Rayana's so tiny...and so cute!

Kayla Graduates...pre-pre school

That's right, she's going places. I had no idea there were graduations for a 3 year old. It was pretty cute though. She really enjoyed her teacher Mrs. Elaina and will miss the friends she made there like little Abby.

OMSI

Hmmm....so we decided to take the kids up to OMSI in Portland. There's lots of things for little ones to do, not to mention that there were Dinosaurs there. So we invited 2 couples to come along with us with their kids. With all of us it ended up being 14 people! 8 Kids...definitely exhausting, but we made it back with all the same kids so I'd say it was a success.

Coast Trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun came out...we'll kind of, and it was Mother's Day so we made a quick trip to the beach for a few hours with the kiddos. You can see from the outfits, it was a little cold and windy after all, but we had a fun time. For the record Rayana's 1st trip to the beach involved mostly sleeping.

Pool Fun!

Kayla & Taylor had they're friends Solomon & Aden over for a BBQ/Pool Party.

The sun came out!

Finally the sun decided to come out for some record highs,
so Taylor and Kayla had fun in there new little pool!

Kayla's Ballet Recital

Kayla had her 1st ballet recital with her friends Lucy & McKenna. They were so cute and she was obviously excited that she "had" to wear makeup and get all dressed up! They'd been practicing for months, so it was fun to finally see what they'd been working on. It was quite the event, as she performed twice the 1st weekend, and then 2 more times at nursing homes in town.

Rayana Marie

Here's my attempt at an artsy shot of tiny baby Rayana.

Tay Tay...my lil man

He stole my hat and ran around wearing it and cracking up. He's getting so big. Moments later he proceeded to stand on the arm of the couch and free fall face forward...just before walking around in Kayla's princess shoes and carrying her pink purse. Hmmm, I immediately grabbed a football and tried to play catch. Ha!

Announcement

I've recently been slightly addicted to Photoshop and came up w/a design for Rayana's announcement. Seriously...how sweet is she? Pretty much melts our hearts. Everyone should be getting one in the mail soon!

The loves of our lives...

Rayana arrives!

Baby Rayana was born at 3:46 on April 2nd, 2008. As a guy, I'd just say she was born healthy & beautiful, but I'm sure all the girls also wanna know that she was 6lbs 12oz, and 20 1/4 inches tall. She is truly amazing and life wouldn't be the same without her...already! She is definitely a snuggler and it's hard to put her down because she's so content in mommy & daddy's arms.

Kayla is loving being a big sister and is helping with everything...especially picking out Rayana's outfit each day!Taylor is more in the "who is this", and "why are they still here" stage, but I'm sure he'll be blowing her kisses soon enough.

Shelly (super mom) is doing well, even with the lack of sleep.

That's it for now, but we'll be posting many new pics of the family soon enough!

My Lil Man.

I finally had a chance to go outside with Taylor for a while and take some photos while the sun was out. He took his little football and had so much fun throwing it...or at least trying...and then running after it down the street. He's not an easy one to get pictures of, & I think I got as much of a workout just trying to stay in front of him and take a few shots. He's shown some promising moves, I'm thinking he'll be an Oregon Duck in no time...now he just needs a b-ball hoop!

Published!

Some of you know, but quite a few may not know, I have somewhat of a passion for photography alongside my obvious design addiction. Recently I was excited to learn that the above photo (on the right), "disymmetry", was published in issue 14 of JPG Magazine...they even sent me money! It's a photography magazine created from user submitted photos on their website. It's in the latest issue and supposedly it can be found at Borders or Barnes & Noble. My photo was chosen out of almost 11,000 others. It's a shot I took in Las Vegas, while leaning out over our balcony at the MGM Signature Towers. This is a link to the actual photo at JPG Magazine online: disymmetry

Getting ready for our lil girl!

Wow! 1st of all, I still can't believe we're going to be a family of 5, but it's going to be reality soon enough. Shelly's more than ready right now, and swears the doctors have the wrong due date (April 12th). We're getting excited to see who baby Rayana's (our lil girl's name) gonna look like, and if she'll have Taylor's wild energy or Kayla's more mellow personality.

Kayla was a big help today and decided on her own, to organize and hang all of Rayana's clothes. She's been helping a lot around the house and can't wait to be a big sister!

We've been trying to get Rayana's area of our room ready and just need a few more things. We're also trying to figure out among other things how to get 3 young kids from here to there. We literally can't fit 3 car seats across in Shell's car, so we're gonna be looking for a new one...no we're not gonna get a mini-van...maybe a Hummer...lol! We also need a double stroller and are amazed at the 50+ different options and seating configurations they've come up with in the new strollers. Maybe I'll just carry all of them if they can't walk.

That's it for now!