Thankful

As we sat down to eat on Thanksgiving afternoon, I felt such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. Life isn't perfect, but we have more than enough - enough love, enough food, enough family, enough opportunity, enough employment, enough education, enough health, enough safety, just enough.

Luke - Pre-School

This little man is growing up way too quickly.  I was looking at the pictures we did just six months ago and couldn't believe the change, he looked like such a baby.  Have I mentioned how lucky we are to have Jami and all her talents?  Turns out she needed a model for a pre-school flyer and Luke was more than happy to help her out. Lucky mama because I ended up with these great shots.

Ruby McKena

I can never say enough good about the magic that Jami always succeeds in capturing.  Ruby has so much personality and I was hoping that it would shine through on her shoot to celebrate two years old.  The photos turned out exactly as I had envisioned, a perfect memory of my baby who is turning into a little girl right before my eyes.  Thanks Aunt Jami for freezing time, if only for a minute.  And thank you Aunt Julie for the beautiful dress.  When Ruby was given this dress as a newborn I couldn't imagine her ever being big enough to wear it.  The day arrived way too quickly,but the dress was perfect and my girl felt like a princess so it was a pretty great day.

October, The Rest of It

Oh October, we have seriously loved everything about you: the sunshine, the warm weather, the fall activities, and of course, time with family. November means snow,and dark skies, and the end to most outdoor activities.  So before that happens, let's just remember all of the rest of the fun of October.

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with the Whitesides.We had a great time visiting and catching up with everyone - it had been too long since we had seen most of the family.  The kids all had a great time playing with cousins.  Gayle wore herself out making sure we all had a fabulous celebration - and we did.

The babies loved being outside with the cousins, especially Joshua

Erika came for dinner one night and left us with a box of popsicles,

Thanks sister, the babies loved the treat.  

Bath time is always better with bubbles.

Typical morning for Ruby.

Green slime at Sunday dinner.

Perfect time to pull out the new ghost pajamas.

Luke was so excited for Tim to dress up for Halloween so they could be partners.  As soon as the costume arrived, Tim had to try it on and take a few practice laps flying around the house.

They are building a new church about a block away from our house so we monitor the construction process every time we drive by.  Tim and the kids got lucky and were driving by right as they were getting ready to place the steeple.  Of course they had to get out and watch.  They loved it and still talk about it whenever we see that church.

We had a great time at the wedding reception for Ty Talbot - Michelle's son.  We didn't quite manage to get any photos of the married couple, or any or our relatives, but we did find time to get the camera out for a few shots.

Luke was invited to his first official birthday party.  A little girl in his preschool, Katelyn, was turning 5 and had a party at Nikelcade.  Luke had so much fun playing, and I loved watching him interact with his friends.

There was a BYU football the same day as the birthday party.  Luke and I met up with the rest of the family when we were done playing with his friends.  The game was fun, it was a blow out with BYU winning easily, but still a great time with all the kids.  After about the third quarter we were all pretty sun baked, and decided to head home and out of the sun.

We took at Sunday drive down to the lake and hung out down close to the water where you find all of the fishermen.  The kids had so much fun throwing rocks into the lake and riding their "motorcycles". There was a small incident when the ranger came to check if we paid our entrance fee - I didn't think you had to in the off season and we had no cash - but otherwise, it was a beautiful, bleak afternoon. 

Why yest, that is a tent set up in our basement

Dad of the year!

Tim and the big kids have found some great spots for breakfast.