finn's first mountain bike race.

*11.9.13*

i am in awe of how useful the skute bike is. 

we bought one for finn from rei & he has been skuten on it since he his feet were not even able to touch the ground! & then we buy him a big boy (tiny!) bike for christmas when he was 3. 

he took off on it. like seriously, didn't need us at all. it was amazing. he loves going with bryan to papago park & riding down the hills. so, when bryan's boss, theresa, asked if he'd want to sign finn up for a children's race that she use to head up,  he said "why, yes." 

finn warming up.

maya thought about doing it to, but she refused to change out of her dress & 

i was afraid it would get caught in the bike, so she hung out with dad & watched instead.

a little bit nervous & a little bit excited!

finn was second to last up a hill a little past this point & it was a decent hill! 

a girl was behind him. he stopped at the top & let her catch up. 

i asked him about it later & he said because 

he didn't want her to be alone & wanted to let her catch up. 

oh my, knock me over with pride.

this made me laugh.

when bryan couldn't catch up with him, theresa took over. she's such an awesome lady.

i started crying at this point, and i'm doing it again now as i type it. i love that this world is so full of goodness... that people that hardly know my kiddo love him & encourages him.

& a sweet reward for surviving it!

yum!

each kid got a medal!

& then to top off the afternoon... they raffled off a couple bikes from the kids bib numbers. 

they called 522 & i screamed!

an awesome bike, too! it'll be another 6 months or so till he can ride it, but it's pretty sweet.

he can ride it but he can't reach the hand brakes.

& then we rushed home so we could set up for my annual art show. 

i had 5 other artist this year & it was a lot of fun.

i photographed finn's school's portraits...

& it was so much fun. i fretted over it, thinking constantly about how to do it well... it turned out awesome. we finished an hour before i expected to, the volunteer mom's were awesome & totally on top of it, making my job really easy. the kids were adorable!!!  i was on such a high afterwards. 

here are a few of my favorites & finn's& his him with his best buddy:

halloween & other october fun. 2013

finn helped me with making his costume... it was one of the most fun things i've done with him... thinking one day he'll make things all by himself on a sewing machine. how cool is that?

we let maya start using the scissors, she loves it.

bryan is a last minute costume kinda guy, so this year for the ultimate frisbee halloween game he borrowed my marilyn monroe costume. maya was so confused. 


here are the costumes i made for them.

halloween day started out rough. maya didn't want to wear her owl outfit i'd worked at 

least 10 hours on. i handled it really well with bribing, begging & pleading 

& finally offered ballerina & she agreed to that.  we dropped finn off at school & headed to paradise bakery for some treats to help us get through a rotten 2 year old kind of day. 

cute lil dancer, yeah?

carving pumpkins

taken with my phone camera, so lovely quality.

trick or treating with kace & capri!

our favorite babysitter!

aunt sandy visited her bestfriend & met up with us for lunch one day!

we made toilet paper roll owls!

our little garden of spinach, celery, carrots & broccoli.

we went to the botanical gardens to see chihuly's beautiful work.

this was the way maya would throw a tantrum. we've upgraded to hysterical status now, 

boy do i miss those days!

lil hike.

zoo with the ozdoba's!

and then we went to the tempe lights festival with them later that night.

wearing our bekind tshirts. it's an amazing organization that i get to work with.

photographed a wedding in new york. headed up there for a weekend all by my lonesome. stayed with my dear friend carolyn. it was a chilly, windy weekend.  the amazing wedding is here.