tough love

we have been staying busy out here while JD's staying SUPER busy with school. jonnie goes to 'pre-school' twice a week for a couple hours and LOVES it. we go to a mom's institute class where the kids just play in the back of the class on another day. and have play group on the other free day. so we have lots of fun and seem to keep ourselves occupied while JD is gone a.l.l. d.a.y. these are just a few shots i caught of the kiddos hanging out last week. totally them. i do miss everyone back home though! i'm trying to figure out a time that i can go back with the kids for a visit.... thinking maybe after thanksgiving so end of nov/beginning of dec. JD will be crazy busy studying for finals so we won't see much of him anyways! so if any of your UT folk wanna book sessions then.... keep that in mind and let me know ASAP!! keep up with more of us on my other blog. there's a super cute post of our night at the county fair. if you missed it then you better go check it out here:)  i seem to struggle at updating both blogs! just to be safe, you should add that blog to your feed as well so you never miss out on any of the fun:) hope everyone has a wonderful labor day weekend!!

K: 'oh hey, wanna hangout sis?'

J: 'yeah but let me put my foot on your head first.' K: 'whyyyyy?'

 J: 'get over here, little bro'. K: 'mom, help!'

'ok we can be buds again'

interview with j-belle

I saw this on a cute blog.... now I can't even remember where but she gave permission to use it so I did just that... here is how the interview went down with jonnie belle. I'm glad I did this... it'll help me remember the funny stage she's in right now. Love her to pieces!

first oklahoma post----- swimmin'

so the summer has come and gone..... almost. and we finally got around to taking the kids swimming! this was knox's first time and he loved it. our friends had us over to their pool so jonnie had a blast playing with her friend the whole time. we waited til 6 pm to go so we didn't all get scorched. it was a lovely time to say the least. hopefully we can go a few more times in the next couple weeks!
and this is a sky that rained 10 minutes after we got home:) whew.

2nd child

 the culprit:

and the innocent victim:

i'm SO glad that jonnie is the big sister and knox is the little guy. i think i would feel a lot worse if a big brother was picking on my poor innocent 3 month old baby girl. don't get me wrong... i still feel bad--- but at least little boys are innately tougher... hopefully? jonnie definitely has her moments when she just wants to tease him or she just does things that she doesn't understand she's not supposed to. there have been lots of those lately. i figured i better write them here so i could tell her about them later when she might not believe me.

-if i lay knox on the floor, i have to be super careful cause whenever he is down, jonnie walks up to him and says 'jump knox?' umm.... NO! 

-she just recently started squeezing his face and getting really frustrated and saying 'look at me knox!'... this is what was happening in the pictures below. 

-sometimes she'll walk up to him and give him a big 'RAWWWR' to see if it'll make him jump. 

-whenever she's eating something, she always wants to share with knox... i gotta keep a close eye on her when she has snacks! she'll offer and put the food by his lips then look at me and say--- only mama's milk? YES. and she'll laugh and say 'okayyyy'. stinker!

-and she MIGHT have pushed knox off the couch once. yeah-- that was awesome!

 mom---- put down the camera and HELP!

NOW!!!

luckily, he's a fast forgiver:)

i realize this makes me sound like an awesome mom.... i swear i watch my kids! it's just sometimes i need to run and do something around the house without lugging the babe around. i've learned my lesson, i try to have jonnie come with me now so she isn't left alone with knox. that's when all the magic happens!

88% of the time jonnie is a SUPER sweet big sister and loves knox to death. and then there is that other 12% when she's a little rough. we're working on that... but i realize it's sort of what we signed up for when we had them 2 years apart. she talks so well that we forget sometimes how young she really is.

on a side note, have i mentioned lately how much i love hanging out with these two? i might have some of the coolest kids around. jonnie is a go go go type girl--- has been since she was born! and knox is just cool as a cucumber. i LOVE it! and i think they will be best buds in the next couple years since they are so different. we'll see--- but i can't wait for them to be able to play:)

4th of july weekend

we were down in utah over the fourth.... so it was loaded with lots of fun! we hung out lots with my family and my aunt mary from az came up to visit too which was awesome. we saw a few of our friends and did some fun things with them---- always nice since we don't see them nearly enough! our weekend was filled with going to see Cars 2, swimming, slip 'n sliding, a couple parades, firework shows, DQ treats, rook, celebrating my mom's b-day, jumping on the wet trampoline to cool off, and i had some fun photo sessions in between all of that. here are just some pics from all the fun. {of course i didn't get in a single one of them! my bad---- i was there too, i promise}

 jonnie is such a little nose picker.... i had to document this so we'd remember!

 at the centerville parade waiting to collect the candy

 enjoying an otter pop--- it was so HOT

 the real reason we were at the parade--- cheering on my sis, haley

 bompa and knox--- little buddies

 jonnie LOVED the slip 'n slide at the mailei's fam party we crashed

 JD got in on the fun too

 she was cruisin!

 on her way back up the hill to go again

 aunt mary and knox when she first got there

 Jonnie took out this little guy at the Farr West days.... LOOK OUT!! so funny

 coolin' off with Dutch on the wet tramp

 knox gettin some loves from grammy--- look at his double chin! i love it

 jonnie just doin' what she does best!

crazy girl--- sure do love you!

utah

we were hanging out in utah last weekend.... we went down for jd's cousin's wedding and it was beautiful! i always love weddings. they remind me of mine and JD's wedding day and why i fell in love with him in the first place. we had fun spending time with family who we don't get to see nearly enough and i even got to take some pictures so i, of course, loved that! jonnie had a blast playing with friends. there was a little girl just a couple months older than her on our cousin's other side of the family and jonnie and her turned into little besties within minutes. i also had a family photo session one of the nights... it was one of my college volleyball coaches and her cute family so i brought along jd and the kids so we could all catch up. jonnie was in heaven. she LOVES kids. i snagged some cute photos of her and brynlee at the session while they were playing.... i get a kick outta them! all in all, it was a wonderful, much needed getaway weekend:)

 starting to tip over......

 .....going down.......

.... and kerboom! they look cute even when they're falling!

and from the wedding

waiting for elsa & brian to come out of the temple 

jonnie with her lil bestie claire

 she meandered through the crowd and made sure she gave elsa a big hug! so cute.

 latest family photo. i can't believe there are FOUR of us.

 getting ready for her big day:)

our kidlets at the wedding luncheon

 loving her candy stash at the reception--- making grandma chase after her.

unpacking.... ish

a couple nights ago we started unpacking. did we just move?? it might seem as if we did. 2 years ago when we packed up our little basement apartment to move to florida, everything went into storage. we were planning on throwing it all in a big huge moving truck and having it shipped out there but ended up decided against this once we got out there. so all we've been living with for the past 2 years is what i packed for our 2 month hotel stay that summer in florida + everything else we have accumulated in the mean time.

so a couple nights ago, jd started pulling out a couple boxes so we could go through them before we get out to oklahoma in august. we don't want to haul a bunch of crap that we will just send to D.I. {hope they have those} out there. it's sort of like christmas for us, really! we haven't seen all this stuff in over 2 years and have basically forgotten all together what we have in there! so for the next few weeks, we will be having christmas at our place. if anyone wants to come over for some hot chocolate and cookies, you are more than welcome:)

i hate moving as it is. but this whole unpacking, repacking, then having to unpack again in august might just start to wear on me. we have to make some fun out of it where we can! things with the house are going well:) so glad the Lord is looking out for us. the more we think about it, the more we are SO glad the first house's owners ended up not being able to sell. the home we're getting is MUCH better suited for us and we'll definitely be more comfortable there. i'm getting pretty dang excited to get out to oklahoma and start this next chapter of our lives. JD will finally be doing what he really loves and i'm super excited for him. hopefully the kids and i can find some good buddies out there to play with and keep us company during the long study days. i'm sure there are plenty of those ahead of us.

the one thing that does stress me out though is going into so much debt. i know that education is a great reason to go into debt--- it's just a scary thought! jd will continue to build saddles during breaks {christmas, spring break, summer} and i'll definitely keep doing my photography out there so that should help some with living expenses. and utah friends, don't forget that i can always do sessions when we come back to visit too, so keep me in the back of your mind:) i really am so glad i have something like it to help out during school--- i LOVE what i do and am blessed to be able to do what i love.

we're coming down to UT tomorrow for JD's cousin's wedding and another photo session. i always love coming back and hanging out with family. usually time is short, so we don't get to see friends too often. but when we do get the chance, i always love that too! just to spice up this long, boring, ramble of a blog post--- here are some pictures of my cuties. knox turned TWO months a couple days ago and he is a whopping 14 pounds already. my mama milk is serious talk around here, people! we don't mess around;) i think most of that weight is in his cheeks, chin, and legs:)

jonnie is quite the riot these days. she has got an attitude like you wouldn't believe! don't get me wrong, she is the sweetest, funniest little girl--- most of the time. and then she has her moments of mischief, rebellion, and just flat out being naughty and testing her boundaries. hopefully it's just a phase! these are some pictures of the other day when i was helping JD's mom with dinner... jonnie went into her bathroom, opened her mascara, and did her make-up herself....she actually did get some on her long eyelashes which i was quite impressed with:)

  oh--- and yes, those are leftover nachos on her face. cute huh??

branding

last friday was the hairpin branding. jonnie L.O.V.E.D. every minute of it. she just wanted to get in on all the action and it was pretty tough keepin' her out of it. these are just some pictures i snapped while knox man was snoozin'. i'll bet by the next branding jonnie will be up on her horse and roping all those calves right along with them. this time, the dummy calf had to suffice:)