cuties

these are some cute kids. i was just playing around with them and got some smiles..

hiking part deux

grayson rode in kenny's backpack, and charlie rode in lyss'. :) and i really think its steeper than it looks! oh, i figured, obviously, how to turn my pics. i am sad however, at the quality of my point and shoot. its kinda crappy, and i used to think it was SO good. ha. maybe i should ask for a new one for some holiday this year....

hiking

i have several more pics from our hiking experience, but they're oriented the wrong way and i can't figure out how to rotate them NOT using photoshop. i'm going to carry our small point and shoot camera around with us more and just take quick pics and upload them instead of trying to get EVERYTHING edited before i post... so if anyone knows how to rotate images, let me know and i'll post the other ten. :) oh and aislyn and liam were TROOPERS. these kids hiked FAR and had a blast. grayson, though you would not know it from this picture, loved the backpack, he didn't make a peep. he was just taking it all in. it has been so nice here lately, we'll definitely be doing more of this.

tagged

i've been tagged by my cousin in law tracey and i've actually never heard of this tag. kinda fun.. go to the 4th folder in your photo stuff (on your computer) and post the 4th pic. this computer is mostly work stuff, so here is an adorable little guy i shot last week. actually this is one of kenny's best friend's little boy. it was so wonderful to meet him for the first time - they live in denver. oh and heidi, if you're looking, here's another sneak peek!

don't do a hard one mommy

i have to jot this down to remember it- we have recently begun giving grayson little spankings ("gentle reminders") because he can be quite the defiant one these days. (sorry to offend any non spankers out there :)) anyways, i told grayson, after warning him several times to not climb on the table, that he was going to get a spoon spankin'. i took him in the bathroom and noticed that aislyn was terribly concerned, she looked horrified. she said "MOMMY! DO NOT DO A HARD ONE! mommy, please don't do a hard one", as if i normally beat her or something. so i gave him a "soft" spanking and aislyn promptly came over to his behind and kissed it and told him it was ok. HIlarious. didn't want to forget that one.

the three mustketeers...

baby matt's new site

lyss and i have started a blog for baby matt to keep everyone updated on his life. the site is www.prayformatt.blogspot.com. check there for stories and pictures about the little guy.

another little one...

i want to share with you all, matthew patrick brown. our friends, rachael and steffen, have applied for guardianship of this little one. i will attach rachael's email below, as she can explain it much better than i.

Dear Ones,
Steffen and I are in the process of becoming guardians for a little guy we will call Matt Patrick Brown. He was born on Tuesday at 7lbs.1oz, and his mother (15yrs.old) did not wish to have any interaction with him. Matt is now out of the hospital and doing quite well despite the fact that he has a terminal brain anomaly known as Holoprosencephaly, at least we think it is terminal. Apparently the doctor's feel his prognosis is not good as they have already put him into hospice care. There are still a lot of legal details to be worked out, but we are getting close to taking responsibility for Matt. (Though given the details of Matt's birth, I am confident that even after we have guardianship of Matt, it will be his Heavenly Father--through His body the church--who will continue to look out for this special little one). This is not something we had planned on doing at this point in our lives. Nonetheless we are thankful that at least for today, God has given us the grace to love Matt as he is. God has mercifully provided for all of our needs in abundance through you, His church, in a multitude of ways. We have been blessed beyond all that we could have asked or imagined through your tangible gifts or prayer, adoption services, childcare, food, baby items, legal services, encouragement, wise councel, cuddling, tears of compassion, monogrammed blanekts, church leadership, and so much more. Thank you! Despite the tragedy inherent in this story, we know that God is good because He has used His body to demonstrate His love for us and Matt through such a variety of integrated and yet unique gifts. Grace and Peace to you all. Love, Rachael (for Steffen, Emma, Jack, and Matt)

i had the HONOR of doing his newborn shoot. please pray for him, please pray for the browns also. we are coming together, as a church, to help them with this little guy and it has been amazing what God has already taught us through this little life.

if you are wanting to do anything for them, send me an email to kagrebe@hotmail.com. they have diapers and formula provided, but we all know how expensive newborns can be!

here he is:

babies

Lord, i am thankful for my babies today.

and then...

there was grayson. i used to think , "gees, how hard could a boy's hair be to do?" and then... there was grayson. sweet 'fro boy. i mean, seriously, i do NOT know what to do do with it. its SOO cute out of the bath, spiral curls, just beautiful. and then it dries. and then he scratches it until it 'FRO'S like crazy! i would put product on his little hair but i can't even put lotion on him so i'm not about to do that... here is an example of the madness that is his hair.this is his cute as a button face. :)cuz seriously. he's really cute. its kind of ridiculous.

who are those kids....

this is nothing but good times right here. i saw this and just thought, wow. that looks like some kids i know... check out my brother's ...overalls? onesie thing? romper? not sure. oh and whatever you do, DON'T call him a girl. i know i know, the hair. but really, he really was a boy. with beautiful golden curly locks of girl hair. (love you chris.) i remember that dress and vest like it was yesterday. i was quite fond of it for some reason. and i loved that necklace. it was gold, and had three hearts on it (likely made of plastic) in pastel colors. i don't have a pic of my kids where they are posed like this (there is kind of one on the post entitled "sibling love"), but chris and i are the EXACT same age as aislyn and grayson now. i was 3.5 and he was 1.5. so funny.

our little ballerina

she must have asked me a million times before lunch "mommy, where are we going again?" just to hear me say it. "ballet, honey." and then she would put that precious, shy smile on her face and go dancing off into the other room. "will i do this mommy?" she kicks her foot back behind her to hold it in her hand and puts the other hand above her head. "maybe", i say, knowing full well, that that is clearly NOT a ballet position. but adorable nonetheless. she put on her ballerina clothes, after taking a big girl nap and out the door we went. she was not one bit shy, but its probably because cousin braidyn was right beside her the whole time! they had so much fun with all their "friends" and miss jessica the teacher. aislyn did wonderful and followed instructions like a champ. you could not wipe the smile off of her face the whole time she was in there. i got some pics of the class but it was through a tiny window that i had to fight to get in front of. i will post some of those later. for now, here are a couple. i also have some cute ones of braidyn to post, too, but i need to go through them still. we will definitely be continuing ballet this spring, and i think i love it as much as she does....grayson got his very own dance lessons from liam while we were gone... here's the video. you won't want to miss it...

the first snow of the year....