On the 10th day of Christmas: Birthdays!

My birthday and Josh's birthday are both just after Christmas, so we had two different little birthday parties to celebrate during all of the holiday clean-up chaos. Now I know there were pictures being taken at my birthday, but it wasn't with my camera (like I would ever let someone else use my new beauty--psh!), so I don't actually have any of them. Thanks to my husband, though, I had many wonderful presents, and thanks to my mom, we had a very yummy cake. And my Dad treated us to a very delicious dinner at Johnny Carino's, one of my favorite places.

Joshua had his third birthday, and I did take pictures of that one. I was having trouble figuring out the right settings on the camera, though, so that's why the first few look bad. We had it a couple of days late, because he kept falling asleep too early and wouldn't wake up for anything. It was funny.

The cake. And of course, it had "Reese cups" on top!

He tried so hard, but he couldn't quite get the candles by himself.

Brandi had to help him. :)

The Swan Princess from Uncle Tyler and Aunt Mara.

A Toy Story flashlight.

A Thomas the Train movie from Mommy.

And in the big box...

...dinosaur trucks from Grandma!

Enjoying his new toys.

What a handsome, big boy!

On the 9th day of Christmas: Photo Shoot (part 3)

This is the final episode of the photo shoot posts. For the last part, Sarah requested that Ashton be allowed to ride the horse with her. Of course I had a heart attack and said NO WAY! But, after much debate, it was decided that she could hold Ashton while seated on the horse...if the horse was tied to the trailer, my mother held it's head, and it did not, under any circumstances, attempt to move. :) I know I'm paranoid and irrational, but I don't care! So here is Sarah, treating Ashton to his first "ride."

At first, he wasn't too sure.

But then he decided he liked it!

I love this picture not only because of Ashton's cute tongue, but also because Sass looks like she's thinking, "When can we get this over with?!"

My handsome little cowboy.

And of course, as soon as Sarah rode away for real, the sun started to come out and it was bright and beautiful! (Even more so than in the picture.) Grr!

On the 9th day of Christmas: Photo Shoot (part 2)

Here's the part of the photo shoot where Sarah wanted to take pictures with all the horses. I was a little bit afraid for my life, but I'm still alive, so everything is fine.

First we have Hottie...or Skip...to be honest I don't know. For the life of me, I can't tell those two horses apart. They look exactly the same to me. My mother and sister are horrified by this, because clearly they are two different horses. Whatever. :)

Left to right: Sarah, Hottie (or Skip), Hottie (or Skip), and Charlie--the lone man in a pasture full of estrogen.

Sass getting her halter on while Hottie (or Skip) decides whether or not she should jump the fence and kill me.

Sarah and Hottie (or Skip)

Sarah and her rodeo horse Sass. What a team.

Of course I needed an action shot or two...

Definitely my mother's child...she sure loves that horse.

I call this the ooh-la-la look.

I know, there are a lot of these. But she's so dang cute, I just couldn't stop. :)

Riding off into those beautiful mountains.

On the 9th day of Christmas: Photo Shoot (part 1)

My sister Sarah wanted me to take some pictures of her for Facebook, and since I just got my new awesome camera, I was itching for people to practice on. Not only did I agree, but I got pretty carried away and took like a million pictures. It was kind of sad, because it was such a cloudy, cold day, and the grass was yellow instead of green. So some of the pictures turned out well, others not so well. But it was fun anyway!

We started out with Sarah and the dogs. Because of course, she wanted to take pictures with "her boys." I definitely am the black sheep of the family, because the last thing I would want to do is take my picture with the animals! :) But she sure loves them, and you can tell that they really love her.

First there's Tuffy, the faithful three-legged mutt.

Smedly is the sweet old man of the bunch. He was a little excited, though, so I only got a few of him at all.

And then there's the super-spoiled, live-inside, love-of-my-mother's-life dog, Kronk. He was WAY too excited, and Sarah couldn't get him to even sit by her, so she just told me to take pictures of him playing fetch.

On your mark...

...get set...

...GO!!!

Bringing it back...

Ready to go again!

Even the neighbor's dog, Ozzy, wanted to get in on the action.

Walking with her boys.

I was trying to take a picture of the sky, because the clouds looked really cool. But, it looked a lot prettier than this in real life. *sigh* Oh well.