Allie's New Headshot

One down, two to go. I am printing some 20 x 20's to display in my house. This is Allie's latest headshot, just in time for her birthday in 3.5 weeks (yip, she's counting down the days).

Anna's Kiddos

Maddie Girl at 17.5 months

Maddie is almost ready to go to nursery. It will be interesting to see how she will do! She's definitely into things. She loves to climb. I find her on top of my dining table quite often and seems like she can get there faster than I can blink my eyes. I'd be cooking about 10 feet away, and one second she is on the ground, the next she is on the table. She thinks it's funny too when I am alarmed and rush to get her down - and tries to get away by hiding behind the centerpiece. I guess calm and collected should be my response here.

She also loves the piano. She takes Allie's piano book and turn the pages as she's banging on the keys. Last night she noticed Allie's piano book wasn't where it should be (it was in the office). She took it and tried to put it back on the piano book rest but was unsuccessful (the book is too big for her). I found the scattered pages and folder on the floor and Maddie on the chair. She looked at book and told me to "take it". As soon as I placed the book back in its place, she was content and started to play some keys.

She is quite a talker now - jibber-jabbering most of the time. She added some new phrases and words to her vocab -- "take it", please, thank you, "where'd go?", "where's dad?", "let's go", shoes, boo, and dirty. Often she will copy what we say. One time Kevin asked her "what's going on?" She said it back to him.

She loves trying on shoes so we find a pair here and a pair there. She also likes to get out the Swiffer mop when we're cleaning, and throwing things in the trash - I've found a perfectly good apple, a shoe, and a couple boxes of puzzles in there a time or two. With all that and taking boxes of cereal from the pantry and picking thru the marshmallows, she definitely keeps us busy. Her silly laughter and big toothy smiles are definitely worth all of her little handprints on our newly cleaned glass doors, little footprints on the freshly mopped floors (not just when it's Collin's turn to mop - he gets very agitated about those), and spilled cereal on the just-vacuumed floors. I think.

Ashlyn's Blessing

Asleep again! I guess that is what almost 3-week old babies do!

Outnumbered 7-2

Good-looking set of kids here huh? The girls are totally outnumbered! This shoot took a few minutes, this is my favorite shot of all of the Harris grandkids -- the Merrill boys, Parker, and my own three rugrats.

Megan and Family

Maddie is 16 Months!

Miss Maddie turned 16 months a few days ago. She is full of personality and loves to talk, play hide and seek, and play chase. She has 6 teeth, and loves to eat lots of fruit. She will try just about anything (hasn't gotten picky yet!) She is such a fun (and funny) little girl and sticks to a good schedule. We love this little one!

Welcome, Ashlyn Kate!

We got to meet our brand-new cute niece yesterday! She looked so small and so cute. I got to feed her a bottle when we got there - she was awake for just a few minutes. She fell asleep while eating then didn't wake up the whole time we were there. So she is FAST asleep in all the photos. She must have liked just having a diaper on and being snuggled in a soft blanket. Silly Ash! Anyways I put a little stick-on bow on her head (which was full of nice downy hair by the way!) and took photos of her. She is the youngest I have ever photographed. Congrats Dickersons!

A Snowflake Weekend

Last week was Spring Break. We loved having no schedules to keep! The first few days of the break we had a great St Patty's day, watched movies and I even got some house painting done. We decided to go to Snowflake for the weekend (Kevin's idea) so Friday afternoon we drove up there to enjoy the cooler weather. We were lucky the wind decided NOT to blow on Friday or Saturday while we were up there. We enjoyed dinner at Trapper's on Friday night (the coconut cream pie was yummy!), and then the next day it was the Snowflake Temple, Show Low, Pinetop area, a trip to the barber shop where we met a very interesting lady barber who was Filipino-Hawaiian, then to the local carnival. The kids had never been to a local carnival before, so they were very excited about going there. So after lunch at Eva's Cocina and a little nap, we were off.

The kids went on the Berry Go Round, then Collin and Kevin went on the ferris wheel. Collin wanted to go on it, but after the ride was over, he told me he didn't like the way his stomach "went in" every time the ferris wheel was on its way down! Then our daring Allie and her equally daring Dad decided they were going on the Zipper! Pretty scary if you ask me. They get you in this cage and then it goes up, down, around all the while you're in the cage that also spins around depending on the pull of gravity (at least that's how I saw it from below!). I couldn't believe Allie was up for that! She said it was the "freakiest" ride she's ever been on. I was surprised she didn't throw up. It is a good thing Kevin would go on those carnival rides with the kids because I don't do very well with those kind of rides! Too chicken.

On Sunday we went to church at the historic building on Main Street (the chapel was full, so we went upstairs and watched church through the big glass window of the crying room). We also spent time visiting Grandma Weez's and Marley's graves and got to visit with Kevin's aunt Peggy and uncle Terry. They are always so fun to talk with. We planned on stopping to take photos at the Sunrise Dairy and farm (Kevin's grandma's dairy, still owned by the Hatch family) but it was so windy we just hurried on over to Peg and Terry's. Then we went home via the Salt River Canyon - Globe way which we found to be 15-30 minutes faster than going thru Payson. It was a fun and relaxing trip!

Maddie is 15 months old!

Maddie's classic looks

Our little Maddie is now 15 months old! She is finally outgrowing her car seat so Church isn't quite as easy as it used to be. We tried this last Sunday to keep her in it but she prefers to be out and about, I'm sure it is not as comfy as it used to be either. She says bye, hi, hello, mama, dada, na (for nose), uh-oh, and tries to copy what we say sometimes (bear, taco, grandma). She also points to her tummy when asked where it is. She still loves her bottle (for milk) and binkie. For other types of drinks, she will take a sippy cup or straw. She has mastered going up and down the stairs, and loves to get in our cupboards, and pretend to sweep and wipe the floors (yeah!). She loves being outside (street baby), she takes off whenever the door is open. She loves to walk around with her blanket covering her face (we have to watch closely because she bumped into a few walls lately!) She loves to push Collin riding on her little farm ride-on, and loves rides in her push cart (thanks to Allie and Collin!).

She loves food too! She will usually eat a regular container of yogurt, a waffle, and milk for breakfast; an orange and a ham or peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch and a bowl of macaroni and cheese for dinner. She loves all kinds of fruit - blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, oranges and bananas. She is a very petite girl though, I think she's taking after me.

Stats Update:

Weight - 18 lbs 6 oz

Height - 30 inches

Head - 17.8 inches

Anna's Mini Photo Shoot

Our record 15-minute shoot because it was COLD and windy here in AZ! But all she needed was one good photo. Lucky for me there were a few favorites. These are some of them.

Sneak Peek: Kristie's Cute Fam

Fun photo shoot! Of course it helps alot when you have a good looking family to photograph. :)

Megan and Chad

SUPER good-looking family, these two and Mr. Parker. I love this one of Chad and his little boy. More to come...

Austin & Rex

I can't believe I am just getting to this! Here are just a few of my favorites from our little photo session. The Pettits and us go a long way back - Austin and I were roommates at BYU, and Kevin and Rex have been best friends for a looooooong loooooong time. :) It was a lot of fun to see how their family (and ours) have grown over the years.

Travin

Mr. Travin did not want ANY photos taken. I definitely need a good zoom lens - it is way hard to do when babies walk around and try to get as far or really close to the camera and you are shooting with a 50mm prime lens. But isn't he cute???

The Boyz

After dinner today, I took some photos of Kristie's boys. At 6:30, we didn't get much light. And the razor scooters looked so much more fun than smiling for the camera. They were good sports however, and looked very cute nonetheless.

See you soon, Marley.

This weekend we went up to Snowflake for the graveside services of Marley Ray, Michael (Kevin's cousin) & Clarice's 6-month old boy who passed away last week. He had a rare genetic disease (immune system) that affects the body's ability to fight diseases. He was in the hospital for a few weeks before he passed on. Although this event is a very difficult and sad experience, it was amazing to see the strength and testimony of Michael and Clarice and their two beautiful daughters. As I looked at these photos last night, I was reminded of what these two said as they let a balloon go for their little brother: "Have a fun time in heaven, Marley!"