It's getting busy!

I have not been a good blogger lately. I have been consumed with getting things ready for Christmas. And it isn't even December yet! I have been taking family portraits of our friends, designing Christmas cards, gift shopping, designing my annual photo calendar, and trying to keep the kids behaving themselves so Santa might come.

We haven't put our tree up yet, but we are hoping to get that done tonight. And maybe I will get some other decorations up this weekend. We'll see...

PS. What do you think of the new look for my blog?

Thanksgiving weekend

We have had a fun, but busy Thanksgiving weekend. We celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Mary and Jeff (my sister and brother in law) were here. Mary did a fabulous job on the turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. My mom's sweet potatoes are definitely a favorite too! I contributed mashed potatoes, gravy, green salad, and pumpkin pie.

The kids had a great time playing outside while we prepared the food. This was their favorite thing to do...

Check out Abigail's face...

Watch out for J.T... he's a wild man!

We took a quick family picture after dinner.

Abigail and J.T. love to have Auntie and Uncle Jeff come visit!

On Friday morning, I did something I have never done before. I went shopping early on the day after Thanksgiving. Carolyn and Cara picked me up at 5:45 (Starbucks in hand!) and we headed to Eureka. We had a fun morning (we only shopped until about 9:30am) and found some great deals. We had to get back to Fortuna for the next event of the day....

On the Friday after Thanksgiving we try to go to South Fork Mountain to get our Christmas tree. We haven't done this in a few years but this year were able to go. The Parlatos were here so we loaded up two trucks and headed out! The kids had a great time playing in the snow. There was very little on the ground but just enough for them.

Here's J.T. and his friend Olivia. Ever since they were born, we've been saying they will have an arranged marriage. Hopefully they still like each other in 25 years.

Abigail likes to play with Olivia too. They are both the big sisters in their families.

After we got all the Christmas trees loaded up, we took a few pictures. Yes, I am actually in a picture (thanks Carolyn!), even though J.T. wasn't too excited about it!

Last, but not least, we took one of Matt and his mom, Karen, and Andy and his mom, Pam. The moms have been friends since they can remember, and the guys have been friends since birth.

On Friday night, we had the Renner family (Andy's mom's side) reunion dinner. The kids had a fun time chasing balloons around the room and coloring on the (paper) tablecloths. Overall, it's been a great weekend!

Fall pictures

I have been wanting to take some fall pictures of the kids outside, but I haven't had the chance. Today I took some for a project that I am working on. They aren't spectacular, photographically speaking, but that's okay. Here's a few that I took...

I think we're done...

Thanks for looking!

"Southern Living at Home" party

One of the reasons that Kristen came to visit was to put on a Southern Living at Home party for me. She became a consultant a couple of months ago and I agreed to host a party if she would make the drive up here. Hopefully she isn't sorry she agreed to that! ;) It is a very long drive!

The party was lots of fun, and we all were able to see and purchase some beautiful items. Thanks to those of you who came to the party and placed orders. I even received some orders from a few ladies who couldn't make it to the party.... thanks to all of you also! The order should be here within two weeks... just in time for Christmas!

Thanks again ladies!

Weekend visitor

This past weekend, my friend Kristen came to visit. It was so great to see her! She arrived on Friday afternoon. That evening, Kristen, Andy and I went to Arcata for sushi. I thought it was great. We had our Southern Living at Home party (Kristen is a consultant) on Saturday morning. That afternoon, we went to Ferndale for lunch and to look around. She left early this morning to head home. Here's a quick picture we took before she left this morning.

We lived on the same floor in the dorms at Cal Poly State University. Then, we were roommates for three years. Yes, that's right.... she lived with me for three years and she still likes me! :)

Here's a quick trip down memory lane. First, here's graduation day at Cal Poly... June 14, 1997. (ignore the fact that I look weird in this picture).

A little over a year later, Kristen was a bridesmaid in our wedding... October 24, 1998.

Then a few years later, I returned the favor... June 29, 2002.

Because we live 7 hours apart, we don't get to see each other very often. It was great to catch up! Hopefully we will get to see each other more often in the future.

Crazy week!

I can't believe it's been over a week since I posted on my blog. It's been a busy week.

On Monday the kids were at Andy's mom's all day (thanks Pam!) since it was a holiday. Andy and I went out to the hills to the ranches we lease out there. It was a rainy, yucky day!

On Wednesday we shipped out our last load of calves. Hooray! On Wednesday evening, part of my stove-top broke. Then my oven broke on Thursday morning! As you can imagine we've been eating out a lot. I am actually getting tired of it. A repairman is coming out on Monday to fix them... hopefully. Good thing I am not cooking Thanksgiving!

This past weekend my friend Kristen came to visit. I will post a little more about that later.

Lots of photography this week

This has been such a crazy week but in a good way. I was lucky enough to get to do a lot of photography. On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, I took photos of my friend Kim's preschool kids. We did a class photo and then individual shots of each of them.

On Tuesday, we did the four year olds. They were a silly bunch! It is so hard to get a photo where they are all looking, no one has their eyes closed, and no one was hiding from me (this did happen actually!).

On Wednesday we did the three year olds. This was a little more challenging. First of all, there were twice as many of them... and I think some of them were afraid of either me or my camera. We got it done though! And I did learn that I am MUCH more patient with other people's kids than my own! I had a great time and am pretty happy with how they turned out. Hopefully the parents will be too!

Here's a couple of the individual ones... Aren't they totally adorable!

This morning, I moved on to a newborn. This is baby Evan and he was so good! And he stayed awake the whole time. It is so easy to forget how little they are right after they are born! It almost makes me want another one... shhhhh! don't tell Andy that I said that! These are a couple of my favorites...



Before this past week, I had been in funk concerning my photography. I haven't even really been interested in doing it lately. It felt really good to get back into it. It made me realize how much I enjoy doing it for friends and family. I am not sure if it would be this much fun doing it for someone I didn't know. Anyway, I really enjoyed myself this week! Thanks to Kim and Christina (and all the kids) for helping me get out of my funk!

Over the weekend

This past weekend, the four of us went to Grants Pass, Oregon to visit Chet and Karen (Andy's dad and step-mom). We had never been up there so the kids were very excited. We got there on Friday evening.

On Saturday morning we all headed out to do some shopping. In the afternoon, Karen and I headed to the new Spa at their health club. It was gorgeous on the inside! I tried a massage for the first time and it was fabulous! Karen had her feet pampered with a pedicure. It was very relaxing! While we were there, Chet and Andy took the kids to KidZone which is also part of their health club. They had a blast!

It was a great weekend! We hope to get up there again next summer for a jet boat ride.

I didn't take very many pictures... just a couple right before we left to come home.

Trick or Treating

Last night we did our version of Trick or Treating. We visited a few friends and family's houses. We don't do the door-to-door thing... yet. Someday I am sure we will get the request to do so. Here's a couple pictures that I took last night.


Hope you all had a great Halloween!