12/14/09

Baby its cold outside!! The trees all looked super cool this morning covered in frost. We have had a very cold winter so far. The cold does make for some beautiful scenery.

12/10/09

Mylie and I went to the play Annie tonight and invited Melissa and Helen to join us. It was such fun! Mylie loves, and I mean loves, the movie Annie. She had not been to a play before, so I was trying my best to explain it to her. We got seated and waited for the play to start. The lights went down, the curtains opened, and the play started. When Annie and the orphans started singing "Hard Knock Life," Mylie was on the edge of her seat, her eyes wide and a hug smile on her face. Then she realized that we go to clap after the singing and she was in heaven!

It was such a fun night! The girls did great and had such fun. Melissa and I decided to do an activity with the girls instead of presents this year. It was such fun, I think we might have to make outings like this a tradition!

12/09/09

I love Christmas!

11/26/09

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. A quiet day at home with just the 4 of us. We missed being with our families, but also really enjoyed each other's company and lots of yummy food. I have a lot to be grateful for!

11/23/09

Blakey got a haircut today. He looks so much more grown up to me!

11/22/09

Bosco is growing fast. He is a really good dog and the kids just love him.

11/19/09

*Sigh* Oh how I love these two!

11/14/09

Max, Helen, Mylie & Drake. It was a heck of a party!

11/11/09

My other favorite from yesterday.

11/10/09

Today was Mylie's 5th birthday! It is so hard to believe how big she has gotten. We took the day off work and took the kids to the zoo. It was hard to pick a favorite picture today, but this is high up there. These 2 love each other so much and they just warm my heart!

11/7/09

Blake and Mylie at Brax's 2nd birthday party.

10/31/09

Ready for trick or treating!

10/28/09

Welcome home Bosco! We brought Bosco home on Sunday night. He is so stinkin cute and so far is doing great.

10/27/09

The real thing ... love this crazy family!!

10/26/09

Still from the blessing day ... an outtake while I was getting the camera set up. Makes me giggle.

10/25/09

Lila's blessing day. Oh how I love this little girl!!

10/24/09

Halloween is NOT complete without Grandma's sugar cookies ... and for breakfast? Even better!

10/23/09

Oh I love these kids! Pumpkin patch before trunk or treat.

10/22/09

Weekend trip to Idaho Falls, Blake and Mary headed downstairs to play.

10/17/09

Mylie's last soccer game of spring season.

10/14/09

Meet Bosco. He will be our newest addition next week when he gets to come with us! We can't wait.

10/13/09

I can't believe in less than a month she will be 5. Love this girlie!

10/12/09

{Squeal!} Blake does not pose too much for me. He is too busy to stop long enough for momma to take his picture. But I lucked out while we were playing in the backyard tonight. So happy to get a shot that captures my crazy little man.

10/11/09

We have a maple tree in the backyard. I love it in the fall, the leaves turn fire red. So pretty.

10/10/09

My poor, poor, poor picture of the day blog. September is just not a good month for me. Here's to the rest of the year ....

{Baby and Momma} We took an impromptu trip to Hogle Zoo this weekend to see the baby animals. Mylie and I are head over heels in love with Zurri, the baby elephant. SO CUTE!

9/12/09

"Whew! Soccer is a lot of work!" Mylie's team did great today. She scored a goal and was so excited. Blake clapped and clapped for her today. Love it!

9/11/09

I really need to get my camera out, but it has been an ugh week. I had the stomach flu, then the kids got sick. So I'm pulling some pictures from the weekend.

Mylie has mad baseball skills ... can't you tell? Her mitt is on the wrong hand. She and Eliza were having a fun time though.

9/10/09

This picture is from last weekend. But have I mentioned how much I love this little boy? I love him because he is my only nephew and my only brother's son. But I really love him because of how much he loves Mylie. They are the best of friends and just love being together. He is the sweetest, most tender hearted little boy. It just warms my heart being around him.

9/9/09

I'm a big fan of this guy. He is so selfless. He puts himself as #4 in our family, always putting the kids and I first. He is teaching our children some very important life lessons:

• Love your Momma.
• Do more than your fair share.
• Work hard.
• Have fun.

Next week marks 8 years since we met. I love him more today than I could have even imagined. I feel so lucky to be his wife. This sounds totally cheesy, but sometimes the song from "The Sound of Music" echoes in my mind, "Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good."

9/8/09

From the gardens at the Idaho Falls Temple.

9/7/09

These two are so cute. Max absolutely loves Mylie and is so protective of her. He is just 10 months older but looks out for her all the time. Today we were at the fair and he wanted to show her some rabbits. He put his arm around her and they walked together. I was so happy to be standing behind them and to snap this image.

9/6/09

SHE is so my kid. Always has her camera with her, always taking pictures and then checking her pictures. Today was no exception!

9/5/09

We are in town for Darcy's baptism, what a special day it was. Of course I have no pictures of Darcy, but Mylie and Max obliged. Oh man, these two cousins love each other! Darcy was interviewing Mylie today and asked her what her 3 wishes are. One of them was "to be Max's sister." She is in heaven spending the whole day playing with her cousins!

9/4/09

I *tried* to resist you chocolate almond bar. I thought as I stood in line getting my groceries at Costco that I should resist you, but in the end you won. I sat in the car all by myself and enjoyed your chocolatey goodness. A wonderful quiet mid-day treat!

9/3/09

My new macro lens and I are becoming fast friends.

9/2/09

A little macro action tonight.

9/1/09

I was in my office for a bit this morning and realized I had probably better water my plants, since I hadn't been in for almost 3 weeks. I gave this one a little diet coke (it likes it, I promise), then paused and thought about this plant. If memory serves, Sarah bought me this plant when she came to visit me in Moscow one weekend 12 years ago. It is a miracle it hasnt' died! It has lived in 4 different houses and 2 different offices. Sometimes it starts to die, but easily pops back up again.

Sarah called me this morning, just to chat. She lives 4 million miles away, well not really, but Idaho to Michigan might as well be 4 million miles. She is a fabulous friend. One of the many things I love most about her is that I can just be me with her. I don't have to pretend that life is perfect, that I'm a perfect mom or I have perfect kids. I can be real and say it how it is and I know she will never judge me, in fact she'll most often agree or commiserate. I love her to pieces. We've come a long way from two 18 year old college freshman randomly assigned to the same apartment ... actually nothing random about it, we were meant to be friends. I'm pretty sure God had a hand in that apartment assignment.

8/31/2009

*Swoon*

8/30/2009

{Outtakes} I love this little baby face.

8/29/2009

{Bumblebees!} Mylie started U5-U6 soccer today. Her team did great, the girls all had a lot of fun, and goodness, she looks cute in her uniform!

I decided to test my new lens, the 90 2.8 macro out on soccer today. I have heard it doubles as a portrait lens ... I heard right! I was tickled with the shots I got. I was hesitant to purchase that lens, it was a chunk of money, but I am so happy that I did! I haven't done too much real macro stuff with it yet, but hopefully will before the weekend is over.

8/28/2009

When Mylie isn't looking, Blake likes to sneak in her room and take her toys out. She was in the tub tonight and he snuck in to get her little computer. He loves this toy. And I prefer for him to play with Mylie's toy computer than my real one!

8/27/2009

Blake, with his big boy hair cut, intently watching Mylie on the swing. He looks so big to me now!

8/26/2009

Jeff isn't the only movie junkie in this house.

8/25/2009

So I major splurged last week and bought a macro lens. It was my reward for such a crazy summer of teaching. I used it for some sweet baby feet and even more baby pictures. And I did some outsides ... and I am pretty certain I am going to love this lens. I did just a little bit outsite and am excited to do more! I am going to have to bust out the tripod. One thing I am going to major love about this lens is the bokeh. Bokeh is the blurry, creamy, beautiful background! So delish!

8/24/2009

Back to work and to real life today. The college started so back to class for me. I'm teaching 9 credits this semester. Day 1 went well.

I have litereally hundreds of pictures to go through from our trip. Here's a play on one of the family pictures.

8/23/2009

So happy to be home! We got home around noon. We walked in the house and Blakey was in his high chair eating lunch. He just sat there and looked at me and babbled a little, but then it was like he realized who I was and just jumped out of his high chair and threw his chubby arms around me. I just hugged him so tight and cried. It was a wonderful trip, but 11 days away from my own baby was so long.

Another Lila shot.

8/22/2009

Today we drove from Kearney, Nebraska back to Idaho Falls. My camera was in the back, so no landscape pictures from our drive. But the whole drive was so gorgeous. Rolling green hills in Iowa, corn as far as the eye can see in Nebraska, and just beautiful plains with the largest, bluest sky ever in Eastern Wyoming. It was amazing to see so much country.

Another Lila picture from before we left on Friday. Sigh. I miss her already.

8/21/2009

Awww! My super cute sis as a new mom! They both have dimples, I love it.

We left to head back home today. Even though I miss Blake and Jeff like mad, it was still hard to leave. Mylie and I may have cried. Just a little.

8/20/2009

8/19/2009