Archive for April, 2012

27
Apr
12

portraits

On every child’s birthday, I go to Picture People to get their portraits done.  Nowadays, it seems really silly, because I actually have a nicer camera than Picture People!  But the OCD in me needs to have all the pictures “matching” because I hang them chronologically starting at age 1 on the wall going up the stairs.

I come about this part of my OCD honestly, as this is what my mom did on a wall in our house growing up. Except they weren’t clean white backgrounds-they were the lovely JCPenney fake trees and flower backgrounds and I was wearing floppy hats and big bows!  🙂
Here is Asher’s 4 year portraits!

love the pose!

And just for fun…school portraits aren’t what they used to be! I love how my girls are lounging on some “stones”!

26
Apr
12

chuck e cheese!

For dinner on Asher’s birthday, he got to invite one friend to Chuck E Cheese!  Ella was so sweet to Asher and pressed the pedal for him on the “big boy” racing game that he really wanted to play!

I think Ella started getting claustrophobic down there, because then she started doing it this way!

poor Ella, she could hardly reach the pedal either!
Asher made these faces during each game he played!
still into making faces
Cheers to Asher’s 4th!  (I love how Ella is video taping it for daddy to watch later!)
Caden and Asher-bffs
24
Apr
12

four

Asher, four years ago today, you took your sweet time to enter the world.  On mommy’s schedule, you were supposed to arrive around 3 or 4 p.m. like your sisters, who were also induced.  But not you.  You held out until almost 9 p.m.  Those 5 extra hours seemed like eternity because I wanted to meet my first son!  When I held you in my arms I thought, “I actually have a little BOY!”  I dreamed of football, playing trucks, and getting really dirty.

In these four precious years, you have still proven yourself to take your sweet time on things.  Whether that be taking a bottle (11 months old) or potty training (3 1/2) or eating dinner, or learning to buckle your seat belt (still working on!).  You are not motivated by competition, (something your dad and I scratch our heads on!) and so we still are trying to figure out the best way to motivate you.   You are smart, knowing all your letters, upper and lower case, and most sounds by 3 1/2.  (I have educational cartoons to thank for that!)  😉  Your love for cars is pretty intense.  Another area daddy and I don’t know where it came from!  But daddy is ready when you are to take you to your first Formula 1 race!  When we are in a parking lot, and you see a “race car” you ask me if you can “look at the back” and you walk around the car and ooooo and ahhhh at the spoiler or racing stripe.  You are particular, insisting to sleep with the same baby board book on the right side of your bed for the past year.  And you need exactly two cars on either side of the board book.  🙂  It’s hard for mommy to stop “babying” you because you are my baby!  But when I think of the girls being four years old, I remember thinking how “old” they were.  Perception is a funny thing.    You LOVE to cuddle with me, and for me to sing to you each night before bed, and you always tell me “I love you” and how I look like a princess.  No doubt you will follow in your daddy’s footsteps, and be very romantic to your wife one day.   You love to laugh and make others laugh (usually by pretending to burp or toot!)  When you are around your friends, and especially your cousin, your naughty level goes up a few notches!  😉  I can’t wait to see what God has in store for you, my little man!  We love you!!

birthday morning donut!
blow!
Buster busting through!
Happy Birthday!
birthday breakfast!
23
Apr
12

Party day!!

After Asher’s soccer game, in which he scored twice-yay!, his Oma and Papaw gave them their gift, a Radio Flyer – Flyer 500!  I think he liked it, what do you think?

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

You can also use it as a racing ramp for his cars. Perfect!

Finally, it was time for Asher’s party!! We had it at a local bounce house, and really you can’t go wrong with having a little boy’s party at a bounce house! Asher played his heart out with his 20 closest friends!

another wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (lots of wheeeeeeeeees on Saturday!)

They had this slide there that was as tall as a two story house!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
climbing up the two story slide is hard work!

A slide like that can cause some issues going down…

and they all came tumbling down!

I loved seeing the joy in Asher’s face during the whole party! It makes all the stress of party planning worth it!!

Asher and his cousin

A bunch of spidermans!

Kian, Asher, Caden, and Caden

There were many dog piles at the end of the slides in which they purposely did…(learning that this is “normal” boy behavior!)

Asher has lots of big boy friends too, and one who has a very tender heart, came up to Asher during the party and gave him an unsolicited hug. Love!!

This place had a block room too, which Asher enjoyed knocking the towers over (and having them fall down on him too)!
this might hurt!

We had a soccer themed party and my best friend, Jen, made these cute soccer ball cupcakes for Asher!

she used 100 calorie Oreo thins on the cupcakes
Happy Birthday to you!
note to self:  always get these for parties, they were a HIT!

The party favors were sweat bands for the boys. I realized I should of passed them out at the beginning of the party versus the end, because everyone was so sweaty from playing! 😉

When we got home Asher got to open all his presents!  The big gift for him this year was Legos!  We now have Legos in the Paquette house!!  Entering a new stage…

Thanks to all the family and friends that came to celebrate our special four year old!

grandma with Asher
21
Apr
12

sisters’ love

Asher celebrated his fourth birthday today.  His actual birthday is Tuesday, but his party day was today!  Rilyn and Ella were so sweet to him this morning.  Before his soccer game, they made a treasure hunt and the last clue led him to this homemade gas station/car track that apparently they have been working on secretly all week after we put them to bed.  They said they’ve been hiding it in their closet.  I can’t get upset at them for wanting to give something to their brother that truly was from their hearts! I love how the cars are made from toilet paper rolls!

of course Asher had to add a “real car” to the track!  He didn’t quite get the “homemade” cars!  🙂

After that, Rilyn led him outside to show him his big present…his first bike!

I love this picture because I don’t take too many pictures that capture the love that Rilyn and Ella have for Asher.

loving hands
I’ll help you
focus
not quite sure…
11
Apr
12

Easter 2012

After Easter service in Austin, we drove to Temple to celebrate Easter with my parents and to celebrate my brother’s 30th!  My mom can’t help but go overboard when it comes to buying gifts for her grandchildren.  I keep reminding my kids how spoiled they are!  This is NOT normal kids!

ages:  almost 8, 6, 4, and 2
Look what I got!
grandma and grandpa with their grandloves!  Soon to be five in June!

After the baskets were opened, we had the Easter egg hunt!

I see you up there pink egg!

Rilyn perfecting the art of double fisting eggs!

Not sure why James chose to hide eggs up in trees…

Can you find it Asher?

Rilyn found the “golden egg” this year which grandma fills with change!

check out my loot!

Then we all ate take out Chinese food, (Jeff’s choice!) and celebrated his 30th!

my younger brother with his nieces, nephew, and son!
10
Apr
12

photo shoot ctd.

I call the second half of this photo shoot I did on Friday, “Beauty and the Boots”!  Click here to see more!

09
Apr
12

new photo shoot!

Want to see more of this princess?  Click here!

03
Apr
12

Treasure Hunt

Our family night activity tonight was found (for free!) here!  James and I thought of verses in the Bible that were especially meaningful to each of us.  We then put one of those verses in each egg and hid them around the house!  The point of the egg hunt was this conversation with the kids:

“What makes the Bible different from other books? The Bible is the word of God. The Bible is
living.
How can a book be living? It doesn’t eat. I don’t see it breathing. It is living because God
uses the words in this book to speak directly to our situation and our lives. I have read the
same part of the Bible many times but one time that same part will leap out like never
before, it comes alive, and I learn something directly from God.
Did you know that God wants us to read and search the Bible looking for treasure with the
same excitement we search for eggs? Finding wisdom in the Bible can be challenging,
exciting and just like finding hidden treasure.
We are going to hunt for the eggs, but I am going to put “treasures” from the Bible in the eggs. These
are parts of the Bible that through the years have stood out, come alive, to teach me and your mom
something about God.”

I thought it was neat to share with the kids all our meaningful verses and I wanted to have it recorded in a special place-so here it is!

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  (This verse was one of my favorites growing up because whenever I felt anxious about my future, specifically moving to Texas,  getting married one day, having children… I would read this verse.)

Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (This was one of the first big Bible verses that I memorized and recited to others when I was baptized around age 12.)

This is me being baptized in the backyard of one of our friend’s houses!

Mark 14:36b Yet not what I will, but what you will (This verse was at the top of my theraputic art that I did when I was broken up with James while we were dating. You can see the story and art here.)

Jeremiah 33:11  the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord: “‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’  For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.  (This verse was given to me from the Lord in August of our “dating breakup” that lasted from April-November of 1999.  With hope and faith I prayed as if James and I would be getting back together one day!)

Ephesians 5:25-27  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  (These were the verses James read to me right before he proposed.  James washed my feet in a park before he got down on one knee as a way to live out this verse!)

James washing my feet, while my future mother in law was taking pictures hiding behind a tree!

Psalm 82:3  Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.  (This verse was the fuel that sparked my involvement with the sanctity of life.  I started volunteering at Austin Life Care to help women in crisis pregnancies, have prayed in front of abortion clinics, and I am involved with Life Care’s PALS (Partners in Affirming Life) program.)




My photography business!

April 2012
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30