Sleepover!

Grace had her first official sleepover tonight. Her best bud Dallas got to spend the night so that his mommy and daddy could split up between their newborn twins (born yesterday) who are in different parts of the hospital tonight. One should be coming home tommorow, so then they will just have to divide two ways, but when trying to figure out how to divide three ways tonight the math just wasn't working :) Every time Grace tried to boss Dallas around and he wouldn't do what she wanted she said "Dallas, you're breaking my heart!" to which he would say "sorry Gracie girl!" but he still wouldn't be bossed around. (Two first born's!) We built a cool fort, we read a ton of books, we brushed our teeth in tandom! Grace chose "Hey Dallas your so fine, your so fine you blow my mind" as her goodnight song and Dallas chose a story about a Knight named Dallas and a princess named Grace as his goodnight story. He then told Grace that he was so brave that if a t-rex came he would save God and then save Grace and wouldn't be scared. She told him to close his eyes, apparently not impressed.

The plumber's toilet has a leak...

Ok. So you know the saying about how the plumber's toilet always has a leak? No? Well, it rang true for me today! All I wanted was a picture of my two kids, together. Preferably smiling, but that was not even necessary. As an aspiring professional photographer, I take pictures of other peoples kids all the time. I can always capture that special picture of them looking totally enamored with each other that just melts their parents hearts. Is it too much to ask for ONE of those of my kids? I don't even need the enamored look, just the two of them sitting within five feet of each other without a totally weird or goofy expression would work. Preferably one with no Cinderella panties showing. I had a few extra minutes today with the kids before Steve got home and we were getting a bit stir crazy so we decided to take a walk on the greenbelt behind our house and try for a couple (let's not lie, ONE) cute picture(s). Got lots of cute individual shots:




But the shots of both of them together were another story.


Here I got Noah to sit down, he is ready for Grace


He takes one look at her



and books it.



Probably because this is usually what she does to him (her hugs are ALWAYS around his neck)



He's no dummy. By the time we got home, they were so thirsty that they wouldn't let go of the water bottles long enough to take any pictures without them in the shot. This is the closest I got to a picture of them together...at least it really does capture their life together with each other :)

3 year olds...

Enough said

Labor Day at the Ranch

What a whirlwind weekend! Grandma Terry and Aunt Erin flew in to visit us, and Sat morning we drove (in torrential rain!) up to mom's to spend the weekend on the ranch. I have never seen so much rain. It was noon when we got there, but it was completely dark. Grace was confused and kept asking if it was bedtime. Luckily the rain quickly passed and we got to spend a fun weekend with family and friends. The Smith family joined us and Grace and Noah had a blast playing with their two daughters who are around the same ages. We saw a javelina (which we named Julio), and probably close to 50 hummingbirds. Grace rode a horse for about 2 seconds, but at least she isn't terrified of them anymore, although she still prefers cows. Noah is talking up a storm, and now says that things are "coool." He will see something and go "ook, ook (look)...cooool" It is really funny to see what a 21 month old boy thinks is cool. Mostly cars, trucks, trains, etc. although dad's gym bag also got the "cool" seal of approval!
You can visit www.lindsayhallam.com/laborday for a slideshow of all the pictures from the weekend (I know, it's hard to believe that there could be more than the bazillion I posted here :))

First day of school

Grace started preschool today. She was SO excited! I was worried that she might not want me to leave, but when the time came she walked over to the kids table and started drawing circles with the other kids. She said "mama, isn't it time for you to go?" I asked if I could take one picture and she responded "moooooommm" in that embarassed voice you don't expect to hear until they are 13. She and Dallas go to the same school, Bethany Learning Center, but are in seperate classes. This didn't even phase Grace, she was just so excited to go. Noah and I have had a relaxing morning. He seems really happy to get undivided attention!
One down one to go....










Grace learning how to draw a circle with Ms. Tressa