December 2007 Photos
The December 2007 galleries are now complete. These galleries close out the year. You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "December 2007" links on Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, or Olivia's web site. You can also just simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's December 2007 Gallery ... (5 years, 5 months old)
Eliana's December 2007 Gallery ... (3 years old, 9 months old)
Olivia's December 2007 Gallery ... (1 year, 5 months old)

November 2007 Photos
The November 2007 galleries are now complete. You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "November 2007" links on Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, or Olivia's web site. You can also just simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's November 2007 Gallery ... (5 years, 4 months old)
Eliana's November 2007 Gallery ... (3 years old, 8 months old)
Olivia's November 2007 Gallery ... (1 year, 4 months old)

October 2007 Photos
The October 2007 photo galleries for each of the kids is now complete. They aren't many pictures... and about half were taken today and yesterday while the kids were dressed in costume. You can review the "October 2007" galleries using the links on Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, and Olivia's web site. Or simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's October 2007 Gallery ... (5 years, 3 months old)
Eliana's October 2007 Gallery ... (3 years, 7 months old)
Olivia's October 2007 Gallery ... (1 year, 3 months old)

September 2007 Photos
The September 2007 galleries are available. The galleries include pictures from our trip to Cedaredge, Colorado for my grandmother's 90th birthday as well as picture from Berkeley's and ELiana's first days of school. You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "September 2007" links on Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, or Olivia's web site. You can also just simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's September 2007 Gallery ... (5 years, 2 months old)
Eliana's September 2007 Gallery ... (3½ years old)
Olivia's September 2007 Gallery ... (1 year, 2 months old)

August 2007 Photos
The August 2007 galleries are available. You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "August 2007" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site. Or you can simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's August 2007 Gallery ... (5 years, 1 month old)
Eliana's August 2007 Gallery ... (3 years, 5 months old)
Olivia's August 2007 Gallery ... (1 year, 1 month old)

July 2007 Photos
One of the most prolific months of photography has finally come to a close. I think I have posted more pictures in the last month than I ever have before... at least the stretch in the last few days made it seem that way. And I didn't publish everything on my blog that I uploaded to the kid's galleries! Now that we are back in Washington, perhaps we will take less pictures and return to our normal boring lives.

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "July 2007" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site. Or you can simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's July 2007 Gallery ... (5 years old)
Eliana's July 2007 Gallery ... (3 years, 4 months old)
Olivia's July 2007 Gallery ... (1 year old)

(Update Wed Aug 15 21:24:42 PDT 2007 // fixed links june->july)

July 2007 Happy Birthday Hoedown Photos
We held a combined birthday party for Berkeley and Olivia this evening... a happy birthday hoedown, complete with a western theme in honor of two of our favorite outlaws We sent out about 20-25 invitations and much to our surprise we had about 20 kids show up at the party. There were a lot of kids at the party... like a lot.

When each guest arrived, I took pictures of each of them and then print out custom "Wanted" posters of each of the kids (like this one of Eliana). Here are the individual pictures of most of the party guests (Bethany refused to pose for a picture... oh, and my kids are not listed here either):

Um... did I mention there were a lot of kids?

We had plenty of grub for our guests to eat... we prepared just enough food for all that stayed, but way more dessert than was necessary. Here are a couple pictures of the "chuck wagon":

There were many activities that the kids were involved in, including: panning for "gold" in the sandbox, making cowboy vests out of grocery paper bags, coloring, target practice, and lasso roping. But the most popular activity of the party was, by far, the pony rides. *grin* We snapped a bunch of pictures of the party guests riding ponies, but here are just some of our kids. There was quite a line for the pony rides - I have included one of Berkeley standing in line waiting his turn... it's a great picture of him.

After the pony rides, then there was the small matter of the cake. As this was a shared birthday party for both Olivia and Berkeley, we had two cakes prepared. Berkeley and Olivia blew out the candles on their respective cakes at the same time.

We then set Olivia down in her high chair for a piece and let her go:

What next? Opening presents of course!

After the party was over the boys (myself and Berkeley) were exhausted... but the girls (Kristy and Eliana) were all smiles! See below:

Finally... here are a couple of the best pictures taken tonight. The first is of Berkeley; it was snapped while everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him. He is absolutely ecstatic... looking at the picture almost makes me want to cry because he is so happy. The second picture is of Olivia riding the fake little pony we had set up for the lasso roping activity.

Great pictures both... makes all of the work to organize, set up, run, and clean up after the party completely worth it.

Dave/Shelli Wedding
My nephew David (Kristy's oldest sister's eldest son) was married today. Kristy traveled down to Mesa in the early morning hours, attended the wedding and the wedding reception, then returned home in the evening. While in Mesa she was able to visit with her sisters Tamra, Karen, and Tonya, her brother Dan, her Dad (Richard) and Mom (Bertha), as well as Windsor and Tamra/Windsor's other children (Aaron, Ben, Andrew, and Kate). It was a whirlwind trip, but she is glad she went.

Here are the pictures she took, click to enlarge:

Independence Day 2007 Photos
We snapped these picture while we spent the afternoon and evening at the Bell home for our indepence day party (more about the party here). The kids had a blast and spent much of the time on the slip-n-slide. The slide was situated partially on a small hill. David (the Bell's 12-yr-old son) extended the slide with a blue tarp... which you can see in some of the pictures below (click to enlarge).

When the kids weren't sliding, they were busy doing other activities (or eating). We adults pretty much just sat around on the grass... see below.

June 2007 Photos
The kids galleries for the month of June are now available for review. The gallery consists of previously published photos with the exception of several that were taken on my recent business trip to Utah. I've included those photos below (click to enlarge):

You can review the full galleries either by accessing the "June 2007" links on Berkeley's web site or Eliana's web site. Or you can simply access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's June 2007 Gallery ... (4 years, 11 months old)
Eliana's June 2007 Gallery ... (3 years, 3 months old)
Olivia's June 2007 Gallery ... (11 months old)

Backyard Photos
I promised my sister-in-law Jessica (the sister-in-law Jessica on Kristy's side, not the sister-in-law Jessica on my side) that I would send her some pictures of our backyard. I promised her the pictures about two weeks ago. Oops.

Here they are:

May 2007 Photos
The May 2007 galleries for each of the kids are now complete. You can review the pictures at Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, and Olivia's web site. Or just access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's May 2007 Gallery ... (4 years, 10 months old)
Eliana's May 2007 Gallery ... (3 years, 2 months old)
Olivia's May 2007 Gallery ... (10 months old)

April 2007 Photos
The galleries for April 2007 are now closed. The pictures have all been posted here before and consist (for the most part) of pictures we took while vacationing in Little Cayman. You can review the pictures at Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, and Olivia's web site. Or just access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's April 2007 Gallery ... (4 years, 9 months old)
Eliana's April 2007 Gallery ... (3 years, 1 month old)
Olivia's April 2007 Gallery ... (9 months old)

March 2007 Photos
One more month of photos is now in the books! The galleries for March 2007 include a handful of pictures that I have previously published individually on this space (but there may have been a few that snuck into the albums without getting posted here). You can review the pictures at Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, and Olivia's web site. Or just access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's March 2007 Gallery ... (4 years, 8 months old)
Eliana's March 2007 Gallery ... (3 years old)
Olivia's March 2007 Gallery ... (8 months old)

March 2007 Eliana Birthday Party Photos
Here are some pictures from Eliana's birthday party. Kristy spent a good deal of time getting ready for the party. There was a throne for the guests to sit on, some tables with different castles to play with, an arts and crafts table where guests could color or make a crown, a makeup table, a necklace stringing table, and a castle ring toss game. Here are some pictures of just a few of the party preparations.

	Kristy decorated one of our living room chairs to be throne. We borrowed the long strip of red carpet from Jerrod and Tracy.
	Kristy and I made the castle turrets to add to Eliana's doll house. I built them and Kristy painted them. Eliana received the doll house for Christmas.
	Here is Berkeley at one of the different play tables we had. This table had Berkeley's little toy castle on it, so it is no surprise that he gravitated here. Another table had Eliana's "Hello Kitty" castle on it.
	Here is the makeup table... it included lipstick, nail polish, mirrors, brushes, and combs. It was probably the most popular activity at the party.

I snapped a picture of each guest in costume while seated on the throne. Here are a few pictures of Eliana, Berkeley, and Olivia while seated on the throne. Both Kristy and I dressed up as well.

Cinderella was a special guest at Eliana's birthday party, here are some pictures of Cinderella arriving at the party and giving Eliana a big hug.

Cinderella spent some time teaching the princesses-in-training some dance moves.

Cinderella brought Eliana a special gift, a pair of full arm-length satin princess gloves. Sweet!

Of course, the gallery would not be complete without the obligatory pictures of the cake, candles, and Eliana opening her presents.

Happy Birthday Eliana!

February 2007 Photos
The end of another month closes out another set of photo galleries for the kids. The galleries for February 2007 have quite a few pictures. We must have let the guilt from not taking very many pictures in January get the better of us. The picures can be reviewed at Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, and Olivia's web site. Or just access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's February 2007 Gallery ... (4 years, 7 months old)
Eliana's February 2007 Gallery ... (2 years, 11 months old)
Olivia's February 2007 Gallery ... (7 months old)

January 2007 Photos
The January 2007 photo galleries for Berkeley, Eliana, and Olivia are now closed. The galleries are somewhat sparse (to say the least). We must not have been in much of a picture-taking mood in January I guess. Nonetheless, what we did take can be reviewed at Berkeley's web site, Eliana's web site, and Olivia's web site. Or just access the galleries directly using the following links:

Berkeley's January 2007 Gallery ... (4½ years old)
Eliana's January 2007 Gallery ... (2 years, 10 months old)
Olivia's January 2007 Gallery ... (6 months old)