First Edition

When you babysit Emily Lara, your child may decide to write her first novel.



Kind of sounds like life at our house. Those fun little animals.

Crab Legs???

In an effort to get Ella and Avery on opposite birthday party years, we told Ella we would just do a small family party for her five-year-old celebration. So, we gave her some options: Pirate Island Pizza, McDonalds nuggets at the park, Cafe Rio. But she wasn't feeling it. Guess what she wanted? Crab legs!!! And baked potatoes. All with a Tiana theme. What a stitch. We all told her thank you for her excellent taste in good quality food.

This day started with a big breakfast in bed. She told Bryson when she woke up that she could tell she was five now because she felt taller and her hair was longer.

Bryson and I totally procrastinated her present. We could not find anything we wanted. So in the end, 30 minutes before her big dinner, I ran to Walmart and finally got what she'd asked for...a Barbie and the Mermaid Tail water slide for the bathtub. I'll admit, I looked at that and thought big plastic waste of money. But truthfully, she was completely excited and took an hour-long bathtime last night. She also asked me this morning how early she could take a bath after dinner and for how long. So maybe it wasn't a waste after all :)

Ella decorated her own Tiana cake, just another of her many creative endeavors. We love Ella's artistic flair and never-ending art projects, sketches, and inventions. Happy 5th birthday, Ella Bella!

Spiders and Sunshines...

...are Avery's favorite still life subjects. Although I'm not always clear on which are which. And really, neither is she. That's the magic of being two--everything you do is charming whether it makes sense or not.

Avery has also steadily begun to refer to herself in the third person. And sometimes, when she's in pretend mode, she refers to her pretend persona in the third person. Her alter ego used to be named "Baby Ariel," but now there's also a "Big Ariel" in the mix, so that we really never are quite sure who needs the drink, snuggie, diaper change, etc. Nix diaper change. We're always pretty sure on that one.

I can't help but remember this episode of Seinfeld when she starts talking about herself in the third person though.

South Side, Baby

Crazy that it takes 5 hours to get to the Grand Canyon South Rim when the North Rim is only like 2 hours away. We could literally see Bright Angel Point right acoss the ravine. But the company is much better south side...


I'm afraid of heights so when my legs weren't wobbling like Jello, I was trying to keep my kids from the ledge. Which was like trying to keep moths from a flame. Doesn't Avery just look like she's up to no good?

On the trip back we hit the Wupatki Indian ruins, very cool.

Fun Labor Day! My life would not be the same without knowing about Bananagram, Oregano's, and the Law family rules of choosing a good baby name (which I may be violating with this next chillin).

1st Day of Preschool

Yes, I am the nerdy parent who went to my child's first day of school with my camera and took five million pictures. And Bryson took a late lunch break so he could come give her a little blessing and drop her off too. This is not just Ella's first day, but ours as well. The era of schooldays begins here.

Since Ella's group meets in the afternoon, the morning anticipation was intense (Is it time? Now? Is it time now? How about now?). Ella picked out her favorite dress to wear, which I just crossed my fingers would not disintegrate while she was at school. Favorite = I wear it every other day = almost see-through thin fabric = one wrong turn and nakie!

Mrs. Provost, Ella's first teacher.

First day was successful. Ella came home and told me all about the books they read, the dress-ups she wore (Snow Queen and Silvermist), and playing outside on the tire swing. Our next item of business is to narrow down which toy she will bring for show and tell on Thurs.!

Big 5 Ella

When my parents gave Ella a Cinderella dress-up costume for Christmas three years ago, we began anticipating the day it would actually fit her. Well that day is finally here and we had a fun time getting little Cinderella all spruced up for her five-year-old shots. We laughed that some of them reminded us of bridals...but won't she be a beautiful bride one day?! Happy birthday to Ella in two and a half weeks.
Thanks Heather for sharing your photographer Val with us!

And I don't mean $5 footlong

We picked a random weekday and got permits to hike the SUBWAY on Wednesday, hoping that the back-to-school-ness of the season and the weekday-ness of the choice would help our chances for getting permits. We've been meaning to get back to this hike since we first did it four years ago.

We loaded up a car with Glen and his granddaughter Alexandra, Bryson's friend Brent from work, and Avery. Ella didn't make the cut--too big to carry. Avery now fits that category as well. Our revised parenting policy will include one free ride on the subway tracks, but after that our kids are going to have to earn it.

Can you tell it was the most beautiful day to tackle this? Because it was gorgeous: high temps, lots of sun, lots of water flowing through the canyon.

We hiked it from the bottom up to the subway and back, and it took us the full day.

Goin' down the tracks, clickety clack. All aboard!

And at long last, the Subway tunnel...


Hopefully it won't be four more years till we hike this again!

New Ride

Baby #3 is expensive, and here's why. We picked up our new Chevy Traverse LS AWD in Colorado this weekend, so we had to stop here on our way home:

Goblin Valley. Since our kids love rocks, it was basically better than Disney.