*It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas*

On my birthday (it was last month, I turned 30, and I don't want to talk about it) Dennis gave me an early Christmas/Anniversary gift. A trip to Chicago! We've always talked about going to Paris or Rome or someplace amazing for our 10 year anniversary, but turns out kids are super expensive LOL. So we are going soemwhere a little closer to home, but I'm super excited. Neither of us have ever been to Chicago but we've both always wanted to go. We like to see what other cities are like, it's fun :) The kids will stay at my mom and dad's (Bethany, Grady, and Braden will be in town so the kids will LOVE spending time with them too), and Dennis and I will be back in time for Christmas of course. We're both looking forward to sleeping in for a couple days and being able to do and go wherever we want. Funny how your idea of fun changes after having kids LOL.


And here are some pictures of us decorating the Christmas tree. It's nothing fancy, but full of fun ornaments we've collected over the years, and that the kids have made (my favs!)
I love how warm and cozy the house feels this time of year :)





Happy Holidays!!

Birthday fun, puke-fest, and Santa!

So much has happened since Halloween and I have no idea where the time has gone! It seems to go by faster and faster every year.

Mavrick turned 2 on November 10th and had a Thomas the train birthday party. I made his cake and the train outfit is from Grandma and Papa :) So cute!


Since turning 2, he has definitely assumed the "terrible two's" persona. Technically I think he hit the terrible two's about a month before his birthday, and has become quite the stubborn little guy. He is also still struggling with communicating with his words and gets very frustrated a lot. His speech is improving by leaps and bounds, but doesn't pronounce the "s" sound so sometimes it is hard to understand what he's saying. Snow is "no", snake is "nake", stop is "top", etc. And when he doesn't quite know what to call something, his default word is "baba". But he's getting better about using words and repeating new words so I'm sure it won't be long before he's talking well enough to keep up with Hollie LOL.

Last weekend we were going to go to Branson with my parent's but didn't quite make it that far. I had some kind of stomach virus the weekend before last, and apparently gave it to Hollie so she started puking Friday morning. By the afternoon she was playing and acting fine and even said she felt better, so after naptime we decided to go ahead and attempt the trip to Branson. We got about a mile from my grandparent's house to drop off the dogs, when she puked all over herself and the inside of the car :( So we cleaned her up and the car (as well as possible) when we got to grandma's, and decided that we would just take a bucket in case she got sick again and hoped that she'd fall asleep on the way to my parent's and be ok. But no. She puked again on the way to mom and dads. And while taking a tight curve in the road the bucket tipped over and spilled all over the floor mat. By the time we got to mom and dads we could tell that the car ride was making her feel more sick, and her fever was back, so we opted to just go back home. Thankfully she did sleep the whole way home from there, and didn't throw up anymore after that. But I'm glad we decided to stay home and not go to Branson because she was still really tired and worn out on Sunday and it was pretty cold and windy so I dont think she would have enjoyed walking around outside all day. Maybe next year....

She was a little bummed though that she didn't get to go on "vacation" with Grandma and Papa, so on sunday we worked on some Christmas crafts all day. We made egg carton bells and thumbprint snowman cards. (Didn't get any pictures of the snowman cards though).







And we didn't know it, but that was the day that Santa was making his annual drive through all the neighborhoods on his bus-transformed-into-a-sleigh LOL. So we got to run out to the end of the driveway just in time to visit with Santa for a few minutes. That made her day! *Sorry Santa if we infected you with the Vomiting Virus of Death* :/

Mavinator chaos

Today had a crazy, stressful, non-enjoyable start. Mavrick was up late last night, yet was up at 6:30am. (For some reason, if my kids stay up late, they wake up earlier than normal the next day, rather than sleeping in. What is wrong with them??!)

I could tell he was not going to go for laying back down, so I brought him downstairs to the playroom and we played with the train set for a while. He really seemed to enjoy the quiet one-on-one time with me and we had fun....for about 20 minutes. Then Hollie woke up and meandered her way downstairs and sat down in my lap. This resulted in a serious jealous outragte by Mavrick, who proceeded to grab onto Hollies hair with both hands and pull as hard as he could saying "MY MOMMY!". It was like someone dropped an atomic bomb in our playroom. One second peace and quiet, the next second screaming, crying, and more screaming. And it all went down hill from there. After a stint in time out, and a short but sweet "hair is, not for pulling, that hurts" speech, he returned to the play room and a full-on torture Hollie session began which lasted all morning.

Apparently Mavrick has discovered that he does hold some power in this world, and that is to make Hollie scream, squeal, cry, and yell. And he likes it. A lot.
He chased her through the living room with his realistic looking wiggly lizard, threw a train at her (time out), stomped on her puzzle, scattering pieces everywhere (time out), kicked her while she was down, literally (time out), pushed her breakfast bowl onto the floor (time out), etc, etc, etc. There were also a couple of butt swats in there as well.

In an effort to distract the Mavinator from his sister, I decided to help them with an art project because this is something they both love to do.
We made egg carton pets. I got this idea from another blog I get lots of good ideas from Baa Baa Beep.
Hollie made a kitty, and Mav the puppy.

They turned out pretty cute, and the kids enjoyed playing with them for a while. Then Mav decided to disassemble his and stomp it to death. After which he set his sights on Hollie's so we had to rescue the kitty and put it up high on the shelf for a while.

Needless to say we had popcorn for snack today. Why popcorn you say? Becuase popcorn holds magical powers in this household that causes utter silence for 10-15 minutes. They love popcorn that much. I sprinked some cashews and some dried fruit in there too to make me feel better about giving them such a nutritionally void snack LOL.

Any who.....I later took Mav with me to the grocery store (PS. Thank you Aldi's for saving me $60 on groceries today!) which not only got him out of the house and seperated the kids for a while, but also gave Hollie some time with daddy by herself.

Thankfully this afternoon was much calmer. I guess Mav wore himself out in the morning because he was pretty darn sweet after naptime.

"Terrible Two's" is no joke people.

Oh and here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks.
I keep thinking and reminding myself that I really need to sit down and get caught up on here. But who am I kidding? I just do not have the time (or the discipline?) LOL. Sorry to be so cheap ;)




Princess Hollie riding her unicorn and Turtle Mav on Halloween.


Mavrick - post fingerpainting :)


Hollie's black eye. The result of running from Mavrick in circles around the couch and cutting the corner a little too close :( It was pretty bad, one of her worst boo-boo's I'd say. Its starting to look better but she still says it's sore. She looks kind of cute with a bruiser though lol.

No time

Totally have not had time to blog in quite a while!
Braden is here for 1 more week and then things will hopefully get back to "normal". He's such a good baby and we have loved having him here, but it sure has been an adjustment to have 3 kids, especially a baby again. Even though it hasn't been that long since Mav was that age, it sure doesn't take long for you to get out of 'baby mode' LOL
Hope to get caught up on here soon. Or at least back in the swing of posting more regularly.
Until then....

Anticipating Autumn and Baby B :)

(NO I am not pregnant!)

We have had some beautiful mornings here this past week. We've even had a couple of days that stayed nice and cool all day long. The kids have gotten to go to the park and play outside more in the past week than they have in a month, and now I am dreaming about fall! It is my favorite time of year and I can't wait to pull out the long sleeves and have the windows open in the house all day :)

The next few weeks are going to be very eventful for us. My sister and her new husband Grady are flying in with baby B for a few days. Bethany is going TDY to D.C. for 6 weeks and because Grady's current work schedule is all kinds of whack, Braden is going to stay with us during that time. I am really looking forward to spending some time with adorable nephew, but I am bummed for Bethany because I know how hard it is going to be for her to leave him for 6 whole weeks. Especially since up until recently it has been just her and Braden and she has not spent any time away from him until now. Everything will be fine, and we will Skype with Bethany as often as possible, but still, I know she will be missing him like crazy :( Hopefully the time will go by quickly for her and Braden both.
My kids are both going to love having him around though, and I will too. Don't get me wrong though, we are done having kids and DO NOT want another one, so I'm just happy we get to love and spoil the stinker and then send him home haha!

Anyway, on wednesday I am hosting a Celebrating Home party as a favor to a friend. I do not normally do this sort of thing, but i'm a sucker for helping people out lol. Check out www.celebratinghome.com and if you want to order anything let me know ;)

Then on the 7th Hollie starts school. This is something we are both looking forward to! She is excited to see her teachers and her friends again, and I am looking foward to her having an outlet and some time away from Mav. Hollie has been really bored here at home the past few weeks and Mavrick is increasingly aggravating to her, so starting school will be a very good thing for everyone involved!

Guess that's it for now...

Senior pictures

The past two weekends I got to shoot two upcoming seniors (with a camera! sheesh....)
Paige goes to Lexington High School and is in the marching band. Her family is part of the rodeo club we're in and I am so glad I got the opportunity to get to know them. They are such sincere and kind people, and Paige was so much fun to work with. It was about 90 degrees the day we did her photo shoot, and muggy as all get out,but she powered through it with me and we got some awesome pics :)











Terri Dawn is one of my gorgeous cousins, and goes to Higginsville High School. I was really looking forward to doing her session because: 1. she is totally fun, 2. she is super photogenic, and 3. I knew there would be no need for me to be nervous. And that's pretty much how it went! T did everything I asked of her, including making herself look like a dork on a silo ladder (and somehow managing to make it look glamorous!), and we pretty much laughed the entire time :) Check her out!

The Whirlwind Wedding

In good Poese daughter fashion Bethany got married with just two weeks notice! She and Grady worked at the base hospital together and have known each other since January, but had only been dating since the end of June or early July. I got a phone call from Bethany on the 10th of July telling me that she's getting married, to a guy I'd never heard of before much less knew she was dating, and she says "Oh, and the wedding is in two weeks!" Say what?!?!? (I just hope this is a tradition that does not extend to my daughter! :P)
Of course I had my questions for her and did some grilling (she is my little sister afterall) but I could tell she was 100% sure of what she was doing and totally and completely head over heels for Grady.
Soooo the kids and I drove down with my parents all the way to Fort Walton Beach/Destin Florida (about 16 hours each way!). For those of you who think I've lost my last marble deciding to take the kids on a 32 hour round trip weekend road trip, yes, I would have LOVED to have flown instead! However, the day before Bethany called, Dennis and I spent a lot of money in the furniture store so I could not afford the plane tickets on top of new furniture! I was dreading the drive down with my 1 and 3 year olds, but to my surprise (and Grandma and Papa's too I'm sure!) the kids did amazingly, rediculously, miraculously well!!! They were SO good and I am so proud of them for being such little troopers! Of course they had their moments (what kid doesn't??) but I am still amazed that they took the entire trip there and back (inluding abrubt changes to routine, and sleep deprivation) in such stride. What can I say? I breed rockstars! HAHA
Anyway, the wedding was beautiful, Bethany was gorgeous (LOVED her dress and her hair), and Grady turned out to be so sweet, caring, and madly in love with Bethany and Braden. I photographed the wedding for them (sweating bullets the entire time for being so out of my element) but they turned out pretty good all things considered. I'm not 100% happy with them (I'm more like 25% happy with them!) but Bethany has assured me that she was just glad to have pictures at all, and there are several that are print worthy.
After the wedding we headed to a very swanky hotel for the reception put on by Grady's family. It was perfect! Small, intimate, and full of love and laughter. The food was delicious (seriously, the best fish I've had in my entire life!) and of course it was fun watching Bethany get cake shoved up her nose and in her ear :) Ahhh, a sister's delight LOL.
Here are a few pictures from the big day. Don't they make such a cute couple? Love them!