playing in the leaves

the weather here has been fan-tas-tic. no rain, no snow, just sunny skies. and boy is that awesome for this time of year. we are not complaining that's for sure. of course since the weather has been cooperating, we have been taking every chance we can get to be outside. the kids love that, and so do i. in fact, tanner begs me to play outside everytime we return from an errand and cries and cries if i don't let him.



the incredible hulk playing in the leaves. does his jacket not make him look puffed up?




katelyn is just happy not to be napping.



they started playing following the leader. well, mostly katelyn was just following tanner around.



some sisterly/brotherly love. a parent's favorite thing to see i think.



these two were yelling at each other. ah...ah...ah...ah back and forth with some giggles in between.



we decided to take an impromtu walk around the neighbor hood and happened to find some gorgeous leaves. we picked them up for a special project we were going to do later.



katelyn resfusing to look. she just wanted to walk.



this is the tree where we found our leaves, and no, i did not edit this photo. that's how pretty the leaves were.

i know this song is overplayed but my kids like to dance to it

Kids Dancing from brooke hedin on Vimeo.

birthday boy

tan the man is one. and what an incredible year it has been (and an incredibly fast year it has been as well). his actual birthday was in september, so i'm a tad bit late.

tanner is our kid that is so full of character. he is full of spunk and energy and excitement all in one. he loves to grin and laugh and loves to make us laugh. for the most part he is very laid back and loves to do his own thing. he also loves to pull funny faces. this was a favorite face a couple of month ago.



tanner is our kid that loves to roam around the house. as long as he has something in his hand to keep him occupied, he is happy. tanner also keeps us laughing by doing silly things like putting his head down and crawling around as fast as he can.



tanner is our cheerio lover. at one point you could keep him quiet for almost an hour with cheerios. those days are over now though because he is onto bigger and better things.



tanner loves to eat and eats pretty much anything (thank goodness). tyler and i were astonished the first time we gave tanner some table food, and he ate it. katelyn never did that.



tanner is our binky boy. i never realized how great binkys can be for soothing until tanner took one. he is also our animal lover. he loves to roar, moo and quack around the house. sometimes he'll also imitate some of the silent animals as well.



he is also our loud child. if he wants our attention, wants food, wants to be picked up, basically if he wants anything, he lets us know...loudly. we weren't planning on teaching him any sign, but i think we are slowly changing our minds.

for the most part though, tanner is so laid back and loves to do his own thing. we love this kid a ton.

now for the birthday celebration. obviously he had no clue what was going on, so we kept the day pretty simple. we found some of those punch balloons for him to enjoy, gave him some blueberries, bananas and strawberries to enjoy cause they're a favorite and made spaghetti for dinner (also a favorite).

tanner opened his presents from us and from the grandparents. here is playing with some of his toys he got.





and of course we finished the day with a nice big cake. tanner had no reservations about digging in. he took one taste of that cake and frosting and was sold. i had plans to let him dig into his cake outside so i could get some decent shots. too bad it was stormy that night, so i had to resort to using flash. at least i have some pictures.





the next morning i decided to snap a shot of him again with some better lighting. he didn't think my "photoshoot" was as great as i did. katelyn was a big help at making him laugh.



but that didn't last too long.

trying to play catch up starting with fourth of july

fourth of july was, as it always is, a very fun holiday. after teaching my little second graders about our founding fathers and the freedoms we posses in this country, i developed an incredible love for this nation. by my third year of teaching i could barely wait to teach this unit. i loved watching those little 7-8 year olds singing their hearts out to i'm proud to be an american. i hope one day to instill the same love i feel about america to my own children. one day.

enough with that, i'll move on to the pictures. the schows and jacobsons were so nice to once again invite everyone over to watch the morning parade on their front lawn. they had quite the crowd over at their place. always a good time.


don't be fooled by katelyn's worried look. she had a great time.




tanner was up for posing...not katelyn.


my personal favorite. the dancing grannies.

tanner couldn't stand it. he was out by the end.

of course we had a ward activity as well that day but i didn't manage to take a single picture.

we ended the day with the good ol' fireworks which tanner loved. katelyn liked them as long we were plugging her ears. i can't believe we only have one more fourth of july here. it's gone by too fast.

just some past shoots

i've been able to do some little photoshoots with some awesome families and some adorable kids. i tell you what, i've had fun doing these photoshoots. i am surrounded by some incredible people out here in wisconsin. see for yourself.

(jill, i'm done. i promise you'll get these soon, soon, soon!)

i always have my favorites after every shoot. in the end it's always interesting to see which pictures everyone likes the best. i also think that since i'm posting photoshoots on my regualar blog that it must be time to make a photo blog. maybe writing it down will make me get to work.

the monster voice

just a quick video of katelyn singing in her self proclaimed monster voice. we sure think she's funny (and she does as well. she laughed hysterically at herself while watching this video).

next stop: utah

after our trip to texas we were certainly missing tyler and were ready to see him again. of course he was ready to see us as well and also ready for a much needed vacation. with the boards not looming over his head, we all met up again in utah and with a very relaxed tyler. it was so nice to just play with the husband again and know that he didn't have to spend any of his time studying.

it has been so long since we were in utah, so i can't seem to remember what order these events occured in. no matter though because we had an awesome time spending part of our vacation with the hedin family. and i admit that i went a little crazy taking pictures while in utah, so this is a monster post. i can never decide which picture to leave out, so i end up posting too many.

the hedins were so nice to offer to host a bbq in their backyard with my sisters and their families and my grandparents. it was fun having everyone all together.



the crew. and might i add the food was delicious.





tanner decided he was a huge fan of corn. he was so mad when it was gone, and i took it away. he actually started crying, the poor thing. the way he was crying you'd think we were starving him. however, i was trying to save him from lots uncomfortable diapers.

why not teach the little one how to swing a bat while outside? katelyn thought this was a great idea.

since this would be the last time we would have these babies together with the great-grandparents, we did a mini-shoot of all of them together. again, the hedins were so nice to let us do this in their backyard.

these boys are hilarious when they get together. and poor caleb was forced to hold the dora ball.

the hedins also took everyone to lagoon. it was so much fun being back at lagoon and the weather was perfect! i loved that we weren't dripping wet by the end of the day. desert air is wonderful.

katelyn loved the rides and went on pretty much everything. we did have a huge problem while at lagoon though. katelyn decided she was deathly afraid of public bathrooms. the flush was too loud for her little ears, so she absolutely refused to use the bathroom while we were there. by the end of the day we literally had to force her to sit on the toilet while she was kicking and screaming. i'm pretty sure everyone in the bathroom thought we were hurting her. we felt bad for the poor thing.

and yes, tanner was there enjoying the day as well. mostly sitting in the stroller sleeping a little and eating.

we also had the chance to visit my grandparents for a day. i haven't seen them in a long time, so it was so nice to visit again. my grandpa has an amazing garden, and i absolutely loved seeing the it again. it brought back all of these great memories.

i just had to get a shot of them together in the garden. my grandparents spend a lot of time in the garden and a lot of time canning their delicious food to eat during the winter.

and i had to get one of tanner and grandpa snuggling together.

of course while we were there we celebrated father's day. tyler is an incredible dad to these kids. they love him lots.

katelyn made tyler a 'greatest dad award' in nursery that day and being the good wife i am, i made him wear it for a picture.

the weather was so nice while we were in utah, so we took advantage and went swimming at the nearby recreational center. the kids loved being in the water.

no, tanner's hair is not red. that would be my poor editing skills at work.

probably my favorite picture. i love these two together, especially when katelyn is being nice.

katelyn isn't exactly a little fishy anymore, but she still has fun in the water. as long as she doesn't get any in her eyes and she can stand or is being held.

of course while we were there we had to stop into utah county to see the sistas. we hung out at camille's place, got a snowcone and visited the bean museum.

we also took the boat out on another one of the beautiful days.

katelyn enjoying the water from the safety of the tube. and obviously she enjoing handing out with the guys as well.

tanner taking a little dip in the cold water.

kateyln's uncles were playing catch with her and she was thrilled she caught the ball.

the hedins were so nice to babysit for us so we could attended the temple together. it's been a while since we have been able to do that. we usually have to take turns so one of us can stay with the kids.

i must say, the view from up on a mountain never gets old, especially when standing next to a temple.

we really had a great time while in utah. we love being with the hedins and especially love seeing the relationships our children are developing with their grandparents, aunt and uncles even though we are so far away.