Simply Havin' a Wonderful Christmas Time

Merry Christmas from us and B!

(This is Bretton's current fav song. Sorry about the camera movement... I was dancing with him and didn't realize that the camera doesn't stay still when I'm shakin it!)

Playing Around

At the request of my grandmother, here is a picture of Bretton using his "secret" escape to the outside world when Mommy tells him he can't go out. Funny thing is... he figured it out a little too late in life and it only worked a couple of times. Now he just gets stuck!

Playing with the camera

We were all out in the backyard doing bubbles the other day and the kids and dog were just being so cute I had to pull out the camera. Imagine that!
This is Tippi in one of her running "fits." Nicci- you know what I'm talking about.

Tippi is a pretty calm, laid back dog 98% of the time. Every once in a while she gets a spurt of energy and just runs circles around the back yard. It's pretty hilarious.

This is Tippi catching bubbles. B saw this picture and started laughing so hard, which made me laugh really hard so I had to put it up to remember it.

Bubble fun

P.S. I LOVE these bubbles!! They don't pop right away so the kids have more time to chase them and more of them to chase! Get them at Gymboree. They're so fun!!

Everything October!

Yeah... I know we're already half way through November, but better late than never to catch you up on what we've been doing! (Sorry... the photog blog has gotten a little more attention than this one...)

We didn't get around to carving "popcorns" (aka "pumpkins") this year,

so Bretton just painted his.

We, of course, had to have carmel apples

This was at the ward "trunk-or-treat"

B had a great time, and Brenden just wanted to go home

Betcha can't tell what our little man's costume was...

Hint: It totally suits him

Nope... not a Lego man-

This was part of Luke's costume actually

NOW can you tell??

ha ha, yeah...

The cutest baseball player I've ever seen!!

Here we have our Trick-or-Treating crew

L to R:

Clayton (Luke's friend-Grim Reaper), Clarissa (Bag Monster-self made!),

Luke (UofA Fan Lego Man), Ian (Travelocity Gnome-kudos to Wendi for making it the day before!), Jared and Conrad (Knights),

and little B man with his "Ello bucket" (aka "Elmo bucket")

After all the festivities...

All cozied up in Blues Clues fashion

How cute is this??

And this one's not October, it's actually from this morning, but I had to throw it in.

He loves putting our shoes on, and today he found Daddy's "cow shoes."

We were dying!

I had a photo shoot Friday morning with a friend of ours that lives out of town, so we took Bretton with us so she could see him. I snapped a couple of him, just cause he's so darn cute and I couldn't resist. Now... look at this picture and just try to tell me this kid shouldn't be on the cover of a magazine!!

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Saturday, Chris donated the use of his sound system for another friend who was having a fundraiser breakfast for their non-profit organization- Lanee's Legacy.
Bretton and I tagged along. We had so much fun! They had balloon animals (I never thought my kid would be afraid of the balloon animals popping, but oh was he. He didn't even want to stick around to get one!), face painting, moon jumps, BASEBALL practice across the parking lot (highlight of the day for B) and a firetruck that he was terrified to sit in-or on- but with some coaxing we got some cute pictures.

Mom being "artsy" :)

They had balloons that you could tie a butterfly with a name on it and let it go.

Bretton wasn't going to let his go.

...ever...

Long Time... No Post!

I realize it has been a while so here is a little catch-up.

We went to the zoo a couple weeks ago with a couple of friends and the boys were a little more into it this time around. They loved seeing all the animals! Especially Brenden.

Bretton, Brenden, Mady, Lilli

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GRADUATION!!
Bretton has graduated from a crib to a big boy bed! He gets to use his cousin Ian's cool racecar bed from when he was younger. He loves it! And mom loves that he stays in it!
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These are just me playing with the camera one night.
Poor Tippi- I always seem to want pictures of her when she is trying to sleep.
I guess that's just when she's the cutest!

The next morning, obviously :)

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We went to Freestone Park between conference sessions on Saturday and B had a blast riding the train, feeding the ducks, playing bat-the-ball with grandpa and Travis and sliding down the slides.

K, time for a little Bretton and family update:

Bretton is talking his little head off! He is learning letters and what they stand for along with some colors. He talks in full sentences already and can carry on a pretty good conversation.

"Mom Journal" moment: The other morning he was whining pretty persistently and after about 10 minutes of me telling him that "I can give you what you want when you stop whining" and "I don't listen to whiners" and just about everything else I could think of to get him to stop, the whining turned into full on tears. So, I resigned... sighed, got down on my knees in front of him and said "Bretton... what do you need?" He put his arm around my neck and said "I need you." Makes me tear up even now. Needless to say, the frustration went out the window at that point.

The photography thing is going well. I am doing quite a few shoots in the next couple of months here for Christmas, so look for those on the photo blog!

Chris has pretty much cut ties with the studio he was working for. He is in the process of figuring out what to do next, so any prayers offered on that front would be awesome! We see big changes coming our way though, so we'll keep you posted!

That's about it! Sorry for the absence of more frequent posting which leads to the need for a giganto post. I will keep up better... if not for you than for me! :)

PHOTOS... AWAY!

CHECK IT OUT!

I'm off and running! I've been working with a good friend of mine who is an amazing photographer and he has gotten me the knowledge and equipment to get really excited about this! So... in order to get more experience under my belt and since I have had some requests already, I am running an awesome deal for anyone who wants some pictures done! Click on the icon to check out my photo blog for the details. Thanks to all who support!!

Bretton 18 Months

I had a dream the other night in which I saw a picture of Bretton that melted my heart. It inspired me to do his 18 month pictures since I don't really have any good ones of him since he was 4 months old. Cheesy? Maybe... but they all ended up melting my heart because we have ONE CUTE KID! Enjoy!

This one below is the picture I saw in my dream