I adore these 2

for several reasons. One, we had so much fun on our three, yes three, photo shoots. The first time we lasted about 20 minutes and decided that the weather -- mainly gusts of 30 mph wind -- was not going to cooperate. The next time we had a blast but I was a little unhappy with how fast we lost the sunlight (and I love some setting sunlight) so we went back a third time to get it just right. We laughed so much that it didn't feel like work...at all. I also adore Melissa because she was Mackenzie's kindergarten teacher. She was straight out of college and I knew right away that we were going to love her as Kenz's first teacher. By the end of the year I swear every single student in that class wanted to go to Texas A&M where their teacher had gone. Mackenzie would come home and tell us that when they did something good they would get an A&M sticker or drawing on their hand. We joked that we were going to send her to school with a University of Texas longhorn symbol on her cheek and tell her to tell her teacher that she had cleaned her room really good that weekend:) (Just for the record neither I nor my husband are Aggies or Longhorns, heehee!) Mackenzie indeed had an awesome kindergarten experience and I'm so appreciative! I think it's so important that the kindergartners learn that school and learning can be fun. And now Melissa has moved to 2nd grade so I'm hoping that Cassidy gets her next year. *Crossing my fingers & toes*

Well, school starts back tomorrow and the kids were in bed by 8:30. I won't mention the fact that they kept coming in to the study to tell me they couldn't fall asleep. One would come complain and I'd send her back to her room and 2 minutes later the other would come in. It was like they were tag teaming for their whine fest. I had to finally pull out the punishment that really works around here..."The next person that gets out of bed and comes in here to tell me they can't fall asleep is going to clean house after school tomorrow." It worked! Haven't seen them since. They may still be awake in there, but I get credit for being a bedtime stickler.) This past summer I got so tired of hearing, "I'm bored." I tried several things to break that cycle and finally started using a 15 minutes of cleaning if I heard it and it's amazing how non-bored they became.

I hope everyone is having a great start to their New Year! Enjoy your sneak peek guys:)




I lost the sun the first time in the field, so this time I was hoping to catch some sun flare.











Bring it on...