Welcome, Mason!

Well, after waiting and waiting, and then some more waiting, Mason finally made his entrance into the world today. Almost 9 lbs (!!!) and a perfect chunky little boy. I can't wait to meet him! Welcome to the family, Mason!

Boise Fire Department Toy Brigade

Every year, my office has quite the competitive toy drive for the kids at the Ronald McDonald House, St. Luke's Children's Hospital, and City Light. This year, we had such an amazing amount of donations (it got a little competitive) so the Boise Fire Department extended an offer to have two people do a ride-along to pass out the toys to the kids.

 

(PBL Toy Drive)

 

 

I jumped all over that opportunity, and decided this would be a great life lesson for Carter. So today, we met up with the Boise Fire Department and rode the BSU fire truck to pass out toys. What an amazing experience! We rode on the top of the fire truck, so it was COLD! But holy cow, did we have a great time! And what a humbling experience at the St. Luke's Children's Hospital. One kid came running up to Santa and said "Santa! I made it another year!" Talk about crying my eyes out. Like 14 times. Putting smiles on those kids' faces is truly the meaning of Christmas. I'm so glad Carter got to experience this, and I was so happy to share this day with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas, Part 1

We are mixing Christmas up quite a bit this year - in a good way!

 

Still playing catch-up on some of the pictures, both from the big camera and the new phone camera.  When Kendall and I were checking out the lights for the tree, Annie was sure to be involved. She kept swatting at Kendall's hands with the lights, and trying to chew the cords. I thought for sure the cat would chew through the wires and be toast before Christmas actually got here.

 

 

 

 

 

Messing around with some settings on the camera.......leads to some interesting shots.

 

 

Once the bulk of the presents were wrapped and under the tree, Carter set out to count how many for each person, etc. I swear, I'm going to go to the numbering system my mom did for a few years! Totally threw us all off, and definitely kept us from messing with all of the boxes.

 

 

 

 

Carter has really turned into a bookwork and I could not be happier about that! I have some time off for the holidays, so I have been doing a lot of my own reading. Yesterday, Carter joined me on the couch and cruised through an entire book. It totally makes my day to chill on the couch with him, books in our hands.  (Well, typically a Nook in mine.)

 

 

Today, we frosted the remainder of the sugar cookies and took them around to some of the neighbors. Several of us have really banded together recently, and what better way to share the Christmas cheer than a plate of SUGAR!! ;)

 

 

 Since my mom is still up north waiting on that dang baby, my dad joined the kids and me for an early Christmas celebration. I made a nice dinner and we launched into opening gifts.

 

Both kids are totally into art stuff......little do they know what Santa has in store for them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can tell this is going to be a big BSU Christmas!  ;)

 

 

 

Stay tuned - we have lots more Christmas to share!

Casey & Kristi {FAMILY}

I love shooting with this family. We all braved the cold after a couple of bad-weather reschedules, and finally got their shoot done. My last one of 2015!