Black Friday festivities

Instead of black friday shopping we went and saw the Brett family singers in Branson. We had a lot of fun! And it was good wholesome entertainment, which I'm glad to support.
And afterwards we ate at Lamberts, known for their unique way of serving (for example- when you want a dinner roll, you raise your hand and they throw it at you from across the room). But we took the experience a step further and aat with 12 squished in at a table of 8 and we carefully balanced a sleeping toddler across our laps and juggled a needy baby back and forth between the two of us.

Thanksgiving festivities

This year we had our Thanksgiving day feast at the LDS chapel in Stockton. Fun times!
Four of us sisters had babies within months of each other. It was fun to get all the cousins together for a diaper picture...even if some where still learning to sit up :)
...and the proud mamas :)

Cousins

My sister Lynnae & her husband Ryan stayed with us this past week for Thanksgiving. We both had baby boys around the same time so it was so fun to introduce them to each other for the first time, even though they're both still young. I wondered to myself if these two were friends up in heaven prior to coming to earth. And their actions seemed to say, 'Hey bud! There you are! It's good to see you! Glad to see you made it down okay!'.

"Cousins are your very first friends...Nobody will understand the craziness of your family better than your cousins."

Family pictures...and other happenings

Last year we took family pictures. Horrible! We learned that we cannot give everyone that much freedom/trust when picking out their outfits for pictures. So we tightened the reigns on the clothing rules. I'm proud to announce that my family pulled through. Everyone looked pretty good! And I think we got some decent pictures.
The Guerras
The Adams
The Reisners
The Cooks
The Bitters
The grandkids
And another noteworthy happening. I chopped my hair! (In case you didn't notice in the above pictures). Long story, but the gist...I went from blonde to grey to now brunette...unintentionally.   Moral of the story- know exactly what you want before you take the plunge to do something wild and crazy and be very specific about it...or you might end up with greenish/gray hair!!   Oh well.  It's something different.  I think I'll gradually make my way back to blonde though.
And, these are just some random pictures from instagram. My new obsession :)

7 month olds

You'd think me being a photographer, I'd be on top of getting the typical landmark pictures- newborn...3 month...6 month...1 year. I think I missed formal 3 month pics. October flew by! So no 6 month pictures. So 7 months. Here they are.
The funny thing about Liam is he resists taking pictures unless someone else is getting their pictures taken. In fact, the last senior pictures I took, he ran down into my studio and stood in the background with one of his cars as if it were totally normal to have a toddler in your senior pictures. So Liam got some, um, 33 month old pictures.
And this is a totally random one. I was getting changed to go to the YMCA and things seemed quiet in the living room...apparently for a reason. This same day Liam wrote on my kitchen table with a pen (which I might add, don't try to take out pen with hairspray if varnish is involved. Hairspray + varnish = not good). There were other mischievous acts but, my mind is currently drawing a blank. Oh Liam!