WAY behind!!

So these are WAY overdue! Sometimes I feel like I'm just treading water trying to stay on to stay on top of everything!! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and happy new year! In case you all did not know already, we all loaded up and went to Florida for Christmas. We knew the idea of having to spend Christmas here at home without Pop was simply going to be too rough, so all 13 of us hit the road! We had so much fun.. laying out on the beach and swimming (at least the kids) in the ocean for Christmas!

So here is a real quick run down of Dec. and Jan.

First of all, we did dissect a cows eye for Enoch's school! I'm not posting pictures because my computer crashed (for literally the 4th or 5th time), and all my pictures are not back up on my computer yet. So maybe later. I know you are just SO anxious to see bloody gooey eye balls!

So Enoch turned 5! Can you believe it? They grow TOO fast!! He had a good birthday. He chose a Kong-Fu-Panda theme, and once again... no pictures. Sorry.

Then we left for Florida. Here are some pictures I CAN share with you!!

First.. the much talked about 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 picture! For those of you that don't know... our kids (Jemma and I's) are ages 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1! So we thought what better way to commemorate than with these huge numbers we made and used on the beach :) There are lots more on our business blog, but here's one!


And here is one from Adam and I's TTd (Trash the Dress) session... I think this ones going in our bedroom!



And of course... Essa's puppy. Her birthday is the 27th and we are doing a puppy theme (since shes attached to this thing at the right hip). So I took pictures of her with her puppy on the beach and made this beautiful 20x20 collage. Adam made her a gorgeous frame from old barn wood, and this will be the center piece of the table (since they don't make decorations with puppy's that look quite like this) :)


And here are some of the individuals... and yes- she really did take a nap (and quite a long one) on the beach!




















And here is some scenery through the great Smoky Mountains! This was on our way home:)






And back the beach...

And a nice family one...

Or two....
And this one was just too cute! She always picks up the camera and yells "Cheese"! (See the puppy? Did I already mention.. right hip (or I guess in this case left one:) )

And I rarely am actually in the photos, I'm usually behind the lens. But Adam picked up the camera.. and I adore what he captured!






And here is some from Christmas day...







Daddy's turn! The other two were too busy to sit on Daddy's lap long enough to take a picture!


These are some of my favorites! I think they deserve a place custom framed in my bathroom! I already have all 3 of the kid's feet impressions (molds) in their bathroom in a shadow box. What better to accompany it than pictures of them playing on the sand?

So this is Enoch...

And Eleesia...
Eleesia again (I couldn't decide which one I liked better)

And although I didn't get a silhouette of Essa (she wasn't too fond of the crashing waves), I did manage to capture this precious one of her dancing on the beach. This is pretty high up on my list of favorites from the beach! (I think it makes the top of Moms list)



Once again.. couldn't decide between color or b/w



And I adore these of the girls!




And here is some from Christmas Eve. We rented a boat and went to Shell Island, a completely deserted island, that was absolutly georgous!

So here is Jonna and Essa...

And Enoch...
And Adam and I...

So thats pretty much it for the beach pictures. However, there is a TON more on our business website (including some breathtaking ones of Jonna), so go check it out! The address is
www.captivatingtimephotography.com

Then click on "Enter Blog" and scroll down!

So now onto Eleesias birthday! Her birthday was the 30th (of Dec). We try to always do something fun on their birthday (especially since their party is usually not the same day). So for Enoch's we went to Chuckie Cheese. Eleesia wanted her nails done, so for hers we headed to the salon. Now she keeps telling everyone that Daddy is going to dye her hair pink and purple. Wonder were she got that idea?


Then her party was the following Sunday. It was a My Little Pony Party seeing how she is SO into horses!

She has been telling us for a while that she wanted her ears pierced. Our stipulation was that our girls had to be old enough to understand that it was going to hurt yet still want to get them pierced. So after warning her several (probably close to 500 times) that it was going to hurt, she still requested it done. So on the day of her party, we went to the mall and had it done! She did so good, she barley cried, and she REALLY likes them! She shows them off to everyone! So here is what they look like!


And last of all, has everyone been enjoying the awsome (very few) beatuful 65 degree days? We take it in all we can! Here are a couple pictures of the kids during one of these awsome days! We usually end up outside when the weather is so nice... this day they rode their bikes, but the sky was AMAZING... so we had a little fun!








So thats it for now! I have to get to the studio soon and take some of Essa in her dedication dress (we just had her presented to the Lord at church on Sunday)... so be looking out for those! I'll keep you posted :)

Gearing up for Christmas

Well... with the studio we have to do these things early as advertisement. Daddy was Santa... hence why they kids are so happy. Usually my kids hate "Santa" and scream to the top of their lungs. Oh... the wonders of modern photography. All the Santa, but only his parts!! He (Santa) is coming to the studio by the way on Dec 6. If you want to stop by... check out the business blog (captivatingtime.blogspot.com) for more details.

Fall Pictures

I had bronchitius for the entire month of October, and it got so bad I think it actually tunred into phenomina. However... I adore fall! It's by far my favorite time of year. So I had Mom make the girls some matching outfits and we took pictures when it was literally like 40 degrees outside! We were FREEZING, but got a couple good shots! So thought I'd post our new family photos!

Jemma's came out great too!

And Essa is the only one that would allow me to take an individuals (wonder why)!



And this was from earlier this fall. I LOVE this picture!

Just another picture of Essa's puppy. She is totally addicted to this thing! I had to wash him the other day. That's a lot harder than what you would think. I snuck him into the washing machine, and about 2 minutes into the cycle she started looking for her "puppy". She screamed the entire thing for him, until he was washed and dried. Needless to say, he tumbled in the dryer alone to make for faster drying time! Guess he's deserving of a "real" portrait!

I'm vowing to keep up with this blog better! We'll see how long it will last:)

So... I've decided to start posting what Enoch is doing in school. As you all know, we are homeschooling the boys- and they are in kindergarten this year. Enoch loves it, he is learning so much and having so much fun! So I thought I would post a little of what he's been up to. Currently our unit is "Attentiveness" and will continue with this unit for several months. We started this new unit a few weeks ago. It started off learning all about the ear. They had to learn all the parts of the ear, and draw an ear and label all the parts...

And his memory verse at the bottom from Proverbs...

We made a big ear they had to craw through with and ear "drum", "hammer", etc. He now knows the 3 smallest bones in your body. He will also proudly inform you that the semicircular canal controls your balance- and your cochlea contains hair and water that sends signals to your brain that causes you to hear. At the end of the week we visited an ear dr. and we were able to look in our ears with a machine that was a lot like a magnifying glass hooked up to a big tv screen! The boys got to see their ear-drums and learned that a "healthy" ear will reflect light back to you! The dr also showed the boys all the different hearing aid styles and sizes and even sent us home a ear model. Also included in this weeks lesson was learning about bats and their Echolocation hearing. How they send out signals and listen for the echo back to find food. This just happened to fall on Halloween... which Enoch had already determined to be a bat for Halloween, so this turned out perfect.

The past couple weeks we been learning about orchestras, instruments, and music theory. Enoch had to learn the different musical families and he can now tell you what family all the different instruments fall into- including the Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, Percussion. He also drew the arrangement of the instruments in an orchestra. He drew a violin and labeled all the parts- and we took a trip to the music store and classified all the instruments.

O course, we are still doing our phonics, etc. So I've attached a video of Enoch reading. He is picking it up so quickly... and is getting quite good at it :) We are getting them a Wii for Christmas, and Enoch now knows about it because the Wii box was upside down and backwards at the top of my closet but he read the words and informed me it was a Wii because Wii is spelled "W- i- i" and that's what the box said (he read it even though it was upside down and backwards). He can think backwards. When he writes, it spells the word out on the line. However, if he runs out of space (for ex. if what he is spelling is 2 words) I'll tell him to write it below the line. The first few times we did this he would write the letters upside down and backwards. I was getting onto him at first, until I realized what he was doing. He writes the letters upside down and backwards so that if you were to turn the paper upside down- the word wold fit perfect on the line. Crazy how his little 4 year old mind can think this way! Anyways.. here he is.

He simply loves to draw and write. His new found character he is into is Yoshi from Mario.

I caught him drawing this a few days ago...

'

And something else I found. Not sure why he decided to draw a turtle, but he did. Check out the detailing around the shell!

So that gives you an overall of what we have been doing. Certainly there is a lot more involved than what I've mentioned, but you get the overall. Next week we are learning about eyes and vision. He will have to draw and eye, learn all the parts and dissect a cows eye. I'll be sure to post about that one :)