Sunday, November 23, 2008

Autumn Leaves

We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to fly home to AZ and spend time with family. I was very homesick for family this trip. I even forgot about the beautiful Autumn we were missing back in North Carolina.

We had two choices to make the day after we got back to North Carolina. Unpack all of our suitcases or play outside in all of the fallen leaves. Well I think it is obvious what we chose.







It is amazing to me how Camden just keeps coming back for more even after the things Brooklyn does.




Thanks Crystal for the cute vest. The girls love them.

Halloween

This post is a little behind. We were able to spend Halloween in AZ with our family. We had dinner at my parents house with a lot of other family that were in town for the wedding and were lucky to have Brandon's parents come also. Here are a few pictures from that evening.



Friday, November 21, 2008

Tatum's wedding

Yea!!! Tatum and Chase were married. We were so happy we got to be apart of this happy day. Tatum let me and Niko come along and take some pictures. There is nothing fancy about the photos. It was just fun to document the day.









Leaving for the Temple.


Just Married!


Chase Rasmussen Presidential Candidate in 2028 or 2032!


Brandon and Camden. I thought this picture was so cute. However she was probably causing her body to be limp because Brandon was dragging her somewhere she did not want to go or maybe they were dancing.

The dresses were so cute on all of the girls.



Trey and Camden. Camden has become quite the smoocher on this trip. She loves handing them out.


My mom and dad.

My lovely sister Tobi.

Tara my sister and Matt her husband.

My beautiful mom.

My mom and the granddaughters. We could not get the boys over fast enough to get a picture with all of the grandkids.

Camden innocently playing with the water fountain.

Camden now quenching her thirst at the water hole.

Now she is just sticking her face in.



Thankfully we were in AZ and the low was probably in the 60's. The wetness did not seem to bother them too much.

My brother Tait and his wife Bethany.

Brandon and Trey. It is too bad Brandon and I don't have any pictures together.

There is me. I rarely post pictures of myself. I am going to take a challenge from my friend Beth to post some self portraits of myself. I challenge anyone reading this to do the same.


Tatum the Bride.

Tatum and Chase cutting the cake. I really liked there cake. Very cute.


Most importantly the present that wins the prize for being the cutest package. What was in it Tatum? Maybe they can win the prize for best present too.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

AZ Trip

Well it has been awhile since I have posted on our blog. I sincerely apologize to all of my loyal readers. Thanks mom for always being there. We were recently in AZ to visit with family and most importantly my sister Tatum got married. Yipppeee!!! I will post more on that later.

Well some of you may know that Brandon and I recently bought ourselves a new camera. I was lucky enough to take some pictures of family members while I was there. It was a lot of fun. I love practicing with this camera. It is a blast using all of the different settings. I think I am in love with her. I think I will call her Niko. You guessed it, short for Nikon. Another name she could go by is Ebony. However, that one was the name given to our Honda Civic.

Here are just a few of the many pictures I took.













Friday, November 14, 2008

Are you as content as a 4 year old?

Little life lessons can be had simply by listening to keen observations of your children. Recently, I learned that you do not have to solve every problem the way the world expects you to. Sure, you have to understand the rules of life, but the way you approach a problem, the framework in which you perceive issues and concerns, can help you tremendously.

When playing with an activity book, Brooklyn came upon some mazes. She asked how to play and I showed her. "You must start at this point and try to get to the other point without crossing a line. It's like a real maze and the lines are walls." She proceeded to play and I spoke with Tassi for just a few seconds. Brooklyn interrupted me to tell me that she was done. Upon looking at the book, she did, in fact, have the pencil tip pointing at the end. When I asked how she completed the maze so quickly, she illustrated with her pencil and said "I start here at the beginning, draw until I get to a line, and then jump over each wall."

Sometimes I wish I could change the framework in which I see the world. Brooklyn clearly understood the problem of the maze. She had to get from point A to point B. But because I didn't provide one detail (no jumping walls), she decided to introduce a perfectly reasonable solution. Children are not jaded by life experiences and thus approach situations without sarcasm and negativity. Thus, I have to remind myself to be childlike and that, in many cases, simply thinking positive keeps you out of life's mazes.

A funny thing happened while riding on the airplane

Airplanes and children do not like each other. Our family recently took the perilous four hour journey across the United States by way of Southwest airlines. This was the first time that Brooklyn (4) was old enough to appreciate certain experiences on the airplane. For instance, she wanted to sit next to the window so she could look out and see the ground. She was very aware that we were up in the sky.

However, I was not prepared for one of her observations. On takeoff, Brooklyn noted that we were about to go through clouds. Almost upon immediate entry into the white fluff, the airplane experienced turbulence. Perhaps related, and perhaps not. However, she commented, that we must have "bumped into the clouds." After making it through a brief clearing, she saw we were about to enter into another cloud. "Clouds, Daddy, hold on!"