We Think We're Pretty Cute

You may have noticed some new pictures on the blog. My sweet friend Trisha has started her own photography blog and she offered to do our family pictures for 2011. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and of course Bryce had to be shoved off playground equipment the day before pictures...oh well. This is our life.

So we met in Mesa and we spent an hour running around trying to get kids to look at the camera, kids to smile for the camera, kids not to make silly faces at the camera, kids to return from La-La Land or wherever their mind has taken them, kids to stop crying, kids to stop pouting, etc.

Fast forward two days later when Trisha calls to tell me that she couldn't find ONE picture of the family without something going on. Like kids making silly faces, kids not looking at the camera, kids pouting...you get the picture. And then when the kids did look good, the adults were messing up the picture.

She apologized repeatedly and offered to do a mini photo session at a park close by. I apologized repeatedly for having a difficult family. We went out a week after our first session and we got more family shots.

We got our pictures the other day and I LOVE these pictures! Even the ones from the first photo shoot were adorable. She got some really great pics of the kids and we got some great family pictures. I'm having a hard time picking which ones I want to get prints of so I'm thinking I might have to get a bunch and just go buy more frames.

Here are a few of our pictures.




Makayla just kept scrunching her face up in almost all the pictures. I don't know why she kept doing it but it was driving me crazy! Just like with the broken arm and Prestons glasses that kept glaring, I had to let it go. This is our family as it is right now. And it's awesome! Thank you for taking such beautiful pictures Trisha! And for dealing with our difficult family! :)

Bad Luck Bryce

Bryce, Bryce, Bryce.....what am I going to do with you? You seem to have the worst luck with keeping yourself free of any bodily harm.

First, I remembered THIS beauty. Look how little you were! And then THIS was just the best. Why were you always putting stuff in your mouth? And we still deal with THIS sometimes. You're poor, beautiful eyes full of gunk. More recently was THIS. That bump was pretty awful. And now we have this.....

I got a call from school at 12 on a Friday afternoon saying that Bryce had been pushed off the top of the playground equipment and had sustained some cuts and bruises but was otherwise fine. Fast forward 3 hours later when I picked him up from school and he walked out cradling his arm and crying. We went straight to the doctor then to get x-rays then out to dinner because we are starved! The doctor called at 6 pm to let us know that both bones are indeed broken but we won't be able to get it casted until Monday.

At first he thought it was really cool to have a cast....then reality set in. Now he holds it up to complete strangers and says "This is a bummer" and walks away.

Yes Bryce. It is a bummer.
I had to put these last pictures in. I think everyone should have a dose of Bryce once in awhile.

The Big 3

Our little Mak Attack turned 3 on Halloween. She's been talking about her birthday since Bryce's birthday in August. Especially the cake. Being the princess that she is, she wanted a princess cake and being the suckers that we are her wish was granted.

We made pizza, had princess cake, watched Ghostbusters 1 and 2 (her new favorite movies. weird right?), and then opened presents. She was bombarded with princess figurines, princess bubbles, princess polly pocket, princess clothes....are we seeing a pattern here? And we ended the evening with a viewing of her new movie "Beauty and the Beast". I have to admit that I was more excited about the movie than Makayla. I loved this movie as a kid and I still remembered all the lines and much to the dismay to everyone around, I sang all the songs. It was great!

Erik did the cake while I made pizza. He was pretty hard on himself with the look of it but I think it turned out so good!

Makayla, you are definitely our princess. You are kind, giving, temperamental, manipulative, always dancing and singing, prancing instead of walking, and a light in our lives. We love you! Happy Birthday!

Trunk-or-Treating

We had the opportunity to attend 2 trunk-or-treats during the Halloween week. We decided that was enough candy for all of us and didn't go out on Halloween night. And we're still overflowing in candy!

Our ghost, Batman, and Catwoman.

Happy Halloween!

What Does Church Basketball Get You?

A disabled husband. And a good laugh. I have never been to a church b-ball game before and I was surprised by how serious some of the men took this game. It was like they thought they were in the NBA finals or something. Pretty hilarious.

Seven

I love birthdays. It is the one day of the year that is just for that person and I think it should be spent trying to make that one person feel special. I try really hard to make sure that at the end of their birthday day, my kids (and Erik) know how extremely happy I am that they are a part of my family. That I am truly grateful for their birthday.

So here we are at Preston's seventh birthday. One of the things that Preston loves is playing the Wii. He was given unlimited access to the Wii for his day and believe me he used it to his advantage. He also requested hot dogs for dinner and a Superman cake. Done and done.

Birthday dinner.

Just to show Preston was there :)

This cake was by far the most challenging for Erik and myself. But I guess that's kind of weird to say since it's only the second one we've done....but still! We had so many issues with the fondant this time I was ready to throw in the towel. But we got through it and even with Makyala's lovely fingernail artwork on the side, we're pretty proud of it and it was delicious! Chocolate cake, marshmallow fondant, and the BEST homemade butter cream frosting. I don't even like cake and I liked this cake!
See!? Yum!

Everyone agreed.

Happy birthday to my Preston! I hope you know just how grateful I am that you are a part of this family and that we get to celebrate your day!

Breathing Is Good

Our first summer here in Arizona was an eye opener. For the most part, if you stayed inside 98% of the time you were fine. Going outside should last no more than 5-7 minutes if even that can be handled. There were times when it felt like you couldn't breathe. A breeze is a nightmare since all it is is blowing hot air into your face. Like when you open up a pre-heated oven? Just like that.

So we went to Oregon in July. There really is no comparison when between the two states when talking about summer weather. It seriously felt like I could breathe again. Everyone came to get together and I was really excited about it. You may have heard about the bug that Makayla caught while there here, but there were still good times to be had. Here are the pictures of our trip.

Even though Makayla got sick and we didn't get as many pictures as we wanted, I loved our time spent in Oregon! I love my family so much and I miss them like crazy! But next time, it's someone else's turn to be sick. We did our time.