Birthdays, Balloons and Butts

1 week ago we were covered in 12 inches of snow and yesterday I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I LOVE living in North Carolina! Today the windows are cracked, the doors are open and I'm soaking in the musty post thunderstorm smell. Our local weather man forecasted more cold weather next week but I'm choosing to not believe him. 

My Goddaughter, Makenna's, 2nd birthday is just around the corner and yesterday morning was her 2 year photoshoot. Her mom had a bunch of balloons blown up for the pictures so yesterday afternoon, we decided to take the kids to a local neighborhood clubhouse and snap more pictures of the kids playing with the balloons because we were gonna get her $20 out of those balloon gosh darn it. Helium is expensive these days, y'all! 

The birthday girl. Isn't she the cutest?!

As soon as Tabitha told me what colors the balloons were, I knew exactly what outfit Avery could wear to coordinate! A girl's gotta coordinate with her friend's birthday color scheme, right?!

Really mom, we're taking MORE pictures? I don't know how I feel about this...

Toddlers and Tiaras are calling... they want their pose back. Why she poses like this, I do not know but it's hilarious.

Love her!

Parker had a blast climbing the rocks and taunting me with coming as close as he could to falling in the pond. 

I kept asking him to turn around so I could get a picture of his face and not is hiney. He thought that was hilarious so I got about 15 pictures like this:

How fitting is it that this photo sequence is to commemorate turning 2?

I die. She even threw in a "no mine!" which makes it even more awesome! Welcome to your 2's, Makenna! No wonder why her parents call her "sassy!" 

Sweet friends

Can you believe Makenna is 10 months younger? They look the same size!

Happy 2nd birthday, sweet Makenna! We are so blessed to live 2 doors down from you and live life with your family!

Fall Photos Flash Back

Almost loosing my pictures in the great computer crash of 2012 has seriously got me emotional. My tech savvy hubby spent hours in his office trying to retrieve them. By the time I went to bed, I felt ill that I had lost SO many photos of the kids and hundreds of dollars in applique designs. Thankfully, this morning, I awoke to a very proud hubby who had YouTubed videos and retrieved 52,000 files from my fried computer!!!!! They were all promptly backed up and will continue to be daily from here on out! Lesson learned!

Immediately after thinking I'd lost all my pictures, I pulled out my CDs of professional photos and started uploading them to shutterfly in case I loose the disk. That way I have the ability to print them, put them in books or even blow them up on an afghan if I ever desire to have an afghan of my face. You never know.... I just may.

In the process of uploading last year's fall session I came across these jewels. Our photo session for this year's fall pictures which I plan to use as our Christmas card picture is November 2nd. I can't believe how much has changed since then! Avery looks totally different and Parker still enjoys having his picture taken about this much:

Avery actually looks like a chunky baby here. My guess is that she weighs the same now as she did then... she's just leaner! I think the spit up running down the dress is classic. You should also know she's sitting in a huge blow out poop.... I can't say I miss the spit up and constant blow out poop phase. A is still so much of a baby to me despite being 17 months now. She's still about this size, she can just run, climb and jump now!

 If you've read the blog while, you probably know I'm forever trying to get a great picture of all 4 of us... A huge blow up on a big canvas worthy shot! Our photographer, Alicia Sutton with Alicia Sutton Photography, has tried everything short of doing back flips to make it happen for us but usually someone just isn't cooperating. Can you tell who that was this time?

Oh Parkerman, is it really THAT hard to smile for 10 minutes? But how cute does Avery look in her daddy's lap!?!?!

We did come out with a few cute ones I'm not sure I've shared before and if I have, it's been a while.

We may not be able to get a fantastic whole family shot but we usually get fantastic daddy/son, mommy/daughter shots! I treasure these!

And I leave you with one to make you giggle.... How do I top this?!

This year, I've decided we're going for some candids at our photoshoot. We'll try a pose or 2 as a group but realistically, we're a roll in the leaves, chase each other around kind of family at this stage of life. What should I expect with a 3 year old and 1 year old, right?! And lastly... how is it already the holidays?!?! Wasn't it JUST Christmas like 4 months ago?