Santa...

I was in the kitchen, putting some of my usual clutter away, and Jake yells from the family room (he's watching TV).

J: Mom, can I have one of those? (watching a commercial for flying helicopters, which he actually bought this summer with his own money, spending $20. Scott let him take it out of his piggy bank, which I wouldn't have done)

M: Jake, didn't you already get one of those? (acting naive)

J: Yes, but it broke.

M: I don't know Jake...how long did it take for you to break it?

J: I think 2 days.

M: Hmmm, I think that that toy might be a little bit old for you and that is why it broke so easily. Maybe you should wait a while before getting that again. Besides, I don't think that I want to spend that amount of money on something that you are going to break that easily.

J: But Mom, you wouldn't have to spend the money. It's Christmas, and Santa would bring it for me!!! (sounding like he wants to say DUH at the end of the sentence)

M: Oh, ya, that's right, I forgot!! Santa will bring it.

Well, I did it!

So Ryan's beautiful, lustrous , flowing, curls have been chopped. I LOVED his hair! It would always curl up on the ends and layed so nicely. It was getting quite long, going in his eyes, and if you pulled down the curls in the back, it went down quite a bit. I have been thinking of this day for so long. I don't know why, maybe because he is my little baby, and I know that I won't be going through this again, but I just didn't want to cut it. He looked so cute, and that's his baby hair. I wanted to just make it through his 2nd bday, then I just wanted to make it to the professional photographs. Finally, I thought of cutting it everyday, but had to make sure that I had someone to take pictures. (You know I can't miss out on a picture) Seriously, I thought of cutting it daily, so finally Thursday, I cut it. I did it on a whim, first thing in the morning, and had Jake (my assistant) take the pics before he got on the bus. I put it in a pony tail, and cut the tail off. I got a little close in the back, and had flashbacks to when I cut Scott's hair 10years ago. I vowed, at that time, to never cut anyone's hair again, but here I am cutting Ryan's hair. I don't know why "I" wanted to do it so badly, especially with my sister owning a hair salon, but I did. After cutting off the pony tail, and some around the edges, Amaya called in Granny for back up. She used to cut hair, like 20 years ago, so she came over and made it look more presentable. He did quite well, no crying or anything. I still think he needs some touch ups from Aunt Lisa, but that will wait a bit.Going,
Going,

Gone!

Here is Granny doing the touch up, while Ryan watches "Rocket" (Little Einstein on Disney)

Pre-haircut

Jake and Ryan both need haircuts, but at least have a good sense of who they are and don't mind wearing a pony tail. Just kidding, this was just for fun!

Ah youth

Who am I kidding trying to do a handstand with Amaya. It felt like my wrists were breaking (I have cysts in both wrists that limit the mobility). I swear I am still 13 and doing cartwheels across the yard.

Cowgirl

For this little girl, the love of horses has never wained. It started when she was two and saw the movie Racing Stripes (about a zebra). She, for years, ran around on all fours like she was a horse or a zebra. This year, we were able to help her with this joy of riding horses. Today was a huge day for her. Her first horse show. She didn't have any idea what to expect, other than to ride a horse just like everyone else. That is all it was to her, not a competition, just having fun.


She was in two events, and won a ribbon for both. The first one she came in 7th, in the next, she came in 5th! I am so proud of her!


During her first event, she was riding a horse that she has never rode before, Laurel. It was Gabe's aunt's horse. Apparently this is the nicest horse ever, and is supposed to be awesome with less experienced riders.......not so much with Amaya. When Amaya got in the ring with the other horses, Laurel tried to buck her off and started spinning in circles to get her off! Gabe was right there, got ahold of the reigns and got Amaya off. Everyone there was watching, and telling Amaya what a great job she did by just staying on the horse. She still cried. I felt so bad for her. After Laurel's tiff, Gave took her (Laurel) outside to show her who the boss is, and asked Amaya if she still wanted to get back on here and finish the event. Much to my surprise....she got right back on that naughty horse. Back out in the ring they went, and Laurel started doing it again. This time Gabe grabbed the reigns and didn't let go, and didn't Laurel get her way! So Amaya finished the event, and earned her ribbon. I can't believe she got back on. So many people kept telling her that she did such an awesome job, and that they couldn't believe that she got right back on, and that they wouldn't have done the same. It just shows that she is in this whole heartedly!

Amaya meeting Laurel.

Hanging out in the hay. My little cowgirl!





Amaya and Gabe.

For the second event, Amaya got to ride her favorite Shy Anne. This is the one that she gets to ride the most often.

Glass Beads

As I have said before...my mom can do just about anything! She has been making, hand blown glass beads for a few years now. I have always wanted to try, but have been too busy with my own "craft" stuff (scrapping, blogging, photography, and did I say photography). Since I got my Pandora bracelet, I thought I'd give it a try. So, here is a few shots of me being an artisan.

Each individual colored stick is a piece of glass. You then need to heat it up, just so, so that it doesn't heat too fast, in order to "wrap" it around the mandrel (the metal thing with dry clay on the tip). The mandrel is what you form your bead on, and must be heated just enough not to be too hot to crack your bead, but not too cool, because that will crack your bead too. So, as you are melting the glass rod at just the right speed, you have to be careful to keep the mandrel the right temp also. This takes some practice. I screwed up two beads right off the bat, but kept on going. It is a really neat thing. I just want to make more and more.

This is my mom's handi work. She is talented enough to make 2 beads at once. She said that I shouldn't even attempt this. I just laughed, knowing that I would definitely screw it up, or catch on fire. That torch is really close to you as you do this, and all I kept thinking is...this thing is going to blow up right in my lap.

My photography assistant's self portrait...Jake.

One of my finished pieces. I love it.

I think when I get older, and retire, this is something that I would like to pursue, along with some pottery, and melting glass in a kiln.

Trick or Treat

Halloween was a blast, even more fun than last year. I think that as the kids get a bit older, they realize what it really means to go trick or treating and just have a ball. No meltdowns, no fighting, and even sick Ryan was in a great mood! He still had a temp, but after some Motrin, he was great. We "treated" in Granny and Papa's neighborhood for a little bit, then moved over to Heidi's hood. (they are only the next street over) They are two small neighborhoods that are really, really close to our house, so this is where we usually go. Plus, we know many of the kids that live in these hoods. A lot of them go to school with Amaya and Jake.
So, Amaya and Jake were running house to house, and Ryan could NOT stay in the wagon. He just had to get out, run to the door and scream trick or treat too. They he would follow with whatever the big kids said, whether it was Happy Halloween, or Thank you. The funny thing was, he wouldn't say it once, he would repeat it over and over and over...thank you, thank you , thank you, all the way down the street. It was so cute.

It was such a great time, we can't wait to see what next year brings for our little trick or treaters.

Costumes:Amaya was an English horse rider (not to be mistaken for a Western horse rider)

Jake was Anakin Skywalker, when he was younger. He has had his hair cut like Anakin all summer anticipating this costume.

Ryan was a little devil. This was Jake's costume at the same age. I thought it appropriate for both of them because they both have this persona about them. Kind of like a little devil. They are both little characters with a lot of spunk in them. They are hilarious.

Ryan

Halloween is such a fun time for our kids, it means COSTUMES (Jake's favorite), candy, trick or treating and class parties. I have been fortunate the last few years and have had the day off, but it is so busy. This year I took a vacation day so that I could continue to enjoy this day with them.

Sadly, Ryan has woke up with a fever of 100.8, and is very mellow for him. He was extremely tired last night, and actually went to be at 7:15pm, which is very out of the ordinary. Now, we know why. Poor little bug, not feeling well on a really fun day. Ironically, Jake had a fever last year on this day too. We, however, didn't realize it until we got home from trick or treating.

We will see what the day brings, lots of joy, I am sure!!

Happy Halloween!!

Ryan did this a few weeks ago when we went to the library for toddler time. (with some help of course)

Who's the boss?

Yeah, that's right, and don't forget it!!!!!

Slacker!!!

Wow, I have been the worst blogging slacker lately. I have been busy doing other things like taking photos for people, working overtime and just being a mom. That takes a lot of time and effort. I have many things to blog, but feel that I need to get some other things done before I take the time to catch this up. Stay tuned for pics of some REALLY cute kids, making glass beads, and more fall pics (I always have a ton of them)

29 Days of Giving

http://www.29gifts.org/

9th anniversary

Scott and I have been married 9 years, and it is so hard to believe for me. I am very thankful for having him in my life and can honestly say that I never thought that my life would be so good. We haven't been anywhere for our anniversary for many years and thought that is was about time, so away we went. We decided to go up north and try again for no rain. It has rained every other time that we have gone up there, but this time the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We were going to go for just one day, because of the $$ factor, but we were offered a free place to stay for as long as we wanted. Cool, a free condo, I guess that we will stay for 2 days, and that is what we decided!! When we got there, we found out that it wasn't a condo at all, but a house, and it was beautiful. Thank you to Don for loaning us his beautiful condo.

This is the house that we stayed in. It is in Crystal mountain.


On Friday, we went gambling, then back to the Crystal Mountain village and had dinner, then we went back to the house and hung out. Saturday, we got up drove around, visited a few small towns, did some shopping, then went back to the house. We watched a movie, and then walked around the village some more. In the village they had the "Crystal Coaster" which took you up the mountain by chairlift, then you road down a track on a cart. It was a blast, and you went really, really fast. We then went gambling again. On Sunday, we got up lazily, packed our stuff, and headed home. What a great, relaxing time, we had.

I have never been in a lighthouse before and it was really neat. Pt Betsie Lighthouse in Benzie County.

The view from in the lighthouse.

When we were walking around the village, it was so pretty to see the leaves changing color. At home all the leaves were still green.

Going up the chairlift to the top of the mountain.

Getting ready to go down the mountain.

We had a great time!!

P & P

When we got back to Fisher's to pick up the kids, they had a suprise for us. It was sundae bar, and pretzels with peanut butter on the end, then dipped into mini m&m's or mini choc chips. They were so proud to have this for us and to help us celebrate. They are such awesome little people!