How does she look?

Claire got a new dress yesterday. She came in this morning with it on. "Oh mom, I look dazzling, don't I look dazzling Jake?" she said as she spun around.
I don't know if I have ever said the word around her and I'm puzzled where she might have heard it.

I am not a morning person...

Lucky for me my kids and husband are! So while I was still trying to drag my bottom out of bed, my almost 4 year old was making breakfast for herself and her brother.

thanksgiving and santa

My first Thanksgiving dinner turned out pretty good if I do say so myself, although I did have a ton of help. Kimberly came up for a few days and it was fun to have a shopping partner on Black Friday! Marshall and Tiffany were up too so Claire had lots of fun playing with her cousins, and Jake became good friends with uncle Marshall calling him "mama". After Thanksgiving we went down to Salt Lake for the weekend and spent some time with my family.
Today I took Claire to see the mall Santa and she actually sat on his lap and told him what she wanted. Then as we were walking away she said, "that man was wearing a santa suit". I guess there's no fooling her.

claire's drawing

Claire finished this picture today and it's probably one of the first real drawings she's done. Drawing is her new favorite hobby and she does it everyday. It's so funny how she's such a perfectionist and if she doesn't get something just right she gets so mad. This happens especially with letters now that she is trying to write words. It's so cute and I'm so proud of how well she is writing her name already. I'll have to post that too sometime. These pictures she said were of her Granny and Papa and Nana and Papa Ray.

thisnthat

i'm having a hard time making this house look lived in because i just don't have enough furniture so i thought i'd revamp this d.i. chair and then i could use it at my studio when i didn't need it anymore. here's the before and after.



oh and the pics of claire and jake i took at the gardens. i wanted to do a fall shoot, unfortunately everything was already dead, but I'm glad i did it before jake chipped his tooth!
oh did i mention i'm doing my first thanksgiving dinner this year? I'm so excited, this is something Ive wanted to do for a long time!

my name is chip

Jake chipped his tooth, chris said if you think about it it's kind of funny, now we can call him Chip. Then I started to cry.

portland temple

i took some pictures of the temple while we were there and just wanted to post