Merry Christmas

See y'all next year!

My Sidekick...

When I have a Photo Shoot and I have to bring Ivy with me and the clients aren't there yet, my little sidekick Ivy gets to help me make sure my camera settings are correct. She actually loves to be my helper and Model.

Holidays

We are getting ready to go to UT for Christmas! Super excited! Which means we have been busy getting Holiday things ready for the trip. Hopefully after the Holiday Season I will have much more interesting things to post about. These things in the pictures below are interesting to me..

Enjoying the scenery..

We have lived a lot of places; but none as beautiful as Alabama. I am completely amazed at how gorgeous it is just driving the kids to school etc.. We went on a little walk with some neighbor kids the other day. These boys have become wonderful friends!

Uses

I am glad to know that Russ thinks the Treadmill is his own personal desk. Gives me a good excuse to talk myself out of getting on it.

What a bust!

Eli said it best.. "This is the worst year ever". There should be some law against Halloween on Sunday. My kids feel totally jipped! We had heard that some neighborhoods were celebrating on Saturday so we got our kids ready and took a couple of Kanyon's friends with us to search out someone who would give us candy the day before Halloween. No such luck. We did get about 4 pieces. Then we thought we would make our house really spooky and have fun passing out candy to all the kids that came by on Sunday.. NOT ONE! Not one trick or treater. Thank goodness for the Churches trunk or treat. Even worse is that now I have a whole candy bowl full of candy that no one took. Now I have to eat it. Its my duty right?!

What a ham..

I know my days of having a little one at home are coming to an end... Ivy and I are lucky enough to get to spend all day together everyday. Living in a new place we have even more time together as there aren't many friends to play with yet and the last few days have been rainy and lonely. Ivy always knows how to spice up my day.

Models

My poor kids! I have been driving around here looking for places to take Photos and I have no choice but to make my kids my Models. They are SOO sick of it. Now that I have found a few great places I think I can give them a break for a while. But I thought I would show what great Models I have.







































































































































































































































Eli has had it! He complains the most about getting his picture "made" (that's what they say in the South.)

Yes ma'am!

Although we are not going to be living in the deep south for long there are a few things we really love and are going to miss.

#1 Our favorite is the respect they teach there children out here. the kids are expected to use "yes Ma'am" and "yes Sir" for everything. And out here if someone doesn't hear what you say instead of saying "what?" they say "Ma'am?" or "Sir?" The schools require it. It is a lesson that we have decided to continue after we move. Ivy is even getting great at it.

#2 We are still in the nineties in October.. The weather is perfect. Most of these Fall days are in the 70 - 80s.

#3 The people like our neighbors etc are SO friendly! The local people out here really full fill the Southern Hospitality. We have never felt so welcomed by people living around us.

#4 Living within 4 hrs of the Ocean and beaches.

There is LOTS we are not going to miss also ie- cockroaches, humidity etc. But I am choosing to focus on the positive.

Geocaching

Last weekend we finally got around to try something we have wanted to do for a long time. Geocaching. This was our first time so we went about it like we were Pirates searching for a treasure. I pulled out the eye patch the big pirate earring and the arrg! But the kids were just embarrassed for me and took all the stuff away and used it amongst themselves. We went to three locations and found one "cach" it was a pretty lame "cach" so we didn't take anything out we just put something cool in it. I think we will try it again. The kids were hiking all over and not complaining like usual when we just go on a hike.































Finding our first "cach"!





















The "junk" inside




































Best buddies! Even dressed the same and wore there hair the same.

























Ivy's mean Pirate look






















Enjoying the view..




















































Watch out boys!















And girls!

Labor Day trip!

Friday night at 5:00pm we decided to drive to Florida and go to the beach. we were on our way 1/2 hr later. We just threw swimsuits in a bag and left.

Highlights: Beach, Sleeping in, Family time, Crocodiles, Free breakfast, Palm trees

Low lights: Forgetting to pack under ware for all the kids.., BAD traffic on the way there, Camera Battery dieing after first hour and charger left at home! (Meaning I missed taking pictures of the kids with Crocodile's), Not having Hotel reservations so paying WAY too much for a room.

Next time I think we will plan a little better like; bringing under ware for the kids. But, what a fantastic trip! We love living close to Paradise!