I've been getting requests for belly pictures...

I also get in trouble for never doing anything interesting with our own family pictures- Alex calls me the mechanic with the broken car. (Though thinking this one through to conclusion- he never wears his uniform a moment longer than he has to...) So, Mr. Soldier Man, this pics for you.

This is from our time in Cleveland. Al, Jence, and Grandma Chrissie came with me to hang out after a shoot- but the shoot fell through so we got some family pics instead, courtesy of Grandma.

Jensen giving his little brother a kiss...

"Jensen, where is your brother?"

We got to get in some shots with Grandma Chrissie- we were so glad she was there- I could never convince Alex to get carmel corn from a little gourmet popcorn shop downtown!

Kerrie J and Katie B got us all (Mom Becky and Jamie came too) into Avon Lake's fabulous swimmin' hole. It was too much fun! Even though I wasn't allowed to do anything because they thought I looked pregnant. Rude.

Holy anorexic Becky. Good grief. So this is the belly about 6 months. I'm a big bigger now- but this gives the general feel for how big I will be by the time I add on three more months... feel free to send Tylanol and Tums...

Chrissie, Boo and Sari.

It was fun to have someone else taking pictures for once- we actually have proof the three of us are always together!

Beck messing with Jence. They had so much fun together. He is quite taken with both her and Jamie.

I thought this was a funny group.

The pool had a lazy river (!) with noodles to ride- I would have stayed in it all day! (Though this is Al messing with Jence instead of being lazy)

I'm not quite sure what Jence was concerned about but he had a sympathetic ear in Becky...

HA! Hilarious! Jence got taken by surprise by the huuuuge bucket that fills fills fills then dumps on top of the kiddie climbing thingee... he was nooot so happy....

Becky got a new little boy, Kirby. He is soo cute and uber sweet. Al insists that he is in fact not a Chihuahua by his friendly personality and brazenness.

Jence has taken to asking for a drink before he'll go to sleep (how does every kid find this loophole...?) and this is Jamie and Becky taking it to him. Goofballs.

We got to take Jence to the Nature Center in Bay (which, although I didn't go very often, knowing I could if I so chose was a sturdy pillar in my Bay Village upbringing). They have this huuuge log in the lobby- and here we see Jence through said log.

Becky decided she would match Jence today (and was really excited about it, of course if you know Becky you already knew that...).
She was actually devastated that she had gotten rid of the exact shorts he was wearing a week or so before... again, if you know Becky, absolutely shocking!! Yes, I said it, Becky got rid of an item of clothing!!

Monkey and Grandma Chrissie on the huge log.

We had such a wonderful time in Cleveland! Even with so many photoshoots it was so relaxing and fun. I think that Jensen must think that Cleveland is the land of the animals because in addition to the nature center (which does have animals, just not pictured here) we also hit the county fair and the Cleveland Zoo...so we saw looots of animals and he was amazing the whole time ( don't worry, he has made up for it in bad attitude for the last two or three days. All is well).

We also had a marvoulous time visiting Kentucky. We got to swim and decompress- and Jensen will tell you- play with Sashi! (Video clips of that are on facebook.)

We got home Thursday evening, I shot a rehearsal dinner Fri and a wedding Saturday. I've taken to having Al be my assistant (which we both "love", in different ways...) and as we were diving home that night (11:30) we almost hit a puppy. There are so many lost dog signs plastered all over our area at any given time that I had Al get out and check for a collar. None. So for the first time in my life I felt the urge to take home a stray. Just to call Animal Control.
Well. Animal Control is closed on Sundays.

So we decided to wait till Monday... but had to get the fleas off her.

Three baths later she was just as sweet as she could be...

So we gave her some treats.

Which both she and Jensen loved.

She learned to sit in minutes... (notice her mangled fur...ouch!)

More treats.

A scary and fun little game for Jence... Kiki isn't nearly so big...

Her right ear always sticks out like that...so cute.

So, a week later, playing outside. (Jensen just here discovered that he loves swings).

Daddy decided to clean out the pool... and look who is still here....

Lola!

And Lola and Jensen opted to "help" daddy clean.

Aaand Daddy caught in the crossfire.

We took her to the vet and she is getting all cleaned up/out.

And Jensen has started playing outside by himself for the first time in a while. This was a rainstorm a few days ago that they opted to play in... I had been wondering what happened to the pool, until I looked through these pictures this morning...

So. A week and some days later and take a look at her fur.

Sooo much better already!

She is very good for a puppy...

Though she is still a puppy....

But we are all having fun.

Back indoors- Jence reading his favorite magazine.

All three cuddling.

This is from a few months ago, I just realized I missed posting it.

"Grandpa and Great Grandma" aka; Ron and Betsy, sent Jence a scooter for his birthday!

He rode it in the house for the last few months,

but this week he figured out how to ride it outside and he looooooves it. He takes it on our evening dog walks and outstrips us all! So thanks Grandpa and Great Grandma!

Savannah and the 4th of July

We hit Savanah for the fourth, and had tons of fun. We started by going to the famous Mrs. Wilkes' Restaurant and thoroughly stuffing ourselves. Here are Jence and Bella waiting in line. I was very impressed how well they both did considering we waited about and hour and a half (I think- it didn't seem that long to me because Jence was so good and Paula and I found a place to sit...)
Waiting and playing. This was a private residence, but they're just kids, right?

After lunch we walked downtown to get some candy and found horses to pet along the way.

And he really did pet them- it just looks like he is being forced in the picture.

Izzy (Jensen calls her Bella, but she is still Izzy in my head) loves the trains here, but until this time Jence hasn't ever noticed them- and he was thilled! See how he's only kind of looking at me for the picture...

After candy we played in the water. I didn't want him to be wet for the ride back so I just stripped him down- very chill of me, yes, I know.

The funny part was that he wouldn't get near the water, he just ran around near it laughing and having a grand old time. Whatever floats your boat!

They look like they are angry here for some reason but they were having a ball, laughing, talking about all sorts of stuff we couldn't understand, "it's my perfection!" huh?

They did so well together the whole weekend, I was hugely impressed. Al and I are pretty sure it's because Bella was a good sharer. Though apparently at this particular moment Jence didn't want a hug...

Kissin' momma.

Jence, Will (who is so old!), Kiki and Fox, all relaxing in the living room.

Later we took an evening trip down to the beach. I was all set to do the beach up right- like, even planning on getting my hair wet and sitting in sand. But when we got there it was so windy there was really no way to enjoy ourselves, so the kids built a few "sand castles", Al and Phil tried to fly a kite, I took a few pictures with my point and shoot (about which Alex always complains, because I take nice pictures of everyone else's families, but I whip out the little one for my own...). Note Jence's hair here.

Fending off the kite tails while prepping a sand castle.

Al untangling himself.

Izz and me going down to get some water. (Which felt soo good, I felt bad that we couldn't really play!)

Al caught me and my belly looking down the beach.

My favorite picture of the trip. What a monkey.

And the ritual smashing of the castles prior to leaving.

Now, at this point my post should go on with pictures of our two fun July 4th evenings and aaaall the cuteness that went on. Including the most adorable video of fireworks featuring Jensen's voice muffled because his face was buried in my chest in order to not see the display- talking about all the different animals and other friends that were or were not afraid of the fireworks.

After that I would have put up such cute pictures of our next beach trip that was way more successful, followed by a post of my trip to Cancun to do a photoshoot.

But no one will ever see any of that because my little point and shoot that bothered Alex so bad was stolen from my checked baggage somewhere between Cancun and Atlanta.

I am still in mourning.

Jensen's 3rd Birthday

We had a cowboy party for Jence's big #3. We only had 3 little guys to invite over- which I first thought was kind of sad, but quickly realized and took credit for my genius! It was so fun- and didn't get out of control. I made hobby horses for them and they had fun galloping around the living room... we did wait till we were outside to fill the squirt guns...

We let them all choose which horse they wanted. They are still too young to fight over colors- thank heavens.Becoming a cowboy

Jensen's classic one eye aim. I don't know how he picked it up.

I think he's so cute.

This is a pistol fight- and Jence is in the middle of falling down dead.

He's not so interested in cheesing anymore. He was busy describing the race car- and waiting for me to say, "yeeeeaahh!"

We took it the party outside where we stuck the slide in the pool.

They were hysterical- kept crashing into each other and laaaaughing.

Jence as usual was obsessed with getting the cake out.

Listening to Happy Birthday.

We decided that everyone should get there own candle- easier.

Frosting faces.

This is my favorite. Notice there are four cupcakes. If you would please recall which was Jensen's... He came back and finished it off a few seconds after I took this picture.

Daddy saved the new swords for when there were only two left. Tristan had very nice fencing form- one handed jabs. Jensen went at the poor kid holding the sword like a battle axe...

Baby Baby

This little monkey was very excited to perform for us. He was all over the place- he covered his face when it was time for a face shot, his peeper when it was time for a pic of that (though he did show us that he is for sure a "he") and made the tech laugh by winding up before he punched me. Jence got to come see the "baby movie" and everyone in the office was excited to see how much he and his brother already look alike.

Haven't you seen that profile before?

So there he is- already a cool dude- thumbs up.