i could watch them all day...

Scroll to the bottom of the page and pause the playlist before starting the video...

status updates.

Facebook: 5 year old style...

Apparently the signs on the door have been proven effective. 

This week's prerequisites:

"Do not be mean in my room"...

and written in blue for emphasis:

"Do not wine in my room"... (Well, there goes the opportunity for any of my friends to enter... {wink}.)

Santa Monica Pier.

After taking pictures, we all changed into something a little more casual and got a taste of the Pier.  Some favorite moments from our day...







Lucky for the kids, a man approached our family with 3 unlimited rides wristbands that his kids were done using for the day!  Off to the roller coasters and bumper cars we went...







Hunter got pulled into a break dancing street performance against his will, he was a good sport.  I stood on top of a telephone booth to snap this picture...

when i grow up...

...i want to be just like Tyler and Wendy from Blue Lily Photography.  I was so thrilled to have our family's photo shoot with them on Saturday.  I have seen the magic they work with other families... and I can not wait to get my hands on those jpegs!


Santa Monica Pier was the perfect (but oh-so-windy) setting for some fun shots...

Avery & I had shopped long and hard the past few weeks trying to put everyone's outfits together... not too matchy, not too plain...







The kids did a great job running, jumping, spinning, tickling, laughing, and posing for both of Wendy and Tyler's cameras. 



I have to say it was a bit strange being on the other side of the camera... but long overdue for sure.  We hadn't had our family's pictures done since Avery was 3 months old.  I am already mentally planning where the new pictures will go and what color of frames to buy, etc.  I can't wait to see what they came up with.

100th day of school

Almost as big as a national holiday around here.  The kindergartners had to bring in a collection of 100 things.  All sorts of items were brought in for sharing in increments of 100: pennies, stickers, Legos, race cars, feathers. 

and ponytails...

Avery counted out 10 rows of 10 clear rubberbands.  Layed them out nice and neat.  Then the fun began.  We (mostly me) began separating her Barbie head's overly washed, ratted, and processed hair into 100 sections.


Here are the results...

sew sweet.

Davin is in the process of learning to do a little embroidery...cross-stitch to be exact.  I remember when my Gram taught me to cross-stitch on gingham fabric when I was about his age.  I made a pillow for my mom that said "MOM" or "WOW" if you held it upside down.  He is working on cross-stitching a man on a handerkerchief for his grammy. I love his attention to details.  I could lay on the floor of his room, next to him, all day and watch his little hands go to work.

The Phillips Family

A beautiful day out at Penn Park in Whittier.  I wish every shoot was this fun...it will be tough to top the personalities in this family... we had a blast.

be mine.

Nothin' says love like a Kindergarten Valentine party...ice cream sundaes, tons of cards, tutus, knee-high socks, hair bows and all...

Happy Valentines Day.