" It's out!"

 That tooth that Mack has been wiggling for well over a year...It's out! 

It was NOT an easy job. And , ultimately, it required a bit of unsolicited help .

" Get OUT you darn tooth!"

We bought this little box in Ann Arbor a few years ago and Mack has waited a long time to have a tooth to put in it.

The tooth fairy was generous for this first tooth. She left behind a glittery five dollar bill folded into a ring. Pretty fancy!
I am totally loving Mack's toothless grin. It seems like not so long ago, that very tooth was the first to poke it's pearly white edges from her naked gums.

A scare

 Last week, my dad stayed home sick from work. This is strange in and of itself. He has worked 6 days a week as long as I can remember and I can't remember many times that he missed a day.  Turns out, what he thought was something he ate was actually vertigo, a common ailment that, in this case, is attributable to age. Though I knew of vertigo , my dealings had only been in the care of kids. Admittedly, I was scared as they wheeled him off, his hands over his face and tears in his eyes, for an MRI to be sure he hadn't suffered a stroke.  Seeing my dad in this way was really an eye opener for me. We all think of him as bullet-proof, the " mind over matter" type. When he couldn't make it out to feed his animals, it shook all of us. Thankfully, we all pulled together and took care of things as he took it easy, missing four days of work.

The photo above draws such emotion for me. The contrast of seeing him in a hospital , his ID bracelet in view as he laces up his work boots. None of it fits together. And it still rattles me a bit.

Dad was on ativan for a few days which made him pretty mellow/loopy . I received several invites to Face Time with him. He'd talk for a minute then fall asleep mid-sentence. Though I hated him being sick, it was, at times a bit funny.  Thankfully, he is feeling much better and back to carrying a full load.

Simply beautiful

Mason found this Monarch butterfly lying in the grass of the back yard. She wasn't very lively as it was clear she was in her last days, not making the migration south with the younger butterflies. I love the contrast of Mason's dirty hands and the butterfly's delicate wings.

Mackenzie wanted to take her to Gram's so Gram's would have a real life butterfly to model a painting after.

This and That.

These two wild children spent an hour playing with this Magic Mirror app on my phone.

Mackenzie graduated to level 4 of 6 in swimming class! Only two from this class were ready to move up.

Found in Mackenzie's room. Rules for Mason to live by.Seems like a lot to ask.

Practicing my photography skills with some tricky lighting. I ended up loving this shot so much.

Cool hair, Dude!

Last weekend the kids and I went to a park next to a railroad outlet and watched the workers hook up a train from start to finish. We missed Daddy and I am sure Grandpa Ralph was smiling down on us.

And of course, there was time to play after the train was long gone.

Found this after I dropped Mack off at school " Mason Tomiths Long "

I really love spending time with my dad's horses. Gus is a favorite for sure.

Official!

Check out my brand spankin' new website here! Between my new business cards and my website, I'm lookin' kind of official. The plan for the slower season is to fill my time with newborns that will hopefully lead to more business as the babies grow!  Thanks so much for all the support I've received!

Fall-o-ween

 Clearly, I have not been so great at keeping up with my beloved blog. With fall family photo season nearly over, I hope to be back at it regularly!  Here are a few snaps of what our fall has looked like.

Where's Mason?

He immediately regretted this decision.

My rose bush was fully of roses well into November. Mack found this heart shaped petal.

We had so much fun playing in our huge pile of leaves this fall. I'm really thankful our neighbor helped me clean them up after his girl and mine turned the pile into tiny grains of leaf dust.

Pumpkin patch day!

Good choice, Mack!

Mase was very happy with his choice. The only prerequisite was that he had to be able to carry it himself.

Straw bale maze

Hmmm...This is against the rules but it's also a very good photo op. Click first, then remove child from fence.

Finally Halloween! Both kids set their minds back in August and never really wavered from their original choices, though Mack really preferred to be a dolphin. Mase had a lot of fun being Papa.

Handing out candy to our " customers" meant that each " customer " got two treats because Mason was not about to be left out of the treat doling.

Our fall has been very mild. We usually have at least one early October snow fall and that didn't happen this year. Instead, we enjoyed temps well above average until this past Monday when we went from 70 degrees to 19 in 24 hours. Since then, we've watch snow flakes flutter past our window, accumulating to about 2 inches and our high temp today was 4. Moody Colorado, how we love you.

My little snow girl is so excited to have snow! She spends at least an hour outside every day after school.

Even Mason had fun playing outside until his gloves fell off and his soft hands met the harsh , frosty air.