Family

Ever since William was born I have been wanting to get family pictures done. Well it took us almost 2 years to let go of all the excuses and get it done. Tara Miller from Urban Photo took these for us and can I say that my boys have never been naughtier...okay maybe not quite that bad, but I am surprised that we actually had pictures where we were smiling. William was crying from the start, Caden had just gotten home from school and was bursting with energy, and Ethan was refusing to smile. Really, I thought all the pictures were going to be awful. Luckily there were a few in there that were actually cute. My boys are just looking adorable, so adorable that I can look at these pics and forget how they were behaving that day. I love that there are photos of just Sam and I because that rarely happens, I love William "cheesing" it, Caden is beyond photogenic, and I love the photo of Ethan on the tracks. He was so in the moment running and choo-chooing.

We got these pictures at the beginning of November and little did we know it, but we were expecting another little one. Fast forward to the middle of December and we were shocked to learn of it. Now it is January and I think we have gotten over the shock. I say shock because Sam had a vasectomy (without getting his special test later) over a year ago after our 3rd child, and yes, the child is his, so I say. Ha ha! (I have welcomed him to have that test done because once it is he will forever be hearing me say, I told you so!) I had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and found that baby is due July 24. I am so excited. Really a wonderful gift as I thought my pregnancy days were over and despite the exhaustion and sickness, I am overjoyed with the thought that I get to experience this again...but also sometimes petrified that I will be a mother of four. As for Sam, well he needs more time adjusting to all this. Our boys seem excited by a new sibling and surprisingly, they both want another brother. Ethan even says that he will hold the baby this time. I asked him why he didn't last time and he replied that he was afraid the baby would wake up and cry.Aahhh.

A SPOOKTACULAR TIME!

The boys had a great Halloween this year. The weather was just beautiful. This has been the first Halloween in a long time that it hasn't snowed, rained, blown, or been freezing cold. Here are some pictures from the holiday celebration.

 Will really loves to wear glasses. Just ask Daddy...

 Caden wanted to be a police officer this year, but all he really cared about was having handcuffs.

 Getting goodies from Grandpa Grover.

 Ethan dressed as a train conductor. He has always been into trains...and treats!

 

Will is scared of Grandpa Jensen right now!

I made that!

I feel like one of my kids right now when I say, look what I did!

 

This is a cub scout flag I made for our den. Back in September, our handbook suggested to make a den flag. The boys traced their hand prints and then we cut them out, but for weeks I have been thinking about how I was going to make a flag. I have little sewing knowledge and am just learning as I go. Very little sewing was done here. I wanted the hand prints to be removable so I stitched them to the flag, so that when our cub scout goes to bears, he can take his hand print as a memento. Also, I added some decorative stitches on the sides of the diamond. The rest was done with  my friend, fabric glue. I printed a copy of the wolf badge from the internet and used this to cut out the shapes. The wolf was a challenge. I happened upon a projector from a handy someone and used it to trace the wolf onto the felt with fabric paint, then I filled in the rest later. It was a bit tricky and I had to use my own artistic abilities (surprisingly, I have some). It certainly is not perfect, but I think it turned out great!

 

Okay, for my other project. I purchased a couple patterns off of etsy and made this bag to pack all the stuff we take to church. Remember I said that I have little sewing knowledge. Yeah, I also don't know how to cut patterns out. I won't embarrass myself too much here, but more than a few mistakes were made. I am still in awe that I really made this. Who would have thought I could be such a crafty person?