Random October

October 2012

A few random photos and events from the month of October.

One afternoon before heading out to preschool, I realized that Matthew and Emily were both in blue stripes. We had to take a picture of course. 

 Jacob had a scout fishing activity during the month. Jeff was on call at the hospital, so I loaded up all four kids and we went up to enjoy the evening with the scouts together. The younger kids ran around playing together while the scouts all tried their best to catch a fish. Maybe it was the time of day, or the bait, (or probably the younger kids chucking rocks and sticks into the water), No one caught anything that night, but I think everyone still had a fun time. There were treats afterwards and you don't get much better than enjoying a warm fall night outside with friends!

Emily is at such a fun age. I love that she is my little buddy everywhere I go. She's always such a great sport and loves coming along no matter where we go! We had to make a stop at the grocery store, and of course we had to try out the .25cent horse ride on the way out. It was fun, even though it lasted like 4 minutes! We definitely got our money's worth!

I'm not sure why I didn't have many pictures at Halloween, and I honestly don't know where Caleb had disappeared to during the picture-taking, but here is one of our lone Halloween pictures. We were just grateful that we ended up with a decently warm night for trick-or-treating! Kids loved it as always! I really love Halloween, especially around our neighborhood. I do find it interesting though, trick-or-treating ends really early around here. Most people have their lights off by 8pm!

 One morning, Emily just could not decide which cereal she wanted. I think I splurged and got a couple of cereals I don't get very often. Anyway- she said she wanted both, so I decided 'what the heck' and just gave her a small bowl of each. I thought it was pretty funny watching her eat.

If you can tell a lot about a girl from the contents of her purse, what should I know about a 2-year old that carries around a 15 pound boulder? Seriously?!

It doesn't seem right to be building snowmen before carving pumpkins, but we ended up having a small snowstorm the week before Halloween. The kids were all pretty excited. We didn't have anywhere to be, so Matthew, Emily and I put on our snow clothes and went out to play in the snow and build a snowman. I love spending time with these two.

One night we decided to take the kids to a movie. Afterwards we were talking about what to do for dinner. We rarely go out to eat as a family- we like to keep it for special occasions- but we decided it would be fun to take everyone to eat. We tried Fudruckers for the first time- it was a fun little place and the kids were so excited! Especially because they got to choose a drink out of the soda fountain.

 One afternoon, we went to visit Jeff at his office. I also had a doctor's appointment, so Jeff told me to just leave Emily with him for the 30 minutes or so that it took. When I got back, Jeff showed me this picture. He had to step out for a few minutes to see a patient, so he just had Emily wait in another waiting room and let her play on an office ipad. Needless to say, she wasn't sad at all. I thought the picture of her in the big exam chair was pretty cute.

Matthew had a pajama party at school one afternoon. I don't know what the deal was- maybe it's because it was around Halloween, but Emily was insistent on wearing her princess dress. She's been pretty excited about them lately. Normally I make her wear normal clothes, but I decided to just let her go in the princess dress. I think it's kind of cute- and these little girls will only love their cute little dress ups for so long.

One more picture from Halloween. Emily and our cute little neighbor Sasha. They were both dressed as princesses for Halloween. Sasha is a little older than Matthew, but she's always been one of Emily's special friends. We just love her.

Jeff got off early one afternoon, so we took the kids to choose pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch. (aka Walmart this year) The real pumpkin patches are fun, but it just seems crazy how much they want for their pumpkins! Walmart had the best deal around, and the kids were excited to choose out the biggest pumpkins they could find. We used the money we saved to get some ice cream- and enjoyed some ice cream cones at home.

 This picture cracks me up. I was trying to put together some outfits for family pictures. I was having Matthew try on a couple different things to see what I liked best. You can see from his face how he felt about the whole ordeal. This little boy just melts my heart- even when he's not too happy about what's going on.

4 Months- 16 Weeks

October 2012

I hit 4 months/16 weeks on October 26th. I've had a few family members asking for a belly shot- so here it is. Not too exciting yet, but that will change for sure in the next few weeks.

 It seems like the first 14 weeks or so go by pretty slow, but it always seems like once you hit that 2nd trimester, the time really starts to fly. I've been feeling this baby since about 13 weeks. I know it's early- baby must be in a good spot, and this being the 5th time around, I know exactly what it feels like. I love that part- I love feeling the baby move. It makes it feel more real and exciting. We will hopefully be able to find out what we're having in about a month or so. We can't wait!

Family Pictures 2012

October 2012

 We had our good friend Kristie Black do our family pictures this year. But after I got my new Nikon D600, the temptation of wanting to try it out was just too great. So on Sunday afternoon- right after Stake Conference- (which was nice because everyone was ready with hair done anyway) I made everyone go out to do a few more family pictures, just a couple days after Kristie took our original ones- I hadn't even seen them yet. The kids weren't too thrilled about the idea of yet another family picture shoot- but they cooperated once the word 'ice cream' was mentioned.
We just went about a mile down the road to a little area with a river and a bridge. I promised everyone it would be a quick session, and it really was. I moved everyone around to a few different areas for some different pictures, and we were out of there in about 30 minutes.
The only problem was that I had forgotten to bring my remote, which meant I was setting the self timer and running back to get into every picture. Being 4 months pregnant & wearing heels, I was definitely feeling it by the end!
I thought everything turned out great. I thought we got some fun pictures, and the kids actually enjoyed being out because it was such a beautiful day and we let them play for a little while afterwards. Actually, we were the ones having to prod to get everyone back into the car because they were having fun outside. We did get everyone back, we had some pictures where everyone was looking, we all enjoyed ice cream, and mom was happy. The end.

 Kind of a funny story. When we were finished with pictures, I told Jeff I wanted to get a couple of just the two of us. Emily was cold and wanted to sit in the car that was right there, about 40 feet from where we were taking the pictures. So we just let her stay in the car while we finished up. Well, apparently she decided not too long afterwards that she wanted to get out. Except she didn't know how to open the door and we couldn't hear her calling. Needless to say, she wasn't too happy when we came back after our quick10 minutes. Jeff was trying to make her happy again, and I just took a couple pictures. I thought they were pretty funny and showed that sassy little personality pretty well. We love our Emmers.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

October 2012

For months leading up to Matthew's 5th birthday, if you asked him what he wanted, you would get the same answer. Superhero costumes. Specifically Captain America and Ironman. It made it pretty easy for me- and as a bonus- Matthew's birthday is just a couple weeks before Halloween so it works out  perfectly! We had a pretty simple birthday celebration as a family. Matthew got a couple of fun toys, and his favorites were definitely the superhero costumes. We spent the rest of the night watching all the kids run around playing superheroes. I'm really going to be sad the day that they're all too old for it. I love these fun little kids! I really have to say that 5-year old boys are so much fun and so entertaining. We are so grateful for Matthew and the sweet, funny, competitive, determined, and thoughtful little personality he brings to our family!

 For his birthday, Matthew was also able to choose a special treat to take to preschool. It makes me laugh because we've done the same treat for a few years- but Matthew just really loves these rice krispy pumpkin treats. So that's what we did. Happy Birthday Matthew! I can't believe you're already 5 years old!

Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year my D600 is here!

October 2012

During the month of October, I had a fun surprise. My birthday had been spent driving across the country to get to a wedding- I was fine with that. I hadn't' been feeling the greatest, so I told Jeff that I really didn't want to celebrate my birthday- I was perfectly fine skipping it that year. Well, a couple months later, I still didn't mind, but I think Jeff was still feeling a little bad that we hadn't done anything- not a cake or present. 

We had been talking about getting a new camera at some point. We had bought our first DSLR, the Nikon D50 in 2005, a few months after Caleb was born. It had been a wonderful camera and gotten lots of great use. Over the years I have become more interested in photography, but at just 6 megapixels, my options for larger photo prints were pretty limited with the D50. The quality just isn't as good on a 7 year old camera. We had thrown around the idea of a new camera for a while. With the new models coming out- and some exciting ones at that- Jeff decided it was time. I knew I wanted another Nikon, and with Jeff's great research- he ordered the Nikon D600. We had been looking at a couple models- one was cheaper and I thought for sure that was the one Jeff was going to order. I was fine with that, and thought it would be a great camera. I was pretty surprised when I opened the package and found the D600! It was  a little more expensive than some of the other models we had been looking at- but when we considered how long we keep cameras, and what I was hoping to do with photography- I guess Jeff thought it was the perfect option. 

Jeff called it my belated birthday present. I called it birthday and Christmas for a couple years! But it truly felt like the most exciting holiday when I got that package in the mail! (We got a couple of lenses as well). I am finally starting to learn the manual settings and I'm really looking forward to learning more about the camera and having fun experimenting. Now if my kids will just be willing subjects! I'm especially excited to have the D600 now that we'll be expecting a new baby in the spring!

Of course I was excited to test it out as soon as it came- so Matthew and Emily got to be my on the spot subjects. I have a lot to learn, but it was fun to just try it out! It really was the best present I could have ever dreamed for!

Family Pictures by Kristie

October 2012

 I love to get our family pictures done during the fall when the leaves are changing color and everything looks beautiful. This year, I decided to have my friend Kristie Black, a fantastic photographer, do them for us. She scouted out a perfect location and we met up one evening to do a little family shoot. It was so nice to have her there to tell us where to go and how to stand, etc. I loved the location and how much fun it was to have someone else taking the pictures! Definitely a lot less stressful and I know my kids liked her telling them what to do much better than mom! She really did a fantastic job- I was so happy with the pictures. Now we've got them hanging throughout our home!