Happy Birthday to me!

I celebrated my birthday this year by getting my hair done. Matt set up the appointment for me. I did the whole foil, cut, style, and make-up. I thought it would be fun to have curly hair for the day. After getting all made up, Matt and I picked out some fun clothes for taking pictures in. Did I mention that Matt arranged babysitting for the girls and took the day off work so we could do this? Matt took about 400 pictures of me. It was fun spending the day with him. Here's a few of them. You can see more pictures on Matt's blog. Here's the link. http://blog.mattshumate.com/?p=78

Not bad, for a 35 year old, huh? (Just think, if he can make me look this good, what could he do for you?). After taking pictures, we picked up the girls and brought home take out from Applebees, followed by my traditional birthday ice cream cake. Matt definately makes birthdays worth looking forward to.

Matt's photography and new websites.

Matt's been busy. For the past few months he's been obsessed (in a good way) with his photography. Over that time he's probably spent hundreds of hours learning anything he could to get better (I always thought he was pretty good already) and it's paid off.

He's been shooting for a few clients and those have turned into potential future clients but he needed a way to show potential clients his photography as well as put forth a professional brand. He also needed to show he's a serious photographer and not just another guy with a nice camera.

After quite a bit of work he's finally launched mattshumate.com. This is a splash page that links to his specific websites. It has the bonus of being an easy website to remember ("Hey what's matt shumate's web address? That's easy, mattshumate.com." "What about his email address? That's easy too. It's matt@mattshumate.com").

He's also launched a blog that he'll update with what he's taking pictures of, things he's designing, info about specific shoots, and other stuff too. He has as few posts up now explaining what he's been up to for the past few months and why. He's not really happy with just using a template for it, but the important thing was it had to get done fast. It's an easy website to remember too. It's blog.mattshumate.com. Remember to add it to your favorites or sign up for notifications.

Most importantly he's designed, built, and launched his photography website, photo.mattshumate.com (see, I told you he's been busy). This is a portfolio of his photography work for clients. He says it's a little thin so far, but I don't know what he expects for only a few months of serious photography.

Jump over and take a look at his work.

This is where you come in. Right now Matt wants to really make his portfolio shine so he needs models that would be willing to get their pictures taken. He says what he needs most is families, young couples, and teenagers for outside photo shoots. If you'd like some high quality, extremely creative photography in your life, taken for free, send matt an email, send him a message on his contact page, or leave a reply here. He says he'll do this until he gets his portfolio as full as he'd like to have it or he runs out of time. Also, feel free to pass this on to others you know that might fit the bill and need some great photos.

He'd love to know what you think of his new venture.

Disneyland!

A couple of months ago, my mom said she wanted to go to Disneyland for her birthday and she wanted to fly us out there. We didn't want to miss out on this opportunity so we accepted. Our kids have never been before so we surprised them with the news on Reagan's birthday. They were very excited! So, after what seemed like a long day of traveling, we made it to our room just in time for bed. But first we chatted with my brother Tim, his wife Rachel, and my nephew Wyatt, who was already there. The kids played around until we realized it was so late and went to bed. Tim and his family live in Utah so we don't get to see them very much but it's amazing how the cousins instantly get along. Family is good for that, I guess. We spent the first day at Disneyland. The second day we started out at Disney, then went over to California Adventure, then back to Disneyland in the evening. We didn't get back to our room until after midnight on both nights. Our feet were soar and we were tired, but it was fun! Here's all of us on the train. Tim took these pictures so he's not in them.

This is our Splash Mountain picture. I was screaming because that drop was steep! Tim and Wyatt are also on this ride but apparently Matt didn't want them in the picture. They are right behind him.
Here's just some random pictures:

My mom with Reagan and Wyatt
Thunder Mountain
Toon Town
We got to see Mickey at Mickey's house. We didn't even know he was there. Minnie was standing in front of her house and the line was huge to get to see her. We went to Mickey's house and at the end there were some people waiting in a line. We asked what the line was for and they said to see Mickey. We waited about 5 minutes and it was our turn. Gwyn was excited to see "Icky House."

Here's the 3 amigos. It was a lot of fun going to Disneyland with my mom and my brother and his family. We spent the whole time with my brother's family except a couple of hours on the last day. It made it easier to be at two places at once like someone would run to get fast passes and someone would stand in the food line or save a table or take the kids on another ride, etc, etc. It was also great to have more people watch Gwyn while some of us were in lines and stuff. Rachel, Tim, and Wyatt were very generous in letting us get the front row of every ride, since they had been before, and this was our first time. Thanks guys! You are so nice!
Reagan and Kelsey got an art lesson from Brian. He only gives out free lessons to a couple of people each day. They were really excited about that but I think Matt was jealous that he didn't get one. He was fascinated by it. That has something to do with him being an artist.
Matt was taking a lot of these close up shots. They are cute, but I had to tell him to take some pictures with the background in them so we can tell where they are.


We made it home Monday evening and were completely exhausted! Gwyn even took a four hour nap the next day! I'm so glad we went and go to spend time with our family. Thanks Mom!

Gwyn update

When Gwyn was a baby, the first thing people would notice was her eyes. 

Gwyn turned 2 in December and refuses to stay a baby. I had to take her high chair downstairs in the beginning of January because she would not sit in it. She insisted on sitting in the big chairs. Then she insisted on getting potty trained. She started this shortly after Christmas and it was the easiest potty training I've ever done. The hardest part was when she would wipe and flush at least 3 times everytime she went to the bathroom. Sometimes she would go every 5 minutes. We went through a lot of toilet paper. She's been completely diaper free for over a month, except at night. I bought a big pack of diapers at the end of December so we've been using those at night. 

Finally, a couple of weeks ago I took down her crib. Here's a few pictures of her in her new bed. She loves it and does great at not getting out of it at bed time. 

I love the way she talks now. It's so nice being able to understand what she says. One of the things I like the most is when I ask her something and she'll say, "No! I already did it." It's really cute, she says it so seriously. I just can't believe that that's my baby saying those things! The other day she kept saying "icky house" over and over. I had no idea what she meant. Then she handed me the remote control and I said, "Mickey Mouse?" and she said, "yes!" I didn't even know she knew who Mickey Mouse was. Matt had been showing her some Mickey Mouse on demand stuff to get her ready for Disneyland. I had no idea!

Updates

I just realized that I never put the results of Kelsey's last blood test. Her platelet levels were at 211,000 which is totally in the normal range. So this ordeal is over. It's a one time thing, like chicken pox, and should not happen again. Yeah! 

Also, I have joined the millions of people on facebook and I'm having a lot of fun catching up with old friends, and even new friends that I don't get to see very often. So, if I'm not already your facebook friend, look me up. I will get Matt to join soon, but he doesn't have the time right now. 

Reagan's birthday party

This year I decided to do a traditional birthday party for Reagan. We had games, pizza and cake. There were 12 girls and Reagan had a lot of fun. 

The party ended with a big birthday surprise. We gathered clues from balloons and the girls read the surprise out loud to Reagan and Kelsey. They found out that they were going somewhere on a plane. To find out where we were going, they had to call their Grandma Marini because she was the one who came up with the idea and she would be going with us. Kelsey is listening in on the conversation. 

Finally, the big surprise was revealed! We are going to Disneyland! They were very excited. This will be their first time going there. We can't wait!

Reagan Marley

Reagan just turned nine. We love having Reagan in our family. She is a great big sister. She helps Kelsey and Gwyn do things all the time and she's the one that will give up something to keep the peace. She loves to read. She'll read anything from science and fact books to Captain Underpants books. She likes to make her own books too. She's also interested in cooking and sewing and does it as often as I let her and she is still taking piano lessons.  She just enjoys learning. Here's a few pictures of her throughout the years:

3 years old

5 years old

6 years old

almost 7

7 years old

8 years old

almost 9 years old

Meet Kelsey: age 6

This is our Kelsey Love. She is so sweet, helpful, obedient... 

But when she gets mad...

she's got a look that could kill!

(She will probably want to kill me for posting this.)

Happy Anniversary?

Well, Matt and I celebrated our 11th year anniversary but it wasn't much of a celebration. I spent the whole day puking or sleeping. Being sick is so not fun, especially when you wanted to go out and celebrate.  I wanted to post some wonderful things about my husband, but for now I'll just let you watch this video that Matt made for me a few years ago. If you haven't seen it before, or even if you have, you should take a minute to watch it. It's sooooooo romantic! Just click here.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

This was the 1st year we stayed in Spokane for Christmas since we moved here. Since we couldn't be with all of our family, we wanted to make it fun and memorable and maybe start some new traditions. We decided to get together with the Buers on Christmas Eve and have a fondue party. It was fun and plenty of food for everyone. We made a cheese sauce and a chocolate sauce. 

Afterwards the Buers joined us in a little Christmas program. Reagan played us a couple of Christmas songs on the piano, Kelsey sang Jingle Bells, and Matt sang and played his guitar. Then we all sang some songs together. 

After the Buers left, the girls got to open up their traditional one present before getting ready for bed. Brand new pajamas! Reagan and Kelsey also got new robes this year. Gwyn loved her Yo Gabba Gabba  pj's, Kelsey loved her Hannah Montana pj's and Reagan loved her pj's as well. 

Here's some pictures of Christmas morning. It's always just as fun for the parents as is for the kids. 

And here's some pictures of the kids playing with some of their new presents. Even Maya was playing with her new toy. It was a pretty relaxing day after that.