Oh my Gosh!!!

I can't handle it, this girl is just too cute! I love the way these pictures turned out! Thanks Brooke! You can check out her photography blog here.


This one is my favorite. Isn't her little dress beautiful? My sweet mom bought it for her!

Max the Great!

Max has finally decided that he doesn't need baby diapers anymore! Two days ago, while I was changing a poopy diaper, he told me he wanted his big boy undies and he hasn't gone back since! We have only had a few small accidents since then and I think he is pretty much done. I'm so glad I waited and just let him decide to do it on his own. He can do it all alone and I don't have to help him with his pants or ask him if he needs to go a million times a day. He is so stubborn that he didn't do well with that. He is such a good boy, and is so excited about his new Spiderman book bag that he got for using the big boy potty! WE ARE SO HAPPY!!! Hopefully we won't have many set backs!
Here is my sweet little Gracie. Her cheeks are getting so squishy. She is such a sweetie, and is almost 4 months old! Where has the time gone! She still wakes up every 3 hours at night, and loves to be held constantly, but we love to snuggle around here so it's working out pretty good for us. Max loves his little sister and gives her kisses and hugs occaisionally.
Brooke thought it would be fun to take some glamour shots of herself with my camera so I thought I would share them with you:) Beautiful!
Halloween was great this year. Max loved being a pirate and even gave himself a pirate name. Pirate Boogie Woogie Max! He is so creative and has a great imagination. He told me he was going on a bear hunt yesterday and continued on with a story of a bear caught in a tree in the middle of a viwwwage (village). The bear was chasing bees apparently.

Mas found his old glowworm the other day and decided it was his baby Gracie. He laid out a little wash cloth on the ground for her and was taking care of her like his mommy does.
His cute little pirate faces make me laugh! I love this little guy!

Gracie's blessing!

Mike didn't know you had to flip these before you post them, if there is another way to do it, please let us know.


My cute little babe is starting to smile a lot lately. She is so fun to have around.Look at Gracie's expression here. She looks scared to death, like Max is going to drop her or something.
Grandma Bev and beautiful little Gracie on her blessing day, Oct. 11, 2009.


Mike's Dad Dave, Grandpa and Grandma Kjar, and Ty and Whitney.
Lisa and Max playing in Max's room. Max will never look at me, and Lisa wants me to take a million pics to capture every expression she can think of.
Mom, Cassie, Dad, Grandpa Ray, Andie and Zac. No one will smile for the camera! Thanks for the spirit finger Cass!
All the beautiful ladies that came to the blessing.
All the great men that participated in her blessing.


Gracie is exactly 3 months old today! I can't believe how fast time flies! She is still acting like a newborn and wakes up every 3 hours to eat (like clockwork). She is so cute and peaceful all the time, she is a great baby, despite her occasional fussiness. I feel really awful because I forgot to invite a lot of wonderful people to her blessing! There's no excuse for this, but we have been really busy lately. Mike just started recruiting again, and classes just started for my new performing arts studio. I have been a LITTLE stressed lately. So I'm sorry if you didn't receive an invitation!

We have had a lot of fun challenges this year. This week Max and I experienced the SWINE FLU first hand, and Mikey was great to baby us all week long. Unfortunately, the congestion was too much for my little head to handle and my eardrum ruptured in the middle of the night a couple nights ago. That was fun! Now I can't hear that well and blood keeps dripping out of my ear. Sorry for the gruesome details! I also dropped my phone in the tub this week and few other monumental challenges also occurred. So, I guess Heavenly Father thought we were getting too complacent and wanted to test us a little bit, hopefully we passed. We are all on the mend and will hopefully be skipping around tomorrow!

It's funny how challenges seem to come in groups. When it rains, it pours, and although I love rain, I wouldn't mind a break. We are so blessed that Gracie and Mike didn't catch the flu and we hope things stay that way.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the update even though it was a little whiny. It's good to remember the bad times so we can realize how good we've got it the majority of the time... right!

More updates on little Gracie to come...

PPA gets featured in The Spectrum!

Our studio was featured in The Spectrum today! We are so excited, and have already had a few more students register this morning. Check out the article!


http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20090929/NEWS01/909290308/1002/Moms-to-teach-performing-arts

In other news, Max told us yesterday that he had an 'owee topper' on his foot. We couldn't figure out what he meant until he showed us a little scab on his ankle! Where does he come up with this stuff!

Skiing at Quail

If you know my husband, you know he loves to ski! It's in his blood, and if we don't get out enough in the year he feels neglected. Since his job requires him to travel most of the summer, we end up doing most of our skiing in September and October (until we almost freeze to death on the lake!) Here are a few shots of us this last weekend. I steal all of these cute collages from sis-in-laws blog because she is the creative photo shop lady around here. Her cute kids and husband are on the top. Connelly tried skiing with his dad for the first time. It was so fun to watch him be so brave!
Here is our cute family. Gracie had her own little life jacket, and slept most of the time under the blanket. She loved the roar of the engine on the boat. It put her right to sleep and it was a nice day so she wasn't sweating to death. Max LOVED the boat. He is usually so nervous, but he has really grown up this year. He was so excited to wear the 'yellow jacket with the lizard' on Grandpa Dave's boat.

We were so proud of Max because he actually got in the water and tubed on his own for the first time without screaming for us to pull him in. When he saw all of his cousins jumping in he looked at me and said,
"This jacket will help me float right? I won't sink?" When I told him he would be fine he looked at me excitedly and said,
"Put me in!" He was so funny!

Then when it was time to tube he looked and Mike with the same expression on his face and asked
"Will you go super slow Dad?" Mike told him he would go slow and Max replied,
"Put me in!" He was so cute! You can see him flexing his muscles in the tube, and you can also see the leftover Oreo cookie on his squishy little cheeks. We love going to the lake with Brooke and Dan. Our family's get along so well and we are so happy we have them near by.

Here is Mike showing off his mad skills. He said this wasn't one of his best runs, but I still love watching him work up a sweat!

Platinum Performing Arts Center!

Oak and Con's Cakes:) and the latest!

I'm stealing Brooke's collage of these cakes! I loved making these for my cute niece and nephew last month! Max loved hanging out with his cousins and can't stop pretending to be a pirate!

This month has been fun! Mike is finally done with leaving town for a while, so we have him all to ourselves! Now we just need to find affordable activities for our family to enjoy together...any suggestions?

I'm also excited to announce that Michelle and I are opening a performing arts studio in Cedar City! We have been talking about FOREVER so we decided to finally 'man up' and do it! Stay tuned for more information!

Gracie is a great little baby and rarely cries. Max loves her, but ignores her most of the time! We also got a new stroller today! I am so excited about it! After testing out Brooke and Dan's and Liz and Jo's, we decided to go with the InStep Suburban Safari 2! We test drove it today and it runs like a champ! 

Not much else to report, but busy times are coming my way!