Forget the portrait studio!

My sweet friend Emily posted some pics of her daughters and I just had to try to copy her "photo shoot" idea. It's okay- she is used to me copying her- I've been doing it for the past 20 years. Mine didn't turn out near as good as hers, but I will keep working on it. Maybe I should have ironed my sheets first. HA!

Anyway- these are my two favorites.

My kids are such good sports. :)

Two For One

My kids are obsessed with back scratches. And of course, if one of them asks, the other demands, so I am often found in this position. A two for one. Please ignore the fact that I look like an angry beached whale in this picture.

Where's Aunt Paige...did she already take off?

That is the question Hazel keeps asking me. We dropped Paige off at the airport early this morning after a wonderful long weekend of her visiting. She was such a great sport- sleeping on our couch in our tiny apartment and never complaining about the kids waking up at 6:00 in the morning to have screaming, pinching fights (our morning ritual). I always feel guilty when people come to visit us in this apartment, but she was a trooper about it and seemed to genuinely have a good time.
Besides our fun 4th of July celebration with Chris and Erin, we also had lots of good sister bonding time (thanks to my loving, understanding husband). We went to the beauty shop and bought nail polish and a home waxing kit. We got pedicures together. We went to the outlet mall. We bought ice cream and stayed up late watching scary movies together. We had lots of fun times in the pool where I wondered how old we were. We had a silly photo shoot together out in the grass behind my apartment. And we spent lots of time laughing at the crazy things my kids said and did.

At the outlet mall, there is a sprinkler pad for the kiddos. After an hour of annoying grown up shopping in the 109 degree heat, Owen treated the water like manna from heaven. Pure bliss!

He even laid down at one point and giggled uncontrollably with the excitement of it all.

Hazel, on the other hand, chose to walk the peremiter of the sprinkler pad and get her hydration straight from the bottle.

We took Paige to Abuelo's for some yummy, yummy Mexican food, then forced Nathan to take pictures in front of the restaurant.

Some of the pictures from our silly photo shoot. The patch of grass we chose to lay in was underneath my neighbor's window. I wonder if she enjoyed the 30 minutes that she was forced to listen to us laugh so hard that I started to snort...

(this was a candid that Paige chose to take of me...do I always look that angry? don't answer that)

We miss you, Paige! It's going to take some time to readjust without you here!

As an aside...after 8 years of me trying to convince Nathan to let me pluck/ wax his eyebrows, I actually talked him into it! Good timing since I have my new home waxing kit. I'm sure he will be thrilled for me to tell you that I also got a little happy with Paige's clippers (think chest, back...even underarms). Then Paige cut his hair. He told me today that a lady at work told him she wasn't sure what was different about him, but that he looked very GQ. I'm telling you- it's all about having two seperate eyebrows. :)

Thanks for being such a good sport, my sweet hubby.

This picture was acutally taken pre-makeover, but I love it, so I'm posting it. :)

Little Swimmer

Just 2 weeks ago, Owen refused to let go of his nose in the water. Not only that, he would not leave the side of the pool. He had a breakthrough at swim lessons and since then has been trying everything we tell him to. Here he is running and jumping into the pool, and swimming under water without holding his nose.

He even let Nathan do THIS! I'm so proud of him for being so brave!

Tiny tot

Hazel got new pajamas. Don't they fit her perfectly?

Family Fun For the 4th

Our Fourth at Chris and Erin's was so great. Besides celebrating our independence, we got to eat too much good food, and lots of other fun things....like:

Daddy time in the pool

Noodle fights with Aunt Paige

Baby lovin'

Schnoodle nephew lovin'

Round 1 of the fireworks show (aka a bad pic of the lightning storm)

The real show (that we almost missed out on and had to watch from a parking lot after we left C&E's house)

And just some general cuteness

Happy Independence Day! Please scroll down to see one hilarious picture. :)