All I Want

After having wiggly teeth for months now, front tooth #1 popped out last week and #2 popped out tonight! Just in time to really enjoy singing "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth."



Kudos to Eleanor for being so brave. She pulled them both out herself. She thinks she's the luckiest girl ever to have the Tooth Fairy and Santa visit in the same week.

Merry Christmas

For those of you who didn't get our Christmas card in the mail, you can enjoy it online!



Here's the text on the card, if you can't see it well enough. It works best read outloud, in character!

Hello Friends. How are you? Fabulous.
Look at your family. Now back at us.
Now back at your family.
Now back to us. Sadly, you're not with us.
But if you call or send us an email you could be!

What's in your hand? Look back at us. We have it.
It's a picture of these people you love.
Look again. The picture is now a card for that season you love.

Anything is possible when you're friends with the Paynes!

We're on a card... Yah!

We wish you all the merriest of Christmases! May the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, fill you with joy and gratitude that can last throughout the year.

We're Celebrating

It's our Solomon's 5th Birthday today. Visit his blog to see how we like to celebrate his birthday every year.

Exercizing

During Family Home Evening last night, Katie started entertaining herself by holding on to the ottoman and lifting her legs into the air. She started calling it "exercising."

Hilarious! I don't know how she did it, but she must have repeated it 15 or 20 times. Sorry Dad, I know you were in the middle of a good lesson.

Worn out after all that strength training!

Family Time

We had the special treat of having family with us for all of October. Our brother and sister-in-law and their cute kids stayed with us while Ryan was doing a podiatry internship in the area.

We tried to find fun adventures to go on every weekend. Here we are enjoying Boulder and NCAR.

We took in two pumpkin patches to enjoy our gorgeous fall weather. We also made every pumpkin dessert we could think of in a month! I am missing that - the scale is not. :)

Sara and I bravely took 4 kids under 4 to the Zoo and the Nature and Science Museum. No big deal. As my friend says, "We're professionals, right?"

The cousins enjoyed a variety of sculpture on one of our Saturday adventures.

Sara so kindly watched my kids while I took on a crazy month of photo shoots. We did a little photo shoot of their own too. This was one of my favorites. Their kids are so sweet to each other. You give them one treat and they instantly offer to share with each other!

My kids completely loved having cousins downstairs to play with every day. Katie was so in love with little Davis (ok, young Davis - since he's almost as big as her). I'd catch her giving him hugs and kisses, which she doesn't do for anyone else! The girls are both in withdrawals now - not a day goes by without Katie asking for each of them. I'm so glad they got a chance to enjoy each other and this special time together. We secretly have our fingers crossed that Ryan does his residency in Colorado.

If You Go Out in the Woods Today...

...Be sure of a big surprise.

For Halloween this year we were Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Many thanks to my friend who made the bear heads for their family years ago and let us borrow them! I just made Eleanor's dress, and some ribbon curls, which I'm sorry don't show up in the picture so well. I tried to get Eleanor to carry a bowl of porridge, but was overruled. Now I need to get Katie to say Baby Bear for the camera, because it is just adorable. We couldn't have done this without you, Baby Bear!

Bunch of Paynes

We had a great time getting together with the Payne's this fall. It was a fantastic location in the forest, by a lake, with lots of nice hikes close by. We always fit in some picture time when we're all together.


Uncle Ri-Ri entertaining the kids. We're lucky enough to have him at our house now entertaining my kids!

Can't say enough how much I love the chance to get up at sunrise to take pictures of this gorgeous scenery! Ok, especially when sunrise is at 7:00am. :)

I nearly lost all these pictures when my full camera card fell out of my back pocket onto this boardwalk - which is over the lake. All I could find was the empty case, so I backtracked a full mile around the lake looking for my 1" square card. I went back to the spot where I found the case and the card was standing up in the crack between these boards - luckily in a spot where there was wood underneath and not just water! And luckily with just enough space for me to angle it out. Whew! Talk about a miracle.

We went on a hike with the whole family - 19 members, including lots of babies!

Thank you Mama and Papa Payne - we had a great time!

Smoothie

The perfect thing to go with dinner on a summer night, Smoothies! Katie knows what this word means and she repeats it over and over until she gets one!


Nice smoothie mustache Kate.

I should have a picture of Eleanor enjoying her smoothie too. She just wasn't so enthusiastic that she ended up wearing hers - she prefers a straw.

Dreamy Summer

The evening light is just glorious outside these days. I snatched Eleanor from the dinner table last night to capture this sight. This is just the kind of picture I'd like to see when I first wake up in the morning. It has that hazy soft-focus look like you're just coming out of a dream.

Summer Sessions

I realized I haven't posted any of my fun summer sessions yet. Getting outside with a cute family on a cool summer evening is truly very fun. Here are some of my favorite moments...

This picture totally represents my goal as a photographer. I love to capture happy moments without forced poses and forced expressions. But, kids being adorable all by themselves!

Yum.. love the colors here and her styling of the family was great!

I could look at this picture forever! Seriously, doesn't it make you want to be that close to dipping your toes into a stream. Maybe it's too hot in my office right now...

Time to Learn

Poof! - just like that summer is over and Eleanor is back to school! She's been waiting about 4 years to be able to ride the bus, so she insisted on riding it her very first day. She's really excited to be in a 2nd-3rd split class this year.

And here is what Katie's been learning lately.

And Here We Have Idaho

We took a quick trip to Idaho this month to celebrate my Grandma's 80th Birthday. Best of all, she though that just my dad and my aunt were coming to help her with some things, so all the rest of us were a surprise! We had a great time together with everyone.

This is the first time my camera has been on the roof to take a picture. Credit to Thomas for getting it up and down!

Katie loved playing "ball" with Grandpa.

Funny moment that captures my Grandma's personality ... We were hanging out in the kitchen when she came up with a handful of irridescent multicolored kitchen sponges. She said, "Here, pick a sponge!" "I thought these were so pretty and I've got loads of them, so pick your favorite color." Maybe it's just me, but I had to stiffle some giggles on that one. Thanks for the sponge Grandma. I will think of you whenever I use it.

On our way home, we decided to take in a bit of Yellowstone, since the last time we went Eleanor was 3 months old.



It was pouring rain about a half hour before this. Glad we waited!



Some amazing colors and scenery. We did see a buffalo, some elk, deer, birds, antelope, etc.

The sunset was hitting these mountians just as we were on our way out the east entrance. It was a really beautiful drive - at least that part of it...

Our Toddler

Katie has been so close to walking for a while now. When we came back from our trip to Idaho I think she was so glad to be out of the car that she started taking her first steps that night! Within a week she was all over the place.

Here's one little video of her, which are very hard to capture since she keeps trying to come grab my phone. Enjoy!

Summer Dessert

Mmm, here is what's for dessert tonight! Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls from my favorite recipe blog, Annie's Eats. Hope you're coming home early love!

What a deal!

There are far more momentous things I should be catching up on, but
this was too great to pass up.

We stopped by JCPenney this week to find some clothes for Gavin.  They
had an insane amount of things marked $2.97!!  Including khakis and
regularly $60 jeans!

By the end of this shopping trip I'd saved about 82% on everything I
bought. Great day, great tithing blessings!

North to Alaska

We just returned from a fabulous Alaskan cruise to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. Although it was a bit crazy to leave a half-unpacked house for Grandma and Grandpa, it couldn't have come at a better time. We loved having so much time together after a crazy spring.

Here is a small sample of the 1000 pictures I took on our trip! Enjoy!











We're hoping to get a prints section up on my photography website soon. I think several from the trip will make it there. We're trying to decide how many big canvases we can fit on our walls. Such a beautiful place is definitely like a playground for me. And Gavin is the best photog pit crew out there. You should see how fast that man can change a lens! You're awesome and incredibly patient honey!

Huge thanks to my parents for taking care of the kids for us! They did a great job and even had Katie saying "Grandpa" and "Grandma" by the time we got back. Thank you, thank you!