Dancing Queen

Future Dancer? I see performing potential.....You be the judge.... ;)

Notice that while Kate sticks to a furious routine of mostly Riverdance/Tap, Haylee's moves include a combination of the robot, some tap, a little jazzercize and some funk! Work it OUT!!!!

Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam--REMIX dance party version (coming soon to Itunes)!

I'd say at least three nights a week the girls get dressed up in something "pretty" and perform for us. I use "us" loosely, because, as you can see, Kate is happy to perform for herself in the window reflection, TV reflection, mirror...any reflection at all really! Usually the performance has already begun by the time we find her. I have video after video with the girls (mostly Kate--Haylee comes and goes during the show) dancing and singing. These are a couple of my very favorites, I wish that I knew how to edit video so that I could make a highlights video.

I'll work on that!

I think she's ready to try dance classes again next year!

Easter Pictures

A few weeks ago I was driving around town looking for train track access and instead I found this beautiful field of poppies. It was in a private yard, so I went to the door and left my business card with a note asking if I could come back and use their amazing yard for a session...no particular session in mind....wink wink. The owner called me that night. Turns out she's a friend of a friend who has seen my work before. She is such a nice lady and was very excited to let me use her yard! Yay!!!! I took the girls out that next weekend. At first they didn't know what to think. They carefully stepped around all of the flowers--freaked out about the bees once or twice and were absolute angels the entire time. I can't wait to go back next year with clients! This year I kept it exclusive to my girls! :)

"Go get ready for bed, girls......."

.....and this is what we got! Busy nightlife I guess!

Build-A-Bear

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from Spring Break. We stayed home for most of the break--which was sooooo nice! The last weekend of the break we went to Eugene to go to Build-A-Bear with Liss, Cade, Ava and Gram. Gram has started a B-A-B tradition with all of the grandkids. The Utah grandkids have been loving their special friends from Gram, and now it was the Oregon grandkids' turn to share the fun! The kids all stood outside of the store for several minutes looking at all the options. When Gram announced it was time to choose their "bear" they all gave her a big hug of excitement!

Haylee chose a frog and named it "Froggy"

Kate chose a dog and named it "Puppy" but has since changed it's name to "Doggy" now that she has a puppy to go with it.

Here they are with their loot. They had such a great time! Thank you Gram for starting such a neat tradition! Haylee wouldn't go to bed tonight until I found Froggy....and his shirt....and his shorts...........which are girl clothes, but froggy has become a boy all of a sudden. ;)

Big News!!!!

I never thought the day would come! We'd like to announce the arrival of our newest family members......

3 new baby tigers.

Kate delivered them just a few minutes ago. It was quite impressive, and she did really well through the whole ordeal. I am always amazed at the resiliency of my children.

Details: At approximately 11:20 am I heard Kate gagging and choking from the other room. I ran in to see what was wrong (prepared to do the Heimlich maneuver) and she was writhing around on the ground--clearly in a lot of discomfort. After stopping to let me make sure that she wasn't dying, she got right back to work. She coughed out one kitten, then another, then a third!!!!

When I asked her where they were coming from she pointed to her tummy and said, "They in my tummy, then my throat, then my mae-outh." With a look that clearly said, "DUH!"

I'm pleased to report that all three of the imaginary tigers are healthy and quite cute--aside from being surprisingly noisy for imaginary kittens. We rushed them to the studio shortly after their arrival for an emergency photo session--at Kate's request.

What a good momma!

Haylee's Traumatic Event

Poor little Haylee Bug. It was a tough day....for both of us....

How many wash cycles you may ask??? Three. With bleach. Adam wondered why I didn't just throw the rug away. So did I after wash 2, but I was a mom on a mission by then.

Through the whole discovery/clean-up she wanted to cry but I wouldn't let her. We (I) needed to laugh about this one so I kept convincing her that it was funny. Her nervous laugh on the verge of crying cracks me up!

Cheetah Encounter

We LOVE living close to Wildlife Safari! We have had so many amazing experiences there. We go once a week (on average, depending on the season--sometimes it's twice a week) and we always see something cool there. This is a video of the girls and I on a Cheetah encounter. The Safari offers different "encounters" with the animals in the park. For this one, we got to walk through the park to the Cheetah and Tiger area and see the animals close up. The Cheetahs were all VERY interested in the two little girls in pink in the front row. Mmmmm..... Tasty. I took several videos of the cats hissing, spitting and chirping at the girls and then handed the camera off to the woman behind me so that I could be in one with them, too. Haylee kept trying to pet the Cheetahs and Kate kept calling "Here Kitty", chirping at them and kept telling them to "Sit, Cheetah. Sit!" They have no fear. We're in trouble!!!!

Haylee Bug and Mommy

Haylee was on me like glue after I cam home from my trip to Utah! One week is like an Eternity for Buggy! She was so cute! She requested "pictures with Mommy" after I came home. So, as I was setting up for a session, she and I snapped a few together. Her own little photo shoot with Mommy...I felt honored!

Haylee's favorite thing to do for photos right now is to make scary faces at the camera.

So we made some scary faces!

I love that Bug! ;)

The "frow ups"

Well, it hit our family. We tried to avoid it but a few weeks ago Kate woke up with the "frow ups." She was such a good sport about it, but was one sick little kid. She had it for 7 days straight with a fever of 104 (101 with Tylenol) for a good portion of it. I had been on the phone with her doctor for advice, but she couldn't keep anything down and was burning up so I finally decided that it was time to get her seen. It was late at night so we went to the ER since the urgent care was closed. I haven't posted anything for a while and I thought it was the perfect time to post these pictures since we just got out ER bill.....3 1/2 hours sitting in the ER (alone in a little room)--waiting for the Doctor who was with us for about 6 minutes--and the grand total is $707.35! Seriously??!!! Our portion, after insurance is $374.54. I'm so upset about it....actually, I'm angry about it. The frustrating thing to me about our medical system is that anywhere else you go, prices are available--up front so you can make an educated decision about what services you choose to purchase. Not in the medical world, though. They can charge us whatever they want and if you do happen to ask how much it will cost you get the look of, "How can you ask that? How much do you love your child? Wouldn't you do anything for her?" ARGHHH!!!!! Don't even get me started on the insurance company! How convenient for them that several of the services were excluded! And I ask, which services? We checked in, we waited, they gave her a Zofran pill and we went home--3 1/2 hours later. Silly me, I should have known that magazine that I read wouldn't be covered!

OK, enough complaining. Here is a picture of Kate during the "frow up" portion of the sickness. She was so exhausted from vomiting 23 times in a 14 hour period. She fell asleep on the bathroom floor after an episode.

At one point I asked her if she was going to throw up again and she said, "No, I think da frow ups are all gone back down in my legs now." I guess that's where it felt like it was coming from, all the way down in her legs.

Here she is finally feeling better. Her hair was all fuzzy and crazy but she was smiling again!!! Yay!!! Crazy girl!!!

;)

Keri Blue Photography

I just updated my website this past week. If you haven't checked it out in a while, stop by!

http://www.keribluephotography.com/

keri blue photography, family portraits, senior pictures, wedding photography, roseburg oregon photographer, modern photography

Thrift Books

Check out this great site for cheap used books! I just ordered some books from them for 1 penny + $3 shipping and handling each. Awesome!!! www.thriftbooks.com

Haylee loves Ranch!

So, no pictures to post with this one--only a story. A really, really gross story.... Ok, it could be worse, but still!!!!

We went bowling again last night. This time with Graden, Valerie, Jayson and their kids, Ella and Clayton. The girls loved it as usual. This time Kate discovered the little fan thing where you can dry your fingers before you bowl. She discovered that she could stand in front of it and let her hair blow in the wind. It made her feel very beautiful, she told me. She was way more interested in that than in bowling last night!

Haylee on the other hand was way more interested in the food. We ordered a pizza and soda and the kids all went to town! They were starving! Once it was all gone we went back to bowling...all but Haylee that is. At one point I caught Haylee taking plates out of the garbage can--community garbage can--and picking the remains off of them. Gross!!! It gets worse though. After being scolded for that, Jayson caught her LICKING RANCH off the top of the garbage can. Full on, tongue, plastered to the top of the bowling alley garbage can licking every last drop of the ranch from the can. YUCK!!!! I don't think I'll be able to kiss her for several days. ;)

Kate's Art

Kate is turning into quite the little artist! The detail in her pictures is impressive for a 3 year old! This is a picture of my hand....ring and all. That's a huge rock!!!

Don't my nails look pretty? ;)

Above is our family. Only Adam got a body...the rest of us are just heads!

This is her latest drawing. I'm calling it "Cow Standing On Grass"

She is totally into hand/Turkey drawings.

I've saved my favorite for last.....

Introducing, "Mommy"

Gorgeous!!!!

Cheating...

So I know it's kind of cheating, but I just posted a ton of pictures that I took on Christmas Day--and marked them as 12/31/08. Hee! Hee! My plan is to turn this blog into a book at the end of each year, so I didn't want the post to be out of order for the book some day....if I ever actually get around to making it....

Kate is in Primary!

I can't believe it, but Kate went into Primary today! It was so much fun to see her sitting on her "big girl chair" with her class. She was so good today. She gave the opening prayer--which was hilarious! She got as far as "Heavenly Father" and then she realized that her voice was really loud in the microphone and that she was standing in front of everyone with a booming voice...and that was it. The End. JennyLynn (my friend in the primary presidency) ended up finishing the prayer for her. It was adorable! How is she old enough to be in PRIMARY???? The bigger question though, how is she in Primary and still wearing DIAPERS??!!! Arghhh! The day will come....but hopefully before she gets married... When we got home we decided to take some photos since that's what we do on all the big days! Kate gave me all the usual poses and faces...all her choice, not mine. ;) It cracks me up because both the girls get so silly in front of the camera. So, below, we have "peering into the camera" photo x2, devil horns(???) maybe they're rabbit ears?? photo, the always classic "stick out your tongue" photo, and "look at how pretty my dress is" photo.

Christmas 2008

Ok, so I know this is a TON of pictures, but I've already cut most of them out. I promise!!! But hey, it's my blog so I decided to put them on even if it's an insane amount! We had a Christmas break that was NEEDED!!!! We took 7 days off from real life and it was amazing! I haven't taken a true vacation in over a year and a half! That said, I did do two photo shoots on my vacation, but still, that's better than two a day on my working days! Meg and Aaron came from Virginia for the week so we decided to go to Deadford for a visit. They will be leaving for South Africa for 2 years, so we didn't want to miss a chance to see them! While we were all together we decided to go bowling with the kids. All the kids loved it! It was nice and empty since it was Chrismas Eve day.

Peeking in on the camera. ;)







This was on Christmas Eve. The traditional Christmas Eve gift.......PJ's!!!!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun since the girls more or less "got it" this year. I say more or less because for the next several days they woke up wondering if Santa had come again!

The girls got dress up dolls from Santa this year. We had to open them right then and there! I swear the packaging was insane! It was almost impossible to get them out of the packages. They were taped and wired everywhere. Of course, the whole time we were trying to get the dolls out, the girls were right there saying, "Can I have it yet? Now can I? Now can I?"

The girls got a little bling for Christmas!

They also got a creepy doll head with lots of hair to style. They loved it. I still think it's creepy.

Pom Poms! They gave us a little cheer. Meg took a video of it and emailed it to me the other day. If I can figure out how to do it I'll post it here. Meg? Help??!!

Kate got a backpack and new boots and she didn't take either of them off for the rest of the day!

Kate was convinced that it was time for her to go to school. So Adam (such a great sport) walked down to the curb with her to wait for the bus. And wait. And wait. Finally she was able to be convinced that it was a holiday and so the bus wouldn't be coming so "why don't we go eat some breakfast."

When Ava got there she showed the girls the makeup that Santa brought her. WOW!!! REAL makeup!!! She had their full attention!

Ava put her makeup artist skills to work right away and the girls were in awe!

Backpack and boots still on!

Cade got a really cool Wall E toy.

Having worked her magic with my girls she moved on to the creepy head.

Now for the big gift from Gram and Papa....

Yay!!!! Babies with their own doll beds!

Cade got a Ninja Turtle set--way cooler than a doll bed!

We got to talk to Hunka Bry early in the afternoon. We all crowded into Papa's office to hear him talk on speaker phone! We were all excited and emotional, but the kids were the cutest! They were sooooooooo excited to talk to him! Nobody beats Hunka Bry! Not even the backpack!

Cute little cousins!

Kate sat for quite a while painting with the new paints that Gram got for the kids.

She is such an artist! More on that in a later post....

All the kids lined up waiting for ice cream! Gram's tradition!

Magic knows where to hang out in order to get some human food!

Later that night Gram lit a fire. She needed lots of help to get it going! How lucky for her that there were so many helpers available!

It must have been a really bright fire! Probably because of all those helpers!!!

Later, we all just sat around the fire and relaxed. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day!

Except Kate, she was ready to go to her photo shoot like Mommy. ;)