More Shots from our family shoot a week or two ago.

Green Tomatoes

Matt was helping daddy in the garden today. He insisted on the delicious looking green tomato hanging on the vine. Taylor tried to entice him with a ripe red one ready to be picked but he was not interested.. He took a great big bite of the large green fruit while Taylor grabbed the camera. He ate most of it and by the looks of it quite enjoyed himself.

Megan

Megan loves to have her hair done perfectly.. She's very specific about how its done too.. Absolutely No pigtails, she hates pigtails.. no fluffies (hair sticking out anywhere) which means we usually have to wet it down or hairspray it, and if after she stands in the mirror and inspects it for five minutes she isnt happy, she'll take it out and do it herself.

The other day she asked for "Princess hair". She really does have great hair. This lasted about three hours before it was falling out all over the place and she took it out.

With Megan you can always count on one thing.. If there is water. she'll be in it.

As I have previously mentioned before She also loves her dolls and stuffed animals. She can create so many different scenarios with them.. from putting on a piano performance to lining them up for the train on the kitchen chairs.. She's got a great imagination.

And Megan loves doing tricks on the tramp like her big sister.. even if she isn't quite as coordinated yet. She's very proud of this trick.

First Day of School

Ali was so excited she could hardly contain herself . I got her up at 7 this morning and she got right up and took her shower.. Usually its quite a struggle to get that girl out of bed.. She wasn't as shy and reserved as she was last year.. Most of her friends are in other classes..

I'm excited to hear about her day..

Megan didn't actually start today.. The 1st graders had a sort of "meet and great" scheduled with their teachers today instead of a full day of school. She'll start tomorrow. She's excited too.

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I have to add that I woke my tired body up at 5:30 this morning (on my day off!) to go walking with my neighbor. We did 3.2 miles at a brisk walk. It felt fabulous despite the time of day. We're going to try and go atleast 3-4 days a week.

For Liz

And because I love the bubbles in this one...............................................................

So grown up

taking a trip

Down Memory lane......

Ali and my Dad have always had a special relationship. She used to spend hours with him haning out in his room watching movies and searching through his treasures.

Ali was the first baby my Dad ever got to be in the delivery room for. I hadn't planned on him coming in, but after sleeping on the waiting room couch while I labored all night long with her, I felt he kind of deserved to be there. He was extrememly grateful, and I'm glad he got to experience that in his lifetime.

Ali is about two and a half here, and they're probably watching 101 Dalmations..

Thanksgiving... She always twirled her hair when she was tired. She was such a binkie girl too.

This is Ali's 3rd birthday. She's been a princess since she could walk.

She always had to have a purse, a hate, a crown, and fancy shoes on. She went through a phase at about this age where she wouldn't wear anything but dresses.. we seriously had about 20 dresses in her closet that summer.

(They weren't all dress ups either)

3 yrs old... Carving pumpkins... so cute.
This is actually when I was pregnant with Megan, so she was about 2 1/2. She'd dressed herself this day in about 4 layers of various items of clothing. It was also her idea to wear her glasses..

We built a Snowman on my parents front lawn.
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2 1/2-3 yrs old. potty trained but still a little small for the seat!Megan.......... Newborn
she had the funniest head of hair.. it stuck out straight no matter how hard we tried to slick it down.
Ali was NOT impressed with her baby sister... Megan was colic for about 8 weeks, and here is a perfect picture of what poor Ali thought of the whole thing.. There were many times when Ali would say "mom, Stop her crying!", or her famous quote "her wants your boob".

Megan and Mommy (Meg's 3 months old) she was SO fat.. I actually looked pretty good back then.... comparatively

Megan liked to grab at Papa's beard.. when she was in a good mood.

This is one of my all time favorites.. Taylor and Megan, when Meg was just barely two.. So sweet. I can't believe that Mattie will be two in just three short weeks. I also can't believe that Megan used to be his age! Megan about 1 I think.... such a ham. Ali and Brooke. They were born 4 days apart.

School Picnic

1 down 2 more to go... That would be 'days' until school starts. Tonight was the much anticipated pre-school BBQ. Ali's been waiting days for this. The lists of Teachers were posted at 4 this afternoon and the front doors were swarming with Children of various ages looking to see whose class they were in and who they knew that they would be sharing a classroom with.
Earlier today I took the girls on a short shopping trip to gather a few things that they needed like shoes and undershirts, (and some they didn’t) including a few new outfits for each of them. If I would have known my sister had plans for them I wouldn't have even bothered because by the time she and my mom got done with them, they were loaded down with bags full of DARLING outfits. They were giddy about choosing which outfit they were going to wear for the BBQ. Ali chose this one, complete with very stylish Hat. She looked AWESOME!

We found that Ali has the same teacher that she had in second grade (who had moved up to teaching 4th grade last year). We stopped to chat with her, and she said that some of the other teachers had asked her if she "had that mom that helped her with her bulletin boards again", I seriously just thought thats what Mom's did! I laughed and told her I'd do it again anytime.

When Ali had her in 2nd grade she went out around the Holidays to have her first baby. Then last year her 3rd grade teacher went out to have her first baby, and now, Mrs Giles is pregnant again and will be going out around the Holidays again.. so this will be the third year that Ali will have an extended Substitute.. Interesting.. anyway we're still happy to have her..

Ali did a great job being the center of attention. look at this group of girls standing around her! I teased her that it had to be the hat. She immediately found Porter (her long time crush) and coaxed him and the rest of the group into a lively game of tag. She was so happy. After a Summer without her friends, she was very happy to socialize again.

Megan was a bit more reserved. She has the same teacher that Ali had in 1st grade.. I'm very happy because I liked her very much and the other 1st grade teacher is known as the "Yeller" not that I really hold much stock in a rumor like that.

She did end up finding a friend from Kindergarten and ran around with her for most of the time. Mattie was just happy to be out playing....

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and finally, after much fun, we came home where Ali made us all brownies.. She's really quite a good cook.. she can follow directions on boxes quite well. She's made cookies, macaroni and cheese, brownies, muffins, rice, soup, and much more. That's my independent girl.

oh, and before I forget, Matt slept in his big boy bed all night and for his nap today.. He is currently sleeping in it as I write this.. We'll be taking the crib apart tomorrow.