Christ the Redeemer

This is my new favorite photo. My dad sent me a slideshow of this photographers photos of this statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janiero in Brazil. This is absolutely breathtaking. Right now, when I look at this picture, I wish so badly that I could travel to Rio and experience this amazing statue in it's grandeur. I wonder if the Brazilians know how lucky they are to have such a beautiful reminder of their Savior's love for them. We have a friend, Steve Pinegar, who has just left to serve a two year mission in Sao Paolo Brazil, not too far from Rio. I printed this picture out for him because it was so touching to me.

The boys first day of school! (Aug. 22nd)

What a fun year this will be! Mason started kindergarten at the end of August this year, which he's been waiting for forever!! All summer he asked when school would start. He was a tad nervous, but mostly just excited to be one of the big kids going to real school. He got the same Kindergarten teacher Logan had so we're very excited! We had to laugh the first week of school. When the kids break rules or get in trouble they get an "oops", if they get in trouble again it's double "oops" and a time-out. Third time is triple "oops" and a call home. Well, how interesting to hear that my fiesty little Mason got an "oops" on the second day of school. Then a double "oops" on the fourth day of school. Okay, now I'm concerned. Logan got like two "oops" the whole year of kindergarten. Well, weeks have gone by now and no more "oops". I think the teacher was just trying to scare the kids straight, and it worked! I've worked in the classroom a few times and Mason is doing great. PHEW! What a relief! Logan is a big 2nd grader this year, YAHOO! He got an awesome teacher, Mrs. Morris. She has been amazing! He's done so well in her class so far, we're so pleased. He is our little bookworm! That kid reads anything he can get his hands on. He reads books over and over again. This summer he read the first 5 Harry Potter books!! Amazing! We would even quiz him on the plot because we couldn't believe he was actually reading them that fast and getting everything. Well, he aced our Pop quizzes! Once school started, he's slowed down on the Harry books, of course he's only got two left to read. He's joined the Garden Club at school and is very interested in science. He's doing very well in math and shocks me with how quickly he can do math in his head. We're so pleased with his progress!

Best buddies! Logan and Mason have been getting along so much better this year. I think having Mason at the same school has helped Logan be more interested in hangin' with his little bro.
My little sweetie pie Noah started preschool this year! (sniff, sniff) I can't believe he's going to school already! When Logan started preschool with Ms. Danai I was just barely pregnant with Noah! Now he's going to her school, weird. He loves it there, but tells me every morning he goes that he'll miss me. He is so sweet. He loves to show me all the cool things he's made at school. What a big boy!

My great friend Jen Hinze!

Jen and I have been friends since I was about 12 years old. She is one of my greatest friends! She is always so sweet to come visit me when she comes in town from Dallas. I haven't seen either of her kids since her daughter was newborn. Savannah is now 3 years old I think and Will is nearing 1 year. They absolutely gorgeous children! Jen has impressed me with her parenting. She has a blog that she updates religiously and she's always going on adventures with her kids. Those kids are the most travelled kids! My kids are lucky to leave the house to go to the store!
I miss Jen, but I am lucky to see her about once a year or so! I hope we'll get to see more of each other soon:)

Camping at Olema Ranch

This summer, the weekend before school started, we went on a two night camping trip to Olema Ranch near Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County. This is the second time we've gone there with a group from our ward. This year there were 6 families that went. Tom & Emily Brasher, Caleb & Amy Summerhays, Mark & Kari Stacy, Mark & Alyssa Camblin, and Matt & Rachel Ludlow. We each have 4 kids, except Camblins and Stacy's who have two kids each. We totalled 20 kids and 12 adults, yes.........craziness! It was a blast though. Then men brought their mountain bikes and got to go on a couple of rides. This picture is after one of the rides. This is Mark and Kari Stacy. They are a couple of goof balls. We have so much fun with them. They were the only couple that stuck it out to the last night with us! Way to go Stacy's!!

I realized this camping trip that I better get used to this because this is the beginning of many years camping with these boys! They feel so much freedom camping: they can run around, get dirty, eat junk, stay up late, etc..... This is the life!

This was Roman's first camping trip and he had a blast. We had to keep an eagle eye on that kid or he'd end up yards away in other people's campsites! That kid can RUN!
These boys absolutely LOVE camping, there were so much in their element. They love running around and getting dirty. They LOVED the campfire especially!
The day before we left, we all went to Heart's Desire beach not too far from our camp site. The kids played in the sand and explored the beach. It was beautiful but rather small. Logan enjoyed collecting the seaweed.

We had lots of fun and plan on another few camping trips next summer!

The Hodgson Family

This morning I took the Hodgson's family portraits. I was able to take their portraits last fall as well. It has been such a pleasure taking thier portraits. They are amazingly photogenic and the kids are so well behaved. This was my favorite of their family portraits.
The pictures were taken just around the corner from our homes on the corner of Westview Dr. and Lincoln Parkway. I will be spending the next few months taking family portraits for friends who would like me to. If you are interested please email me: davencathi at sbcglobal dot net I charge $30 for the session and will put all the portraits on a CD for you to have printed at the photolab of your choice. Thank you Hodgson's for a lovely Saturday morning!

Cherie and Ken

Just perfect!

Kate

She is getting so big! Look at that smile!

Elizabeth

Another photogenic Hodgson! I have some beautiful portraits of her with a sweet smile, but I just loved this one of her laughing, it is so genuine.

Natalie

She is such a sweetie pie.

Nicolas

Nick is SO photogenic! He has a contagious smile. What a darling little guy.

The Idiot Next to me...

I just had to post this story my mom emailed me-

I was barely sitting down when I heard a voice from the other stall saying:

"Hi, how are you?"

I'm not the type to start a conversation in the rest room; but I don't know what got into me, so I answered, somewhat embarrassed:

"Doin' just fine!"

And the other person says:

"So what are you up to?"

What kind of question is that? At that point, I'm thinking this is too bizarre so I say:

"Uhhh, I'm like you, just traveling!"!

At this point I am just trying to get out as fast as I can when I hear another question.

"Can I come over?"

O.K., this question is just too weird for me; but I figured I could just be polite and end the conversation. I tell them:

"No........I'm a little busy right now!!!"

Then I hear the person say nervously. ....

"Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions."

A Sad Farewell to the Barneys...

For the last four years we've been friends with Reid and Emily Barney. They were in our ward when we moved in but then they were called into the Spanish Branch. Even though we weren't in the same ward we'd stayed great friends and hung out all the time. When we met they just had their oldest son Levi, who is Mason's age. As our families grew, it was so fun that we both had all boys. Boy, was our house crazy when we'd get together!! ( going down the slide with lightsabers and sword, Levi, Noah, Mason, and Zachery)
It was a huge ordeal just to have these crazy boys sit for 2 minutes while I tried to take a picture. No luck getting them all to smile but his one is close. They all played really well together.
This is Reid and Emily's youngest, Austin. He is such a doll.
I just love Roman's glowing blue eyes! He has the best personality too!!
Here's Dave with Reid and Emily on our last night together. Reid took a job in Utah, near Salt Lake. They currently live in Riverton. Dave and Reid were perfect for each other. Both self professed geeks and love playing video games together. Dave will miss having Reid to hang out with.
Me with Reid and Emily. I am really going to miss having Emily around. She's is one of those people you can always count on to help you, shop with you, chat with, etc.... She is what I consider an absolute, 100% true friend. I could talk to her about anything and I trust her implicitly. She would never say a cross word about anyone. She has been a wonderful example to me over the last four years. I miss her already...
Mason and Levi were such good little buddies. I'm sad for Mason that he won't have Levi anymore. He is such a sweet little boy.

Summertime Ward Park Days!

One of my favorite activities this summer was going once a week to the Rocklin Splash park. We had a ward park day at that park once this summer and it was fun for the kids to all play together with their friends from church and for the moms to chat while watching the little ones. We had a great turn out this day. I decided to take some pictures to put on the blog for the girls in the ward to see. I ended up not taking that many though, sorry.
I thought these girls were so cute together. I am just in awe when I see little girls play together. My four boys are SOOO different. They would never just sit in the sun and talk. It would be more like wrestling or pouring water all over each other. ( Catherine Hughes, Hallie Dalebout, Maddie Merrill)
Allison Carter and April Shouse are some of the sweetest girls I had the privilege to get to know this summer. They both moved in this summer and got involved right away! I actually knew April's sister Becky growing up.

Our Relief Society President Jennifer Penney, Tierra Lowry, and our Bishop's wife Diana Merrill chat at the park.
Cory and Keri Dalebout are such cool people. They have a daughter Logan's age and a son Mason's age. He's one of the lucky husbands that actually got to spy on the women to see what we actually do during the day. He works at the Kaiser ICU during the graveyard shift. They just had their third child recently, baby boy Brody.
These two ladies are real go getters. Cherie Hodgson (left) has four kids and still manages to scrapbook, exercise, hold Mommy-n-Me activities, and teach Relief Society. Amazing girl! Tierra Lowry moved into the ward this summer and got moving quickly starting a scrapbooking and card making club. She's been a great asset to the ward!

I am so lucky to be part of the Lincoln 2nd Ward. We are a huge ward (nearing 800 members) and are mostly young couples with young children. There are so many wonderful friendly people in our ward and there is constantly something fun going on. I can't wait 'til next summer!

The "Barney Rubble" car has arrived!!

When Logan was just 18 months old, we visited Oma and she had a new "Barney Rubble" car. We called it that because you have to peddle with your feet to move. Logan got to take trips around Oma's street in that car. I have pictures of Logan that look just like these pictures of Roman.
Oma decided to bring that car over to our house so that it would get some use. Roman was so excited, he could hardly contain himself. There was only one problem.....
His brother's love the car too! Here's Noah sitting on the roof while Roman's trying to drive it.
Here poor Roman is getting "car-jacked" by his older brothers, Logan and Mason.
Roman looks pretty distraught but he eventually had great fun on his own once his brothers were banned from the car for a bit! Thanks Oma!!

Roman's growing up so fast!

Dave took these pictures of Roman this summer. He enjoys climbing on the table and checking out what food his brother's have left for him. Even though he won't eat his own lunch, he likes to check out what his brothers enjoyed.
Roman gets as messy as possible. He has no problems with having a messy face, hands, tummy, etc.....
Now and then we catch him falling asleep in his highchair. This seems to be part of childhood. I'm pretty sure every parent has a picture of their child asleep in their highchair, I know I do.

Mason's Preschool Graduation!!

In June we celebrated Mason's preschool graduation. He enjoyed the same wonderful preschool that Logan did the previous two years. He had such a fun time and met so many great friends.
His teacher, Ms. Danai Mooneyham, has been absolutely amazing for the last four years! He had a class of 8 boys and 2 girls. Poor Sadie and Anna! They were a darling group of boys though.

Mason's shining moment!
This is Mason and his best preschool buddy Levi Barney. We are actually great friends with Levi's family. They have three boys so we got along famously!
Ms. Danai has become a Bitter Boys family tradition now. She now has Noah and has Roman to look forward to also. (as long as she keeps teaching!)

Congratulations to Mason, Kindergarten -- WATCHOUT!!