Recorded

We took the opportunity to record all of us being together.
My Dad and us 4 kids3 girl grandbabies
2/3 boy grandbabies
All the grandbabies
The full crew with Grandpa
Donovan, Janea, Trevor and Shaylee
Dustin, Sunny and Aidan
Cyndy (Mom/Grandma/Nana)
Marian and Tristin
Everyone with Nana

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we had Grandpa Platt, Marian and Tristin. Nana Platt, Dustin, Sunny and Aidan here to exchange gifts and check out what Santa brought. The weather has been overcast and we got some rain even. Don, Janea, Trevor and Shaylee joined us around one in the afternoon. We opened gifts and got everyone somewhat situated. We watched "Mamma Mia" and ate Ham, Turkey, Stuffing, potatoes (sweet and mashed), green bean casserole and fruit salad. We played some games after dinner. It was a really good time. Pictures are all out of time line, but at this hour I don't care. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!


We had stockings filled with goodies

Christmas Eve

As to the standard the kids all opened one gift christmas eve. Guess what it was....
Not just any pajamas, Nana made pajamas. Aren't they cute?

They all fit good and have room to grow.
Then we made cookies and put one for each grandkid on the plate for Santa. (Katy and Tristin took care of the plate) All of us had a sample to make sure they were suitable for Santa.
Kristy wrote Santas note and poured his milk.
Kristy was so excited to stay with Nana at the hotel. We rented a 4 bedroom TLF (temporary living facility) for everyone to stay in, it is just around the corner from our house. Convenient and affordable!

Snow is gone

Not that we expected the snow to last but the snow is all gone. So much for a white Christmas. Thats ok cause it will be a great Christmas with everyone here.

It's still snowy!

Kristy woke this morning and looked outside then said with a little bit of amazement "It's still snowy outside!" "My teacher must have called". Here area few pics of playing yesterday and a few from this morning. All in all it was about 6 inches that fell. The sun has already shown up and is quickly turning the snow into a melted slushy mess... Sorry I was not so willing to go out into it this morning. All pics are taken from a door or window, lol. Enjoy!

The girls unfinished christmas present, may not get finished until christmas eve.
It's cold and Kristy wants to go in and have hot chocolate.
Hunter and Kristy player, they tried to make snowmen but hands froze and leaves and dirt stuck to the snow. So they settled for throwing it at eachother.

Side Note

Look back, at my post about the tree lighting... I guess I asked for the snow storm. LOL. Can't have snow deprived children, and we just got the call, Kristy has her first and probably last snow day tomorrow. No school! Alright I gotta get some work done. Christmas cards to address (yes, still, in the mail by friday at the latest...) and photog orders to process. Have a good day and we'll catch up more later.

Tree lighting

Every year, here at edwards, they have a tree lighting ceremony where they have snow shipped in for our poor snow deprived children. Santa comes to visit with, the Mrs. too. And of course there is carols and hot chocolate and cookies. They girls had a blast this year. Mostly. I will let the pictures do the talking (mostly).

Kristy got to sing carols with all "her" girl scouts. Katy wasn't sure what to think of the snow... at first anyway.Then she saw what fun everyone was having...
Kristy had a blast with the other girls throwing snow around.
Santa time, start with Mrs. Claus. Perfect for the part!
Telling Santa she wants everything.
Poor Katy... not happy to be with Santa.


What is this for, who needs to be warm?
Snow angels!
Goodbye Snow!

Christmas Parade

One of the things about girl scouts is they do a lot of activities. Tonight they participated in a Holiday parade of lights in Rosamond. The theme of their float was California Christmas (a little short notice and the luau was just a short time ago). Kristy had a great time. She loves being with "her" girl scouts.

Need Addy's

I got Christmas cards and realized I do not have snail mail addresses for anyone except my family. IF you would like to be added to my list please get me your address. I hope to get them mailed monday.... we'll see how that goes.

Everything is still really busy... we are looking forward to having a get together for Christmas. Which may I say is coming up way too fast!

Eval, latest and craziness

Katy was evaluated last week for her lack of speech. She is on track with all developement except her speech (we pretty much knew). They said that her speech is about the level of a 10 month old. It is probably a bit higher, but to get the services they offer it has to be blow a certain level or low in more than one area. She is saying half a dozen words and they did acknowledge that it is most likely environmental that she doesn't have to speak therefore she isn't. So tomorrow the speech pathologist will be coming out to see Katy and will return about every 2 weeks.
Kinda funny the other day, Kristy got out of the tub and started hollering "A BUG!, A BUG!". Of course Katy starts running to see what is so exciting. We told her to relax and I returned to the conversation Kristy had interrupted. Next thing I know Katy is next to me saying "MOM, ook, ook, MOM!" So I turn to her and find her cute pudgy little fingers pinching a flopping pincher-bug less than 6 inches from my face! "Eeewww (smack) drop that". She dropped it and Brian killed it, then Katy started crying. No wonder Kristy is afraid of bugs... we'll see if Katy is also now.
Finally, things have been very busy, as I have said a few times. I have been have had at least two sessions every other week for the last couple months (I think). It doesn't seem like that much and probably isn't but on top of all the other routine.... it has been crazy. Anyway. I planned to put my favorite shot from each session in the post but don't really have the time- tonight anyway. So for now, here is Kristy last weekend. She got to go with me on one of my shoots and be my assistant. Naturally before the customers arrived I had her pose...

Katy's video

Katy has a tendency to speak when convenient for her. So we set it up to be convenient and bring you this video as a result.

Veterans Day

For Veterans Day we went to Bakersfield. Aside from the distinct smell of cow dung in the morning it was really cool. They had a parade that they requested a group of active duty veterans to be "honorary grand marshalls". Brian was one of the 14 who went. They had all the active duty as grand marshalls leading the parade. Bakersfield has had a Veterans Day parade for the last 89 years and this is the first year that Edwards AFB has had anyone there. The girls really enjoyed the parade, though Kristy got a little tired after the first 80 entries... they had 142 entries this year. Katy during lunch at the VFW, they served the guys breakfast and lunch. One of the greatest parts for Brian was when he saw this little girl (in the red white and blue) holding this sign in the middle of the crowd of people.
We walked around the downtown area after lunch while waiting for the final event of the day and had multiple vehicles honk and wave, give thumbs up and thanks to Brian. Being in such a military saturated area it is seldom that this kind of thing happens so to be able to go to a city that makes such a point of expressing the gratitude to Veterans was a great experience. Here is the link to the article in the Bakersfield paper wed after the parade
http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/606558.html