Kate...

Kate finally got to wear her Dunks.

She is even showing them off.

See how pumped she is to be wearing her shoes!?!

after kate's nap

this is what i foundall of those diapers are supposed to be neatly organized in the bag hanging off her crib. not only did she take them out and toss them on the floor, she has 3 in her crib with her. it's times like these that make me wish we had a video monitor in her bedroom. i have a feeling she would be hilarious to watch when she thinks she's all alone. it's always so tempting to sneak in on her just before or just after naps when she's in there quietly talking to herself. she has the cutest voice.

here is a picture of kate on my birthday just before we all headed out for the day together.pretty much the best birthday present you could ask for.

Erin's Birthday!!!

My wonderful wife, Erin, was born on this day 29 years ago. Happy birthday Erin! We were able to spend the afternoon together (after I got done shooting for school anyway). We wandered around Tai Pan Trading Co. and Ikea, with a delicious little birthday lunch at Shivers in the middle. Kate was even a good sport most of the day.

I also bought a new lens from Sam, a 50mm 1:1.8. I had to take a few shots to test it out, so the shots of Erin are with my sweet new lens. Check out that shallow depth of field.

To Erin's surprise, we found our stairs and car had been tagged by her young women from the ward. That is awesome of them to have remembered her birthday.My wife is hot. Just look at those eyes.

Grandpa and Grandma Cottle stopped by for a quick visit to end the night. Kate loves her grandpa, and she automatically smiles every time I point a camera at her.

bruises

You can see the small bruise over the left eye in the above photo...

...and the bigger bruise that she has now.

Kate has started to pull herself to standing. This has led to multiple bumps and bruises. She somehow got a bruise on her forehead while taking a nap. THEN she was standing against Erin's leg and fell and hit her head on the coffee table in the same spot as the bruise, creating a BIGGER bruise.

president cottle

so my dad will not be super pleased, i'm sure, that i'm posting about this - but i am . so there. :) my dad has been called to be the new stake president over the monroe, utah stake. this all happened this past weekend. i got a call from my mom saturday evening and she gave me the good news while she was enroute to monroe from denver with my oldest brother. weston and i also drove to monroe late saturday night. my dad was called and set apart by elders wood and moon of the seventy. here is a picture of my dad - it's a few years old and it's obviously from my wedding, but i had to find a picture of my dad in a suit and tie :) if you know my dad, you wouldn't think a picture of him in a suit and tie were hard to come by!many people in town have been teasing my dad these last few weeks that this would happen, including his family members :) i told him, well - you better get used to hearing "i told you so." on sunday, after the meeting, a friend told me he knew my dad was a shoe in. he said he was the perfect man for the job - "he was a military man for all those years, had all that training, then he taught school to mellow him out, now he's retired . . . it's perfect!"

my parents were not expecting this in the least. they were in the process of filling out their mission papers and we were, well i was, bracing myself for the absence of my parents from my life over the next few years. i have to admit, albeit selfishly, i am glad they are going to stick around for at least the next several years and will get a chance to get to know these new grandkids :)

i am so proud of my dad and i am so proud to be his daughter. he is an awesome father, leader, and member of the church. he is a great example to me of humility, duty and obedience, and love.

congratulations dad. i love you and know you'll do a fantastic job!

another nephew!

cynthia and alex had their baby boy, ben, a week ago today. he's already a week old! ben thomas cottle

he was born on the morning of the 5th and was a beefy baby! that's how they make them - cynthia, i'd blame alex for that one. he weighed in at 9 lbs 13 oz! that's just about how much their other son, alex jr., weighed. both about 10 lbs :) today little ben had surgery to correct some large intestine problems and everything went very well - thank goodness! i think we all let out a big sigh of relief to get that news. he will spend the next several days recovering and then he can finally go home with his family. that will be a big day!

my mom has been lucky enough to be in denver with them and to meet little ben. i am jealous :) my dad will join her this next week and i guess we'll have to wait until his blessing to hold him.

congrats you guys! he's a keeper :)

i'm it

i saw this on marisa's blog - it looked like fun. i'm sometimes a sucker for these things . . .

20 YEARS AGO...
1. i was just a couple weeks shy of 9 years old
2. i was in 4th grade with Mrs. O'Connor (best teacher ever)
3. my dad was finished with deployments
4. my best friend was colleen cleary
5. my favorite past-time was swimming in the pool and then drying off on the hot cement driveway while eating icy otter pops

10 YEARS AGO...
1. i had just moved back to orem for my 2nd year of college
2. i was living with rachel . . . oh and roselle (she had a 40 year old boyfriend - creepy)
3. i had just started working at wirthlin worldwide - almost to the DAY (is that sad i remember that?)
4. i finally had a car - i miss the old nova
5. weston and i were spending all our time together

5 YEARS AGO...
1. i was frustrated with said boy (the awful limbo period) :)
2. i was still working at wirthlin, but by then it was called harris interactive
3. i was living in my adorable condo in orem that i LOVED. i painted every common room and my bedroom/bathroom - it was so sad to leave
4. i was plugging away at school - i had finally decided to major in biology ed
5. i was still going to concerts back then :)

3YEARS AGO...
1. i was still going to school and gearing up to do my student teaching
2. we had celebrated our 1 year anniversary a couple of months prior
3. we were living in our 3bdrm in american fork - AF if you're local
4. we were teaching nursery . . . and had no idea we'd still be teaching nursery over a year later
5. weston had just been accepted to and was beginning the photo program at byu

1 YEAR AGO...
1. i was 5 months pregnant
2. i was still working full time
3. i was about to get released as the assistant camp director and called as the YW secretary
4. weston was still in school
5. i was about to get my own golf clubs

THIS YEAR...
1. we had our gorgeous girl
2. we celebrated our 4th anniversary and actually went out of town to celebrate!
3. we haven't spent all 3 hours of church together (we don't teach primary anymore) and have to go to our own classes :)
4. we didn't take our summer california trip (tear)
5. we have adjusted to baby things in every room

YESTERDAY...
1. i worked my 3 or so hours at first interstate mortgage
2. i read, and finished, a book all afternoon and evening (can you guess what it could possibly be?)
3. i fed, changed, bathed (repeat) my daughter
4. weston and i made dinner together
5. i did not clean anything in the house (oops)

TODAY...
1. i went to work for almost 4 hours!!! :)
2. i played with kate
3. i pieced a baby quilt top
4. i read for about 30 minutes
5. i cleaned the bathtub

TOMORROW...
1. i should vaccum and dust
2. i should do some laundry
3. i will go to work
4. i will go to weston's photo dept opening social bbq
5. i will sleep in

NEXT YEAR...
1. weston will finish school
2. we will leave our roomy apartment and stuff our lives into some cramped studio in LA somewhere
3. kate will turn 1! (holy weird)
4. my parents will leave on their mission
5. we might not have any births in the family (well, on the cottle side anyway)

that took a lot of effort!!! someone please do this tag because, more than filling it out, i enjoy reading your answers! (kristi)

Kate's First...

Today was Kate's first skate photo mission. She did wonderfully. Erin came too, and had a ball, I'm sure. Got in, got the photos, and got out without any trouble. If anyone has seen the roof gap at the University of Utah...there was another first thrown down it today.

Isn't it cute how they match?

Kate watching the skateboarders...I think I had the same look on my face.

Just a teaser. Hopefully this ends up in print somewhere. Anyone want to venture what trick Brodie is about to do?

Verifying the THIRD clean landing.

Colston Dunn

Cory and Danae have a new baby boy! Colston was born on Monday, September 1st (Labor Day, how ironic). I hope they don't mind me posting these photos, as they have not yet seen them, nor posted photos of their own on their blog. (I have a disc of the photos waiting for you!) Thanks for letting us come see you so soon and blind you with flashes.

Proud parents! Congrats to you both!

august celebrations

august is a slower month in the family celebrations arena. only 2 birthdays and 2 anniversaries.

first off is august 7th. TWO anniversaries on this day. that's right, 2 of my 3 brothers got married on august 7th - just a few years apart :)

travis and jen got married in 1994 i think??? i'm really sorry about this picture, guys, it's the only recent one i could find (and i stole it from sarah's blog). this is a picture of them at my sister's birthday party - they were dressed in 1968 attire :) not his real hair - haha. of course jen looks cute, as always :) they met in their single's branch in san diego. i remember meeting jen the christmas before they got married; they were both going to be in utah visiting their grandparents. that's right, jen (from CA) had a grandma who lived in MONROE, too. small world, eh? anyway, they kept dating, jen put up with travis :), and they got married in the san diego temple the following august. they spent the next 8 or so years in hawaii (we missed them) and now they, of course, live in denver.

andrew and sarah have been married for 4 years. here they are with their two kids, jane and reynolds on vacation in oceanside.
they met in st. george while they were going to dixie college. after they both went on missions, they decided the sparks were still alive. they got married about 6 weeks after andrew got home. they also live in denver.

ali is our oldest niece on the colton side of the family - she was the first grandchild. she turned FOUR years old on the 19th. i can't believe she's 4!!! time FLIES. this is an old picture, but she looks too cute in it not to use it :)
she is the sweetest little girl and is lucky enough to get to spend a lot of time with her grandma. who wouldn't love that, especially growing up? she has made so much amazing progress this last year and discovers new things all the time that make her giggle and laugh like there's no tomorrow. she is an awesome little girl.

spencer is my oldest nephew on the cottle side of the fam. he turned 14 on the 28th of august. crazy.
this picture was taken earlier this summer at his little brother's baptism. spencer, or rell as i prefer to call him (spencerelli) started high school this month and is at school from 6am to 6pm (early morning seminary and football practice after school). the kid is busier than i ever was at that age - he's busier than i am now. i love spencer to death and i will always be his favorite aunt - it's been that way since he was born :) spence - we'll always have "i'm done" :)