Rylee and Cade Halloween

I love taking pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes every year. I think it shows a lot about their personalities when they get to pick out what they want to be. It's a day where you can pretend to be whatever you want. Rylee picked a Fairy costume from the "Disney Princess Store" and Cade wanted to be a Farmer.

Rylee's official Halloween portrait. Slightly over-Photoshopped, but I still like it. She loves her costume and she takes such good care of it. She hangs it up after she plays with it- every time. I think it's because she bought it with her own birthday money that she's more responsible with it.

Farmer Cade standing on the back of our truck. So cute and so serious all of the time. He loves trucks. Anytime he's outside next to one he has to climb on the back and try to get into the bed.

Playing with Photoshop actions on these pictures. I love the faded, vintage look to them. I was trying to get him to pose with the shovel and then with some pigs, but these are the ones that turned out best. The shovel in the above picture is the one that he loves. He says it's just his size.

Photoshop actions by CoffeShop: coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com

Scrapbooking

So a few weeks ago, I applied for a Creative Team position for a Digital Scrapbooking site that sells kits to benefit different charities each month and I made it! Check out this link:

http://www.songbirdavenue.com/creative-team

Who's face do you see? It's been so fun doing pages with a super fun kit this month. Here's some info about it:

We’ve got an amazing kit for you this month! We’ve collaborated with the seriously talented designers of Scrapbookgraphics.com to bring you one incredibly loaded kit for the holidays! For the third year in a row we’ve teamed up with an entire store to bring you the largest holiday charity kit on the web. Our proceeds this month will benefit Toys for Tots! But enough of the chatting! You want to see the kit!
We would like to thank the incredibly generous designers at Scrapbook Graphics. This kit is simply show-stopping and it’s all because of them! We know you’re going to have so much fun with all the goodies they packed in here for you! To purchase your own kit and to raise money for Toys for Tots, please visit our store.

Check out Songbird Avenue!

Cole's Mom

So a week ago, on Monday, we received a call from Cole's Dad saying the hospice nurse wants to talk to us. We head over there with 2 kids in tow and I hear about 10 minutes of the conversation and she says that Mom is on the edge of passing away and has about two days left. I couldn't stay for the whole thing because I had volunteered to help at Rylee's class Halloween Party so I left for that. The whole drive to the school I was teary-eyed and kept thinking how am I going to keep a straight face at the party. But it went okay- the kids had lots of fun. Then we went home and had dinner and a quick family night explaining to the kids what we had heard and a brief overview of the Plan of Salvation and what happens when we die. After that we went over to Cole's parents house and spent a couple of hours over there with other family members and we all took turns talking to Cole's Mom. I brought my camera with me because I wanted to get a picture of Mom with Telena (can you believe I didn't have one?) that I had been meaning to take for weeks. (Ok so maybe this might seem morbid to some, but here's the picture).

She wasn't able to talk, but she could mouth words. Whenever anyone said I love you, she would mouth "I love you" back. It was a very sweet moment. This picture Mom is saying "I love you" to Telena.

We spent time over at their house every day that week. The whole time, she looked like she was peacefully sleeping. There was such a peaceful, reverent feeling in her room.

She ended up passing away on Friday. We were at the temple and as we were leaving I saw we had a message, then called Cole's Dad and heard the news. We told the kids Saturday morning and they took it very well and we went about our day getting ready for Halloween.

It all feels very surreal reading this. I can't believe she's gone. But at the same time, I feel that it was very merciful. I was telling Cole the other day that I've seen people in nursing homes with her condition live for years being bed or wheelchair bound and with no family around. I am glad she isn't suffering any more and that she was at home with family at the end. I am thankful we are living here to be so close during these last couple of years. At least Rylee will be able to remember some things about Grandma. We'll all miss her, but she is in a better place now and we really feel the peace of the Spirit.