My Once Upon a Time...

Fox's 4th of July picture through the years...makes me want to cry! I remember taking his 2014 picture very vividly and it seems like it was just last year. Time is a thief and I'm having a hard time accepting it.  And then there's this guy. Luckily he only has two pictures so far, but I will blink and he will be just as grown up as Mr. Fox.  Last year we spent the 4th with a lot of our friends. My friend Corinne had a pool party and it was just an amazing day. When Corinne told me that she was going out of town for the holiday weekend, I contemplated hosting a pool party/ BBQ at our house, but with Covid and many of my friends still isolating, it didn't seem like good timing. I was bummed about not being able to spend the holiday with my friends and my kids being able to play with theirs, until my friend Trinidy told me that she was housesitting Corinne's house while they were away and Corinne had suggested to invite the boys and me over as well.  So in a turn ...

Finn is 23 months old!  I think this must have been the first month that my photographer sent me his monthly pictures and I was like "Whoa...who is this big kid?" I can't even see the baby anymore!  I was ready to give up on this photo shoot because Finn was not having it and we were about to walk out with an attitude of "we get what we get", but then he spotted the fake ice cream cone with real M&M's on it and he really wanted the M&M's, so Sam gave him a clean one to eat while he was holding the cone. Next thing you know, he was biting off the M&M's from the ice cream cone, paint, glue and all.  When we left, I told Sam that I was glad we only had one more to go, although I also know that I will miss these monthly pictures and it's just another reminder that my baby is growing up and too old for these. 

There are not many times that I would say "I wish we didn't take these pictures", but this was definitely one of those occasions.  Fox promised me that he would do a great job, but he was just as defiant to me as he was to our photographer. I was sweating by the time we were done, and not just because it was 100 degrees out.  Finn kept giving her the stink face too. Fox is very sensitive to sunlight, which is why he is squinting. Even at home he asks me to leave the blinds closed at all times, because it's too bright for him. He still had his front tooth when we took these, but it was hanging by a thread as you can see. And this is exactly how they both felt about this photo shoot. I always say, "it only takes one picture" and I guess that's the winner right here!  We don't have any more photoshoots until October...hallelujah!

My friend Kristy invited us to join her and Jake for some farm fun about 1.5 hours from Phoenix. It was such a perfect day, because it was up north, so the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and Fox even commented that it was chilly when we first got there.  We hadn't seen them since before the pandemic started and watching them run towards each other and hugging was such a sweet thing to witness. It wasn't busy at all, in fact, when we first arrived, we were the only people there. Finn loves balls and was excited to find one, but didn't understand why he wasn't able to walk away with it. We've been to this farm once with Kristy and Jake during pumpkin patch season in 2017 and I remember them jumping on this exact jumping pad like it was yesterday, but all of the sudden they are three years older...time is a thief. But this time, we had this guy with us for his first jumping pad experience. He is definitely more timid ...