I have the cutest girls!

So, today my mother-in-law paid for the studio rental fee and we gathered all the children in the family for a photo shoot. If you can imagine complete pandemonium, you wouldn't be far off. We had 9 children 8-years old and under, 3 of them were 2-years old and 3 of them were infants. The oldest child was 8 and the youngest was 4-weeks old. I am surprised we got as many good shots as we did...but OH BOY! They sure tired me out! It turned out that my "low-key" boy was the one that decided the photo shoot was over. Can you say "Exit stage right"? That is exactly what he did. Just thinking about it makes me giggle.

I do have an absolute favorite picture from the whole shoot, and of course, it is of my girls.
Aren't they sweet?

So much happens in a year and a half!!

I have been photographing the Dalton family for a year and a half now. Angie contacted me when she was very pregnant with Carter and they wanted some "couple" pictures for their wedding reception. What fun we had at Red Butte Garden!!

Then, I got to meet Carter when he was 6 months old and it was time for Christmas pictures. He is such a doll!!
After that, we went to Liberty Park to shoot Carter's 1 year pictures. He just gets cuter and cuter!
Today we went to Wheeler farm and shot some pictures for their Christmas cards! What fun!


I have had so much fun with the Daltons the past year and a half! I am so glad that they have kept me as part of their fun, fun lives!

2 years old

My boy is now 2. That is one of those statements that kinda puts a shiver down my spine. Time flies so fast! My sister-in-law commented the other day that 6 weeks goes really fast when it isn't your own child...I countered with that it goes really fast even when it IS your child! I am still reeling over the fact that my oldest is 4...and now my boy is 2!!!

He had a good day, though. We opened presents in the morning and he spent the whole day dragging around his new Tonka dump truck and his new train. The dump truck we found at DI and is mostly metal (like the old style ones) and so he had a tough time taking it everywhere he wanted to go and gave up dragging it around at about lunch time. The train, however, is apparently his new best friend and took a nap with him:

He also had a train cake. I asked him what flavor he wanted his cake to be and he said "blue"...we did not have a blue cake, however. Daddy vetoed that. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling. I even made the cake from scratch (I am tired of how box cakes all taste the same, regardless of the flavor!). Here's a couple pics of the cake:


The cake is a little cockeyed, but that is okay. I used cupcakes for the smoke stack, but I didn't have any bamboo skewers to keep it from tilting, so it started to droop as I was icing it. The whole cake is a little crooked because I used styrofoam under the cake to hold it up so I could put on the wheels and the styrofoam wasn't perfectly flat. Oh well. I think it turned out pretty darned cute even though it would never get me a job on Food Network. LOL!

When we sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy, he was so excited that as soon as Daddy lit the candles he blew them out again. We had to re-light the candles and give him strict instructions to wait to blow them out! He's so cute!

I have the bravest boy!

Today we took Henry to the cardiologist for an echocardiogram and evaluation due to his heart murmur that was heard at his last pediatrician's appointment. The heart murmur was heard back in August...it has been a very busy 3 months so I haven't been sitting and stewing over a possible problem, but it has been a source of background worry. Our appointment was at 8 a.m. so all of us were up really early. Nathan gave Henry a blessing yesterday for him to have courage during his appointment. We had to divide and conquer to get things done this morning, but everyone was together for Henry's appointment.
When the ultrasound tech took us back for the test, she warned us that she would do as much of the test as Henry would let her and then she would stop once he got jittery enough that it wasn't going to work any more. But, Henry laid still for the entire time!!! The tech commented that she doesn't have 5 or 6 year olds do as well as Henry did! She really didn't expect to be able to do the entire test. He was so good and brave! Okay, so it didn't hurt...but just imagine being 2 years old and having someone put cold jelly on your chest and poke and prod you with a weird stick! I am so proud of him!

Blessing

Tomorrow is Julianna's Blessing. I took pics of her today in her dress to simplify my life tomorrow. She's so pretty!

Halloween

We had a pretty good Halloween. Plans got changed, but it was okay, because everything worked out for the best. I opted to do the kids' costumes on the cheap this year, and they turned out pretty cute!

There was Evie Butterfly:



And Henry the Train Engineer:



And Julianna Banana:



What a bunch of cuties!

Pumpkin Picking

This summer my family participated in a community-supported agriculture program (CSA). All summer we received farm-fresh produce which tasted WONDERFUL! We are definitely participating again next summer. At the end of the season, they gave us a letter saying that they were having a Pumpkin Picking activity at the farm and that we could go and pick pumpkins. It was pretty fun. The kids picked their pumpkins and we carved them into jack-o-lanterns the following Monday for FHE.