the lessons! Brooklynn made some great progress and Braiden is swimming like a pro.

About 2 weeks ago, we stayed in a hotel in Richfield for a night. We let the kids go swimming late that night. Brooklynn was concerned that she couldn't swim without her swimming teacher, but after a few minutes we convinced her that she would be ok. It was fun to see them at the pool outside of swimming lessons. I took the camera down to the pool, but I didn't take any pictures until we were done.

The Very Long Birthday Celebration

This could also be the longest post ever. I should have made a slide show instead, but I didn't.
Brooklynn turned 3 last week. Her birthday celebrations started the Saturday before her birthday. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the birthday presents received that day from Grandpa L and Grandma C and Uncle J.

Next up was CPK on Monday night, the day before her Birthday...




About 11:00AM on her Birthday, she laid down on the carpet in the front room. I thought she was just tired, but soon realized that she had a fever so this is how she spent most of the day on her Birthday...


I felt so bad for her that I had Travis stop on his way home and get her a cake to help cheer her up. She enjoyed having the candles to blow out, but didn't want to eat any of the cake. She licked some frosting off of her fingers without thinking about it, she quickly stopped and wouldn't have any more.


We tried to get her to eat the cookie, but this is as close as she would get. It was obvious that she didn't feel very well,

but that didn't stop her from opening presents and enjoying it...

Friday night Grandpa R and Grandma C, her Aunt E, Uncle R and a few of her cousins came down and we went out for dinner. I should have taken some pictures, but I didn't so this is what we ended up with...

Saturday was the big Birthday party which ended up being with my family. She wanted a dog cake, so I figured this was a great opportunity to make her favorite dog...

She loved watching me as I made it and just giggled when it really started to look more like her dog.

Grandpa S & Grandma K took her over to Build A Bear after the party to get her a new dog.

I guess she was excited to take it home because she just took off. I went after her and had to take a picture since it was so cute to see her hauling such a big box out the door...

Thank you to everyone for making her day, or should I say her week, special. We love you all!!

Baby E