Halloween 2014

We had a fabulous Halloween this year. For dinner I made dinner in a pumpkin, sort of following this recipe. I set the table with my felt spider web table runner & long taper candles. I had to hang a sheet on the dining room window to make it a little more spooky, but my kids thought it was fabulous, probably because we never use candles. Once the girls finally finished eating, after various reminders that they wouldn't get any candy if they didn't finish their dinner & one spilled cup of milk, we were ready for trick or treating. I snapped some pictures of them out in the front yard & was blessed with perfect lighting & a beautiful yellow-leafed tree in the neighbor's yard. Then we were off to the races. They did a great job knocking on doors & ringing doorbells when they weren't distracted by crazy decorations. They also stopped to pet every cat that we saw, which turned out to be quite a few. We came home with a modest amount of candy, which has since been strewn all over my living room floor. I'm planning on vacuuming up the nerds & skittles once the dust settles. I hope you had a fabulous Halloween! Now, enjoy some cuteness overload, brought to you by Anna & Aurora.

What we've been up to lately

It's been awhile since I just did a normal blog post. I haven't really had much time or space to do any crafting lately. My craft room is a disaster as it has kind of become a general dumping ground for things that don't have a designated spot. I'm working on cleaning it off so that I can get back to my creative ways. We do stay busy around here, though, so I thought I would share some pictures of what we've been up to lately. Savannah has started standing up all on her own. The bottom left picture shows her first attempt outside. She thankfully didn't stand up, because I'm sure she would have fallen right onto her face.

We spent a week in Phoenix with my family last week, and while we were there I got my hair cut (it's finally the cut that I've been dreaming of, since the last guy kind of did a hack job on the stacking in the back), I went wedding dress shopping with my sister for her upcoming wedding (she was able to get the perfect dress for an amazing price! Score!), I took the girls to the Children's Museum of Phoenix with my Mom & sister, Janelle. Sharon had such a great time at the museum! I would definitely recommend it to those of you with smaller children. There were things to explore everywhere! She loved the 3 and under area, where they have a little house, with a little kitchen & a monster mom! Savannah enjoyed all the baby areas, and I loved how she looked holding on to the little ballet bar. My favorite thing at the museum was the interactive cactus next to the noodle forest. The cactus has a crank on one side, a belt that goes vertically up the trunk and has little squares of velcro attached to it, little critters that also have velcro that you stick to the belt, and a fan at the top that whacks the little critters all the way across the room when you wind the crank & move the belt. So fun!
While there we went swimming a few times, I found some great clearance clothes, including my favorite shirt from Target for only $3 (I bought one in every color), went out to eat with my sister and her fiance, and just hung out with the family.
I also entered a few things into the Mohave County fair. I won a first place ribbon for this picture of Sharon with the fish she sort of helped catch.

And got a second place ribbon for this photo of Savannah.

I also won a first place ribbon for my prickly pear jelly, second place for grape jelly & an honorable mention for my bottled chicken.
Sharon loved seeing all the animals at the fair, and even Savannah got pretty excited to see some of the little critters! She would start kicking her legs and waving her arms and making all sorts of squealing noises. They liked seeing all the lights once it got dark, but definitely didn't like all the noise from the rides and the people.
One of the most hilarious things I've seen was the chicken wearing the sweater! It was on display with all the other animals at the fair! On the tag it said, "Chicken sweaters for sale (xxx)xxx-xxxx." So hilarious! I'm glad Ammon thought to take a picture of it!
I've been making lots of yogurt, trying to catch up on laundry, chasing two munchkins around, enjoying our homegrown veggies, playing out on the back lawn in the evenings, getting rid of clutter around the house, and just enjoying life.

Family Pictures Pages

I know I already posted most of these pictures, but I just did the scrapbook pages & wanted to post them as well. Just so you know, if you live in Kingman & want to have your family pictures taken, I would love to do them! My rates are really great, since I'm just starting out! So, if you want your family pictures taken, or individuals of your kids, feel free to leave a comment with some contact info, or email me.

From behind the lens

What I've been up to

We had a wonderful visit down with my family for Christmas. We enjoyed some wonderful homemade Indian cuisine for our Christmas Eve dinner, played too many games to count & only made my little sister cry a couple of times. It was wonderful to be with the family for such a long visit!

While we were there, my mom wanted to do our family pictures as this was the last time we would all be able to be together for at least a year. Mom wanted to go a park in town where we've taken family pictures in years past & recreate a picture on this old tractor that we did about 10 years ago. I would post the picture to show the time lapse, but I lost it when my external harddrive crashed. I'll have to ask my mom to email me a copy of it so I can post it here on the blog. Anyway, on to the pictures.

If you know my family at all, you probaly know that we are quite the group of goofballs. With so many people trying to be funny all at the same time, it tends to get a little rowdy, & I would definitely have felt bad if we'd hired a professional photographer to do these shots, because they probably would have been pulling their hair out after the first pose. Thankfully, we were able to get some shots with everyone smiling (somewhat) and looking pretty good.

After taking the picture like the one from ten years ago, we added in the spouses & our daughter.

Then we got one with everyone in more comfortable positions. We also took individual pictures, but were only able to get half of the siblings done before my sister came up & told us that three of our vehicles had been broken into, including our car. The thief snatched purses, my diaper bag & a camera bag. We were pretty quick to get any debit/credit cards cancelled & I had to suspend my phone service, so there was only minimal loss.  

So, my 2010 ended with this lovely picture of our car window smashed. I hope your old year ended a little better. We're definitely looking forward to a new year!

Trying Out a New Lens

So I was trying out one of our new camera lenses by taking pictures of Sharon at the park this morning. She's always been very interested in the leaves, but discovered sand today. I thought I'd do an ad campaign for her! =)

Typestaches

I saw a poster of typestaches the other day on a blog that I read, and decided I wanted to make one for myself. I'm not sure if I'll actually get it printed, but I think it's hilarious anyway! You ask, "What is a typestache?" A typstache is one of these {squiggly brackets} turned on its side to look like a mustache. I think they're so funny! I really like Mr. Ank. Which one is your favorite?

I now have the high resolution image available for FREE download through 4shared. It's sized for an 11x14 print. Get it {here}.

If you download the print, could you please leave a comment here so that I know the download link is working? Thank you!

Family Pictures 2010

Since it is Sharon's first birthday and our five year wedding anniversary, I figured we should probably take some new family pictures. Here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks to my brother, David, for taking our family pictures for us! Edited by me.

A Preview of Hoggan Family Reunion 2010

A cute photo

I just love this picture of Ammon & Sharon! For some reason it didn't make it onto the scrapbook page, but I thought you all might want to see it! I know I love it! Even though Sharon isn't smiling, I did get Ammon!

Family Reunion Pages

We have our family reunion coming up in July, so I am working on finishing the scrapbook page from the last family reunion so that I can have them to show people while we are there. Here are the first 4 pages that I've completed.

Sharon's 9-month Pages

9-Month pictures sneak peek

I don't have time right now to post all of the pictures I'd like, but we did take some fun pictures of Sharon yesterday for her 9-month shots. She wasn't very happy. We introduced her to grass for the first time & she definitely is not a fan! Here's a fun picture & sneak peek! I'll try to post the rest later today, but we have to leave for Sharon's doctor's appt in a few minutes. Our littlest dork. =)

Praying for inanimate objects

We take a lot of pictures, have a lot of music, & I have tons of digital scrapbook supplies...which I keep on an external harddrive, rather than on the computer, so that they don't slow the computer down. I've learned my lesson. When we came home from vacation & I tried to save my newest pictures onto the external harddrive it wouldn't show up on the computer, & would make an ominous clicking noise when trying to boot up. After a few more unsuccessful tries I decided to call someone. So, our harddrive is at Bits & Bytes & they are trying to save it. I called yesterday & the guy said they are still working on it. Either that could mean we are in some serious trouble, or they hadn't been working on it but will start just because I called. I'm hoping it's the latter! You have no idea how much the stuff on that small electronic device means to me. I could never put a price on it! All the pictures are worth more to me than my home, I think. I'm pretty sure if they tell me it's beyond all hope I will just break down in tears. Thankfully I do have a number of those pictures on the internet, & I just printed most of those scrapbook pages. The others are on my blog, even though they are saved at a much smaller resolution. So, in the future I will definitely have a second (possibly third) copy of all my pictures, music & supplies. Needless to say, we are definitely praying for this inanimate object & the techs working on it.

Last Day

Hi all! I just want to let you know that I am going to try to choose a winner of the photo shoot giveaway tomorrow. So, head on over to enter!

Shake those Booties

For any of you who want to make your own cloth shoes, I used this free pattern.

It's Giveaway Day

Today is my photo shoot giveaway on Becky Higgins blog! If you want to enter to win just go & enter a comment!

Sharon's 8 month page

8 months

Sharon is now 8 months! I know, I can hardly believe it too! She is as cute as ever & is more fun every day. She likes to jabber to herself, is rolling over all the time, trying to sit up by herself (though not quite there yet), she likes to grab her feet now, I think she's started teething, & she loves to smile at Mom & Dad, & even Jack when he walks by. I wanted to take her 8 month pictures & also practice taking some outdoor pictures in anticipation of the upcoming photo shoot giveaway, so we headed to a town park this evening. It was pretty windy & a little chilly, so we weren't able to stay as long as I would have liked, but I did get some good pictures. Tell me what you think. Which ones are your favorites. I love this first one! It is how she is most of the time & I think it really shows her beautiful eyes well! I love her toothless grin!