the mandel 5

Today's session rescheduled due to a sick kid so we got to put the tree up a couple days early. Megan was very into the ornaments this year. It took extra long because she had to look each one over before hanging it. =) The boys were just boys, losing interest pretty quickly. lol.

Yesterday was quite a big day at the dentist. Megan had her front tooth pulled - the one she fell and broke three years ago. She was amazingly brave and is so happy to have it out. The tooth fairy left $5. Rob was a little nervous about that because each kid will supposedly lose 20 teeth each and well, you can do the math. But this was a special tooth and a first in our family. She looks so old now. =( Logan also went to the dentist yesterday to have a cavity filled. My poor baby. He grabbed Nathan's hand when they called his name. The dentist let Nathan go back, too, and let him stay in the room the whole time they worked on Logan. I guess he was a big comfort and Logan was also very brave. Not one tear. Nathan talked the dentist into giving him 3 masks and three pairs of rubber gloves so they could all play dentist at home.

My sweet niece, Kari, has a blog! Welcome to my little world. She's almost 11 but I am sure someone counted wrong because there is NO WAY that was eleven years ago when I hopped in my car to drive from my apartment in Westwood to Santa Clarita and forgot my purse and had to go all the way back......anyway.... Kari's Blog

Today the kids decorated a gingerbread house that Grandma Verna gave us. I can't believe they are asleep now because they ate half the decorations! Nathan helped me put stamps on the envelopes for our cards (but the letter still isn't done so we're not ready to mail anything yet).

Brady gave us 3 Kings tickets for last night's game so we took Nathan. What a lucky little dude to have mommy and daddy all to himself. He LOVED it. He was especially interested in the "time outs" the players were put on when they hit and tripped each other. =) It was free hat night so we all have a hat now. Today Nathan played hockey all over the house with a golf club and a puck that Casey caught for me when we went to a game way back when I was pregnant with Megan. Here's Daddy and Nathan chillin' in the stands.

There was a day, or maybe a year (or maybe more!), when Megan and Corey did NOT get along. They faught all through Sunday night dinners and Corey would even complain on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's house if he knew Megan would be there, too. Today, they have both grown up a bit - now 8 1/2 and 6 1/2. They get along so well these days. Today Kris and I had them at Dad's while we went through some of Mom's things. Megan and Corey spent the day together playing without a single fight. When I was done with my work, we went on a photo walk. They collected acorns, and I took pictures. Corey, who won first in the jr print comp for his grade, was all over this adventure. He gave each shot a title in case we want to enter it in the next local photo competition. "tree monkeys" "acorn hunters"

Well....we started Thanksgiving with a Burrill/Choate photo session at Dad's. Yeah, Rob had to be photoshopped into the above photo because he was at home searching for something he needed to take to his mom's. Ahhh...technology! Naturally, my boys are goofing around and Nathan did not look at the camera once. Brady and Jen Uncle Rich and Aunt Janey - cuz without them here, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving! collecting cool red leaves - see Jen, told ya it's fall!! future spouses my boys the 7 "cousins" choates Then we went to Grandma Verna's for turkey dinner. The food is always yummy there. The kids played with their friend Tiffany Papa Ed flew out from Florida! Everyone (except the photographer) at Grandma Verna's today. I hope you all have full tummies and sweet dreams! And yes, there are TONS more to edit but I am tired so if you were there and you are looking, it's coming!

Nathan had his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool last night. We had the traditional pizza, ceasar salad, fruit, and cookies! =)

This "kookie dough" was one of Nathan's fund-raiser items. Bambi bought some and asked that the kids use it here. =) What fun they had tonight making and eating their works of art!

I took Megan, Kari, and Grace to the American Girl Fashion show in Santa Barbara last night. My mom used to take the girls and it's fun. Megan had a little trouble sharing Kari with Grace but I think they all ended up having a good time. Here are the girls with Grandma Corky 3 years ago at the show (I remember being very pregnant with Logan that year).

Soooooo....let's see. Busy, buys, busy here. I finished that streak of 21 sessions in 5 days. I have some over the next few weeks but nothing too overhwelming. Jen came over today and packaged all the orders I had sitting here while I filed, made calls, and designed cards. Now there is a witness to tell others that I don't eat bon bons, watch Oprah, and play on the computer when I don't have sessions. There aren't enough hours in the day! Last Thursday I left my purse in the shopping cart in the parking lot of the grocery store. The person who found it did not take it into the store. They took it home with them to Sylmar. AND didn't call me for hours so assuming it was lost forever, I cancelled all my credit cards. What a pain in the butt. The lab froze my orders, netflix stopped service, vendio, ebay - all sorts of places have those cards on file. Oh well, at least I didn't leave a KID in the cart! And the lady returned my purse, unharmed and complete with my $...

FINALLY the Santa sessions are over. I love them, but 40something is too many. I will have to limit them next year. A few more holiday sessions this coming week and then it should be relatively normal around here except for getting orders out. I have lots to update everyone on but for now, here is our santa photo for the year. Megan took the right half and I took the left. Rob did this with no hesitation. The kids were actually excited about doing it and loved watching daddy suit up. A lot different than last year.

I've been working so much lately. This is a park I have been using for sessions this fall. I had so much fun with three families there on Sunday that I was actually jealous of their photos! I want some like that of MY kids. So, I took the boys to the park with poor Ginger and Jack who didn't realize what an adventure they were in for (Ginger wore sandals). This is about as Fall as it gets here so I'll take what I can get. And "Baby Jack" as my kids STILL call him even though he is 3, older than Logan.

I found a paper in Megan's backpack with a drawing on top and a sentence underneath that says, "I am going to chricrchreet by my frends house." I had NO idea what she meant until I kept reading and it said how she will get good candy and see pumpkins. Yup, she thinks trick-or-treat begins with a "ch" and if it did, that was some great sounding out!

This is Mardi and her family. I've known Mardi since kindergarten. She lived just up the street and we played everything from dolls to horse show (on her real horses) together. Now she lives up north but we get a couple visits in each year. This is the third fall we've done a photo shoot with her son Callum. He is Logan's age. Callum holds a special record in the studio for longest session. Last year he cried and cried and we shot, played, shot, ate, shot, played, shot, napped, etc. for hours. We finally ended up with a few good shots and even a cute enough crying one to make their Christmas card. I think Callum did much better this year! Last night we met at a park and my kids got to play with him. Today I met them alone for their session. The rest of their session is HERE.

One more game for each kid next week and then we are DONE. This was a very exciting game day for Nathan's team. It was the least we have ever lost by. AND we scored a goal. For the correct team. Here is Rob giving Nathan a high ten after the goal and a happy kid running through the parent tunnel after the game.

Well, those Costco tickets expire next week and we had one trip left. Since it's a school holiday and the first day the parks are decorated for Christmas, we went to California Adventure. It was fun...we rode some rides and saw three shows. At 5:00 we were waiting for the parade to start. I had the kids all pumped up because Buzz and Woody were going to be in it. To kill the 15 minutes before showtime, I took them on a ride while Rob saved our seats. We were up high on a platform waiting for the rocket ride and who drives past on the ground below? Lightning McQueen and Mater! I picked up Logan so he could see. I asked the guy running the ride where we could go see them and he said they were done for the day. 15 minutes before the parade, they drive through the park. I could have cried. THEN he said they come out four times a day and you can take pictures with them!!! We totally missed being able to see Lightning and Mater. The kids don't know, and they were happy with seeing th...

So Megan comes home from Grace's house this afternoon with this picture and says, "Mom, can you mail this to heaven? I made it for Grandma." Um, okay, sniff. THEN, I turn it over and see this: The "G"s are for "grandma. I couldn't even say anything to her. Does she not think Grandma is okay? The other day Nathan asked why it is taking so long for Grandma and Joshie to come back. Any child psychologists following the blog?