Such a beautiful gift!!! And she's giving it away....

I came across a photographer that possesses a wonderful talent and has decided to give some of it away! It's actually a giveaway of a photo shoot with her. Check her out and find out how to get a free shoot with her. I would LOVE to see what she could do with my girls!!!

http://www.simplybephoto.com/wordpress/

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I like to post for the date which the pictures or events occurred so scroll down to see Brielle's growth and our family adventures that I have posted for older dates even though they are newer posts. Unless you have subscribed to our feed, then you'll get them as I post them.

Here's to the bestest 7 years ever!!!

I can't believe we've been married for 7 years! Most of the time I still feel the slight twitterpation I felt as a newly wed! So here's to the best newly wed years, and to a hopeful future of twitterpation!

Some pictures of our milestones.

First milestone: Admit we liked each other!

One of our first dates-We went skiing with the singles ward

Engagement photo. I love the cloud behind us! It looks like Cupid's heart.

Major milestone! We were married in the Albuquerque, NM temple, May 24th 2002. The Temple Sealer was a cousin of my Grandpa Payne. I love how Temples are so family centered!

First year! Wow time flies right? Eric surprised me with a road trip to Denver for a Six Flags adventure for our anniversary. We splurged and tried this flying/swinging through the sky contraption! It was so terrifying but so much fun and I am fine if I never do it again!

2nd year anniversary we went to Chicago (a sales perk that came with the purchase of our first car!). We were supposed to be there for 2 days/3 nights, but because of a terrible storm we circled Chicago in an airplane for the first night and spent the first day sleeping! But from the one day we did get to spend there we had a blast! Chicago is beautiful and what an experience of taxi drivers, sky scrapers, and pedestrian traffic! I was 6 months prego with Kallyn! Another great milestone!

The third year we spent in the Grand Canyon at the Havasupai falls. A 10 mile hike in and out but an oasis of beauty and real camping! I hiked in with Kallyn on my back, thankfully Eric hiked her out! Kallyn actually took her first steps on our anniversary - she stood up and walked to Eric!

Our fourth anniversary was spent at a softball tournament in Show Low Arizona. I took ZERO pictures (which I totally regret now). We were 2 weeks away from welcoming Allison into our family.


5th year was a busy one! Graduation (finally) from UNM, A big move accross county, and our kids turned 1 yr and 3yr!

6th year was so much fun! We spent it in Washington DC with the girls.

And this year- Again in DC! We spent the afternoon with the girls (3 now) at the Arlington Cemetery. Then Eric treated us to the BEST Brazilian grill! I have never dined with better company or for better food!!!!

2 months

Brielle is:
10lbs, 7 oz
24 Inches long
I don't know what percentile that is, but I'm pretty sure she's high up there for height!

8 weeks

More headband beauty!

It is so sweet how Kallyn has to hold Brielle every morning. And Brielle is getting quite used to it. They will sit on the bed or couch for a good 15 minutes without any fusses or oopsies. I'm so glad Kallyn enjoys being a big sister again.

Gotta capture the fussy times. Brielle's bewitching hour is around dinner time. If it isn't while I'm trying to get dinner ready it's right when we sit down to eat. I can't wait till she grows out of it and settles on for a long nap instead.

We have another affectionate silky attachment! However, Brielle's blanket is green and she prefers the green over Allison's pink one, even though they are the same blanket! Allison is so sweet and tries to share her blanket with Brielle but she won't stop fussing until she gets her green silky. And it has to go right over her face! But she passes out right away!

Allison tries to hold Brielle, but because she's a little uncertain and fussy when she does she settles for the game of peek-a-boo. Brielle is fascinated with the disappearing act! I think Allison has gotten more sqeals from Brielle than the rest of us!

We made it!!!!

We made it to DC/Virginia. The move was crazy as our moves always are, but we made it here in time for Eric to make it to work Monday morning. Here's how it went:

Eric's last final was Monday 4-4-09 and we spent the next three days packing up. It was quite a challenge trying to sort out what went into storage emediately and what the girls and I still needed for the next week while Eric was gone for his first week of work. But we got most of it figured out and piled everything into the living room for an easy pack-it-up and haul-it-away move that Friday. (A great big thanks goes out to all of our amazing law school buddies that took time to help that morning! And to Freddy H. also for being a big helper alongside his dad!) Then we partied across the street at the park for Eric's big 30th B-day!! Saturday Eric flew out to DC to get ready for his first day of work on Monday while I thought I could be super woman and pack up everything else and get the house ready for a walk through at the end of the week. However, when it rains it pours!!! My week of disasters started Saturday night with the most terrible wind storm I have never slept through!!! I kept hearing terrible noises in the house and of course it had to be my first night without Eric, on an airmattress, with a full moom blazing through the windows. Needless to say, the girls and I did not sleep well. Then I woke up with a mild case of mastitis! Not as bad as the times I had it with both the other girls, but I was still very sore and slugish. But we got to church anyways and just a few minutes late, too!! I absolutely had to be there so Kallyn could sing her mother's day song to me!!! So sweet. Eric told me to take the day off since it was Mother's day, but I should have taken advantage of any time I had since Monday morning the mastitis was worse and the day was shot! Tuesday I burned up the afternoon driving to the airport to pick up the Bohn family which by mistake I was told to pick them up them when in actuallity they were flying in on Wednesday. So another afternoon was burned up at the airport (Which honestly I wouldn't have traded for anything it was so nice to see Mike and Melanie and their adorable cuties and have the time to catch up with them)
So I basically had 2 days to get everything ready and if it wasn't for all my amazing friends who chipped in to help pack up the kitchen, watch the kids, and feed us dinner, I wouldn't have been able to get as much accomplished. But we still had a lot to do when Eric flew home Friday night. We hauled as much as we could to the storage unit and slowly the house emptied out. We got everything ready to take to the storage unit before we left for our last get together/final goodbye for the '09 graduates. Our plan was to take it all over after the party, but when we got home we realized that the storage lot closed at 9 PM. What were we thinking!!!!
When we had planned to leave no later than 10 AM Sunday morning we ended up leaving town at 8PM. Eric drove till 1:30 through NH, Mass, Rhode Island, Conn. NY, New Jersey, and through the $$$ stealing tolls of Delaware, I finished off with Maryland and finally driving up to our condo in VA at 5:30 Monday morning. Thankfully the kiddies slept the whole way and we only had to stop twice to feed Brielle. And since it was the early hours of morning there was absolutely no traffic!! And we only had to course correct once! Eric got to sleep for 2 more hours before getting up and heading off to his second week of work.

Nice to meet you William Norseth!

We have some friends from New Hampshire that we were fortunate to be pregos together. They had 2 boys that were the same ages as my girls. Then we found out we were both pregnant, only two weeks separated our due dates. We each hoped for the gender we didn't already have, but I admit - They make cute boys and we make cute girls, and that is exactly what we got. She had an adorable little boy on my due date (glad someone took advantage of it!) and I had an adorable little girl, but thankfully not on her due date, but rather 5 days later. Here we got to meet him after his daddy graduated from Law School. Best of luck you guys in the future!!! We sure had fun and hope to meet up with you again!

7 weeks

That little tongue!



I caught this right as she was sneezing!



Sweet Kallyn LOVES to dress her up! Here she is getting her flowers on her head band. I love how she arches her head away from Kallyn, she had just had enough! But...

Is she not just the most adorable little baby!? This really shows how her face is rounding out.

Kallyn tries to get her laughing. She likes to be tickled but hasn't figured out how to let the laughter out.

Guymon boys

Our friends the Guymons came over to play with the girls for a while before we moved. These boys are about the same age as my girls and they absolutely LOVE playing together. They are sweet boys and they "take good care of my girls" as Jacob states.


Jacob and Andrew

Kallyn reading to them.


Playing Soccer, they had just kicked the ball towards me. I think Jacob liked the challenge of a fast girl!


Playing "Red light/Green light"

"RED LIGHT!!!!" I think Andrew had too much fun with this game!

I hope they didn't get too freaked out when Kallyn caught this harvest man spider (New England's daddy long leg). She's such a bug nerd like her mommy!

Big Birthday for a Big Boy!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
We celebrated Eric's big three zero this year!! 30 years! The poor boy had finals for birthday presents and a huge move to look forward to. So we waited a few weeks and our awesome friends threw him a BBQ steak and hot dogs birthday party at the park!


My sexy old husband!


The kids sure had fun playing together at the park.


The soon to turn thirty Alex Chan. What a great friend he has been and a fun "Uncle" like guy to the girls. Quite a charm he had over Brielle. Thanks for putting up with all her baby drool!



This little angel followed me around as I took snapshots. "Cheeeeeeeeeeesie, Cheeeeeeeeeesie" she called after me!

Fun friends to celebrate with us!

The yummiest Icecream cake for the birthday boy. It's sad that it didn't even make it to the digital world! (If you want to see the likeness of it, check your freezer section in the grocery store!)

Our beautiful Host! Thanks Jenny for the thought and effort (And the wonderful man you brought with you to grill the steaks for us!)

6 weeks

Brielle is so long and skinny! She reminds me so much of Kallyn, except without the long colicky nights.

She is pudging up in the face. She has the softest pinchable cheeks!

Every day the girls hold her and she lets them-most of the time!

Sweet cuddle up moments!

week 5

Her big blue eyes are open and alert a lot now. She likes to take quick power naps throughout the day. And thankfully she's still giving me a 6-7 hour stretch at night. Now if I can only wisen up and go to bed when she does!

sweet forehead wrinkles!

Brielle's baby acne is nearly cleared up now. It stuck around for a long time! But I'm glad she has irresistibly soft baby skin again. Brielle is so intent on watching me. I'll move around in the room and find her staring at me. I don't always get that sweet "made you look" smile once we've made eye contact, but just knowing that she knows her mommy makes it all worth while.