Thanksgiving and Christmas Prep

We headed back to Knoxville to be with the Marets for Thanksgiving. Thank you to them for hosting us, not just for the day, but for 2 nights and 3 days. :-) We had a lovely time.

As you can see there were puppies everywhere again. Last time there were 4 grown dogs and 1 puppy, now there were (including Chinook) 4 grown dogs and 5 puppies! Oh the joy that ensued. These poor puppies were subject to much dramatic play these few days! All were given names and positions in their 'family' and personalities and everything. The kids had a ball with them.
This little Black puppy, the only black one in a litter of 5 puppies was a favorite to all. Here he is being played with, or possibly tortured by Aiden. Rides in the wheelbarrow fun for some, downright frightening for others. :-)
Cute Aiden! Don't cha just want to squeeze him?!? MWAAA, it must be that curly hair!
And the spread, for all the piggilies. MMMM. 2 smoked turkeys. Smoked by Heathers dad. Yummo. A giant Ham, potatoes, cornbread casserole (which I tried my hand at a few weeks later and failed miserably), sweet potatoes, green beans (southern style), and deserts galore! Oh what a feast, and what fabulous company. I know this is a stinky picture of Don and Alex, but it's the best pic of the spread of food. YUM! Um, did I tell you guys thanks for that? yeah, thank you. :-)
This is a little piece of heaven for me! I LOVE DOGS! I LOVE puppies even more! Here I am, sitting in a chair w/ 6 dogs! Yeah me!! I was So content under this pile of K9's I can't even tell you. I swear if I never met Brent I would be the crazy dog lady down the street. :-)

That night Don and I went to the "day after thanksgiving sale" at Walmart. We left the house at about 2 am, arrived at undisclosed secretly quieter (LOL, not really) Walmart at 3 am. Stood in line for 3 hours to purchase a lap top for $198!!! We had a good time! We chatted it up pretty good, and played a little name that tune on my i pod. I taught Don how to play Yatzee (who doesn't know how to play yatzee??? Seriously!) and all in all had fun hanging out with perfect strangers all around us. It was crazy to witness how many lunatics go out to these events. Seriously psycho behavior! We spent the rest of the day light recovering from our all nighter and then headed out with the families to CiCi's pizza, and then to the tree lighting event in Knoxville.
Don and Heather, waiting for the tree to light up.
Katie and Aiden wishing we could see SOMETHING from where we were standing. They had a little show with dancers and santa, but we couldn't see anything.
Aiden and Don. He is SO dang cute. Aiden that is. :-)
Katie and Daddy. Katie and Aiden are the only two that really saw anything. it was kind of crumby that way, but we saw the tree and witnessed the fireworks. (I never knew that a tree lighting involved fire works) It does in Tennessee I guess.
Tori, Liza and Rachel waiting too. :-)

After the lighting we raced over and TOTALLY lucked out w/ a free carriage ride. They were offering free carriage rides and we happened to be at the end of the line, when they flipped the line around (hehe) and made us the front. LOL! It was fun. Because of lack of space and my lens on my camera, there's no pics of kids on the ride, but I took this cool one out the side of the carriage ride. :-) I LIKE it. :-)
And THEN, as if we hadn't done enough. We went back to Marets where Aunt Heather hosted a turkey cupcake making project. DANG cute eh? They loved making them, and were proud of their work.
working hard, and eating harder.
We had a lovely time. And took some time to reflect and be grateful for all we have. We are so incredibly blessed, it was great to sit surrounded by friends and family and reflect upon the year and be grateful for it. (even if Don SOLD HIS BIKE! and didn't take me for one last ride)

Happy Thanksgiving.

Where On Earth Have I Been????

On November 10th Liza got Braces! I can't believe that I have a child old enough for braces! Crazy. She had to have 4 adult teeth extracted (we'll spare her and you the photo of that). The didn't do all 4 on one day, but she was such a trouper about it that they very well could have done it all in one day. We all know Liza tho, and nothing slows this girl down. In fact, I can't think of the last time that she was sick enough to lay still before 10:30 at night!! What a nut! She is SOO proud of her shiny teeth. This is a picture that the Orthodontist took for their clever little wall labeled, "new faces in braces" And she got a T-Shirt that says "wired by GO" (GO is Green Orthodontics) She was pretty excited. They only put wires on the bottom so far, so she hasn't started to feel the REALLY sucky part of braces, however, she did endure that getting used to the brackets part really well. Hardly any complains. I suppose her go get 'em attitude really comes in handy sometimes. :-)

On Nov 11th, my mom and her new husband Karl came for a visit. We had such fun! This is us on the River boat ride INSIDE the Opry Land Hotel. We got a really sweet deal on the tickets and it was still stupidly expensive, but I suppose it costs a lot to maintain an indoor garden/ river, so we coughed it up. We had a wonderful time at the "Rainforest Cafe" and lucked out to go on a night where the kids meals were discounted! :-) It was one of the most fun meals we've had. It ranked up there w/ some of our trips to medieval times. ( I don't know why it was so fun, but it was!) We had some good times shopping and Alex even took Karl out fishing one night.. brrr.
On November 12th Tori got her cast off. She was told not to participate in PE or jump on the trampoline until after Christmas tho. She was a good girl and took good care of her arm. It took a few days to get movement back in that elbow, but she seems to be as good as new now.
She was brave as could be.

I had my first "paying client" this month too! She is such a beautiful baby, so it was a really good session. She was all about sticking out her tongue and blowing bubbles. Made for some really cute shots. I take A LOT of time processing photos, I really don't like to show a picture 1/2 done, so I try to have it "perfect" before I show anyone. That is some serious processing time.
Right after photographing this beauty I flew to Maryland to photograph this little beauty. UH! I love babies!! :-) they are SO fun to play with. My dear friend Christina had this beautiful baby girl just a week before I arrived, so she was fresh and ready to be photographed. :-) I had such fun that day! I am STILL trying to finish processing this session (sorry Chris). But there were some really fun ones in there.
Okay okay, I didn't go to Maryland JUST to take pictures of the baby! Conveniently the NEW MOON Movie release was that weekend too. :-) How I LOVE these ladies! (sniff) We had SUCH a fun night, there was a HUGE group of us, and we were all sitting relatively together. I had to swipe pictures from Tracy's site, cuz i didn't take my camera and Jeri is slower at blogging then I am. (if that is possible) and she took pictures for us. I will have to post those later.
Here we are in our catchy shirts. This isn't even the whole group.. would you believe we are missing some crazy girls! The movie was good, the company was better! I miss my Maryland Sisters.
My shirt says "If you do that again, I will so give you a paper cut in front of Jasper."

*If you haven't read new moon... that is supposed to be really funny*

I also got to spend some serious time shopping and eating out with Jeri and Christina. And holding that new baby. I had a perfect brow job done at Miss Scarletts!! I had a couple wonderful quiet sleep in's, and some late night photography talk w/ Jeri. What fun!

While I was gone to Maryland, Brent's Dad and his wife Arbra came to visit. This is the first time that my older two have met Arbra. Apparently a good time was had by all. I was sad to have missed out. I have no pictures, but they also did the Opry Land hotel. Alex also made Grandpa Wall endure the cold to go fishing. He LOVES having that pond so close. Liza took the both of them over to the horses and showed off her riding skills. They seem to have really enjoyed their time here, and the kids spoke fondly of it as well. Liza was particularly proud of the fact that she weaseled Grandma Arbra into and extra ornament of a fancy cowboy boot. She loves it, AND the fact that she received a little bonus.

After I returned home, I had the privilege of doing another paying photo shoot. This time it is for a man in my ward who has written a book. I believe it is called "Porch Thinkin' " and he (Jimmy Blackmon) needed an author photo for his book cover. The book is supposed to be "at the printers" and this is the picture that he chose.

Very Fun, but again, time consuming with the whole editing obsession that I have. Soon we will get together again to do a photo shoot (much more casual) for his website. It's been fun working w/ an adult who sits still and does what you tell them to. :-)

I didn't even have to wait for him to go to sleep so that I could pose him, like I do w/ the babies.

And apparently, I've taken a few naps w/ my puppy and my Katie. I LOVE naps in my chair, but now, when I ask Katie if she wants to rock, she whines.."Nooo, I don't want to go to sleep." BOO for kids getting old enough to know that if you sit still for a min, you'll fall asleep.
More to come.... I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Happy Birthday Tori!!!

I know you can't be 6!! What happened to my baby? WOW! Started Kindergarten and making friends all on your own at school. You're growing up!

Tori wanted to have a High School Musical birthday party. I think that most of her little friends were lost on the theme, but she loved it. Making sure that she had the "Troy" cup, plate, napkin, decoration etc..
The cutting of the cake was SO funny, each girl chose a character to eat... so we chopped out of the middle. What a mess, but all were happy.

Tori waits impatiently 364 days for her birthday to come around. She seriously has to really work to enjoy anyone else's birthday, she just can't get over how long it takes for her birthday to come around.

This year she wanted this doll that pees and poops. I think she was disappointed when she discovered that there wasn't really poop. (can you imagine if there was!?) She LOVES babies SO much, she just wanted so desperately to have one that was closer to real. She was very excited to receive this doll, but alas, she has already been cast aside. Chou -Chou trumps all (she is sitting next to her in the chair there in the lower right corner). Chou Chou is required to get a good sleep w/o bad dreams, and although she is a Bye Bye Chou Chou, he sound is ALWAYS turned off. Funny. We've thought about getting her an American girl, cuz she drools over them in the magazine, but I fear that they too will be cast aside.
Tori had to wait till after Halloween to have her party, She was very upset that we did that, but I think it made it so that friends could come. Tori is quite the social butterfly. I worried about her with this move, but as you can see, she is making friends quickly. 2 of the girls are from school, 1 neighbor and 1 church. another neighbor and another church friend were invited, but couldn't make it. I think that she is fine here in TN. :-)

Here she is with all her pals. I think she had a WONDERFUL time.... now only 364 days till she can do it again. :-)

Halloween

Oh dear... a Halloween post on Dec. 8th... something seriously wrong here.

Since I've been trying to get the kids to have responsibility for their own things and earning money. I told them that I wouldn't be buying Halloween costumes this year. They were welcome to use some from the past, make up their own, or even purchase one.

Tori as a "snow leopard". I got a cute little costume for $7 at a discount store.. told her I'd sell it to her for $3.50 (cuz I thought it was cute) and she opted out. Told me to take it back because she was just going to wear all white, paint her face and be a snow leopard. Done!
Liza was informed that because she will be 12 next year, this was her last year of trick or treating. She decided to rummage around and come up with a "Padme" costume. She did this all on her own... right down to asking for duct tape to make the bands on her arms.
Although he has a Darth Vader Costume, that fits, he wanted to be "Anakin".. So he wore a pair of black dress pants, and the shirt and cape off of an old knight costume.
And Katie got to wear a cute little deal that I found at the discount store for 7 bucks... cuz I can still make her decisions... this was probably my last year of that, but it was fun.

We went to the ward party and Trick or Treating on Halloween night. We went around to the couple houses out here, and then packed up the car and drove to a better developed area to do some serious trick or treating. Katie pooped out before the others, of course, but we all made it. :-)