4.29.2010

What 36 Looks Like

A wonderful life with a great husband & 3 wonderful children. What more could I wish for on my birthday?

4.26.2010

Be Different.

I absolutely love this blog & look forward to checking for new posts weekly. The photographer Erin is currently hosting a Mama Monday (with a camera) lessons on her site & this week she focused on being different when choosing that photograph. So I decided to go through my photos to see if I could find any examples where I didn't get that exact photo I was looking for but instead got what I think of as my perfect photo.

I am always trying to get a photo of my boys straight on but if any of you have a 3 year old then you know that's not that easy. So I settled for a side view of my 43 month old boy intently watching Toy Story. But in giving up & settling for that photo I got a photo that is so him. Beautiful. Serious. Intense. Some of my favorite traits. And while editing the photo I felt as though this picture was very familiar so I looked back through his photos & found this photo of Johnnie at 7 months. A little less serious. A little less intense. But just as beautiful.

4.25.2010

A Day with the Animals

A lot of pictures are taken to capture the moments in our lives both inside the house & out & about. I wanted to share some of the most recent ones.

A few weeks back my sister Kimberly & I took the boys to the Los Angeles Zoo. We made it to the lion/tiger, gorilla, giraffe & flamingo exhibits just to name a few. We would push the strollers up to the fence & the boys would just stand up & point at the animals for awhile. Occasionally they would climb out of the strollers & run around but they were really good about staying close & just watching the animals. The warm day looking at animals must have tired them out because before we even made it to the freeway they were all asleep. (Photos taken from my iPhone) I wish I could sleep like this anywhere.

4.18.2010

Sunday Dates

What better way to spend a sunny Sunday morning than with your friends, right? This morning the Laughrey girls came over to play with the boys while their daddys played golf together. Johnnie & Kelsea hit it off right away & spent the whole morning running around the yard & inside the house together. They were basically connected at the cheek & were so cute. Jimmy & Lorelei were re-introduced to each other& quickly warmed up over snacks with Joeytoys & then ice cream. Joey was being a little stinker & constantly running away & playing on his own. But he did join the group for some lunch & ice cream. We tried very hard to get a cute pic of all of them together but I will settle for this one of them all in the same picture. Kids are cute no matter what, right? Well after some rides on the swing & more running around it was naptime. So goodbyes were said & it was time for a date to be over. So Johnnie kindly helped Kelsea with her shoes & walked her to the car. Until next time thanks for visiting Laughrey girls. And thanks boys for being so good!

4.12.2010

Eggs to Dye For

1. It was a 1st for our boys. Dying Easter eggs. 2. Johnnie was really excited & really didn't want daddy's help but he accepted it. 3. I think daddy was just as excited as the boys were. Joey was eagerly watching the eggs being dipped in the color washes.4. They were very anxious to reach in & pull the eggs out so to distract them I tried to take photos.5. And then Joey wanted to count the containers...1,2,3,8. Okay so he's not perfect yet, but at least he's saying numbers.6. And once the colored eggs were being taken out to dry, Joey continued to try & count them all the while being watched by Johnnie who wanted to make sure the eggs he wanted were not touched.7. See Joey was reaching toward the eggs & Johnnie quickly removed them. What a stinker!8. We did all this egg dyeing during Jimmy's nap so once he woke up the boys happily showed him the eggs.9. But Jimmy was a little confused & just assumed he should pick up the egg & eat it. One bite of shell & he threw the egg down.10. Some of our finished products. Not so pretty but a really fun time. These were not the eggs that were hidden in the backyard but the boys would be very disappointed once they realized these were eating eggs as opposed to the ones filled with candy & toys. I think we will peel them & let daddy eat them. Cant' wait until next year!

4.06.2010

Easter 10

1. Easter morning started bright & early at 6am. A friend gave me the idea to lead the boys on a scavenger hunt to find their Easter baskets. We decided to only give 3 clues (written by Rick) & thankfully it turned out to be successful leading them in to Rick's studio office. Joey & Jimmy just followed Johnnie all around the house wondering why he was so excited & moving so quickly so early in the day. And they were so excited to find their superhero/sports pails filled with paints, clothes & candy & all their books. 2. After breakfast it was time for the Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Johnnie was immediately off & running but slowed down to help daddy show Joey what he was looking for.3. We tried to show Jimmy the eggs but he actually just kicked the plastic egg & moved on to playing with the golf clubs.4. Johnnie on the other hand took egg hunting very seriously. There were eggs filled with candy, eggs filled with cars, car shaped eggs & Spiderman shaped eggs. Being superhero obsessed he ran as fast as he could all around the yard looking for those Spiderman eggs & once he figured out that all the eggs were gone he sat down to assess his goods. And our little guy actually ate some candy. Chocolate Eggs, Starbursts & Hershey Kisses. And as a side note I don't think he will be doing this again anytime soon because he had a bellyache the rest of the day.5. Daddy was there to help Jimmy enjoy his morning. He has grown to love this red coupe. Constantly climbing in to it & waiting for someone to push him around in it. And he's all smiles even when he's just sitting in it not moving.6. Joey only cared about the egg hunt because he knew there was chocolate to be had. He would find an egg, open it, shove the Hershey kiss in his mouth & then he was off & running looking for that next treat.7. Most of the photos I took that day of Jojo were of him greedily shoving chocolate in to his mouth. He DIDN'T get a bellyache but instead melted down most of the day because he kept being told that he in fact could not have anymore candy.8. Just like last year grandpa was intent on having Jimmy be involved in the egg hunt. So he brought Jimmy over to some eggs & tried to convince him to pick them up but he was still not interested. But he did like picking up the oranges off the ground & trying to eat those, peel & all. 9. The older Johnnie gets the harder it is to get a genuine photo of him. But I was so happy when I downloaded my photos off the camera & this one popped up on my screen. I can't wait to blow this up & frame it for my desk at work so I can see my oldest baby boy with his happy mama all the time.10. And this last photo is the only one of our family with us all looking forward. So from our family to yours Happy Easter!