Family Portraits...Alaska Style

My poor kids are so brave! We we needed to do our family photo's for our Christmas Cards. So we called our photographer Eleaca Young from here in Kenai. Her work is is insanely awesome! And one of the reasons we wanted her was because she only shoots natural photo's outside. They look so much better than studio photo's.
So here are my kids in 30* weather outside in the snow, with the wind blowing off the ocean. BRRRRRR! Believe it or not, it was actually really fun.
Thanks Eleaca!

The Elders came to wish TJ a Happy Birthday!!!

Our Elder's are so flippin cool. They do such a good job! They stopped by to wish TJ a Happy Birthday and they brought him this cool football kicker that TJ loved. This is Elder Eaton.
Elder Bedke's birthday is the day after TJ's. TJ thought that was so cool, but he could never figure out why Elder Bedke was the oldest. TJ's birthday is first, makes sense to me. ;)We really love these guys, I think everyone in the ward does. Their spirit is so strong and they absolutely love being out here serving. Thanks for the birthday present...and Happy Birthday Elder Bedke! :)

The Big 5!!! TJ's Birthday

TJ's party was pretty freakin awesome. He invited his friends from preschool Sydney, Emma & Abraham, plus our best little neighbor friend Ellen and TJ's bud Gabe Mccormick.
Here they're having a pop the balloon with your bum contest. Emma won popping her balloon 1st. And Gabe won most balloons popped.

Here Molly (the kids friend from church) is helping the kids draw faces on their balloons.

Singing Happy Birthday....

Awww...he'll always be my baby boy.

TJ got a whole bunch of fun presents that Dad helped put together. It was an awesome party.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

TJ's a skeleton, Faith's a Fairy Princes, Gracie's the Corpse Bride and yes I'm a pregnant biker b****. (Oh get your mind out of the gutter it's biker babe :)
I LOVE HALLOWEEN!
It's so fun to dress the kiddo's up.

If you're wondering, the answer is no, -I'm not pregnant...It's a pillow. The leathers are Brent's so I had to do something to keep them up. :)

Our lovely pumpkins... TJ's says Trick or Treat, Gracie picked the skull and Faith wanted the vampire. No smiley faces for our kids.

I didn't see very many Jack-o-lanterns up here. I think we were the only one's with pumpkins out....I'm not sure why. Maybe they're really expensive and I just wasn't paying attention. (You know me and that whole do math in your head while grocery shopping thing...)

Although Brent did get sent on a 911 call to a house where a terrified woman thought someone was kicking her door in. He didn't find an intruder just a large bull moose thoroughly enjoying her jack-o-lanterns....

Painted Faces

The kids got their faces painted at a Halloween Carnival. This is something I always wanted when I was little but never got to do. The kids absolutely loved it!...and don't they look so stinkin cute! :)

The girls wanted to be butterflies, so I thought maybe TJ could be a spider..."No I want something cooler than a spider" he says. "Like what?" I ask. "I don't know, maybe like a fly" OK here's our cool little fly!