getting thru life with four....

a sampling of her first couple weeks.... pretty much sums it up!!

has been a stinking blast!! seriously, we are just having the time of our lives with our new addition.. and just look at her!! not much work besides the occasional( ok, daily.. even hourly) blow out and the constant soaking of clothes.. People ask me all the time how is it adapting with four kids.. Or they see us out (don't know us) and they say "oh, you have your hands full!"..My reply is always, well, actually it is pretty easy. Little T didn't come out walking or back talking.. so yeah.. she is pretty darn easy. Her older siblings just adore her and they fight over who gets to give her a hug and kiss good night during the bedtime routine. Today, while driving to pick up Big T from school, Tegan was coo'ing(yeah, she does that now.. so melts me!) and so Beckham was talking to her. He said " hi Tegan will you be my best friend?".. AWE. hearing that come from the back seat of the van, just filled me with joy. I realized (yet again) how amazingly blessed I am. Do you ever stop and look into the sweet eyes of your children and say "what did I do to deserve such awesome gifts?". I do. I find myself thanking God every single night during my prayer time for the beautiful gifts he has blessed me with. I pray for each one of the individually(um, even pray for their future mates.. I know jumpin the gun just a tad on that one perhaps.. lol) and I ask him to give me guidance on how to raise them. and who am I kidding?? I ask for LOTS of patience.. four is kind of a rough age.. just sayin'.

It's a good thing she is so stinkin' adorable.

Anyway... my busy, busy time of year is *almost* coming to an end.. so I had some free time to actually pop over here and blog on this page. I am so ever grateful for the amazing growth in my business this year.. (I'll do a separate post on that here soon). I wanted to give a few updates here before we get full force immersed into the Christmas season. Well, actually we started fun festivities last weekend and have been doing something each night since. I have been taking pics along the way and I look forward to sharing them here on my blog.

I'll leave you with the announcement that we sent out for Miss Tegan.

this little lady....

Tegan Evangeline

has been taking up a lot of my time lately! oh.. yeah. I kinda had a baby. and surprise , she is a girl!! And we are so loving having her in our family. Two and two.. almost feel like my family is complete.... almost... Adapting to four kiddos has been a breeze. Really it has. She just comes in tow to every where we go. She has been more places.. and it is so funny, because each time, the older kids say. " this is Tegan's first time to.. church, to the park, to school, to football, to grandma's house, to wal-mart, .. etc.".. um yep. Lots and lots of 'firsts' for this little one.

She is a great baby.. sleeps almost all the time. Sleeps 5-6 hr stretches at night. Eats like a champ and is growing like crazy. speaking of, guess I should make her 2 month dr. appt. EEK. YES, she is almost 6 weeks old already.( did you really think I would blog about her birth.. c'mon my blogging capabilities are severely lacking ...) funny.. because with her eldest brother and sister, I blogged their every sneeze and fart. (you think I am joking?? lol) I'll leave you with this one.. taken during her first week.... awwww. it is a good thing I specialize in newborn photography.. get to have my newbie fix as my own newborn grows up..

we're off to school !

lots of things going on around here... business took a bit of a break while we had our baby girl , but it is back in full swing. Practices and activities and play dates are keeping us busy too.

Our (not) so little girl was thrilled to start PreK.. and so of course it deemed necessary for a mini session.. (I'll post a whole post with those images) . She is absolutely loving it.. and after the ordeal that we have just been through.. could not be happier with this school and her teachers. God is so Good. Brigham is into his 3rd week of Second grade and loving every minute of it. He leaps in the door asking for his snack (of course) but then sitting right down at the kitchen table to do his homework.. oooooooor maybe it is so he can finish up and get out to play with the neighbor friends.. don't know which one! lol

We are on the heels of a great long weekend... pictures to come! Oh, and the stack of thank you notes (that are severely late in getting out) from Brig's birthday, reminds me that I never shared about his Star Wars adventure ! Got to get on that.

Now that the kids are in school and I just have the littles at home M-Th... I am working in some 'me' time, some 'work' time and some time with friends. I am actually kind of liking this schedule thing!

my little guy turns 2

my little firecracker turned two on July 3rd... sad to say , being the third child... he kinda missed out on the big ,crazy, natzi theme parties that his older siblings have had. Honestly.. we had just finished up with Tatum's ( a month late) and I knew Brigham's was coming up (ten days after Beck's)... plus prepping the house and prepping for baby.. I just waived the white flag and decided.. a two year old could still have fun with a little family party. Our weekend was full of activities anyway.. so we kinda made our Day at the Lake and his first boat ride.. a birthday deal for him. Came home that night and just did a simple party.. with a theme.. but of course! Beckham has been obsessed with "ca-ca" balls.. since about 18 months, so we knew when older brother's soccer season started in May.. it would be ridiculous.. and sure enough- it was! This kid spots a "ca-ca" ball on a sign or in a store and he goes nutz! We knew it would be an easy theme to throw together for his little shin dig.

all his favorite foods... pizza... grapes.. watermelon and chips....

and of course the "ca-ca" ball cake!!

We spread a blanket on our living room floor and the kids enjoyed a picnic indoors!

He was very excited about his cake. And he liked it even more when we sang to him!

Big brother Brigham helped with the candles...

and his sister proudly showed off how much she liked the cake!

and then we celebrated some more with fireworks... and sparklers...

the birthday boy was not enjoying this part of his celebration!.. all in all it was a great time.. simple and so nice for just the family. There wasn't any stress prepping for 50 ppl and getting tons of food and decorations in order.

Now...I am in full party planning mode for Brigham's party which is coming up this weekend. We certainly get our share of bdays around here... and still awaiting patiently for a new birthday to join the crew.

Got less than 3 weeks left til we meet our new addition. We have been keeping busy with the fair, and camps, swimming lessons, cook outs and park play.. (oh and watching several movies as we had to endure an entire week of high 90 degree weather).

Trying to get business stuff wrapped up as well as personal stuff so we can head into the last week of pregnancy , stress free. I am gonna try to catch up with some blog posts here in the next few days too...

my princess turns four!

As I have said before, life is just keeping us busier and busier and this ol' blog has taken a back seat to our social activites and family fun this summer. Summer is the time for birthdays around our house. Even though Tate turned 4 on May 9th , mama had a full schedule of photo sessions and didn't get the invitations out in time, so we pushed her party to June. nothing wrong with celebrating all month long right? At the conclusion of her 3rd bday party, she annoucned that she wanted her next wone to be a princess party. Since I am not so much in to the character thing, I decided on a vintage princess theme... a little more 'fancy' and centered around black and white toile, crowns with accents of pink. A royal affair indeed. I didn't scan a pic of the invitations , but they had this similar crown in pink, fancy font and I adorned the crown with rhinestones for a litle sparkle. Guests arrived to this sign.....

of course as I do with all of my parties, I have to go get coordinating flowers to set around. YOu bet it it was fun when we did Brigham's 3rd bday part which was circus themed. Talk about lots of bright blues, yellows, reds, oranges and purple flowers everywhere. This was nice, that I just had to keep it to shades of pinks.

My friend Krystal came over an hour before the party to give tatum a royal up do. I still can't believe she offered to do that. Turned out great and just perfect for the princess of the ball.





The goody bags were a big hit.. of course lots of glitz and glam.. a wand, and some princess bubbles... nail polish and lip gloss.. and of course pink candy!

the yummy food table.. perfect for a royal tea party. pb and j cut into princess crowns for the little princesses and

my hubby really loved me when I gave him the task of rolling plasticware and adhering the ribbon and tags! lol

the cake and the sweets table..... um, we had tons of it left over. Apparently 4 year old girls would much rather have the candy out of the pinata!

isn't the brotherly prince a hoot?

making their pretty , pretty mirrors. all glammed up with stones and poofy things!

all the girls showed up in their finest ball gowns!

not sure why all the spaces.. but when I tried to go back and delete, it just kept deleting the pictures so.... enjoy the 'white" space. So on the heels of this party , she is already requesting and Alica in Wonderland party for when she turns five. ok, by mama.. I've got some great ideas and already started a bit of the shopping. First I have to get thru a Star Wars party in a couple weeks for a certain boy that will be turning 7. And in the midst of that , we tossed in a soccer party for our 2 yr old little guy. busy busy... when does life ever slow down??? lol