Sweethearts on the Hill

This is my sweet baby Luke the day he turned 3 months old. He was looking so stinkin' cute, I decided to just keep taking pictures. This is Luke when he first realizes someone is nearby. He smiles with his eyes. This is Luke when he knows he has the attention of that someone. He smiles with his mouth. And this is Luke when hears the voice of that someone talking to him. He smiles with his whole body. Every. Single. Time. He's an adoring audience! And absolutely melts my heart… Some more faces of Luke to share with you... Absolutely smitten with this little nugget~

Feeding my sweet baby boy while the big boys dig for treasures alongside the lake.

  Richie and I drove our little crew up to the mountains to indulge in some snow that recently fell upon East Tennessee.    It only takes a little snow to make some southern boys very happy!   Snowballs...   Trails...   Sledding...   A little mommy love... What more could we ask for?

I went through several rounds of pictures this past holiday season to try to figure out what might work for our Christmas card. It was a little more challenging than I expected to find a setting and a pose that works well for a defiant 6 year old and a toothless 7 year old alongside a fragile 2 month old.    So we tried this… But it didn't work So we tried this...   And that was okay - but Luke wasn't very happy So we gave this a try...   Still not the one Luke had all kinds of opinions about the hat... I tried stacking them up! And it was fun! But we never got it to look as good as the real photographers do. Then our stack came tumbling down... Luke's little hat gave me something to work with... We tried some outdoor shots, which provides a great opportunity to throw some rocks! Luke got lost in the wild outdoors. Finally, we settled on a classic  indoor pose. Whew! Certainly next year won'...

Meet Elvert. Elvert is that dead squirrel looking thing on top of my husband's lip (in case you didn't notice). The boys thought he looked like an Elvert, and so that became his name. Elvert hung out with our family for the month of November when Richie's co-workers decided to join the efforts of spreading prostate cancer awareness.  Elvert took on a life of his own!  He was compared to likes of Ron Burgundy, Burt Reynolds, Johnny Wadd… People would come to Richie's desk at work and ask to be photographed with Elvert. I spent most of my time explaining him away to acquaintances we would run into. I wanted to make it clear that my husband was doing this for a good cause, and that he really hadn't joined the porn industry. The picture above was taken on Elvert's last day with us. The boys suggested we have a memorial service for him and bury him in the back yard.  We opted for the photograph instead. Bye bye, Elvert! See you next November!

The Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot. Come on everyone. Let's join in all the fun. We'll do the Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot. It's really very easy to do. First you spread your wings and you wobble, wobble, wobble. Now let me hear you gobble, gobble, gobble. Turn around and you scratch the ground. Now we're doing the Turkey Trot.