Zander's Hip Hop

At our church we had our christmas concert this last sunday. Zander did a little hip hop thing with the kids. it was cute! hope you enjoy!

o where o where has my little brain gone?

well here i am! it has been impossible for me to sit down and blog for a while! but bens' in vegas for work and i finally got caught up in my editing for daisyportraits, and here i sit. my poor darling dog got spayed last friday and she is still not recovered. she just lays here and glares at me! i'm loving the christmas season and seeing my lit up tree and all the christmas lights outside. ben did a great job outside decorating. he even built me a mantle over the fireplace so that i could hang stockings! :) the house is coming together. we still don't have a front window and our closet fell three times, but the yard is done, the trim is mostly done inside, and we've painted two rooms! so yea! although i am saving some projects for opa when he comes at christmas! :) hehehe....
so updates on the kiddies....zander is doing great at school. he loves every moment of it! he's reading books now and is speaking chinese all the time. it freaks me out a little...not going to lie...he absolutely loves where we live now and loves that he lives in a 'cul''d'SACK'. we have tons of neighbors with kids and zander adores playing with them. he'll just go sit in the front yard until someone comes out...slightly frightening...but cute. :)
ronan is still my little pistol. he's a different kid when zander is at school. he and jade are becoming quite the buddies. they play well together until zander comes home...then they all fight. he's still peeing on himself randomly but at least he pretty much changes himself when he does it. i don't know what else to do with that. he peed in the trash can in his room the other day...five feet from the bathroom...grr...he's singing all the time now and i love it. he heard a recording of ben singing and now he sings that song at the top of his lungs. i'll even hear him outside belting it out on the swing all by himself. :)
jade is growing up toooooo quickly! she's so grown up and talking all the time! she loves loves loves to dance. she will shake her bon bon for anyone. she's been diagnosed with exzema (no idea how to spell that) all over her face and chest. we have to keep her lathered up on lotions to try to help. i think its the dry air and running the heater all the time. but other than the itchiness she's doing ok with it.
ben is in vegas as i mentioned for training for work. training...yea right. he's just gone a few days but i'm already missing him. he's loving work and doing a great job still. he's got less than a year till he gets is bachelor's degree too! wooo hooo! that's exciting to me!
umm...i'm still doing photography. i have my business license and my name is officially registered. i've been really busy with the christmas card season but i really love what i'm doing. please please please give me a call if you want some shots taken! so that's it with the annens....i can't promise more updates but i'll try!

Christmas Cards and Ideas

Its that time of year! while i'm busy snapping people's pictures for christmas cards, i have done a little research on cute, affordable, and high quality christmas cards and photo gifts. I'm really happy with SHUTTERFLY's brand new holiday line. Its one stop shopping for all the stuff i need for photo gifts. and let's face it, photo gifts will always be great gifts! i haven't taken our family picture yet, but i'm already planning it around which card i like the best. i really like this one http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards/snowflake-wishes-noir-holiday-5x7-photo-card-5x7-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93480 but then again, there are so many to chose from. head over to their site to see which one might fit your needs for christmas! and oma and opa, or any of my other distant relatives, if you see some other gift you might be interested it, please let me know! :) I love getting everyone’s Christmas cards every year in the mail! I love seeing how each child has grown or where the creativity behind where each family has taken their picture. So make sure you update us with our new address! We’d hate to miss seeing your smiling faces!

CHECK THESE OUT!

Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

· holiday photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

· Christmas ornaments to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/pewter-ornament

· desk calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars

· photo albums to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books/simple-path

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Mollie

we have a new dog...who knew. her name is mollie and i love her. occassionaly i have a panic attack thinking about the fact that we now have a dog. but mollie is a great easy going dog. she has never barked yet, she loves to lay on you, she's great with kids, and she's housebroken! its the best of all worlds. we prayed hard that we would be able to find a dog that was perfect for our family. ronan has begged for a dog for forever and we thought it might help his adjustment. today she took a nap on his bed and that just made his whole day. she was from a military family that was recently transfered overseas. so they couldn't take her with them and she is only 8 months old. we found her on craigslist after days and hours of looking at the pounds, humane society, pet stores, etc. but i kept praying and as soon as we saw molly we knew. she's perfect. and she's very little work! (my kind of dog!) i am normally not a dog person...in fact i pretty much find them to be too much effort. but molly is different. she stole my heart immediately and she never leaves my side. ben is shocked at how lovey i am with her. she's an english setter mixed with something else. but she's a medium sized dog with a gorgeous coat. i'll try to post a picture soon.

We are HOME!

it has been a long road. i'll save you the details and disasters...but we are going to get there eventually. i love our neighborhood and i love our neighbors. the kids love living in a cul d'sac and riding their bikes around. i will get pictures up soon i promise. i just don't want to post them till i get things a little more unpacked.

halloween was wonderful and we had a great time wandering around our new neighborhood. zander was a dragon, ronan a knight, and jade a princess. then ben and i were a queen and he was the castle. zander came up with him being a castle and i loved it. and since we had so many extra boxes it came together nicely. we trick or treated with my parents and the kids loved having their geegee and papaw around.

the night before halloween we had a halloween party with our small group plus some. the kids LOVED it but it was a little exhausting for the parents. there were a LOT of kids! we were going to have the party at our new house but our wonderful dear friends offered their house. i am SO glad they did cause it was just stressful trying to get the house ready for people to come. and not to mention ben was gone thursday thru saturday before the party. so all in all, a great wonderful halloween. here's some pics

We moved!!!

well we currently have our belongings in three different locations! its been a hard couple of days! saturday we moved our belongings to our new house. but...we couldn't stay there till monday cause we hadn't closed exactly yet. so we have been staying in a hotel for the last three nights and then we're moving to the new house tomorrow. but of course we still have stuff at the old house too. its just a pain in the butt. and we still won't have have the gas turned on till wednesday. so no hot water or clothes washing or baking. good times. but i love our house. i'm happy to finally be there. i wasn't quite prepared for how hard it was going to be on the kids. zander was ecstatic to go back to school today and get away, but he's also exhausted. we've been getting to bed late and getting up early. ro is just losing it. its hardest on him i think. he's been acting out a lot and having problems just melting down. i also think he's tired. he did finally take a good nap today but i had to lay down with him till he fell asleep. he misses his old house. and then tonight we got to bed late again and up early tomorrow for school. poor kids. jade is doing better today but it still very clingy. she wants to stay close to me all the time and gets grumpy easily. ben is exhausted and ready to fall down and sleep. but he's got to go back to work tomorrow and that's hard for all of us! but i've been blessed with some amazing friends who are helping me out. a big shout of thanks to my small group who helped me pack, move and unpack. i love them! so keep us in your prayers. we're all pooped. oh and ben is leaving thursday-saturday for training...so pray for that too. can't wait for everyone to see the house. although there are LOTS of things to do...such as painting, floorboards, etc. its the finishing work i'm learning to just let go of...it'll happen eventually right? off to bed i go....

everything's flying!

i cannot get over how fast the days are going! i can barely blink before another week has passed! suddenly i'm getting ready to move, i'm headed to michigan for a wedding, and i'm barely breathing! it's great! daisy portraits is going really well...i've had a lot of clients so far! we are less than three weeks away from moving into our new house! wooooo hooooo! i went by today and it looks great! i'm so glad the repairs are finally almost done! and i had my first ever parent/teacher conference today! things are all good with zander, but just that he's apparently a little "too social". :) hahahahah.....that's my boy! but they said he is really apologetic when corrected and they like him a lot. so all that's good. he's reading some words and his writing is finally getting better. so phew on that! how did he grow up? his soccer team...well...they keep getting the crap beat out of them, but they're personally and individually getting better each game. :) ronan and jade love yelling for zander at his games. jade yells "go bubba go!" it's cute.

jade talks non stop and cracks me up. she is truly the center of the world and is constantly looking for ways to make people laugh! i wanna squish her on a regular basis. ronan is still trying, but turning into a wonderful little man. he's as handsome as all get out and i we are having precious time together now that zander is at school. but he misses his brother something fierce during the day! i love them all and i can honestly say we are at a happy place! praise God for that!