We Have More Bars...

Ha! When I was taking this shot Al was behind me saying this and "can you hear me now?" ...It does look like it belongs on an AT&T commercial...

Anywho...yesterday we took a spur of the moment trip down to the big city to go the Boston children's musuem. Al was off from work and the kids are on school vacation this week. They always love going to Boston (although they usually think it is NY) and we really should go more often. And as much of a pain as the Big Dig has been it really does make getting in and out of the city so much easier.

We had a blast. It was a beautiful day...upper 40s and sunny

(made them suffer through many a group shot, especially since we don't see Damon much these days)

There was a huge climby thingy (don't know the technical term for it) that they kept coming back to throughout the day). Brandon of course enjoyed hanging out at the very top

It won't be long before Ally joins him...this girl has no fear

The bubble area was another big hit:

And this entertained them for so long and I have to admit I was fascinated with it too...I have no idea how this works. It is a projector projecting bitterflies all over the place and they are activated by your shadow and they land on your shadow:

I know I am not explaining it right...but it was cool!

And some more random photos from the day:

Lock up your daughters people...

'cause this one is gonna be a heartbreaker...

We've been trying to keep ourselves busy while Brandon was away snowboarding with Auntie Kelly and Uncle Scott.

(I took these before he left). We missed him terribly, especially Max...Max was lost without him.

Doesn't he look so old in these?

And yet still so stinkin' adorable

A whole lotta nothing...

happening around here this week. Been doing a lot of backing up photos on the Mac which is taking forever and tying up the computer. I've got to take a break from it for a couple days.

I did get to take pictures of sweet little Armani this week..she is such a fun model...so easy and soooooo cute!

This is my favorite:

I'll try to post more tomorrow but right now I've got to get to bed...

New Favorites

The past few days I have been meaning to post about how this photo is my new favorite of Alliana:

But I am glad that I didn't because yesterday I got these that I love even more:

and the black and white version ( I am really enjoying my black and whites lately...I've been practicing a ton!)

and I still love her piggies:

And I got these when she woke up from her nap. Since we now limit the binky to only in her crib she is not always in a hurry to get out. So I took the opportunity to snap some photos!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

This Makes Me So Happy...

Walking in to check on him and finding this scene...



Max's reading is really taking off and the past few days he has almost always had a book in his hand. Can't even sleep his books are so good! Love this so much.

Self Help Skills

I walked into the scrap room yesterday to this...

Chillin' on her table trying to put her socks on all by herself. She succeeded with the first one and was concentrating so hard on the second...

Now if I could just get her to do her hair...:)

Shopping Cart Battles

I almost forgot about these from the other day with baby "mani" (yes, she now calls her "Mani"...so stinkin' cute!) She was putting her baby into the back of her shopping cart , then I heard her say "No baby! Front!" And then proceeded to put her in the front. Hmmmmm...I am pretty sure this exact scenario played out between her and I at Toys R Us earlier that day (and now almost every time we go to the store).

Love watching her work these things out in her dramatic play!

Our Sports Man

Max is all about sports. He has always liked sports but his love for sports really took off when he played football this fall. I love watching him play because it is so obvious that his heart and soul is on the field or the court whatever the sport may be.

A shot from his game from this past Saturday...he made two baskets...this made him so happy.

I have also learned that he is the type of kid that when he gets assigned a project at school he starts on it immediately...



The 100th day of school is next Monday and he need to make a poster with 100 things...he chose stickers of course and is already done...hope he keeps this enthusiasm!

He Worked So Hard For This...

He wanted Guitar Hero in a bad way. He and Max pooled their allowance earnings together and need $25 more so Brandon began asking what he could do to earn this money. I jumped at the chance to get his room clean again so I told him $5 for that and then thought long and hard about what they could do to earn the rest. Brandon has had state capital test every Friday and has been struggling with them. So I told him $10 for an A on that and his vocab test and he had to finish the book he was reading (he had one week). Max had to finish Frog and Toad and learn to tie his shoes. Well Max was tying his shoes the very next day and had finished his book and Brandon hit the books hard studying. His book was finished and he new all his vocab and states by Tuesday for his tests on Friday...I was so proud and so was he. Needless to say, he earned that Guitar Hero. He actually got an A+ on his States test! And of course he is already really good. I, on the other hand, get booed half way through the song...it is really hard!