Early Christmas and Jax's first Ski Trip

I can't believe that Christmas is only just over a week away! It really sneeked up on me this year. We haven't done ANY Christmas shopping yet so one day this week Brady and I have to get a babysitter and go shopping for the kids. We've just been so busy and overwhelmed with other things.

Mom and Bill came up for a few days to have an Early Christmas Holiday. It was a fun weekend (except for the flood in the bathroom, but that's another story....) They took Brady, Marcus, Jax, Abbie and Micah skiing up at 49. They all had a blast. Jax was thrilled of course, and I hear he did an amazing job for his first time skiing. The teacher told Brady that we are going to have quite the dare devil on our hands, but we already knew that. :) I stole this picture off of Mom's blog since I didn't have one!
(Thanks mom!)

The kids are outside playing with Daddy in the snow. They had a big day of snowy fun planned for today, and then we'll go to Bible Study tonight at Dave and Janelle's. I hear them all coming in now so I should go fix some hot cocoa to warm them all up!
Talk to ya'll soon!
Love, Lani

Vance's Happy 2!

Janelle beat me to posting pics of Vance's Happy 2 so now I have to get my booty moving! :>) I'm such a distracted mommy lately!
Dave and Janelle and the kids came over and helped us make a party for Vancey (last minute). They brought cute posters to hang on the doors and presents for the birthday boy. He had a great time, although for some reason he thinks he's 4 instead of 2!

Snow! ( and then rain)

Well, we got our snow! It was lovely. We had about 6 or 7 inches of snow on Sunday morning. The kids and I went out and enjoyed it because we knew that the rain was coming..... and it did. We were hoping they were wrong. Now our beautiful snow is almost all gone! We're crossing our fingers for more snow toward the end of the week.

Brady is in San Diego this weekend. He'll be coming home tomorrow night!

Tomorrow I have a Doctor's appointment. I can't believe I'm already in the third trimester! I am so not ready to have another baby. :>0

Please keep Brady in your prayers as he works on getting the business going again. Also, please pray for God to provide for the birth of this baby. At this point we are without insurance so we would appreciate your prayers that we would be able to get insurance or that the finances would be provided.

I have cute pics of the kids playing in the snow, I'll post them as soon as I can!
Love, Lani

The beginning of the Christmas Season

Yes, Thanksgiving is over and that means that we can now listen to christmas music and make fudge and put up the tree! We had a very nice Thanksgiving holiday at Shan's, Aunt Kathy and Robyn came and it was so good to see them and visit with them! It was such a nice day.
On Friday, we bundled up the kiddos and took them downtown to see the Christmas Parade and Lighting show. It was extremely cold, but so much fun. We met at the some friend's house and had hot chocolate, and then headed to the parade to see Santa! It was so nice to have that small town community feeling again, everyone talking to each other, big "rigs" and work trucks decked out in Christmas lights..... Brady and I laughed because the second night we were here we went for pizza at Papa Murphy's, and everyone who came in for pizza was dressed in Carhardts, flannel and workboots---and it was so refreshing and familier!
Anyway, after the parade we headed over to the resort and watched the amazing fireworks and all the beautiful Christmas lights come on.
We're planning on taking a walk along the boardwalk and seeing all the lights sometime in the next few weeks. Hmmm.... then maybe we'll stop in for some hot chocolate.......
Ahh, Christmas is my favorite time of year!

We're so thankful to grandma and grandpa for letting us borrow their home for a few months while we settle in. We love you guys!
We're hoping for snow this week, supposedly tomorrow night is the night! The boots and snowsuits are ready and waiting...

Love to all!

Road Trip'n

Normally, I dread long tedious drives, but in this case, my photographic senses were going crazy on this beautiful trip...through 5 states no less. It took driving through 24 hours of varied weather, from snow blizzards, to rain, to just wind, clouds and the open road, to pull myself from the monotony of 80 degrees and sun. I have decided that I am now ready for all the "I told you so's" because it is just great to be home. Many people had said that we would be back within the year, which was almost true. At least we have come back with a new appreciation for the great northwest. I wouldn't trade our adventure and experience for the world though. I can now say that I've seen fire and I've seen rain, I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought I'd see you again. Also, thanks for the warm welcome?
Here are a few more shots from out trip. Just click on any image to view it larger.

Fires

This is a picture over the ridge from our house on the day we were evacuated from the fires. I think it ended up coming to within 4 miles or so, but at this point it was probably 10 miles from us. It was too smoky so we "evacuated" ourselves to mom's house,where they had the humidifier going full strength, and then got the mandatory evacuation order shortly after we arrived there. It was a crazy day! We tried later in the evening to go back in but they had everything completely blocked with Police cars and National Guard and weren't letting anyone cross the I-15 back to Scripps Ranch and Poway. So we spent the night at Jerry and Jessica's, and were able to go back the next afternoon. It was crowded, as Jer and Jess had Johnny and Brooke Pearson in town for the weekend, so we were all crowded into their 1 bedroom apartment. But, they were so nice and hospitable and fed and sheltered us until we could go home. :>)

In other unrelated news.....

Everyone probably already knows that we are moving back this weekend!
We are very excited to go home, and have snow for Christmas, and see all of our friends and family again!
See you all soon!

It's a......................

GIRL!!!
Yay! Her name is Lilah.

Halloween

We took our adorable little ones to our Churches Harvest Party on Halloween. They bring in all kinds of carnival rides and games and give out loads of candy (of course). They had tons of fun and ate way too much candy and promptly got sick with colds by the weekend! It was fun.

Other monumental occasions...

Vance has graduated to a Big Boy Bed! He wouldn't stay in his crib anymore. Every night he would say "Mother and Father, being trapped in this cage is an insult to my intelligence" and would promptly climb out of his crib and fall asleep in Jaxson's bed. (yes, we have very smart children) :>) So we graduated him to his own bed, and he now stays in his bed all night long!

Ellie turned 4!!!!!

Ellie is now a big four year old! We had a nice birthday for her with a pretty flower cake and nice presents from everyone. Her present from Mommy and Daddy was.... a bike! She loves it and is doing very well learning to ride...but she doesn't like to go too fast.

Family Fun Night

Last weekend we had a fun day and took the kids to the park by our house to ride bikes and run in the grass. Then we came home and made snacks and played board games until bedtime. It was a fun day!

Fat picture......

5 Months

It needs no other explaination.......

This, That and the Other Thing

Brady has been telling me that I'm terrible at blogging lately and I'm afraid he's probably correct. We've been very busy with school, Dr's appointments, dentist appointments etc. etc. etc.....
Ellie is going to have some dental surgery....yikes! One of her top, front teeth needs a baby root canal! The dentist said that she either fell and hit her tooth and broke the root, or her aggressive thumb sucking has broken the root, therefore causing her tooth to decay. No cavities though, so that's good. :>) Anyway, she has an appointment next week with the pediatric dentist who will be doing the surgery. Poor girl.....
I am doing well and so is baby. Honestly this pregnancy seems to be flying by. We will be finding out the sex of the baby in about three weeks!
Brady and I are getting ready for a quick weekend trip North. Brady has a couple of jobs there and we are picking up a minivan that we bought from Kevin Earnest and driving it back down. The kids will be staying here with grandma and papa. It should be an adventure.
Signing off now so I can fix dinner!

They Got it From Their Father

You probably wouldn't know it, but it was 105 degrees during this photo shoot. We were sweating miserably and the kids were being chaotic. That's what makes the end product so nice. It just makes it hard for people to believe how hard I actually work during a session when they haven't seen me photograph children, especially my own. And no, these aren't their graduation portraits, but they are growing up so fast. We just started the project of creating a movie out of all of our video footage and we are discovering how fast time really goes. At least it's a good reminder not to take any day with your kids for granted.

Brady

Jaxson turned 6!

Yes, I do realize that Jaxson's birthday was over a month ago, but I'm a little slow on these things...... :>)
He had a great time, we spent the morning in the pool and then had some cake and icecream and presents. I can't believe he's six years old. Wasn't he 1 just yesterday? Time goes by so quickly. He's a great kid!!