Caleb 1 year photos

So a friend asked me to take pictures for her. I of course said yes I would love to, thanks for the practice:) This is Gracin's little buddy. He just turned 1 year this month. He was such a trooper. The weather was still above 90* and oh so humid at 6:30 pm. But we survived and I got a bunch of cute shots. These are a couple of my favorites. I am sure his mom will also have her favorites posted as well so didn't want to steal all the good shots. It was fun and great practice. Thanks Lambert family!

Grasshoppers

Now that we have a pet frog, we have to feed him. Every couple nights we head outside and catch some crickets for Ribbit. Tonight Riley was finding a lot of grasshoppers, that were too big for the frog. Rhylan started collecting them in her bug catching jar. By the end of the evening she had over 14 grasshoppers in there. At first Riley would catch them and hand then to Rhylan. But, she soon figured out how to follow and catch the little guys all on her own. Everyone of these pictures of her holding one is a different grasshopper. She showed me every time!!!






Gracin's job was to chase all the grasshoppers over to Rhylan and Riley!


--Just to clear things up... I didn't touch these, not one. We are not a totally weird animal loving family:)

We melted at the zoo

Last week we went and picked Riley up from school. We heard the zoo was doing something fun for members. They let Rhylan ride all the rides for free. The weather was really bad. I think it was 106*!!!! We stopped by the gift shop on our way in and got a squirt bottle fan. The poor kids were as wet as we could get them without throwing fits! We only stayed about an hour and stuck to the indoor attractions as much as we could. We saw the bird house, the reptile house, and creatures of the night. After wards we cooled off in the fountain. It was a great afternoon, and the kids' naps were priceless:)



Gracin was pretty much terrified of this ride once it got moving. It was going so fast I had to grab on to something so I wouldn't fall!!--I tried to take pictures of him during the ride but they were all blurry because of our incredible speed:)



Gracin's sweet glasses...We got them at Build a Bear. They are made for stuffed animals, but we thought they were too cool to pass up!

I'm so glad when daddy comes home!

He sees daddy outside ready to open the door to come in!

Gracin has started getting really excited when Riley comes home. He likes to watch him come to the door from the window. He waddles right up to him and begs to be picked up! He smiles and claps. It sure makes Riley feel special too. He has started saying "dada" but only a few times.

Rhylan also loves the time when daddy is home. Since Riley is in clinic 3 days a week he gets to spend less time with the kids. On those days he can be at school from 7am-7pm! The kids go to bed at 7 so it really cuts time short. This last Tuesday Riley came home early! Him and Rhylan went on their first official Daddy Daughter date. (they have gone places like the store together but I dont think anything like this...I guess I'll ask Riley when he gets home) They went to the movies and saw Toy Story 3. They even got to go to a non-3D showing. They both had a great time and loved the movie. Rhylan especially loved the popcorn and special time alone with daddy.


I said "okay Rhylan give daddy a hug!" She did this instead. How sweet?

Water

Gracin loves water. Sprinkler, pool, sink, bath, puddle, water table, you name it, he loves it. I sat him right down by the sprinkler and he just played and played. Even when he would get squirt in the face, he would just smile and go back in for some more. He defiantly wins all splash wars at our house.

Rhylan on the other had is a bit timid when it comes to water. She is having a hard time putting her face in the water in Swimming lessons. She simply refuses!! She tiptoes around the sprinkler and would never ever jump over it.

All done with editing!!!

Little Brigham. He was just so sweet and handsome. Don't you just love all his fluffy hair? He didn't even really cry at all. He didn't want to hold still unless mommy was holding him or he was wrapped up tight. It doesn't matter how many times I see a new baby, I am always amazed at how small they are. It was so neat to hold a little baby again. My baby is a monster!-- a very cute lovable monster that is.

Wow this was a learning experience. It sure is hard to practice on newborns. First, you have to know a pregnant lady. Second, you have to wait around for her to have a baby. Third, they are only newborns for a short time, so you only get one shot! I don't know how anybody knows enough newborns to get their practice in:)

I am posting some of my 5 favorite shots (excluding the pre-posted pics.) I would love to hear what you think. I did my best, but I know I can get better...that is if I can find a bunch of newborns to practice on:)

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

P.S. Brittney you can copy these if you like but I'll get you a CD real soon! Like next time I leave the house:)

Riley + Father Day= Reptile show

Yep we went to a reptile show this weekend! We drove to Birmingham Alabama and had a fun mini vacation. The show was at this Zamora Temple. Here they are ready to go in and see all sorts of amazing things.
Riley and Rhylan especially loved it. Riley "was in heaven" he said. He really had a great time talking to vendors, seeing creatures he has never seen before, and checking everything out. This was a perfect Fathers day gift for him:)
I was a little bit nervous. There were WAY TOO MANY snakes in one room for me. I hate snakes more than anything. I have nightmares at lease once a week about snakes. But I was brave and actually had some fun taking pictures of all the reptiles. So I posted a ton of pictures so you won't need to go to a reptile show yourself you can see all the highlights here on our blog:) However, I am sure this is not the last one we will go to. It was way better than the pet store, and was a great way to spend some time together on a Saturday.
The girl who opened up this container for us, was actually surprised that he climbed out like this and quickly put the lid back on! She was a little scared.

These are baby albino Garter snakes!

Rhylan wasn't scared and got right up to the cages to get a better look.
Riley loved this snake. It is a Kenyan Sand Boa! This was a new snake to him. I guess they are pretty cool?!? With a lot of peer pressure from my husband, daughter, and the nice lady selling these things, I actually touched this one. But Rhylan held it!!! See next picture. She didn't want to let him go.

In this picture you can see the type of people we were hanging out with!! Just kidding, there were many normal people there too:) Not everyone had a weird go-tee and snake tattoos all over their arms.

These turtles were so cute. They were only about 2.5 inches across.

Do you see this face? This is a very very sad little girl. She wanted to take home a lizard for a pet... not just any lizard...

...THIS LIZARD

She cried and cried. We told her that we couldn't take him home he was already someones pet. She said, "Can we just borrow him? I want to borrow him!" We had to go back and look at him several times. He is a Savannah Monitor lizard, and apparently very cuddly.
Yeah I was really freaked out by this one. Most all snakes were in closed cages...

Gracin was a little low in his stroller to see much. He was only happy when we were holding him up to see.