Santa Claus

Third Christmas Season.  First Santa experience.

Happy Halloween

When we were kids my Dad was good at coming up with inventive, funny, homemade Halloween costumes for us.  I have always thought that would be a fun thing to do.  So far so good!

Kaia's First Halloween.  2010- Bunny

Kaia's Second Halloween. 2011-Turtle

This idea came from a costume my Dad made for us as kids.

Kaia's Third Halloween.  2012- Jesse (Toy Story)

This little girl absolutely loves horses and she already has the red hair so we thought who better for her to be than Jesse.  The costume is not exact but I made it the best I could and I think she looks so cute in it!

Hold on cowgirl!

Happy Halloween!  It's sad how quickly they change in one year!

Best Two Years!

We can't believe our little girl is already two.  These have been the best two years ever!  Kaia is so fun. She has a lot of energy and the only time she slows down is to watch a morning cartoon to get her hair done.  She loves to dribble her soccer ball down the hall.  She is the most adorable thing ever.  She is constantly giving us hugs and saying, "I love you" all on her own.  Whenever dad has to leave for school she says, "kisses" and puckers her lips, then she gives him a big hug and says, "I love you".  This doesn't stop at once.  She repeats this about five times to try to keep dad home until finally he has to go.  Her favorite song is Old Macdonald and she is always singing EIEIO, nay nay, moo moo.  When she gets upset she even cries EIEIO so we thought that would be a perfect theme for her second birthday.  

Birthday Invitation.

Birthday cake and decorations.

Birthday Presents.  

I decided to do her 2 year birthday photo shoot on her birthday.  We didn't have to go far.  I took these in our backyard.  I love her complexion and hair with the autumn colors.  

                                                     Thanks for the cute boots Grandma!

And last but not least by request a video of some clips of her birthday.  Thanks so much for everything!  

Frogs

Me and Kaia like to walk to the Horticultural Gardens and catch frogs together.  I keep telling her she is too young to find Prince Charming.  :)

I Love You!

Right now my most favorite thing just has to be this:

I love Michigan State University and I don't even attend the school!  Saying this school is amazing should mean something because I have attended quite a few :)  I guess I should say I don't love gross anatomy because it owns my husband right now but as far as a school campus goes it does not get better than this.  We all know I love love love the amazing gardens everywhere on campus and I don't have to go far to have a new amazing photo location.  The architecture is awesome as well but today I am introducing something new.  Right on campus not far from our wonderful living quarters is this amazing MSU horse breeding farm.  Now I am not quite sure where Kaia's obsession with horses came from but I can tell you that this is going to be one of those places we visit often!  

Dear Utah

How we miss you.  We are enjoying our experience here in Michigan and have learned so much but there are some things that can't be replaced.  The first things that come to mind are family and mountains.  We are so glad we were able to come and visit before Dave became crazy busy with clinicals beginning and his classes including the dreaded gross anatomy.  We were able to do so much while we were there.  Some of the things we did included.

-Hiking with family.  Catching salamanders was especially fun.
-Cutting 12 inches off my hair to donate to Locks of Love.
-Tracy Aviary.
-This is the Place Heritage Park.  Kaia loved riding the horses.  She has had a huge obsession with horses for a long time now.
-Camping in the Uintas with the Hansen Family and fishing.
-Bugling elk with my Dad.
-Going to the zoo.  Kaia got a little frightened by a polar bear emerging from the water right in front of her face!
-Going to the aquarium.
-Hiking to Twin Lakes and around down by Lake Solitude and then another hike to Sunset Peak where while feeding crackers to a chipmunk Dave got bit!  Ha Ha  Every time we went hiking we saw at least one moose.  It was awesome.  Oh how we miss our mountains.  With that said we are excited to see what all the hype is about with Michigan in the fall!

Some of our Utah Adventures:

21 Months

I have been sitting here working on Kaia's scrapbook and couldn't help but post this scrapbook page.  These photos were taken a couple days before the ones in the last post when Kaia was 21 months old.  She is now 22 months old.  I can't help but be happy and smile when I look at this page!  What a personality this one has!

Best Friends

I can't even tell you how much I love this little girl!  Everyday I want to cry because of how big she is getting but yet I love her more and more.  Even though she won't ever hold still not even for a second, loves to throw tantrums and food, and thinks she should be the boss to name a few.  Must be the red hair.  But then she does the cutest things ever to make up for all that.  Today she went into her room while I was putting away some clothes and picked an oversized soccer jersey from her drawer and said, "cute" and wanted me to put it on.  

Sometimes I get a craving to get out and take some great photos and improve on my skills which I have come to learn in photography will never end.  There is always more to learn and improve on.  This was one of those days so I grabbed my favorite model and her best friend and headed to a beautiful garden.  A lot of people don't water here in Michigan and because of this unusually dry hot weather here a lot of places are unfortunately brown.  So glad there are still some places that choose to water!  This garden was gorgeous!  We got some awesome shots and it even actually looks like they cooperated (wink wink).  

So glad Kaia is already on the road to picking good friends!  This cute little girl lives next door and Kaia has to knock on her door at least once a day.  They love to play and fight and just be one.

Plugging her ears so she doesn't have to listen to her Mom!

There are so many more I could post but I am going to refrain.  What a fun evening with good company in a beautiful place.