Aspen's 5th Birthday!

We celebrated Aspen's 5th birthday the day after her birthday.....remember, she has a pretty cool birthday. lots of sevens...7-7-07, born on the 7th day. Nifty, eh?

Can't believe how fast she is growing up. She is a lovely little lady and I am blessed to have her in my life. Wow, I get to be her mommy! Really...this thrills me more than words can say!!

Here are some scenes from the birthday bash...Hello Kitty style, but of course! :-)

Aspen twig, we love you!!!

ninja kitty the 2nd...

we have a kitty who is loved....she is loved on constantly by two precious kidlets (and us parents, too...it's just the kids get to her before we do most of the time)..

here are some photos from the good ol' cell phone to show some of the things ms. ninja kitty has been up to as of late...

so...as you can see ninja girl loves to sleep, get cuddled, sleep, practice playing the keyboard, and sleep some more while getting kisses. :-)

that's all for now..

so thankful i have a place to put cell phone photos (from time to time) even if the quality is kind of blah. still very thankful...i take tons of cell phone photos. ;-)

till next time..

-kelly

restless...

a beautiful song that i just had to share (in case you missed the fb post). remember to stop the automatic music player on the blog before starting this one. otherwise it sounds pretty strange. :-)

also...i wanted to let you know that more posts are coming to this little blog soon (eek, i think i may have said that before, eh?) well...we have been busy living life with VBS, tball, baseball, now some more VBS, oh and lots of photoshoots, and sessions..whew! i am having to remind myself that i must make the time to sort and edit our family photos and put them on here. i love all those folks i photograph during the photo sessions i am blessed to have, but family comes first. so, i will be making a point to get caught up or at least start where we are now. :-) i really need to get out of bed earlier in the mornings...yeah, working on that.

here are a few photos i have recently taken of the littles that i love love love.

more to come soon. really. :-)

tootles.

-kelly

ball season begins...

Tball and softball season has officially begun for the kids. Getting in the flow with the schedules of the kid's schedules will obviously take time. Yep, what I was afraid to do most I ended up doing...River missed his first game because I goofed on the timing. That will not happen again. Mommy is so sorry about that, River!!
Turns out that when I thought Aspen would be having her game at 6 and then River's at 7:15, that I was sadly mistaken. They were going on at the same time at two different fields. The rainy weather we had earlier that week had changed up the schedule, and mommy did not remember to adjust. Oops!

But, River did get to practice when he finally did get to the field where he was supposed to have played earlier. He is doing better and better. Mommy and daddy are so proud of him...obviously not just because he is turning into the cutest little ball player, but because he is our kid and growing up so nicely. He is a great kid, and we love him!

Here a few glimpses at the evenings events (I prefer to let photos to the talking for me anyway).

I will be sure to add more shots of the kids actually playing ball as the season goes on... ;-)

Oh, and happy birthday (it was actually the 19th..the day these photos were taken at the game) to our lovely niece, Ashley! She turned 11 and I just can not believe how fast she is growing up!!

dandelions and cookies

Lily and I got a little bit of precious mommy/daughter time. This is always a special time. While River ran some errands with Rocky...Aspen and I did a little cleaning (I know...what mother would have her child clean? Well, she likes to clean..sometimes. Today she helped me clean the kitchen. A huge help she was!!

Afterwards..she wanted to head outside. So, I grabbed the camera and off we went. What a beautiful day it was, by the way!

She headed to our little apple tree and wanted to point out to me all of the budding leaves. :-)

Next up...dandelions! She gathered up quite a few then went to town blowing the little white dandelion petals into the air..

After all the dandelion fun we headed inside and made some flourless peanut butter cookies with dark chocolate chips. She is such a great helper in the kitchen. So thankful for my sweet little girl and for those precious mother/daughter time together.
Oh, and the cookies turned out delicious, in case you were curious. :-)

Flourless chocolate chip cookies

1 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup sweetener (1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 stevia)
1 T baking powder
1 egg (or a chia egg)
dark chocolate chips (optional, but add a great touch)

Mix all together. Roll into little balls, then put on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 2 minutes, then enjoy! These are bit crumbly, but very yummy!

Have a blessed rest of the week!

-kelly

photo mix...

a little mix of photos featuring the folks i love..i am truly blessed to have them in my life.

everyone else enjoying this lovely warm spring weather? i do believe camping is in our very near future!

oh, and i realize i have fallen behind on this little blog, but...life happens. i will work on focusing on getting it caught up, though. 

you can tell that my lovely folks can have a major serious, contemplative side...but, i like how the last photo shows quite the opposite. they can be silly, too. ;-)

have a lovely weekend and consider rope swinging in your pajamas...(hey, it works for river and lily).

-kelly

our boy & his tooth.

This has been a big week in River's life. Okay, I am somewhat excited about it, too. I mean this is a huge milestone in his life...losing a baby tooth. He is six years old now and definitely not a baby anymore. He just keeps growing up and quickly. Oh...can't he slow down maybe just a little bit?? :-)

So..River has been wiggling that little tooth for sometime now and both Rocky and I knew this would be the week that it finally comes out. So, Rocky was so smart to think to take "before" shots or basically some last shots before a full mouth of baby teeth becomes a bit less full.

Here are the before shots...

using the apple, not just for a snack, but for a tooth loosening tool. ;-)

Well...the apple eating worked and so did him "accidentally" hitting it on the couch..long story, but he is Rocky's child and I guess his adventurous streak broke out and well...his tooth went flying out. Yes, we had to locate it. Anywhoo...little man lost his tooth. And at first he was excited, but then it hurt and for some reason he wasn't so thrilled.

Eventually he regained his happy status.

He anxiously awaited morning time so he could see what this oh-so-talked-about tooth fairy would bring him.

Early morning face. ;-)

turns out tooth fairy's hubby is quite skilled in paper folding. Well, River had actually opened it up by this point but the "tooth fairy's" hubby made sure it was a perfectly engineered folded dollar. ;-)

meanwhile...sleeping beauty slept in the next room, with early morning sunshine beaming through her window.

So...this was a big moment in River's life and I am so thrilled we had the privilege of sharing this with him.  He is such a blessing to us and we look forward to him losing many more teeth and having many more visits from the tooth fairy.

Have a happy day everyone!

-Kelly

after bath time photo op with the kids..

well, okay...today ended up being shower kind of day, instead of bath time but you get the idea...

i just so happened to have the camera out when each of the kids finished up their showers. convenient, eh?

the kids wanted to have their photos taken. naturally, i obliged.

here are a few (or four) shots of the kids being their adorable selves.

i don't think I have ever been this cute after a bath or a shower. ;-)

my little cutie patuties.

have a blessed weekend!

-kelly