Renewed effort

I'm going to spend some time the next week or so looking at ways to better keep this blog updated. It's too easy to fall behind a little bit and then the crushing weight of the volume of stuff to catch up with makes it easier to not update.

Here's a photo of Carson playing goalie this past weekend. :)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Hope the joy of the season is filling your heart and home. I haven't posted the third update I promised yet, but the holiday really snuck up on me. Look for that third update soon, hopefully with some nice Christmas photos.

Closing today's post with a memorial... to my Grandpa, C-Pop. He passed today and he'll be greatly missed. Love you Grandpa!

Super updates part 2

And here's our November volume of updates...

We started off the month getting some family portraits together, it had been quite some time since we had a nice picture of the four of us.


Carson's first grade portraits came back and they look really great. He's doing so well in school too.


Someone slammed into the back of our Van and the fled the scene. Jenni was the only one in the van and she was not injured.


I got a new camera body that added some much needed features, one of which being video. Additionally I added a lens that lets me take photos with much less light.



The boys helped Nanny make an Apple Pie! I think they had more fun eating it.


My cousin Becky came to visit us for a couple days... it was really great seeing her. One night we had dinner with the whole family, her, and my other cousin Keli(and her kids).


Our dear friend, Alyssia, from Nebraska was in town for a teacher's conference, so we treated her to a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo.


Another month, another trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. This time we went with my sister and her boys. We went to the planetarium show and spent a lot of time in the DinoSphere. I took a great video of Sam enjoying a Goldberg Machine.



Sam had his final follow-up for his surgery and everything looks great according to the doctor. The earliest we would need to go back again would be in a year. Before the appointment Sam, Dad, and I had lunch at an Indy staple... Mug -n- Bun. Sam loves their hotdogs and french fries.


Carson and his buddy Riley love playing together. I grabbed the flash and tried to get some action shots of them playing Wii.


"Excuse me, Miss, but there's something peeking out of your new bag."


And we finish up November with our trip to Nebraska to visit with family and friends for Thanksgiving. It was a great trip like always. Lots and lots of photos and lots of videos.


The famous sleep-eater:


Closing up with a couple artsy things I did in November:

Ok friends, it's been awhile...

I'm going to write 3 blog posts today... this one to catch up from September to the end of October, a second one to cover November (that I'll publish tomorrow or Thursday), and the third one to get you from November to where we are now. To simplify the updates, I'm going to limit them to one flash slideshow of one album the rest of the albums will all be accessible via thumbnail links after each snippet of text.

It's been a crazy couple of months with so many little side projects and things going on. The blog seems to be the first thing that I skip out on if things get tight... so if you suffer another drought here then you should follow me on Twitter/Facebook or my photo website as those I tend to be able to keep top of mind things rolling on.

So, where were we... oh yes, September dissolving into October:
The usual goofing around continues, of course,

The Buddies

Samuel turns TWO!

Related Sam is Two albums:
B-Day Lunch B-Day Dinner B-Day Party

The kids favorite museum in the world makes an appearance in our photo journey. The Indianapolis Children's Museum open it's new Fly with Me to Egypt exhibit so we went to check it out.


Sam made a new friend, BokBok. BokbBok is a little stuffed animal bird that "cheeps" if you squeeze him. Sam played with him most of the day, most of that time in his Little People playset. We it came time for bed Sam wanted BokBok to join him... so he brushed the bird's "teeth" and then tucked him into bed next to him.


A day Sam was waiting impatiently for finally came on the 7th. He got his splint off! We got some pictures of the check-up visit with the Doctor that did his surgery. Sam was so happy to get that splint off his arm. He was quick to get back to playing with his trains.


We made our annual pilgrimage to the Pumpkin Patch to find a pumpkin for everyone to make their own for Halloween. This year we went to Beasley's and it was a great trip. We were joined by my parents, my sister, and her boys.


The Indiana vs. Illinois Football game in Bloomington is our next stop on the trip through October. Myself, Carson, my dad, a co-worker and his son braved the cold to take in a Big Ten football game at the newly renovated stadium. It was homecoming and IU came up big with a win. The boys favorite part had to have been the mini-field on the south end of the stadium that was for kids to run and play on.


Our haunted house trip is always a highlight for our whole family... next year we may have to make two trips, one for Carson to do the "scary" side and one for Sam to do our normal "friendly" trip. We invited one of Carson's buddies from the neighborhood, Riley. The boys all had a great time.


Pumpkin carving, scary decorations, great costumes, and trick or treating... just a few of the boys favorite Autumn things. It all came to it's peak on Halloween night.


That brings October to a close. Tune in tomorrow for our November update! To close, here are a couple of artsy pieces I did in October.

More catching up!

Ok, so the last post got us up to the end of August. This one should get us current.

First up would be our trip to Negley to visit some of Jenni's family... it's always a great time.



Click here for the full gallery

Then Jenni had a birthday:

and Sam had icing on his face:


Next, Sam passed out with the remote:


Then we went to Anderson Apple Orchard with our neighbors... was such a great day!



Click here for the full gallery

Finally, taking us up to the present... I got some pictures of the boys goofing around.



Click here for the full gallery

Tons of catching up

So I'm only like a month behind on posting pictures on here! There's been a lot going on, so you'll have to forgive me. As always I have have been uploading regularly, so if you watch the photo site you might get a peek before I post stuff here (if I get backed up again).

We'll start with our last swim of the year, August 16th. Jada joined in the fun at Mom and Dad's house. The end of the series features Sam in a baby girl's bonnet, haha.


Click here for the full gallery

Next up would be Carson starting the First Grade!! His little brother was so proud of him. (And Carson is doing really well in school thus far!)


Click here for the full gallery

Our next stop is the Zoo, in late August. My parents joined us for a very mild day of wondering around the Indianapolis Zoo.


Click here for the full gallery

And this brings us to the last week in August... Sam had his surgery and everything went really well. Here's a gallery (with no flash player):

Click here for the full gallery

The first few days of his recovery, his Grandma and PaPa were in town... both he and Carson really loved seeing them.


Click here to see the full gallery

That's it for now, there's a couple more from September to put up... but I'll do it another day.

Bed Thieves!

The bed thieves were at it last night. Once the morning came they wouldn't wake up so I threatened to take pictures of them... they didn't budge. The following album is the result.


Click to see the full gallery.