Here is my cousin’s daughter Natalie, I don’t get to photographer he to often which is a shame because she is so agreeable to any suggestion that I make. I asked her to come over by the window and she hopped right up on the back of the couch.

Chanda severed a total of  16 people – she actually has the perfect house for it. Usually Aunt Faye host but since she is in China Chanda took over the responsibility this year. I think we all have a new found appreciation for the amount of work that Aunt Faye does every holiday. This is the table.


Megan and Ally helped me with the napkin rings.

Here is the crowd – sorry for the snapshot it is just really hard to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

And yes we did get our white Christmas!

It started snowing before we ate and even stuck around for a while.

Well today was my last day at my "real" job. It was a crazy day trying to clean everything up but I am just relieved that it is over. 

This picture was taken back in June (before the camera policy was changed). Technically I am not even sure if I am allowed to share it but what are they going to do fire me?

This is the left hand 787 airplane 1 wing tip before it was attached to the plane. Like my really sexy safety glasses? You are required to wear them in the factory  – and I know I look like a total nerd.

I really wish that they hadn’t changed the camera policy because I would LOVE to have a photo of me now with my huge belly out in the factory. I feel so out of place every time I go out there and it would be such a juxtaposition to have a big pregnant lady standing in the middle of an extremely industrial factory.

I have made a lot of good friends and  learned a ton in my time at Boeing. It has been an invaluable experience. Now I am off to the next chapter. 

some decisions have been made…
people keep asking me if we have picked out names for the baby, I just tell them I can’t even pick a paint color how could I possibly pick a name…

well I finally picked a paint color

I was going to make all the baby’s bedding but I have had a really hard time finding fabric that I like. Even fabric seems to be very gender specific. So I finally picked a bedding set and a paint color to match.  I am still going to make a quilt but I am not worried about finishing it any time soon. Maybe next month when I am off work.

This is the bedding set from Litto "Retro Mushroom"

This is Litto’s picture not mine,
I don’t have that crib, and that is not our wall color.

this is my photo, a close up of the quilt.

And this is Myles painting the nursery a lovely shade of green

I asked him to turn around for a photo and this is what he did.

But, no we still don’t have names. It’s ok I checked with the midwives and they said they have 10 days to file the birth certificate so we have 10 days after the baby is born to pick a name : ) hopefully we will have one before that though.

every year we go Christmas tree hunting with Sam, Chanda, and the girls. Usually we do this over Thanksgiving weekend so that my Brother Mark can also participate but this year we were in Hawaii so the entire event was delayed. Well last weekend we finally made it out.
It was frigid cold, but a bright, bright sunny day.
This made for some interesting photography – I decided to  shoot directly into the sun. This always produces interesting results. The bright sun would flood the lens and wash out part of the image giving it a dreamy ethereal feel.

this is typical Elle, she was just happy to be outside.

finally we picked a tree!

you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!

Be prepared to see some bad photography and lots of snap shots

Every year the Church we attend holds a Women’s Christmas Friendship Dinner. This year Danielle talked me into hosting a table with her… ok she didn’t really have to do much talking she just asked me and I said "sure!" Since neither of us own china and it is a formal dinner we had to look to alternate sources. Aunt Faye was so generous as to lend us her precious china – even though she is currently in China and couldn’t even supervise us. (Don’t worry Aunt Faye we didn’t break anything!)  My mom was so gracious as to go to Aunt Faye and Uncle Eric’s house and retrieve the plates, cups, saucers, serving dishes and nearly all the flatware. Apologies to Grace who currently lives at Faye and Eric’s house and uses the flatware on a daily basis. (Grace – I hope you saw the note and didn’t think you had been robbed).

Here are the photos of our table – I really can’t take much credit as Danielle designed the centerpiece and and picked out the napkins and rings, chargers, and  ornaments. Actually all I did was show up with the china, table cloth, and runner (though I did make the runner 4 years ago).

This is Danielle setting up


I surprised her with my new way to make people smile – it involves a clown nose (see it works!)

we neglected to get a photo with all of our guest. By the time we remembered they had scattered. So here are some of our guest. I should have know better when Christina said she wanted to stand next to me so that she would look small. Oh my! I look like a beached wale standing next to my tiny friends. I have had to crop off the bottom of the photo. It also doesn’t help much that Ashley and I are standing about a foot closer to the camera than the others. (Yikes! my arm is the size of Christina’s head)

from left to right: Laura, Danielle, Christina, ME, Ashley

Me with my mom

the picture above is a lesson in photo basics – never have your short friend take a photo of you – always pick your tall friend – pictures of adults always look better angled down slightly. if you are short try standing on a chair or phone book.

sorry Ashley I also had to crop this photo my belly was disproportionately displacing your small frail body. I also never noticed before that you are a good 8" shorter than me . You are going to have to be wearing platform shoes or stilts before I hand you my camera again.

You be the judge

Elle was really not into the whole Christmas photo thing.
so we went with separate photos of each girl

so yes, the reward for acting like a total pill and refusing to sit with your sisters for a photo is a huge lolly. She sure looks happy now.

She and her mom are featured in my side bar as the link to my web site. Here she is a whole year older.
And now she has a little sister.

As you can tell there family is a lot of FUN

You got to love people who just know how to cut loose and have a good time

got to love those curls !

Sadly my little email notification tool has stopped working so I am switching services from zookoda to FeedBurner. if you were already signed up before I will automatically add you. Hopefully this new service will be more reliable.

I am playing a little catch up I have had a lot of photo shoots and not much time to post.
This is another pre-Thanksgiving newborn