Christmas 2008

We had so much fun the week of Christmas.  We were able to go up to Heber to visit Lonnie's grandparents.  This was the first time that our children got to see and play in snow.  They loved it!  Here are just a few of our favorite pictures!  

Setting the scene...

Thanks to Uncle Brent mommy was finally in a picture!

I think that the look on Lonnie's face says it all!

Brent, Candice, Grandma and Grandpa Durham were so kind to come to our house!  Thanks guys!

Little Miss Saige.

Our baby!  What a stud!

Grandpa Moffitt made necklaces and bracelets for the girls!  I love the expression on both of their faces!

Snow...ooh!

Uncle Brent had some fun too!

Love the look on Mason's face.
and Michelle's too.

The scenery was gorgeous!  I took this shot early one morning.  Love it!

Aunt Candice getting Saige with a snowball.

"Look mommy...snow!"

"I cold mommy."

Cousin Kyan. 

Uncle Brent got Mason this leave blower with goggles.  Mason LOVED it!

More presents!

One of my absolute favorite picture of all time of Mr. Mason!

Michelle just got Uncle Brent with a snowball.  Love her face...she knows she just nailed him! Good job Michelle!

Can you feel the love?

What's Up?

Grandma Moffitt with her two youngest grandchildren, Lola and Gage.

the boys...
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  We are so lucky and blessed to have such wonderful families.  Thanks everyone!

Guess to win!

Okay, so this is horrible that this post is coming before any Christmas posts but I have so many photos to edit.  I promise there will be another post of Christmas and the snow later today!

Let's get down to business.  I had one of these growing up and finally made one for each one of my girls.  Do you know what they are?  Leave a comment and take a guess!  I will make one for which one of you guesses correctly.  If more than one of you guess what this is I will place all of your names in a hat and pick a winner on Monday morning! 

This one is Saige's...

This one is Michelle's...

Good Luck!!!

One of My Favorites

Oh, the sacredness!  I finished up editing Kamala's Senior Photos this evening and I loved this one.  She was so cute and brought her "Kam Kelley Bag" full of goodies!  Two of the things she brought were her scriptures, obviously, and her Young Women's Medallion.  I know how hard Kam had to work to receive her Medallion.  She has been blessed with one heck of an awesome family!  I know her parents are so proud of her and all that she has accomplished!  Thanks so much Kam for a wonderful photo shoot!

Co-op

I have been wanting to participate in a co-op now for a while.  Through my brilliant friend, Jaime, I have now found one.  The website is www.BountifulBaskets.org.  I picked up my first basket a couple of weeks ago and my children and I loved it!  

Just thought that I would share in case anyone else is interested.  ***Please note that for pick up this Saturday orders must be in by tonight at 10:00!***

Enjoy and thanks Jaime!

I'm FREE...

from shopping that is.  It is official.  I am done shopping for Christmas.  Pathetic I know but next year I am going to shop for Christmas every month.  

One Year and Counting!

Well, today officially marks the one year anniversary of Sister Kristen Moffitt being on her mission.  It is so hard to believe that one year ago we sent her off at the MTC.  What an emotional day that was!  Let's just say that the next missionary in our family should be my son, Mason.  I can definitely wait!  It has been such a tremendous blessing to our family to have her serving the Lord!  It has been awesome to see her grow so much!  She is one amazing individual and we are so proud of her and what she is doing!  Let the countdown begin to her coming home!!!!!

Goals #72 and #93 Done!

#72: help Michelle learn her part for the Primary Program

Okay, so the Primary Program was actually back on November 16th.  A little bit late but nonetheless, she knew her part.  It was, "Jesus loves me".  It was too cute.  The Primary Presidency had the children each color/draw on the front of the Sacrament Meeting Program.  So of course we kept one for the scrapbook!

#93: feed the missionaries

Lonnie and I had the missionaries over for dinner last night.  It is so good to have their wonderful spirits in our home.  It was really good for the children to see them in action, especially because we pray all of the time for them and we talk about how Aunt Kiki is serving her mission.  The children were really well behaved...we were shocked but very thankful.  Anyone who has or knows a child with sensory issues, especially when it comes to food, knows what a nightmare dinner time can be.  

Two goals down and a ton left to do!  Seems like a lot of the ones left have to do with losing weight.  That's starting after the new year!  

Although I did give up my coke addiction...but now I have an Advil addiction! :)

Kamala - Class of 2009

I had such a fun time photographing this beautiful young lady this evening.  Oh...to be a High School Senior again!  (no thanks!)

THNRBLT

Okay, so our tags are due this month for the van.  Lonnie really wanted to replace our license plate with the fallen officers one.  So...I did.  However, I thought that it would be neat to surprise him and customize the plate for our family.  When trying to come up with something I thought of many things...since I primarily drive the van I wanted something related to the Texas Longhorns, or perhaps something related to sports.  Anyhow, I came up with the idea to do something related to police work since Lonnie, his father, his brother, and his uncle have all served or are currently serving.  And yes, I do feel it appropriate to say they are serving!  Anyhow, I didn't want anything with our names on it so I came up with something else.  THNRBLT  This does have something to do with police work...it was Lonnie's class name at the academy.  

So the tags for the van came in a couple of days ago and I asked Lonnie if they mail the license plate or if I had to pick it up.  He said that it too should be mailed and not to stick the tags on the old license plate.  Really??  J/K  I asked him today if it takes longer for it to come if they have been customized.  He said, "You got it customized?"  I said "yes".  Well, what did you put?  THNRBLT  Needless to say he didn't get it until I wrote it down on paper for him.  He started laughing.  What kind of response was that...besides lame?  I told him that when I told his brother Brent that his response was "awesome".  Maybe Brent was the one I should have married!

One Word Tag

where is your mobile phone? car

where is your significant other? kitchen

your hair color? brown

your mother? busy

your father? sick

your favorite thing? quiet

your dream last night? what

your dream goal? successful

room your in? family

your hobby? sports

your fear? world

where do you want to be in 6 years? school

where were you last night? home

what you're not? artistic

where you grew up? Peoria

the last thing you did? ate

what are you wearing? clothes

your tv? boring

your pets? sleeping

your computer? rocks

your mood? content

missing someone? Kristen

your car? filthy

something you're not wearing? socks

favorite shop? Hobby Lobby

your summer? tan

love someone? family

your favorite color? aqua

last time you laughed? today

A Grandmother's Love

I love how proud grandparents are of their grandchildren!  I'm almost done with this beautiful family and I just loved this picture!

Remembering a Dear Friend

This morning I received a phone call from a gal that I used to work with.  Long story short, my dear friend, Mrs. Mercy Tellez, has been battling cancer for several years now.  I worked with Mercy for about 4 years right after I graduated from school.  She and I shared a cubical in the lovely legal department at the State Compensation Fund.  We shared several good talks about life, her children, finances, attorneys, and just plain everyday life and struggles.  She was one amazing woman.  She didn't need much in life...in fact all she ever wanted was for her family to be safe and healthy.  She was always thinking of others before herself.  She was one hard worker!  I love this woman.  The beautiful Mercy Tellez has probably passed on to a much  better state of being by now.  I did have the opportunity to see her this morning in her hospital bed.  She was surrounded by so many family members and friends who loved her!  I don't think that she ever truly realized the impact that she had on so many.  In somber times such as these I cannot help but to thank my Heavenly Father for the knowledge that I have and for the amazing blessings of eternal families.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to call Mercy Tellez my friend.  I love you Merc and I know that you are in a much better place where you will no longer have to fight each day and worry about what tomorrow has to hold.  I love you dear!

Another Great Location Gone!

We can no longer shoot at the beautiful waterfalls in Sun City Grand.  The residents have been advised to call their security or the Surprise Police and report trespassing.  Apparently this is a huge liability to their community.  Understandable....but still stinks!  Sorry folks!  

Please spread the word to other photographers so that they are not hit with a trespassing citation as this is a class 3 misdemeanor and it will stay on their record, or they could even be arrested for trespassing.  Either way it's not good!

The Roseland Family

On Thanksgiving Day, I was finally able to snap a few pictures for my brother and his beautiful family.  How I love these guys!

Mr. Kyan and Miss Lola

What a stud!  

Okay, so my sister-in-law took this photo!  Didn't she do a great job!  Love it!

Too cute!

The Whole Family!

Jenni really wanted every photo edited "old skool".  

Hope you enjoy them!

The Polvino Family

This family was way too much fun  to work with!  Enjoy!

The Valenzuela Family

Early Christmas Gift!

I have been so busy this season with a ton of photos!  It has been fun and is not over yet!  In order to help with editing and sharing photos at weddings Lonnie surprised me a couple of weeks ago (I know I am bad) with a new..................MacBook!!  I have not stopped using it!  It is wonderful.  Last night I had a reception from a wedding that was on Wednesday.  It was awesome to have a slideshow of the wedding photos running at the reception.  Everyone enjoyed it and hey a little self-promotion is never a bad thing.  Anyhow thank you Lonnie!!!  He seriously is the BEST gift giver ever!

                                                             One of the cute pictures from the wedding!

Also, kinda a side note, I also got my new software last week.......Photoshop CS4!  This program is brand spankin' new and fabulous!  

It's a 30 1st Birthday Party!

This post is a little delayed!  This is one of my favorite pictures from Gage's 1st Birthday Party and Lonnie's 30th Birthday Party!  So fun!  

Beautiful Day!

Goal #15 Done!

15) Get new birth certificates for all four children.

This particular goal was one that was really important to us. I guess just knowing that we now have official documentation stating that Lonnie is the father and Rae Lynn is the mother to our wonderful children is awesome! It is amazing how powerful one single piece of paper really can be! Now...off to get new social security numbers and cards issued for the children! What fun!

Happy Birthday Gage!

I cannot believe that our little guy is officially one year old today!  That also means that one year ago Lonnie & I were getting ready to go somewhere and we received a call stating that the birthmother had had her baby and it was a little boy.  Also we were asked if we would be interested in taking him.  This was quite shocking because we thought that the baby was due in October and was to be a girl.  Anyhow...Lonnie and I talked about it and prayed about it and we obviously decided and felt that he was to be ours.  I will never forget what Lonnie said..."well if we get him I at least get to name him".  So daddy got to name one of the four children!  Just kidding...we talked about each one of their names, but Gage was Lonnie's idea.  

Now one amazingly fast year has gone by and we could not have been blessed with a better child. Gage is so well mannered.  He is the PERFECT baby!  I love his little smile!  He is always so happy.  I love the special bond that Gage & Mason already have.  I am so grateful for Gage and his sweet spirit.  I love the fact that he is such a mama's boy!  So fun!

Happy Birthday Little One! 

Quick Preview

So a lot of you have been wanting to see some pictures from Lonnie's photo shoot.  I have a TON of photos to edit, and a fun new program to learn.  Anyhow, here are just a few of the handsome man.

Oops...how did that cutie get in there?

Keep looking down...there is a post of another great family!