I love these pictures!!!

I feel like I'm tooting my own horn, but I just really love how these pictures turned out. I think everyone, especially moms, need something that makes them feel good about themselves, and these pictures are it for me. Doing the dishes, laundry, picking-up, etc. doesn't really give me much fulfillment, but taking pictures does. I owe a big thanks to Erin who's taught me a lot about photography these last couple of weeks! (Check out her site at erinhouseholderphotography.blogspot.com.) I took these pictures in honor of Grady being 3 months old now. I couldn't help snapping a few shots of Luke too!

Temple Progress

This morning Ty called me and told me to drop everything and head straight over to the temple. We got there just in time to watch them lower the Angel Moroni on top of the temple. Only 6 more months til our Gila Valley Temple is expected to be completed! I can't wait to have a temple just a 5 minutes in a car from my house!

It will be neat to be able to show our boys someday that they were there on this momentous occasion.

Luke looking through the binoculars at the Angel Moroni. He felt pretty important being on dad's shoulders and getting to use his binoculars. Too bad he was looking through the wrong end!

Little Faces

These are the faces that make me smile, that brighten every day. They often are the source of my stress and frustrations (the two-year-old especially likes to try my patience), but they also bring me the most joy. Maybe these little faces could put a smile on your face too!

Big Day Today in the Allen Home!!!

Grady rolled over!!!!!!

What we've been up to lately

For Labor Day weekend we went to my parent's house. It was really nice. It's amazing that I could forget how beautiful my hometown of Pinetop-Lakeside really is, especially this time of year. I was just in awe driving around at how beautiful everything was. Luke loved being spoiled by Grandma, and Grandma loved spoiling Luke. There are definite perks to being the 1st grandchild! We went to the swimming pool where my sister Emily works as a lifeguard. It was Grady's first time swimming. I can't say that he enjoyed it. He did stay calm if I held him close, but after about 15 minutes he was done. Luke really enjoyed it though.

I convinced my mom and little sister to file Grady's nails for me. There aren't many things I hate more than filing nails. It's like fingernails on a chalk board to me. Thanks mom and Em!

I enjoyed doing a couple laps around Woodland Lake with my mom and Grady in the stroller while Luke played with his dad and Emily at the park. The weekend went by way too fast. We'll have to go up again soon.!

On a different note, I got to take pictures of my friend's little girl. A couple weeks ago she was telling me how she was going to take her little girl to get her pictures taken for her 2nd birthday. I said it was a good idea to take her little girl where she was planning for pictures, but then I basically begged her to let me try for free to take a few pictures of her little girl! She agreed, so last week we went and took these pictures. This was my first time ever taking pictures of someone else's kid, and I learned a lot. It was so much fun, and as you can see she is an exceptionally cute little girl! Here's a few of my favorites.