Man, I never blog anymore. I am honestly not sure how I ever made the time for it when I started blogging... seriously... Well, whatever, the reason for not blogging anymore, I am very sorry. You know, probably the only thing that keeps me interested in blogging is visiting somebody else's blog and seeing that list on the side, that says "so and so blogged... 6 months ago" and seeing my name at the bottom... very discouraging!
I took these pictures today, after a fun-filled Christmas day and morning. They got these great hats in their stockings, and I got a great new little lense for my camera that I wanted to play with. I love getting things that spawn so much interest... for instance, I was so excited about my lense, I cleaned up my office, set up all my gear, and actually played with taking some pictures of the kids. I usually dislike taking pictures of them, but am realizing that I do indeed like taking pictures of them... jsut individually. I still really dislike taking pictures of all 4 together... {shivers}....
Seriously, I love this little boy! I am so glad, a million times over that we got surprised with baby #4 and that we got Austin. He keeps me going. His cute sayings and sweet kisses. If you make a kissy noise, he will come running over from anywhere to give kisses. (Well, maybe not to strangers, but to mom and dad at least, and sometimes for G&G too.) But my favorite thing to do is after he came running to give kisses and gets about 5 steps away from me, or about half way across the room, I do it again, and he can't help but coming running right back to me!! I'll do it half a dozen times before he starts to question whether he wants to go all the back or not! To. Die. For.
And then there's this little girl... oh my goodness.... she wears me thin. She does. It's true. I often wonder how in the world she can be the same little girl that I have lost so much sleep over in her few short years of life... she drive me bonkers. And then there are those moments, those special little times that I get to share the fun and sparkle with her and I remember how special she truly is. I got to go out Christmas shopping the other day with just her. TJ had all the other kids, and it was SO awesome. To get to hold just her hand. to walk at her pace. To not be distracted by others running around or complaining. I think she recognized how nice it was to have one-on-one time with mom also.
She is my baby doll lover, and so every year when we write our lists to Santa she still asks for a baby doll. It's just so cute.
Brooklyne.... she's a really cool girl to be around. She usually doesn't mind hurrying to get her chores done, so she can play. She's pretty quick to help out around the house. She loves to be in the kitchen helping me bake or cook, and she LOVES to be outside doing anything, but especially riding her bike.
Madison has always and probably will always be the "mother-hen" of the group. She doesn't really love helping out with chores, and she doesn't really love a lot of activities other than crafting (although she recently has gotten really good on her bike too.) She likes and does a fabulous job of keeping the "Littles" (Austin and Tristan) safe, and doing what they are supposed to do. It definitely borders the tattle-tale line sometimes... but it's far made up for when she is helping them get breakfast on Saturday morning, or getting shoes and socks for Austin to play outside with her... the list could go on.
My favorite part about taking pictures of them today is that I told them they didn't have to smile, since I was jsut taking sample pictures. And they both had headphones in, listening to music, so they seemed to have no clue as to what was going on!!
We had a great Christmas day! What a fun morning of waking up, scavenger gift hunts, present opening, church, left overs... Merry Christmas to everyone!!
** I tried posting this last week on Christmas and TJ had swiped my internet for something, so it wouldn't upload the pictures on wireless... so here it is... not too late;)
