First Day

Today was Hunter's first day of 3 year old Pre-K.  He will go three days from 9-2.  He turns 4 in just a few weeks so he'll no doubt be the oldest one in the class.  He was SO excited to start school.  I walked into his room this morning and the first thing he said was "Is it time to go to my school yet?".  Today was finally the day!  He picked out a Spiderman lunchbox, no surprise there.

A shot of the whole outfit.  He was holding a caterpillar.  I made a cute key chain tag for his lunchbox to avoid having to write his name with a sharpie on it.

It'll be fun (or really sad) to see how much Peyton has grown when we take the last day of school photo next year.

I'm looking forward to being productive and spending some one-on-one time with my baby girl while Hunter is in school.

Room for Two

This is a wall in my house.  It was centered around a big picture of Hunter taken at 6 months old.  I knew that one day I would have to redo the entire wall in order to put in a picture of another child.  I made sure to get that special picture when Peyton was the same age and I finally got around to redoing the entire wall.  I took everything down and started over.

Ta-da!  And I'm sure I'll be adding more frames as time goes on.  A couple of them don't even have pictures in them yet.

Happy First Birthday, Baby Girl!

A year ago today you were born.   I was induced and 7 hours later you were here.  You've been a really easy baby.  (I've been really lucky to have had two easy babies.)  I've made it to my goal of a year of nursing and we're about to wrap that up.  I'm sure you'd keep going, but mama is leaving you for a week very soon so it's time.  You're a great eater and a good sleeper.  You're a happy little girl.  You're pretty friendly with everyone, but as soon as mama comes back into the room you've got to have her.  You love your brother.  He makes you laugh the most.  You look for him in the living room when you wake up each morning.  We've so enjoyed getting to know you and cannot wait to watch you blossom.

1 week old

7 months


The day before you turned ONE!

Here's the video I made.  It's REALLY long...like 17 minutes long.  I don't expect everyone to make it though the whole thing.  The music is good though!  Family, if I will see you tonight don't watch this now.  You can see it on the big screen later.

Peyton's First Year from Dena Powell on Vimeo.

The countdown begins...

Just three days away from Peyton's first birthday.   I'm hoping to take her out and do some pictures in her birthday outfit very soon.  I took the pictures below the same night I took the ones of Ella and the grandkids together.  I just love them.

Ella

This is our niece, Ella.  She's almost two and a half.  She has quite a personality.  I took her outside with a hand full of M&Ms to try to get some shots for her momma.  I asked her how old she was and her response was 'twelve'.  Oh boy!

A little 70s action

Picking a flower for Mommy

An M&M shot

Merry Christmas, Grandma P.

Peyton is nearly a year and I don't have a single picture of all four of my mother-in-law's grandkids together.  This was an unplanned happening.  We went over to my sister--in-law's house for a birthday gathering for her youngest.  It was evening time and the light on her porch was PERFECT.  So glad I brought my camera.  I started out taking pictures of Peyton (you'll see those soon) and then the boys came out so I asked them all to sit together.  I could not get Peyton to look at me for anything so I asked for backup.  Heath stood behind me and got them all to look.  JACKPOT!

This is a sweet outtake (even if I did cut off their feet).

See anything different?

About a month ago I did something that I wasn't sure I'd ever do.  Can you see a difference (in my appearance) in the following two photos?  You don't even have to look too closely.

Yep, the mole above my eyebrow is no more!  That thing started out as a little freckle when I was around 5.  By the time I graduated high school is was a small mole.  It was a part of me.  It didn't bother me.  I'd always had it.  But in the last 12 years it's at least doubled in size.  And it didn't really start to bother me until about a year ago.  It was time to say goodbye.  Might as well get rid of it before it got even bigger and left a bigger scar.  So, I did it.  There's proof below that I didn't photoshop it out!  I went to a plastic surgeon and he did an AMAZING job.  I had 5 stitches and you can hardly see the scar line.  You definitely can't see it with a little makeup.

Embrace the Camera: August 19

I think I need to make it a point to get some pictures with Hunter....whoops!  Will do that next week... promise!

I have to admit, I have a bunch of pictures I want to share that I took last night, but I'll keep my embrace the camera commitment and save those for later.

Boat Trip with Uncle Ronnie

We went to Jacksonville last weekend and had big plans of taking Hunter out with Uncle Ronnie in his boat.  The weather was less than stellar, but we went for it.  We got rained on at least 6 times, but once you're wet you can't do much about that so we just went with it.

Yucky gray skies, but we're launching the boat anyway!

His favorite lap of the day

Serious business driving a boat

We stopped at a 'beach' along the river and swam for a while

Threw some sand balls

And a little video

Birthday Crafts

Peyton's first birthday is a little more than a week away.  We aren't doing a huge party this year.  We'll be doing a couple of dinner celebrations with family so that she can have her first taste of sugar!  A birthday wouldn't be complete without some crafts.  Here are a few things I've been up to lately.  I'll keep her birthday outfit a surprise.  I've got to keep you coming back to the blog for something!

Sweet

School starts in just two weeks.  Hunter will be going 3 days from 9-2.  I have a feeling Peyton will be missing her big brother.

Soaking up what's left of summer

I know it'll be hot here for quite a while longer, but we only have 2 weeks left before school starts.  Last week we went to the splash park.  I remembered to bring my camera this time.  I wasn't able to document Peyton's first splash park experience (shame on me!).

One of my favorites for some reason

Love those little fingers

Love this, too

With their friend, Amelia

Who does she look like?

I get mixed reviews on who Peyton looks like.  At first, everyone thought me.  Strangers would say she looks just like me.  I don't see it, but in my baby pictures I do.  Lately, a lot of people are saying Heath, but they haven't seen our baby pictures.  So, here are all of them!  You decide!


Warning:  Baby butts in these pictures!


From left to right and top to bottom: Dena, Peyton, Dena, Heath