Sorry I’ve been missing in action.  I have been sick, really sick for a LONG time.  I thought I would never get better, but I’m slowly coming around.  Not to mention the fact that I’m still healing from my knee surgery - it does NOT help when a certain four year old decides to kick it with all her might during a throw down temper tantrum, not once, but twice!  Ugh.  Then she fell on it just a few days ago.  Lovely.  Holden’s been in on it too - I was holding him on my lap and he threw his head back and hit it, yep, you guessed it, right smack dab in the middle of my knee.  Excruciating.  Now I know they’re both out to get me.  I’m limping more now than I was two weeks ago.  My doctor said that I couldn’t damage it again after surgery, and it’s certainly been put to the test.  I’m not sure he’s correct, but I’m hoping for my sake that he is.  The pain has just been downright horrible.

I keep meaning to post, but I just crash every night after the kids go to bed.  Thankfully our little guy has been sleeping through the night for one week now and I can’t even tell you how grateful I am for that.  I’m hoping that his all night sleeps continue because it’s GREAT.  However; little guy decides that he can now crawl at rocket speed and he’s taken up climbing in the last two days.  I’ve caught him on top of boxes and step stools so far.  He’s CRAZY I tell ya’.  Kasen wasn’t even crawling yet, so this is new for us.  Brad said, “Well, Kasen got into EVERYTHING and so does Holden, but Holden has twice the strength.” LOL  We are in T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

We had our annual Oscar party tonight with Kasen.  She got all dolled up and yes, I took pictures.  I’ll have to post them later because I just don’t have the energy to edit them and post them tonight.  However: here are some random pics that I’ve taken in the past month.  Enjoy!

P.S.  These are especially for you Gayle - a little birdie told me you had been asking!!!

That’s all for now.

See ya’ later!!

Hope your Valentine’s Day was sweet.

See ya’ later!!

Four years ago today, Kasen became legally ours. *I wish I could find a jumping up and down excited emoticon*  She is our light after the storm, our rainbow baby, our precious, precious girl.  We couldn’t love her anymore if we tried. She is such a joy and we love her to the moon and back.

Kasen and Brad playing in the snow on Thursday.  We had a record snowfall here in Texas.  It was CRAZY!  I loved the snow, but didn’t like it when our power went out all evening.  Kasen and Brad went outside to build a snowman, but I think Kasen had more fun pelting Brad with snowballs. LOL

Since we still didn’t have power on Friday, we sat around the fire most of the day and tried to keep warm.  It was fun getting out some toys that haven’t been loved in a while.  It wasn’t fun explaining to Kasen why this didn’t work and that didn’t work because they all required electricity.  See our sneaky little visitor.

Our sweet girl granting me with a super quick photo shoot this evening since it’s the day we legally became a forever family.

See ya’ later!!

Poor little pumpkin is home from Mother’s Day Out again today.  She woke up all congested, coughing and sniffling.  She looked so sad and said “I’m just not having a good day.” LOL  And now that she knows she’s not going to school, well . . . . even sadder.  Hopefully she’ll be able to go back to school tomorrow because she loves it sooo much.  I’m guessing a lot of cartoon watching is in our future for today, especially since I woke up with a super sore throat as well.  Ugh.  Holden still has his cold too.  We really need to kick this crud to the curb.

Here’s our silly girl enjoying a treat of watermelon yesterday.  It’s not as sweet as in the summer, but still good.  I love these pictures because Kasen is doing what Kasen does best - being silly.  That’s our girl.  And look at those eyes, aren’t they just gorgeous?!!!!

See ya’ later!!

Love this shot of Kasen that I took this week.  I asked her if I could take a few quick pics before she dug into this sugar bomb and she obliged . . . for a little bit.  Her eyes about popped out of her head when I pulled this treat out of the pantry.   It is a chocolate covered marshmallow dipped in more white goo, sprinkled with peppermint chips, and topped with a bright red jelly bean.  Just enough sugar to make her bounce off the walls for a while!  Thank goodness for Wii during these gray, rainy days - worth every cent!!

See ya’ later and Happy Friday!!!!!

Little dude in his crib this afternoon.  The sick little guy was cooperative for about one minute, then the wailing began.  Good grief, can he ever cry.  Whew, exhausting.

Long day - Holden whining, my knee has been aching terribly all day - I’m ready for bed, but Holden is in crazy rare form.  On the other hand, Kasen was great today.  I’m super thankful for that!

Good night!  See ya’ later!!

Kasen snapping pics of me today with her toy camera.  It flashes and also has a cool shutter noise.  She thought it was funny to be taking pics of me while I was taking pics of her.  We were finally able to go outside for a bit today because we’ve been cooped up in the house for so long.  Everyone has been sick so that hasn’t helped.  Kasen is finally better, just a bit tired still. Brad and I are both sick and Holden really has it bad right now.  Poor little guy.  He had one rough day today.  Here’s hoping that tomorrow is better for the little man.

See ya’ later!!

I wanted to share my other cutie real quick because she was awesome yesterday and let me take some photos.  Even though she was at home sick from Mother’s Day Out with a horrible cough, her mood was still great.  She’s still home today, but I think she’s doing a ton better.  I know she’s ready to stop coughing and so are we - it’s hard to hear her like that.  Anyway, I got some wonderful pictures of our little tornado.  I was so happy because I’ve been asking her for a while and she promised me on Sunday that I could do a “mini photo shoot” on Monday - yep, we even shook on the deal. LOL

This is certainly not my idea, I’ve seen other photographers do pictures similar to this one, so I thought I would try my hand at it as well.  I love how it turned out.  Kasen thought it was pretty cool too.

There are so many pictures that are just hilarious, Kasen is SO expressive.  However; I chose this pic of her adorable face smiling because it reminds that for *maybe* a few seconds each day, that she can actually be still. LOL  I’ll have to make a collage of the other ones though, because they really showcase her fun and vibrant personality.  Love, love, love that girl.

See ya’ later!!

Holden is STILL in the 95th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height - exact same percentages from his last doctor’s visit.  Yep, he’s a bruiser, but a sweet one, and a consistent one at that.  He had his six month doctor’s appointment this morning, even though he turned seven months old yesterday.  It was too hard to get him in when he turned six months, because that was Christmas time and then, well, I had this little knee surgery to contend with.  Anyway, it’s done and he did GREAT.  This is the little one who can cry buckets of tears at home when something doesn’t go his way, but today he cried just a little and NO TEARS.  I could not believe it.  Where were those tears that flow so freely on a daily basis?  Seriously, I’m not complaining, just surprised, pleasantly.  The doctor said that he looked like a banker with that bottom lip sticking out all the time, the nurse took one look at those thighs and there came the linebacker comment LOL, and when I checked out, I was told several times how cute he is.  Yes, yes, I know we have a cutie on our hands!!

See ya’ later!!

Our sweetheart, our son, the  final chapter in our long family building journey.  He has such a sweet nature, loves to cuddle, he’s very sensitive, crazy strong, his big sister makes him laugh the most, and when his father enters the room, his whole face lights up. He has the best giggle and he can hurt your ears with his screeching like a dinosaur. LOL He is one precious little guy!

I decided to do a quick photo shoot this evening and I got tons of cute shots - Holden was really cooperative.  It was so cute.  Kasen was hugging him tonight and said “I really love Holden.  He’s a rock star!’ LOL  Yep, he is.

See ya’ later!!