Fresh Toth

Little Logan

Those eyes make me smile.

My friend Mandy asked me to take pictures of her baby Logan. He turns 1 this week. Caleb came with me and got to play on the playground. Logan was in great spirits and was fun to photograph.

Here, Katie

Kevin, didn't push the button, though.

Well, I'm a terrible planner. This is no surprise to anyone. Lack of planning causes a lot of heartburn around here. Halloween was no different. I was still feeding the boys dinner when the first trick or treaters starting ring the door bell. No one was dressed and I was stressed out to get a picture of these, the cutest boys:

I know everyone thinks their kids are the cutest, but really those hats are too much. Kevin's mom gets all the credit here. She made these costumes in a few days. I got the idea to have them dress like garden gnomes. (Kevin has called them his gnomies a few times.) I found a cute, $50 costume and couldn't swing the 100 bucks for Halloween. So what did I do? Plead to the mother in law. She really came through here, don't you think? Amazing talent. The hats were perfect, stayed hilariously pointy all night and the boys love them. Tonight (Sunday) Joshua found his hat and tried putting it on his head and came grunting toward me, pleading for help. I put the hat on him, said "Nice hat, Joshua" and signed the word for hat. He was so pleased, he walked around signing "hat" for like 15 minutes with a huge grin on his face. Every time we made eye contact, I complimented him again and he giggled and ran away.

Back to trick or treating. After a late start, we made our way over to my friend Natalie's house. She was having friends (and kids) over and we stopped at a few houses along the way to say Trick or Treat. Okay, it was two houses. We did more last year, but Caleb got some candy, and really, does he ever need more than one handful of the stuff? Below is a shot of Joshua's first go at it. After Caleb modeled correct form, little J walked right up to the lady with his bag, and stared into her face. She put some hideously big piece of chocolate in his hand and he just stood there. Caleb remembered to say thank you, but he was most concerned about finding his friend Ellie.

The night was a little jumbled. We ended up hanging out at Nat's house for the evening, and leaving a bowl of candy on our driveway. Next year I'll be more organized: Costumes before the sun sets so we can get good pictures, a sign for the candy if we are to leave it, one lap around the block, and then some time handing out candy. Caleb loved that part last year and I feel like I deprived him this year. It was really fun hanging out at Nat's though- all of our husbands were there, which is a rarity, indeed. Here are some pics of the friends, including baby Meadow as Elvis.

Jen with her Emmie, and Jodi with her Peighton.

Caleb found a lollipop on the sidewalk yesterday and was concerned that it was Ellie's. I don't think he tried to eat it.

CrossFit Total

I just wanted to elaborate a little on my FitNess post that's usually hanging out in grey over there on the right. I got 3 new personal records (pr), so I'm celebrating with a post in the big column. (Lame...)
Ran easy 4 miles, with the new jogging stroller. It was definitely an easy ride, but alas, not self-propelled.
CrossFit WOD: "CrossFit Total"
Back squat, 1 rep
Shoulder Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep
This is a fun workout because you get to try to max out on each of those lifts. My total was 440. My last CFT was 350 (8/13) and the one before that was 325. What a big difference. I guess it has been two months.
Back Squat-155# (pr); Shoulder Press- 75# (pr); Deadlift- 210# (pr)
Personal records for me all around, but I still felt weak on the shoulder press. I wish could break it down a little more and not have to jump in 5# intervals. I guess that's what the CrossFit gym is for.

Meadow

Meadow

I had the privilige of photographing beautiful baby Meadow this morning. In exchange for my small services, Natalie watched (and fed) my boys while I went on a long run. What a lovely day. This girl is seriously pretty, it was easy taking photos of her. There are a couple of shots of her super cute big sister Brooke at the end of the slideshow.

Here are two of my favorites that don't fit into the conventional "portrait" category.

Playgroup at the park

I'm the coordinator for the battalion playgroup. Basically I just set up the when and where we'll meet at a playground and I bring some water and juice. There are several families with kids around the same ages Caleb and Joshua. It is really fun to let them all play together. The pics below aren't my kids, obviously. They're the cute progeny of my friend Danielle. I just like the photos.

Christian Way Farm trip

The Pumpkin Patch at Christian Way Farm

Last Monday Kevin and I drove out to Christian Way Farms in Kentucky. It wasn't technically open, but the owner was working in the barn, so he let us play around the farm. His son even fired up some of the tractors to take us on a hayride to the pumpkin patch. We each picked out our own perfect pumpkin. Kevin's, of course, is weird-looking. He likes it because it looks just like a human head. There was also a "tractor train:" a big tractor pulling several old riding lawn mowers that Caleb was convinced were each "little tractors." He loves tractors. Joshua was scared of the pigs at first. But on second viewing he was unfazed. He even started bouncing with one hand up, the way he does when he's dancing, to the beat of the pigs' grunting.
Kevin tried to get the boys to feed the goats some dried corn, but Joshua kept eating it and Caleb threw it at the goats and ran the other way. My favorite part was the bed of an old pick-up filled with dried corn. Joshua is so tolerant of Kevin's shenanigans. Kevin buried him and Joshua was up to his elbows in corn. Joshua didn't protest one bit. I'll soon post some video of the outing.

Birthday Blintz

Last year Kevin made me a layer cake for my birthday, complete with strawberry filling. Too bad he's away training this week... But he did make us blintzes for breakfast last Sunday. Some were filled with blueberry compote and the others with a sweet cream cheese filling. Caleb loved the blueberry ones and actually cried after tasting the cream ones. Unbelievable, because they were seriously like frosting filled doughnuts. Kevin is such a good cook, when he has the chance. Thanks for my birthday blintzes, Kevin. We miss you!