Wrapped around her pinky

This little hand tugs on our hear strings.
When she cries at night, Kyle jumps up out of bed as if he's been up the night waiting for her. It's so very sweet.
Aidan and Ethan always fight over her holding their pinky.
Usually one of them holds her in their lap while sitting down and
the other has Elise hold grip their pink.
I can see how she calms them even for just a moment.
This image for ingrained in my mind.

Shhh, beauty sleep in progress

Day two

The best part about being a parent of a new born is taking naps together.

Week two

Little Elise sound asleep while her super hero brothers fly through the house making fighter jet noises.

Week Three

I thought I was getting away with a photo shoot until the phone rang and woke Elise up. This was the first and last shot of the session.

Here's our sleeping beauty once she is well rested. All calm and oh so pretty. I love capturing the changes in her features as she grows.

Lemon Aid

Megan, Tess, Lila, Daniel, Aidan, Ethan, Helena, Tommy, Grace

Can you tell I am playing catch up?

Many picture file folders are sitting on the computer waiting to apear on the blog.

Here's just one set of them.

In July Aidan, Ethan and many freinds held a Lemon Aid stand which raised a whopping $44.

The kids got to vote which charity the funds went to.

It was a 60/40 split between the nature center's gardening program and the animal shelter.

We had the best deal in town.

Thanks to Ethan (who only wanted to eat cookies and sell tattoos)

we operated a one stop refreshment and tattoo parlor.

These gals are so much fun.

Miss. Sandy and Miss. Donna came by to surprise the kids.

Julia

Julia, Diana, Nellie, Thu

Julia, this blog post is for you.

wink, wink

Elise

I have a thing for crankie babies.

At the hospital she was tagged as Tran, Baby girl.

Ethan's first reaction to Elise was " mama, is she real?"

Aidan asked to hold her right away.

"AWE, She's so cute!"

During the pregnancy Ethan kept saying he wanted a baby brother. He felt that he was only able to be a big brother to another little boy. But once Ethan met Elise, he wants to hold, hug and kiss her every chance he gets. He tell's her after school "I missed you all day". Ethan has also noticed that Elise starts with the letter E like in his name.

Old Mine Park

Last summer I intentionally kept my boy at home, to myself so we can cherish e-v-e-r-y moment together. Aidan and Ethan are of the age where the option to send them off to week long summer camps were very enticing. Especially since I was pregnant and could use the additional rest. This post is of one of my favorite mommy days walking through Old Mine Park. We never make it further than the wooden bridge. The slight incline on the other side of the bridge was a terrific ramp. I love how brotherly they are. How the pictures I took that day captures their bountiful energy.


Aidan shows Ethan how a bike with pedals work. Aidan said
"But first you have to be three"
"And you need to be really, really good at the wood bike like I was"

Ethan's shirt says it all

"world's BEST Brother"