Help please!

I'm making desktop calendars for teacher gifts this year and I ended up with 15 images and I only need 12. Which 3 would you eliminate? They're numbered below the thumbnails.

See them here.

There are no words for the cuteness that is this picture.

6 months...

So I took Clara in for her 6 month appt. I changed Dr's because I found one that does home visits. When I got there I was ecstatic to find out that she had 3 homebirths and is totally on board with cloth diapering and delayed and selective vaccinations. It's like she was made to be my kids' ped.

Anyway. Get this. Clara is...wait for it...

23 pounds.

No wonder my back hurts more when I carry her for too long.

But look how cute and squishy! I just can't get enough of her.

Blessings

One person I'm eternally grateful to is my husband.



Reasons...to name a few...

-He works hard and provides enough to make it possible for me to stay home with our children.

-He plays "do anything man" with the kids.

-He writes music.

-He plays the guitar and sings to the kids at bedtime.

-Not only that, he sings songs that his dad sang to him and his grandpa sang to his dad.

-He gives us priesthood blessings whenever we ask.

-He cooks Sunday night dinner.

-He tells everyone how wonderful he thinks I am, even when I'm not.

-He watches chic flicks with me. (and secretly likes them)

-He loves me, anyway.

Gratitude - d5

Cable internet.

The reason there is no gratitude post from Saturday and this one today is so late is because my parents live way out in the boonies and can only get satellite internet, which is certainly faster than dial-up, but is still way slower than cable. And I just don't have the patience for it.

Thank you to whoever invented cable internet and to Dave who insists that we always have it. :)

Gratitude - d4

Today I'm grateful for my baby brother. He leaves on Wednesday to serve a 2 year full time mission for our church in Independence, MO and I'm very proud of him.

Love you, Bud!



PS...I'm also thankful for my cute shoes. :)

Gratitude - d3

Today I'm grateful for Horses.

Since Aria has been in riding lessons, she's really gained confidence and her anxiety has reduced. They've been a blessing to her, which is a blessing to me. :)

Nathan

Did a little shoot of Nathan.

I took him to a freeway underpass covered in murals. It was after dark so I busted out my new video light for the lighting. I was really curious to see what I could do with it.

Here we have the regular Nathan. Small smile, just kinda hanging out.



And this is happy Nathan. It's not easy to get a real smile out of him so when I do it's like gold!



and goofy Nathan. He doesn't show this side much. He's so shy that most people don't even see the boy in the first two pictures. But, really, he rocks. He says the funniest things (usually with sarcasm) and is so sweet. Clara adores him and just laughs and laughs at him. In fact today she was sitting on my lap while I proofed these and she saw them and cracked up.

Gratitude - d2

Sorry it took all day. I've barely been home.

Today I'm grateful for knee dimples.



Don't you just want to squish her legs? They're the best.

Month of gratitude

This month I'm going to try and put something I'm grateful for every day. I know I'm starting 11 days late, but I just thought about it, so you'll live. Maybe I'll take it into December. :)

Anybody feel free to join in!

Since I think (and communicate) better with pictures, that's what you're going to get most of the time.

Autumn.

2%

That's it.

That is the percentage of people in California who are also LDS (aka Mormons).

It took WAY more than that 2% for proposition 8 to pass in CA. It passed with a vote of 52.5%. That means even without the LDS population, it still would have passed.

And that's assuming all LDS voted, and voted Yes, which I'm sure wasn't the case.

So, why are we singled out? Why are our temples being vandalized and our members being attacked?

Read the facts about prop 8 here.

This one stands out to me.

Prop 8 does not take away any rights from gay and lesbian domestic partners. Gays and lesbians in CA can already enjoy all the legal rights and benefits of marriage. The CA Family Code says, "domestic partners shall have all the rights, protections and benefits" of married spouses. There are NO exceptions to this. Prop 8 will not change that.

So what makes us the lucky recipients of this sort of treatment?

It's just not right.

Hmmm...they don't look like cousins do they?

While in Seattle, we visited family. Aren't they cuties? They were all born within two years of each other and are great friends. :)

Fun with a point and shoot

We went to the Seattle Science Center a few weeks ago and I got some fun pictures with my point and shoot.

Gee, they look like gamers or something.


Trying to be like the Blue Man Group.




"Mom, I don't like this mirror, it makes me look weird."


"It's okay, Aria, they make everyone look weird"


Next time I go to Seattle, I'll remember the rain and bring something besides flip-flops. You'd think after living there for 8 years, I'd know better.


I was having way too much fun with the fun house mirrors.


I was loving all the light in this room, and the fact that we were the only ones there.


The giant guitar. A family favorite.






Clara happy in the stroller.


Who doesn't love big bubbles?


and hanging upside down...


and rooms where you're supposed to make as much noise as possible...


and giant hamster wheels...