Informal Pics (AKA: the Not Stuffy Ones)

Hey everyone, I was thinking about the casual family pictures that we want to take, and it would be great to do jeans, browns and greens. That would be a great contrast to our formal portraits, and we'd get a much different look. What do you all think?

Also, we need to plan when this is going to happen so that we're not scrambling. I think that Monday would be a great day, what do you all think? That's pretty much one of the only days that isn't all planned out. (Thanks Grams.) Heehee.

Where should we take these ones? I would love to use somewhere in the mountains or something, but I have no idea where we'd go. I am going to contact Cori today and see if they'll even be around. Hopefully they will be and she'll take our pictures. I'll let you know.

Pictures are ON like DONKEY KONG!

Hey guys, I just got an email back from Drake. He said of course he'd be happy to let us have the RAW images on CD, if we paid a $250 session fee. Totally worth it in my book, it's STEAL! If you only knew what was normally charged for images on CD, it's like 10 times that.

So I'm okay with splitting up the cost. I hope that you all are cool with that too. We could do $100 and mom and dad could do $100 and then Em and Adam would only have to do $50. I think that's a fair trade. :) Let me know what you all think. I'm excited! Everybody start working out now and you could probably be 10 lbs lighter by the time the shoot rolls around! :) Heehee. At least, that's my plan anyway. Love you!! :)

Oh, and here's a picture of Eli and Nathan at our ward Christmas party tonight.

Don't let their smiles fool you -- it wasn't as fun as it looks. LOL! :)

Verdict is in!

Okay, the color scheme will be red/black/white. I think the guys could just do black pants with a nice button-down shirt, while the girls can do dresses in red/black/white.


Sounds good?

The little cousins will all have the same sweaters. Too bad they don't come in big boy sizes, T! :)

Thanks guys, this will be fun.

Laurel,
Thanks for doing that. I think it's going to be great to get a family portrait done, especially with Thomas leaving next year. It's our last chance for awhile!
I love the idea of red and black. Are we thinking suits for the men or just something dressy? Because Adam's suit is navy blue. It might look weird if the other men have black suits. How about black dress pants and a nice button-down? What do you think?
Nate and Aidan have matching outfits, you could get one for Eli too at Gymboree.
They are here and here.
Anyways, thanks again Laurel. I think Dec 2 will be just fine. Will they charge us an arm and a leg for this? :)

Phamily Photo

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know that we are scheduled for a family photo shoot at the Salt Lake Busath studio on Wednesday, January 2nd at 11:30am. If this time does not work for you, speak now or forever be Photoshopped in!

They didn't have any openings the 27th, 28th, or 29th. Then they're closed the 31st and 1st. Crazy booked already.

So I was thinking we should discuss outfits. I'd love to go with a reds/blacks/khakis type of color scheme, but we're open to whatever you guys want to do. Emily and I would like it to be more formal, because we will take fun, candid pictures at another time. We can do those easily. Also, I'll need to know if there are going to be any add-ons, like separate family groups. I think Nathan and I will want our little family group and I wasn't sure if Emily and Adam wanted a family one of just them. So I put us down for 2 add-ons, but we can change that up until 48 hours prior to the sitting. I put my credit card down to reserve it. I haven't talked to Drake about anything yet, I just called the studio to see what they had open and thought I should snatch one up before they were completely booked.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this. I am actually very excited to have a new family picture! :)

Thanks all!

Oh, and here is a layout that I did of Eli just to add some fun to the post! :)

Edit: I tried to upload this layout three times, with no success. So you'll have to go check it out in my design gallery at ScrapGirls:

Left side
Right side

Christmas?

Okay, so I think that the Ohio guys are going to Utah for Christmas, but what about the Calgary guys? Will you be there as well? If so, we really need to get a family portrait taken. The last one was at Cody-Harris when all of us were together. I really think we should.

Nathan, Eli and I are planning on driving to Utah 2 days after Christmas and staying at his Grandma's house in Orem.

We need to find out if we're doing a cabin thing again so we can plan accordingly. :) Mom, you need to let us know about that side of it, when you talk to Cheryl. We want in!

Okay, so let's do this thing! (Go see Ratatouille if you don't get that.) Heehee.

Our Halloween!

Hey guys--I posted some pics on our blog about Halloween. I don't want to re-post them, so just come see them here!
PS I really want to see some pics of the rest of you......Tom, I mean Dwight, you'd better post some pics or send them in an email!

Trunk or Treat

Our ward did a chili cook-off and a trunk or treat tonight and we had a lot of fun. Our chili won second place, although they had it labeled wrong and so they thought it was another family's chili. LOL! But we know in our hearts that we were the true second place winners. :)

Eli dressed up as a little Austrian boy (read: I didn't have it organized enough to get a costume for him beforehand, so we just put on the lederhosen that Nathan's mom got for him and called it good). He actually won second place for most original costume because the woman in charge said she had never seen any kid dress up in lederhosen before. :) Heehee. It certainly was a Lakey sweep night for the prizes, as Nathan won the "Guess the circumference of the pumpkin" contest. Man, we should have just stayed home in order to spread the prizes around for others! :)

Here are some pictures of Eli in his little outfit. They're not from tonight, because I was retarded and forgot my flash disk for my camera, but they're cute just the same.

Love you all!

Some Funny Faces

Aidan's Impression of Uncle Jeff....just kidding

I'm Shocked!

Stop Taking Pictures or I'll Make This Face !

Here are some of the pics I got of Aidan today. He is really a cute little guy. I'll be using one of these pics for his baby announcement....which one do you like best?

If you need a good laugh....

...then head on over to my blog and watch the JibJab video I made. It will have you rolling! :D

Just for you, Mom. I did this today without even realizing it, then had to take a picture. Love ya!

PS: Pay no attention to the really old nail polish. Yeah, I'm a mom, what can I say, I don't have time for that kind of thing very often. :)

Too Funny!

Yesterday I came in the house after taking out some recycling, and this is what I found:

I was so lucky to grab my camera and snap a few shots before he got tired of playing. He sure does make my life exciting! :)

Oh, and PS: Nathan comes home today!! He's been in Amsterdam for 2 weeks and I'm more than thrilled to have him home. It really is too long to be away. :) Okay, I'm cheesy, but it's true!

Back to work, slave lady!

Ok so I'm back at Lowe's. It sucks. It's a half an hour away, the people who work there are almost all over 30 and they are crude and have no tact and they are not friendly (everybody walks by and looks at me, knowing I'm new, and then continues on without saying hi or introducing themselves or welcoming me or anything), and the store is SO SLOW. No customers, ever. It makes the day crawl by and my feet and back hurt so bad at the end of my shift. I'm in hell. Also known as Ohio.

Wow, guys...

...you're all fired! No one is contributing! Come on now, I know you've got some funny story that happened today that you want everyone to know about! Did Mom drop some more food storage organizers or did Ali have some sort of Ali-hap? :) I want to know!

Okay, well, since you all aren't talking, I thought I'd let you know that since I started doing digital freebies and signed them up on a couple of freebie sites, my blog hit counter has gotten to 1100 hits!!!

I'm so excited and can't wait to keep designing. I love reading comments from people about how they love my work and stuff. So yeah, I'm pretty pleased with myself, as you can tell.

Well, hope to talk to you all again soon. Nathan's gone to Amsterdam. He left Friday. I'm counting the days until he's back home.

Oh, and wish me luck on my root canal that is scheduled for Tuesday. I'm not looking forward to it, to say the least. :)

Thanksgiving....

...is coming sooner than you think!

Okay, so what are everyone's plans for Thanksgiving this year? Mom, are you guys going anywhere, or could we possibly come out to visit you then? I'd love to see the snow! Heehee...

Let me know if there are any plans so we can coordinate.

Come on out of the woodwork!

Okay, guys, I know I set up this blog and all, but you have to post here as well! :) Just a nice, sweet reminder.

Wanted to let you all know (especially Tom) that we're going to be in Provo next weekend while Nathan does some recruiting stuff for EY. I'm excited to go back and visit the campus again and see Summer! (I haven't seen her in over a year now)

So if anyone else is planning on being in Provo, you'd better let me know.

Also, here is a picture of Eli doing his puzzles in the nude. I thought it was hilarious. We had just gotten done with his bath tonight and he jumped out of his towel and ran over to his puzzles that he wanted to play with right then. Nathan and I were laughing so hard, I had to get my camera and snap a few shots. Don't worry, nothing that I'll be using to embarrass him later in life. Just cute. :)

Love this crazy family!

Thought I'd show you guys this fun and crazy layout I did for a sketch challenge today. I stole the pictures from Tom's Facebook page. Hilarious! Thought you'd like to see it. Love you all, you crazy people!!

Back!

We're back from Vegas/St. George. Eli is sick. Yuck. If you want a full version of events, you can check out my blog.

Waiting for the weather to change and cool down. Spent the day today playing our new Nintendo DS game systems. (Nathan got a bonus so we splurged!)

Hope you're all doing well. Tom, how's BYU?

Mom, you planning anything fun for Dad's upcoming birthday? We're planning on putting some vacation time aside for it, but aren't sure how long. Let me know. (And if that's supposed to be a surprise, make sure Dad doesn't read this part, you can just delete this part of the post. LOL!)

Adios, chachos!

I'll leave you with a funny pic of Eli. This is his "Mom, not the camera AGAIN!" look. Love it. :)

Hallo, this is your MAAAAAATHAAA!!!

Well, last day for Tom at home. Tomorrow he is officially kicked out for a couple of months!!! LOL
We're trying to get all his junk into 3 suitcases and he had his snowboard and boots in his snowboard bag, so he and Mike can fly out to Utah tomorrow.....no road trip......sad. Oh well, father-son time is good too.

This is a fun blog and I hope I can keep up with it.

Ciao (Chow) for now,
Mama Llama

Ali & Ang Storm Cali

Laurel being a cutie!
Phew!
Get outta my way!!
I'm BATMAN! (Nunna nunna nunna nunna nunna nunna nunna BATMAN!)
Cali!

Eli in his Rocketmobile!
The only friend Angela made on our trip, and that's because he showed her where the cool shops were.
Lifeguards.
Beachy!
"Don't Look Up Here"
Eli watching his soaps.

Cannonball!!Straight as an arrow...

Cooking with Ali

While Ali and Angela were out here for a nice little visit, Ali decided to make cookies with Eli. This is their story.







At first Eli was such a good helper, doing whatever Ali asked him to do -- dumping in the flour, helping out with the cream of tartar, and just being an overall baking genius.






But soon, he grew tired and just wanted to play. Well, Ali was not ready to play just yet, as she still had to finish her cookies.







So after not allowing him to smash the bowl all over the floor, Eli protested by throwing his binkie into the mix. What a wild child! :)

Okay, family, it's time to get on the blog bandwagon!

I thought this would be a fun way for us all to stay connected, seeing as how we're all in various places on the continent now. I'd love to have participation from everyone if we could, when possible.

Add funny pictures, notes to each other, updates on your life, whatever! I know that some of us already have personal blogs, but this is going to be just for our family.

What do you think? Let me know if I'm way off-base, but I think it could be fun. :)

I know, I'm a major dork. That's why you love me, right??