This little angel was such a sweetheart.  She slept like a dream and didn’t even open her sleepy little eyes to peek at me.  Her mom did a great job keeping her awake before the shoot (not an easy thing to do!) and it worked like a charm.  Harper was 8 days new at her first portrait shoot and she is rocking the camera already.  What a doll.

This beautiful little mini blanket and halo were made by my friend Oleysa.  See more of her work at:  Beezy Mom’s

Doesn’t she have pretty little lips?

Thank you to Heidi Jo for assisting me with this shoot.  Shots like this are only possible with an assistant.  :)

Dad and Mom have a competition going between their alma maters.  Mom boasts ASU and Dad OSU.  Dad had to sneak in some spirit colors to ensure another OSU fan in the family.

Baby girl in Daddy’s arms…can’t get more precious then that.

Snuggling with mama is pretty great too though.  ;)

And now the two are three and life changes forever.

Thanks D and N for bringing sweet Harper to me!  It was so nice to meet you!

Oh such beauty.   I admit.  My heart fluttered a bit when I saw the above shot.  These two together just melted my heart.

I am getting pretty excited to meet the little fella that will make this trio a foursome.  Could he possibly be as adorable as his big sister?   I love Ella.  I love this family picture and I give full credit to Ella for it.  That is not where I put her.  Like any small ball of energy, she had her own idea about where she should be seated.  When she cuddled mama’s leg like that, I was grinning ear to ear in approval.  MUCH better than my first idea.  Sometimes when I let toddlers go, they surprise me with what they come up with.  Never count the pint sized ones out.  Tori teaches me that every day.

Thinking she is going to be a great big sissy.  Lovin’ on brother already.

Pregnancy looks so good on N!    Beautiful, beautiful mama…

The first time I met Ella, she was about six months old.  I have grown quite attached to this munchkin and loved the time with her.  She was such a cuddle bug.  I really wanted to take her home with me.  She, and her sweet cousin Maddy are as precious as they come (Maddy was recently on the blog too for her 2 year shoot).

Had to try a silhouette with a toddler in the middle.  Sweet little addition.

I feel so fortunate to GET to spend time with this sweet family again soon.  I have had the awesome opportunity to get to know and work with several family members (C’s sister and family and N’s sister and family) and I love the whole lot of them.  See you soon C and N!  Can’t wait!

A week ago Sunday, I noticed the baby acting “off”.  He wasn’t wanting to eat.  By Monday night, I saw some light splotching.  I questioned roseolla but there had not been a fever.  On Tuesday, he broke out in hives (pictures taken above).  They only lasted about a day and then were gone.  Never any other symptom.  Strange.  I assume it was viral.  I don’t believe it was an allergic reaction but you never know.   Fast forward a week and Tuesday of this week he comes down with a high fever.  He got up to 104 with Tylenol and Motrin in him on Tuesday.  He is now on day 3 of fevers though he is holding his own quite well.  Fevers are a strange thing.  Some times my kids will fever at 102 and be lethargic and other times they will be at 103 and 104 and not lethargic.  Is it the fluid factor that makes the difference?  Not sure.  Troy has handled these high temps very well.  Are these fevers associated to last weeks hives issue?  Odd because usually viral rashes FOLLOW the illness meaning the fever is the first symptom.  Who knows.  This is the third time I have had a kiddo with a mystery rash.  I am creating my own picture dictionary of hives LOL.

Here are pictures of Tanner back in May 2008:  http://x.jimanddoni.com/?p=692

We never got to the bottom of that but he had to be taken to the ER for an epi shot because his lips and tongue were starting to swell.  I thought maybe an allergy to blue dye but that proved false so eventually I concluded viral rash.

Here are pictures of Ty back in September 2008:  http://x.jimanddoni.com/?p=772

Assuming viral rash on Ty as well.

All three sets of hives look slightly different but none of the three look like all the pictures in the “rash” files you find online.  Not strep, not roseolla, not chicken pox, not fifth’s…just hives.

I am SO TIRED OF VIRUSES!!!  It feels we have been sick off and on since Dec 1st.  This has been a horrible year for sickness in this house.  I am going CRAZY.

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I finally settled on using Feedly as my RSS Feed Reader.  I really like it.  I ESPECIALLY like the Kindle App for it.  I have never been so caught up on my feeds.  I find myself quickly browsing Feedly on the couch at night using my Kindle.  Awesome.  It actually works more conveniently for me on the app than on the computer.

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Ty:  Can I have some chocolate milk?

Me:  We are all out.  You’ll need to get yourself a drink.

Five minutes later at the breakfast table.

Ty:  Mom.  My mouth is really really really dry.

Am I over mothering my children?  At what point was he going to get up and get HIMSELF a drink?  Sheesh.

I “LIKE”.

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For years my family has referred to me as the index of children’s songs.  I have a long memory for them and Tori and Troy love them.  Troy’s favorite lately has been Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee and Tori’s has been Little Bunny Foo Foo.  I thought I would compile a list of the songs I tend to sing to them the most.  I’ll appreciate this someday.

I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee (also sang slightly different as In My Hand is a Teeny Tiny Bee – we go between both)
Little Bunny Foo Foo
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
3 Little Fishies (I especially love the Finding Nemo version)
Jesus Loves Me (Go Fish Guys version)
Turtle in a Box (not actually a song)
Five Little Monkey Swinging on a Tree
Animal Crackers in My Soup
Teddy Bear Picnic
Hey Daddy (Hippo in the Tub off old Anne Murray CD)
This Little Light of Mine
Skitter Marinky Dinky Dink (I used to sing this to Jamie when she was a baby too)
Witch Doctor (Troy loves!)
If I Were a Butterfly, I’d Thank You God That I Could Fly
My God is so Great
Arky Arky
Deep and Wide
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Rubber Ducky (Ernie from Sesame Street)
The Wise Man
Zacheus
Rise and Shine (and give God the glory glory)
You are My Sunshine (Tanner’s song)
Happy and You Know It
I’ve Got the Joy Joy Joy Joy
Pooh Corner
All the Pretty Little Ponies
I’m a Little Teapot

My Dad used to sing me “Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah” and my Grandpa sang me the following song that I have never heard since but I love to sing it to my kids…

One morning when I woke up, I looked upon the wall, the bedbugs and the cooties were playing a game of ball.  The score was six to nothing and the cooties were ahead.  The bedbugs scored a home run and bonked me out of bed.

When I was little, I loved Psalty, Down by the Creek Bank, Music Machine, Antshillania, and Bull Frog’s and Butterflies so I still sing some of those to.

Of course, all this and the songs that Tori loves are all top 40 (most especially PINK because mommy loves Pink – the clean versions of course).  Just Give Me a Reason is our favorite right now.  (Well that and Ho Hey but we love the Nashville cast version)

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Troy Update

I love the way he says “Maaaaaa–eeeeeee”.   He can say everyone’s name now.

Daaaaa-eeeeeee

Maaaa-eeeeeeee

Nanner

Ty

Tow-wee

Swee – Sweetie

Papa

Ma – Grandma

He still is sticking to “that” for most nouns though so I can’t say his vocabulary is increasing significantly.   He manages to get his point across.   Recently, I have taken his “dassies” from him and put them in a John Deere lunch box on top of his dresser.  He only gets them at night and nap time.  Lately though, he has been closing the lid of the box and saying good bye to the box (meaning, I am not putting my dassies in the box).  He waves good bye to his food to instead of saying “all done”.   This week I noticed he says “owie” when he is upset.  If he gets hurt, he says “owie”.  If you say “NO”, he may also say “owie”.  I agree.  No is a painful word sometimes.

He is a big fan of Sweetie of lately.  When he sees her, he throws his arms open as wide as he can and starts running for her.  Wish I had that on video.  Must get it.

I just sent Tori to her room and Troy is the one crying outside her door.  Such a sympathetic little fellow.

That’s all I got for now.

Five is such a fun age.  Old enough to converse and have very adult like conversations but young enough to enjoy the play time of childhood and the wonder of everything in her world.

While listening to American Idol…

Tori:  Mommy who do you think the best singer in the whole entire world is?  (And then she whispers…)  You can say my name if you want to.

I wanted to.  :)

Ty:  Mommy why do you have this look on your face right now?

Me:  I am just thinking about things.

Ty:  Are you thinking about me?

Me:  No.  Do you wish I was thinking about you?

Ty:  Yes.

Me:  Okay.  This time I will stare off and think about you.  (He laughs).

Ty:  What are you thinking about me?

Me:  I am thinking how wonderful you are.  How you were born so tiny and how much I wanted you and how much I love you.

He gets off the couch, hugs me, kisses me, and then says

Ty:  Now I am thinking about you and thinking that I love you so much.

Tori:  Mommy?  Would you think about me now?

LOL.

Me:  I need to get my stuff all ready for my shoot tomorrow.

Tori:  If you need help, I will be right behind you.  I’ll be right by your side.  If you have heavy bags, I am strong enough.  I will be beside you every step of the way.

I ordered Tori’s dress from Etsy – Crocodile Crunch for her pictures and for Easter.  Love it.

After a coughing attack…

Tori:  Mom you had better go get some of your air.  (Referring to my inhaler)

Tori loves all things girly and was especially pleased that I got the boas out for her.  She has been wearing that petti since she was tiny.  I love the years of use I get out of them.

I couldn’t decide between a tutu line or a dress up line so I opted for both.

A big thank you to my friend Amanda for teaching me how to curl Tori’s hair with a flat iron.  It works so well for long, loose curls.  I watched YouTube videos and tried it but I just couldn’t get it to work.  They always demonstrate this technique at the mall kiosks but when you get home they never seem so easy to re-create.  Thankfully, Amanda is a true pro at it and taught me (in our church kitchen no less).  For ages, the best of female trade secrets have been swapped in kitchens.

I really should have taken some video of this because Tori is a crack up when she “works” a shoot.

How I love my girl!  Such an incredible gift.