Lately

I have just been loving this little Mya.  I love her sweet temperament, her fat rolls, her cuddliness, and her sweet smile and laughter.  

 The girls have been loving her too.  They are so sweet with her.  And surprisingly good.

Lately, I've been trying to prove to Randy that I can be a good photographer too.  I do love a good picture.  SO, I decided to take over more of the shooting.   Not that these are great photos, but I just wanted to post my experiences of trying to get the family together for some togetherness pictures.  THIS is how hard it is.  How many pictures does it take?  I'll tell you what is going on during all of these:

 Here:  I suggest to Randy, "Hey, lets take some pictures of you and the girls!"  He is thinking, "pictures?  I don't like to be in pictures.  Ok, humor her.  Oh look, she's not holding the camera correctly" and Mya's thinking, "Mommy?"

 Ok, we're all together now.  Mya's actually looking!  Randy looks happy, Kenadi decides to do crazy faces, and Emma doesn't know it's time to look at the camera,

 Oh, wait.  It's allergy season.  Randy has to sneeze.  But Emma's looking now, and Mya is still looking! I'm saying, "Kenadi, just smile.  No crazy faces!"

 Ok, now Randy's back, Kenadi's smiling, and Emma's done.

 What?!  What do you see Emma?  Kenadi see's it too now, and Mya's done.  Randy's loosing patience.

 Mya's back to sucking on her fingers, Emma's now doing silly faces, and Kenadi is still smiling at the thing she sees.  Oh no, Randy's nostrils are flaring.  He's about to tell me, "OK, we're done.  That's enough."  And that is just what he said.

Kenadi and Emma are off, and Randy's left with Mya and her fingers.  Yummy, Mya.

I don't think I got the picture I wanted, but it is funny looking at the whole process.

Also lately, Kenad's figured out how to blow up balloons.  She went through about a week of blowing them up over and over again until she could get them big.  Coming next is her dance recital.  She had it this last weekend, it was so cute!

Happy Birthday Randy! A post dedicated to Randy.

Some of you might wonder... "Who is that man Tara married?"  Well, this post is dedicated entirely to Randy, so you'll find out!  He turned 30 last Saturday and so I think he's earned his own blog post.

Randy, Randy, where do I begin?  Well, he is an outdoors enthusiast.  He loves to rock climb (just so you all know, I am the one who taught him), hike, camp, mow the lawn (not really), and garden (really).

He loves to smell flowers.

He is a biking enthusiast too, and he loves Easter.

Randy is OBSESSED with buffalo.  I don't know why.

AND he's obsessed with elk.  Ok, none of that is true- the Easter, buffalo and elk part- but I'll tell you what he REALLY is obsessed with.  Anything Mac.  Ipod, Ipad, etc.  And anything that has to do with technology.  It is so funny, if you talk to him about Ipads or whatever, he smiles the whole time he's talking.  I love it.  You all should try it some time.

Randy doesn't like to dress up.  He will dress up if he's forced though.

He is a hard worker.  I am always impressed by how much he can get done.  He usually finishes projects too.  Except for the door that he's been building to our upstairs.  That's been a few months.

Like I said, he does like to garden and see the results of his hard work.  He likes to work on his bike and things in our shop too.  Randy grew up farming, and I love that about him because it helped to give him a work ethic.  He works hard in school too, and has always gotten good grades and done well.  Cross your fingers for graduation soon!  With his grad school, there is no set date for graduation, so it just happens when all of the requirements are met- and that depends upon his research to go well.

He is an aspiring photographer.  He loves figuring out the camera and taking good artistic pictures.

Randy is a WONDERFUL dad to 3 little girls.  He really is so sweet to them.  They adore their daddy.  I am really lucky.  He's good to me too, by the way.  =)

He's an oldie but a goodie!  So, take a deep breath...

and blow all of those candles out!

We love you!

Ever wonder how we get around these days?

Well, after Mya was born ( a month or so later) we rode our bikes like this- with Kenadi on her bike.  We liked that fine, but Kenadi can only make it so far- so we added the seat on the back of my bike and it works great! 

 This week I took the kids to Kenadi's dance practice and to the Library with our new set-up.  It was tiring because I'm out of shape, but it wasn't so bad.  

The little bundle of blankets is Mya.  

 AND now we own horses and ride all over town on them.

We herd cattle and work the ranch on them.

Ok, that is just in my dreams.  ONE DAY we will do those things.  Until then we ride other peoples horses and visit the cowboy museum.

Lets see... there are lots of times in the day that I am carrying Mya around in my arms or in my wrap or sling.  She seems to like it.  It is very handy.

We bought a mini van.  I NEVER wanted to own one, but now it is such a luxury to me.  I love it and I'm not embarrassed about it either.  I even had some guy hit on me in my mini van!  What kind of guy hits on a mini van driver? I thought that was strange.

 We've been having beautiful weather, and Kenadi and Emma love to get around on their bikes.  

Randy's birthday is tomorrow (May 7th) and he's the big 3-0!  SO, happy birthday honey. I love you!