Today I was picking up the living room after the boys were off to school.  As I was cleaning, I noticed a few toys on the entertainment center shelves. Then I noticed that I had just walked into a sniper scene! Oh the things you find in a house full of boys.

Do you find funny things while cleaning?  Would love to hear from you in your comments!

Well back to work… enjoy your day everyone!

Jen

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Last week I was so excited to head out of the Sacramento area and drive down to Sebastopol to see the Smith Family!! You may remember them from my visit back in September. I LOVE getting the opportunity to see families again and again.  So much changes every few months in a young family’s life.  And the Smiths are no exception.  I was shocked to see how big Dylan has gotten, and see how fun and full of energy Ani is (last time she was recovering from a cold).  Not to mention Dylan & Ani’s mom Mariah, is an awesomely talented photographer herself!!

Mariah & Arron, thank you so much for having me out!  I always feel so welcome and like a part of your family when I’m there.  Ani, thank you for entertaining me all morning, and Dylan, thank you for the awesome snuggles dude!!

Enjoy the photos!!!

ahhhhh who doesn’t love some adorable baby lashes????

Love this one of them… just being them!  Mariah playing with Dylan as he eats and Aaron Ani brushing Biscuit. **LOVE**

Ok mom, you can all relate to this photo of changing your squirmy, wormy baby’s diaper…

and then he arches his back and makes it nearly impossible… it’s like wrestling an alligator just to get the diaper changed! hahaha

I’m not exaggerating… I can feel the love they all have for each other, the whole time I’m with them.  I am truly blessed just to witness the love I get to on a regular basis!

haha Dylan is so fast crawling now, he kept going straight for my camera.

Ani is quite the fashionista, I think she had a dress on and 3 different capes on as she danced around her room. BEAUTIFUL!!!

She read me several stories while I was there.  I love that Biscuit is quite content sleeping under her bed as she reads aloud.

And while she was reading, Dylan was crawling around on the floor, checking stuff out, and trying to pet biscuit under the bed.

Mariah & Aaron, you two are so happy and in love, I smile every time I see one of the many photos I captured of you two snuggling up while you played with and watched the kids play.

Dylan LOVES his baths, and couldn’t wait for someone to get him in there!! haha

BUBBLE FACE!!!!

Ani was Dylan a kiss goodbye, he was about to take off with Daddy.

While Mariah prepared an DELICIOUS lunch for all of us, Ani entertained me by drawing beautiful pictures… she’s quite the artist!

Thank you again Mariah for having me out!!  I can’t wait to share the rest of the photos with you!!!!

Earlier today I took Aiden & Bella on fieldtrip to Explorit Science Museum in Davis. My friend Tezra invited us to join her home school group on the fieldtrip. The museum is so cool with lots of hands on experiements and activities for the kids.

I have more photos, I hope to blog soon, but I had to quickly share this photo. This is my point of view most times when we are in groups with Aiden. He is so shy, until he warms up. That I don’t even think about it anymore, I can just expect him to be close to my side, either holding onto my pant leg or my hand. I was taking photos of the Bella and Tezra’s kids exploring and looked down through my lens and had to record this moment.

This is SOOOOO Aiden, holding my hand, looking up at me with a look in his eye like, “Get me the HE*L out of here.” haha

I know this stage won’t last forever, and it will be quicker than I’d like that he will be “over me” and be embarrased by my sheer presence. SO I’m glad I”ll have this photo to look back on to remember the days that he couldn’t leave my side.

I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by. Kapri is already 9 months old!! It seems like just yesterday that I was just meeting Brad & Lauren for their maternity photos!! I get so excited when I get to see this family again. They are so much fun, Kapri is just adorable, and sweet, and I love catching up with Lauren and Brad! Brad we missed you this time, but I hope you guys got LOTS of deer and didn’t freeze too much on your hunt!

Enjoy your teaser; the rest of the photos will be ready shortly!

This little bear is SO cute! Lauren told me that it was a gift for Brad this Christmas; it was made from his grandmothers mink coat that she wore often. I was so excited to take some photos of Kapri with it for Brad!

Kapri can now hold on to furniture and stand. She was SO PROUD of herself showing off her new tricks to me!!

We take a few photos each time we get together to show how much she’s grown. This one is always one of my favorites to take!

Look at Kapri go with the Crawling!

Lauren, you look fabulous rockin’ the dark hair, I LOVE it!!

After all that playing, Kapri was done, and ready for a nap.

Gosh where does the time go these days. I mean one day you wake up and your heading to the hospital, then the next your heading home from the hospital with a new baby girl and then you turn around and shes “2″!!! Time flies when your having fun thats for sure. Our Bella boo is now 2 years old and its so crazy!! She is growing up so quickly with her own personality and independence already showing. We had family and friends come to the house last weekend to celebrate and bella couldnt have been more excited and had so much fun with everyone. She even when it was cake time, took her sweet time and savored each tiny bite till the cupcake was gone. We are so blessed to have her and as Jen says “my little baby girl isnt so little anymore” I cant wait to see what her personality develops into as she gets older, and already I can see how strong of a little lady she is as well as Jen.

We had asked Bella what she wanted for a cake and immediatelly she said “DORWA”

Time to blow out the candles.

Look at how big she is now!!

She had to show me all the frosting on her teeth at one point.

Present Time, Present time, open a present see whats inside………

Bella was so full of excitement she couldnt contain herself at times…………..like this…

and this………..for her very own sing along microphone that lighs up

and she got so excited when she got this stuffed animal puppet, she squeezed uit till the eyes bugged out of its head.

I just love going and visiting Kapri and her family! She is growing so quickly, and every time I see her, I just want to snuggle her the whole time! This visit was no different. I was amazed to see how much she is cooing and “chattering” in her own little baby language. And how full of personality she is. She is such a happy baby, it was a true joy to spend a few hours with her and her family watching them hang out together, and recording all of it for them to look back on for years to come! Brad & Lauren, I hope you enjoyedy your trip, enjoy your photos!

One of my favorite things to do with my “Watch Me Grow” collections, is to take a photo each time I visit showing the growth during the first year!

I LOVE this stage where they are cooing and talking up a storm. Kapri was talking to me most of the time. And her little tongue was cracking me up, she was sticking it out constantly!

Daddy has been working with her on getting ready for crawling, I love how involved her parents are and how much fun her whole family has together!

Sometimes it takes a team effort to get a baby dressed!

LOOOOOOOVE Kapri’s Halloween costume!!

Kapri’s little hair is just too cute!

Summer equals mohawks right??? Oh it doesn’t for you?? Well it does in the Stewart home!
Every spring my kids start anxiously awaiting the end of the school year. Yes, like everyone else they are excited for the vacation time, but there’s something more…….. they can choose however they’d like to wear/cut/style their hair for the summer.
Since they attend a private school, they have a fairly strict conservative, dress code. And well….. if you’ve been reading our blog, or have known us for any period of time…… our family & style don’t exactly always fit into a conservative norm.
So our WHOLE family looks forward to the summer where we can allow the kids let loose, and enjoy the freedom of childhood. Where they don’t have to worry quite so much about conforming due to job/society requirements & expectations. Come spring we ask them what they’d like to do with their hair. Brian always goes for the fauxhawk and Regan always opts to grow his hair out to the shaggy surfer/skater look. Never before has Brian quite had the guts to fully commit and shave the true blue mohawk….. but this year he decided to take the plunge! He’s been growing it longer the last month or so in anticipation, wanting his ‘hawk to stand tall! haha
So the other night we took him into the back yard and proceeded to make our 9 year old the coolest boy on the block! (or at least in our eyes! haha)

Ummmm yeah, he decided to ues the extra hair cut off to start his mustache….. yeah….. I think you need to give it a few years Bri

Then he decided to comb would give him a bigger headstart…….

And here it is the next morning as we got ready to head out the door for VBS. Evidently the new style automatically gives the snarling upper lip like Billy Idol hahaha

And you can bet, come end of August we will all be fighting back tears as we have to cut their hair again to fit back in, standing out as an individual is SO much more fun!!!!

And now if you will excuse me, I have to run…. the kids are playing Rockband, and “Should I Stay, Or Should I Go” is on……. the guitar is calling my name!!!