Happy 4th Birthday William!!! (apparently this is the "right way" to smile for pictures?)

Since Will's "Super-Hero" themed birthday party isn't happening until next week, we had a nice day of hanging out as a family mostly doing normal Saturday things... t-ball practice, changing a battery on the car, sort of cleaning the house, so much fun! So this afternoon we made sure to take advantage of this great weather and went for a nice hike at a nature preserve that turns out to be less than ten miles away from our house, so we were very excited to discover that. The boys love love love any chance to be outdoors running around especially when there's lots of dirt and rocks involved and I'm always looking for creative outlets for all of their energy.
Happy Happy Birthday to my little William Evan, Will, Willem, Willemy, Schnook, Schnookety, Schnookington, Sugar, Sugardy, Sugar-bumm, Tush, or Tushington (my three favorites... he has a cute bumm!

Ben's field trip to the local Fire Station... he had a blast, no pun intended!

More playing around with my new camera...

This time with my friend Shea's super-cute kids as the subjected, subjects. Sorry the lighting ended up being sucky, Shea! Practice makes better... right?

More of "my" Super Hero kids...

one more of "baby Cohen" because he's just so dang cute!

by Lillie

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Pictures of Anne and Paul's baby Cohen taken by Lillie Biesinger, the arteeest!

So this is baby Cohen, my brand new nephew. Anne is David's sister and she and her husband Paul moved just a few miles away from us a few months ago. It's been a lot of fun having them so close, as we've been far away from family for so long. This is a "photo shoot" taken by my great friend, and fantastic photographer, Lillie. Thanks again for letting me tag along and watch the, kind of stressful, but fun process. They turned out great!

A little therapy time... having fun with my camera!

It rarely rains here in the desert, so when it does everything seems so much more beautiful and alive. I had to steal away a few minutes this afternoon and walk to the near by park to enjoy, and try to capture, some of the desert beauty that I hardly ever take the time to notice let alone appreciate. It was very nice and even, dare I say, nurturing to the soul. But Lillie and Lizzie, please more tutoring! I know I'm such a pest but I really want to learn!

Look at my knock out sister-in-law!!!

Sorry Melissa, but I had to put this picture up when I saw how gorgeous you look in it. Besides, you happen to be one of my favorite people so why not have you looking like a bomb-shell, plastered on my blog. FYI, she's doing a photo-shoot for a friend that specializes in wedding photography in TX. Super cool Melis! You look stunning!

Benji-Dave and daddy...

I have to say that this is one of my favorite pics maybe of all time! It captures "them" so perfectly. The way David is such a great daddy and is always willing to be a "giant" playground for his (and others) kids, and Ben with this huge smile on his face. I always say his moods are intense and infectious (the good and the bad ones) and I love how happy he looks here. He also happens to be dang cute and I can brag all I want since I don't, genetically, have anything to do with that.

"My" little SUPER HEROES!

For those of you who haven't read my post about the preschool... I started an in home preschool back in September so that Will could have more socialization as part of his therapy. It's been amazing to see how much he's come out of his "shell". He's always been very social for being autistic just no where near "normal", and to see him talk so much about his own friends has made it well worth all the effort.
One of the most shocking and exciting things that has come from all of this is that he has essentially started to potty train himself. For those of you who know anything about autism, or for those who don't, you know that even for the highest functioning (which he is- not asphbergers, just very high functioning) autistic child the average age to potty train is around 6 years old. Anyway- it has been sad but cute and very useful to see him so affected by peer pressure when he says things like, "are they going to like me mommy" when talking about going "peeps" on the potty and wondering if the kids will be proud of him for it. All of the kids in the preschool are either potty trained or very close, so he's seeing them and feeling the pressure which has put a crazy fire under him to do it himself. These are the kinds of things that bring a mom serious happiness! There's nothing like seeing the smile of success on your own child's face, especially this little guy who works so hard to keep up with his rambunctious older brother. He definitely deserves to feel like a big boy, super hero!

Our good friend Kate's 4th birthday party...

baby Cohen... he's definitely a keeper!

Congratulations again Anne and Paul!