Modeling and photo shoots went on at our house last night. Sure to make a photographer momma proud.

Selah, faces, and boots.

It seems to be that someone else in this family is taking after their father. Audie has already adopted her dad's quirkiness, and it appears that Selah is following suit. Why can't anyone just smile at me when I take a picture of them?

Selah is definitely developing her personality of a "kid" and not a "toddler".

She knows how to be in the spotlight and she's liking it.

 It's probably a good thing that Corinne and Audie are the set of friends around here. If the set of friends were Audie and Selah, I think they'd get into a lot of trouble and wreak some havoc around here.

I liked that Audie left her socks in her boots when she took them off. 

This and That

Here's a hodgepodge of photos, and not in the right order.

From the months October to March, this is the best spot in the house. It's the only place that sun shines in through the windows, and it's so warm. It's not uncommon to find one of us sitting in the sun spot. 

This morning we went to visit our chocolate friends for our annual halloween photo!

Back in early September we met up with cousins downtown for Corinne's birthday.

A couple of weeks ago we had a school field trip to the pumpkin patch. It has been years since I have been to a pumpkin patch, and I have to say they have evolved quite nicely. Back in elementary when I went for field trips, it was a hayrack ride to the patch, pick your pumpkin, and then go home. Now, there are tons of activities to do at pumpkin patches! The one we visited had train rides, zip lines, slides, barrel rolls, playground equipment, corn mazes, goats....

 It was a fun field trip, and a perfect day with nice weather. The girls enjoyed spending time with their teachers and classmates. After a couple hours of playing on the equipment, we took a tractor out to the patch to pick out pumpkins. We took our four pumpkins home and the girls painted faces on them.

Collect $200 Salary as You Pass Go

This one's for Grandma Helen.

This and That

Can I brag about this one for a bit?

Corinne had her fall recital last week. She did excellent! We went out for ice cream afterwards to celebrate. 

Earlier this month, the girls had assessment testing at school. Corinne's reading grades were superb! She scored "above average", being at 94% --meaning she reads better than 94% of kids her age. The testing also said she is proficient with 80% of words at a 5th grade reading level (she's in 3rd grade). Her math scores were above average also, being at 86%. Woohoo! Proud momma! I cannot claim giving her any smarts though, all of that has to all come from her brainy father. He can claim passing on the brains, I'll claim passing on the beauty. Heh heh.

We are still trying to get our house sold in order to move to our new one! It's been about 3 weeks and I'm trying not to grow impatient! I know the outcome is in God's hands, so doing my best to hold tight.

Can't believe this week will bring October. I suppose it's time to start thinking about Halloween Costumes and fall activities! Until then, we're hangin' out with hopes that our house sells soon! 

Audie

Why the prairie dress?

Why this mis-matched socks?

Why the weird river dance?

Because she's Audie, I guess. 

Sisters

I invite you to view a rare sequence of love happening between these two.

Corinne's 8th Birthday

Corinne's been looking forward to today for a long time. Firstly, because she is allowed to sit in the front seat now. Secondly, because it's her golden birthday. And, thirdly, her birthday is her "favorite holiday." We started the day off with school.  A couple of hours into the school day, we were wonderfully interrupted by a Skype call from Brazil. Our friends, the Isaaks, have a daughter that was also born on September 8, so she called Corinne to sing her a happy birthday. 

We had lunch with Matt near his work, frozen yogurt with the cousins, and dinner out with Grandma and Grandpa. We did a quick photo shoot downtown, and came home to open presents. I think Corinne had a great day!!

I asked her to put the laundry from the washer into the dryer. A few minutes later I went to check on her, and found this....

Apparently, this was her solution for not being able to reach the clothes in the bottom of the washer.

First Day of School

 Last Wednesday was our first day of school. Of course, that calls for the obligatory first day of school picture! Corinne was not enthused to have her picture taken...usually she does pretty well for me and is agreeable, but for some reason she wasn't into starting school, and wasn't into having her picture taken. So, in the likes of her Father, she made silly faces instead.

I do like this photo below. This is her face she makes when she laughs at herself. Her eyes close and she does a silent laugh through her nose.

Audie had bought this school dress when we went to Kansas City. She was dying to wear it the exact minute she bought it, and, continued to want to wear it until school started. It was a long 4 days for her, waiting to wear the dress. So, when the day finally came- she was dressed the exact minute she was out of bed.

Here's to another school year!

Lawd. There has not been enough days in the week.
Sorry for the hiatus in blogging, but I'm afraid it may continue a little while longer.
There have been family visits, fishing trips, and another upcoming family visit!
My favorite aunt and uncle came, along with several others! Always a good time with the fam.
Matt had his annual fishing trip with his college buddies. Nothing else to write about here...secret guy stuff I will leave unasked.
We'll head to KC this weekend to see Matt's family. Looking forward to seeing my sister in law!
I've started my photography business!Yep, finally! After years of it being a passionate hobby, I've put a name to it and made it official. It feels great!
School starts on Monday!While I'm not ready for summer to end, I am looking forward to a new change of pace to our days. Audie has been asking to do school work, and her excitement about it is a little contagious. We'll be picking up our new boxes of crayons and pencils this week!

This month is Audie's birthday. I haven't even given it one thought yet, but I will be on it soon! You know me and how I like to celebrate birthdays.

Here's to the last week of summer vacation! We'll enjoy it!

Baptisms, fireworks, and prairies.

Activities around here have been in full swing. I can't believe that in just a month it will be time for school! I don't want summer to be over! 

I suppose I'll try not to get ahead of myself, and just enjoy the remaining days one at a time.

The best news of the summer has been Audie's decision to follow Jesus. Last week, we had a baptism and a pool party following. Nothing makes me more proud as a parent!

The Fourth of July was a lot of fun this year also. We had a cookout and shot fireworks with some of our friends. Selah ended up with a bout of the "Big D" and I had to take her home early. However, my mom graciously offered to keep her so I could go back to the party to enjoy the fireworks. I was anxious to stretch myself to try to get some pics of fireworks, and I think it was a success! I didn't really see the fireworks because my eye was through the viewfinder on my camera the entire night. But I don't regret it! I love the pics we got.

It was brought to my attention that there is a one room schoolhouse not far from here. Since the girls are into the Little House on the Prairie series, we thought it would be fun to make them some dresses and bonnets and go do some pictures in front of the schoolhouse. We took a mini- road trip to see it all. What a fun afternoon it was! Such cool history that remains. The girls thoroughly enjoyed dressing up and pretending a little bit. Not only did we get to the one room school house we were after, we came across a homestead still standing from 1859, and got to walk through some really neat barns.

Several deer, ticks, and hours later, and a spoiled stop for some frozen yogurt, the girls crashed in their beds and slept tip 9:30 the next morning. A day to remember!!