A Visit to SANTA!

Santa is already at the Mall! We go to visit Santa every year around this time to beat the LONG lines! Surprisingly this year Kira wasn't scared at all. Last year was a whole different story! She was terrified of him and wouldn't go near him. I had to hold her. I love dressing the kids up in Christmas attire! It just makes it that much more "Christmasy"! I admit, I can't stand it when I see kids going to visit Santa and they are dressed in regular clothes, I don't know why but it totally bugs! (Sorry if your one of those people, LOL!)

Above is the shot I paid for! It's cute but quality is terrible, oh well!


I just realized that Kira's hair is really LONG!!! I think I'll finally get it trimmed soon!

Here they are picking out their lollipops. It was funny because Logan said no thank you to Santa's lollipop and told him he didn't need one because we were going to the candy store next door, LOL! Santa insisted they both take one anyways and save for later.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week and Christmas (Logan's Bday) is right around the corner!!!

Another Reason Why I LOVE Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas because Santa decided to give us the most unexpected gift in 2004! LOGAN! Whenever this Holiday season comes around we tell him that all the decorations, all the lights, all the trees, all the music etc. is everyone also celebrating his birthday! He LOVES it so much! The other night he peeked out his window and saw the neighbor behind us had their Christmas lights up already. He came to get me so that he could show me and the next question out of his mouth was, "Is my Birthday tomorrow or in 2 days"?! So CUTE!

The following day he was so excited he told Vic that they had to put up the lights already. When I was at work they did put up some lights but they also did lights in Logan's room. That little Christmas tree in his room, he's had since he was a baby. We put it in his room every year and tell him it's his Birthday Tree! He was so excited about the lights! Lights equal closer to Christmas which means his Birthday! He "gets" it! :)

ONE Year Later... A New Beginning

Today is the "anniversary" of the horrible fires we had back in 2008. It started out a really good and normal day. Went to the gym with the kids and when we came out it smelled like smoke. It looked like it was far away from us so I went about my day as I normally would. (Fires in CA happen all the time and you know once or twice you've changed the channel when the news would be talking about yet another CA fire, I'll admit I did before). Then next for our day was a shower and taking the kids to my first spray tan. My good friend Jules was nice enough to meet us there with her 2 girls so she could watch my kids for the 10 minutes I was being sprayed. Next thing we new the smoke had come closer, fire trucks were driving by even tactical weapons specialist trucks. All this had us alarmed. We decided to go up to Jules parent's house (which happens to be up the street from my parent's house) to see if anything was visable from the 2nd story window. We were there for quite a while pacing back and forth, phone calls and texts here and there while the news was on TV. It just came to a point when we all decided, "We need to get the heck out of here"! I put the kids in the car which turned their mood from having fun playing all together to pretty much sheer panic. Probably didn't help that I was panicing and crying. It was the middle of the day yet the sky made it appear dark and RED! I drove down the hill to my parents house, left the kids sitting in the car alone and ran in to find all 3 cats and grab whatever I could. I didn't even know what to grab or what to do. I just remember literally pacing back an forth in the house like a dumb idiot not knowing what to do. It was a really bad weekend for us and I'm actually really glad my parent's were out of town. I wouldn't want my Mom to experience all this being that it was her own house with all her beloved memories inside. And the fact that if my Dad, Colin and Vic had been home they would of been up there with hoses until the last minute! (The photo above was taken by a Firefighter photographer. That is Colin's work truck in the driveway).

Here's the aftermath. A shot from the backyard looking forward. Unbelievable how fire demolishes everything. There was nothing left.

My family standing next to the American flag that remained in tact even with the raging fire burning our house down... go figure!

The new house.... The house they are building this time around is a 2 story and double the sq/ft. It's suppose to be completed sometime in January and we all can't wait for it! To new beginnings!

THANK YOU to ALL of you who were so supportive for me and my family and donated your time, food, money etc. to my parents and other fire victims! We are greatly appreciative!

Play Date!

Today we had a play date at the park. We all actually got together and hung out at the park while the kids played! Although there was a handful of us there, there were still some little friends missing. :( Here's Ava, Gianna and Kira sitting on the steps eating snacks. All TWO year olds!

Here's all the kids being silly and hiding under the table because we were all getting ready to leave. Guess they weren't ready???

Amazing it was so easy to get this bunch to sit on the table lined up and smile for the camera. Figures when it's this easy I didn't bring my camera. These were taken by Carrie and Lindsay with their camera phone.

They played well together and had a blast! I really enjoyed meeting up today and hope we do it again! Here they all are lined up starting with little Makenzie (1), Ava (2), James (almost 4), Kira (almost 3), Logan (almost 5) and Gianna (almost 3).

My Newest FAV'S!!!

Here's just a couple of my latest favorite shots of Kira and Logan. I love that in like 2 minutes I'm able to get an unexpected favorite shot that when I look at it it makes my heart melt! That's what I love about photography.... I love sessions where you shoot 50-100 images or so and then out of that you get that ONE unexpected AWESOME shot that you just can't stop looking at, one that you LOVE! This first one of Kira is my absolute favorite (for now). I love how real and innocent she is yet it's totally her and her sassy attitude! Definitely one I will order in Canvas print, can't wait! :)

Logan is such my easy guy! He's almost going to be FIVE and is almost at my "age limit" for photography, LOL! I love to capture the moment, the innocence of babies and toddlers but when they get to be 4 or 5 sometimes that is "lost". They tend to over smile, try and do what you say or are constantly watching you. He's still my #1 "Model" though. LOVE YA!

After Halloween Sale!

So I've learned over the past year's that it's actually fun to go check out what costume's are on-sale after Halloween night! Most right away are 50% off but then as the days and weeks go by the percentage goes all the way up to 90% off! You can't beat that! Not that these sale costume's will be used for next year's Halloween but just for fun for the kids to wear when ever they feel like it. Logan got this Jengo Fett costume from Star Wars the Clone Wars. He is sooooo OBSESSED with Star Wars right now, it is pretty cute! Kira too got another Halloween costume to play in... Ariel from the Little Mermaid (forgot to take her pic though). Then just recently Vic went out and found Logan another costume for 90% off. It was his newest favorite guy the white Ninja from G.I. Joe. FUN for $1.99 you can't top that!!!