baby Emma

Introducing our newest neice/cousin, Emma. Her mamma was over at our house working on a project with me and I had to get a picture of my kids with her while she is so mini.

As is normal with my kids and new babies, they fought over her.




Isaac usually wins.






Here is Sarah, Emma's older sister. They all thought the baby was great till she started crying. Then they were like "Wait, someone else take her."

Dinner in the canyon

Geoff's sister Kim came up with the brilliant idea to make tin foil dinners and go up the canyon. It was a gorgeous evening, perfect for enjoying the last days of this warm weather I can't seem to let go of. Dinner was delicious! We also did bread on a stick (not to be confused with breadsticks), and dutch oven peach cobbler with peaches that I canned. Isaac and Lucy were filthy as usual by the end of the night, but happy to spend time with Aunt Kim and Uncle Nick.

General Relief Society Conference

No, your eyes do not decive you. This would be date #2 with my dear friend Amy!

Amy was able to procure a ticket for me to attend with her the General Relief Society Conference up in Salt Lake City yesterday. It was a very uplifting meeting, and I feel proud to be a part of a sisterhood of women, devoted to the helping of others.

Almost 16 months

These pictures just about sum up the summer with Lucy. Skinned knees, dirt in the mouth, and wearing only a diaper.

She's my little garden helper, though I find it hard to explain to a sixteen-month-old why we can pick some of the veggies and not others. Or leave some of the plants in and take out other (weeds). She's content to just sit in the dirt with a shovel digging, and occasionally sampling the dirt.

Our garden continues to produce in leaps in bounds. So far I've frozen 17 bags of pesto (made from our basil), dried and frozen diced tomatoes, frozen 18 bags of cut corn (not from our garden), and "put up" 24 quarts of peaches. And believe me, we've eaten a whole lot too. I would say we've been quite productive in the garden department thus far. I'm sad to think it will be gone soon and I'll be staring a pale pink tomato in the face.

Sometimes we ride our bikes to get doughnuts

Is that wrong?

WonderGirl

Who keeps us wondering about a lot of things, like how could such a cute little thing make such huge messes?

SuperBoy

Is it normal for a three-year-old boy to see a shirt in the store, beg for it and then promptly remove his shirt and put it on after it is purchased? Oh, and then want to sleep in it and never remove it? AND ask his mom to take pictures of him in it? Maybe not normal, but it sure is cute.

These are my first pictures taken with my upgraded camera thanks to my sweet husband. I have TWO, yes two weddings in the family coming up in the next two months, so I'm excited to really put it to work.

I bet you're really jealous...

that I have my family photo all done for my holiday cards, and that I have a super talented friend like Amy Furstenau.

We just took these tonight. The kids did surprisingly well. You'd think their mother had been training them all their lives or something. Thanks so much Amy!

Bestfriend Birthday Celebration

Yes, our birthdays may have been some time ago, but life got in the way of us celebrating on time. So, here we are on a blessed night out which consisted of shopping, eating, laughing and relishing in a rare evening of doing pretty much whatever we wanted. Thanks to both our sweet husbands for making our outing possible.

I love you Amy!

I refuse to let summer die

Isaac named this mini snail, Gabriella. A cute name for sick, slimy thing.



Hanging out with Bella.



This picture cracks me up. They both are making the most awkward faces.



Delicious mud pies.



Lucy attempting to take a drink of water from the hose. It didn't turn out so good.

Date Night USA

That's what Geoff calls it. Really he should call it a miracle because we haven't gone out, just the two of us, for quite some time. We met up with Matt and Jess (brother and sister-in-law) and ate delicious Thai food, and then took a picture with Matt's second baby, his iPhone.

Hooray for Sunny Days!

And for brothers and sisters.

My girl

Lucy got a haircut the other day, isn't it darling!






Had to get a shot of this. This is Lucy's nervous habit, she lifts up her shirt and shows her belly. It's a bit embarrassing, but mostly super cute.







With Isaac away at preschool for a couple hours, I've been relishing my time with Lucy. She is so much fun (when she's not completely tearing my house apart). She hates my camera though, so I barely get any pictures of her actually looking at me these days. I'm hoping she'll come around.

Things have been crazy busy around here for me lately. I'm so grateful for my husband who has been there to help ease my load a bit this last week. I love you!

*Lucy's shoes are from Target online, and I'm obsessed with them.

Señor Pictures

she drives a VW bug similar to my friend's, so we had to get a picture










This beautiful girl and her mom came all the way from Wyoming to hang out with me for a couple hours and take some senior pictures. Aren't I lucky! We were a little slap happy and her cousins were quoting from Nacho Libre to get her smiling. Man I need to watch that movie again. Thanks for indulging me with some crazy locations, and me locking my keys in the car.

Dear Husbands

If I have any readers that are of the male persuasion and want to earn serious points from their wife, and lets face it, ANY woman: surprise her and get pictures taken of your children!

The husband of all six of these GORGEOUS children did this very thing. Along with his wife's best friend, they sent her away, got the kids all dressed up and met me for a photoshoot as a surprise for her birthday today! We did this shoot last week, but I've been anxiously awaiting her big day so I could finally post them.

I've never met a sweeter family. The kids were each bursting with personality, and a variety of looks (red, brown AND blond hair; curly hair, straight hair; blue, green, AND brown eyes!). I had a wonderful time with them and I hope their mommy is happy with her birthday present this year.

My baby's in school

A bittersweet moment for me this morning as I dropped Isaac off at pre-school for his first time this morning. Part of me is so excited for some time with just Lucy and time for work, and part of me wanted to scream "DON'T GROW UP YET!". He's so old. I don't know when this all happened.