Something is missing!

Reagan lost her first tooth on November 3rd! It had been loose for a while and the suspense was killing her :) She was brushing her teeth after bath that night and out it popped! She was pretty stoked. We read a book about the tooth fairy that night and when she woke up, she had a dollar! Reagan is growing up so fast.

Family Photos October 2011

My friend Valerie Porter (Maeling Photography) took our family portraits for us this year. She was FABULOUS! In every possible way: she took great pictures, the lighting was EXACTLY what I wanted, she is a huge fan of candids (my personal fave) and she is so funny and energetic that the time flew by. Despite it being very early in the morning (8am!) and Nolan flat out refusing to smile or even be put down the first 15 minutes, they turned out so great.

We'll start with Nolan. Despite not giving us many smiles, he is such a cute kid that it was hard to get a bad photo of him. Val was practically doing handstands to bring a laugh out of him and she succeeded a few times! I still love his photos--so much his personality at this stage in his life.

His eyes looks a little wicked here...Now it is sweet Reagan's turn. She is such a ham and LOVES to pose for the camera. This was probably the best hour of her life. Someone following her around like paparazzi :) I had a hard time picking my favorite pics of her....they all were excellent! I love how her hair color looks in these pictures. Reagan loves that she is a redhead and I hope she always feels that way!





This was the only photo of the kids together that turned out well. And of course, neither are smiling :) But still chuck full of personality.
Now it is the family's turn. It was hard to get one of all of us smiling, at the same time, but we managed a few! But then the hardest part was Matt liked the ones where he looked good and I liked the ones where I looked good..soooo...:)

This was Matt's favorite.
If only I were looking up....GEEZ Lacy!
Oh, Nolan, I know...such TORTURE!
This is my favorite of the family. Probably because we look more natural, laughing instead of smiling. This must have been when Val was cracking one of her jokes!




I love the bridge in the background!


Oh, and Matt and I reverted back to our engagement days and took some good old couple photos. These always make us laugh :)

I am positive we have this exact same pose from our engagement shots.
So there you have it! We finally took some family shots, our first since Nolan was about 9 months old. Maybe our last for a while, too. We love the way they turned out!

Fall Planting

We had such success last October with laying our sod that we decided this year to do some more planting. I think October-November is about the best time where we live to plant. We lucked out last year and the rainy season started literally the week after we laid our sod. We were hoping for the same this year and while we haven't had as much rain, it has been chilly.

I have hated the dying, dried out, funny looking lily plants we put in front of the house forever, but didn't know what to plant. I wanted an evergreen that would grow fast and for some sort of hedge, but that would bloom and give us some color a few times a year. I chose a yellow daisy and some salvia (sage). I am killing that stump chemically and then we will chop it out :) I can't wait for our pretty plants to grow!


Oh here are some intermittent pics of the kids. One of their favorite activities is to ride bikes in the front of the house. I think we live in a safe area, but I still would never leave them out alone, so I usually park a chair in the front and watch them ride up and down the sidewalk and driveway. Reagan is getting really good on her bike, I think she may be ready soon to remove the training wheels. Nolan is a speed demon, but quickly outgrowing his little ride on car. I am trying to get him to transition to the trike. I think he might need a helmet, too~
Okay, back to the fall planting...we have a beautiful Japanese Maple tree in the front of our house and under that, I planted 90 tulip bulbs that will hopefully pop up next spring. Around that, I planted creeping rosemary. They don't look like much now...and honestly, they still don't so hopefully they aren't duds. But it should spread and they give these small lavender flowers and rosemary smells so amazing. So yeah, fingers crossed :)

Our biggest fall plant was Matt's babies....our 2 raywood ash trees! We have been needing some trees and foliage in the backyard for a while now and this summer, we really noticed that we needed some shade. So we began to research shade trees. We talked to everyone we ever knew about it....I must have made 6 trips to Navlets to discuss tree options. We changed our minds several times. But we finally decided on these Raywood Ash trees and they are so dang beautiful! There are several full grown raywood ashes out in front of Reagan's school and they make my heart go pitter-patter as I think of what ours will turn into in a few years. They even turn a pretty deep purple color in the fall.

Well, that is about it! Our house is slowly but surely coming along as we invest in these projects. It is nice to not feel rushed and we enjoy a good project every now and then. Even though I hated life the first year with everything we were doing, I feel a strong sense of pride everyday as I look around and see what we have mostly done all ourselves.