118/365: A Little Crack Sunshine

McGee watching the NFL draft with his Daddy, A Little Crack Sunshine:

117/365: Planting with Daddy Sunshine

Planting with Daddy Sunshine:

116/365: Golden Hour in a Field Sunshine

While scouting out locations for a senior shoot I took the kids along and Miss Em was kind enough to be my stand-in model at this field...

115/365: Paper Airplane Obsession Sunshine

He's obsessed.  Completely crazy over making paper airplanes...and he makes them well!  He taught his preschool teacher how to make them and has since been making airplanes each day to send home with classmates. 

114/365: Birthday and Easter Celebration Sunshine

We celebrated Christ being risen, Miss Em's 3rd birthday and my mom's birthday all together this Easter!

113/365: Decorated to Celebrate Sunshine

This year I started what I hope will be a fun tradition to decorate the kids' rooms after they've gone to sleep so they'll wake up on their birthday to a festive surprise.  Miss Em slept through the entire decoration process...on the floor.

112/365: Evening Wiffle Ball Sunshine

111/365: Ice Cream Mischief Sunshine

110/365: Early Morning Bubble Sunshine

I think it was about 7 a.m., or maybe just a tad before....

109/365: Newborn Pull-Back Sunshine

I took a few days off from photographing the kids but I still need to post some pictures I guess huh? :)  Here is a pull-back from my first real session using my home setup.

108/365: Clean Sunshine

The kids were at Grandma & Grandpa's for a couple of days...look how clean their rooms stayed!

Clean Rooms Sunshine:

107/365: Sunday Self-Portrait Sunshine

This one makes me think of summer.

Sunday Self-Portrait Sunshine:

106/365: Picnic Dinners with Friends Sunshine

 Picnic Dinners with Friends Sunshine:

105/365: Baby Monkey Sunshine

Her original lovey was a blue puppy dog that Grandpa gave her, but that was lost a few months ago somewhere between the allergists office and Ross.  It was a sad day.  Grandpa came to the rescue though with a new blue, soft monkey that she calls her "baby" or "baby monkey".  She loves it and wants to take it with her everywhere.  However, having learned from losing blue puppy, Mommy rarely lets her take Baby Monkey out of the house anymore...except this ONE time. :)

Baby Monkey Sunshine: 

104/365: Knights & Princess Party Sunshine

Two kids, two years and 12 days apart, one boy, one girl - what's a mom to do about birthday parties?  So far it's worked out pretty well combining the friend party since so many of Em's friends are the younger siblings of Myles' friends, but combined party themes can be a little tricky.  Thankfully our sword-loving Knight suggested the perfect theme for this year - a knights and princess party!

Happy Birthday Party Day Sunshine to my Little Loves:

103/365: Friendship Sunshine

Day one of college and Daddy met his roommate...let's just say they both weren't too sure they were the right fit.  

After rooming together for 3 years they both married up and decided living next door to each other would be the next best thing.  We enjoyed an awesome year of shared dinners, laughs and late nights hanging out.  Then we graduated and they moved to that awful Las Vegas (j/k!).  We miss them tons but are so thankful that when we do get together about once a year for a couple of hours, it's like we're still neighbors and pick up exactly where we left off (plus a couple of kids for both of us)!

Friendship Sunshine:

102/365: Happy 5th Birthday Sunshine!

My baby boy is 5 today!  We celebrated with oatmeal breakfast at McDonald's, fun time at Fairytale Town, a new haircut for McGee and topping the day off with ice cream with the grandparents and Auntie Michelle!

Happy 5th Birthday Sunshine:

A cautious 4 yr. old wouldn't let go of Grandma's hand the last time he slowly walked the "Crooked Mile"...this time he started off slow taking a few steps and telling himself, "I'm five,"  then a few more steps and another, "I'm 5."  Then all of a sudden this confident boy RAN it OVER and OVER all by himself!  I love this shot of him with his big brother arm guiding his sister along!

An attempt at getting a good "Five Year Old" picture of McGee resulted in these interesting and sweet personality shots, but not exactly a frameable shot.

101/365: Belated Sunday Self-Portrait

A new necklace for me, a contribution to missions = a win-win!!

100/365: Mud Play Sunshine

Woohoo!  I made it to day 1-0-0!!!

In a moment of pure "fun mommy" mode, I allowed McGee (and Miss Em) to create a large mud puddle in Daddy's garden and enjoy every moment of it!  Of course, Mommy enjoyed photographing their adventure and experience as well. :)

Mud Play Sunshine:

99/365: Hot Rocker Sunshine

He's in our overcrowded garage, wearing his very old, well-worn t-shirt, leaning against our super cool "Swagger Wagon"...and yet to me, he's just my very own Hot Rocker.

Hot Rocker Sunshine:

98/365: Working with Daddy Sunshine

Working with Daddy Sunshine:

97/365: Sibling Love Sunshine

Sibling Love Sunshine:

96/365: Pretend Party Sunshine

Children have the best imaginations!  Here was have everything all "decorated for the party" thanks to McGee and Miss Em. :)

95/365: Cardboard Playhouse Sunshine

Eating lunch in the playhouse.

Cardboard Playhouse Sunshine:

94/365: Creation/Experimentation Sunshine

As a little girl I remembering really enjoying going in the kitchen and "creating" amazing dishes.  I loved experimenting with mixing seasonings, spices...whatever fit my fancy and putting them all together.  I don't remember actually eating any of these concoctions, but the joy was found is the journey of creating.  

Today I decided to let my children have a run at their first SUPERVISED creation experiment.  Miss Em actually started by helping me make some muffins, while McGee dug into the pantry thinking long and hard about the ingredients he wanted to make the "most wonderful dish that you'll LOVE mom!"  He finally decided on mini-marshmallows, Hershey's cocoa powder and Hershey's chocolate bars.  He would have loved to have added more, but that was all the food I was willing to part with for sake of experimentation.  

He mixed.  He sprinkled.  He tasted.  He stirred.  He kneaded.  He created.

Towards the end after hearing him say, "Mom you are just going to LOVE this!" and "I really hope you think this is so delicious mommy!" I knew I was going to have to figure out a way to eat this bowl of mini-marshmallows, cocoa powder and chocolate bar.  I decided to add a little milk and pop it in the microwave for some melted chocolate-marshmallow goodness.  It actually was deliciously decadent and rich and the kids enjoyed tasting their creation.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO SEE IT LARGER:

Of course we had to go STRAIGHT to the bath afterward to clean up those chocolate covered faces ...

93/365: Sunday Self-Portrait Sunshine

Life has been so busy lately (when isn't it?) that I really enjoyed laying down with my first baby girl Callie for a little afternoon snooze.

92/365: Little Artist Sunshine

Okay so maybe "artist" might be a little strong when it's mostly just the placing of stickers and some light coloring, but it was still cute to see her having so much fun creating.

Little Artist Sunshine:

91/365: Big Girl Bed Sunshine

I have taken too many shots lately to just post one, but guess who learned how to climb out of her crib???  Yep - Miss Em's crib has been dismantled and the toddler bed was borrowed and setup.  She was VERY excited!

Big Girl Bed Sunshine: