Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have a wonderful and warm Holiday Season.  Unless there's snow.  Then it's okay if you're cold. ;)

*image credit Holly Aprecio Photography

*image credit Puzzle Piece Photography, yep that's me. :)

Playgroup Halloween Fun

Okay, so I WAS going to do better at blogging this year, but of course I haven't...  I do have a few excuses, it's been a crazy couple of months and I just got finished teaching my month of preschool for the co-op Preston is in which took a lot of time.  We were also in Utah without internet access for almost  a month this summer, and in Hawaii for a week.  Pictures of that to come sometime, I promise.  A few people have given me a hard time for not blogging (including my mom who want's to see pictures), so I figure it's best to start with today.  These pictures are from a few halloween parties we've had the last week.  

The playgroup Halloween party was today.  All the mom's did a great job putting together fun activities, and of course all the kids looked cute in their costumes.  Preston's a firefighter if you can't tell, his hat was shed early on during the party.

Candy toss.

For this activity they had to find the eyeballs in the noodles, I think they were bouncy balls.  Of course Carter just wanted to eat the noodles, and kept eating them... He's the dalmation dog.  Did you guess right?

I moved him away, but he kept going back for more.  Silly kid.  I promise I do feed him. :)

These last two are from our ward "pumpkin party" we had last Friday.  Of course we carved pumpkins, and Preston was determined to help Gabe with his scary faced pumpkin.  I know it's kind of hard to tell, but Carter is also hanging on Gabe's legs.  What can I say, he loves his daddy. :)

Happy Halloween everyone!  We're hoping it won't be TOO rainy when it comes time to trick-or-treat...

Thinking Green

I know that I promised to update this blog more regularly and haven't been doing a very good job. :(  We've been making a lot of changes around our house which includes a lot of sewing and painting for me which has been taking a lot of time.  On top of that we've been potty-training Preston, dealing with a teething baby, had Gabe's parents to visit for a few weeks, and working around lots of annoying computer problems.  All good things, except for the computer problems... and the teething baby I guess. :)  Anyway, Preston's been doing well with potty-training for the most part, and Gabe just reformatted the hard drive to my computer and it seems to be helping.  Plus, both of my boys are asleep at 9:30 in the morning, I think the potty training has been a little bit tiring for Preston... 

Anyway, I now would be as good a time as ever to try to get at least a few pictures out there.  Here are a few of the boys on St. Patricks Day.  I posted the one of them together on my photography blog, but I didn't want anyone who may not check that blog to miss out on their cuteness!  I bought these bow ties way before valentine's day at the dollar section of Target just for their St. Patrick's Day pictures.  Then of course, I forgot it was St. Patrick's Day until I got on my computer that morning and saw the google banner.  So I of course hurried and got my "studio" and my boys ready and we got a few keepers.  These boys sure do love each other, it seriously only took one try to get this!

These next two pictures have not been edited which is why they don't look as nice as the first one, but the boys sure are cute.  Preston is reaching for a rainbow in this one.

Carter's 6 Month Pictures

I posted Carter's 6 month pictures on my photography blog earlier today, and yes, I'm too lazy to post them again here.  They'll look better there anyway. ;)  So if you would like to see his smushy cuteness head on over here!

New Things

We've got all kinds of new things going on around here, and I figured it was about time I updated a few things.  We've been making a lot of changes around our house that I'm really excited about and will post pictures as soon as I feel it's ready... I promise. ;)

Preston is turning into such a big boy!  He amazes me everyday by how much he knows at just 2 1/2.  When did he get to be so big?  He absolutely LOVES singing, and memorizes almost every song he hears.  He also likes to make up songs which is very entertaining.  He, as always, LOVES building everything in sight and has recently discovered his love of puzzles.  Gabe took one out once when he was tired of playing (and losing) Candyland over and over again and Preston has been hooked ever since.  Gabe brought home a couple of 25 piece puzzles from the dollar store a few weeks ago and ever since Preston has talked about what a nice guy he is for bringing puzzles home.  Preston now has memorized where all the pieces go and can do both by himself easily. 

I remember when Preston was born I couldn't wait until I could have a conversation with him, and now sometimes I take for granted that he talks to me all the time!  Here are some of his cute quotes from the last couple of weeks.

Gabe was changing his diaper and said that Preston had a big log in his pants.  So Preston yelled out "It's a FROGGY LOGGY, I have a frog in my pants!"  I have no idea where he got that from, other than the fact that we sing a song that talks about a bullfrog sitting on a log.  Isn't he creative?

Gabe told me that while I was out shopping when day Preston asked where I was and so Gabe told him I was getting food for us.  He replied saying "Yea, Mommy won't let us down."  I think he's been watching too much of Thomas, the useful tank engine.

Last but not least, my favorite.  One day out of nowhere Preston started saying he wanted to go on a airplane to see Heavenly Father.  It's so hard to explain that Heaven isn't a place where we can visit, and that's why we have to say our prayers to Heavenly Father.  The next day as we were driving in the car he said "Mommy, I want to see the Jesus angel."  I had no idea what he was talking about so I asked him where he thought he could see that and he said "I want to see the Jesus angel like Joseph Smith, and Heavenly Father too."  I think he was hoping that they would come down to visit him.  That's when I had to explain to him that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that's why Heavenly Father came down to visit him.  He said he wanted to be a prophet too.  We'll see...  By the way, he wanted to visit Jesus and Joseph Smith in Heaven too.  I told him that one day he could see them in Heaven, but I hope not for a long time.  Maybe that's selfish of me... 

Anyway, Here's a recent picture of our cute, smartypants!

Now for Carter.  He is adored by his big brother, and he adores the dog!  It works out great!  He is a happy, easy going baby which makes things easier for me!  He is very social and hates being in a room by himself.  He's content playing with the dog, and dog toys, and dog food... unfortunately.  It his adorable how he and Bentley play together.  Bentley his more gentle with Carter than Carter is with him.  Carter has an obsession with hair just like his brother... I don't know how that happened.... so of course he loves petting Bentley.  He loves sucking his thumb, and absolutely loves his bear that he can't go to sleep without, and hasn't been able to since he was only a few months old.  He's crawling everywhere and loves getting into anything he's not supposed to have, especially paper.  He will bite chunks out of anything he can get his hands on with the help of his 8 teeth that he's had since he was barely seven months old.  He's a crazy baby, and we love him!

Okay, now for the last change going on around here.  I have officially set up my new photography WEBSITE and BLOG.  So if you're reading my old photography blog it will no longer be updated.  Check out my new photography blog for a chance to win a free photo session if you live near me, or in Utah!  I'm also posting a few more pictures of my boys there.  Let me know what you think. :)

A New Year

Since it's a new year I figured I should probably make a resolution - like most everyone else - to be better at posting.  It's pretty sad that I'm still doing posts from last August.  Since this is my journal, I'm going to keep going through those until I get up to date, in case you're wondering why it's summertime when it's actually 30 degrees outside. ;)  But for now here a just a few of our families over Thanksgiving break.  We were lucky to be able to see everyone from each of our families with the exception of my brother Royce who is still in Argentina serving his mission.

Our Little Family

Alycia's Family

Gabe's Family

We wish you all the best in 2010!

Who is this Handsome Family?

Check it out on my photography blog.  Comments are more than welcome as always.  I love hearing that people actually read my blogs, even when I'm a month behind on my posts! :)

Adorable Kiddos

Check out their pictures over at my photography blog.  Let me know what you think. ;)

Carter's 2 Months Old

Here's Carter on his 2 month birthday.  Isn't he sweet?

For the occasion I decided to take some pictures of him and some 2 year pictures of Preston. 

Of course we were late for church because I wanted to get some before Preston spilled food all over himself at nursery.

Lucky for me he even smiled for me because I promised to give him some candy... that doesn't work all the time.

What a sweet boy I have.

I love his entire outfit, but his new shoes are my favorite!

I did end up getting him to smile for me for a picture or two after church right before his nap. 

and he even held Carter for a picture or two.

I have a picture of Preston that he had taken at JCPenney when he was 6 weeks old in this same outfit, I decided to try to take a similar one of Carter.

My sweet little 2 month old.

Look how chubby his cheeks are getting!

I think I got some cute pictures considering the circumstances, Carter wasn't exactly happy....

At least Preston was, that's all I can say.

Too bad Carter was hungry.

Preston really enjoyed his candy and still kept letting me take his pictures.

Silly silly boys.

Later that night Preston went to give Preston a hug, but got a little too close. ;)

It's so cute to see them together, I'm excited to see them grow up!

My Beautiful Cousin

While I was in Utah my cousin Rachel asked if I could take some pictures of her before her mission.  We had a lot of fun together!  Check out pictures of this beautiful girl at my photo blog apieceofyourpuzzle.blogspot.com.

Tyler, Mara, and Ashton, but Mostly Ashton

Here's my brother Tyler with his beautiful wife Mara and their baby boy Ashton.  While I was in Utah they asked if I could take some family pictures of them after church.  We seriously only took pictures for about 10 minutes, but I think some of them turned out pretty good.  It helps when you have nice looking people to photograph!  Anyway, I've decided to start a photography blog as a place for me to post pictures I take of other people besides my own immediate family.  Check it at apieceofyourpuzzle.blogspot.com.  You can also access it from my sidebar.  Hope you enjoy!

Here is just a sneak peak of what you'll be missing if you don't stop by. ;)

Oh, and of course some snapshots of the adorable Ashton.

He was so alert when he was awake.

Look at how small his head is compared to her hand!

He has a slight resemblance to Gordon B. Hinckley in this one don't you think?

Sweet little profile.

He always slept with his hand up by his face.  So cute!