Child Labor

Last week (11/25), Caleb had a play date with Naomi. We went to the library together for story time. Afterward, we came back to our house and it was just so nice out that we didn't want to go inside. Not to mention that Daddy was working on a project outside and the kiddos were eager to help out.

So we put them to work.



Then the kids decided they needed a break from all that hard work...

and left Daddy to finish up the job. (Brandon packed the trashcan so full, that even after the trash collectors came by the next morning to empty the trashcan, it was still half full. The leaves were that squished in there.)

Our neighbors came home with a huge box of apples and shared their wealth with Caleb and Naomi.

Mason and fam

A while ago, I took some gorgeous photos of Caleb in the sunset, even though the reason we were outside at such a time was to take maternity photos.

Back when the baby was still in the belly:

Now their family looks more like this:

Cristal let me photograph Mason last week (despite the fact that she's yet to receive the photos from our maternity shoot). The sun wasn't being our friend (I hate that it gets dark so early), so I ransacked our house looking for every lamp we had, giving me a whopping three lights to work with.

That's okay. It worked out. And Mirra was more than willing to pose for me while we tried to get the lighting figured out.



My favorite thing about doing these photos was that when I edited them, I got to put them in black and white or faded color. I almost never do that to Caleb's photos, as I like them to look real and not artsy. But I love the artsy look.

Mirra and Mason together:



And finally, the star of the show, who refused to sleep and kept pooping in his diaper every time we attempted to take it off of him so we could have cute naked baby pictures:

Candy Monster

When we went up to my mom's house to take her to the airport (on 11/5), she gave us this big tupperware full of candy. The next day, it was all Caleb played with all morning long. The lid had these snap on handles that were fun to put on and take off. Then there was the joy of dumping out the entire thing of candy only to put it away again. Candy is also good for pouring from one container to another. Not to mention the fun involved with unwrapping candy and throwing candy and seeing how many pieces we could make Mommy eat before she wanted to throw up. Yes, good times.

So finally, after an entire morning of this, I pulled out the camera to take some pictures. Caleb immediately gave me his cheesy smile.


Then he decided to start posing for me. He'd lean on his arm and tilt his head and wait for me to take a picture. After each shot, he'd say "nice," then give me a new pose. It was so hilarious!






The above photo is in a different spot in our living room a little later as Caleb continued to model for me.

Below is his "oh, cute" face. When he first started making this face, we thought something was wrong. But then Brandon realized this is the same face that we make at Caleb whenever he does something cute and now he's started to copy us.




Caleb only ever threw the Snickers bars. He never once threw a Reese's, but I think he eventually threw every single Snickers.

The Reese's were easy to unwrap. Caleb never wanted to eat them though. Just unwrap candy after candy and give it to Mommy to eat.


I was glad when Alana came over to assume my candy eating responsibilities. (Though after one taste she would throw the candy on the floor. Apparently she had no qualms about throwing Reese's.)

At least Caleb's been getting some good practice sharing with all this candy around.

Falling Leaves

Last year, we took a photo of Caleb in a huge pile of leaves in our yard on Halloween day. This year, by Halloween we didn't have any leaves in our yard. We drove up to SLC on November 5th to take my mom to the airport and it was winter there. When we came home, I looked at all the beautiful yellow leaves still on our tree and was thankful for them.

The very next morning, they were ALL on the lawn. Seriously, the whole tree dumped onto our lawn in one day. But at least we only had to rake once this year. (Although the backyard hasn't fallen yet, so I'm sure we'll have to get the rake out again one of these days.)



{Brandon and I have an ongoing war over cutting corners, since cougars don't cut corners, though Brandon does and I always tell him he should get kicked out of BYU for it. So whenever I see Caleb following in his mommy's footsteps, I have to document it. The above photo occurred when I told Caleb to go help Daddy rake and Caleb voluntarily chose to walk down the sidewalk and around the yard to get up to where Brandon was.}






{This last one Brandon took for me. Apparently, being tall helps in photography.}

Las Vegas

To kick off the month of November, we headed down to St. George for a long weekend. One of the nights we were there, we went down to Vegas to play. We were supposed to be meeting some of the other APX managers for dinner and thought that we were barely going to make it. But we forgot to factor in the time zone change and ended up with an extra hour to hit the streets.





We had dinner at Joe's Seafood where I ate crab for the first time in my life. And surprisingly, I liked it.


Caleb, on the other hand, spit out the one little bite of crab I gave him. I guess he thought Mommy looked tastier then the crab.


After dinner, we walked around the mall next to Caesar's Palace. They have some FANCY stores in that place. Like every big name expensive brand out there. Caleb especially enjoyed FAO Schwartz where we got to dance on a giant keyboard, just like in the movie Big.