Celebration Photo Shoot

With the fun of getting her braces off, I treated Ceana to a photo shoot. I took her over to Preston's work because the trees on the grounds are gorgeous right now. The weather was very cooperative today too. Ceana said that she really enjoyed that we made each other laugh - esp when both of us tried to climb a tree to get some different shots ( I will make sure to NOT post the picts ceana took of me trying to haul my blubber into that tree - oh my :). Ceana especially loved all the colors. She enjoyed goofing around - and those are the fun picts that we kept because it showed she was relaxed and enjoying herself. Ceana is having a hard time looking at herself without her braces on but I think she is getting used to it. She said she had fun having her picture taken today - which I think she has not done for a long time.
It was fun to have time with her - even with the little boys screaming at me from inside the van (even though I was standing just a few feet away) It was fun for both of us and I am glad that we had some of the picts turn out. It has also been fun playing with tweaking the picts a bit too - some of them just seemed to be even better when I put them in B&W. I am still learning, but we had a great time today and it was a good learning experience for both of us.

PLAYFUL AUNTIES

While we were in Utah Preston's brother Tyler & his cute wife Heidi hosted a family dinner. It was fun to get to watch conference, laugh and chat, and just get some playtime together. I noticed Charisse and Jac playing with the babies and just had to sneak in a few picts. As you can tell from Jac's and Ben's expressions I snuck up on them and caught them both by surprise. Ben thought it was funny though and went right on playing and laughing with Jac.
It was really fun to see both aunties enjoy the babies so much. The time spent with family is something that we especially treasure since we live so far away from everyone. These moments are precious and few and that makes them even more special.
Thank you to Charisse & Jaclyn for being such sweet and wonderful aunties to all the neices and nephews!

Charisse & Kelsianne

Playtime Fun

Caught Ya!

Aunt Jac is SO much fun!

TINY TOES

Ky LOVES wearing his snuggy PJ's - so much that when he wears them it is hard to get him out of them (unless he helps himself which he is getting better at doing :) Not too long ago he was wearing a pair of PJ's that he has had for awhile and I looked down at him to see all his little toes sticking right out of the footsies of his PJ's! It was so funny & cute to see all of his "piggies" sticking out that we had to find the camera and get pictures. Those PJ's are one of Ky's favorites and I will prob just end up cutting the feet out so he can still wear them for awhile longer.

ADVENTURES AT THE ORTHODONTIST

The girls had an ortho appt again today. We had Ky & Kels also in tow. Both of them thought that they needed to be held and Ky especially did not want to be out of reach of Kaeli. When we arrived the girls went straight back for their appts and I noticed that Ky had gone missing. I thought maybe he had wandered back with the girls to watch like he sometimes does - I found him laying on top of Kaeli while Dr Sheets did Kaeli's exam! He had been feeling a bit out of sorts and decided he had to be right with her apparently. It was pretty funny watching the 2 of them and Dr Sheets never even batted an eyelash - he and his staff are so kind and wonderful and they just went on helping Kaeli and even laughed with us. We are so blessed to have them helping the kids through this stage of life.



Dr Sheets has a wonderful pond and aquatic scene set up just outside the exam room windows. It is a rock garden with pools of fish and flowers - it is very pretty and also very soothing. Ceana was holding Kels while she was waiting for her turn and Kels was fascinated with the water. The kids always have fun trying to find the tiny fish in the pools. It was fun to watch the 2 girls and listen to them chatter to each other.


I think Ceana's favorite thing about having braces has been the opportunity she has had to change the colors of her bands. With Halloween and football season starting she had chosen black & orange bands to show her OSU spirit and to welcome Halloween.


The other thing Ky loves to do at Dr Sheet's office besides watch the girls is to play with their HUGE bucket of large legos. He goes right for the 2 "cars" - the pieces with wheels, and stacks them up with blocks as high as they will go. He can play "choo choo" for a very long time and can stay pretty content during the girls' appointments. The trick is usually getting him to give them up and put them away when it is time to go - he really loves those blocks!

THE COLORS OF AUTUMN

We went all the way to Utah hoping to find the splendor and beauty of the Rocky Mountains dressed in Fall colors - instead we got freezing temperatures and SNOW! Little did I know that I would find what I was hoping for right here at home!
The trees down in Corvallis are breathtaking. The bright colored leaves and the brilliant blue sky combined to create an amazing photo opportunity and for once I had my camera at the right place at the right time!
I took dozens of picts but I think these are my most favorite because of the unique angles I was able to get. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

All week we have had unusual weather and we have not been able to enjoy the warm, beautiful days of "Autumn in Utah" as we had hoped...
A few days ago they started forcasting SNOW - yes, I know it is only the 1st week of october - but yesterday morning there it was - fluffy white stuff falling from the sky. It melted away as fast as it came though so we thought we were in the clear - boy were we WRONG!
Today we woke up to snow on the ground and everywhere....





This afternoon we went from this....


and this....


to this in 30 minutes! It was snowing so hard I felt like I was inside of a snowglobe someone had just shaken hard...

It was heavy, wet snow in huge flakes or bunches of flakes falling from a gray-black sky. The clouds were so thick that the mountains that were only minutes away were completely hidden. It was so unbelievable to be watching it snow so hard & knowing that weather like this should still be weeks away. The weather the last 2 days has broken state records for earliest snowfall by more than a week. People here who didnt listen to weather reports have completely lost garden produce, and even those who did listen still lost some with the unexpected drop in temps.

All of the beautiful Fall leaves and colors that were just emerging on the mountains are now completely gone and the mountains have been dumped with heavy snow in some places.

The big kids thought the snow was fabulous and had a blast running outside and tried to catch the huge flakes on their tongues. Ky wasnt too impressed with the cold and wet - although he had just woken up from his nap and was more cranky than excited. The big kids loved every minute I would let them be outside and it was a special treat for them to be able to enjoy playing in the snow at such an odd time of the year. It was definately an unexpected adventure.

MORE WEDDING FUN

Ceana & Ky at the reception


Jac & all the little girls

P & R Family Pict


P & R kiddos


P & R