Pregnancy Photos

Do you remember this picture of Kate with my Sawyer belly? It is one of my favorite pictures ever. When we were going to Tucson my goal was to go to picture people and try and recreate this picture. Unfortunately the photographer we got wasn't my favorite and I was a little less than impressed with the outcome. But my kids still look cute no matter what so I guess it is okay!


I had a coupon for buy one, get one free so I got this one too. I wouldn't have posed myself this way...but when I saw it I thought my kids looked adorable so I'm glad I have it!

Now, after that cuteness, is it okay if I vent something that has been bugging me recently? I basically moved to Vermont and got pregnant right off. The gym I now go to I didn't join until April after that so I was already semi-showing...definitely not myself, but it wasn't noticeable to strangers. Friends, I think would have noticed, but not strangers. Recently, after coming home from my vacation and heading back to the gym I have gotten some funny comments. I have a lot of ladies tell me I look great and tell me how great it is that I'm still working out, which is really sweet of them. I have others say things like, "you are just all belly!" or "I can't even tell you are pregnant from behind!" I know their intentions are good....but I don't take these as compliments. I have known people where those statements are true and I can tell you, I am not one of those people. It would almost make me feel better if someone said, "WOW Kristen, your butt has really gotten big!" and I would sweetly say, "Why thank you for noticing, it is getting quite large. I can't wait to get back to work post-pregnancy and get it back to normal size." Ryan doesn't believe me that I would like that comment better, but I would. The worst was I had a girl, who actually works at the gym and signed me up when I joined, tell me after my vacation, "WOW, I didn't even know you were pregnant until just now!" REALLY? Last time you saw me may have been 3 1/2 weeks ago...but I was still 25 weeks pregnant. What did you think that belly was? I guess the disheartening thing is that all these people don't know what I am supposed to look like. And what I'm going to have to really work hard at to look like again. And that makes me frustrated...or self conscience...or something. Does that make sense to anyone but me? Maybe it is just me.

Easter pictures

What you see just might shock you....

Who is this big boy and what did he do with my baby?!?

Today we headed to our favorite Picture People and got Sawyer's 10 month pictures taken! It was a much better experience than last month. Sawyer was so good and I just plopped him in a pose, he smiled, she clicked a few pictures, and then on to the next pose. It probably took all of 3 minutes. When the photographer set up for this pose I couldn't hardly believe how big he looked. Can he really be this big? Here are a few of the few things this big boy is doing these days:

-Kissing. When I look at Sawyer and blow a huge smacky kiss his way, he smacks his lips back at me. (Sorry ladies, so far this only works with Mom.) He also leans in for kisses with a big, open mouth.
- Crawling everywhere. It used to be, when I was getting ready, I could set Sawyer down next to me and he would play with toys or the full length mirror until I was done. This morning I sat him down, started getting ready, and the next thing I know I can hear my kids laughing and playing in Kate's room. Sawyer loves to follow Kate around the house. He also loves when we have "family races." When we're getting ready for bed and we head into Kate's room for scripture reading and family prayer, we'll start at the end of the hall and then the whole family crawls to her room. Sawyer laughs so hard the whole way...and he's getting pretty fast!
- Cruising. He likes to cruise around the coffee table and anything else he can stand up by. He is also a lot more brave than Kate, which has caused him to fall quite a bit. He's had a couple of bloody incidents where he falls and bites his tongue/gums.
- Bumping/Scratching his forehead. I feel like an abusive mom, but Sawyer always seems to have a scratch or something on his head. I don't even know where they all come from!
- Eating socks. This has always been a favorite, but now he can crawl and claim socks along with pulling them off his feet and eating them. I think its so funny how he crawls straight to a sock, picks it up, puts it in his mouth, and then keeps on crawling!
- Eating everything! Okay, not EVERYTHING...I'm still following the "rules" and abstaining from certain things....but he LOVES eating big people food. He eats what we do but especially likes rice, bananas, chicken and cheese (his favorite).
- Moving barstools/chairs. I think he likes how loud it is when he moves them on the tile, but he'll sit by a barstool and scoot it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...

- Sleeping through the night!! I think I mentioned this last month, but its still one of my favorite things Sawyer does!

He is a big boy and we sure love him!

On a side note, I was walking past the Hallmark store in the mall and I couldn't resist this Valentine's picture frame 75% off. Its my favorite (and only) Valentine's decoration now. I also bought a big chocolate and peanut butter candy heart because it was 90% off. Have you ever bought anything 90% off?!? I thought it was fun. 12 cents! And don't worry, I didn't eat it. I bought it for Ryan and Kate to have for dessert tonight. My joy came from just buying it!

Sawyer at 9 months old

Today I was at the Picture People for 2 1/2 hours...I have never had to wait that long. It was a little ridiculous. And I planned it thinking I would be able to get home and have Sawyer take a nap...instead we tried to get pictures taken right at his nap time. Needless to say, he was a little grumpy. Luckily we got some good ones before the melt down!

In the Christmas spirit

Isn't it a little too early for Christmas, you might ask? Maybe. But who can pass up a personal photo shoot with the big guy?!? He's only at the Picture People from now until Thanksgiving (things get a little busy for him after that!)



Although I must confess I have been listening to Christmas music already! I'm just too EXCITED!



You may also be asking, why is Kate not cool enough to be in a blog header picture? This just might be the answer:

The fact that she was not only not smiling but crying hystarically made me so frustrated...but now it just makes me giggle.

For the record, she was talking non stop before we went about how cool and nice and funny Santa is and she talked about him all the way home.

6 months (and Halloween)

I was a little behind in getting Sawyer's 6 month pictures taken because after Halloween he had a gynormous mosquito bite on the middle of his forehead. It took this long for the swelling to go down. But we finally made it and it was fun. He is such a happy baby that you don't have to do silly noises and funny faces until you're sweating like a pig like I had to do with Kate. (like I still have to do with kate....)

I realized I have one free sheet on my club card that had to be used this month so I decided to get their halloween costumes on one last time and get a picture. They both had really cute individual shots....but I only wanted one so I was stuck with this

I still love them...

so big, so cute!

officially 4 months

back in my good ol' tucson days, going to the mall and getting pictures taken was so fun! I would usually go with mom and we would go to lunch and just hang out! so far I haven't had a great experience in houston(wandering lost in the huge/non-stroller-friendly galleria for forever and memorial city that is at least a 30 minute drive away!) so I was dreading it this month. DREADING it! but I got my courage up and went and I found that if you actually park in the right parking garage at the galleria....its really not that bad! and my kids were happy and did really well!! here are my happy results

we had been to the children's museum that morning so after we got home, ate lunch and sawyer had a nap we headed to the mall for these pictures! we were all exhausted afterwards and both kids were asleep in the car on the way home!

I am crazy

my big goal for the past few weeks has been to get sawyer in to take his 2 month pictures. I took kate's picture at least every month of her life the first year and I didn't want sawyer to have a second sibling complex because I didn't do it for him. but I kept not being brave enough and letting silly things like laundry stop me from doing it. finally last night I made a plan. this morning we got up and went to the gym. I came equipped with all of my necessities and was able to take a quick shower after my class. kate and sawyer had a jolly time in the "gym nursery" (kate is getting so good!) and we left clean and ready for an adventure. the picture people is inside the galleria mall here in houston which has to be just about the hugest mall in the world. seriously. I got lost in it! but we finally made it and here are the results:

I think we did a pretty good job! both kids were very well behaved the entire trip. and let me tell you, that trip took all day! we left the house at 9 this moring and got back about 2. I'm exhausted! the question now is, will I get up the courage for his 3 month picture??

pregnancy pictures

I promise that I do more in my life than just get pictures taken....but I knew I wanted to get pregnancy pictures taken and I looked in the mirror the other day and realized I was about the cross the line between cute pregnant and huge cow. so kate and I went and got some pictures done. its a lot easier getting pictures of just her (less photo criticizing afterwards), but I thought they turned out okay!

happy 4th of july!!

super model kate

I LOVE taking kate to the mall to get her pictures taken. I think its so much fun that I've done it once a month since she was born. today was one of those "life sure was easier when she wasn't on the move" moments. we finally had to resort to putting her in a box so she couldn't crawl away!

lucky for us she loved it in the box so we got some cute pictures! the whole time we were trying to get her to tell us how old she was and so we got this cute one...

kate, how old are you?!

what a smartie pants! thanks to the picture people, I have a whole album of these!