{Belated} Happy Thanksgiving AND Happy Birthday Mikayla

This little princess celebrated her 7th birthday on Thanksgiving this year. She is probably the only child who was excited for Thanksgiving day..HaHa!
She is an amazing little lady and I just love spending time with her, she truly is special, smart, caring, and fun!
Some current "stats"...
* showing the first grade class how to ace all the tests {she really is a teachers pet...that's OK at this age}
* loves to play "house" with Casey and Alexis
* loves to spin around in dresses...the puffier the better
* looking forward to learning how to sew...soon we'll be working on the Christmas dresses
* loves her new DSi {not just a DS...long story}...I just hope she doesn't figure out how to access the Internet
* loves to play games and spend time with all of her family
* looks like a redneck with all her missing teeth right now
* such a beautiful person...lucky to have her for a daughter!

Happy 7th Birthday Mikayla!

Playing with the sun in photos....

Over this past summer I tried to make more efforts to take photos and really try to get some unique shots. One of the techniques I admire in other photographers is the "shine" of the sun coming into the photo. I like the shining circle you can catch on the shot. I've tried to be more aware of this and take some photos that grab that shine.
Here Alexis and my mom enjoy a game of bean bags.
And a closer view of my baby...what a beautiful smile. She is so full of joy! Her hair is still pretty crazy....Love her so much!

And a fun shot of sisters. I had them posing for me at a local park. This is completely fake...I prompted them to have those looks, but it's so fun!

Gobble Gobble Day

Today was "Gobble Gobble Day" for Alexis' preschool class. My goal was to finish our turkey shirts for Thanksgiving Day, but this put the due date a little earlier. So last night I finished up our shirts.
Here's our turkey, um I mean model, ....

For Alexis I made a barrette....

More October Updates

This should be the last of my belated October updates...{they didn't seem to end}

We made treat bags for Mikayla's first grade class and Alexis' preschool buddies. I seen the moon and ribbon idea online somewhere {sorry I can't give the credit, I don't remember where I seen it}. They were pretty simple to create in large quantities.
Alexis' first Halloween parade...

The class group shot....this was hard to get a good shot...there were a lot of parents in attendance that day! We just love to support our little babies! Aren't they all cute!

The view to our shop is just magical this time of year. I went to pick up Alexis at preschool one day and on the way back I just had to stop and try to save the view. It's so hard to capture the view, it looks so much better in person.

We were actually crazy enough to go camping on the last week of October {Yes, it was very cold...but it didn't rain}. My aunt and uncle joined us for the first time since they just got their RV this year. "Can I check your heartbeat?" Ha Ha

Jesse bought pumpkins for his daughter and our two little ones to carve. Mikayla was into cleaning out her pumpkin....

So much so that she was going at it two hands at a time, lol....

Alexis, however, wanted NOTHING to do with touching the cold, slimy insides! She was good at supervising.

On the sideline at a soccer game...Is it me or does this shot make her nose look huge?

And our little ham....

Pumpkin Festival

More belated October events....
One of our family members celebrates her birthday at the beginning of October and this year she wanted a costume party. I had to work so Joe took all four of our girls to celebrate is spooktacular style!
Our church hosts an annual Pumpkin Festival. Joe and I help with some of the carnival games. Here is Alexis "practicing" at the soda pitch stand.

Then she got tired of the "practicing" so she moved on to the sound effect throwing {notice the lips, lol}....

and placing in on the soda bottle {note the stack of rings, lol}.

Design Dollies recently posted challenges....I actually did all three parts {sketch, hearts, and green, white, silver colors} but didn't complete in time to post for the challenge.

Pumpkinland

The second trip for October was to Pumpkinland. A local flower, craft shop sets up a few kid related adventures and shares the Fall treats with local kids.
I kept telling Alexis that I wanted to get her photo with the mums. She definitely remembered me telling her. When the speaker asked if the kids knew the name of the flower, she was the only one to yell out...Mums! I was highly impressed {and so was her preschool teacher!}

Playing in the adventure area....

I had to beg her to get in the tube to get a picture. She was so busy running around, she didn't want to take the time to slow down and crawl through for me.

But, I really wanted to compare the shot to when Mikayla was on the same field trip, crawling through the same tube.
Inside, they had a small area set up for photos. What a crazy smile...

My beautiful little pumpkin...

Afterwards we went back outside and got some more photos.

Happy {belated} Halloween!

Picking Apples, Sports, and School

I'm a little behind {as usual} but I wanted to share some photos.
Alexis' preschool class went on a few field trips in the month of October. The first trip was to the orchard to pick some apples. Before they were released to go grab some apples, they were told the story of Johnny Appleseed. Alexis and Dane weren't really into listening to the story. Important note....the speaker was behind them. {HaHa}
Then the kids went on a nature walk. They walked past the raspberry rows {they were all out of season} and on to the pumpkin patch. They got to see the pumpkins, but didn't pick any on this trip.

Now, we're getting ready to pick some apples.

Alexis in action...

With a full bag of delicious apples...

Alexis and her school buddies...

Casey in action. This was at a local tournament. The team did awesome, didn't lose a game. However, the final match was against another team that was undefeated and they had more "points" accumulated than us.

So the team proudly finished second for their division...

That same weekend she also had a field hockey tournament. Needless to say it was another busy weekend.

Mikayla finished her soccer season up in October. She's definitely improving and having fun playing.

Alexis had her school photos taken at school. I thought I'd take some additional poses. I dragged the desk out and started snapping. She was busy writing her name with her favorite {purple} crayon.

What a cheesy grin....

What a beautiful, nature filled background. But she still steals the show with that gorgeous face!

Can you tell she was getting tired of smiling for the camera?

The sun is driving her a little crazy....

I think the model is finished for the day....