Portions of our Shea Shoot

I did a sweet fam shoot with the Sheas and had to share these little beauties.  Dude calls his eyes "glowing eyes" after seeing these shots.  True statement.  Check out the http://www.gvcreative.blogspot.com/ for the last month's worth of Fall photo shoots.  Some beautiful people!

We had a heavenly fam day at Littleton Historic Museum last Saturday.  It was 75, sunny, the colors were brilliant and the kids noses were snot free.  That's cause for celebration round here these days.  Dude ate up all the animals, hay, barns, pumpkins, tractors, old school houses...I don't know why we hadn't visited this local hot spot before that day.  Especially since it's free.  I had my new camera on me and went a little crazy.  My poor kids will always have a lens in their face.  There's just no getting around it.  If they weren't so darn cute I might keep it home.  But they are....so darn cute. 

 Dude avoided dirtying himself in the hay pasture.  Squirt?  She rolled around in it and ate it. 

 Dude and I were playing with Photoshop on these pictures...see if you can find the difference between this top shot and the one below. 

Friday Night Zumba

The mamas in my hood are the bestest mamas you could ask for as neighbors and friends.  I wouldn't leave our neighborhood if you offered me a free house on a mountain top.  Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still.  Last Friday a group of us got together for a Zumba, wine and munchy night.  Fatima  leads Zumba for a side living and donated her time and studio for our night of girly time.  It was just what this Mama needed.  I just love these gals. 

My Fall Squirt

Just Thursday our little speed racer decided that plain ole crawling isn't adaquate.  So now she "crawls" like the video below.  I kinda think walking is in the near future.  This is all new territory for us.  Duder took his sweet time and wasn't even mobile at this age.  She is the definition of mobile. 

I went a little crazy in the one Halloween outfit she owns (thanks to the Shea women) and got some rather darling shots of the darling.  Happy Fall friends!  We are LOVIN the beauty of this Colorado fall.  The 70 degree weekend didn't hurt either. 

Happy Adoption Day Dude

This past week marked Duder's 5th Adoption Day Celebration.  We make this day a "kinda" big deal for him so as to point out how extra special he is because of how God brought us together as a fam, but don't want to make it a big production in the same breath.  This year we decided cupcakes were the way to go.  And we scored big.  Dude was tickled pink with his 3 balloons, streamers and sprinkle coated cupcakes from a box.  We invited the Sheas to pop over (literally) and join in the cupcake festivities, which of course made it all the more exhilarating for Dude.  Tim bought the little man a water paint book, which provided tons of excitement (more than one would think).  He walked around all night saying (in his most pip squeaky voice), "Tanks for all the special surprises Mom, Dad and Rea!  Doption Day is SUPER fun!" 

We sure do love our little Dude.  Adoption Day is just a reminder of how blessed we are to call him ours.

Cousin Time

Cousin time doesn't happen often, so we soak it all in when it does.  We were pumped to spend a whole day with my brother, sister-in-law and nephews, D & Hudson on Saturday.  We played.  Hard.  And went home to Nana and Papa's house exhausted and full of sweet, sweet memories.  We celebrated Hudson's birthday while we were there and gave him a "cousin cape."  Dude L-O-V-E-S his cape, so naturally, his cousins have to have one too.  It was a heart warming day all around.  Thanks for hosting us and feeding us Kira and Ross!

We braved a breakfast out and survived.  The boys chowed down 2 pancakes the size of my face.

 The 3 caped crusaders.

 Our creative Nana had us decorate Hudson's birthday box with paint and feathers.

 Dude found a friend at the park downtown on Saturday.

 Nick, Caylei and cute little dude Chase met us at the Lincoln Park Farmer's Market for a quick "hello." 

Kyle & Becky work at this awesome farmer's market every Sunday.

Baby Blues

Don't have time or brain power to do a lengthy post, but I did have to share these shots of my blue eyed not so baby boy.  I got a new camera body (super pumped about it's capabilities - including in camera video) and it took some beauties of my Dude with front yard brilliant yellow foilage behind him. That's all I have.  Good night all.

If I had to pick the perfect day...

Dude and I packed our bags last weekend and hopped on a jet plane.  Just the two of us.  It was a much needed Mama, son weekend to go bond with our fam in Chi-town.  And bonding we did.  It's amazing how laid back and angelic my little man is when I stop and give him some QT.  Little sis doesn't allow for a whole lot of quality time, so he ate it up for 3 whole days.  We landed Thursday night after a smooth sailing flight (well, minus the fact that I left our boarding passes at the check in counter, left my coat at the gate and threw away Dude's dinner).  Dude did great, is what I was trying to say. 

Friday was the Best.Day.Ever.  My parents took off work and we headed to breakfast in LaGrange, where Dude chowed on 4 pieces of french toast.  Next we went to a trip down nostalgia lane to the Little Red School House.  I've spent many a field trip and family excursion to this quaint forest preserve destination.  I could have stayed there all day, watching my Dude walk the trails I spent my childhood walking.  He found sticks, leaves, bugs...and didn't even whine about how tired his legs were until we got to the last curve in the path. 

Best buds these two.  Love, love, love this shot.

 

I don't know what's happening with his cow licks in this shot - we'll blame it on the wind.

These two are also best buds.  My mom has such an amazing way with her grand kids.  They eat up everything she says and does - I guess that's the teacher in her.  The whole love part doesn't hurt either. 

The "little red school house."

After we left nostalgia lane we popped into Starbucks - what would a beautiful Fall day be without Pumpkin Spice Late and a Vanilla Steamer?  On our way to destination #4, we stopped in to say "hey" to my Aunt Lecia at work.  She's a loyal blog stalker.  Our outings concluded at Lake Katherine, which is this amazingly beautiful nature preserve within biking distance of my parent's house.  We napped in the afternoon (seriously, when's the last time I took a nap???) and I spent the night with one of my very besties from Kindergarten, Erin (Ernose).  We went shopping, got our nails done and had a late dinner.  It was a fabulous girly night that I'm sooo glad we got the chance to do. 

They weren't offering tractor rides, but we settled for a tractor sit. 

Their flower garden was a sight to behold.  Of course I went camera crazy.

 

I know, they're just ducks.  But Dude found them to be quite interesting friends.  So we had to take a picture.

 

And of course we had to take a picture of their butts. 

Bear with me on the nature shots.  This Heron flew in, 2 feet from where we were lounging in the grass.  He hung out with us for a bit before he started fishin. 

I know.  Birds have to eat too, but it was rather awesome to have a front row viewing of his lunch.  You can image Dude's reaction to it all.  He walks around doing a Heron imitation regularly now and says, "Da fish says, Get me outta here in dis heron's belly!  I'm stuck, I'm stuck!" 

That concludes our perfect day.  The next 2 days were great too - we'll reserve a separate post for those.  Stay tuned.