A happy baby is the BEST!

Emmy was just laughing her head off the other day, so I grabbed the camera! Of course she stopped once she knew I was there so I didn't catch it. But she was happy so that is good enough for me! :) She is getting so fun...I love this age. So sweet and playful! Just adorable!

Ok, videos don't want to load right now, so maybe later. Here's a few pix instead! I finally took her to get her ears pierced a few weeks ago. I have been wanting to do it, but the fact that people kept calling her a boy really pushed me over the edge. She was soooo good - she hardly cried at all. And I think it's cute!and yes. That IS a pill bottle my baby is playing with. I'm an awesome mom. (hey, they like the sound!)

We have been giving the solid foods a try and it isn't going so well. She does a great job of smashing those little lips together SO hard that I can't get ANYTHING in there. My others have gotten the hang of it a little faster - maybe she'll just be a picky eater. Who knows!

Brie thought she would give it a try!

Oh YUM!

I just had to share this recipe with you guys...it's one of my new faves. It tasted like I was at Olive Garden - so whip some up and serve with bread sticks and salad and you'll have a super YUM meal!

Italian Pasta Toss
1 box of cavatappi pasta
1/2 stick butter
1 cup broccoli
1 sliced red pepper
1 cup sliced zucchini
1 cup peas
3 small roma tomatoes diced
2 tablespoons basil
1 tablespoon fresh chopped garlic
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 cup grated parm. cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Cook & drain pasta. In skillet melt butter. Add all vegies and cook till crisply tender (about 5 mins) then add tomatoes, garlic, and all other seasonings. Continue to cook for 2 mins. stirring constantly. Add to pasta and parm. cheese. Serve WARM.
ENJOY!

The Wall is DONE!

It's finally done! (with the exception of painting the wall) I have a large wall in our play room/family room that has always bugged me. I've never known what to put on it...TILL NOW! :) I had an idea to do a photo collage of my kids and it worked out great.

People are always asking me why I don't have more family photos up since I'm a photographer...now they cant say that! Steve built me the shelf...it is about 10 feet long! I am SO happy with how it turned out! And I LOVE huge prints so it all came together really well. Thanks for your help Steve!

First Snow

We got our first snow about 2 weeks ago - it started coming down while we were at church and the kids were so excited to walk outside and see snow! When we got home from church I let them run outside for a few mins and they LOVED it! And Kylee was an awesome big sister to take them out for a little pull on the sled! We haven't gotten any more snow since - I hope we do soon cause it helps me feel more like the holidays are here! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we did Thanksgiving at our house! Steve's mom hasn't been feeling well so I thought we'd give her the chance to relax a little and not have to stress about it. His sister Teri is SUPER helpful so I knew we could pull it off. However...I don't think mom rested very much! She brought SO much food for us...what a sweetheart! I hope everyone had an ok time. It was nice to be together with everyone!


Yep. This is Charlie with a girlfriend! :) We all had so much fun meeting her - she's so sweet!

This was the "big girls" table! :) Kylee is such a good sport...and I think Brie and Hannah really enjoyed being a "big girl"!!! They sure did a LOT of giggling!!!

Thanks to everyone who helped! WE love you tons!

Fall Ward Party

Each Fall our ward does a little Harvest Supper and this year Steve signed me up to bring a dessert. Awesome! I thought that was great - you can be creative with desserts so I was happy with that. Well, as I started thinking about it, I became a little too ambitious about the whole thing. I was looking up cakes online so I could do something really cute. That's when I found THE cake. This was PERFECT for where I live and I thought everyone would get a kick out of it...so here's the photo of what I wanted to make:
Adorable, right? Well, as time got closer I decided I didn't really have the time nor the $$ to spend on all the supplies it would take to make this, so I just went for something plain. In the process though, Kylee decided she also wanted to make a cake, so we had a good time baking together. I think hers was a white cake with buttercream frosting. Mine was a choc. cake with cream cheese frosting inside, buttercream on the outside, and toasted almonds on top! Not as cute, but tasted ok. :)

New Family Photos!!!

I have been needing to replace our large family photo that is in our front room - Deagan was 5 months old when we had it taken. I had found who I wanted to do our photos for us, but then decided to wait till next year maybe. Still needing a new photo, we took the kids out for a little session. We will hang a photo of just them this year...they are the cute ones anyway. :)

I actually am really excited to show all of you the creation I made for my wall, but first I must paint and hang it. Then I'll post a photo of it. Till then, here's a few of the ones I took. (thank goodness I had Steve's help or these never would have been possible)

This one is a FAVE of mine - I ordered a 16x20 of it for my room. I am very in to the grundge look right now.

I combined the following photos of my kids into one photo to save on time - but we got quite a few individual ones of each kiddo. I really enjoy the candids that just show who they are.

I cannot believe this is my baby! She's getting so OLD. :) And she's so pretty. She is wonderful to let me practice taking photos of her whenever I want...she's got such a fun personality which makes her photos fun too!

Trick-or-Treat

Halloween was pretty fun. Brie had said that she wanted to be a Pink Witch so I got right to work and making a costume for her. All the other girls ended up with the same type of tutu skirts so they kind-of matched. They seemed to enjoy being dressed up. They also got to wear their costumes to the carnival and the school the night before. They had cute games for the kids and they got to wear their costume that night also. Soooo fun!

I FINALLY have our Halloween photos to post! I took some of the kids inside...but a lot of them didn't turn out well. I only got one semi-good one of Kylee. And I didn't get ANY of Emmy, so I might just have to make them all dress up again! :P

There's nothin like some good sticky lovin' between siblings. :)On Halloween we spent the 2nd half of the day at Steve's parents house. We had pizza and pigged out WAY too much on candy and cookies. At about 5 we decided we'd take the kids trick-or-treating around to a few houses then head home. Well, they didn't want any part of it. I couldn't get Brie to go up to one door. Probably too tired. So they came home with no candy and didn't really seem to care. I SURE didn't! :) It was fun to get the kids in bed early and watch Monster House with Steve...it's kind of our Halloween tradition!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Today the kids and I made sugar cookies and frosted them! I found a great frosting recipe online for the kind that dries and hardens - it was so thick that they were able to just use paint brushes and paint their frosting on! They had fun! And I think ate so much frosting that they felt a little sick! There's nothing like a bowl full of sugar the day before Halloween! :)

Here's two that I made for Kylee while she was at school because I love her and she's so pretty! :)