I met up with this crew in Midtown on a Monday morning.

AND, it just happened to be a CHILLY Monday morning.  We considered rescheduling, but decided to tough it out in hopes of getting some sunshine.  I felt so bad after we got there.  The alleys were so breezy and cold, but the Conway boys were troopers.  I can’t tell in even one of these photos that they were absolutely FREEZING to death!  No, really.  I mean they were flat cold…

and yet, they smiled for me anyway.  God love ‘em.

Even Mom showed me a grin or two.

It must have been my CHARMING personality.  Yep, that’s it.

Since Dad couldn’t be there to freeze along with us in the cold, Midtown alleys, this photo is JUST FOR HIM!

Have a GREAT BIG RED LOLLIPOP kind of day!  Happy Monday!

Sutton REALLY loves Star Wars.

My boys love cake.

ice cream.

balloons…

and celebrating birthdays with pretty much ANYONE.

We also love our friend Sutton. 

Up until his party, my boys didn’t really know what Star Wars was…

Now, they think it’s an awesome reason to beat your parents and grandparents about the face and head with light saber pool noodles.  Thanks for that, Tiffany.  My head loves you.

Yes, even Darth Vader made an appearance.  My youngest boy thought it was spectacular (even though he wasn’t sure who the heck it was), while my oldest ran for cover and didn’t come out until Darth was gone.  Poor Darth never got the chance to meet Ty.  How sad…

Wes’ favorite part of the entire party was the Darth Vader pinata.  He was even given the chance to pull a string FIRST (thinking it’d be nice to let a little guy go ahead of all the other big boys).  The only problem was he happened to pick JUST THE RIGHT STRING….

oh boy.

That’s never good.

We had to keep that thing in tact until the birthday boy had a chance.  Thank goodness it lasted.  Whew!

Ty refused to wear what he called a “Yoda” outfit.  He’s way too cool for that.  He did enjoy the party tremendously and is now really into the whole “Star Wars” thing.  Plus, it only took him about 30 minutes or so to warm up after arriving….nice.

For the record, Joe Cool was beating people with his light saber within the first 3 minutes….

Some things will never change.

Note:  these pics were taken in the light of a really horrid, dark gym and no matter what I tried (including a custom white balance gray card) the color turned out wonky.  We’ll talk about white balance at our SnapShot Moms workshop on April 10th. 

As promised, we rang in the new year wearing our sweatpants, eating lots of delicious finger food (I went on a baking frenzy thanks to Pioneer Woman and Kraft), and hanging with family and friends.  It was a laid-back, chilled-out, perfectly imperfect New Year’s Eve.  I loved every minute of it (except trying to get the boys in bed at 1:30am).

After not playing for about 3 years, I’ve discovered I’m REALLY bad at Scrabble.  In fact, I’m pretty sure we (my gals and I) broke every Scrabble rule in the book.  We went up, backwards, around, and possibly added new words to the Scrabble dictionary.  BUT, we laughed every minute of the game.  It was awesome!

I didn’t snap one photo until after the clock struck Midnight.  But, here’s a sample of the craziness that ensued as a result of the “sleepy sillies”.

My crazy (yet adorable) niece, Britney.

My completely and utterly handsome 5 year old.  He makes my heart smile.

And his favorite bud, Sutton…

they really should be brothers, don’t ya think?

The gaggle of goofy kiddos we had present for our “so-called” party.

and these two….

I think it was their mission to get a bad photo of the photographer.  Did ya’ll meet up before and discuss this plan?

I’m pretty sure this is my favorite session of them to date.  We schedule photos each year, but these are just plain cool.  AND, they turned out so awesome – the tracks and train station fit the boys so well, especially Taylor!

If it hadn’t been for the red train car, we may never have gotten him in any shots.  Luckily, we had that to hang over his head for all the others.  We just kept telling him, “if you wanna take some photos with the train, you better shape up.”  HEE HEE!  Worked like a charm!

He’s full of spunk.  I’m pretty sure he has to be to survive his older brothers…

and his dad who is just as ornery as they are!  BUT, he’s pretty sweet on their momma which is totally cool.

I should probably stop posting now since I’m not sure which photos they’ll use for the Christmas cards.  I don’t wanna give too much away.  BUT, the photos are all so spectacular!  IT MUST BE THE PHOTOGRAPHER!

Oh, okay.  I’m just kidding.  They are a nice looking family, aren’t they.

That’s it for now.

I’ll see you peeps again this evening with another sneak peek of that cutie on the right.  We did some senior shots for him, and I thought he deserved a post all his own.

Happy Tuesday!

The crazy part is how I’ve been wanting to meet their gorgeous momma for about 3 years now.  A mutual friend of ours introduced us by way of the internet and we’ve been chatting ever since.  You see, Leila loves photography almost as much as I do, which gives us plenty to chat about.    BUT, up until just a few weeks back that’s all it’s been – chatting online.  Then, I received a message saying she’d be in OKC and would I PUH-LEASE be willing to meet up and shoot some photos of these two knuckleheads.  How could I possibly say no?

Of course, Leila had to be part of the deal.

The cool part – I didn’t even have to twist her arm! 

I took a million photos that morning and even brought Wes along with me.  It proved to be VERY interesting, but I did get some great shots of ALL of them.  These are just a handful I picked randomly.  I had too many favorites to narrow them down.

I hope you’re all having an awesome Fall Break.  The posts around here will be few and far between this weekend since the boys and I loaded up with Grandma and headed to Branson, MO.  We’ll be spending TWO WHOLE DAYS tromping around Silver Dollar City.  I’ll check in as often as I can…

Happy Fall!

I have lots of news and happenings to update you on, but for now a photo montage of our crazy, Canton weekend will have to do.  I hear a DVR’d Grey’s Anatomy calling my name along with my soft, squishy bed.  No more work for me this LATE Saturday night.  Oh!  If you called and left me a message this weekend, I’m just now getting it since phone service in NOWHERE, Texas is pretty much nil.  I’ll be returning said calls on Monday.  If you need me before then, better send an email.

From left to right, row by row:

1) mom and karri  trying on shades at a roadside hodge-podge shop  2) ty finding his own special treasure  3) how lovely, a doggy brooch  4) this sign was actually for sale AND I actually considered buying it  5) fell in love with these locker baskets  6) everybody loves sock monkeys  7) say what?  a dashboard Jesus?  there is something seriously wrong with that, right?  8). bins full of unique letters and numbers – I really wanted to pay $12 for those tiny things but talked myself out of them  9) more letters but these were much bigger  10) found an array of really strange yet fun book titles, more to come later  11)  even more letters  12)  have to stop here every trip   13) wanted this t-shirt, but it only came in small – shucks!  14) sock monkey snow globe – nuff said  15) mom’s new hat  16) nice look – hula dancer headband

While at the lake, we spent a LOT of time swimming but even more time sleeping or lazing around in the house….just enjoying the fact that we could.  Luckily, Reese was there and he was REALLY good at entertaining our children and his.  HA!  By the end of the weekend, I was calling him “Big Guns” Travis.  I think it fits, don’t you?

While snapping these photos, I wasn’t squatting or running in circles searching for the best angle…I was curled up with a blanket in a big squooshy chair.  It was awesome….

Don’t feel bad, Reese got to curl up in the chairs, too.  He recently added to his family and little Sylvie Jane gave him a perfect excuse to hang out on the sofa.  We spent many a moment watching the squirts jump and play…

and take advantage of Sylvie Jane being out of her bassinet.  Who knew it could be so enticing…

Sloane sure looks cute in there, though.  Doesn’t she.

Okay…enough of the house….you guys want to see REAL lake photos, don’t you.

Even Wes loved riding on the SeaDoo.

The boys talked Josh into taking a turn on the tube.  I’m pretty sure they were trying to kill him….

BUT…he had his chance for paybacks…He’s the driver in the next few!

While the macho big guys were trying to show each other up….

Wes and Grandma hung out enjoying the comforts of lake food.  HA!

Even Barney enjoyed some time on the SeaDoo!

and…

back to SCHOOL blues.

especially for this momma…

whose little boy will be starting Pre-K in exactly two short weeks.  My heart is heavy.  I know he’ll love it, but will I?

Lately, we’re I’m trying to keep my mind off of school-related thoughts by spending LOTS of time doing SUMMERTIME activities.  Today we spent the morning at Grandma’s pool with some old friends we haven’t seen in quite some time.

It felt good to relax and smile while thinking back on old times.  Charleigh is one of our (my mom and I) oldest and dearest friends.  I’m happy my boys had so much fun getting to know her better.

By the way, have you guys ever tried to blow water through a wet water noodle?  AT SOMEONE’S face?  It’s kinda fun!  HA!

Poor Colin got the raw end of that deal!

Luckily he bounced back pretty quick.  Speaking of bouncing…

Soon after inhaling water-noodle sprays, he decided to create some splashes of his own!  Go, Colin, go!

Whew!  Hang in there, buddy!  Good one!

Going, going….

Gone.

Man.  After all that splashing, the boys should’ve rested a bit.  BUT, who wants to do that when school is looming just around the corner?  Not us!

Even my little grouch caught some rays today…

At least, he’s a cute grouch.  Right?  It was naptime, afterall.

Alright, alright….out you go boys…time to rest.

I’m pretty sure “shakin’ booties” and flexing muscles isn’t what I meant by taking a rest…

Although, Colin says he’s known for his “bootie shaking” skills.  HA!  He must get it from his daddy…

I’d say it was a pretty good Tuesday morning.  Thanks for the visit, Colin and Charleigh.  We miss you, already!

Oh, whatever.  You guys know I’m always a good girl.

Anyway, back to Great Wolf.  The following photos are not the best quality because I was too chicken to drag the nice camera around through an indoor spray/water park.  Do you really blame me?  I did break it out for a few shots though and felt like sharing them here with you.

For some reason I didn’t get a shot of the main entrance from the front when you’re pulling up (maybe because I was driving), but I did get this shot from our balcony overlooking the parking lot.  HA!  Ty did love the view of the wolves, though!

The entrance really is pretty grande…you can see some of the water slides off in the distance.  They actually followed a path in and out of the park, which was cool.  Although, I can’t say my swimsuit clad body got anywhere near them.  Remember, Ty is only 4 and wasn’t about to chance losing his life so early on such a HUGE waterslide.  He is always cautious that way.  HEE HEE!

Here is a view of our KidCabin Suite as we were walking through the door.

It was really just your basic hotel room with a balcony, except for the cool cabin provided for the rugrats.  Here’s a view inside.

The bunk beds were the most exciting part of the whole trip for the kids, I think.  Seriously.  They wanted to leave the swimming park early to go back to our room to play in the “log cabin”.  How sad is that?  I guess I need to get them out more often.

Wes slept in the bed on the left, because I was too lazy to bring the Pack-n-Play.  AND, I only had to download a new “white noise” app to my iPhone to get him to actually fall asleep!  Luckily, I brought my wall charger and could leave the goofy thing playing all night.  Don’t worry ALL kids finally passed out by 11:30pm.

Oh, by the way, for those of you considering going…I read in the hotel book later that they’ll provide a Pack-n-Play for FREE if you call down and request it.  I’m just saying…

Wes got up the next morning (after we purchased a few rock souvineers in the gift shop the night before) to do this while the other kids were still sleeping…It really is the ONLY time he gets to play without someone taking his toys away from him.

After attaching the trailer to his truck, he loaded it down with a load of those rocks and even filled up the bed of his truck.  Too cute!

Once everyone dragged their booties out of bed, we headed down to breakfast and then on to the water park.  It was pretty exciting!  Please ignore all the bad bikini bodies in the following pics.  I really had no intention of grossing you out – just simply wanted to give you a quick study on Great Wolf Lodge.

See those two slides in the background?  Yellow on the left and blue on the right?  Our boys spent the entire day climbing up and sliding down…over and over and over again until they were so tired I was worried they might drown in the 1 foot deep water.

Ty absolutely loved the small slides (wouldn’t step foot on the big ones) and his face showed his enjoyment in EVERY shot!

He even did a pretty good job of holding his breath at the end.

Sutton was a bit more nervous at first, but by the end of the day he was the ONLY one willing to go a round on the bigger slides in the back.

Okay, maybe not quite as big as those…but still, they were good sized.  If you look off the backside of the splash tower below, you’ll see some decent sized tubes.  Sutton braved the green one!  Go, Sutton!

By the way, we have no photo proof of that because I wasn’t brave enough to enter the splash zone, which was pretty much EVERYWHERE on that tower!  You literally never knew when a random bucket was heading your way!

Same way in the lazy river!  I truly thought it would be a relaxing float.  BUT, when you least expected it, someone from the splash tower was dumping water on your head or squirting you with massive water guns!  It was just plain evil I tell you!

I went around once and that was enough for me.  The above photo was from the dry area up above.  Thank you very much.

So, anyway, back to the slides.  Ty was very content to stay in the kiddo section on the “small” slides.  The yellow one was just as fun as the blue!

Sutton, too!

Did you think I’d left Wes at home?  Of course, not.  He was hanging with his grandma in the shallower water squirting all the innocent bystanders with water sprayers.

It made him smile…even if the other folks weren’t too happy.  HA!

Here’s a small view of the outdoor area…from our dinner balcony.  We actually spent just as much time outside as in, but there wasn’t near as much for the little ones to do.

Okay, so my thoughts on Great Wolf Lodge as a whole…

First, it’s expensive this time of year.  I hear the rates drop dramatically in the winter months.  The food is VERY expensive, too, not just the room rates.  It did taste pretty good for a water park hotel.  I have no complaints there.   I was able to find a discount code through some online forums just by googling “great wolf lodge coupons”.  It saved us about $75 off our nightly rate.

Second, wait until your kids are older to go.  I really feel like it was a bit of a waste to take Ty and Wes at their ages.  There was so much they weren’t willing to do…which left us spending the majority of our time in the kiddie splash area.

Third, the rooms are simply your basic hotel room.  Don’t expect magic there.  The kid cabins are totally cool and did provide the adults with a bit of privacy after hours.  It was nice because we could put the kids to bed and still watch a little tv without having to whisper.

As a whole, we had a great time but spent too much money.  We stayed one night and spent a total of about $600 for all of us – 3 adults and 3 kids.  This is without any extras.  Keep in mind, Wes was free for everything.  We didn’t sign up for the magic quest due to lack of extra time for running around the hotel.  Our boys wanted to be in the water park or in the bunk beds during their stay.  We did spend a few bucks on arcade tokens and stayed for 30 minutes or so.  I would like to go back in the winter and stay a little longer so I wouldn’t feel as rushed.  Plus, the money spent would be less with cheaper rates then.

Okay, on to other things!  Have a great 4th of July weekend!  I’ll see you guys back here on Monday!

It was pretty funny, too.  You know embarrassed kids can get when everyone’s watching and something unexpected happens.  Well, this fit the bill for sure.  She walked around the corner of the house and saw us all waiting by the pool (it was a pool party).  We had whistlers and hollered “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” at the top of our lungs!  Her face (which I didn’t catch on camera!) was priceless!

Once her heart stopped beating a million miles an hour, she was super excited about the party!  All of her friends were there and her FAVORITE cousins, of course!  Plus, all of the grown-ups she adores – LIKE ME!  We had so much fun hanging by the pool, splashing, and eating lots of cake.  It was a great day!

Britney’s mom and dad got her a new bike, which was super cool!  Makes me want to ride, but I’m pretty sure I’d fall on my caboose!  Do you ever forget how to ride a bike?  Just curious…it’s been a little while since I was sitting atop one.

Some fun goodie boxes I found at Target.  I love that place!

AND, check out this awesome cake!  Believe it or not, it came from BUY FOR LESS!  I’ll be getting all my cakes there from now on.  It was DELICIOUS!

The flip flops are big magnets for the fridge.  Cool, huh!

The whole crew spread out on my mom’s patio (the party was at her house) for cake and ice cream.  YUMMO!

Wait a second…someone’s getting a little too messy…

Ooops!  Make that TWO someones!

Luckily, everyone was jumping right back in the pool afterward so being covered head-to-toe in cake wasn’t a big issue.  Why can’t life be like that all the time?

This next little squirt just happens to be my other niece.  She belongs to Josh’s sister and you’ve seen her grace the pages of this blog numerous times.  Last time, she was wearing pink polka-dot socks and playing baseball.  Anyone remember those?

Is there anyone cuter than this!!  I don’t think so!

and back to the pool we go!  The kids had so much fun!

I really love this next shot because of all the action going on.  Look closely, everyone is doing something a little bit different while interacting with each other all at the same time.

Britney’s tossing her buddy into the water; Kensy is blowing water through a broken noodle; Ty is squirting water through a gun towards Britney – luckily her friend is blocking the spray!  Then take a look at Jordan (Britney’s brother/my nephew) inside-out and upside-down in the red raft lunging after the football while Jesse (Kensy’s brother/another nephew) holds up the baby raft.  They were trying to toss the football through the seat hole.  HILARIOUS!

Seriously, could any MORE activity be happening in this photo?  I LOVE IT!

You didn’t forget about this little guy did you?   He tends to get a bit tired in the big pool after a while.  So, we keep the little two-ring pool off to the side for him to relax in.  It works out perfectly.

Until someone else comes along and takes over!  Just look who I caught stealing the baby pool today!

AND, the floaties none the less!  In fact, I’m pretty sure they raided the girls’ goodie boxes, too!

What do you think?

Uhm, how about a little more sunscreen, Jesse?

It’s a good thing these boys aren’t camera shy or anything.

Oh, sheesh!  Wait a second…this is a little much!

Lord, have mercy!

Was it because I mentioned Facebook or something?  I’m gonna have to learn to keep my mouth shut!

Aww, that’s better.  Finally, a little more family-oriented…

Aren’t they adorable!  I think I need to try that one in b/w when I print it.  What do you think?

And, before I doze off to sleep…a couple of my pretty sister ALL BY HERSELF.

You guys still here?  Whew!  That was a long post, wasn’t it.  I had a TON of photos to share and couldn’t narrow them down.  Forgive me.

I’ll be gone for a couple of days – I decided to take my boys on a short roadtrip to Great Wolf Lodge, near Dallas.  I’ll be back and ready to roll late Thursday evening.  Look for lots of fun pics to come!

Have a great Wednesday!