I got to photograph the cutest family today. Little baby E just turned six months and her parents were the lucky reciepients of my Session Give Away that was hosted on GiveAwayToday. Their friends won the giveaway and blessed them with the session (those are some nice friends if you ask me!).

We decided to wait till little baby E turned six months old and I'm so glad we did. The weather was awesome and if we had tried to do this any sooner we probably would have melted! I had a great time working with this sweet little family and hope they love the photos as much as I do! Here's a little sneak peak! You can see a few more from their session on my photography blog!

Check out the cool bib that Amy made for him!
He was lovin the cake!And the ice cream!Micah has really been into pushing things lately. At the party he pushed the shopping cart around for about 70% of the time we were there...he was eating the other 30%. At home he pushes his little lawn mower around the shed, and around the tree, and around the shed...so cute!

it's a thing of beauty.
now, if I could just figure out how it works.
no internet for now.
but my texting options just increased 200 fold!

When I donated 10 inches of my hair to locks of love
I called that getting my hair chopped.

I'm not sure if you can call giving a one year old a
hair cut getting it "chopped"
but it sure seems that way to me.

Micah's hair was getting pretty scruffy...
the top was flat but the edges sorta turned out.
The curls were cute but a little out of control.
He had bed head almost all day long.
Not anymore.

Strapped in the booster seat,
armed with fruit snacks and crackers
he sat still like he didn't even know I was there.
And I chopped his hair. He had more hair than I thought
and I knew he had a lot of hair.

I think he looks older.
I caught glimpses of my brother when looking at him tonight.
(or Steven Curtis Chapman as Tami would say).

I'm not sure if his hair will grow back curly
but I'm okay if it doesn't...but I secretly hope it does.


And in case you don't remember what it looked like before:

Look they even used the blanket for Jordan's newborn photoshoot! Oh and if you're in the need of a photographer in the St. Louis area I can highly recommend Rachel!

Here are some of the books we got last week to go along with some of the homeschooling curiculum. The focus is obviously on color and I threw in a few shape books as well. The lower left hand corner is my favorite book of the group. It is all about shapes but it's shapes found in art pieces at the Museum of Modern Art. Totally cool for an art junkie like myself. Just trying to do my part in influencing two little young minds to love art!

I saw this one when we were on the Commanche Lookout trail but we also saw one when we were in the King William Historic District.

It kind of bums me out when I ask people in my city if they've been somewhere, like the Art Museum, or the botanical gardens and they tell me, "no".

I usually follow that question with, "how long have you lived here?" And more often than not people have lived in the city more than 5 years and sometimes their whole lives.

I know that when I lived close to Milwaukee I did not take full advantage of the city and go see all the sites. Although I certainly made sure I'd seen all the "high points of interest" that the city had to offer.

On these past few Mondays (and I'm sure for many more Mondays to come) we've been playing tourists. It's been a blast. We look online or take recommendations from friends and find some place new, exciting and hopefully cheap (i.e. free) to explore for a couple of hours.

We don't feel like we need or want to go someplace that will take a whole day to uncover but rather little two hour trips are right up our alley. We like to sleep in and be lazy a little on Mondays and the kids don't last much longer than two hours (okay, it's really me but they are a convienent excuse).

So, yesterday morning we headed to the King William Historic District for a walking tour of historic homes. We didn't go inside any homes (even though Naomi kept asking if we could) but rather enjoyed their outward beauty. The kids did great in the strollers and only whinned when we got near the end...it was getting hot and I think Micah was bored! We let Naomi walk for a little bit but kept tight reigns on her. She really wanted to stick her hand in the river!

These homes were very beautiful and we had a little map that told us about how the homes were built and who their owners were. Some of the homes had plaques with more information as well. It was a great way to spend a Monday morning. Although we both agreed it would be even better in the fall wearing jeans and sweatshirts but then decided that would probably mean Jaunary and we didn't want to wait that long.

There is another walking tour called "The Texas Star Trail" that is a downtown walking tour that we agreed to do once it got a little cooler. I'm still debating in my head if that is something to take the kids on or not...we'll see. Have any of you San Antonians done the Texas Star Trail? What's it like? Would it be good and fun for the kids too? or better just for us grown ups?

Here are some photos from our King William Historic Tour. The photos do not do some of these home justice! They were beautiful. I may post the photos and their stories on facebook sometime if I get a chance so I'll link that here if I ever get around to it. One house was given as a wedding present...seriously mom and dad that wouldn't have been a bad idea. Just saying.

Play tourist in your city. I highly recommend it. The internet is a great place to get ideas and see what's out there. Pack up your family and a few snacks and see something new and create some great memories in the process.

We followed up our morning drooling over awesome houses with a little hide-n-seek and ice cream. A great day of family memory making!