I can't resist sharing...

During Thanksgiving we went to an awesome place called, Ensign Ranch. It's owned by the LDS church. Beautiful place. The lodge was perfect for the size of our family and so was the kitchen. They had gadgets to use to make food for GIANT people. We cranked out the food too! It was a good thanksgiving dinner. Going to see "New Moon" after was a pumpkin pie treat as well.

Tim's older sister Dana was there with her big family and her new little grand baby, Taygen. She's a pretty little baby but not a happy camper. I took some pictures for them of her and got quite a few winners, but the following two were by far my favorite. :)



You can't have a happy baby all the time. It's just not reality people!

Birthday Girl!

Aubriana just turned 2 today! We started off the day singing the birthday song, and she was eating it up. All this attention is great!

I can't believe how much she is rapidly changing. She says very funny things all the time, and is genuinely sweet when she wants to be. Tim has called her "bumble bee" ever since she was in my belly, and now when he calls her bumble bee, she quickly corrects him and says, "I'm Aubriana." She has moved on from calling us mommy and daddy to mom and dad. I didn't think that happened until she became a teenager :(. One other thing she says that really makes me laugh is when she is being really silly she follows me around giggling and saying, "I'm funny mommy, Aubriana's funny!"

She really makes us happy and we are so blessed to have her sweet spirit in our home. We love you, Aubriana!

Love,
Mom & Dad :)



I'll post more pictures of her birthday tomorrow after she has her cute cake. I had to post a couple of pictures I took of her this morning. They were too cute!

This post may seem silly, what can I say...

Ok, as a Dyson vacuum owner, I'm already a huge fan of their product and think the inventor is a pure genius. I'm an even bigger fan now that I've tried the Dyson hand dryer.

I'm not one to use public bathrooms but my hubby and I were out of town this past weekend in Kennewick, WA, hanging out for some us time, and I was left with no choice. I was ok with it because it was a Costco bathroom. Another huge bonus to Costco for investing in the Dyson dryer in their bathrooms. Costco rocks! :)

Have you used one of these Dyson hand dryers?!!! AMAZING! My hands were dry in seconds. Those other hand dryers are a big pet peeve. I never even bother and just wipe hands on pants if there are no paper towels handy. How do we get more of these in public restrooms??? When I was leaving the bathroom, I was overhearing some teenagers telling their friend they had to go in the bathroom and try the dryer. I wish I could afford one in my bathroom.

Ok. I'm done raving about this product. I'm going outside now. :)

Our Little Monster...

First off, I have to say I was a bit nervous for Halloween this year. I bought Aubriana's costume a month in advance and since then I haven't been able to get her to keep it on for more than 2 seconds. She'd rip it right off. So, we decided to start by coaxing her. Her daddy was more than willing to help, and even did a little monster growling to show her how.



After her dadda so graciously showed her how it was done, she was more than willing to wear her costume... whew! She even did a few growls and showed her monster teeth.



Halloween was fun this year. There was a bit of a wind storm all day, but thank goodness Aubri's costume was warm. We went to our ward trunk or treat and Aubriana's cousin Madeline took her around to each trunk for candy. She waved at people and charmed them for lots of suckers. They even served hot dogs and hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun.



She loves to share her suckers...


Aubri and her little buddy Briley occupied themselves running up the hill and back down and crashing at the bottom. It was pretty funny. They would check on eachother after they fell down.



Aubri helping her dad pass out candy... and then trying to take some for herself.


1 tootsie roll + 1 dum dum = a very long night


Our Halloween sky...


Are you sick of monsters yet?


What a day!!!

Bustin' A Move

My almost 2 year old won't let me take her picture anymore. I try and try but when she sees my camera, she'll look away or take off running. I decided to give up and these are the kind of pictures I get... she is full on dancing, showing off is more like it. When she gets excited about something, in this case it was going outside, she starts dancing in circles. It's pretty cute!




I was, however, able to get the following picture... only because I was imitating her and dancing around like a weirdo in circles while trying to take her picture smiling. I can't believe its in focus! Props to me. Don't you just love her smile?! Its sooo genuine. While I continue to find creative ways to take Aubriana's picture, you all can enjoy this one.

**P.S. don't let the sweetness in this pic fool you, she has reached the terrible 2's and I'm trying to cope).

Addison Grace

Tim and I have done a bit of traveling this past month. It's been CRAZY crazy Crazy! Did I tell you its been crazy?! Well, one of our trips was to California for 2 weeks (I'll get to that later when I have time) and while we were there, we were able to go stay with my brother Tyler & his wife Marilyn and their ADORABLE new baby Addison. They asked me to take pictures of Addison and I had so much fun! I Wish I had more time to experiment. Newborns are cake walk once they're fat & happy!

Anyway... I miss her :( And I miss kicking my brothers butt at the 3 point basketball game on Wii! Woo woo! haha! The below was my favorite photo. She was just so awake and alert! I loved it! (Mare, pics are on my flickr)





Love the tiny toes...



Oh wait... can't forget about my brothers dog, buddy! He is so sweet but soooo BIG! I think he is twice the... wait wait... more like 3 times the size of Aubri. He kept knocking her down on accident and Aubri would get right back up and run after him. It was pretty cute! Aubri kept begging to feed him more treats.

For the Goodwins

For my cousin Tiffany and her BEAUTIFUL family! I LOVED taking your family pictures. I absolutely adore Mason! He was so full of smiles and you can see how much he loves his parents. Thank you for asking me to take your pictures. I had so much fun and there are more to come. But for now...

Sneak peak...


























*Tiffany-
You can see the rest of the ones I've done here. When I get the rest of your pictures finished I'll email you and send you a disk of all your pictures. I have make black/white versions of most images so you can have your preference. Love you!