Can I say Talent?

My great friend, Patience, has really come into her own with all her photography ambitions. She seriously has gotten pretty crafty- making a little studio w/ a backdrop in her garage- to take pics of her kids...and now mine, too (if you haven't seen her blog with her kids in their costumes you really should cause they are amazing!). They look incredible and very professional! She just took these pictures of Kai and Payton in their Halloween costumes and they could not be cuter. What a talented girl you are Patience! She won't brag, so I will for her - she is awesome and is always willing to use her time to do me (and others) favors galore! Thanks, friend, you are too great!
p.s. sorry these pics aren't in order. I really can't figure out how to make the pics all uniform, etc. Forgive me!

Pumpkin Patch Madness!

Last night we headed out for the Pumpkin Patch at Laguna Hills Mall. We had gone there a few days ago with Jared's mom, Andrea (j's sister) and her kids, but we FORGOT the camera. I can't tell you how painful that was. So, I tried my best to recreate the moments we had then. Luckily, the pumpkin patch is something Kai and Payton love, so it wasn't too hard to capture some happy memories. This time we went with some friends, but we hardly saw them cause Kai wanted to go on the tractor ride... which lasted about 20 mins. He had Payton in the passenger seat and they just rode around in circles forEVER! People thought we had left we were over there so long. Kai and Payton loved it, though, and it was well worth the 4 tickets. I managed to get them to sit on the giant pumpkins for some photo ops, but that didn't last too long (that WAS the whole reason I wanted to go to the pumpkin patch to begin with). At the end of the outing, we were all smiled out, pumpkined out, and ready for bed.

Park days...

Well, it is conference weekend and Jared had to go to D.C. for work. Needless to say, I was left to fend for myself with these kiddies. We ventured out to the park on Saturday between sessions to get some energy out. (let's be honest...I was tivo-ing conference anyway cause my kids just aren't going to sit and watch that, right?) I enlisted some friends to come and join the fun. Connor and Dallin Ek, along with Taylor Judd showed up to make our day a million times better. I swear, after going to the park twice a day for the first two years of Kai's life - I have to say it's not my favorite place to go these days. But, after today, I have a new love for the park adventure. Kai had a blast with his friends and Payton...oh, Payton! She thought the slide was amazing and now that she doesn't almost kill herself on the contraption...it's really nice for me, too. We were there for 2 hrs and it flew by - - no, really, it did! They were so worn out that they napped for about 3 hrs and I was in heaven. I finally got to watch a few talks and relax and EAT! All in all...the first day without Jared went really well. The scary thing is he's not going to be back for a week so it might be downhill from here, eh?