Family Portraits

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Big Girl

Audra is such a big girl these days. I don't know how it happened, but I turned around one day and she was no longer a baby. She's gonna be a talker like the boys. Already is - she walks around babbling all day long, even though we have no idea what she's saying (the fact that she is saying something is actually quite obvious). Here are some of the words that Mommy, at least, can understand.

Shzs (shoes)

Jss (juice)

Ha (hair)

Ha (hat) (yes they are the same, but I can generally distinguish which is which)

bup (up)

Buh (book)

Bah (bear)

Ba (blankie) (again, pretty much the same)

I'm actually looking forward to her being able to talk more, because right now her most effective way to communicate is to cry. Um, yeah. We listen to a lot of crying these days.

Here she is on one of the boys' trikes. She has a little scooter that is just the right size for her, but she refuses to use it. In fact, she screams if we try to put her on it. She'd rather climb up on one that is too big and sit there.

And she is such a climber! She's up on everything! We have built in desks and bookcases in our playroom. I continually find her up on the desks, crying because she can't get down. And where is she 5 seconds after I get her down? Right back up there. This is her other favorite, the kid size table in our kitchen.

Basketball

Marshall finished his Kinderhoops season a couple of weeks ago. He had a fabulous coach, and improved quite a bit over the six weeks that they played. Some of the kids were really remarkable players for such little guys! They are a hoot to watch for sure.


(I have to apologize for the poor quality in these pics. None of the ones I took came out well at all. Oh well.) Here he is trying to shoot a basket. This was during a game, so I'm not sure where all the other kids went to. The coaches did a great job making sure everyone got a chance to dribble, pass and shoot.













And our little sports queen. I think she likes basketball more than her brothers. She's certainly already almost as good. During the games she would get a ball, throw it, chase it, throw it, chase it...had a blast.



















And then there was Hunter. He enjoyed it, too, but wanted to play with Marshall. Of course, I have no pictures of him, since he won't allow it [SIGH].

Halloween

I know, I know. I've been remiss. Almost two months with no entries, a month late getting Halloween pictures up. Now I have to catch up before we leave for our trip, and then I'll have to catch up again after that.

I had a good reason for not getting the Halloween pictures up, though. We went trick-or-treating with friends, and I got rushed out of the house before getting any pictures! My friend got some, and is supposed to get them to me, but hasn't yet. So for now I have some pics of the house, a couple of bad pics of the boys, and none of Audra. I've seriously got to pay better attention, eh?

The picture of the house is lacking a key quality: spookiness. Unfortunately, that's hard to get when you take a picture in the middle of a sunny day. None of the nighttime pictures came out very well, but rest assured, this was one spooky display: A graveyard, two witches with cauldrons, a grim reaper, and a huge spider web and spider were the main parts.

At the pumpkin patch picking our pumpkins. As usual, Hunter was not happy about having his picture taken.

Marshall and Hunter were vampires. Only Marshall wore the makeup, which Dad applied in a big hurry, so it came out a bit comical. Marshall was happy with it though, so that's what counts.

Trick-or-treating.

Hunter, later that night. Hard to tell what he's doing, since the cape is so small on this costume: He's pulling the cape in front of his face, a la Dracula.

Audra was a vampire bat. (Yeah, I know. I figure I've just got to do matching costumes as long as they'll let me. I'm sure it won't be much longer!) Hopefully I'll have more pictures later!

Upcoming Trip

Kip and I have been wanting to get away together, sans kids, for a while. We thought we'd take 3 or 4 days, go someplace relaxing without much to do, and SLEEP! Then Kip found out he has to take a business trip to London for some meetings. Hmmmm. Opportunity? Yep! We're going to London! We'll leave the kiddos with my mom, and spend a week (less 2 days travel time, of course) seeing sights. I've been needing a few days away from the kids (have I said how much more difficult it is to have 3 than 2? It is!), so I'm really looking forward to this. Of course, plans to sleep may get canceled, because there is SO MUCH to see and do! Then, while Kip stays for his meeting, I'll fly back to Las Cruces and stay for a week to get Christmas shopping done. So, stay tuned for trip detail and pictures! But be patient, because I may not get much blogging done until after Christmas. I'm so excited!!

Soccer Season

Marshall had a blast playing soccer this fall. It only lasted 6 weeks, so Mom was glad of that. But basketball starts this week, and we're so very excited!

This post is mostly pics with some comments. I just posted a LOT more photos on my Shutterfly site, so check those out, too!

Making a goal! Not many of those, but he improved a lot, and made 3 in the very last game of the season.

They don't have goalies at this age, but apparently Marshall thought they needed one, and so appointed himself. Spent a lot of time "guarding" the goal; meanwhile, the other players were at the other end of the field.

Here's what he spent a great deal of time doing: playing with his jersey. Hmmm.

And here's what he spent most of the rest of the time doing: standing around talking.

Audra loves balls of any sort, especially those too big for her, so she was pretty excited when she got her hands on one during a game.

Playin' soccer with Charlie (our neighbor).

And here is what kind of pictures we usually get of Hunter these days. This, or him screaming not to take his picture. Takes after his Mama and Grandmom, there!

Audra's 1st Birthday

Audra's first year just flew by. She's no longer a baby, but a little girl, and she certainly acts like it, too. Wants to be just like big brothers - if they can do it, so can she! Here are some pictures from her party. (More at my shutterfly site!) Can you tell she really likes balloons?

And here is her cake. Three tiers of Caramel Cream cake with Vanilla-Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting (my new favorite frosting, by the way!) Chocolate transfer butterflies and a LOT of royal icing flowers. (There are a ton more pictures from all different angles on Shutterfly.)

This next one was her own personal little cake.