Help!

Who really knows if anyone even checks my blog anymore since it's been so long since I've posted. I have so many things that I want to catch up on, but it's just not happening right now. I have been so crazy busy with editing and christmas cards for all my clients, Christmas shopping (I still have a ton to do), Christmas decorating (I just barely finally threw the pumpkin away off my front porch 2 days ago, it hadn't been carved so it wasn't nasty, and the lights still aren't on our Christmas tree yet.) Does life ever slow down, holy cow all I want is a night to sit and watch some good TV. Since last year I was so busy I didn't even send out a Christmas card. Well, I'm trying to do one this year since I have the cutest kids ever and I have to share.

Anyway, I need your help... I don't know which Christmas card design I like best. I have an idea of which one I'm leaning towards but I need some more opinions. We'll see if anyone responds. (Chante I'm counting on you to be #1) They have not been placed on here in any particular order. So let me know...

news clip

Here is the link for the news story about Payton's heart donation for those of you who might've missed it. Touching, emotional, and full of two little miracles...

http://www.kutv.com/content/news/specialreport/story.aspx?content_id=2ff01517-f3b0-480a-941e-2760c7592236


Here are the two Bailey's in my life! (one Bailey with an "i" and the other Baeley with an "e")

One my daughter and one with the heart of an angel! Love them both to pieces and I am so thankful for both of them and the roles they play in my life.

Trent...

My niece is over at my house and saw this picture of my nephew (her little bro) on my computer and I had to share it. It is so him, the hunter's hat, the missing tooth (the first of many), his adorable freckles and red hair, and he's wearing a girls shirt but he loves it and doesn't know it's a girls shirt and his mom doesn't have the heart to tell him.

Gotta love him!

follow up...

Some of you out there saw the Channel 2 news a few months ago about our story about Payton and Spot the Tot. Well, they came back and did a follow up interview to do another story all about the organ donation. There's some coverage with us and some with the family and the little girl that has P.J.'s heart. So if you want to see it watch the Channel 2 news at 10:00 pm on Monday November 24th. I hope it's good, you never know how they will pull it all together, but if it's anything like the last one it'll be great and very touching.

I know it's been way too long since I posted anything on here. I'm hoping in December when my business slows down a bit that I'll be able to catch up on the last 3 months of our life. Just for me, so that I'll have it all to put in a book at the end of the year. We'll see!

But for now...

here's a few pictures of the kiddos a few Sunday's ago when they were being really sweet to each other. These moments are hard to come by these days. They are not the nicest to each other anymore, except for a few short minutes each day. Hopefully they'll grow out of it sooner than later and learn to love each other again, cuz it's hard to be a referee all day.


I'm not really sure what Beau's doing here, I guess he thought it was cool to stick "both" of his fingers up his nose.

Who's ready to go shopping??

Sorry for any of those of you who have already seen this on my photo blog, but I never know who looks on there and wanted to add this on on here too.

So about a month ago I had three of the funnest days shooting the winter line for Layers Clothing. I've been meaning on posting some pictures from the shoot before now but I've been so busy it hasn't been on the top of my list of things to do. Now that they have their website updated with their winter line I decided to share some.

There are so many clothes that I love and am going to have to purchase for myself. I love their clothes, the model was gorgeous, the owners (now new friends) were so fun to work with (good thing because we spent 3 full days together) and it was so much fun to do something a little different.

I wish I could put all the pictures on here because they all turned out awesome!!! But just go to their website and you can see most of them. They just moved to a new location just off of 90th South and you can go try everything on. So go check them out!




It's too bad we didn't have a camera crew for this shot. The chicken jumped out of her hands and we were all running around laughing hysterically trying to catch it. Luckily my dad was there and he caught it and put it back for us. He was laughing watching us try to catch this little guy. pretty funny!!!

"AARRRRR, MATEY!"

Halloween this year was a blast! For a few months before Halloween I had wanted both the kids to be PIRATES!!! I wasn't sure if I was going to have a say this year of what Bailey was going to be. I was sure she would be a princess if I let her. (I know I'm so mean but I was hoping "I" had one more year to choose) I bought the pirate costumes with hope that Bailey would get excited to dress up as a pirate with Beau. She was at first until we went to the store and she saw a Snow White costume. So to make a long story short I bought both but I was happy when Halloween came and she wanted to be a pirate "like Beau"!
Jer and I absolutely loved watching the kids (well Bailey had fun but Beau was scared half to death.)

At the beginning of the night Bailey wasn't super happy because I had to wake her up from a nap to get our night started. If you wake Bailey up don't expect smiles for a while, hence half of the pictures.

Beau started to shake the second he saw someone with a mask on. Too bad his cousin Tyler and Grayson both had masks this year, as well as Grandma and Grandpa Peterson. He just clung to me for dear life or was also very content just sitting in the stroller (away from anyone with a mask) most the night.

We went around our neighborhood with most of the cousins and it was a lot of fun to see all of them run from house to house. I know that it will just continue to get more and more fun over the years, and also more and more candy... ugghhh! I'm going to have to figure out how to moniter the amount of candy we keep, eat, and give away, or throw away!


You can just see the fear in Beau's eyes here. He was keeping an eye on Tyler with his mask, making sure he didn't get any closer. Bailey already has her first candy to keep her sitting in one place.

Beau couldn't stand it anymore he had to run to me to rescue him.Doesn't she look happy! I'm glad to say this didn't last too long, just a few houses of getting candy and she got the hang of it pretty quick. She was all smiles the rest of the night!
Bailey and Sierra holding hands inbetween houses. (Bailey did have shoes they just kept fallin off so we took them off.) Beau sitting safe and sound in the stroller, minding his own business.

Here's Grandma and Grandpa Peterson (without their masks on for Beau's sake) Also Sierra, Bailey and Taylor who wanted nothing to do with getting their pictures taken, AGAIN!

Noah, Beau, and Callen. These three will hopefully be great buds! I'm sure before we know it they'll all be pestering the girls.

These pictures were from the night of our Ward Halloween party. This was the first time they had been all decked out as Pirates. It didn't take too long for them to get into character. It was so funny watching Bailey get her Pirate act on and Beau just followed her lead.

One thing that makes it a little easier...

I received an email this morning from the mom of the little girl that received our son Payton's heart 4 years ago today. Being able to donate Payton's heart was and still is one thing that brings comfort and peace to Jeremy and I. Knowing that we were able to help another family not have to go through losing a child makes us happy, because it is sooooooo hard. I don't have too much to say today so I'm just sharing this.

Here is the email she wrote to us...

4 years ago today...
Wow. Its so bittersweet. I want you to know that Payton is our angel. I have never expressed to you how very thankful I am that you made the unselfish choice that you did. If it weren't for that very hard decision you made, I may not have my daughter, my reason for living. Baeley is doing so well and I know its because she has the heart of an angel inside of her.

Peace in your heart,
Aubrey & Baeley

P.S. Organ and tissue donors leave a miraculous legacy. They are living proof that death can bring life, that sorrow can turn to hope, and that a terrible loss can become the greatest gift of all. Every day they lead us on a journey of hope, renewal, and transformation.
~ National Organ Donors Memorial

Here's Baeley Noelle at 5 years old. Isn't she beautiful. She's only a few months younger than Payton.


Here's Payton at about 14 months old, you gotta love Kiddie Kandids.
LOTS OF TEARS... miss you and love you buddy!

Fun around the farm!

My friend Mandy and I took our kids to Thanksgiving Point, oh, about a month ago. I've been so busy with clients family pictures and trying to get caught up on everything in LIFE...
I keep thinking about these pictures of our little outing and have been wanting to post them.

Mandy and I met this past year at our girls swim lessons. It's kinda crazy because we had met before about 4 years ago, but didn't remember until we started talking and we started connecting friends and things that have happened to both of us in our crazy lives.

Anyway, my Bailey and her Brea are about 5 months apart and are so stinkin' cute together. They are so much alike in many ways. Same haircut, same attitude, and they are both very strong willed girls.

My Beau and her Aniston are about 2 weeks apart. They just follow the older girls around!

We both have little angles that left their earth life about 4 years ago. It's such a small world!
It's always good to have good friends!



Here's Bailey and Brea with their little cowboy hats that they both picked out at the store! Just walking together and thinking their so big!!!

Here we are on our little ride around the farm in the carriage. Beau and me, and Mandy, Aniston, Brea, and Bailey.


The little twinners! Beau and Aniston on their ride! They were both such troopers but were deifinitely done and ready for their naps.The kiddos playing in the little houses and looking at the animals. Bailey stood back a little, she wasn't sure what she thought about some of the animals.
Bailey kept collecting all the little corn that people had dropped and was feeding the animals. Beau was fascinated by the animals and just kept pointing and saying. "ooh, ooh, ooh"!

Mandy and me! Mandy got the bottom shot of me as I was trying to get both kids to ride the pony's but neither of them wanted anything to do with them except for look at them. So there I am carrying them back, Bailey was looking pretty scared.

Here's Brea just happy as can be, enjoying her pony ride. Bailey and Beau preferred to sit on the bench and just watch.

Hallelujah!

I feel like I've been working on my photography website forever! It really wasn't hard to get it up and going, it was finding the time to sit down and do it! Every time I sit down to the computer I feel like I have to work on my clients sessions. I finally just told myself that I was going to spend a day and get it done. And... I did it!!!! With Jeremy's help of course. He took the kids all day on Monday, (ya, I don't get holidays anymore) and let me just zip through everything. So check it out and if anyone has any good music advice for my family gallery or my wedding day gallery, I'll take any recommendations. I'm not the best with music. I might even have to change some of the other songs I chose because of legal issues with music licensing. (I'm still looking into it.)

But, for now I can say I have a website and it's available for everyone to view. I will always make changes and need to add a few things as my business changes, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that it will never be perfect!

Yellowstone trip!

I can't believe that's it's taken me a month and a half to finally get pictures up from our trip to Yellowstone. We went with Jeremy's family, (I posted some of the family pictures a while back). It was a lot of fun. Besides, pink eye and sick kids, it was great to be with everyone. I get along great with the whole family. We went rafting down the Snake River, it was very calm and the kids loved it. I didn't have my camera on the river but a few others did, I'm hoping to get those pictures soon. We spent a day in Yellowstone and here are a few pictures from the drive through the park.

Bailey really didn't want to be in another picture. But, she put on her game face.

It was kind of scary to see Bailey and Beau so close to the edge. Beau looks tiny compared to the valley and cliff below.


Paige (niece), Alicia (SIL), Kylie (niece). I love these girls, hopefully they will always keep me forever young. There's Kylie "attempting" to slide down the rail. She actually made it even though it wasn't very graceful.


Here's a picture of one of the "stinky fire's". Bailey did NOT like the smell of the geyser's. She kept saying, "NO, go away of the stinky fire's." It was pretty funny, and they do smell, I hate how the smell makes your nose feel.



Here she is on Alicia's shoulder's, it was nice of Alicia to give my shoulder's a break. You can see the look on her face that she doesn't like the smell.

Bailey loved all the animals we saw. Really just a lot of buffalo and deer, and one eagle. No bears or moose. We stopped along the road to get a picture with the bufffalo just for Bailey.


Beau's just laughing at one of the cousin's and Bailey was done with the STINK!

Paige is so good with all the kids and they all love her. I think it was the next stop after this one that Paige threw our food bag away, (thinking it was garbage) and it also had our portable DVD player in it. It was a bummer but what do you do. She felt terrible and I felt bad that she felt so bad. We got it all worked out in the end. Never got that one back but we got another one. Paige we love you!


Jer and Beau are clones. They look so much alike, not just in their faces, but also in their build Too cute! And even thought my head looks huge in this picture and the wind was blowing my hair like crazy, I could hardly see, I love Bailey's tongue in this picture.