Lizzie's TaLent

this little girl beats them all. One of her first assignments received this year from her first grade teacher was to fill out a paper that asked questions all about her. One of the questions asked was what is a special talent that you have. Her casual reply was, " accessorizing." No matter how well I think I know my kids, they continue to surprise me with the things they say. She came up with this ensemble the other day and wanted me to photograph it. What a nut! It probably was inspired by the musical set in paris GIGI that we have been watching all the time lately. We love it! And as they sing in the movie...."Thank Heaven for little girls."

Highschool senior photo shoot!

this is Sara or should I call her Isabella (the heroine from the book Twilight). She really is Bella (beautiful in Italian). See for yourself. Click here

Stake Conference

One of my favorite things in life are just having conversations with my kids. To find out what is going on in their lives, and how they feel and think about things. We talk all the time. If you know me at all you will be really surprised by that I am sure. ha ha. Anyway, my favorite conversation today happened on paper. We were in stake conference and jacob had a notepad with paper and drawing. I grabbed it and wrote this question.... Do you have a testimony?

We kept writing back and forth for an hour. I have to share!!

Jacob's reply- Yes!

mom- Of what? What do you know for sure?

Jacob-Well, I know for sure God lives and that you can repent and that the holy ghost is real and also that I am a boy!!!!!

Mom- How do you know those things for sure?

Jacob-It's all faith mommy, except the last one, I have visual proof.

Mom- What is faith?

jacob-It's believing in things unseen, and a great deal of trust.

Mom-Have you felt the Holy Ghost? If yes, what does it feel like to you?

Jacob-Well, yes I have felt the Holy Ghost in various situations. To me it just clears and calms my mind.

Mom-When can you remember that you felt the Holy Ghost really strong?

Jacob-The one time that sticks out most in my mind is when we went to the Newport beach temple open house.

Mom-Are you looking forward to going to the temple?

Jacob-Yes! Why have we not done all the baptisms in our family tree? We should do it.

Mom- I thought we had, you better do them than. I can't wait until you can go to the temple for your endowment before you go on a mission. You will love it. Also, when you get married in the temple there isn't a better feeling. Do you have those goals?

Jacob- Yes Mom, I do have those goals. Will you take my wedding pictures on a family discount?

Mom-Oh jacob, you are such a wit. You must be my son. ha ha. I can't wait to meet your future wife. What do you think she will be like? what are you looking for?

Jacob- Well, I'm looking for the opposite of you. L.O.L. Well, I don't really know I haven't been really hunting for a wife. Although I would like to be taller than her and she needs good teeth and a sense of humor.

Mom-Why would you want the opposite of me? what's not to like? smile

Jacob-Ha Ha! No mom you know she'll be just like you and like you.

Mom- Thank you. But I want to know what character traits you are looking for. More than just physical traits. In other words... more info please.

Jacob- "well, in other words." I haven't thought about it.

mom- Well, think about it right now. What does she need to know besides" she is a girl"?

Jacob- ha ha! It seems like you are real interested. Are you scared of the competition?

Mom- No, but you should be concerned about your spelling.ha ha. (I have been correcting Jacob's spelling in this transcript. Not that mine is all that great. Even in this transcript. ha) But you need to start thinking about it. It's the most important decision of your life besides choosing to follow God.

Jacob- Not at 12 mom.

Mom- Yes at 12. Why do you think I am saying this?

Jacob-You think it is important. Well, I would want a girl strong in the church with a testimony. Also, someone who would be stronger at my weaknesses. And one whoI want to work together and just make me happy to be with her. Happy?

Mom- Yes, thank you. Now I know you are on the right track and going in the right direction. In other words...you get it. What things do you look forward to in life most?

Jacob- Getting to the end. The luxurious end of the circle.

Mom-What is that?

jacob-where you are. Except maybe more or less so.

Mom- I am just happy. I have been happy at every phase of my life.

Jacob-that's good. I think I am talking good retirement.

Mom-do you have any question for me?

Jacob-yes I do. Are you happy with all your decisions in life? If not which ones?

Mom-Yes, all the important ones. Going on a mission, marrying your dad in the temple, having children, being active in the church and always serving in callings, and trying to keep all the commandments. I do wish that I had been more respectful to my mother when I was young.

Jacob-Are you trying some jedi mind trick on me?

Mom- No, I am serious. I think you are respectful, and it is because Dad makes sure you all are and is as well. Of course, I enforce it too.

Jacob- I'll keep that into consideration as I go through my life. What good movies and books do you think I should watch or read?

Mom-I think most movies you have already seen and love. Music Man, sound of Music, all our favorite muscials, and the star wars series of course. Books hmmm. You are reading the Hobbit right now, and I loved that. I am just happy that you love to read now. I hope you will develope a love of reading the scriptures.

Jacob- I'm still working on that. What is your favorite kind of food, what dish?

Mom-Mexican enchiladas, and Italian lasagna.

Jacob-What plans do you have for when we go to Hawaii?

Mom-Polynesian cultural center, Pearl Harbor, snorkeling at Hanauma bay, boogie boarding where we are staying. Having the time of our lives.

Jacob- Are we going to be able to go out to eat all together and be together all of the time?

mom- yes.

jacob-That's great! But first I have to get through school. Although I do like my school and classmates. I'm just a lazy person. a weak trait.

Mom- We all are Jacob. It's human nature. Becoming great in life just takes our spirit overcoming the natural man. That's how we become more like Heavenly Father. The purpose of our life here.

Jacob-That made me feel alot better. What time is it? I am ready to go.

Mom- Me too.

I love being a Mom. I love the great gift that Heavenly Father has shared with me to bring children to earth and be able to love and teach them. Now I know why it is Heavenly Father's greatest joy "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." I, in my small way, help him to accomplish that. VERY COOL! I hope you moms know how important being a mom is. We are the teachers and the shapers of Heavenly Father's children. We affect the decisions they make that will affect their whole lives here and in the eternities. We decide how society will be by how we teach our children now. The hand that rocks the cradle really does rule the world. Think about it. What a privilege and honor to have such a noble and great responsibility. I am so thankful.

The New Haircut

Well, here it is Nance. A picture of my haircut. I don't know if it does it justice. My sister Nicole just graduated from cosmetology school. She is really amazing. She already has a huge clientel which as you can imagine caused quite some jealousy among the girls at the school. Nicole spent her whole day on appts. with people that asked for her. So if you live in the rexburg area, you are in luck. I can hook you up.

p.s. Isn't my new shirt cute? I got it in Utah at Downeast which is the coolest store. I love the neckline. what I love most is how it hides my upper arms and makes them look thinner. Those are always my two criteria for a shirt. Flattering neck line, and hides the arms.

New Kid On the BLoCk

Could there be anything more precious than this? Come check him out.

You know where to go.

Noah and Ashley

Come and see my "rockin" photo shoot with these two cuties.

Come meet baby Karina

Go to my Photography Blog to see the rest. She is absolutely precious!!!

Sunday Evening

I've been a little sad since I came back from Utah. It was so wonderful to be with family. I wish I lived closer and could visit more often, but alas I don't see Utah for us in the near future. Today cheered me up being with my ward family. I love all of my Relief Society sisters. They really feel like family to me. I made a big dinner and had the DeBoef's over and sister DeBoef's sister and daughter that just moved in the ward. We had a testimony meeting with them before we broke our fast and I really felt the spirit. It was so wonderful to get to know them, and to hear Brother DeBoef's (Doug) conversion story. After they left we got cozy, the girls made chocolate chip cookies and played chicken tracks. I always feel better when I reach out to others and cozy with my own wonderful family. But now they are being crazy and I need to put them in bed. Goodnight!

P.S. Nicole, I got so many compliments on my new haircut today. I love it. You did such a great job. The girls love theirs too! I am so lucky to have such talented sisters!!!!

TYpicaL Funniness

Saturday, and Leah has a problem. She has been trying to glue on a fake nail and has gotten the nail glue all over all of her fingers and can't get it off. After trying for five minutes myself to get it off with nail polish remover, I turned the job over to Rebecca who loves to be in charge. This was her solution. She soaked the make-up remover pads with the nail polish remover and taped them to Leah's fingers. I thought that was quite clever, but the whole house reeked of nail polish remover.

Don't you love Leah's dress? When we lived in Oregon there was a large community of Russian old believers. They all wore homemade long dresses and if you were married you covered your hair. At the elementary school all the signs were in Russian, Spanish, and English. So of course, Rachel comes home one day with this dress and the homemade slip that they wear under it. She told a girl in her class how much she loves all her dresses so she asked her mom if she could give her one that she had grown out of. RAchel wore that all the time when we lived there (in the house). Soooooo Rachel. Anyway. Thought I would share the little funny things that go on around here.

I finally saw the Grand Canyon!

We're BAck!! It feels like we have been gone forever. Utah was really starting to feel like home. It is too wonderful to be with family. We decided to drive home on a more scenic route and went by the grand canyon. We were all in our pajamas!! Too funny. I kind of saw it through bleary eyes. I seriously slept the entire way home. My family kept me up playing until 2-3am every night. It now seems like a dream seeing the grand canyon. I would like to go back and explore the whole area and hit bryce and zions parks too. Anyway. Lots of fun pictures to share from our trip, but right now we are all starving and need to go get food.

ONe MoreThing!!!

I forgot to mention my other beauty secret!! My sister GLor told me about MDForte. It is a face cleaning system. I am using level one. She said that Dermalogica was good for keeping up good skin but if you need repair work (which i do...) to use MDForte. I have been using it for a few weeks and I really do see and feel a difference. I started with level one. Just the face cleanser and whatever you follow up with. You can buy it on the web. I think I got the cleanser for only $11. You can check it out on the link below.

http://www.skinwest.com/?REQUEST=SEM&ID=MDFORTE&R=cf

ps. we are packing up the kids again and heading out to Utah tomorrow. fun fun. Off to see siblings Kelly, Brett, and Nicole. I did three photo shoots this week and I am dying to share the photos but I have to finish the editing when I get back in August. They all turned out so good!! I love my job. Both of them. MOm and Photographer. How exciting to even say that I am those two things.

THe NEw Me!

At least the new me when I am in the mood to put on make-up, which isn't all that often unfortunately. ha. I have been really curious to try bare minerals. So when I was at the mall with the girls we all went in for make-overs at SEPHORA. I really liked the all over coverage but just with a light powder. The starter kit is only $60 and it comes with tons, and all the brushes. I highly highly recommend getting the foundation primer (prime time). It is so awesome!!! Also to finish it off get Buxom lip gloss. Supposed to plump up your lips. I don't however recommend the mascara (I look like I don't have any on). So there you go. I wanted to share my new find. Oh yah, I almost forgot. If you have dark circles like me definitely get the Stila brand coverup. Goes on like silk, really light, and great coverage. Check it out here! and scroll down to sephora's featured items.

Abbott Family Pics

This was the first photo shoot that I did that I didn't know anyone previously. I found out I had nothing to be nervous about. It was so much fun to meet new people, and get and insider look into their family. By the end of the shoot I felt like I was just another member of the family. Thanks Abbott family. It was so great to meet you. As always just go to my photography site for the rest. Hope you like them!

I'M 14 AGAIN!

Ok so my two nieces are staying with us this week. Talk about living the teenage life again. I don't know if Lizzie and I can keep up. ha ha. We do nails, and swim all day. Shop at target for bras, go to barnes and noble for journals, go to outback for cheese fries and thunder down under. Stay up all night watching movies and making chocolate chip cookies. Sleep in until noon. Ok so they get to do that. I am up by at least 10 am. ha. We are having a blast! We are also trying to be really Spiritual. Lets get spiritual, spiritual, I wanna get spiritual (sing to tune of let's get physical by olivia newton john). We have been reading scriptures, and discussing lots. Talking about living to be worthy of temple marriage and how important that is. Praying, giving talks, writing in journals. It's like girls camp over here. Luckily Jacob is at scout camp! This has been so awesome for Kelsie because she is living with my brother now and can go to church, and have the missionary lessons and be baptized! She gets to go to young womens tonight to do humanitarian service. Friday night to a "late over party, saturday to the pioneer picnic, and saturday night to a youth dance. She wants to go to the temple visitors center in mesa, and utah. How exciting to see her so happy and glowing. We love Jesus around here. It's a good thing. And to my three sisters..... I think I am currently winning in the favorite aunt contest. ha ha.

ps. look at the muscle on Kelsie's arm in the first picture! That definitely didn't come from the Reneer gene pool. ha. so no fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TWINNERS

Here is my niece Kennedy with her twin cousin Addison. Kennedy looks so much like her Dad!! Mike's(her dad) sister lives in surprise and brought over her 6 week old baby. It was like seeing Kennedy again as a baby! Look at how long she is, and she really likes to stretch out! I love the photo on the couch with my wide angle lens. Accentuates their long loveliness. So cute to see Kennedy holding her. She was so sweet with her and just couldn't get enough. What a good mommy she will be. So here they are Glor. Aren't you jealous you aren't here! smile

MaDe my DAY!

My sister Kelly was asked to be a designer for poppy ink. They have the coolest monthly kits etc. Anyway, I looked on the gallery and she had the sweetest layout about me. She loves the picture of me that she took that is on the layout. I think I look really old and wrinkly in it. Now I know how she sees me. As the big (and much older) sister. Oh well, I am ok with that. Thanks kell. To see the layout click here! and then click on gallery and look under kelly mccaleb. oh so special! smile

Laguna Beach

Why people pay the big bucks to live in So. Cal. Gorgeous coast line like this, and the cutest little beach towns to accompany it all along the 101. We went tide pooling all down in here. So beautiful.

TotaLLY WICkeD

All of us at the Pantages theatre in Hollywood! My kids have had all the songs memorized for a long time! so to be able to take them to see it was so great! The funniest was Lizzie saying out loud during the song popular, "I get it!" Of course I had to quickly cover her mouth and explain you can't talk, but so cute. She finally understood why they sang that song.

So Fun

thought i would throw on a few more from the pier. we hit the waves next!

NEWPORT PIER

Me and 6 crazy kids have been rockin CALI! I have so many fun pictures to share. We brought home with us my niece Kelsie. My niece Kennedy is flying in tomorrow. Dave and Jacob are at Scout camp. So us 7 girls are going to have serious girl time!

p.s. click on this picture to enlarge it and check out all of their expressions. It's the best!!!! I think I love Leah's the best!