Baby powder & Bugs

As I was blogging the other day & the kids were playing with their toys in the living room, I heard a bit of giggling and commotion so thought I should go check on things. I walked out of my bedroom into a puff of "smoke" and the strong smell of baby powder. Yep... Troop dumped the whole thing of baby powder all over the living room! I am just thankful it wasn't a thing of cocoa or shampoo or something. At least this cleans easy!

Here he is hitting the love sac and watching all the baby powder fly into the a

Here he is hitting the love sac and watching all the baby powder fly into the a

All over his face!

And again.

I had read something somewhere on one of the amazing blogs out there some tips when photographing kids. So I thought since I had my camera out and I had cleaned the baby powder, my kids were clean, dressed, out of their pajamas and their hair was done (oh wait... none of those apply!) I would put a few to practice. One of the tips said to ask the kids if the could see the bug in the camera. This worked like a charm! I finally got my kids to hold still and look at the camera!!

For these next few photos I told them maybe if they put their cheeks together they could see the bug... ha ha ha!

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And for this one I told them maybe if they kissed they could see the bug in the camera... Oh too funny! But I got some pretty cute pictures and my kids are holding still!

Once there was a snowman...

Zanna loves playing out in the snow. She will play for hours on end. I am amazed at what it takes for this little girl to get cold!

She has wanted to build a snowman... and after much begging I finally went out and built one with her!

You know it is so much more fun to play in the snow when you are not pregnant. I have loved feeling like I can bend and move and climb and get around with out grunting and groaning and being nervous I am going to fall because I was so top heavy! Ah it feels SO good!

Here is Zanna, climbing to the top of a snowy hill and jumping. Oh to be a kid!

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Playing with the snowman's nose. I think she lost this carrot like three times before we made the snowman.

Zanna also loves climbing in the trees. Her favorite climbing tree blew over with the last crazy wind storm we had... she was pretty sad and asked if her tree was in heaven!

I love this picture. Footloose and fancy free. Not a care in the world!

The snow was super dry, it was not packing at all so instead of making our snowman with three big snow balls, I found huge hunks of packed snow and piled them on top of each other. Our snow man was a little on the rectangular side!

Simple Things Sunday

I jut found a blog, Simple as That, that has a link up party every Sunday. She has you link up a photo of the simple eveyday joys. I am going to try to do this every week. I hope it will remind me to take photos of the simple pleasures in my life. Such as Troop playing cars on the lamp and on the blanket fort Zanna and I built.

All of these photos are so yellow. The lighting is terrible in my home... oh well!

This boy has the biggest, most beautiful lips. They are edible.

Troop could play with cars all day long. He loves to lay on the ground and watch their wheels go round and round. He can never have too many little matchbox cars.

This photo is so funny! I am thrilled I captured this expression (too bad it isn't in focus). This is what she looks like when something has gone wrong or when Troop has done something she is not happy with!

And Zanna can never have enough little animals. She is OBSESSED. She bathes with them. They play in her doll house. She lines them up on her bed. She feeds them. She pretends to be one of them. And now she is fishing for them.

Cute little Troop loves to watch her play. Most of the time she is good about letting him play with her and she is really good at telling him just how he should be playing ;)

These two crack me up!! They are always being silly and making messes! I let them play with a cookie sheet filled with beans. Troop likes to drive his cars through them and Zanna likes to "feed" the beans to all her little animals. Well You can't see the beans in the photo but Zanna is putting beans down Troops diaper. They think they are pretty funny!! They were laughing so hard. Little stinkers!

Oh and how do you love the food storage backdrop? I usually have a white curtain hanging up to hide the beauty that is my food storage... but we were playing hide and go seek last night and troop hid behind the curtain. He fell down on the curtain and it came down on him. He was nice and tangled up yelling "help me mama, I scared!!"

And my little slice of heaven. This girl is an angel baby! She is so content and sweet. She is also sleeping 7-8 hours a night. She sleeps better than Troop! She is starting to coo and smile all the time. I love it. I could eat her right up! When I took her in for her check up at 7 weeks she weighed 11 lbs. 11 oz. She is a big girl!

When I lay with her I can't take my eyes off her. She is so amazing to me! With every child I am in total wonder... amazed that my body has the ability to create such wonderful, perfect little children. It truly is a miracle.

February

Just a few cute photos of the kids!

I love this photo and I love this little girl something fierce!

Sisters

So sweet

Troop and Alta laying in Zanna's bed.

Troop loving up on his little sis as always. The poor thing gets smothered by her big brother and I have to keep a real eye on him! When I was doing the dishes the other day I heard him say as he walked up behind me "look, cute baby" He had her in his arms in a tight bear hug. He had somehow gotten her off my bed and all the way into the kitchen. Oh my heart was a pounding. That gave me a good scare!

Look at those lips!

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HAHAHA! This picture cracks me up!! I was trying to get a cute picture of all the kids for Valentines... it did not go so well. The photo is out of focus... not that that really matters... none of them are smiling, Zanna's headband is falling off, Alta is ticked and they all look like they came out of a photo from the 1800's.

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Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

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I could gobble him right up! He is such a handsome little devil... and yes devil is the right word! He is full of mischief and naughtyness but he is also so funny and loving and stinking cute! He is going going going all day long either making me giggle or making me crazy!

SOCCER

Zanna started playing soccer a few weeks ago. It is pretty cute to watch all these kids run around a gym chasing a soccer ball. She is not all that competitive and it is kind of frustrating/funny to watch her play. She sings to herself, pretends to be a butterfly, Kangaroo, Cat, Eagle... and many other animals as she runs with her team. We pretty much have to bribe her to get her to pay attention and kick the ball!

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She is always waving at us as she runs by. She will run up to me and give me a big fat kiss as she passes me. When she kicks the ball she looks at me and hold up her fingers counting how many times she has kicked the ball. Cute little girl.

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Troop loves going to her games and playing with the extra soccer balls. He also likes to throw the extra balls onto the gym floor as the game is going and throw himself out onto the gym floor. He is a busy little body!

An action shot! WOOT WOOT!!! GO ZANNA!!!!!

Altas first few weeks.

Here are some photos of Altas first few weeks. She has been so fun! She is a great eater, a wonderful sleeper, she is really calm and is cute as can be!! I am eating up every moment with my sweet girl!

Sweet baby feet!

My mom came to help me the day after Alta was born. She was able to stay two weeks and it was two weeks of pure bliss!! It was so nice to have my mom all to myself. That is unheard of! There are so many children and grandchildren that she is constantly running and always stretched so thin. I felt pretty spoiled and so did my kids!

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Zanna getting a pedicure from her grams.

My kids adored having their grandma with them all day! I was a little nervous that they would not let her do things for them and want me... but no way! They LOVED having grandma take care of them.

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This picture is so funny! Troop is constantly snuggling Alta and is always rubbing his lips over her hair and forehead. He must like how soft she feels.

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Zanna helping with the cooking!

Snuggled up on the "little sak" as Zanna calls it.

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The boys.

The girls.

Don't mind all my post pregnancy weight in my face... ;)

My mom woke up early every morning with the kids and would get up with Troop in the middle of the night when he would wake (he is not that great of a sleeper), Made us all carrot-apple-celery juice every morning, made big beautiful salads, delicious healthy smoothies, she made whole wheat pancakes with fresh ground flour for breakfast, she cleaned, did laundry, dishes, scrubbed all of my carpets on her hands and knees, and waited on our all of our needs. Seriously I got spoiled. I had a nanny, maid and cook all in one amazing woman. I barely lifted a finger!!

My little love sleeping. She is too funny, she always has a scowl when she sleeps!

Snuggled up with daddy.

Jathan is such a wonderful dad & husband. He helped so much with the kids and was right alongside my mom with the cooking. I am thankful he was able to take a week and a half off.

I love that MR.

We sent my mom home with lots of Salmon, Halibut, Moose and Buffalo for our families as a thank you.

Look at all that meat!

It was so hard to see my mom go. I sobbed!! I am so grateful she was able to come help. It was an interesting transition having her leave. Plus she really spoiled Jathan... Now he is use to all of this great healthy food! I have a lot to live up to.

Thank you so much mom. I love and miss you!!!