Olivia turns 3.

My niece, Olivia, turned 3 last Friday and on Saturday she had a birthday party with a Princess theme. It's fun to look back on Olivia's birthdays and see how she has changed. For her 1st birthday, it was mostly family and she wore a cute outfit that stayed pretty crisp and clean. She was shy about all of the attention. On her 2nd birthday, she had a lot more people and bouncy house and didn't mind the attention, her parents still ran the show, deciding when they would open presents, etc., Her brother, Christopher was still growing in her mommy's tummy. Then this year her cute face was already smeared with stuff, her pigtails almost falling out and her knees scuffed by the time I got to the party. I love seeing her  emerging independence. Opening presents was the first order of events, initiated by Miss Olivia, herself. Christopher was now part of the family and party. Olivia was a girl on the move, so I had a harder time catching her with my camera.

(Those cute little hamburgers are actually  2 vanilla wafers with a peppermint patty and green and red and yellow frosting for the condiments.)

Here is a collage of some of her guests, small and well, not so small.

The kids and even some of the grownups had fun bouncing in the bouncy house. I loved the pile of kids that came spilling out of it.

By the end when things started to quiet down, Olivia and her friend found a quiet corner in the bouncy house where they could play with some of her toys.

What do I love about Olivia at this age?

1. Her warm greeting whenever she sees us.

2. Her cute lisp and "w" sound that she makes for r's.

3. Her cheery nature.

4. Her independent streak.

5. Her hands and cute feet.

6. The determined look she gets on her face when she's doing something that requires concentration.

7. She makes me (and everyone else) feel loved and that is no small thing. I love being her Aunt.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Olivia!

Olivia & Christopher: Love 'em!

One advantage to being the oldest in a family is that your younger siblings are still having children when you have stopped, thereby giving a person (like me) a much needed outlet to having little people around when her own little people have gotten bigger. Hooray for being an Aunt! I just love these little peeps.

A Side Note: The other thing that I am pretty excited about, that I just found today is that I can skip the middle man in uploading photos to my blog because Google has now made some much needed changes for people like me to upload photos. When I say "people like me", I mean people who couldn't just upload from their desktop or computer for whatever reason AND who also want larger photos on their blog. You can make your photos larger right here on your blog. I do still size them in Photoshop, but I can just upload directly from my desktop! I may be the last person on the planet to know this, but I can't tell you how happy this makes me. Maybe I'll be a little better at blogging more frequently now that there is one less step.

Here's How to do it:

Log in to your blog.

Select Customize.

Then Settings.

Next the Basics tab.

On the Basics page, scroll down to the bottom until you get to Global Settings.

Underneath Global Settings, look at "Select post editor" and

Select "Updated editor". It has the latest features.

The uploader for photos is much better and much more compatible with mac...at least with my mac AND it gives you the option to select the size of your photos underneath the photo after it is uploaded, so I chose the largest on this post to see what it would give me and it worked out great. I DO size my photos in photoshop first for my blog, but I was never able to go from my computer to the blog without first going to Photobucket and copying the HTML code for the photo. Now, I don't even have to deal with the HTML. Hooray! Let me know how it works for you. Good Luck!

Roxxi, Van & Marley

Roxxi and I met in a photography class at MCC. We just happened to be sitting next to each other in the front row. That front row seating arrangement grew into a friendship. Roxxi has so many talents: photography, hair, sewing, just to name a few. Roxxi was just barely pregnant with Marley when we met and this week I finally got to meet Marley in person. She is just barely a year old and already such a busy little muffin. She was pretty steady on her feet since she's already been walking for a few months, so she had no trouble running away from us. She kept us moving. We met in down town Gilbert, which is a place I love. It was fun to spend some time with them.

For some reason this one is just one of my favorites.

Marley was too busy doing her thing to be all that interested in me, so I had to snatch eye contact when I could.

How did Roxxi ever fix her hair like that?! So cute.

With all of Roxxi's creativity, I think that Van is her match as a Handyman. I've seen the projects he's tackled at home on their blog. I'm pretty impressed.

They're a good fit.

Oh, there she goes!

A pause for Marley. She was starting to run out of gas. Time to fill her up.

Their eyes are on their little sweet pea.

Roxxi, such a beauty. Another friend that photography has brought into my life. :-)

"Fourth Grade...Here I Come!"

I'm a little behind with this, since our kids started school way back on August 12th, which I thought was crazy until August 12 and it felt o.k. Everyone was actually o.k. with being back in school. You can always tell when it's time. And without realizing it, it was time.

For the last 2 years I have been on Franklin's FPO. It's like the PTA at most schools. I was the Historian. As part of being on the board, I didn't have to wait in line to register to find out which teachers my kids got. This year, I had to wait in line. It all went smoothly. After signing up for my 2 committees, paying my fee, checking Emma's bus route, etc., I went to the final line to find out which teacher Emma would spending fourth grade with. All the registration stuff happened in the cafeteria. The teacher "Reveal" happened in the office. By this time I had been standing in line outside, and also signed a petition to let the kids wear knee length shorts to school (don't even get me started on this topic...it's my one biggest complaint about the school that I otherwise am very happy with). So with being hot and bothered, I was feeling a little grumbly by the time that I got to the Principal, who was handing out teacher assignments. She told me Emma was in Mrs. Griner's class and lo and behold, my Grumblies instantly went away and I felt like we had just won the grand prize, in fact I didn't care if the kids had to wear insulated snow suits year round! Mrs. Griner, really?? That is awesome! Ben had Mrs. Griner five years ago and ever since, I have wanted my kids to have her. She is great. She has that teacher "it" factor, if you know what I mean. She looks for ways to enrich and expand on what the school/district requires her to teach.

It was going to be a good year. I couldn't wait to go home and tell Emma.

On Meet The Teacher Day, we curled Emma's hair. She wore some of her new clothes and we headed down to Room 10 to meet her teacher, find her desk and the goodies that Mrs. Griner always has waiting for them. It was a bonus that some of her good friends were also in her class. Yay!! So, here we go:

I'm not sure that teachers realize how much it means to the students that the teacher likes them. Kids pick up on their vibe. Even in Jr. High, it makes a huge difference. Mrs. Griner sends off a good vibe. Can't you feel the love?!

Here's Emma's desk.

Guess how many fuzz balls are in the Jar?

Read the instructions on what to do next. I didn't know this was called a Venn diagram. I learned something new...and then promptly forgot it until I looked at this photo again!

Looking around the room.

The Job Chart.

Emma informed me that the person who is assigned "Door" as a job gets to hold the key and unlock the door!! Translation: That is a big deal!

Yay, McKenzie is in her class. LOVE those dimples, McKenzie! Seriously...I could eat a scoop of my favorite icecream(Breyer's Vanilla Bean) out of those awesome dimples!!

Oh, how Emma loves those babies!

Nothing like a brand new box of crayons!! So many possibilities...and no broken tips.

And so we are ready for another year at Franklin, even if they can't wear shorts!! I will not give up on that. Some things just aren't meant to stay the same.

Children + Water= Cool Fun

This was a really fun shoot. Carrie had all four of her grandkids here and wanted to get some pictures. I did her little granddaughter, Starla last year. Carrie suggested the water park and I thought it was a great idea. I didn't mind in the least running around in the water. Getting splashed was ideal. So Starla and her cousins, Ryan, Jacob and Ethan and their mom's and Grandma headed over to the park.

I fell in love with Starla the first time we met. She is such a no nonsense girl. I enjoyed getting to know the boys, too. In fact I was trying to get a feel for Jacob (the middle guy...he's 4) I was asking him who his favorite super hero is. I was expecting to hear Superman, Spiderman, etc. He thought for a minute and said, "Spencer!" Spencer is his uncle who was coming home from a 2 year mission to Mexico that evening. I wonder if Spencer realizes that his nephews look up to him in that "superhero" way. That's Jacob in the upper right, below.

This is Jacob telling me how old he is.

Having 4 boys myself, I just have a soft spot in my heart for their little boy limbs that are kind of pale and skinny and their bellies that either pooch out or are as flat as a board and blend right into their hips, and then those hips that can't quite hold up a pair of pants or in this case swim trunks.

I can just picture these cousins having tons of fun in years to come.

Oh, cutie-pie Starla.

"Thanks, Ryan for the hug."

Big Brother Ethan.

Oops. Gravity finally won out over Ryan's swim trunks. Mom to the rescue.

Pure exuberance!