happy love day!

 

 Happy Valentine's Day!



I made the cutest Valentine's book of my kids this year and thought I would share...I am anxiosuly awaiting this book in the mail, I cannot wait to see how it turned out! I made the effort to take Valentine's pictures of the kids, and like many of the pictures I take of them, they end up sitting on my computer and no one sees them...so I took about an hour one night and put this together. I just love these 4 so much! Oh, they are crazy, busy and....well, crazy...but they are MINE and I love 'em all.



I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their sweeties. Graham and I have decided this year not to worry about gifts and stuff for eachother...we love each other all the time, so we're good! I'm glad we're keepin' it simple. Thanks for stopping by!



xoxox

here we go again!

Well, we're back at it again!

We're already a month into 2013 and my new photo-a-day blog is finally up and running.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure if I was going to do this again this year. While I'm in the habit of taking pictures (almost) everyday, I found that I got behind in posting my photos last year and that got me discouraged. As I decided to get all caught up on my photos from last year, I quickly realized how precious all these memories and photos are. I'm not able to scrapbook the way I used to, and I absolutely LOVE getting all of our everyday photos into a cute album at the end of the year...it is so amazing to see our whole year from start to finish like that! AND...posting the photos on my photo-a-day blog helps me stay committed to this project, as well as it gives my family and friends a little peek into our everyday life as well. So....it's a win-win situation. :)

I kind of have to admit though, while any photo of my children is precious to me personally, I feel like my photos are so boring! We've a had a very cold and dreary January so most of my photos are inside of my boring house (wink). So I need to commit to getting a bit more creative with my photo ideas. It's good for me as a photographer to challenge myself, and also just to make things a tad more interesting to look at. But...at the end of the day, my motto really is, any kind of photo is better than no photo at all!

So there ya go...2013, here we come!

these feet

Yesterday I had a moment.



It isn't too often that I find myself in a quiet house with almost nothing going on around me.



The big girls were at school, Kherington was invited over to her big cousin's house, so it was just Crew and I at home. My little Crewie is, well....a handful! At 20 months old, he is busy busy busy and always up to something. So any sort of down-time with him when he is awake is rare. Because he is always. on. the. go. (wink)



We had a little time to kill before his nap, so not really thinking he'd stay there, I pulled him up on my lap, and just sat on the couch with him and hoped he'd watch a little Curious George with me.



We stayed in this exact position for a half hour.



For anyone with an almost 2 year old, you would know that this a LONG time for a toddler of this age! To sit still without moving for 30 minutes? That is very rare for my Crew!


As we sat, I cuddled his warm little body close to me. I snuggled into his clean hair from just getting out of the bath. I watched him cross and uncross his chubby little feet as he watched George on TV.



And I also realized that it wasn't George that he was content with, but ME.



My full attention. My time. My love.



As I held him, I realized how I do not do this often enough. As the youngest of 4, by default, Crew spends much of his being carted around in the car, dropping off and picking up his sisters from school and lessons, running errands with mama. He doesn't get the same down-time at home that his sisters had, especially the older girls.



It made me so guilty and so sad for him. Being a mama is hard. And all I want is for my babies to know how much I love them. And how everything I do is for them. I cuddled him like crazy and felt so very lucky for this quiet, uninterrupted time with my son.



It is so hard to believe that there was a time that this little dude wasn't a part of our family. Because now...we simply couldn't live without him. While we often joke about how much of a handful he is, the truth of the matter is...he has every single person in this family wrapped around his little fingers. We all live for his giggles, his hugs, his slobbery kisses. We all laugh when he does something funny, and we all jump to help him when we think he's been hurt. We love our boy.



How grateful I am for those quiet moments with my son. To hold his warm body and kiss his chubby feet. To not worry about the messes that needed to be cleaned, or the phone calls that needed to be made. To just be in the moment with him and put everything else on hold.



This was a reminder for me as a mother. Not just for Crew, but for all my precious children. To take the time to spend a few quiet moments with each of them. Whenever I can. To just sit and enjoy the moment and put everything else in the world aside and to focus on THEM. It is hard for me to believe that I have already been doing this mothering thing for more than 8 years. And it is starting to hit me how my time with little ones at home will all too quickly come to an end. And it was these little feet that reminded me of all these things yesterday. These chubby feet reminded me to slow down...just a little. To enjoy these moments at home a little bit more. And most importantly, to LOVE more.



'Cause we all need love, right?

the simple things...

A "simple thing" from this past week.


This is Kherington. She is 3 years old.


She loves red lipstick. LOVES it.


I often find her rummaging through my make-up drawer in search of the pretty stuff that makes her lips "so beautiful".


I try to hide it but it never works.


She always finds it.


xoxoxox

and that's a wrap!

Well, I have no idea how, but I somehow managed to get TOTALLY caught up on my photo a day pictures for 2012. And I am so glad I did! Keeping up with this is a big commitment and not always easy...but in the end it is always SO worth it so see all of those everyday memories in one place.

My family loves this.

This is the third year that I've committed to taking a photo every day. (and yes...sometimes I cheat and skip a day...wink!) It is for sure a habit now and something that I think I just HAVE to continue on with for 2013. Graham and I have decided that the memories are just way too precious and like I said, as a family, we LOVE looking through all of our pictures from the year. I'll admit, near the end of the year, there are probably too many instagrams and camera-phone pictures, but I will happily take those pictures over no pictures at all.

I am so excited to get these all printed and into my 2012 Project Life album...that is the FUN part! I will share pictures of that when I am all done.

For now, go ahead and caught up on what we crazy Audenart's have been up to for the past 6 months (yikes! I really was behind!) and stayed tuned for our twenty-thirteen photo a day pictures!

Payton's Baptism...

Well, Happy New Year! It is so hard to believe that it is 2013 and yet another year has passed by...where does the time go? We had a wonderful Christmas this year, I just love the time with all my kids at home just hanging out and being together. This year was even more special because Payton was baptized just a few days after Christmas. It was such a wonderful day! Back in August before school started, we went out and took some special pictures of her in her baptism dress...I am so glad we did! This little girl just shines inside and out and we are so blessed to have her in our family. She is full of so much sweetness and spunk and we just couldn't live without her. I am so proud of the decision she made to get baptized...she is such a good example to her little sisters and brother! xoxoxo

For those of you who aren't of my faith, you may wonder why children aren't baptized until the age of 8...you can read a short and simple explanation here, but basically we are taught that by the age of 8 children can understand the difference between right and wrong. Payton was very lucky to have her daddy baptize and confirm her as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. :)

It was a very emotional and wonderful day, and in the days leading up to her baptism and after, we've been able to have many special talks and moments with her. As the cliche goes, I just can't believe that she is already 8 years old and has reached this very special milestone in her little life! I hope she always remembers how happy she felt on this day. :)

After her baptism we had our families over for dinner and dessert, and we showed this little slideshow that we put together for Payton...it still makes me tear up watching it, heehee! We love our girl, Happy 8th Birthday, Payton and Congratulations!!! xoxox

happy halloween!

Well, it's that time of year again! As crazy as Halloween gets, I sure do love getting the kiddos all dressed up and lookin' cute. I dread the day when they don't let me have a MAJOR part in their choice of costume. Heehee.

So here we go!!

Our little monster....

A Mermaid Princess...

A Pirate Princess...

The Paper Bag Princess...

...and the attempt at all 4 together. I tried, right???

Holy cow, getting these pictures was so much work! I usually do the front doorstep pictures for Halloween, but this year it's cold and we've gotten snow, so studio pictures was the easier choice! Every year we go to Galaxyland (a bunch of rides at the mall!) on the Friday before Halloween so this was the perfect time to do pictures...and then when the craziness of all the Halloween school parties, dance parties and trick-or-treating hits, I don't even need to worry about pictures...maybe just an instagram here or there. (wink)



And last but not least in the Halloween preparations was carving our pumpkins last night for Family Home Evening! The girls had fun drawing their faces, and then of course, mommy and daddy had to help with the carving...but they were all pros and scooping the pumpkin guts out! Crew was right in there with everyone, we finally had to stick him in his high chair and just keep giving him food so he'd leave everyone alone, heehee. Poor boy!

Crew was much more interested in eating his pumpkin than smiling for a picture. :)

I hope this counts as a real blog post! My sister just moved to Australia and refuses to join Facebook (which drives me crazy...wink!!) so she doesn't see my daily updates and posts that I do there. I soooo miss blogging...I just need to get back in the habit! Oh, and I need more hours in the day! Have a safe, fun and Happy Halloween, everyone!!