Introducing...

I thought I'd take a bit and tell you a little more about my kids. Mostly it's to help me remember all the great things about them. But I'd like you to know too!

This is Isaac:
Isaac has a ton of energy. He loves:

• to dig in the sandbox
• tortilla chips and guac (a favorite for breakfast!)
• is an awesome artist
• loves math
• is good at all sports (plays baseball right now)
• doesn't like to get his picture taken, so he makes faces
• to be efficient. (For example: decided to quit taking piano lessons from his teacher so that I could teach him instead. His reason: it took too long to drive to and from his teacher's house).
• to sneak the frosting and chocolate chips out of their hiding place in the fridge (I guess it's not a good hiding place:)
• to hike with his dad
• build things
• play with his brother
• to stick his tongue out (in 75% of the pictures I have of him, his tongue is hanging out like Michael Jordan) I think it helps him concentrate.

before & after

My only criteria were that

1. I didn't want to look like a soccer mom
2. I didn't want the Victoria Beckham cut
3. I wanted to look different

Many thanks to Scott at Salon U. He is awesome!

more guinea pigs

Here's a few more...

All the pictures of the boys turned out awesomely. But I'll spare you my photo album. Maybe I'll post the ones that show their real personalities (I can't help but laugh when I look at them -- I have very goofy kids). But it is getting late...there's always tomorrow.

Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart. ~Caryn Leschen

I've been practicing taking portraits with my family as guinea pigs. But when I went back to look at the ones of myself and Nate, those wrinkles really stood out. First gray hairs, now crow's feet.
I am about to turn 35 and I guess I'm not dealing well with gowing older.

"What are Easter baskets?"

We haven't really ever done much of the Easter bunny part of easter. Every once in a while we do an egg hunt if there is a community one or if we get together with family. We do always talk about the real meaning of Easter. I guess I just wanted to make sure that our children really understood what Easter was all about. The kids don't really care too much about the baskets and such. We eat entirely too much candy as it is. Aspen loves to get new Easter dresses, but the boys won't wear them, so I don't buy them. Although one year, we skipped eggs and all that completely. About a month later the kids realized that Easter had passed and were a little disappointed.

This year I asked the kids: "Do you guys feel bad that we don't do Easter baskets?"

Their response: "What are Easter baskets?"

Guess it hasn't scarred them for life to not have baskets.

So this year, we were invited to our friends' to participate in one of their traditions. They color eggs and have an egg smashing contest. You hold the egg and hit the other person's egg. The one to have the cracked egg turns it to the other end to try again. Kind of a double elimination thing per egg. The winner stays in the ring. Toby was the best at it. It is harder than it looks.

Then on Sunday, after wonderful lessons at church, we had a mini egg hunt in our back yard. And I mean mini. Each kid got to find 3 eggs. Then after that they wanted to hide the eggs and find them again. Even without the candy! I think they just like to treasure hunt.