Too Tattoo or Not Tattoo?

That is the question. This blogging thing has gotten quiet lately so here is a hot topic to discuss. I'm thinking about a tatoo on my back. One of those giant ones that would cover all of the sun damage on my shoulders. Any thoughts? You know just one in the center of my shoulder blades that stretches across my shoulders a bit. Hmmm I wonder.

Pumpkin Pie

Yesterday my parents called and asked us to go pumpkin picking with them. Fall is the best time of year. The colors, the smells, the temperature, pretty much nothing at all bad about any of that. It's our favorite! Of course the main thing missing was my husband. He had to work...but we promised Mason we'd take him to this really cool pumpkin/corn maze we found, so those photos will be coming shortly. Anyway, here is a glimpse at our really fun afternoon.




They were giggling so hard they couldn't keep their little buns on the pumpkins.


Babies and pumpkins...all the fun you'll ever need.


Mason loves picking out pumpkins. He always goes for the little ones. He prefers coloring on them instead of carving them. Cleaning them out makes him heave!


Mason found corn to feed the chickens. He thought it was alright, but Izzy was thrilled. Soon she turned her attention to the cat sitting and minding her own business. She wanted that stupid cat to take the corn from her so bad. "More, more, more." That's all she said to it over and over and over...but it never took a bit. Her other favorite word, "Meer". Which is some sort of hybrid meaning "Come Here".


The pumpkin patch had this really cool corn maze. Mason and Izzy were out of their minds about it. He is getting SO tall.


Aunt Mimi, My Mama, the Izzy Bell and me.


"Meer chick chick"


Izzy kept chasing the chickens and shouting, "here! Here!" She was showing them the corn she had and couldn't figure out why her yelling didn't cause them to rush over and gently eat it out of her hand...

Fairwell To Our One Armed Friend

Some of you may not know that about a month ago Mason became the proud owner of two little water frogs. (Thank you Uncle Ryan) Much to my dismay Ryan decided it would be really great to promise Mason two frogs without my permission. Awesome. It's not that I have anything against frogs, I just don't like the way they smell, cleaning the bowl, feeding them, or the fact that the kids think its really cool to hold them. So, uncle Ryan and Mason return home from the frog finding extravaganza to show off the newest pets. The first thing I noticed was that the biggest one was missing a very important feature. NO ARM. I can hear you laughing already...I was not being mean, nor did I think we should take it back...but for those of you who know me, I was trying to hold it together. Mason hadn't noticed. Later in the day when he did, he said, "Poor frog, I'm glad we got him, he's mine and I don't want anyone else to have him". Yep, my thoughts exactly.
The morning after we got the frogs Mason came upstairs to proclaim the names he had chosen. Odie and Dorothy. (Odie being the one armed bandit) Leave it to Mason. For a month we have taken care of them, and all the way until tonight I still couldn't see Odie without laughing. You really should have seen the poor thing try to swim to the top of the bowl for air. And of course because he was missing an arm it would make me think of the one armed go-go dancer which would then naturally carry my mind to Hoppy...etc,etc,etc. and I never could get past it.
Tonight when we got home Mason ran down to feed the frogs. A few moments later he yelled, "Hey mom, do frogs sleep?" Oh great! Yep, Odie was a goner. Mason burst into tears and cried and cried and cried. Then he told me that Odie probably died because he had a harder time swimming for the food. Is it terrible to laugh while your child is bawling? Finally, he said he wanted to talk to uncle Ryan. We put him on the phone and Ryan said, "Mas, don't worry, Odie's in froggy Heaven and I'm sure he's happy there." To which Mason replied, "No he's not! He's at the bottom of the frog bowl." Oh well, hopefully Dorothy sticks around awhile longer...

A Family Affair

Whoever said, "save the best for last" had never seen this photo. When the stars align it can truly blow your mind. Mason would not stop spinning, he was having a lot of fun with the white paper background(?) I watched Jasmine reach up and grab Daddy's face for a kiss. I took the photo because of that. It wasn't until we got home that we realized what Mason was doing. This is my favorite photo ever!

What follows are clips from our favorite family sitting to date. We needed them done for a bunch of reasons. The main one: For some reason NO ONE can take a clear, centered, good picture of all 4 of us. It's become a joke at this point. Really, NEVER. We have yet to figure out why that would be such a difficult thing, but without fail, every time, you can barely make out that its us. So we decided that Josh and I would take turns and we'd use the timer for the big family one...check it out. (And yes, Cindy, Grandma Bobo, Grandma Steele, just tell us which ones you want and they will be in the mail.)


So the shoot started out with Josh saying "look at me guys." Jasmine and Mason slid together and posed. Can't ask for much more than that.


Please take note at the lack of profile on my daughter. We can't help but kiss that perfectly flat nose. So damn cute.


We read TONS of books at our house.


My boys


I'm pretty sure this is how Josh feels when he gets home from work. Dakota wants the ball thrown, Mason and Jasmine want to wrestle...Jasmine wants all the attention...Jasmine will claw the eyes out of anyone who tries to come between her and Daddy...and Mason and Dakota aren't about to give up without a fight. Good luck.


Whatever it takes to make the baby laugh...(This ones up for Josh, he loves it.)


LOVE LOVE LOVE


In the words of my best friend, "Someday these photos are gonna be so painful. When this one appears in her wedding video, Daddy is still going to be able to feel those little hands on his face..."


If you can't beat 'em join 'em.


If you come to our house and leave your shoes at the door you need only give my little one 3.2 seconds before she's wearing them. At this point in the photo shoot I was laying on the floor letting the kids do whatever they wanted. When I saw Jasmine come into the frame wearing Daddy's sandals I realized I wasn't wasting my time!


Finally! A family photo. Yay. We have gone and had our pictures taken but its never really worked out. This was picture number 4 using the timer. Sometimes when you need something done it's a lot better to do it yourself :)


Afer watching Josh get his photos taken with the other two children, Dakota was feeling terribly left out. Suffice it to say, she was easier to shoot than both Jasmine or Mason. When it comes to photography even the dog knows how we roll...

Best Rock Band Ever!!

Amber and I went to the Creed concert last night at the E Center here in the Salt Lake Valley and it was amazing. We had seats in the 9th row right next to where the stage came out in the center. It was incredible!! They played for about two hours and had lots of pyrotechnics and just put on an amazing show. It was the first time we'd seen them since Amber was pregnant with Mason over six years ago. I have to say, and I know this may come as a shock to some of you, but the show was even better than the Rolling Stones show I saw a few years ago. It could be because the members of Creed can still walk without a walker, they can still operate and function normally without a joint, and they don't look like walking, talking, dancing giant human raisins or like some kind of scary horror film put on by Jim Hensens Muppets!! Altogether it was a really good time. So I'll be adding some of their music to our blog so the rest of you can enjoy them. Well almost all of you will be able to enjoy the music except for my sister living in the land of deliverance. She needs to get the hamsters that power her internet to run a little faster around that wheel to generate some more speed...or something.