Many parents try to do a photo shoot for their children at around 3 months… the baby can hold his head up pretty good and it’s the age when a child kind of transitions from newborn to plain ‘ol baby.

And now here’s where I cry because I don’t have a squishy newborn anymore.

Saturday I attempted to capture some three-month-old shots with my little Farmer Boy and I think I did alright.

(The drool comes free of charge, folks.)

The lighting is good, he was clean, there were no meddling big sisters around, the Cotton Husband was in the fields and it was a beautiful day for photos (meaning that it was a little cloudy!). It was great planning on my part.

But then I go through my photos and realize that these… the unplanned, the unpredictable expressions, the bad lighting, the fogged-up camera lens, the mud, the questionable clothing choices -

those are the photos I’ll keep in my heart long past the baby stage.

My kitchen just gets better and better everyday.

As you can see, I’ve made myself right at home and junked up these pretty shelves quite nicely.

It was bound to happen, y’all.  This kitchen was designed for homemade, country cooking – made to order three times a day. And usually I have about ten different things going on while I am trying to cook so everything had to be within reach, hence the open shelving scheme. See the little blue box of salt up there? I have two in the kitchen. One right there on the shelf, next to the flour to help support my husband’s daily pancake habit and the other by the stove for cooking dinner and supper. The stove is three feet away. Do I really need two boxes of salt? Probably not, but hey- if it saves a little time, it’s worth it.

Speaking of using the kitchen…

My friend Whitney gave me some green eggs the other day. The last two are there in the back of the bowl…

Shelby and Maggie thought that was hilarious. ACTUAL green eggs! Too bad I didn’t have any ham.

And Miss Vanity loves these glass fronted drawers.

I’m still not sure if she thinks she’s kissing a friend or kissing herself.

Now that the contractors are finished in the kitchen, they’ve moved on to the living room ceiling. We had some pretty disgusting tile in there and we wanted sheetrock. It’s not going to take long, but it’s been two days so far and I’m going crazy.

Our living room is in the middle of the house. We can’t get to a bathroom without going through it and it’s where we watch TV, where the kids play (because there are too many toys in the playroom for them to move around) and well… it’s where we LIVE.

I’ve been finding excuses to pack everyone up and leave the house in the mornings. Fortunately Keith has needed to move from field to field and requires my help occasionally. And this morning I had to go into town on a quick errand.

These photos are coming to you this evening courtesy of these sanity-saving trips. I drive slllloooow, take the longest possible route and even go WAY off my route simply to avoid trying to juggle children and construction. The kids don’t mind because they have juice, snacks, a DVD and occasionally wildlife…

It’s been nice having adult conversation during the day but it will be a relief to have my house back.