The Family Photo Opp

We are spending a week in Oklahoma with Aaron’s family for Thanksgiving.  Allyson flew in from New York, Jerry and Carol have been generous hosts, and Elayna has expanded her dictatorship to a new state.  We’re having a fun time – especially Elayna who’s demanding daily rides in the golf cart and all-you-can-eat M&M’s.

Yesterday we celebrated the day after Thanksgiving with Aaron’s other siblings from Oklahoma City.  Jenny, Mike, Laura, and ALL of their families joined us in Blackwell for a great day.  Of course, I declared a photo shoot and forced everyone to sit for family shots…  I’ll just assume everyone enjoyed it as much as I did!

The full family!

 

Laura, Jenny, Aaron, Mike, Allyson

Jerry and all his kids

The Lee’s:  Sam, Jenny, Chris, and Amanda

The Cudd’s:  Sean, Dylan, Laura, Rich, and Ryan (and new member Elayna)

The Kellum’s:  Mike and Will

 

Sisters!  Allyson, Jenny, and Laura

Vegas Baby

I spontaneously took a girls’ trip to Las Vegas last weekend. I feel like its been years since a spontaneous trip so I am very proud of myself….

Tammy Hagan and I drove out to Vegas Friday morning.  I did try to convince her that not much happens to Vegas during the day so we didn’t need to hurry – but we were up at 6am anyway.  Our friend Catina Mackelfresh flew in from Chicago and we miraculously were able to check into the Excalibur early!

The weekend was a great vacation from life!  We ate amazing food – including Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood.  We went to the Price is Right Live show.  I lost $$ and we shopped and walked a ridiculous amount.  Our massages on Sunday morning were heavenly.  And I spent a fun evening catching up with my old friend Jenny Gilbert Scott.

A few pictures:

Too many pictures….

October was a busy month for taking professional pictures!  First Elayna had her school portraits done (yes, they do this at daycare).  And THEN we had Amy Lee do our family Christmas card pictures.

To see Amy’s pictures, go to www.amyleephotography.com

Click on Client Sessions.  Username is Ckellum.  Password is Elayna

Here are copies of Elayna’s school pictures.  I still don’t know how the photographer convinced her to pose and sit still like this. 

Her class picture and teacher Ms Cindy.  There are more than 4 kids in her class and several girls – I don’t know where they all were this day!  But look at Elayna’s head-tilt.  She’s a natural model!!

We love Ms Cindy.  She’s convinced us that Elayna is ready for big-girl panties (even though she’s boycotting the potty at our house) so today’s is Elayna’s first day without diapers.  I sent her to school with 3 extra pairs of pants.  We’ll see how it goes….

Trick or Treat

I love Halloween!!  Elayna did such a great job trick-or-treating this year and looked adorable in her costume!  She was a white and pink horse, complete with Princess crown, and she loved showing off for the neighbors.  With some coaxing, she’d say ‘Trick-Tweat’ and a sweet ‘Thank you’ for all her candy.  I also learned to give her a sucker to satisfy the candy cravings and she’ll work on that for hours.

Playing with Brook and Clancy in the afternoon.  Thanks Brook and Alicia for coming up for dinner!!  Clancy was not into his pirate costume but it was cute watching Elayna dress him.  He’s a pretty good sport.

Trick or treating.  She’s all set to go and we stopped at our neighbors Rich and Belinda’s first.  So cute!!  The horse was pretty cumbersome and droopy after a few houses.

With our neighbor Ella.  Elayna wore this cheerleading costume last year – go Sooners!