The Little Things - Dancing Machine

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault

James -
Dancing Machine - James can't help but feel the beat now whenever he hears music. It is so fun to watch him actually recognize the music and understand what to do - he loves to bounce and sway.

James has been getting more and more interactive as well. Sometimes he will even repeat the words Mama and Dada. One of his most favorite things lately is his walking toy. Haylie played with this a little when she was his age but never had as much fun with it as he is.

Haylie -

The Name Game - a couple weeks ago Haylie learned how to write her name. I am so proud of her. She has had the H down for several months but we couldn't get much further. Now she wants to write her name all the time. I still have to coach her through the Y because she tends to write the top part upside down but she is doing so good! She has been really interested in the alphabet overall lately. She loves to come in Mommy's office and send "emails" which essentially consistent of letters for all the people she loves: H for Haylie, K for Kiley, L for Lea, A for Auntie Nicole, U for Uncle Brian, B for Bubba, J for James, D for Daddy and M for Mommy. Since we started sending emails she has learned how to write half of those letters and recognizes them all over town. The other day we stopped at Kohls and when we got out of the car Haylie proudly anounced, "K for Kiley, O, H for Haylie, L for Lea and what is the last one Mommy?" K-O-H-L-S

Raider -

Letterman - Raider completed his cross country season and attended his team banquet this week. He came home very excited about receiving a varsity letter. We talked about buying a Letterman's jacket to put the letter on but apparently he is too cool for that!!

So Proud

You know those moments when you sit watching an event where the guest of honor is receiving some award or completing a momentous achievement in their life and you start to well up little tears of pride and excitement for them? We had the great opportunity of experiencing that sensation earlier this week when we attended an event for Micah's mom's retirement from the State Assembly. After serving 6 years, she is now termed out and many of her colleagues held a celebration in honor of her service during that time.

It was filled with great speeches from the mayor of her town and fellow Senators and Assembly members. Micah gave a little speech and read a letter from his sister who couldn't be there because she is out at sea with the Coast Guard. Haylie soaked up the attention while sitting on Grandma's lap in front of the 200 or so people that attended.

The best part about the event was how everyone shared about Sharon's character as an individual. She is incredibly caring and generous person who is interested in everyone around her and makes it a point to get to know people and what they care about. We are very proud of her and thankful to have such a woman of God in our family!

I'm So Excited!!!

I haven't posted much this week because I have been busy at work on a new PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE. http://www.sandyrunner.com/ I am so excited!! I can't believe I actually have enough pictures to make a good gallery now and it is the most amazing thing to see it all in an official website!!!

After much thought I have decided to turn my photography hobby into a small business. I really hate charging people for something I LOVE to do but I have had so many requests for photos I decided for the sake of my family I needed to start covering the cost of my time and equipment purchases. I have tried to keep the prices at a bare minimum.

I want to thank all my friends for the un-ending encouragement and spurring on to keep going with photography. I absolutely LOVE doing it and I learn something new every time I take pictures.

Please feel free to share my website with friends and family. I have a lot more work to do on it and soon will have my own logo to add to it. In addition, I created a separate photography blog. http://www.sandyrunnerblog.com/, which already has a first post about cute baby Fox! Make sure to add it to your Google Reader because there is lots more to come - it is in the very rough stages and will soon be completely customized to my design but I couldn't wait any longer to tell all my friends about it. I am excited to have a place to post about photography stuff and also be able to get back to our family life on this blog. Thanks for the support and let me know what you think about the site!!!

What is a post without a picture right? - here are a couple I just took of Haylie this week that I can't get enough of. (Click on the picture to make it bigger)

When They Teach Us...

I absolutely love the opportunities when I get to learn things from my children. Right now I am sitting at my computer at the kitchen table. James is sleeping and Haylie is supposed to be taking a nap.

Instead she is in there praying for herself and all of her friends. She hasn't been feeling well the last few days so she is praying that God will help her feel better and help all her friends not to get sick.

The real story is from the other day though. In the morning James woke up with a terrible whooping cough (not sure if that is a real condition but it's that really deep cough where it sounds like he can't breathe). I raced into their room and proceeded to comfort James and worry over how he was doing. Haylie watched us for a moment then got out of bed and said, "We should pray for him." "Right, yes of course we should," I muttered out - acting like that was my first response as well... Haylie then prayed for him to feel better all on her own. I couldn't stop telling her all day long what a great big sister she is and how proud I am of her.

Thanks to Haylie for a great reminder this week:

"Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Philippians 4:6

The Little Things

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault

Raider -
Face Time - Raider has been feeling a little left out lately with all the photos I have been taking of Haylie and James. I even had some frames up in the house and Raider's frame was empty forever because we kept having to reschedule our photoshoot. I felt terrible but he is a busy guy and I don't have opportunities to take pictures of him all the time. So this weekend we finally worked it out and spent some dedicated time in a photo-shoot all his own. We had so much fun wandering around Folsom looking for good locations. We will have to hang out like that more often! Here are some of Mr. Cool Raider's pics:

James -

Big mouth kisses - James has gotten very interactive lately. He responds to us and mimics the things we do. One of his favorite things is giving kisses. He opens his mouth really wide and closes in. Daddy is a little weirded out but Mommy will take kisses any minute of the day - no matter how slobbery they are!

Haylie -

Little Miss Sunshine - One of Haylie's newest favorite sayings is: "Oh, I Like (Fill in the blank)." She seems to be very positive and optimistic lately which I am quite enjoying. Throughout the day she will randomly say "Oh, I Like That," to almost anything I say. Examples:

H: Where are we going?

M: Target

H: Oh, I Like Target

H: Who is here?

M: Raider

H: Oh, I like Raider

H: What are we cooking?

M: Chili

H: Oh, I like Chili

M: Haylie, do you want a bowl?

H: Oh, I like bowls.

I hope she stays this positive forever!!

Encore

We've had several requests for new singing videos and Haylie sings all day long so there is plenty of material to choose from!



Caught - singing in the mirror!

Connor-Boy

Shelley and I have been friends since college. We met at work, clicked right away, and became fast friends. She was a brides-maid in my wedding and though we don't see each other as often as we used to, I'm so glad we still keep in touch. She asked me to take some pictures of her adorable son Connor, who she afectionately calls "Connor-boy."

Connor has the biggest, bluest eyes. They are just gorgeous! Since her husband Ken was available we decided to do some family pictures as well and then at the very last minute I grabbed a couple of shots of just Shelley and her cute belly (I wish we had time to do something more creative - I haven't done any maternity photos yet). They are expecting their second little boy soon.

We had such a fun time running around at a park near their house. Connor was not too sure about the camera lady at first!! His Dad, Ken, calls him "Blue Steel" when he gts this look. I thought that was a very fitting name!!

But then I brought out my toy helicopter and he started warming up. Once we found a dog in a nearby yard, it was smooth sailing from there!

Their whole family is just adorable!!
And of course, Shelley is just the cutest pregnant girl!!

This was my favorite of the session: See the slideshow below for more from our time.

Slideshow: