Christmas 2011

Here it is February and I haven't even blogged about Christmas yet, I am so far behind I know!!  The truth is that the last 3 months have been busy, like really busy. The Holidays are busy times in general and with my photography business it's also the busiest time for me. I feel terrible that my family blog has fell to the wayside, but I have just been tired and honestly don't feel that too many check in these days anyways. But for my own family, I need to get back on the wagon and capture these times.

We made out first gingerbread house...

We were lucky to have lots of family here for the Holiday. Grandma Carole, Uncle Ted, Kristin, Monty and the kids all joined us for Christmas. I was bad about taking pictures this year. I decided to just relax and enjoy it most of the time.

Ryan read his annual Christmas letter.

 Chloe still loves the babies!

The kids performed the annual Nativity Story.

 Chloe got to be the angle this year and Christian a wise man.

Santa was good to all of us this year...

 Christian's gift to daddy.

Christian's school Christmas progam

One thing I really love about Christian's school are all the extra activities that they do for the students and family. One of those being a Christmas program. Each class participates with a song and everyone is also invited to try out for lead roles in the play if they want to.

Last year Christian wasn't able to participate because it was the same night as our Church Christmas party and we were in charge of Santa. This broke his heart! So I vowed that this year he would be part of it no matter what and he was.

He was amazing! He was the star for sure and glowing as bright and happy as could be. We were sure proud.

His class sang Rosie the Red Nosed Reindeer (it went along with the play). :) I actually didn't bring my camera along so these are from another parent.

Christmas card~ 2011

I have to post our card this year for journal purpose. :) I love it!!! My sweet friend Mandy did family pictures for us this year (post on that coming soon) and also designed the card. She knew what I wanted and executed it spot on.

So thankful for talented friends!! 



visit with Santa~ 2011

Dustin and I were in charge of the photos with Santa again this year at Church. This year I have to say that I went into it that night not excited. I had already had two photo shoots that day, one being a newborn one and those are always a lot of work. I was just flat out tired! But I have to say that I have an amazing husband and he picked up my slack and took all the photos while I handed out info to the parents as to where they could see their pics online and chatted with them.

I do have to say that it is always fun to see the kids reactions to Santa. Some good...some not so good. ;)

Our kid's reactions this year were great. Chloe was super excited ALL day and was more than ready. She was a bit sad that she didn't bring her list, but I assured her that she would do just fine without it. And Christian was Mr. Cool. ;) Did you notice his new hair cut? ;)

I love how she is touching his hand in this next one.





yes, we are still alive...lets catch up

This poor family blog has been badly neglected, but I do hope to change that. Things around here have just been extremely busy. Dustin has been busy as ever at work and it exhausted when he gets home and as for me, I can't believe how busy I have been with work this year. If you follow my photography blog then you know what I'm talking about. This is the busiest I have ever been so there has been little time on the computer for other things. ;)

Things around here have been pretty normal to say. Christian is doing great in school, a little too much talking sometimes though. ;) He is a smart little guy being one of the top math students and coming on strong with his reading. He still loves school and his teacher this year. He also got a new haircut that he requested (pics to follow soon). He still loves Star Wars and playing games on his dad's phone.

Chloe is still her princess-like self. She is sweet and sour all at the same time. She is learning where the fine line between joking and being bad is right now. It's hard to get mad at her though because she really is a sweet girl and just wants to help you and have a good time. She is very smart and speaks older than her years sometimes. She really is a special little spirit!

Dustin took vacation while Christian was on break for Thanksgiving. He got to rest up and spend lots of time with the kiddos. We also broke down and bought our Disneyland passes again and are enjoying them. I think we had one of our best trips ever there last week.  

I have been working so much that when I'm not I have been leaving the camera behind. Yes, even on Thanksgiving and Disneyland trips. Work is slowing down now and Christian is on Holiday break so I promise that pictures and more updates are in the near future.      

Halloween festivities 2011

This year we had a great Halloween (well I think so). We had a few events to attend so there was lots of fun to be had.

 Christian celebrated Halloween at school the previous Friday because there was no school for him on Halloween day. They had a parade and class party. Later that night his school had their annual Halloween family night/carnival. It was so fun, but got cut short when Chloe wasn't feeling well. The kids experienced their first haunted house (their choice) and did NOT love it.

Saturday we celebrated with a party at our Church. The kids carved pumpkins for the contest (well they picked the pattern they wanted). They were so excited for it! They didn't win and Chloe thought she should have. ;) Chloe did however win cutest costume for the primary aged kids.(On a side not, I thought it was funny that Christian said he should have gone as a cute girl so he could win...haha.)

Christian had a Sully pumpkin from Monster's Inc. and Chloe had Rapunzel from Tangled. 

On Halloween Dustin and I were just plain tired and a little sick as well. It had been a long week for us. So we opted to stay close to home for trick-or-treating. We visited the grandparent's home, some friends and then a few neighborhoods. The kids had a great time!!

Christian as Jango Fett (Star Wars) and Chloe as Rapunzel (Tangled).



a big day for a little girl

Chloe had a big day last week (Oct 24th).

She got hers ears pierced!!

A few months ago she was wanting them pierced so I told her she could for her birthday. Really I thought she would forget about it. Well her birthday came and past and she didn't mention it. Well last week she remembered. So off to the mall we went.

She was SO brave. There was only one employee working at the time so she had to take turns on each side. She did amazing. Not one tear was shed. She wanted it bad!!! The woman was amazed at how good she did and gave her 5 lolly pops...one of each color.

She's a happy girl!!!

Notice the nice cut on her forehead? That was a nice spill in her brother's room onto the rocking horse that caused a night trip to the doc. No stitches thank goodness, just some glue.

(I will add the before pics from the cell phone later)