christmas 2011

was so glad that my sister's little family was able to make it back for christmas too!  we also had my cousin and his fiance from finland here which made it that much more special.  we had another great time with them all here.  christmas eve was spent doing some white elephant gift exchanges.  gifts were in the morning, we had jorel be the "elf" and hand out the presents with grandpa's help. jorel was SO happy to have gotten the one thing he asked for - the DIESELWORKS (thomas the tank - who else?).  he was so worried that santa forgot it... the day after we took a little "hike" in zion to make sure the Finns got to go back and see it.  always a good time!

photography by jaana

while my sister was here for thanksgiving, she took some pictures of jorel and i in the leaves!  so that's what we used for our make-shift christmas card, but here are some more of those pictures.  loved them as always sissy!

J's Kids

like i said in my last post - i am NOT a photographer.  my day care provider wanted updated pictures of her kids and i happen to have a camera.  she also offered a trade and since money is so tight i decided to try it out. if they didn't turn out we could always try something different.  but she said she liked them, even though i thought they could have been a lot better.  i only had my one lens that got spotted with havasupai water, so got all splotchy, but, anyway.  she does have some pretty good kids.  thanks for letting me try!

being 4

i wanted to get some pictures of jorel before he was too far into being four!  he was a little restless but was so good to let me get some of him.  i actually was asked by my day care provider to get pictures of her family, for trades, so after an initial resistance, i said okay.  i am NO photographer!! so i practiced on jorel one evening hence these pictures :)

i haven't really done any updates on jorel for a long time.  aside from him being adorable, him being 4 hasn't been so bad either.  it really is amazing the things that they can learn and pick up on in such a little amount of time.  he has finally began to understand what it means to share - aside from with grandpa.  he is very kind hearted and doesn't like it when other kids cry, but he's also a softy and doesn't hesitate when he's had his feelings hurt or has been told no to something that he really wants.  he is really hard to give time outs to at the moment because he thinks i'm playing a game, until i usually bring him to more tears clarifying that i'm not joking and the 4 minutes begin.  he is still  OBSESSED with thomas the tank engine and gets them out to play almost everyday.  he has been eating a lot more and in phases, so you can tell when he really needs it.  He is 35 pounds and about 39.5 inches tall.  how is time going by so fast?!

merry holidays

here's another make-shift christmas card... 'tis the season! :)

toys 4 tots

had the great privilege to be able to play in the Toys 4 Tots softball tournament this year thanks to my friend, kim, from high school.  this tournament is so cool because there were over 90 teams entered, plus each team member on the roster needed to bring a $10 dollar unwrapped toy in order to play.  with 10 people on the field and some ready to rotate in on each team that gives over 900 toys!  i think that is just awesome.  there were a lot of teams from northern utah, idaho, nevada, plus all the teams from here.  even though it wasn't really warm - friday we played in a snow/rain mix with some wind and saturday it was just cold - it was a blast.  the only person i knew on my team was kim and i'm so glad that my teammates were so cool.  i thought we played well together and had a lot of fun!  thanks guys for a good time!

hair, again

so i got my hair done today... it's been quite a while since i had done anything to it, and finally did the ombre look that i'd been eyeing for a while.  my sister suggested it, and so i went to Marki to get it done.  My usual hair dresser moved and so this is her little sister, and so i was good with it!  she did a great job and i'm glad her sister let me know she was at Julie's!