Family Pictures!

We recently got family pictures taken by a great friend of mine who also happens to be an incredible professional photographer. Check her out at www.leahslens.com! Here is just a tiny sampling of her great work (I'd be up all night uploading if I posted all the great shots she got!):



See, I told you she was amazing!

Dang it

Madison made this hilarious/adorable picture in school. The bottom says "When I feel angry I can play rock, paper, scissors. I can also walk away." A very nice treatise on conflict resolution. The funny part is the picture. One girl (presumably Madison herself) is saying "I won 'rock, paper, scissors!'" and the other girl is saying "Dang it." LOL

Ode to Chloe

Last night I put soft curlers in Chloe's hair overnight.
It was so fun to see her the next morning when we took the curlers out because normally she has PIN-straight hair. Of course, I had to snap tons of cute pix of her Shirley Temple curls. For preschool I put her hair up in pig tails.
Then she started hamming it up and performing Chloe-style for the camera. As you can see, she's the class clown of the family, cracking us all up constantly with her huge personality.
After school I tried my hand at taking a few "serious" pictures of her, even though I'm the worst photographer on the planet.

We love our Chloers!

OMSI

Ha, it's been a while! I've been writing letters to my uncle and saving them as my "journal keeping" which is why I haven't kept up on this blog. Rather than try and catch up on all the happenings in the last 4-6 months, especially since I keep up with everyone on Facebook, I'll just start from where we are now. This last weekend was our first real weekend as a family since JR came home from his 2-month work-training absence. His first Saturday home, I had an event for work all day, and the next Saturday he had to work. So we took advantage of the beautiful weather and the quality family time and took the kids to OMSI for the first time since Madison was a toddler!



The weather was so nice that after we were done at OMSI, we walked along the east waterfront for some beautiful views of the Portland skyline.

Later we went to my aunt and uncle's house to watch the BYU basketball game and meet my cousin's new girlfriend. Very fun!

Back to School

Wow, I haven't blogged in 3 months! So much to catch up on!

Both girls started school in September. Madison is now in first grade all day and Chloe is in her first year of preschool, going M-W-F 9am-12pm. It's a whole new experience having both kids in school for 9 hours per week! It's great to be able to get most of my work done while they're gone and be able to fully be MOMMY when the are home. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way, but we're getting a good routine going. Before school started, Madison made the big leap and chopped off 8-10 inches of hair! She looks so grown-up and BEAUTIFUL!

Before:

After:

Before school started we got to squeeze in a couple of fun day trips, one to Multnomah Falls on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. I was so proud of the girls for making it all the way to the top of Multnomah Falls (1.2 miles each way) without either of them being carried at all!
We also visited Moulten Falls, in northern Clark County Washington. It was beautiful!
Then it was time for school to start!