2011 family photo shoot

We had a lot of fun doing our photo shoot. This park had peacocks roaming free. They were beautiful. The kids loved following them through the orange orchards.

Sneaking up. He almost caught that one! Not really.

I love this funny face picture. It's especially cute to me because Hazel just figured out how to make a funny face for the camera. Love it.

Angels? Or rascals? Both! I adore these little people.

I love the morning sun shining through the slats and the rustic garbage can. So fun.

I love him!

I really love him!

Aaron is a really good photographer. I'm proud to be his wife. Who would have thought an engineer could capture such beautiful pictures? And he's an incredible dad too. Dang, I'm lucky!

Ring in the new year!

I love New Year. We partied at home. Then partied at our neighbor's house. Then we partied more at home. It was great! Rootbeer floats, as usual, for New Year's Eve.

And funny faces.

More funny faces.

More.

And more still.

This was Lily's first time to stay up until midnight to ring in the New Year. Usually we celebrate midnight at about 7:00 p.m., put the kids to bed, then go to bed ourselves. But this year I decided to stay up until midnight and invite anyone else to join me. Lily joined in immediately. Aaron finally caved at the last minute and decided to stay up with us. We played dominos, drank sparkling apple cider, and watched our neighbors' fireworks from Lily's window. It was fun!

A few days later we got to see my brother, Jordan, and his family! They drove across the country for his internship. We were soooo excited that their drive took them through Flagstaff.

Hazel and Ian were excited to see each other again.

Jordan was excited to see LaMar's donuts again. He discovered these when they were living down here. So we surprised him with some. Yum.

Trick or treat!!

Trick or treat!!

"Trick or treat, smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!" Carter discovered that song this year. He thought it was pretty funny. Apparently Lily already knew the song, with the second verse, "If you don't, I don't care..." Carter heard it once and thought it was hilarious. Surprisingly, they sang it once, and, at my request, that was all. Now we just make knowing allusions to it and all smile at each other, rather than sing it over and over again.

I usually like to have a family theme for our costumes, but Lily knew early on that she wanted to be a vampire for Halloween. I was so surprised because we don't usually do "scary" things for Halloween. But Lily was set on it because she and her pals play vampires during recess. So she and her closest girl friend dressed as matching vampires for our church trunk-or-treat activity. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home, so I don't have a picture of the girls together. :(

3, 2, 1...blast off! I can't get enough of Carter the astronaut! I just think he's so darn cute. He wasn't dreaming of being an astronaut for Halloween, we just found this awesome costume and chose it on a whim. After we bought the costume he told me several times, "I don't really want to be an astronaut. I want to be an airplane coyote." Gosh, I just didn't know what that was. He explained that it's an airplane that looks like a coyote. I'm still trying to figure out how to make that costume...so we stuck with the astronaut!

Carter had a super fun party at preschool. I'm so glad I could go. I loved watching him play and do the freeze dance. It was the cutest thing. What made it so stinking cute was that he was watching his teacher, Minnie Mouse, for cues on how to dance. She'd swing her hips and move her arms up and down, and Carter would do the same. His eyes were almost always glued on her. It was adorable!

Can it get any cuter than this?!!? I had two costumes for her to choose from: a cute little witch or this rooster. She wouldn't have anything to do with the witch dress and hat...but she loooves this chicken suit. I love seeing her walk around in it...the tail bobs back and forth over her diaper-bum and the little wings flap as she runs around. I love it!

Ask her what a chicken says, and she'll tell you, "Bock, bock."

As happens more often than I'd like to admit, we took care of the kids and sort of neglected to take care of ourselves. :) At the last minute I pulled out these witch accessories that I've worn a million times, and Aaron pulled out these scrubs, and voila, there we are! Not too exciting, but at least we're dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating with our kids!

As is tradition, we visited our good friends on Halloween night. They had some extra special surprises for the kids. Four years ago Lily told them she loved Pixie Stix, and they've never forgotten. They give her a stash of them every year! (My kids love their cute dog, Scooby. He brushes his own teeth and loves to wear sunglasses!)

Sugar cookies

I love sugar cookies! I love being with my kids. This sugar cookie-making venture was the most fun we've had yet!

Working together! I love that my kids are becoming big helpers. They're doing more and more around the house to help out, and I love it!

Yummy anticipation!

Frosting cookies is work! Carter and Lily both frosted two each, I frosted the other 48.

Yummmm.

Attention to detail.

I just had to stick this one in because it's so cute! Hazel enjoyed her olives while we frosted cookies. It's funny to note that our cousin, Hannah, has a picture very similar to this on her blog this month. Hmm, they must be related!

Our masterpieces!

She didn't frost, but she sure did eat!

We had so much fun making sugar cookies that we did it again when our buddies came over. It was a lot of fun!

It's autumn time!

We don't exactly have autumn weather here. When it finally cools down, it's in the 90s. So I took my kids up to Flagstaff for some fall weather over a long weekend.

Our nature walk in the crisp air was so great! It helps that Uncle Neal plants crystals in his rock bed. My sweet aunt and uncle let us stay at their house. They were out of town and we missed playing with them. Carter was particularly bummed that Grandpa Neal wouldn't be there.

Gathering leaves, sticks, rocks, pine cones, and the like.

Cuteness!

Carter wouldn't smile for a picture. So I said something silly like, "There's a booger on your earlobe" and it got him smiling.

It snowed!!!! It was only a very tiny bit, and it melted when it touched the ground, but to us that was pretty darn exciting!

Hazy's first fall nature walk.

Lily sat down with a book, a mug of hot chocolate, and she was a happy girl on a cold afternoon. My daughter is just like me! She's a complete bookworm! I would read as much as she does, if I could. But I can't, because mommies have a lot of work to do. She's read over 2,000 pages for her school's read-a-thon in the last 5 weeks!

Carter was happy on this cold afternoon too: building for his vehicles. He played trains and cars all afternoon.

Hooray for long weekend trips!