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CLAIRE WAITE PHOTOGRAPHY

Another great friend of mine has started her own business! Claire is an amazing photographer! I have been anxiously waiting to tell the world. I have told a handful of people that she is in business, but now her site is up and ready! So if you haven't already gotten your family photos for those Christmas cards, I suggest you get an appointment with Claire! You will not regret it!!!

A week or so ago Ansley and Adalyn had a session with Claire. I am SO happy with how ALL the photos came out. I got written permission from Claire to put a few on my blog. Evan and I laughed about this first one! Adalyn's head looks so much bigger than Ansley's. Poor girl! I thought it looked a little bit smaller with the photo rotated this way. Claire thinks I am crazy! but that's okay.

Anlsey loves to pose and get pictures taken. Adalyn...not so much! Claire had to be quick! And she did a great job of doing so. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them ALL!!! Thanks Claire!

Evan has a new project

OKAY!!! I know that there are mostly women that look at my blog. Some may be interested, but most...probably not. I just thought I would share this info in case your hubbies or other males you know would be interested in seeing what Evan is up to.

A few weeks ago Evan was doing some work in the garage and I went out to throw something away. When I walked out, I saw this in the driveway...

I believe my exact words were, "What the crap is this??? and Why is it at our house???" Evan explained to me that the neighbor gave it to him and he wouldn't have to spend money putting it together because he already has parts scattered here at our house and down in Safford at Lawrence's Mom's backyard in old cars. I calmed down, a little, and said, in a loving voice, "I don't care what you do to this car, but you are not allowed to touch it until my Mom's door is done!" He agreed that it was a good idea, since he started making my Mom's door about a year and a half ago.

I couldn't believe how this old rat rod motivated Evan to get the door done so quickly! It went to the powder coater this last week. When it is done, I will post some before and afters.

I was a little surprised the other night when Evan asked me to make him a blog. He would like to have a place that he can document the progress of this project. So... 27 Essex is the place! He has asked me several times why I don't have music on my blog. I don't really have one great answer for why. Maybe that I haven't gotten around to it, I listen to other peoples blogs while I blog surf or post sometimes, I didn't know how to do it and haven't taken the time to learn , or probably may favorite...I like the silence! There is enough going on around me with two girls and now two dogs that I don't need to add more noise!!! Anyway, Evan wants music on his blog. Last night we spent some time together picking music. We had several disagreements on his choice of music and he would remind me that it is HIS blog! I do like SOME of the songs he picked, but I have to give a warning that a handful of songs are NOT easy on the ears. SO!!! If you choose to look at his blog, I would advice pausing the music or skipping the songs you are not sure of. Maybe we can find the edited versions of the songs.

We went to two car shows this weekend and I was able to see what Evan has in mind for this car. It will be fun for the family to ride around in and take to the car shows.

Poor Buddy!

Sunday Evan noticed a small bump on the left side of Buddy's face. We thought maybe he got bit by something or Chloe got rough with him, or he slid into a cabinet while playing chase. Monday it looked about the same, Tuesday I thought it looked a little better, but Wednesday....

He looked awful!!! The swelling was so bad and had spread to his eye. I decided I had to take him to the vet. I was able to get a complimentary exam and estimate. RIDICULOUS!!!! about $1000 to run several different test, hospitalize and give medications. They thought maybe he would need to have the bump drained but it wasn't squishy. They were leaning toward something wrong with his teeth and referred me to a vet dentist. I said I would call them when I decided what to do. I called Dennis and asked how silly it would be for him to take x-rays of my pup? He said he had done it before. So we took a couple of views and Dennis said his dentist would be in to get adjusted and would have him look at the films. We thought maybe it was a bad ear infection, sinus infection and figured if that is what we had, we would take a lot of garlic. When I got home I put garlic oil in his ear and used the little dropper to have him drink some liquid garlic.

(you can click on the picture to see closer if you don't have a weak tummy)

Thursday the kids and I were gone all morning and came home to find Buddy looking worse! He had been scratching his face. SO SAD!!! I should have gone right away and gotten him a cone to protect his face. But all the kids were asleep and had to be carried in, so I wasn't about to drag them to the store. I cleaned it with peroxide and put neosporin on it. I was surprised at how well he did when I was doing all of that. Later that night...not so good! He remembered and wasn't about to sit still for me. Some dental hygienist came into the office and looked at the films. They told Dennis that Buddy has two abscessed teeth. In the middle of the night the dogs got out of the laundry room and came to join us in our bed. I could feel something wet! When Evan turned on the light he saw that Buddy's face no longer had a huge bump on it. I got up to look and had to change some of the blankets and my shirt and clean up the laundry room a bit. NASTY! I won't go into anymore detail. They did not want to stay in there so we put them in the bathroom with their bed.

Today he looks so much better and is acting like he feels better. Still not sure what we are going to do. Since he is acting better, we are thinking that maybe it isn't as serious as we thought. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Show and Tell

This was the first car ride for the puppies since they came all the way from Las Vegas. We were headed to Ansley's preschool for her to "show and tell" her new pups.

Showing and Telling!

Answering questions

Probably telling Chloe to stop barking. She was a little nervous, which made some of the kids nervous too. Overall, I think it went well and the kids enjoyed meeting Ansley's new puppies and Ansley was very excited to show them off!

Looking back...

Since Halloween this year, I have had a few people ask me if Evan and I dressed up. Well, we didn't dress up this year, but we did last year and the year before.

In 2006 our ward fall social was a costume party. I was pregnant with Adalyn, and was trying to think of some costumes that would go along the lines of being pregnant. I saw several cute ideas online, like the baker and the bun in the oven. Evan wasn't going for it! He said he would go to the costume store and find something for us. WELL!!! Skeletons are what he came up with! I really didn't think it was a good idea to be scary for a church party. But he insisted. So he painted our faces and pinned a small skeleton to my belly for the baby's costume. It was a really fun night and we won "Scariest Costume!" Imagine that!

In 2007, we dressed up a few nights before Halloween to help the youth of our ward with an activity. We were asked to dress "out of the ordinary". All I could think of was for us to switch clothes. We met at the mall and were asked to walk around and window shop. The youth were on there way to look for us. When they found us, they were to say, "Man looketh at the outward appearance" and we said, "but God looketh on the heart". There was quite a few people from our ward that were there. It was a lot of fun to be a part of! Thanks for inviting us Claire! Evalina got a lot of crazy looks and comments. I think Claire was the first one to crack up when Evalina walked up to the mall with our boys, Andy and Adam.

I thought about breakin' out the skeletons for 2008, but with Adalyn being a "Scardy Cat" I didn't think it would be such a great idea. Also Kayl called and asked to borrow one of them. I need to ask for pictures of him with his costume on. I think it was something like a dead football player. I am interested to see how that turned out.

So...maybe next year we will play dress up with our kids!

Little side note off of the subject...I can't believe how much Adalyn looks like Evan. He has been calling her his little boy lately. And in these pictures she looks like she could be! Poor girl has her daddy's head. Hopefully she will grow into it.

Princess Ansley

Yesterday I went to check out Raysha's blog and saw a post for her son's birthday. I thought to myself...What a loser I am!!! I never posted Ansley's birthday a month ago!!! So I started getting all the pictures together and ran out of time to finish the post. And now, today I see another blog with a birthday post. Katie's little boy is 1 today! Cute boy! So! now I will try to get this done and not be such a slacker.


Ansley's birthday was on Sunday the 12th, but on the 10th she went to preschool and had a Princess party here at home. She was so excited to take cupcakes for her class. This is her after school with her balloon and pencil from Ms. Linda and Ms. Amber.

Here are all the Princess's! Ansley, Reeslyn, Payten, Nikki, Mackenzie, Taetum and of coarse the tag-a-long, Adalyn. The girls had fun, eating pizza and frosting their own cupcakes, playing duck duck goose, playing with ponies, getting their fingernails and toenails painted and jeweled (thanks for helping Jenniffer!), putting on lip gloss and running in and out of the house.

Reeslyn stayed after the party to help break-in all of Ansley's new stuff. They had a tea party with the ponies, played with moon sand (outside) and made different shaped soaps.

Ansley is on the phone with Aunti Bethie

after church on her birthday.

Sassy girl!

After church, Evan and I thought the girls would be excited to have some cotton candy we brought home from the Fall Social the night before. We were shocked!!! Ansley gagged on one bite and Adalyn wouldn't even put it near her mouth. Adalyn kept pushing it away! Crazy girls! They LOVE sugar! I thought for sure they would love cotton candy.

In the late afternoon we went to Grandma's house for dinner and a little party. Dinner was amazing! (of coarse) Ansley helped Grandma make some yummy apple bread the night before for dessert. Grandma went all out and made fried ice cream too! It was all sooo good!

Good times were had by all! Especially Princess Ansley!

I realized while typing this and thinking about her birthday...all the thank you's we wrote out are still sitting on top of the filing cabinet. We better get those handed out or mailed! Like I say, WAY TOO OFTEN, better late than never, right??? Some day I will get it together.

Baby steps...

Sunday morning we were slowly waking up and

Evan thought it would be fun to call the dogs in

(We decided we are used to saying Chloe and

Buddy already, so why change it now) to say

good morning. By the time they found us in our

room I was already getting up. Once I was off the

bed, I turned around to see where the dogs were

going and I see Adalyn moving very quickly to get

up on the head board to get away from the puppies.

She is slowly coming around and not freaking

out as bad as she was when they first came.
Here is where I found her today.
Letting the dogs lick her hand!

She thinks it is pretty funny!

Evan said she gave the pups a kiss

yesterday when he was holding them.

I thought she would take a lot longer

to warm up to them. She still gets a

little scared if they are running around

and she is not sure what they are doing.

I think she is doing great now, compared

to where we started!

Chloe? and Buddy?

My brother, David and Evan decided to surprise the girls and I with THESE!!!

Ansley loves them!!!

She keeps telling Uncle David and Aunt Kathy,

"Thank you for letting us keep your puppies!"

Adalyn had a very hard time at first, but is getting better!

They love to cuddle with Ansley

David and Kathy said we could change their names.

I think I am okay with Buddy and Chloe, even though

Ansley keeps trying to come up with new ones.

She is having a hard time remembering Chloe

and keeps saying Cleo.

Scaredy Cat!

Kinda long but I wanted to have it recorded....

A month or more before Halloween, we were getting a few things from Wally World. Evan and Ansley decided they wanted to look at all the costumes. I got Adalyn out of the cart and put her down so she could look around too. Just before she turned the corner to the isle, I saw Evan coming towards us with a scary old man/monster mask on. I really thought...for a second...about NOT letting her see him...then she walked around the corner and FROZE! I think she stopped breathing and took a few steps back before she started SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER!!! I picked her up, she hid her face in my neck, squeezed me tight and I tried not to drop her...since I was laughing so hard! I know, I am just as EVIL as Evan! I don't know what it is about scaring people that cracks me up! (I do have funny stories about scaring Evan and my brother Doug, even though Doug chooses not to remember) Anyway, minutes after Adalyn being terrified, she was still trembling all over her body. Poor baby!

So! for weeks! ANYTHING having to do with Halloween scared her to death! It wasn't funny anymore! We went to Safford to visit friends and family. We arrived at Niki's house and there on the floor was an Obama mask. As soon as I saw it I asked her to put it away cause I didn't want Adalyn to freak out. SO what does she do??? She puts it on the desk in the room that we are staying in! DUH! SO what does Evan do when he sees it there a few minutes later??? Of coarse he shows it to Adalyn and of coarse, she FREAKS OUT!!! I was not very happy with Evan or Niki. I felt bad for Adalyn and after this she would not leave my site for anything the whole time we were there. I was shocked the next day when Niki asked if we could show it to Adalyn again so that her husband could see her freak out. I said NO right away and so did Brian. LEAVE MY BABY ALONE!!!

A few weeks later, Kayl called and asked if I would mail him a skeleton costume to borrow. So I got the box of costumes out. Ansley was very excited to see what was in the box and try a costume on. Adalyn! on the other hand...went weak in the knees, laid on the floor for a minute hiding her face and then ran down the hall.

When I went to go see if she was okay, this is what I found.

Not a very happy camper! Ansley took the costume off right away.

We tried to make her happy.

She would not let go of me until I showed her that the box was back in the closet. This left me wondering what Halloween was going to be like. When I was looking for costumes for the girls, Adalyn pushed almost everything away. She didn't want any part of it! She seemed to be okay with the witch costume though.

Halloween finally came and Adalyn was a little nervous when Noah (little boy I watch) wore a skeleton costume to Ansley's preschool costume parade. I think she was okay with it only if he kept his distance! That night at trunk or treat she made some WIDE circles around a few of the cars that were a little too creepy. After that night we figured we were done with the scaring until Monday came and Noah wanted to bring his mask to play with. A few hours after he got here we were shocked to see Adalyn playing with the mask and trying to put it on. I went to the closet and got her her own mask.

We could not believe it!!! JUST LIKE THAT???

I WON!!! I WON!!!

One of my good friends, Raysha, (she posted about it soon after she was here) came to visit a few weeks ago. We had a great time catching up on life and families while we played with our kids. Her little boy, Scotty, (who's not so little anymore) is so cute! Scotty, Adalyn and Noah played well together.

A few weeks ago I did a post telling

everyone about Raysha's new business.

Simply Sunshine Ray

Little did I know, my post got me

entered into a GIVEAWAY!!!

Raysha secretly decided to see how many friends and

family members had posted or linked her business

on their blog. Since I did, along with 4 others,

she decided to give away an apron.
Scotty drew MY name out of the hat!

So! here is a photo shoot of me in my new

WAY CUTE apron!

I absolutely love it!!!

(Evan was taking the pictures and acting like

a real super model photographer and saying...

well, saying things that Evan says)

I have only one request Raysha...

could the next apron...

make my chest look BIGGER???

I need all the help I can get!

THANKS!!!

Trick or Treat!

I was a dork and left the camera at home during Trunk or Treat. We did get a few pictures with the Catalano's camera but we don't have those yet. Ansley wanted to go trick or treating in our neighborhood when we got home from the church. It was kind of late so most porch lights were off. We decided to go to Lala's!

The girls wore their hats to walk up to the door and then ditched them very soon after.

I laugh every time I look at this picture! I know Ansley is a bit tall for her age...but Lala really is still quite a bit taller than Ansley.