True is 3!

 Cute man was waiting for his candles to be lit. I made a delicious chocolate cake that we devoured at grandma and grandpas.

True would say right now while making this face"do you see my smile?"

 He didn't know what to do when we were all singing to him {out of key, i might add} 

 he blew out his candles and wanted to do it again!

 Next came the presents, he got a new rocket ship bike. True has been really into rocket ships this year. At Christmas time Johns boss sponsored a family from church and the 3 year old wanted a bike, so that's what we decided to give. Well the night we went shopping  that we only had True, he is the same age so we thought this would work to our advantage. He would try out the helmets and bikes and we would know what size/ kind a little boy would love. Problem was, True fell in love with this rocket ship bike we bought for the other little boy...so when it came time to deliver it, he kept asking where his rocket ship bike was...so low and behold he received one for his birthday 18 days later. He enjoys riding it from one end of the house to the other and down to the bus in the afternoon to pick up the kids. 

 "my rocket ship bike!" he kept saying

like we had been hiding it from him all this time:)

He has discovered Piggie and Gerald books by Mo Willems. He LOVES them and will let you read them to him every chance he gets.  He opened 'I broke my trunk' and 

' Elephants can't dance' We just went to the library and wiped them out of all the other Mo Willems books they had. Knuffle bunny is also on the list of must reads.

True is full of personality. He loves to play outside, jump on the trampoline, read as long as possible, say dinner prayer {he gets very upset if he realizes someone else said it}, he wants to go for walks daily, and takes lots of opportunities to let me know his is a big boy and can do it himself! He asks Jordan to take him on the city bus frequently, Chastin to take him to Safeway for a free cookie and Shilo to play tea party, pollys, animals and to take a bath with him so they can squirt each other. Play doh is high on the list of daily things he needs to play with, he can spend an hour creating by himself while I make dinner.  He is working hard on being potty trained and  loves to cuddle and be helpful. We sure love laughing at this little man as he makes all sorts of crazy voices and expressions.

We are so lucky to have him in our lives, he makes it so much fun!

{as he lays at my feet singing Justin Beibers Santa clause is coming to town...}

Shilos Birthday party

For Shilos birthday party we decided to have a photo booth!
We have a giant old trunk we use for dress up and we brought  for all the kids to choose from.
We set up the back ground and shot away! The kids came in costumes but it didn't take long for the kids to dive into that big 'o trunk and have a ball!

Shilo wanted to wear her princess Ballet dress with crown and all. We borrowed a friends bouncy house and had Jordan and Chelsea face paint. Pizzas were ordered and brownies made.
My sweet Shilo decided that she herself didn't need any presents, but that she would like people to bring a gift for the salvation army giving tree at Christmas time.
Fast forward to Christmas and she had an entire Target shopping cart full of gifts to push through the mall. She was so proud and the volunteers at the tree were so excited. They helped her for about half an  hour sort through names and gifts to get just the right matches.

 Cookie decorating station! Yummy! There was a whole lot of finger licking going on..

Shilo wanted a dress up party, Olympic games party and bouncy house party. I told her that you don't have to have a "theme". You can just have a party. That's what we did when we were kids. So we put all the elements together and created the perfect party for Shilo!

 Three legged race

 Egg race

 True's face paint

 Once again~ be yourself, you don't HAVE to have cake. 

Brownies it was!

Mia and Megan from Shilos soccer team came to celebrate with her

 I'd like to say this might be the only time you will ever see John in a cow suit but I'd probably be lying:) This is his go to costume for all things Halloween. I wore it when I worked in the college salon to do hair. {ever tried to do a foil in a cow costume? Not the easiest thing ever!!}

Thank goodness he has no problem playing along because I adore getting all dressed up!

 The witch and the ghost made for a cool picture

 We took a few group shots, I thought of using one for our Christmas card because they turned out so cute, but who sends out a Halloween Picture for Christmas??

This guy is ALWAYS up for being crazy too!

Winter

 So in the same fashion as years past, I had to pick  a cool Christmas card location. This year I chose to do a local bridge that goes over the freeway. As you can  imagine, it was FREEZING cold with large gusts of wind whipping us around. But the view was cool, it had some nice trees, it was a long bridge so had tons of potential for awesome portraits. I was envisioning kids climbing up the cage, rusty gates to pose in front of... But I barely got a decent picture for our card. You know that feeling when it's so cold and windy your eyes start to water...I got a lot of those pictures. So needless to say, we will be recreating this scene in the summer. I have intentions of dressing all of us in the same digs and getting fabulous pictures to update my 16x20  photo wall.

 I love the look in Chastins eyes. And the sun on our faces.

 This picture describes our family perfectly! I think one day, and our kids will be sitting around talking about us &  they will say "remember all those times mom and dad threw their heads back and laughed at how goofy we were?!" True kept spinning in circles with his arms out, so all the kids copied him and you couldn't help but crack up! He then stood there looking at them like they had lost there mind!
Thanks to Monica for braving the chilly weather to snap a few shots for us.

 Speaking of Monica... 10 years ago I bought a house next door to a photographer and musician. I thought they would be so cool and creative.  Couldn't  wait to meet them! I remember when we first moved in and the power went out, I snuck over to the side window to peek at the neighbors..What were the couple with no kids doing? I peeked out the window to see a young married couple who had moved their dining room table to the big window in the living room, sitting with tall pillar candles lit and dinner on the table.. I knew then that they were my kind of people. Before I knew them too well they were remodeling their kitchen and I would peek out the side window to see what these two artsy people would choose to do in their kitchen. Soon I couldn't stand it any more and marched my self right over to see the cool kitchen in  the making. Needless to say, put two creative people in a room that's a blank canvas and your bound to see something great come out of it. They chose blue walls and green tile flooring, maple cabinets, metal lights and white counter tops. All things I like on there own, but would never have thought to put together.

 10 years later this woman and I are inseparable. We work out together every night. We text and talk all day long. She is the first person to know everything, and I am her go to woman for all things kids and cats. We balance each other nicely. We do photo shoots together, we eat together, our family even has game night once or twice a month together. We are different too~when I vacation I prefer to leave the state {or the country } when she travels she likes to go camping on the Oregon coast. She has one kid, I have multiple, we both drive suv's and like to keep it that way. She prefers fb, I only blog. We spend endless hours swimming at her parents house {where she swims and I dip my feet} and hours and hours at the beach.{taking countless pictures of each others kids} So different yet so similar at the same time. I count my blessings every time I drive by another house in the neighborhood that we looked at buying,  and am eternally grateful that we chose this one.

She will never know how lucky I feel to be her friend.