jace, reading in his room with his flashlight at bedtime. (he reads the stories out loud to himself.)

10 today

1. you will have significant experiences. i hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. some may be funny. some may be significant only to you. some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience. -gordon b. hinckley

2. i love to read through old blog posts and remember things that are easily forgotten.

3. jace spent most of last week with a cold. he was pretty bummed to miss out on his activities but we didn't want to get anyone sick. he did however manage to pass it on to me.

4. the other day jace came into my room looking like a chipmunk. his cheeks were full of cherry tomatoes. he loves tomatoes and eats them by the handfuls.


5. i did two photo shoots last week. one for a friend and one for my cousin. it was fun! i have another one coming up this week and a lot of editing to do.

6. jared and i went to the byu v. tcu game saturday night. we won't talk about the game but we did have a good time getting out together and watching a game without a 3 year old.

7. we had a new babysitter and she was great! my house was cleaner than when i left (she even emptied my dishwasher for me). jace loves babysitters and was so excited for her to come. he practically kicked jared and i out the door.

8. jace went to a fun halloween party this morning with his friends. they painted monsters, ate mummy pizzas, made caramel apples and played. he had a great time.


9. decorating halloween cookies. we are already on sweet overload and it's not even halloween yet!


10. i'm in the middle of reading this and this. hoping to be more on the ball with doing a little "preschool" at home with jace.

little boys, girlfriends and hunting

1. we headed up to malad again last weekend for some more fun. i really love being there because it is so peaceful and beautiful. it's always rejuvenating to spend time there. i don't even know if i could explain it.

2. we picked up lisa (a bff from the college years) on our way to have a fun filled girls' weekend. joining us were aubrey (sister-in-law who was bff's with lisa when they were in junior high), shanna (aubrey's sister-in-law) and melissa (aubrey and lisa's bff from junior high). some way or another we all knew each other. we also had jace, isaac and sam (melissa's), and austin (shanna's). so there was a house full!

3. isaac and jace had a blast playing together. they both love lightening mcqueen and spent a lot of time playing trains. they also had a good time exploring outside around the farm. they definitely wore each other out.

jace and isaac

4. i enjoyed visiting with everyone and talking about lots of girl things. especially little kids, babies and pregnancy. three of us were pregnant and the other two recently had babies.

lisa, baby girl due in january, me, baby girl due in march, aubrey, baby due in may

5. we ate lunch at the yummy taco bus! and got shakes at the drive-in. i forgot how good they are.

melissa, jace, aubrey, shanna, lisa, me

6. jared decided he wanted to go hunting again with my dad and little bro jacob this weekend. they headed out bright and early saturday morning. they came home around 4 with a nice 4 point buck. he couldn't stop talking about how much he enjoyed it. he described it as "awesome" and "an amazing experience" being out completely in nature and watching the deer and the beautiful scenery. he said it was a huge adrenaline rush. he's already making plans for next year.

p.s. thanks to aubrey for the pictures. i didn't pull my camera out all weekend.

3 years old!

so i finally got around to taking jace's 3 year old pictures last week. it did take a little bribing on my part to get him into the clothes i wanted and out the door. we didn't have much time because it was threatening to rain on us but we still got some good ones.

actually we got a lot of good ones. here is what i've edited so far.





this last series is one of my favorites. it totally shows what happens when i want to take his picture. the first picture he is saying "mom, do i really have to stand here and do this?" the second shows him so often distracted and interested in something other than the camera. and the last is his nice little cheeser. man, i love this kid!


more to come when i get around to editing them.

it's a girl, for sure!

we had our 20 week ultrasound last friday. jace accompanied me to see baby sister. jared did not. he was working. jace was pretty excited to see baby sister on the camera and listen to her heartbeat.

the doctor says she looks good and is measuring right at 20 weeks. my placenta is low (but not covering the cervix) so he wants to do another ultrasound later in the pregnancy to see if it has moved.

anyway, here she is...


and her name? mallory kate.

it is jared and jace's favorite. i liked it too but wasn't ready to decide. however, they have been calling her mallory kate for awhile and now it's just kinda stuck. and besides, i think it's really cute the way jace says it.

10 today

1. i have been feeling more like myself (physically and emotionally) the past few days. it's great! friday will be the half way mark for us and we will celebrate with an ultrasound to see how our little girl is doing.

2. it's gotten cold here and we have really been enjoying the fall weather. i love the seasons and the changes they bring. fall brings cooler weather, football, beautiful scenery, lots of holidays and lots of fun.

3. i love these guys so much! they bring me so much joy every. single. day.


4. my name has officially been changed to "lightening mcqueen" courtesy of jace. he is currently known as "moto" and will not answer to anything else. i don't think that i have been called mom for about 4 days now.

5. jared went on his first ever hunting trip with my dad, little bro jacob, brother-in-law troy and nephew wyatt. he came back exhausted but with some good stories to tell. he really had a great time and wants to go again. he said he didn't even miss watching college football (including byu).

6. while the boys were hunting my mom and i headed to my sister ginger's house. jace got to play with his cousins (which he loves) and we went to lunch (which i loved). we had a great time and wished they lived closer so we could see them more often.

7. jace has entered into a rather whiny, temper tantrum throwing, stubborn stage. i have to say i'm not loving it. we have had to leave stores a number of times and he sat on the floor crying for an hour because he didn't want to pick up the cheerios he spilled. any advice on how to get over this fast?

8. we spent one evening at the park last week and had fun playing together.


9. this is one of jace's favorite things to do at the park. he can spin for a good 15 minutes. jared tried it and only lasted about 1 minute. why is it that little kids can spin for so long?


10. i bribed jace into letting me take some photos of him tonight. they are his official 3 year old photos. stay tuned for more...

photography

after a couple of months of not picking up my camera much i am in the mood to take pictures again. as much as i love to take photos of jace, he gets kind of tired of it. i have always toyed with the idea of doing it for others. so, to see if it is something that i would enjoy doing and if it would be a good fit for our family i thought i would give it a try.

what you would get: a one hour session and a cd of the best photos, edited.

what i would get: practice. practice. and more practice.

so, if anyone is up for it, i would love to take pictures of you or your kids or your family. just let me know. i would love you forever! you can leave a comment here or email me at jm.mclaughlin@gmail.com to set up a session.

p.s. i am in the process of updating my photo blog if you want to check it out to see some other photos i've taken.

amber (jared's cousin) took some quick snapshots of jace and i last spring when she was visiting. i have been meaning to post them but never got around to editing them until last week.

i love. love. love. having these pictures of me and jace. we have such a great time together and i always want to remember this time of our lives.


thanks amber!

monster birthday

we had a fun monster party for jace's birthday this past weekend. he got to invite four of his friends that he plays with often. we had pizza from papa murphey's, drinks (sprite is jace's favorite) and cupcakes with monster suckers stuck in each one.

for the activities we decorated monster bags, played monster bean bag toss, and had a monster bounce on the trampoline with monster balls. we topped the party off with a monster pinata full of candy and monster tattoos, which the boys were actually able to break by themselves.

jace had a great time and i think his friends did too. i was supervising the party and jared was on camera patrol. he took mostly video but did get a few photos.




i love this picture of jace just waiting to hit the pinata. i think the other kids were jumping on the trampoline.

play

we went to the children's garden the other day with friends. jace built this bridge in the natural play area. there is a troll wedged under the bridge who does not let anyone across unless they answer one of his riddles.


jace picked this flower for me and wanted me to wear it in my hair. he kept checking on it all day to make sure it was still there.


one of my favorite things is listening to jace play. so creative. so fun.