Stockton Turns Six

Family Pictures

There is nothing I love and hate more than family pictures. I love having them and I always want to have updated photos, but getting them is always such an ordeal. I hope one day it will get easier but considering Stockton's hatred of posing for pictures, I don't foresee that ever happening.

Before we even sat down for one picture, two of the three kids were screaming followed quickly by the last one, probably due to the first two. Disaster:

But thanks to an amazingly talented brother and a lot of work on photoshop, we came off successfully. It is an absolute miracle we got these:

Halloween

Cornbellys

We've had our first Cornbellys experience. Sorry, Clark, for the country music. I didn't choose it but thought it was appropriate:

Fun Girls

Even though we go to the zoo almost on a weekly basis, Mary and Tess have never sat on the elephant trunk until our last visit. It was a hit:

The girls love their cousins:
Tess discovered grandma's shoes. Too bad Mary's picking her nose because this would be a really cute picture otherwise. I guess it's still kind of cute--or at least funny:

Silver Lake

We went up to Silver Lake a couple of weeks ago with my nieces and nephews. Even though we missed most of the fall colors, it was still gorgeous and felt great to be outside!

Anna, Katelyn, and Mary:

Stockton and Mary:
Davis, Stockton, Katelyn, and Bryson:The whole crew:
Mary was as happy as can be:

Poor Tess was a little sick:

More Mary:

Stockton:

Mary and Tess Are Two!

My little girls turned two last month. I can't believe how fast time flies! They bring us so much joy! We used to say that Mary was the sweet one and Tess was the sassy one. That isn't the case anymore. They are still very different, but they both have very strong personalities. They are both very busy--I get so worn out by the end of the day that I usually count down the minutes until bedtime--but at the same time, they are both so sweet that I look forward to when they get up in the morning.

No one thinks they look like twins. In fact, I have a lot of people ask me how far apart they are because Mary is three inches taller than Tess. And even though the girls were premature, Mary is in the 65 percentile for height (Tess still isn't on the charts). Basically, we have one girl taking after the Howe family and the other taking after the Evans family.

I didn't take any pictures from their birthday party. It was pretty low-key since we're still living at my parents' house, but it was a lot of fun. Mary and Tess are so girly. They got tea-sets, music sets, dolls, and purses for presents and they love them all. I did take a picture of the weather that day, though. Pretty yucky for the beginning of October:

My two year-olds at the Zoo:

Shakespeare 2011

This is from our family vacation to the Shakespeare Festival last summer--I've finally got the video for it.