Clare 1st birthday + cake smash | St. Louis Child Photography

Clare's first birthday... she is such a beautiful little girl.  And she's fast!  With a few tricks we got her to stay in one spot long enough to capture these.

Her 1st Birthday outfit

She's no fool she knows those boxes are empty; she's waiting for the cake...

 And there's the cake!  Just like my kids she was all about the frosting.

Hey Clare: is being ONE fun?

A Snow Day Birthday {Aiden turns five}

His birthday is just before Christmas and the weather is usually horrible so we don't often do anything big to celebrate.  This year whenever we asked him what he wanted for his birthday was snow.

Just snow.

With not a snowflake in the forecast we set to work as soon as the kids went to bed.  My hands cramped up with all the cutting.  Dad tried the cut-five-snowflakes-at-a-time method.  I don't recommend it.  We carefully hung each one up, taping them to the ceiling.  Taking turns catching each other as we wobbled on chairs balanced on our tippy toes.  How the kids didn't wake up with all our snickering and crashing around I don't know.

A white blanket on the ground, hundreds of snowflakes hanging from the ceiling.  It was the closest thing to snow we could give.

After two nights the kids asked us to take them down because the snowflakes were "creeping them out at night".  But I have pictures to prove there were smiles and awe on his birthday morning surprise.

Six Years Old

I know, I know.... he turned six over a month ago.  That's how far behind I am in life. I was considering back-dating this post to September but decided not to since figuring that out might set me behind another week or so. 

He's in kindergarten now, he rides the bus to school, and has somehow turned in to this mature little man who helps around the house, only antagonizes his little brother some of the time, and now only allows kisses on the forehead or cheek.

He is still scared of the dark (and the scary things that might be hiding in the dark) so I'm still needed.  Well, for that and for meals.  Our microwave is very high up and he's still not allowed to use the oven.

He can do "normal" smiles for pictures now if I bribe him enough but he's not so mature he doesn't laugh at tooting jokes (do boys ever mature out of that?)

Happy Birthday Evan! Age six has been great so far, maybe you can stay this age for a few years?