Pumpkin Patch Pics of 09

Every year I take the kids down to the same pumpkin patch to take pictures of them in their Halloween costumes. I normally have someone go with me to help get the kids to smile, but obviously I didn't this time. I could not get one picture of all three of them looking at me while smiling. I also went at the wrong time of day (12:00 noon) which was really dumb of me, but at least there was a big shade tree. I still had to deal with a lot of harsh backlight, not to mention 100 degree weather, so we may have to reshoot. Anyway, here is the best we could do...

Jedi Jake. He is so funny. He would not let me comb his hair because he wanted to make it looks as much like Luke Skywalker's as possible. He also has asked me to not cut his hair until after halloween.




Kailey, on the other hand, loves to get all dolled up. She loved the way her hair looked with a tiara in it. She said that if Daddy saw her, he would fall over.






Gavin was not too sure about wearing this costume in the heat. I could not coax a smile out of the poor guy. I can't say I blame him. He still makes a cute little elephant though.



Got stuck. Oh man.
I love the little tail. Sooo cute!
They were very patient and willing to let me take pictures of them today, so they really deserved a treat. Yummy rock candy.

Gavin the Ghost

Maybe I should not worry about a Halloween costume for Gavin this year. Lately his favorite new game, that he invented, is to put his blankie on his head and walk around. We call him our little ghost. He somehow finds thrill and entertainment out of running blindly into objects. We just have to make sure he doesn't try to play this game at the top of the stairs! Most of the time he runs into a person or a wall. Yeah, he has hurt himself a few times, but it doesn't seem to stop him.

Half way there

Here is my belly picture for you Darci as you requested. It really takes nerve to do this, so that must mean I love my family A LOT to share this with them. And Kailey is so cute; she took this picture for me. Although, I have to admit that this is probably a good idea since I've never documented my pregnancy before. I'm sure one day I will look back and want to remember what I looked like big and pregnant. And the scary thing is...I still have about 20 pounds to go! But, it's all worth it. :)

It's really another...

Girl! We just couldn't be happier. That is exactly what we were all hoping for. Now, if I could just have one more wish come true... I just hope she will be as cute and sweet as our Kailey girl.

Now we need some help with a name. A middle name that is. I can't think of anything yet that goes really well with Ashlynn. Please help us by leaving a suggestion. Thank you!

Our summer vacation

Thank you for sending my camera back to me Kimberly! So, now here are a few photos from our summer vacation from a couple of months ago...

We first went to California and spent our first day at Knotts Berry. The next day we went to the Arboredum (a bird sanctuary and botanical garden).

Next, we went to Santa Monica Beach. Justin was pretty proud of the sand castle that he helped the kids with. (notice the suspended bridge.)

The kids had such a great time playing at the beach.

We stayed with my sister-in-laws parents in Pasedena California. This is their house. Just kidding. Actually, it's the one across the street from theirs. We got to go over and take a peak while the gardeners were there. This also happens to be where the Princess Diaries was filmed. It was pretty cool to see. The kids had a great time running through the gardens.
This is the stained glass in one of the gazebos.
Here we are at Jackson Hole.
We went to Bear world near Yellowstone and got to see a lot of bears. This is one of the cutest ones...
No wait, I mean this is the cutest one...

Next we went to Yellowstone.
Jake and Kailey still hanging on to their souveniers from Bear World...
No Yellowstone trip is complete without a picture in front of Old Faithful.

Hat, hat!

The other morning I walked away from Gavin for a second while he was feeding himself pancakes.  As I came back into the kitchen, I was shocked to see him sitting there as proud as can be with the plate of syrup on his head as he was repeating, "hat, hat."  I guess the shape of the plate did sort of look like a hat, but needless to say I took the plate right away and then... I grabbed the camera for a great big smile.  Yeah, great teaching moment.  "Don't ever do that again Gavin, but look at me and smile." Oh well, he was too darn cute and it was bath time anyway.  

Back to school

So here is an updated post finally!  Except I had to take this picture with my old camera, which is so slow that it almost made us late for school!  (Just giving Kimberly a hard time for not sending my camera back to me yet.)  I know, it's our fault for leaving it in Idaho.  Anyway,  so here is a picture of Jake and Kailey the first day of school.   Their first week of school went great. Jake is so excited about his "bear points" that he can earn for good behavior and Kailey is excited about her behavior chart that she gets a stamp on each day. She even said she wanted to go to school on Saturday.  That really surprised me.  I just hope they keep up their enthusiasm, we'll see...

"Back to school 

Back to school

 to prove to dad 

that I'm not a fool

I've got my lunch packed tight

my shoes tied tight

I hope I don't get in a fight

Oh, back to school

back to school"

-adam sandler