When Carlee is in Charge of Marin...

this is what happens...







I was cleaning the kids rooms and Andy had Tessa and P in the bath, Marin woke up and Carlee asked if she could play with her on her bed and be in charge of her. I continued to pick up when I heard Carlee giggle and then she said "Mom you HAVE to see this, it is soooooo cuuuuuute!" And she was right.
(oh, and notice the cute pillow case Carlee got from Aunt Erin for her b-day)

Nursery Rhyme Family....

Seriously though, this family is so cute. Jake and Jill are good people and they have two very cute little girls. I love Jill, she has become a great friend to me here in the Cleve, my friendship with her has always been so easy. I have been asking to do her family pictures for almost a year, so when she finally asked a few weeks ago I was pumped. I think the pictures turned out great, I especially love the one of Jake kissing her. Memory of this shoot----when I hit Callie in the face with my giant camera!! Yeah, you read that right, full on right in the forehead with my camera, good thing it was at the end of the shoot and Jill brought suckers just in case. (Sorry again Jill, clearly I am not over it.)

A Cute Set of Drumm's....

This cute family bid on a photoshoot I donated to the scout's for the scout spaghetti dinner auction. I think we took pictures on the most perfect day ever, 65 degrees in November with beautiful fall leaves. They were so fun to work with. I remember thinking to myself "wow, they love Thomas so much". This momma and pappa looked at their child with such love it was amazing. To see more of their picturs click here.

Thumb Suckin' and other things....

So it is official, I have the cutest and sweetest baby ever. I can say with great confidence that Marin is a thumb-sucker. Andy and I are in such shock about how much sleep we get in the night. She is sleeping through the night every night. I wake up in the mornings with that "is she still breathing" fear. Other Marin news, she is laughing at us all of the time, even when I am not trying to make her laugh, she will let out the cutest giggle. Marin is talking up a storm and still has most of her hair. She is not as well nourished as Tessa was, but she still has plenty of roll action that I love poking with my finger.





Around the house/family news....things are good. Tessa is officially potty trained and doing so well. I am glad that I finally committed to that, it was time, and will save us money in the long run. Andy is on day 20 of work in a row. This Sunday will be his first day off. Somehow he managed to squeeze in a little leaf raking with the kids last week. Most of our time spent with Dad is right before bed, right as I get them in the PJ's and settled is when he seems to walk through the door and jack them up. Oh well, he is the best Dad ever and he loves them.







I was also busy with a fun visit from my friend Andrea, she flew from California to see one of our friends Ally. It was great to see her and have her be with the kids and she got to meet Marin! The cutest thing was when Porter saved his good behavior tickets and turned them in to bring Andrea as his show and tell at school. No other kid in the class has saved that many tickets to redeem such a big prize.





Yeah, we have been busy and now I am just trying to get back to the swing of things. I have done a couple of family photo shoots, which I will post later. I just cannot believe how quickly Thanksgiving is approaching. I am looking forward to Andy being home, spending the day with friends, and seeing Tangled. I love this time of year when we are forced to think about all the things we are grateful for, it really helps to put things into perspective.

It's a small world....

Andy grew up in a little city along I-15 in Utah and when we moved to Ohio we never imagined that we would meet two other families who attend the SAME high school as Andy. One of those families is the "S" family and I was able to do their family pictures last week. I love this family and I am so grateful that they have moved here. I love Sara (the momma) she has become such a wonderful friend. I also really love their boys JP, Wes, and Truman. They are great kids who get along so well with our kids, I don't know what P, C, and T without them here. And of course I like Jud (the papa), he is always making me laugh! I hope the pictures show what a cute family they are.

It was time....

We did it, we finally bought a new car, well not brand new, but new enough for me. "The Van" was dying and it was going quick. We knew it was coming but didn't expect it to be so sudden. I had a very hard time letting it go at the dealer ship and took many looks in the rear view as we pulled out of the parking lot. I had one of those moments where all of the memories we made in "The Van" were there in the mirror, like when we moved Porter to a big seat and Carlee was big enough to face forward. I also saw Kansas in the mirror and remembered when I was driving through Dodge wondering what the smell was and everyone told that is just how Kansas smells. I also saw Grandpa Bush pulling away in the van after he took us to breakfast the day we left Kansas. I also heard Grandma Great telling me to stop adjusting my seat so much, even though I never did. I had a vision of Caleb being stuffed in the back in between two car seats. Then another vision of the time I drove it to Montana by myself with the kids to see my Units and calling Andy about some weird noises it was making. And then another great vision, when "The Van" took us Disneyland with my Cali fam. I wish so bad I had a vision of the day Andy was pulled over in the metro parks because the police officer thought that he had the kids in a cage (ask Andy fot that story). I could go on and on with memories that were made for me in that van, but I will stop there. I am sitting here now wondering what memories other people had of the van. In summary of "The Van", I am so grateful to have had it. It helped our family out so much and I don't know how we would have made it financially without that two-toner. It got us where we needed to go without fail, even when we doubted it. So thank you to the wonderful Grandma Great who gave it to us. It really was a huge part of our lives.

On to new and exciting things, the new van.





I love the Sienna and cannot believe that it is ours. I felt so weird driving it yesterday, kind of like I don't deserve such a nice car. I only see my self driving the Voyager and even when I am driving the Sienna, I feel like it is the Voyager, if that makes any sense. When we went to test drive it on Monday night I had a little alone time in the Sienna while Andy was crunching numbers with the salesman. I sat in the way back seat to see what it would be like for P and C and a wave of emotion came over me. I was just so grateful to even be sitting in it and when the thought of owning it came into my mind, I just couldn't take it. I immediately pulled myself together so mister sales guy wouldn't see that I was wearing my hopes on my sleeve. So, a super long story made short, it worked out and we now own a Sienna and I love it. The kids love it to and cannot get over the automatic doors, windows in the back, and the sunroof (last night on our family drive we had to have it open regardless of the super low temps).

I would also like to take a moment and thank my Dad who spent HOURS on the phone with Andy and I checking cars and steering us in the right direction. We would have been lost without him. So THANK YOU Dad, I love you, miss you and Julie a ton (COME SEE US!!).

What went down for Halloween....

I love Halloween, it is one of my favorite holidays. I love the decorations, pumpkins, and the season, oh how I love the change of the seasons. This year we had Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, and Peter Pan (Marin was supposed to be a cat, but she never wore her costume). Our Halloween week was really fun, we had a trunk or treat at our church and the kids got so much candy there it was insane. It was neat to see how everyone decorated their cars, one family transformed their whole van into a shark it was pretty sweet (good job G-becks). Then Thursday Carlee had a really fun Halloween party with her pre-school group, Friday we got two sweet Halloween cards in the mail (thanks Units and Aunt Carrie), Saturday we went to the library for a Harry Potter party, then immediately headed to "The Bird" for a scavenger hunt. Sunday was an odd day for Halloween to fall on, but it worked out. We went to church, came home and carved pumpkins, and then off for trick or treating. Marin and I stayed home because it was so cold and very windy. All in all it was a blast and we are already talking about what next years costumes are going to be.