Pumpkin Party & Zoo day (hour)

This week was jammed packed full of kid fun! We went to my Mom's for a cousin Pumpkin Party and then hit the Zoo the next day. I'm pretty sure that was our last trip to the zoo until next spring. It was so stink-n cold! The nice part was...Zero crowds, all the animals were out and we circled the place in an hour flat! That was serious record Zoo time. I have such a hard time choosing which photos to post that I did another slideshow. I love the song. I sometimes sing it to Ted and he eats it up! It's so cute I still thought it was appropriate for kiddo pictures.

Uh... do I know you?

Yesterday in Costco (i love costco) I had finished the "important" stuff and proceeded to stroll down my FAVORITE middle section of the place. I was just cruising along humming a little diddy when this lady passes me, staring, with this HUGE grin. At first I was like "do I know her from somewhere?" Then I realized..... I was humming the tune to Elmo's World. Nice. I'm for sure a Mom and apparently so is she.

I love my Mom

I la la la LOVE her! She watched my boys TWO days in a row for me while I shot some weddings. Jack could hardly wait to go spend time with her, on the first day he wheels out this huge suitcase and tells me "I need to take this to Maga's (grandma's)." I think he was hoping for a sleep over or extended stay vacation. Anyway, today she watched the boys at my house.... I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I walked through the doors to my IMMACULATE house! She is amazing. That is why God gave her specials powers to have 7 children! So thank you mom. I love you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo MUCH!!

I'm still here...

just buried under insane amount catching up. Actually, come to think of it I ALWAYS feel like I'm catching up. Hopefully with a few new treats I got for my business, my workflow will get better. Anyway, it's fall picture madness so that is all I've been doing lately. I have been loving getting out in the canyons, hiking and enjoying the amazing colors. Tonight I shot up Little Cottonwood Canyon and it was gorgeous. I had to pull over a couple times and get some shots for myself. Other than that...it's all I've got. Haven't bothered to photograph the boys lately, although they are getting so cute and playing really well with each other. Today I was listening to Jack teach Max how to give him a high five while sitting in their car seats. That stuff just gets my GRIN ON every time!

It was WICKED awesome!

So we had a "wicked" time in NYC. I'm still trying to recover, catch up, clean up, unpack and a million other things but oh well. Let alone the hours I spent getting current on everyone's blogs!

So first of all, you know how if you ever screwed up when you were younger, you'd get the ole' PARENT CURSE...."I hope you have a child just like you one day!" Well, seriously, I never really screwed up being the perfect child I was (well I might have had a party when my parents were gone once....but that was the ONLY thing I ever did wrong :), what I did do was a lot of "puking up." So, apparently my parents still deemed me worthy of the curse. And let me just say it is one thing to have a child that throws up in the comfort of your own home but while traveling...that just doesn't WORK. We were already running low on spare clothing because I decided it was going to be winter in NYC, when in fact it was actually HUMID and HOT HOT HOT!! So for no reason at all Max decided that every night, including the plane ride home he would puke like clock work and then be as happy as can be. So with that out of my system...the rest of the trip was FANTASTIC. The kids were great and put up with our sight seeing frenzy really well.

I won't list the million things we did because basically if you can do it...we mostly likely did it. I will mention WICKED because it was the absolute highlight for me. The soundtrack has been playing non stop and since I'm still working on Ted to memorize the lyrics I'm left to belt out all duets and parts single handedly. Sunday, while Ted was preparing to teach his lesson I went in to ask him a question and noticed he was wearing ear plugs, RUDE! Today Jack kept saying "Mom you're just too loud....Maaahhom I said you're TOO LOUD!"
**CHEESY ALERT**
I get chills and tear up every time I listen to "For Good." It just make me think of the people who have touched my life, some from highschool, college and my mission that I know I'll probably never see again, at least on earth. I love the part in the song when Elphaba sings:
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend

Anyway, I think this is the most typing I have ever done on my blog. So I'll just post my slideshow that includes 1/6 of the pictures.

p.s. just for the record I was not wearing SHORT overalls in those 90's pix of me in NYC it was an OVERALL dress. BIG difference people...HUGE!

The Big Apple

Well we're off to NYC. When I say "WE" I mean the whole kitten kaboodle! Me, Ted, Jack, Max, Monkey and Julie. It should be a lot of fun. I have an awesome wedding to shoot and then the rest of the time we are just going to play. The last time I was there was so long ago with my girlfriends I'm afraid this experience is going to be just a tad different hauling around strollers and diaper bags. I was looking back at my pictures from that trip and I can't believe how much has changed in each one of our lives since then.Cherry, Shelle, Anna, Carrie and Me (what is up with my hair..seriously I don't think it was wind either)
Central Park posers

Me and Carrie at the MET
A shot of the twin towers from the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.
I'm 100% sure I'll have a ton of photos to post when I get back! That is if we don't get mugged and someone steals all my camera equipment. Oh that never happens right?

Belated Birthday

Jack's birthday was a bit belated this year. Since he has been on a Star Wars, planets, rocket ship, anything outer space kick he naturally requested a Star Wars birthday. Here are some fun photos from the party. Oh yeah, just to avoid the earful I might get about what a birthday freak I am......The balloon guy was Jack's gift from Grandma and Grandpa Eliason who are currently boycotting toys considering the current state of the toy room.
Our faithful videographer, Darth Vader.
Loving the slide and party I will.....said Yoda Max.
I think the dark side might be winning here.
Quick break for some cake and then on to more dueling for jedi and vaders.


Ted took a beating from all the kids but that was their favorite part.
Request from the adults: Tinkerbell, Nacho Libre, Sleeping beauty and of course a Harley :)

We sure love spending time with our friends and family. Thanks guys. We love you!

Girls Night Out

I couldn't resist this. Our husbands just think we go out to gab and shop (shhhh) Thanks girls for fun night out dancing!

website

Okay Party People. For those of you that care my new site has launched. Still tweaking and fine tuning a few things but for the most part I have quit obsessing and decided I was done being sick and staying up until the weeeeeee hours of the night. So this is what I've got. The other site is just a place for cool stuff and I'll attempt to post some useful/fun photo stuff. I'm also really excited for The "Dinner Diva Dawn" to share some of her fab cooking tips and recipes on that site. Heaven knows my family could sure use some good home cook-N more than once a week (if they're lucky). Let me know if any one else wants to help or comes across cool finds to share on the site. (the pictures below are the links)

Quinn's Eagle Project

I'm so proud of my cousin Quinn. This is such and awesome project, inspired by my little brother Sam who most of you know is in a wheelchair himself due to a near drowning accident. I don't think anyone in my family let alone Sam can imagine what life would be like for him if he didn't have his wheelchair. Just $45 will build one wheelchair. Such a small amount for such an amazing gift. I hope you will pass this along, link it to your blogs, post it to your blogs or send an email to others you know and help Quinn reach his goal and more importantly help give others the gift of mobility.

His original email to me is posted below.

Hi…My name is Quinn and I am a 15 year old future Eagle Scout trying to make a difference in this world and I need your help.

My cousin, Sam, is confined to a wheelchair, and I wanted my Eagle Scout service project to help the disabled. Over 100 million people around the world have lost the ability to walk and are too poor to afford wheelchairs. Life is hard enough being disabled, but much harder if you have to drag yourself around the ground; so for my Eagle Scout service project I have partnered with an organization called Free Wheelchair Mission. Free Wheelchair Mission is a non-profit organization committed to providing mobility to the disabled poor in developing countries. Their founder designed and developed a low cost wheelchair with a total cost of only $45 and that includes shipping.

My goal is to send an entire shipping container of 550 wheelchairs to one of the 60 countries Free Wheelchair Mission partners with. In addition, my parents and I plan to travel with Free Wheelchair Mission to help assemble and distribute the chairs and see first hand the difference you and I can make in the lives of 550 people. I’ve never done anything like this before and I really need you and/or your company to help me raise $25,000 in total. You would also help me tremendously if you forward this email to people in your contact list.

Please watch two VERY short video news clips…one about my specific project (attached to this email) AND another by CBS Evening News that shows some amazing video footage of the disabled people around the world benefiting from this great effort (see CBS video; click here www.freewheelchairmission.org – use Internet Explorer)

I’m asking for your help in giving the gift of mobility to the disabled poor. There are two ways to donate…by check or credit card

Please send checks payable to Free Wheelchair Mission and in the memo section put Quinn’s Eagle Project and mail to:
Free Wheelchair MissionP.O. Box 513538Los Angeles, CA 90051-3538.

Credit Card: Go to the website www.freewheelchairmission.org . Under the “donate” section please make sure to apply the donation to Quinn’s Eagle Scout Project.


If you can donate please send me an email to mhtml:%7B19BE15DF-DDFC-4764-99F1-D9721A64FFA9%7Dmid://00000417/!x-usc:mailto:quinn@civicstone.com so that I can send you follow-up emails on our progress, including the trip next year.

Thank you in advance,
Quinn