Family Get Together in Gee's Town

We went to Gilmer mid April to celebrate my mom's 65th birthday. It was the first time all 3 daughters had been home at the same time since my grandmother's funeral in May 2009. So we had to take pictures.

Mom, Dad, and the boys

Three Daughters and Three Grandsons

(look at Casey's tiny baby bump!)The whole group minus Scott who had to work.

Mom takes the boys for rides on the golf cart.
They love it!

Gage wanted to go for a spin too.

Keaton is becoming a pretty good driver.

Cort tried to hijack the golf cart.

 Even mommy and daddy went for a spin.

We took mom out to eat for her birthday. She chose La Finca! YUM! I used to work at La Finca in high school as a cashier/hostess. They have THE BEST green sauce!

The next morning Aunt Kerrie took Keaton and Cort on a special adventure.

In search of Honeysuckles!!

They smell SO good!

Then we had a lesson on how to drink the Honeysuckle nectar.

As it does every trip to Gilmer, it turned off cold. Unfortunately, I, thinking it was April in Texas, only brought shorts and short sleeves for the kids to wear. Therefore the toboggan hats in these pictures and the blanket on the golf cart in a previous picture.

Happy 65th Birthday Gee!! We had a good time celebrating with you.

My attempt at Family Pictures

On a recent trip to Gilmer, I dressed up the family and had my sisters take some pictures of us. All of the pictures are taken at my mom and dad's house, where I grew up. As you can imagine, it is hard to get all 3 boys looking at the camera at the same time. Little Gage really didn't want anything to do with it, but I think a few turned out, for our amateur session. The sun was super bright and the lighting wasn't perfect, so I had some fun with different effects.

This barn looking building we are standing in front of is what we call 'The Shop'. It is next to my parent's house and was actually my Grandfather's plumbing shop when he owned his own business. I have many memories playing in the shop office and riding my bike around the gravel driveway that circles the building. As a kid, I had church clothes, school clothes, play clothes, and shop clothes. Because when you went to play at the shop, you always came back with grease on your clothes!

Now the shop is mostly just a storage area for my parents. They store furniture not being used and my dad's boat. Around to the side is my dad's tractor. Maybe next time we will have to get some pictures on it.

I stole this idea from a beautiful Christmas card I received this year from Brandy Parker. The kids played along for mom.

This is a really big tree in my parent's front yard. I wanted for us all to stand in front or next to this tree, but we ended up on the other side of it trying to get away from the sun and ants.

This one has a good view of the house I grew up in. My parent's built this house and moved in when I was 6 weeks old.

This is the road in front of the house. It's an oil (pronounced ole) top road.

This is the pasture behind my parent's house. There is a little pond, but the pond is actually on the neighbor's land. We just borrowed it for the backdrop of our pictures. I learned to drive a VW bug in this pasture.

By this time we had lost the boy's attention and were just enjoying the view.

1 Year Portraits

I took the boys to have their pictures made for Gage's 1st birthday.  Each of them wore this blue football shirt for their 1 year old picture.

Cort Garner

Weight 22 lbs 2 oz

Height 30 3/4 "

FOC 46.8 cm

Keaton Edward

Weight 23 lbs 5 oz

Height 31.5 "

FOC  48.0 cm

Gage Reeves

Weight  22 lbs 12 oz (46%)

Height  30 3/4 "  (75%)

FOC  47.2 cm  (71%)

Looks like he is ready to play football!

This close to Easter, I had the boys' pictures made in their Easter outfits. 

It is so funny to me how different the boys are.  Cort just loves to dress up and even asked for a tie or bow tie.  Keaton hates it and I am not sure I will even get this outfit on him again for Easter.

This picture session didn't go smooth from the start.  Gage isn't fond of strange men and so he immediately started crying when the photographer walked up.  It took Mark, Keaton and Cort to get some smiles out of him.  We made it through the football shirt and white background, but by the time we were ready for the park scene, Gage was done.  I like that Portrait Innovations gives us the disc of all photos taken during the session.  These are some funny out takes.  I put some of my favorites poses on the side bar.

New update:  Gage is officially walking (at 12 1/2 months) with shoes and all.  Won't be long before he graduates to the toddler room at school.  (Keaton walked at 10 months, and Cort walked at 11 1/2 months)