Christmas!

*warning...super long!

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year!  Christmas eve we decided to have a surprise for Cortney - to go ice skating!  We talked to her earlier in the day and asked her if she had ever gone ice skating, to which she replied, "No, I just practice on the kitchen floor in my socks."  and "When can we go mom?"  I told her we probably had to wait until she was older.  Which she is used to hearing since she always asks if she can  do anything I do like driving, cutting with a sharp knife, etc.

So later in the day we got her all bundled up and told her we were going to a surprise, she got very excited!  Chris wanted to wear the scarf I made him so of course wanting to be like her daddy she wanted to wear a scarf too, so I let her wear the one I made for myself...looks like I need to make another one!  The drive was about 20 minutes or so, and it was to a park Cortney had been to a couple times.  She got a little excited when we pulled up, "I like this one mom!"  Then I told her we were not going to the park, and she just looked confused.

I told her to look over there (pointing at the little rink) and asked her what they were doing.  After she found out we were going ice skating all she could say is, "I want to try!  I want to try!" pulling our arms hard speed walking towards the rink.

Here are some pictures with daddy!

 That's my girl!  Never looking at the camera :)  I wonder what she was thinking in the one right beneath the words - kind of looks like she is trying to fly away or something

 I know this one is no the best of Cortney but it shows my lip thing I do.  When ever I concentrate hard on something I put my lower lip in my mouth.  Every time I have a photography session I come home with a sore lower lip.  I don't even realize I am doing it, but I just love how Cortney is like me in so many ways!  Here are a couple of Mom and Cortney!

Haha, love this one!  We went around the rink only once, but Cortney probably fell about 5 times when it was just her and me.  oops!

 I only fell twice and got one big bruise on my knee, Chris fell kind of but caught himself before he actually fell on the ice.  And I was keeping track of Cortney, until she got more brave and was trying to do things on her own.

 So here she is licking the ice off her scarf.  Yuck!  I kept telling her how yucky it was that she was licking the ice off her hands and clothes after she fell, but that didn't really stop her.  As a matter of fact when we were all said and done Cortney started licking the ice off her skates, we ended up taking them away because no matter what we told her she would not stop.  Silly girl!

We also got a special note and bag from Santa Christmas Eve morning explaining  how some elves got sick and wouldn't be able to finish all the toys for the children.  He goes on to ask  Cortney if she would give some of her toys and put them in the bag for him to pick up later that night when he dropped of the presents!  Cute idea right?

I have one word how the whole thing went down: DRAMA!  I will give her props, after the first couple of toys we put in the bag she did much better and even picked some to put in herself with out any help from us!  But one of the first things we did was go over to her stuffed animals (since she has so many) and I asked her about the ones I know she doesn't play much with, since she was starting to have a meltdown.  I picked up one in particular that I have never seen her play with and asked, "how about this one honey?"  She got very dramatic and said "That is my only daughter, and I love her!"  Then started sobbing.  Oh goodness, but like I said towards the end she got much better at choosing ones to give away.  Maybe next year Santa will have to deliver the bag a couple days early to give her some more time to think about it.

Christmas morning!

 Santa must have enjoyed the cookies and Santa milk, and the reindeer like the carrots too!   We didn't do too much in the way of stockings...

 And here is our tree!

 Cortney coming down Christmas morning

 She stopped and stared at the plate for a minute or two just smiling!

Looking at stocking stuffers - yeah probably should have changed the settings on my camera, but I decided to just enjoy the moment instead :)

Cortney only asked for one thing from Santa this Christmas, and that is a pony castle.  Santa left a note to Cortney saying thank you for all the toys she gave to other children, and how it made them so happy.  It also said because she did he got this special present for her!  I love watching the sequence of her opening this up, lets just say there was squeeling, screeching, and she was literally shaking she was so excited!

 Mom and Cort opening presents together!  PS see honey bear?!  She is wearing a new dress I crocheted for her!  Her old blue dress was one of the first things I ever crocheted and I have to say I have improved greatly from when I first started, yay!

 Chris said he had just as much fun watching me watch Cortney as he did watching Cortney.  I get pretty into it sometimes I guess!

 You cannot see what this is but it is a banana slicer.  Kind of random but she was excited about it!  They use it at her school so they can practice slicing bananas, it is one of her favorite work jobs, some how santa must have known ;)

 In this picture you see Cort excited about a pony present (right now she is all about ponies).  You can see  my hand in the corner of the picture pointing to daddy because he bought it for her...now look down at the next picture taken a couple seconds later...

 big hugs for daddy!

 Yes...another pony!  She did get lots of nice other things, but her reactions just are not quiet the same as these ones!

 Grandma Carol loves everything with red hair, so naturally she got this one for Cort, the doll from Brave.  She loves playing with the bow and arrow!

 Chris got a Lions Checkers Game

 Yup...had to do one with a Chris face!

 And it wouldn't be Christmas without aunt Paula sending something Superman to Chris!

 We were so thankful for all the presents we received from everyone!  We feel very blessed this Christmas season!

Next on to food.  So I just realized I didn't take any pictures of me with my presents!  Oops!  I got some fun kitchen toys, my favorite was a Belgian waffle maker...LOVE!  It is the kind that flips over and you can cook one on one side and one on the other...awesome, plus it made amazing waffles for Christmas morning!

We have been planning for a couple months to make sushi Christmas day for lunch!  A little intimidating, here is the first roll I made...

 And here is some that I made later...much better!  It took about 4 rolls to get it down, and it was very yummy!  And not as hard as I thought it would be!  Love me some california rolls!

 Oh yes and here is how Chris makes sushi...just puts everything right on a spare piece of nora sheet and eats it up!

Later that night we were invited over to a friends house and we had a yummy dinner and the kids got to play!  It was a fun Christmas!

Halloween Time!

Breakfast morning I made a yummy spooky breakfast for her!  She loved it!  I actually just used crepe mix and did chocolate chips for eyes and sprinkled a little confectioners sugar on top.

Cortney loved it!

Costume time!!!!  She wanted to be Ariel, and can I just say for the record there are not really any good mermaid costumes for little girls out there, even the one made by Disney.  So I ended up making one.  It was kind of scary, I had never really made anything like it before and I wanted to make sure it was perfect for her, and I love the way it all came out.  And I also love the wig!

 I liked this one, except her eyes are closed, but I still liked the smile...so I kept it!

 I made matching bracelet an necklace out of little pearls, and I made a couple stars out of felt...one for the headband, which I also made.  One for her shirt.  And one for her bucket!

 I did the tutu in 2 different colors of tule, and the sewed ruffles onto the shirt!

It was so puffy!  I loved when she laid down to look at a book, so I snapped a couple pictures of how much it sticks up!

When I took pictures of her she got excited and wanted to take pictures of Honey Bear, who had a cute costume too.  So here she is with her camera!

 Let me say it one more time, I love the wig!  I found it for only $17 online and it had free shipping! I also think little girls look so cute with really long hair, and I loved how the curls bounced as she walked around!

Here are some pictures of Cortney holding Honey Bear(who is Sebastian the crab on little mermaid)

 I crocheted the costume myself, I made eyes for where the ears go into the costume!

Here are a couple shots of just Honey so you can see it better!

 I even did little legs!

It was a fun little project!  Here is her elmo bucket she had that I transformed into one that matched her costume.  It needed a ton of tule to cover up all that red!

Here is the first trick or treating house!  She was so excited, we went to Norman and Jans house, they are one of our nieghbors!

 I love this picture, and the way her skirt was flowing as she ran!

Here she is enjoying her first piece of candy after trunk or treating at the church!  She chose a kit kat bar!

She got way too much candy (it is almost Christmas now and she is still finishing it off!)  It was a fun Halloween, and it wasn't even too chilly either!

Pre-Halloween Time!

Pre - Halloween! Lots and lots of fun!  This was the first year I made Cortneys costume, and it took a ton of time and work, but I just love the results!  For the Monday before Halloween Cortney got to wear her costume to class!  Audrey was there too of course, and they were both adorable!  Just wait until you see of picture of Cortney in her wig too!

Corntey was Ariel and Audrey was Sleeping Beauty...the whole class was actually Disney!  So cute!

The teacher was wearing an Asian theme shirt and decided she would be Mulan so she would fit in :)
Sorry the pictures are a little off, it is hard to take pictures of moving little girls with a big glass window in the way!

Her tutu was very poofy and long, she loved it! 

Cortney is doing good in ballet!  As soon as the teacher figured out to separate Audrey and Cortney they were much better listeners!

Audrey did her whole routine holding on to her dress like this

She always makes the best faces when she is dancing!!!

They also do a dance every class where they pretend to be Ariel, and Cortney loved it because she was all dressed up like her!  Audrey and Cortney now call each other Ariel and Sleeping Beauty.  And if they ever see one of those princesses they say look it is me!  Or look it is Audrey or Cortney!  Love!

Pumpkin Carving next!

We enjoyed our annual tradition of carving a pumpkin, and it was the first year that Cortney got to pick what her pumpkin looked like...she didn't get to carve it, she just picked the shapes!

Here is me carving mine!  I am a traditional kind of girl so I love the toothy grins and triangle eyes!

Here we are in our matching Aprons!  The top pattern on mine is the bottom part on hers and her top is my bottom!  Super cute, they were a present from Grandma Carol last Christmas!  We use them all the time!

 Cortneys job was to get the seeds...as you can tell she was super excited about it!

 Mama's pumpkin!

 Cortneys pumpkin!  Not only did she pick hard shapes but her pumpkin was super hard to cut, it keep coming off in chuncks instead of just where you cut it, like most pumpkins.

 Daddies pumpkin, and our pumpkin family!

 My cute girl and her pumpkin!

 Here is Cort making the same face her pumpkin is!

Next post is Halloween Day!  Check it out to see her costume all together!

Blog Catch Up Time!

Ok, ok, ok!  Time to play catch up on the blog again!  The last couple months have been crazy busy – which is a good thing in a way too.  I have had many photography sessions, which has been amazing and I have learned so much, but that also means I have like zero time to do much of anything.  I try not to open the laptop while Cortney is with me, sometimes I will open facebook or something on the ipod while she is around but I try not to do too much work, and focus on spending time with my mini me – who by the way is growing  up way too fast!  So when she is at preschool or asleep I am editing pictures, and sometimes I stop and take a break to do something like clean the toilet or do the dishes.  Then it is right back to pictures.  Things have been slowing down a bit…I am very glad they are and I have had a little time to relax.  I want to get all caught up before the new year though.  So the next couple posts will be me doing that!

Christmas Magic!

I know it has been a while since I have blogged... I actually have all the pictures uploaded and ready to be put in but it has been a busy season for me!  I would be remiss if I didn't write down some Christmas Magic in our lives that happened today!

First let me set the stage.  This morning our beloved car we have had since we got married finally decided to bite the dust.  Next week after Christmas we need to try and find another clunker Chris can drive to and from work with.  So Cortney and I had to drive Chris to work this morning unexpectedly.  By the time we got in our front door we had exactly 12 minutes to get Cortney and I dressed, fix Cortneys hair, find what she wanted to bring to show and tell, and individually package 20 snacks for her class and be back out the door.  (When it is their turn to bring snack they get to bring show and tell).  Some how we pulled it off and we were able to get her to class just in time!  But there is a lot of stress that has come from having to look for and buy a car, and having such a crazy morning.

I have also been somewhat stressed lately with my photography business.   Although I have had many happy clients, who were more than satisfied and let me know, I have had one customer who was unreasonable and gave me a pretty hard time.  I have been doubting my ability as a photographer because of that and wondering if it is even worth it to keep my business open if I am going to have people treat me in that way.  By nature I avoid conflict and always try to go out of my way to treat people (especially my clients) well so there is no reason for conflict.  Even though the pictures came out amazing (in my opinion) and I gave them more than they paid for nothing was really good enough for them and they decided to tell me that multiple times.  Let's just say I have been feeling a little down.

Then on top of that with the whole school shooting I just look at the world we live in and am saddened by what it is.  I have felt little hope and trust in people in general, and knowing that things have to get worse before the second coming it scares me to think of what is yet to come.

This afternoon Cortney and I had to run out to the store.  We needed to pick up a few things for an older lady in our ward.  We wanted to help cheer up someone during this season so we made her some chocolate crinkles, and went to the store to buy a nice plate, a card, and a poinsettia to brighten her day! 

As we were in the parking lot walking back to our car an older man stopped us and started talking to Cortney (this happens a lot because she is so cute)!  He asked her how old she was which she answered 3!  He smiled and said I have a grand daughter who is going to be 3 in January.  Then he handed Cortney a red envelope and said "here this is for you!"  We said thank you, and he walked quickly into the store and we quickly walked to our car because it was so windy today.   I buckled her in and then started driving to pick up Chris from work.  Corteny opened the card and then said "Money!"  I was thinking what?  The next red light I asked Cortney to hand it to me.  I opened it up and saw a $50 bill (wow!)and quickly read the note he had written inside.  It was a short note basically saying at some point in our lives he hopes we are able to pay it forward to someone else during a holiday season like he just did for us!

Heavenly Father must have known I needed a pick me up!  I can't even explain the change in my heart, and the renewed love and hope I have in people, and in the world.  We do live in a place where people care, and are willing to show kindness even to a stranger in a parking lot.  That kind old man will never know how much his simple kind act means to me!  And although I can never thank him personally, I can (and will) pay it forward to others in the future!   Because I want others to feel the same way I do now!  I have always looked forward to the Christmas season, because there is just a special magic in the air.  Today I was recipient of my own Christmas Magic, and I want to remember forever what it feels like, and spread it to others in the future!  Giving strangers a red envelope with some Christmas Magic inside in a parking lot will have to become a Christmas Tradition in our home!

Stay tuned for more posts soon!  Lots of Halloween and Thanksgiving pictures heading this way!