Modern Family: Family Portrait

First of all, Jordan and I love the show Modern Family. I swear that he is Phil and I'm Claire. After yesterday, I'm more convinced than ever that this is true!

I've been wanting to get a family portrait for a long time now...seeing as our last one was taken when Reiny was 19 mths old. I have given this a lot of thought and knew that I wanted an Autumn portrait with the yellow and orange leaves from the quaking aspens in the background. I picked the location and have been waiting patiently for the last few weeks for the leaves to change, the rain to stop, and basically for all the stars to aline for this one, fabulous family portrait.

Yesterday was that day. The rain had stopped and I could see in the distance that the aspen trees at my location had turned the perfect shade of yellow. I dressed the girls in their outfits that I scoured store after store looking for, and just before sundown we headed out to the spot. Surprise!!! The location was flooded!!! Apparently, someone has neglected to change the water along the Barrows house all summer! (and no...this time it was not Jordan's fault). Determined to make it work, I had Jordan arrange some logs to stand on and set up my tripod amidst the flooded foxtails. After lots of reminders to smile ("no, not like that! a pretty smile, please!), a baby that thought this was all too exciting and refused to hold still, and Jordan constantly telling me how hot I looked crouching down behind the tripod, I managed to snap a few descent photos.

I think next time I'll just have us all roll around in the muck and mud and really have a good time with it all!!!

Eastern Idaho State Fair 2011

We LOVE the fair!!!

The rides...


The animals...


The laughter...


The face painting (combined with animals)...



And the concert! I didn't get any pictures of the concert because I had at least one or two sleeping children in my lap the whole time, but nevertheless, it was awesome! We went and saw Ronnie Dunn, and although it started at like 9:30pm, we took the kiddos along anyway. Reiny was asleep before he even came on stage and then woke up the next morning saying "oh no! we forgot to go to the concert!!" Ryann bopped along for a while then promptly fell asleep on Jordan's shoulder, who shortly thereafter began to fall asleep himself. We did leave early, but it was still a wonderful adventure and family tradition we look forward to every year!

September 7, 2011: The Day of Dread...

Reiny's 1st official day of Preschool.

Deep down I knew this day would come...to be quite honest, deep down I know the day will soon come that I'll be taking her picture at graduation or her wedding...but we'll continue living in denial about that for a bit longer. In any case, Reiny has started school this year, and she LOVES it! Ultimately, I should be grateful she loves school and isn't afraid to enter the door. However, a piece of me dies a little everytime I drop her off and she just doesn't have the time to hug or kiss me "bye-bye" because her "friends are waiting."

Her teacher this year is her Aunt Jilli, which is really nice for her. Jill has lots of fun activities for them. Reiny is always excited to tell me about all the fun things they did at school, which is a lot better than the generic answer to the question "what did you do at school today."

I feel lost at home without her. She goes to school from 8:15am to 12pm and Ryann naps from 9am-11:30am, so I don't even have her to help snuggle my cares away.

I don't want to boo-hoo about this other than to say, I miss my little girl, and it seems like now that school has started my days with her are numbered...

Reiny and her friend, Katie.


My 1st day of school!!!

The Picture-taking is Coming Along

Jordan's cousin, Lacey, got married last weekend at a beautiful home not far from here. The grounds were absolutely lovely, so I thought it would make a nice opportunity to take some pictures of my two little ones before the summer's over and the ground is once again covered in a thick blanket of snow.

My mother always sends my girls the most adorable dresses for Easter, but seeing as I was as sick as I've ever been over Easter weekend, I never took any pictures of my girls in their dresses. Therefore, the Easter Dresses became the Wedding Outfits and also the wardrobe for our summer pictures.




The Bride


As a side note, I've just finished reading a book on photography that my sister-in-law, Shauna-the photographer, recommended. I'm really facsinated with photography and have been working hard to improve my techniques and "creative-eye." I need a tutoring session from Shauna, but otherwise, I think I'm making progress...now if I could just get the new lense I want...

Also, if you've never seen Shauna's work, you should visit her site at www.photographydujour.com She's amazing!

This one's for you, Mom!

My mother has been asking me to update my blog so she can see how big my kiddos are getting...so, this one's for you, Mommy!

Love the matchy-matchy for church.

Our 4th of July outfits!

Running through the sprinkler.

Can she get more adorable?

She did this to herself!

...and then Ryann wanted a turn!

Horses and Cousins

My brother, Dave, came for the 4th of July and of course, the kids were all excited to go for a little ride on the horses right outside my house...Beverly and "Cheesy-Bread" (lovingly named by Reiny!).

I love when my brother comes to visit. I wish they lived closer. . .mostly cus my niece, Anna, is great help with Ryann!







We also got to see April and her family this holiday, which is always nice. They are such a breath of fresh air on this ranch!

Here's to the cutest cowboy, Cowboy Cash!

I Don't Know...Just Family Fun

My Family


Cousins


Ryann at 6 months


Reiny and her Worm!


My Little Porkchop

Nothing Much...Just a Picture or Two...

Easter and Birthdays

Well this Easter was a little different for us. We drove down to Utah for my niece's 7th birthday party and planned for the Easter Bunny to meet us there. Unfortunately, I managed to contract some strange cow disease from branding and spent the entire trip sick in bed at my sister's house. Jordan was on a cross-country trip in the semi picking up pivots in Nebraska, so my sister and parents had the fun task of taking care of my little bundles of joy and ME!

Despite my misery, I did manage to drag myself out of bed long enough to go to the egg hunt with Reiny. She did great and was so sweet! She'd pick up candy and put it in the younger kids baskets! Too cute! She and her cute cousin Kate (say that 10 times fast!) are just about the same age so they worked together to fill their baskets with the "loot." Kate is allergic to gluten and picked up a package of crackers. I said "Kate, no! Those have gluten!" and she immediately turned and put the crackers in Reiny's bucket. They are so fun to watch together!





Malisia turned 7 and had a "Wild Things" party. An animal handler came to the house with lots of fun animals for the kids to touch and observe. Reiny loved the dancing bird the best and still tries to imitate her and her "funky dance." I thought the iguana and tortoises where quite amazing and loved watching Reiny jump when the pigmy hedgehog "sneezed" at her. All in all, the trip was quite fun (at least for my kids) and I'm glad we went. Otherwise, I'd have been deathly ill at home by myself with the two kids!

Answers???

Well, I might have some answers about Ryann's condition. I finally broke down and called the doctor about her crankiness. He said that it didn't sound like she had enough symptoms for it to be an ear infection, especially since it has lasted for so long. He told me to pump and see how much milk I'm feeding her on average. I did...it's enough quantitatively. He then told me to put it in the fridge and see how much fat settles to the top...TADA! NONE! Answer: You're starving your baby!

I guess it makes sense now. She would nurse and have enough fluid to be satisfied for a short time, but there wasn't enough fat and protein to keep her full long enough. She'd then wake up extremely early from any nap I could get her down for, hungry and cranky. She'd nurse and then be really tired. I didn't think she could possibly be tired yet, so I'd try playing with her and keeping her awake...only making her more tired, cranky, and hungry...then the cycle would repeat.

I knew I was low on milk by the end of the day so I'd been supplementing her before bed with formula and she'd sleep peacefully through the night...it all makes sense now. If I was a cow, I'd have been culled a long time ago!

So, in any case...despite the fact that I nursed Reiny for a full year, we have begun the weaning process with Ryann so she can be happier and healthier. I suppose I just have too many stresses in my life right now to produce good enough milk to sustain her, but in any case, I have to do what's right for her.

I've really struggled with giving this up, but last night as I fed her a bottle and she stared up at me and smiled slightly, I felt at peace with my decision. This is what she needs now, and I'm going to do what's right for her.