because a girl's gotta brag

I generally try not to get all picture postey here -I save that for the family blog; plus you know, psycho kidnappers can see this- but I have very adorable children and it would really be a shame not to show them off to the ENTIRE world (or my small number of readers, whatever.)

Except that I'm a cheap-o, and I also like to change the pictures on our wall frequently, so I do all of our photography myself. Some habits just can't be professionally supported.

We'll go oldest to youngest - because that's how life goes. And if you happen to be a middle child (like myself) you just get used to being second best....or second in line I mean. Ok, I don't really feel that way - I actually like being the middle child because then I can socially justify my need to be an obnoxious attention getting rule breaker. I just wish I could do the job more effectively...

So getting back to my kids. Here is Two Bits:

I know, she's gorgeous (even if she is the female version of her father.) She turns six this summer and she normally has curly hair, but we straightened it for the pictures. Because when you have natural curl you must straighten it for special occasions when all straight haired people do theirs curly - it's in the curly hair handbook.

Next in the family is Opie:

He is 4 1/2. I know you can't see his face in this picture, but for some reason I really love it. I think it's the door...and the lighting....and because he's wearing a fedora so there's really no way to go wrong with this.

I was thinking about getting myself a fedora, but then I tried one on at the store, and realized that fedoras are head minimizing hats, and that chipmunk cheeked people (me) should really stay away. Unless you have 4 1/2 year old chipmunk cheeks, in which case you can totally pull it off.

So then comes the Monkey. Except that 2 year olds are very hard to photograph. He wouldn't hold still, and then when we got him to stand upright and front-facing for more than 2 seconds he would pull weird faces. Or poses. Like this: With his hand up his shirt, it's not really a picture you can hand out to grandmas - you know what I mean?

And then, of course, seconds after I snapped the self-exposing picture, he ran off and we got this little gem:

Yup, that's my son. You do realize that we don't call him "Monkey" just for fun? And whatever was up with the one eye wider than the other? I don't know if that can be blamed on his past eye surgery, or if perhaps he's just crazy. Probably the latter.

Finally, we got him to sit and stare at Husband's phone while it played ringtones:

I would have preferred a smile - but you saw our options.

Lastly is our little Number Four:

She turns one in a matter of days. (That year went by fast.)

I must admit that I am in love with her baby blues. I had to take her in for allergy testing the other day because she thinks gluten is poison, and upon explaining to the allergy specialist that all of our kids develop on weird time tables he immediately said, "Yeah, I noticed that her eyes are too far apart, is that.......?" The trailing off could have been because I was glaring at him - I'm not sure.

But don't worry, I'm not taking anything that weenie had to say seriously. We've seen geneticists, pediatric developmental specialists, countless therapists, not to mention we have a really great regular pediatrician we see constantly. If anyone is going to convince me there's something wrong with the spacing of her eyes it's NOT going to be coming from a guy who studies sneezing and peanut butter.

So there you go. Now you can flood my comment section with your adoring praises, because I really do have the cutest kids the world has ever seen. (Please don't leave a comment if you are a psychotic kidnapper - just be warned, I know Kung Fu and my husband owns a baseball bat.)