Color me bad...(Oh wait) Mine

A lovely time we had at Color Me Mine a few weeks ago! I love hanging out with my girls. Reagan decided that it was her very most favorite place in the whole wide world and wants to live there when she grows up...we're sure going to miss her :(. Kaitlin, although not quite as enthusiastic as Reagan loved it too! I tried my hand at painting a bowl for My Love for Father's Day and ending up wiping the whole thing clean and starting over 3 different times because he couldn't possibly be expected to eat cereal or ice cream from a flawed orange bowl! I finally accepted the fact that I'm not the best ceramic painter in the world and will forever see the vision that I had for that bowl in my brain and that is just going to have to be good enough! He Loved it anyway...my perfect simple dear husband! For the three days that it took to get our pieces back, all Reagan could talk about was how she was going to eat a piece of garlic bread on her brand new flower plate that she made all by her very own self. I don't even know how she was able to chew her garlic bread with the great big smile she had on her face through the entire dinner. And my darling sweet Kaitlin's beautiful mug met it's untimely demise not even two days home from the Riverwoods...as I was loading the dishwasher that day, the handle hit the edge of the sink and broke into two pieces. My ever so sweet Kaitlin was so gracious about it because she knew I felt horrible about breaking her art! I guess we'll just have to go back again!
I've been meaning to photograph the finished pieces for weeks now, I'll get them up soon for sure! They look so great!!! (The girls' do anyway).

Family Reunion Schedule

Here it is...you can click on the image to make it bigger!

Bette's FAVES

Fabulous Family Night

SHOOT... I totally meant to post this earlier and tell you what a fun time we had at the Children's Museum at The Gateway! I hope everyone (that wanted to) had a chance to go and see "The Body" Exhibit with Sesame Street. Reagan and Bette learned SO much about everything from how our brains work to digestion and poop...wowsers, they covered just about everything.
This was one of the funnest family nights! We started the night off at Rodizio Grill in Trolley Square. I absolutely LOVE eating at Rodizio or Tucano's with Reagan because every time one of the servers would come by with their huge skewers of meat, Reagan would ask "Is that steak?" and if they said yes, she'd say "YES!!!! I want it!". By the time we left I swear she had eaten her weight in steak. And I feel it's also important to note that she actually tried, and LOVED the Rattlesnake! She is the last person on earth that I could ever imagine eating rattlesnake but she surprised us! She has a great time watching people cringe when she tells them all about it!
After our amazing dinner we headed off to The Gateway. Blake and Kaitlin decided that they would rather go shopping at Zumies and PacSun then go to the Children's Museum so they had a great time bonding with their dad and I had a blast with the little ones! This is a rather interesting time in our lives, I knew there would come a day when Blake and Kailtin would be "too cool" for the things they used to love, I just didn't think it would come this soon. They are such wonderful kids though, andI wouldn't miss this for the world!!!

Blake's First "Melodrama"

Check out how much taller he is than the rest of the 6th graders...We have no idea how that happened...we're all such shorties in our fam.

Dashing Dan Saves the Day!!! Blake was a total Rock Star in his first Play at School. He played the Hero who saved Beauty Bell from Robbers...or something...I think that's what the 6th grade play was all about! It was so great to see him up on stage working his magic! We were so proud of him, he was a total natural. We thought that he'd totally want to be in more plays after seeing how great he did, but after the show, the first thing he said in the car was "Man I'm glad that's over with, I don't think I ever want to act again!". He's lucky I'm not a psycho stage mother :0).
Anyway...Great Job Bud, WE LOVE YOU!!!

Wonderful Week....

What a completely just WONDERFUL week we've had with the LOVE OF MY LIFE being home!!!!
This is the first whole week that he's been able to take off since before Ava was born (we planned and saved two weeks vacation time for when Ava was born so we could have those days, that we'll never get back, to just spend with her and rest and not worry about work...but that didn't get to happen because, to put it lightly, one of the guys he worked with pretty much had no soul) But now...oh these last few days have been GLORIOUS! We'll save our traveling vacations for later,(when Ava can tolerate being in her car seat for more than 20 minutes) we just wanted to have a great relaxing week and we SO HAVE! Monday, Blake took Blakey and Kaitlin long boarding in the canyon...all they've been able to talk about since then is...long boarding in the canyon again! My children have the most absolutely perfect dad for them! He truly cares about their individual interests and loves them so much! He always walks through the door after a crazy day of work with his arms wide open for hugs and a HUGE smile on his face!!! These are the moments that matter most and he dedicates his life to making these moments last! Tuesday and Wednesday, were spent in and on the yard, Reagan and Kaitlin caught a butterfly. Reagan also got 2 new rose bushes this year, every year she gets a new rose bush for her birthday-because her middle name is Rosemary! Thursday was definitely memorable... I spent the day shooting Ben and Alicia's wedding ( loved it...I'll post about that in the next little while) and while I was at the Salt Lake Temple I met my very most favorite Photographer in all the world KATE BENSON!!!!!!!!! (Can you believe it Karalee...we were just admiring her work the night before). I saw her walk by and I completely just froze because I had only seen pictures of her on her website- And she is as stunningly gorgeous as her work...WOW! Anyway, later we were in the same area and I couldn't help but ask if she was Kate Benson and when she said she was I was just like a gushing idiot...I seriously almost started to cry! I hope she doesn't think that I'm a total psycho... But I want to be just like her when i grow up!!! She is absolutely AMAZE-A-ZING!!! And to top that off, every once in a while I would look up and see my dear cute hubs with baby Ava in her carrier on his chest, and pushing a stroller with Reagan and Bette inside. He so graciously came along with me so Reagan could match the flowers on the temple grounds, and so Ava wouldn't have to wait to long to be fed, and most importantly to be there to support me and offer me his beautiful reassuring smile because he knew that I was nervous out of my brain!!! I can't even say how much I ABSOLUTELY, TRULY, LOVE THAT MAN WITH EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE!!!! One night I was climbing up the stairs at 3:30 in the morning after working on pictures and he came walking down the hall because he came to find me, but then he couldn't go back to sleep because he's used to getting up that early and eating breakfast, so we shared some left-over Chinese food at 3:30 in the morning..."I live for little moments like that!"
Ahhh, what a wonderful time we've had...watched my new FAVE movie "Dan in Real Life" five million hundred times...was pleasantly surprised to find that "The Office" is in the funny groove again ( I was super worried about how weak last week's episode was) but when I watched this week's episode on-line tonight...Heck yes "The Office" is back. This episode had me "AAAAAHHHHWWWWWW-ing and gasping and laughing the whole way through and Jim telling Pam that his proposal is going to kick her a**--- probably my new favorite line from a sitcom EVER!!!!
Sorry this was so long...even sorrier that I have no pictures to show, I didn't dare do anything with my camera out of fear that something tragic would happen to it and I'd have problems with the wedding pictures and when we took Blake's camera with us to the zoo today - With our BFF's - The memory card was full...figures! I'll leave you though with a little somethin' somethin' that I like to call MY NEW FAVE MOVIE!!!

"this corn looks like an angel"

Jordan