Hello everyone I have been so incredibly busy for the last year that I haven't had time to post anything! I have a full year of pictures and news I need to catch everyone up on but just haven't had the time. I recently passed my National Interpreter Certification exam and have been promoted at work to Director of Operations here in New Mexico for my company called WeInterpret.net. Working full time and having kids has been overwhelming to say the least. Aurora is training with the level 4 gymnasts and little Leif is about to start kindergarten. Where does the time go? Leif is about to petition into the nursing program at school and we are so excited for Daddy to finish school. He studies hard and works nights at Target. I don't know how he functions so well on such a little amount of sleep, I couldn't do it that is for sure! I am going to try to get some pictures posted this weekend and catch up on the things I have let slip for way too long.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Friday, February 4, 2011
The kat's Meow
Well truthfully I should have posted this one before I posted about Aurora's Birthday as it happened before her birthday but to be quite frank I dislike most of these pictures. My mother in law came to visit for a short while after Christmas and she wanted a family picture taken, which is fine but I really don't like the way they turned out. I asked a few of my friends what they thought and they told me they were a little weird as well.
Let me give you a little background of how these pictures came to be. When my mother in law got here I was still a little sick from Christmas and was not feeling very well. Kat my mother in law kept asking and asking for pictures and I knew that she wanted one but I did not want to take one while I was feeling so awful. She was perfectly content to have one with all of us in our pajamas without hair brushed, I was not.
The last day that she was here I got up got dressed and got ready for pictures. I got out my tripod and set up the camera I was going to be so cool using my timer I would set the timer and then join the picture...this did not work out so well.
First I used the kids as focal points and took a few of just them so I could get an idea of where we would all be sitting. Then everyone sat down and I set the timer, of course the dogs wanted to be in the picture too! The kids wanted to keep the dogs in the picture. I thought to myself no problem they are a part of our family it will be fine.
I set the timer and ran over to sit down, then I realized I must not have set the timer correctly so I got back up double checked everything set the timer again and ran over to sit down....success the picture took! I walked over to see the results only to find that I want not in the picture at all! FUDGE BROWNIES! (as Aurora would say) Of course my mother in law thought it was a great picture....my first thought was thanks a lot Kat I am so glad that you think the picture is great with me cut out of it.
We tried one more picture with the timer and reset the zoom so that I would be included in the picture and truthfully I look as though I was photo shopped in or like I am the crazy family member that the entire family avoids and I could easily be cut out later.
Just then my next door neighbor went running past my front window she was chasing her puppy Schatzie who had escaped and was trying to get over to my house to play. I went outside and asked Nancy if she would mind taking a picture of us as it would be so much easier and she said of course.
I made my mother in law move so that I could be next to my husband and Nancy took the picture. Nancy snapped the picture right as Kat was moving and it looks as though she may have been punching me. We finally got a few decent pictures. I am going to post most of them so you all can see when I am talking about.
Let me give you a little background of how these pictures came to be. When my mother in law got here I was still a little sick from Christmas and was not feeling very well. Kat my mother in law kept asking and asking for pictures and I knew that she wanted one but I did not want to take one while I was feeling so awful. She was perfectly content to have one with all of us in our pajamas without hair brushed, I was not.
The last day that she was here I got up got dressed and got ready for pictures. I got out my tripod and set up the camera I was going to be so cool using my timer I would set the timer and then join the picture...this did not work out so well.
First I used the kids as focal points and took a few of just them so I could get an idea of where we would all be sitting. Then everyone sat down and I set the timer, of course the dogs wanted to be in the picture too! The kids wanted to keep the dogs in the picture. I thought to myself no problem they are a part of our family it will be fine.
I set the timer and ran over to sit down, then I realized I must not have set the timer correctly so I got back up double checked everything set the timer again and ran over to sit down....success the picture took! I walked over to see the results only to find that I want not in the picture at all! FUDGE BROWNIES! (as Aurora would say) Of course my mother in law thought it was a great picture....my first thought was thanks a lot Kat I am so glad that you think the picture is great with me cut out of it.
We tried one more picture with the timer and reset the zoom so that I would be included in the picture and truthfully I look as though I was photo shopped in or like I am the crazy family member that the entire family avoids and I could easily be cut out later.
Just then my next door neighbor went running past my front window she was chasing her puppy Schatzie who had escaped and was trying to get over to my house to play. I went outside and asked Nancy if she would mind taking a picture of us as it would be so much easier and she said of course.
I made my mother in law move so that I could be next to my husband and Nancy took the picture. Nancy snapped the picture right as Kat was moving and it looks as though she may have been punching me. We finally got a few decent pictures. I am going to post most of them so you all can see when I am talking about.
 |
| Taking a few pictures before we started with the whole family so I could see what I needed to move. |
 |
| Testing out she space before we started...as you can see there should have been enough space for me when I was ready. |
 |
| Taking a generation picture. 3 generations Leif Kat Leif and Aurora and my dog Bella |
 |
| This is the picture that makes me mad...yes I was supposed to be in it but clearly there must not have been enough room for me! As I was cut out! |
 |
| I made it into the picture and I look like I don't belong! |
 |
| Mommies Cutie pies! |
 |
| My Favorite picture of the 4 of us! |
 |
| I think Leif deleted all of the other pictures that were taken of the 5 of us because this is the only one I have left! |
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
She is Eight!
It was 8 years ago today that I went into labor with my beautiful daughter Aurora Dawn Stockdale. She has grown to a beautiful young lady. She is in the 2nd grade and although I don't like her teacher she seems OK with him.
She is a wonderful big sister she is more than happy to sit down and watch a movie with her brother and she often will let him decide which movie to watch even though it should be her turn.
She recently got roller skates for Christmas and she wears them day in and day out sometimes she will put her pajamas on and then her roller skates. They were a great Christmas present. For her birthday we will be taking her to Roller Skate City with a few of her friends and our family. I am so excited to put on a pair of skates again. I will post some pictures from her party after it happens.
Some things about Aurora at this age:
She loves her Barbies
She skates all day
She is doing very well with her reading and often reads to her brother
She would rather take a shower than a bath and will often yell at me if I brush her hair..."I already did it mommy!"
She is very easily side tracked...for example if I tell aurora to go clean her room by the time she gets to her room she will forget what she was supposed to do.
She loves her puppies and takes care of them everyday
She can write a whole story if you let her...although her writing is a little sloppy so sometimes it can be hard to read.
Aurora is one of the best parts of my life and I cannot imagine my life without her. Today was a snow day at school so on her actual birthday she got to stay home and play in the snow. Later I will be making her a pizza and we will have a small cake with the family.
Pictures of her in the snow today
Happy Birthday my beautiful baby girl I will love you forever!
She is a wonderful big sister she is more than happy to sit down and watch a movie with her brother and she often will let him decide which movie to watch even though it should be her turn.
She recently got roller skates for Christmas and she wears them day in and day out sometimes she will put her pajamas on and then her roller skates. They were a great Christmas present. For her birthday we will be taking her to Roller Skate City with a few of her friends and our family. I am so excited to put on a pair of skates again. I will post some pictures from her party after it happens.
Some things about Aurora at this age:
She loves her Barbies
She skates all day
She is doing very well with her reading and often reads to her brother
She would rather take a shower than a bath and will often yell at me if I brush her hair..."I already did it mommy!"
She is very easily side tracked...for example if I tell aurora to go clean her room by the time she gets to her room she will forget what she was supposed to do.
She loves her puppies and takes care of them everyday
She can write a whole story if you let her...although her writing is a little sloppy so sometimes it can be hard to read.
Aurora is one of the best parts of my life and I cannot imagine my life without her. Today was a snow day at school so on her actual birthday she got to stay home and play in the snow. Later I will be making her a pizza and we will have a small cake with the family.
Pictures of her in the snow today
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Puppies here! Puppies there! Puppies everywhere!
OOPS! Last year at the 4Th July Party I hosted my dog got pregnant. She mated with my friends dog. He was an all black Pomeranian and she is a Shih -tzu. She wound up having 4 puppies and none of them looked alike! They were born very late in the evening on September 2. We were not ready for puppies but they were so darn cute!
The first puppy out was all black with white feet I called this one socks till she went home and her owner named her Schaztie . The second one out was black and white all over she eats non-stop she was the first to the food bowl and the last to leave so I called her Chubbs, the third one was brown and white and we knew who her owner was and so we always called her by her actual name which changed several times before it was decided on as Mayzi. The last one was all brown with white feet I called this one shoes until she went home and they named her Vixie. I didn't technically charge for the puppies when we found them homes I simply asked people to help me pay for the shots.
Here are some old pictures but still cute I think of all the puppies.
This one is now called Vixie and she lives next door to us at our friends house.
This one is now called Annabella and she lives at our house. She did go to another home for a short while but the woman who owned her sadly lost her job and so she brought her back, I tried a few other people to take her but nothing worked out. I decided that she was destined to stay home with me and so I kept her and re-named her. Mostly because my husband did not like that all of the puppies names ended in and "e" sound. Mayzi, Schatzie, Vixie, not to mention the fact that we already have two dogs named Lucy and Zoe. Since Annabella is very full figured and black and white I decided I wanted to name her after a 1950's actress and or pin-up girl so I googled some names and narrowed it down to Sabrina and Annabella. I decided on Annabella who was an actress most famous for her role in the Bridal Suite.
This one is Mayzi and the people who took her were the owners of the stud that breed with Zoe.
And last but not least is Schatzie. She is a little spit-fire. She lives across the street and I think because Vixie, Zoe, and Annabella are all across the street she has a tendency to feel left out so she often escapes and comes over to our house to play.
All four puppies are in this picture but for whatever reason Schatzie has blended in well with the cage plus Zoe's hair is kind of blocking her too.
Schatzie jumped down she was sick of pictures.
The first puppy out was all black with white feet I called this one socks till she went home and her owner named her Schaztie . The second one out was black and white all over she eats non-stop she was the first to the food bowl and the last to leave so I called her Chubbs, the third one was brown and white and we knew who her owner was and so we always called her by her actual name which changed several times before it was decided on as Mayzi. The last one was all brown with white feet I called this one shoes until she went home and they named her Vixie. I didn't technically charge for the puppies when we found them homes I simply asked people to help me pay for the shots.
Here are some old pictures but still cute I think of all the puppies.
This one is now called Vixie and she lives next door to us at our friends house.
This one is now called Annabella and she lives at our house. She did go to another home for a short while but the woman who owned her sadly lost her job and so she brought her back, I tried a few other people to take her but nothing worked out. I decided that she was destined to stay home with me and so I kept her and re-named her. Mostly because my husband did not like that all of the puppies names ended in and "e" sound. Mayzi, Schatzie, Vixie, not to mention the fact that we already have two dogs named Lucy and Zoe. Since Annabella is very full figured and black and white I decided I wanted to name her after a 1950's actress and or pin-up girl so I googled some names and narrowed it down to Sabrina and Annabella. I decided on Annabella who was an actress most famous for her role in the Bridal Suite.
This one is Mayzi and the people who took her were the owners of the stud that breed with Zoe.
And last but not least is Schatzie. She is a little spit-fire. She lives across the street and I think because Vixie, Zoe, and Annabella are all across the street she has a tendency to feel left out so she often escapes and comes over to our house to play.
All four puppies are in this picture but for whatever reason Schatzie has blended in well with the cage plus Zoe's hair is kind of blocking her too.
Schatzie jumped down she was sick of pictures.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Birthdays
This post is what I am going to call the bad mother post! Last year I did not post any pictures from my children's birthday parties. I know I am bad. I took pictures I just did not post them. I was very lazy and just did not feel like sitting at the computer and posting pictures. I am not going to post all of the pictures but I figured I should post some. There are pictures from Aurora's and Leif's parties.
This one is not actually at his party but it was right after. I took this picture because he got a new bed set and also the transformers for his birthday. You can tell he did not want to pose for this one.
This one is not actually at his party but it was right after. I took this picture because he got a new bed set and also the transformers for his birthday. You can tell he did not want to pose for this one.
Bill's Graduation
When my brother graduated with his bachelor's degree he did not participate in graduation and my dad was disappointed...understandable. Needless to say when my brother continued on with his master's degree Dad asked him to promise to participate in graduation.
Even though my brother did not want to he did it anyway...for our dad. Pictures with my Dad tend to be few and far between I have some good pictures here of my brother and Dad at his graduation.
I like this one because they are both smiling!
Little man looks like he is mad but a cute picture anyway!
I really liked the waterfall in the background.
I have a really great zoom feature on my camera and so you can actually see Bill's face in the sea of graduates.
Even though my brother did not want to he did it anyway...for our dad. Pictures with my Dad tend to be few and far between I have some good pictures here of my brother and Dad at his graduation.
I like this one because they are both smiling! 
Little man looks like he is mad but a cute picture anyway!
I really liked the waterfall in the background.
I have a really great zoom feature on my camera and so you can actually see Bill's face in the sea of graduates.Thursday, January 13, 2011
McCalls Pumpkin Patch
Every year around Halloween we go to a place called McCalls Land and Cattle Co. Normally it is a farm but they make most of their money at Halloween when they invite the community to come and pick out pumpkins. They have a 3 mile long maize maze and they have hay rides out to the pumpkin patch along with pedal karts to ride and jumping pillows and many other fun activities for the kids. I love to go with the family it is one of my favorite things to do.
This year we went with some friends of ours. We went with my neighbor Nancy and her son Dianni along with one of our friends from high school D.J.
This is the only picture that I have of us carving pumpkins. I thought I had more but I didnt want to make a seperate posting since this is the only one that I had.
Aurora on the jumping pillow. It was interesting because they requested that the littler kids be on one end of the pillow while the older kids be on the other. I tried to stay in the middle so that I could get pictures of both of my kids.
I like this picture because I caught Aurora in mid-air. Believe me this was a harder task than you can imagine.
My friend Nancy in Mid-air. I wish this had not come out blurry but still a good picture.
Leif, I think he was nervous to bounce at first because last year in the first 30 seconds of him bouncing he bit his lip and it started to bleed and this year he didnt want me to leav his side.
Another good one of my little girl bouncing she was having a blast!
He would not leave my side so I was trying to step back and get a picture so I was standing above him when I took this picture.
Aurora was laughing because if an adult on one side of the pillow would blounce then it would pop up a person on the other side and send you flying. My legs were so tired after 5 minutes of bouncing.
Inside the corn maize. The kids had fun. It did not feel like a very long maize. In years past we would sit and try to figure out where we were inside the maize and where we were going and this year it was a very very easy maze. I was disappointed because we made it through so fast. I almost wanted to go through it again.
In the center of the maize there is a platform that you can go up and stand and view the maze from above. Of course my son would not pay attention to mommy so I could get a picture.
I dont remember seeing this pond before but it was there this year and I thought it was a great place for a photo but the only person who would go with me was Aurora.
I have to say that it was hard to do a self picture and get the background in the back the way that I wanted.
Cute picture I think espcially since you can see the reflection of the clouds on the water.
At the bottom of the slide that goes through the minature mountain. I dont know what is so special about this slide but the kids love it!
Little man at the bottom of the slide...at least one time anyway he went down it several times.
I love this picture of Aurora but mostly because Leif is always saying she is his little doppleganger.
Whats funny about this picture is that I don't think that we noticed their similar poses until I went to post this.
Little man at the bottom again I think he was getting up to run back to the top again!
Aurora at the bottom again!
This year they added a new miniature old western city. It had a salon and a sheriffs office, a school house and market. This was inside the market.
Aurora in the market playing with a fake potato which i found rather funny since we were on an actual farm.
The kids in the saloon playing at the "bar" Leif was too short I think he was standing on a box.
D.J standing next to the goats. You could feed the goats and I have to say that they were aggressive things. I dont like when the kids stick their hands through the fence because the goats will knock each other out of the way and the last thing that I wanted is a smashed hang from two aggressive goats.
Dianni waiting his turn to feed the goats. I love his kermit the frog hat!
Im giving the kids the food so they can feed the mean goats!
Aurora and Dianni feeding the goats.
The "kids" Leif is the goat, Dj is the sheep, Aurora is the horse,Dianni is the cow, and Leify is the pig.
Aurora on the cow train...which is really a lawn mover pulling a bunch of plastic barrells painted like cows.
All of the kids at the entrance to McCalls on a haystack...one day I will get a good picture with all of them looking in the right direction.
Just not today...
This year we went with some friends of ours. We went with my neighbor Nancy and her son Dianni along with one of our friends from high school D.J.
This is the only picture that I have of us carving pumpkins. I thought I had more but I didnt want to make a seperate posting since this is the only one that I had.
Aurora on the jumping pillow. It was interesting because they requested that the littler kids be on one end of the pillow while the older kids be on the other. I tried to stay in the middle so that I could get pictures of both of my kids.
I like this picture because I caught Aurora in mid-air. Believe me this was a harder task than you can imagine.
My friend Nancy in Mid-air. I wish this had not come out blurry but still a good picture. 
Leif, I think he was nervous to bounce at first because last year in the first 30 seconds of him bouncing he bit his lip and it started to bleed and this year he didnt want me to leav his side.
Another good one of my little girl bouncing she was having a blast!
He would not leave my side so I was trying to step back and get a picture so I was standing above him when I took this picture.
Aurora was laughing because if an adult on one side of the pillow would blounce then it would pop up a person on the other side and send you flying. My legs were so tired after 5 minutes of bouncing.
Inside the corn maize. The kids had fun. It did not feel like a very long maize. In years past we would sit and try to figure out where we were inside the maize and where we were going and this year it was a very very easy maze. I was disappointed because we made it through so fast. I almost wanted to go through it again.
In the center of the maize there is a platform that you can go up and stand and view the maze from above. Of course my son would not pay attention to mommy so I could get a picture.
I dont remember seeing this pond before but it was there this year and I thought it was a great place for a photo but the only person who would go with me was Aurora.
I have to say that it was hard to do a self picture and get the background in the back the way that I wanted.
Cute picture I think espcially since you can see the reflection of the clouds on the water.
At the bottom of the slide that goes through the minature mountain. I dont know what is so special about this slide but the kids love it!
Little man at the bottom of the slide...at least one time anyway he went down it several times.
I love this picture of Aurora but mostly because Leif is always saying she is his little doppleganger.
Whats funny about this picture is that I don't think that we noticed their similar poses until I went to post this.
Little man at the bottom again I think he was getting up to run back to the top again!
Aurora at the bottom again! 
This year they added a new miniature old western city. It had a salon and a sheriffs office, a school house and market. This was inside the market.
Aurora in the market playing with a fake potato which i found rather funny since we were on an actual farm.
The kids in the saloon playing at the "bar" Leif was too short I think he was standing on a box.
D.J standing next to the goats. You could feed the goats and I have to say that they were aggressive things. I dont like when the kids stick their hands through the fence because the goats will knock each other out of the way and the last thing that I wanted is a smashed hang from two aggressive goats.
Dianni waiting his turn to feed the goats. I love his kermit the frog hat!
Im giving the kids the food so they can feed the mean goats!
Aurora and Dianni feeding the goats. 
The "kids" Leif is the goat, Dj is the sheep, Aurora is the horse,Dianni is the cow, and Leify is the pig. 
Aurora on the cow train...which is really a lawn mover pulling a bunch of plastic barrells painted like cows.
All of the kids at the entrance to McCalls on a haystack...one day I will get a good picture with all of them looking in the right direction.
Just not today...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
