hiking on a sunday

we typically do not spend our sunday's frolicking in the woods, but jack begged, and we caved, and it was really nice. the weather was beautiful and the hiking trails in our neighborhood are even more beautiful, and we needed the exersise, and i enjoyed the photo-op.

i am still annoyed with my way too expensive camera. i do not feel it is taking quality pictures. i can't figure out how to check/change the shutter speed. maybe it's the lens, or maybe i just don't know how to use the camera as well as i thought, but i compare the clarity of my pictures to others with the SAME camera and i feel i there is a problem. i refuse to believe it's my skills. maybe that's the problem.

back to hiking. jack loved every minute of it. he loved poking and hitting stuff with his hiking stick and he loved the time with mom and dad and no sister. (they always love the one-on-one don't they?) i wish i could spend every sunday doing stuff like that. i guess i could make more time for it, right?

ONE MORE DAY and it's HALLOWEEN! I love Halloween. :)

OMG....STILL in technology class

still having fun in technology class

having some fun in technology class

Old McDonald Part 2

Jack...always hitching a ride

This cow hated me.....he moooooo'ed at me angrily the whole time

Wheeeeee! I put this picture (above) thru photshop and I like the non-photoshopped picture better (below). I guess sometimes I should just leave my pictures alone.

Such fun, that bouncy thing. This is a framer. They both are..... too cool to put in an album.

Crouching Tiger, floating Jack

Old McDonald

Jack making me carry him through the maze because his "wegs huwt"

don't cha love it?

racing for their chocolate milk!

Boo with his beloved pumpkin

KK- worrying about something

We went to Cagle's Dairy Farm yesterday. We had yet to do the Corn Maze/Farm tour thing and Eric has been asking us to do it for years. I wasn't sure what to expect but ended up having a surprisingly good time. I highly suggest it to anyone in the Woodstock/Canton area. You get your money's worth for sure! The whole thing was a 4 hour process. We did they hay ride through the farm, we watched a baby pig race (nothing cuter), jumped on a bouncy thing, walked through a corn maze, and watched a man with a crazy mustache milk a cow. So this all may not sound fun, but it was. Jack loved every minute of it, especially the hay ride. And Kaitlin got a kick out of the little Wilbers racing for chocolate milk. It was a very "fall" day and it got me in the mood for the season. Not to mention a fantastic opportunity to use my camera. I made it a point not to be the paparazzi and actually enjoy the time with my family, but I did have to take a few.



I just LOVE the fall.

Kaitlin's song

"Stay Beautiful"

I remember that time

when you looked me in the eyes

and you said to me

stay beautiful

I remember that time

when you walked past me

and I said to myself

I'm beautiful

oh.....I'm beautiful

oh........your beautiful

yes you are

I'm beautiful

baby.......stay beautiful

This is a song Kaitlin wrote and shared with me. She is a little song writer isn't she? She comes to me all the time and shows me songs she writes. She's written about 10 so far, and she can't find most of them! I'm making her start a notebook so they are all in the same place so she doesn't lose them. She sings them to me, and it makes me want to cry. She really blows me away with her talent. She's got the chorus thing down pat. I wouldn't at all be surprised if she ended up being a singer/songwriter for a living someday. This is her life. Next step.....guitar lessons. I'm not letting her waste her talent on me in the living room. This girl needs a stage!

Pics of the Week

Jack at the ballpark

Liam, my 'nephew by friendship' on his 1st birthday

Carsyn and Jack decided to play "wedding". They came downstairs and ask me to come up and look at their "wedding table". Notice the flowers, the white towel table cloth, and the baby on the table (apparently they think it is normal to have a baby AT their wedding, I can't imagine where they would get that idea!). Jack even helped her button her wedding dress (below). They had the best time pretending to get married, and of course Carsyn knew all the details of putting on a wedding and had loads of fun bossing Jack around on their wedding day. My favorite part of the event was when Jack came back downstairs and asked me to put on his 'wedding shirt" OVER his waaaaaay to small spider man pajamas. I asked him if he wanted to find some wedding pants to match but he seemed quite confident in his spidey gear. I explained that they are cousins and they can not really get married ( I couldn;t help myself) and they reassured me that they were just pretending. I did not feel like putting these pics through photoshop so I didn't, but they have a great story behind them. I love listening to these 2 play.

Kaitlin has been party hopping all weekend so I did not get any pics of her. She feels she has met her modeling quota for the year and seems to want me to leave her out of my photshoots lately. Stinker!

Oops....he did it again!

Last night we had another "Jack Stark...clean car freakout".....I must share.

As my friend Lindsey was leaving my house with her daughter Sklyar, Jack plowed through both of them to get to the car first. I ran after him, not knowing why he was running towards the car when he was clearly not going home with them, and he just kept saying, "I have to see something. I have to see something!" As he was opening the door I said to him, "what are you doing? They have to leave! What do you have to see?" And he says, and I guote, "I just want to see if her car is clean!" He popped his little red head into the back seat and said, "yep, it's clean." After laughing for a few seconds (with secret concern) I said, "Jack, do you need me to clean out my car again?" He said "no, you don't need to. I like it the way it is." And he walked inside.

What? That was not a good enough answer for me. I followed him inside after more laughter and saying bye to Lindsey, and asked him again. "Jack, Are you mad that my car is so messy all the time? Why do you always want to see if people's cars are clean?" And he said, "I like clean cars" (actually, it was more like "I wike cwean caws"...he still can't say his r's...just like his daddy). I then offered to clean my car out again and he said, "no, you don't need to cwean it out, it's fine."

That was that, I let it go. But after thinking about it, it made me laugh with sweetness. He has totally accepted that my car is messy and is totally fine with it, he just needs to look at a clean car every now and then, just to look. Either that, or I may need to get him so counseling!

Happy 7 year Anniversary Eric!

I won't do the whole public love fest thing on here. Just wanted everyone to know it's our anniversary so you would send cards with money in it. We will accept belated wishes too! (Don't forget the gift cards and/or money). Happy Anniversary to us!

Thank you Beth and Nick!

Thank you for such an awesome week with family! We had such a good time. Please know how thankful we are that you two take us to the beach every year. This year, this was our only family vacation, so we treasured every moment. We know what you go through to give us this week and we know how exhausting it is to plan a vacation. For that, and everything else you do for us all year long, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Love, Eric, Suzy, Kaitlin, and Jack

Favorites of my niece and nephew

Carson loves to eat sand

Aunt Monica and a very irritated baby Scott

Ashlyn only agreed to smile for this picture if I let her borrow my camera so she could take my picture. At this point, all of the kids were tired of the camera lady.

Still loving the sand

Sweet girl

So many favorites...so little time to wait for them to download

Where's Jack?

Check out that hair!

My precious niece and nephew

All of the grandkids (Eric's side of the family)

Gameday gear

Favorite black and whites

sweetness

more sweetness

even more sweetness

not so much sweetness

hotness

Favorites of Kaitlin

Favorites of Jack

he's pretending to struggle for the camera

wheeeeeee!

nothing cuter!

except this one....

and this one!