Big like Mommy and Daddy

I told you I'd be posting them!  Actually that's WHY I told you I'd post them.  Once I put it on the blog, I HAD to do it.  I couldn't make a liar of myself!

Neither of the kids were very into dressing up this time, so I had a hard time pulling any smiles out of them.  As I'm experimenting and learning how to take my pictures in RAW format I'm having a hard time getting things set just right so I can get clearly focused pictures of my kids, in a hurry.  They don't sit still at all!  So when I am adjusting my settings so I don't need to use a flash, I struggle with getting the shutter speed fast enough.  I'm learning though.  Slowly!  I think the manual stuff will be easier to use outside, rather than in my 'studio'.  But I haven't tried to corral the kids into a photo shoot outside yet this year.  I should get on it or the new calendar is going to sneak up on me and I won't have anything ready for it.  (For those who might not know, I put together a calendar of the kids, and Jen's kids, for the grandparents and us every year.)  On that note, I'll leave you with these pictures of our precious children.

 She is actually freaking out here and trying to get the dress off.

 Laughing gleefully that he successfully got one arm out of the jacket,

regardless of my begging him to stay in it and stay still.

 

Hope you enjoyed these pictures even half as much as I do!

2 and Beautiful

And because no birthday is complete around here without a photo session, here are Kindi's two year pictures!  Edited with my new Wish photoshop actions.  I have taken my wedding dress pictures as well so hopefully I'll get those edited and posted soon too.

I didn't actually use any actions on this one, she is making a funny face, but it is one of very few that you can actually see her teeth.  Or the lack of top front teeth anyways.  When she was just itty bitty, 7 months I believe, she chipped her front right tooth.  She had developed a really bad habit when she was mad of slamming whatever object she could get her hands on into her mouth.  At least that's what I assume she did to bust it.
Well a few weeks ago we were playing over at Mom's house and mom asked me if Kindi had chipped a tooth.  I blew it off, Oh yeah, she did that forever ago.  Later that afternoon we were playing at home and Kindi growled at me and I did a double take.  Wait a minute?!  Where is her tooth?  Sometime in the last day?  Maybe two days?  She had broke off her left front tooth, not quite at the gums.  I have no idea when she did, or how she did it.  The only thing I could think of is that maybe she had fractured it on one of her recent falls?  I did remember her hitting her face on the coffee table a few days before.  So maybe she had fractured it and then it just snapped off later?  She didn't throw any massive fits like you would expect from breaking a tooth.  It is still a mystery.  Now sadly she will have to wait to get her two front teeth until her adult ones come in.  Sheesh!

Kindi's a sentimental little thing.  She has never been the cuddler that Kaden is, but lately she has decided she loves to have mommy sit on the couch with her to snuggle.  She is always coming to me with her blanky, binky and baby begging me to come sit on the couch and snuggle with her.  I wish I could type it so you could hear the way she says it.  It's something to the effect of 'chungel', but since you haven't heard it before you probably didn't say it quite right in your head!  But let me tell you, if she ever asks you to snuggle with her, you won't be able to say no!

One of her most favorite sayings is 'Love you MUCH!'.  The first time she said it to me it shocked me and melted my heart!  I had just put her in bed and finished singing her a song when she cheerfully told me, 'Love you MUCH!'.  I had no idea where she got that from, until the next night when I realized that I had been saying it to her for months.  After singing to her I would say, 'Goodnight princess, I love you very much.'  Obviously she had been paying attention.  Talk about precious!

My beautiful Kindi.  She is the sweetest, cutest little thing.  She has a temper that is going to try my patience as she gets older.  She's incredibly smart and picks up on everything around her.  She adores her brother, and often calls him Boy.  (Due to playing puppies a time too many I guess.)  She is usually obedient, but once in awhile she bares her stubborn streak and I cringe thinking about her teen years.  And she is such an amazing blessing sent straight from God.  I pray daily that God will give me the wisdom I need to be the mother she needs.  Nothing could be worse than to watch a child walk away from God, so that is where my prayers are focused.  Please Lord give me the wisdom to raise her (and Kaden) to know and love you with all their beings.

Happy Birthday Kindi Kae!

My sweet little baby is two.  TWO!  I can't believe how fast time moves.  I realize I say that about as often as I remember to post to this blog... but I can't help it.  Whenever I stop to think about how old my kids are getting I can't fathom how it happened!
We had a mini birthday party for her at my parents house Sunday after church.

Kindi was so cute while opening her presents.  She quickly and efficiently tore a present open, exclaimed over it (My Jammies!  My book!  My Baby Blankie!) and then promptly set it off to the side in a pile.  Okay, actually she SET the first few in a pile, then she just chucked the rest onto the pile.  She obviously didn't have enough time to be neat about it.

Kaden did a good job with letting Kindi open her own presents, but he stuck pretty close to check things out.  Here he is demonstrating how to use her new Farm Faces book.

Kindi was quite impressed with her new 'pincess' (aka princess) chair.  She has a hard time getting all the way into it, so she ends up reclined with her feet either in the air or propped up on the seat.

Grandma got her a balance bike.  She is just barely too short for it right now, but she should be able to start using it before summer ends.  I'd never heard of a balance bike before.  They don't have training wheel, and they don't have pedals.  They are supposed to push themselves with their feet and as they get better they can pick up their feet and coast.  It is to help them learn how to balance on two wheels, supposedly it makes it a lot easier for kids to learn to ride a two wheel bike.  Learning to pedal is a lot easier than learning to balance.
Maybe it will help Kaden develop some balance.

Kindi's favorite movie right now is 'Monkey George', or Curious George as he is more commonly known.  So I made her a monkey cake.  She was thrilled.

She's all about blowing out those candles.  Deep breath!

Then lean right in and try not to burn your nose!

On Monday (Kindi's actual birthday) Jeremy brought two purple carnations home for Kindi.  She was in awe over her flowers.  She carried them around most of the evening and was excited to see them again the next day.  I told Jeremy that he'd just started a tradition, which he had already figured out.  It will be fun to see how she looks forward to her birthday flowers from daddy as she grows.

3 and handsome as can be.

Well since I was going to post about Kindi's birthday, I figured I had better post about Kaden being 3 first!  So here he is.  My son is no longer a baby, he is definitely a little boy now.  As much as I like to pretend he isn't growing up at the speed of light, I can't stop him.  But I am continually amazed at how he just gets more and more fun.  And funnier!  He has such a cute sense of humor, and the things he says sometimes!

The men in Jeremy's family all wink.  And they all do it exactly the same.  It's a little bit eerie when you experience it for the first time.  Kaden, being a Wells male, has officially started his training in the art of winking.  He has a ways to go to match his Daddy, but golly is he ever cute when he tries.  He has to squint both eyes shut, then open his right eye.  He's quite proud of his accomplishment though.

The other day Kaden was trying to get Daddy to play with him.  He'd followed him into the kitchen and was pulling on him, but Jeremy had to go to the bathroom.  Kaden watched him go in and close the door then he ran over to the door and started pounding on it with both fists.  "I know you're in there!", he hollered.  Where does he get this stuff!?

As crazy and rambunctious as he is, Kaden is also so sweet.  He is always hunting me down for a long hug, he loves it when we sit with him on the couch to watch a movie, and I can always count on him for a kiss.  I love those moments, nothing beats an unprompted 'Mama?  I love you!'.   What a blessing he is!

I have recently upgraded my editing software to Elements 10 and purchased some editing actions from Wish Photography.  She is always doing great sales and giving away extra products.  So this is the first time I have really had a chance to play with her actions.  She also puts out some great tutorials and I have learned the benefits of shooting in RAW mode (as apposed to the common JPEG) and using manual settings.  Hopefully my photography will start showing some improvements, I know I am enjoying learning to use these new things.  And they make editing more fun, easier, and I feel like my images are turning out a little bit more 'professional'.  I've always struggled when shooting 'in studio', and these last sessions with my kids were so much easier.  Now if I can just get them to sit still!

Lambing Barns

Well since I'm terrible at keeping my blog up to date I didn't post about last years trip to the Wahl family lambing barns, but I did in 2010 .  I posted it in May, but we must have gone just a couple of weeks before Kindi was born.  Last year Kindi was not quite one, so it was difficult for her to get around in the hay, but this year she was all over the place.  (I refuse to admit that she will be two on Monday!)  The kids loved to hang out in the bummer lamb pin.  (Bummer lambs don't have a mommy and are bottle fed until they can be grafted onto a ewe.)    Kindi would go in and start 'Maaaaaa'-ing at the lambs expecting them to come to her.  She kept freaking out and bawling, but it wasn't until we went back the next day that I realized it was because she was mad that the sheep weren't obeying her.  She was telling them to come to her so she could hold and pet them, but sheep are not very obedient creatures.  It really upset her!

Willing the lamb to come to her!

Kaden didn't wait for the lambs to come to him.  He just plowed in and picked them right up.  The tricky part was getting him to watch out for the other lambs sleeping in the pin.

She was so excited when I pulled one of the lambs out for her to hold.

Kaden watched me feed one of the lambs, but wasn't content to help me hold the bottle.  Here he is trying to wrestle a lamb into eating.  He was not successful.

When he got tired of the lambs he decided to throw hay.

And lay down and roll in the hay.

Then a couple of the girls brought out the puppies!  Oh my!  We were all three in love.  I'm seriously wanting a puppy right now.  Watching how much the kids enjoyed loving on the puppy was so much fun.  They were both so sweet.

Look Mom, a puppy!

He looks so much like a little boy these days.  His baby face is pretty much gone.

Such a gentle puppy.  He didn't mind one bit that Kindi was carrying him like a sack of potatoes.

Kaden couldn't get enough of the puppy.  He cuddled, and played and giggled.

Making friends.

Is this precious or what?!

Tomato Soup

Awhile back I made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch, sure that the kids would love the sandwiches and turn up their noses at the soup.  Or at the very least only use it to dip their sandwiches in.  Guess what?  Kaden didn't even touch his sandwich, and Kindi barely did.  Kaden LOVES tomato soup.  He will sit down and eat half a can sometimes.  He tells me it's 'Delicious'.  I just wish I could type it the way he says it.  I love it!  It makes me smile every time!  

Yep, Kaden loves to eat his tomato soup...

Kindi on the other hand...

 She likes to wear hers!

Easter

Hello all,

I'm still around, and I even remembered the password to get into this account.  Yay for me.  I realize I'm pretty much the worlds worst blogger, but I never promised I'd be very good at it.  So on with the good stuff!

I love getting the whole family dressed up in coordinating outfits for church.  So much so that I actually wore a bit of pink!  Just a bit mind you.  You can't really tell in this picture, but the shirt under my jacket is pink and my necklace and earrings are pinkish.  I also painted my toenails pink.  And Kindi's to match.  That was quite the experience for her.  She loved it and yet was so nervous about it.  The whole time I was painting them she was fidgeting and giving me that nervous giggle sound.  You know, the one that you try so hard to avoid when you are at the doctor for something embarrassing.  Yeah, that one.

When I tried to paint our finger nails to match she got really excited and handed me her finger, until I pulled the brush out of the bottle.  I don't know what she thought it was, or was going to do to her, but as soon as I pulled it out of the bottle she would freak out and yank her hand away, hiding it under her chin or in her mouth.  I tried to paint mine, but after the fourth attempt being ruined by immediately having to help Kindi go potty or help Kaden button his pants... I gave up!

We even got Jeremy in pink!  What a gorgeous family!

Malaki, Lillie, Kaden and Kindi show off their finery.  

(Kori was having special Mommy time.)

 Hunting eggs.

 What a handsome little boy.  Where did my chunky baby go?!

 Don't ever put your chocolate down around Kindi.  She'll snatch it up and be gone before you know it!