i never did get around to doing christmas cards this year. so merry christmas and happy new year from our family to you!

finally!

i finally decided to give in and cut evan's hair. The final straw was when dan had all the kids at the store and someone told him he had four lovely daughters. i still left it somewhat long, but it is much shorter than before. here is a before picture of the back of his hair. he had quite a mullet going on!

and here is his haircut after his bath. his hair looks much darker because it's wet

just a few...

busy, busy, but just wanted to share a few from some recent shoots :)

apples!

a few weeks ago i bought 10 lbs. of apples for a really low price. we have been in apple heaven ever since. i have made 3 apple crisps and 4 apple pies this past week. tomorrow i am going to attempt applesauce. any other ideas of what to make with apples?

a great book!

i read this book on our trip to Utah and absolutely loved it. written journal style, the story is about Sarah's (the main character) life in the Arizona Territory in the late 1800s. she is a strong, smart young woman who is good with the gun and can do it all. the book is filled with her encounters with Indians and outlaws, immigrants and soldiers, one soldier in particular. this is a beautifully written book and i just can't say enough good things about it. i highly recommed it.

snow, snow, and more snow

that pretty much sums up our thanksgiving in utah. it snowed the whole time we were there and it was soooo cold! the girls had a blast playing in all the snow with their cousins! they loved it :)

elayna, kyla, and cousin lily

isaac found this huge snow/ice chunk that he was really excited to show me.

avery with her hair all in her eyes. she ran out the door before i had a chance to pull it back. she was so excited to play outside in all the snow

the rest of the week was spent indoors relaxing, watching movies and eating lots of really yummy food! we had a great time visiting with all of dan's family. everyone was there! last time we were in utah, a few spouses and our girls were not there. this time every member of the family was present. so of course we had to do some group photos. we did the photos outdoors and it lasted all of maybe ten minutes before we all decided to go back to dave's house for the rest of the photos. it was unbearably cold that day!

everyone except for me and andy. andy got the full group shot on his camera.

before leaving the park, i took a few family photos for andy and loya.

one of dan and i

we really had a great time with all the family. we even got to see my brothers and sister-in-law. jeremy and philip joined us thanksgiving day. it was so good to see everyone!

happy first birthday!

went to the park last week to take some photos of my friend's baby who just turned a year old. can't believe it's already been a year! we also got some of big brother. they are so cute together!

birthday girls...

this past weekend we celebrated my nieces birthdays with all the family at my sister's home. we spent the whole weekend with them and squeezed in a quick family photoswap before we left. it didn't last very long though because the kids were tired from their sleepover and just wanted to play on the playground. here's a few of my cute nieces and nephews.

pretty birthday girl

more to come. thanks emily and brian for the fun weekend!

Halloween

here's a few pics of the kids in their halloween costumes. elayna wanted to be a vampire.

she made this cute little bat to go with her costume

kyla wanted to be a rockstar. we couldn't find a glitter mic so she used the "magic mic" as her prop :)

avery was a butterfly fairy

evan was a pumpkin and didn't want to cooperate much for the pics. the lollypop at least got him to sit still for a second

he didn't like when we put the top part on his head

more halloween fun...

last week we had a little halloween party for the activity day girls. they painted pumpkins, played halloween games, and made these witch's hands. these are made by filling a plastic glove with candy corn and popcorn.

i made these cupcakes for the party. i found the treat toppers at walmart.

today avery and i made these cute owl cupcakes. i got the idea from my sister jessica who saw it on this blog. i will be making more to bring to our church "trunk or treat" party on saturday.

halloween fun...

last night dan and i attended a super fun halloween party. everyone was supposed to dress as a d-list celebrity. i dressed up as octomom and won a prize in the costume contest!

...and dan was dressed as octomom's fertility doctor :)