Greetings from the UP

It has been way too long since I updated this thing. Since my last post our little family has moved cross country, have a new house, new jobs and also a new ward. It has been a very busy couple of months but we are having a wonderful time! Being back in Marquette (my hometown) has been so fun for me. I have loved seeing old friends and favorite hang outs and most importantly getting to be near my family. Rorie is enjoying being the center of attention and is enjoying the summer weather even more. It has been a very mild summer here but we have still managed to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors. Here are some great beach pics:





This June was our 2 year anniversary. Since we were a little tight on cash after the move we made it a pretty low key night. We went out to dinner without Rorie and then spent the rest of the evening at Presque Isle ( a local scenic destination) enjoying the beautiful scenery. It is so hard to believe that it has already been two year! Hopefully the next two years will be just as great!

The last bit of exitement since our move was the 4th of July. Jake got to be in the local parade with the rest of the local armed forces. Rorie fell asleep shortly before the parade started and I was working, but the rest of my family was there to cheer him on. That afternoon we all headed down to Marquette's annual Food Fest. The festival is a super fun tradition where all the local vendors bring their food (both local and foreign cuisine) to sell for charity. We had a great time walking, eating and visiting. That night after Rorie fell asleep Jake and I headed down to south beach to watch the fireworks display. It was pretty cold by then but we managed to keep warm :) All together it was a wonderful day! here are some cute (and patriotic) pics of Rorie enjoying the festivities:




We hope you are all having a great summer and we will post more later.

Love

The Kenisons

My New Obsession

When I found out that Jake and I were having a baby, I started scrapbooking to record all of Rorie's special moments. When we moved to Marquette just a couple of months ago I was introduced to a new form of scrapbooking: Digital Scrapbooking. My friend Hailey and her husband are professional photographers and she started doing this to keep up with all of their amazing photos. Since she showed me the ropes I have been going non stop ! I never thought that I would love it more than the traditional paper method, but it is a million times better! Here is why:

1. DS is ten times faster than paper
2. Because it is all on the computer it is easy to pick it up when you have an extra 10 minutes, without having to set up a million supplies.
3. It is possible to fix mistakes with the click of mouse which means no wasted supplies!
4. It is all saved on your computer so if the hard copies are damaged/destroyed you just print a new one.
5. You have the option of publishing your work to a web site (like blogspot) or having them professionaly bound and printed.
6. Even including the initial software costs and printing costs it is SO much cheaper than paper!

If anyone is interested in starting I definantly recomend buying Adobe Photoshop Elements 7, it is the most amazing program ever :)

So now that I am done ranting, here are a couple of my favorite pages from Rorie's baby book:

Obviously this page is of Rorie's Blessing Day. For some reason none of the pictures from that day turned out very well. They were grainy and had a weird color to them. The creative solution? SEPIA! It makes the slightly grainy look appear vintage and since the dress Rorie is wearing was originally my grandmothers (and my mom and I's) christening dress, it compliments it perfectly.


This is one of my favorites because both of these pictures show a slightly sillier side of Rorie. The one with Rorie bent over looks like a yoga pose....Downward Dog :)


This kit (the digital combination of papers, elements and fonts) is one of my all time favorites! It is so colorful and happy with so many element options. I could have made ten more pages with this kit without repeating anything.

Well I hope you enjoyed the pages and I hope I encouraged some of you out there to get creative!

Love,

Meg

Rorie and Dallin Birthday Portraits

So we are in the final countdown to the big move! We will be leaving first thing Thursday morning and heading for Marquette. So as you can Imagine we are super busy, but I just could not resist a quick post to show off Rorie and her cousin Dallin's one year portraits....SO ADORALBLE!


So these two above were their formal outfits that they had for Easter. Dallin is too cute in his little shirt and tie!

We absolutely love this pic, but it sort of looks like they are a little married couple :) :)

So it is not quite as obvious from these Pics but Dallin is HUGE...he is 11lbs bigger than Rorie...our little football stud.

Im one!

This pic was spur of the moment when we realized their casual outfits matched too...so glad we did it! This one really captures their silly personalities, especially when they are together.

We had to get a standing shot because that is the most noticeable physical change..she is only a pound and a half bigger than she was 6 months ago!

This is my absolute favorite of Rorie...you get a good tooth shot. All though these images dont have it...all of the printed pics have a sort of vintage overlay so it sort of has a sepia tone to it and they are just beautiful!

McCall Road Trip

This weekend Rorie and I went on an all girls road trip, first to Boise, ID then to McCall to visit my Grandmother. We left early on Thursday and spent the majority of the day driving. It was a long day with Rorie in the car and I have never been more relieved to arrive somewhere in my entire life! It was great to see both Grandma (or Granny to Rorie) and my Uncle Bill. We spent that evening just hanging out and visiting. My Grandma has two dogs, Tigger and Angus. Angus and Rorie were immediate pals, but Tigger was a lot harder to convince. Rorie's tendency to grab anything within her immediate vicinity, i.e. tails, ears, face, did little to create any goodwill between them.

This is Tigger, hiding on the couch just out of reach of Rorie's grabby hands. The entire time we were there Rorie never gave up on trying to play with Tig. It didnt help much that Tig no longer has a barker...so that all of the natural warning signs she was giving off (barking/snarling) came out as very innefectual coughing sounds.

Friday morning Grandma, Rorie and I headed up towards McCall. It was a nice clear day and the drive was SO BEAUTIFUL! I had forgotten how much I love the area. We arrived at the cabin in the late afternoon. I wasn't feeling well so we kept the rest of the day pretty low key, grocery shopping at the local store and just enjoying the cabin atmosphere. Rories favorite feature of the cabin as well as the most dangerous, were the stairs to the upper floor. The rest of the weekend was mostly spent keeping her away from them or diligently following her up and down them.

Here is a nice little action sequence for you:




Poor Rorie was almost constantly in a state of un-dress. She just cant quite manage to keep her pants on!

We spent the rest of the weekend exploring McCall and enjoying our quality time together. We just had so much fun and I can't wait to go up there again. Here are a few more random pics from the trip:
Rorie and Granny having bath time in the kitchen sink

Prior to her bath Rorie helped Granny unload the dishwasher...naked of course.


In Boise we had to get a little creative when it came to a high chair for Rorie. Necessity IS the mother of invention...
McCall cabin Sunday morning after we got a little fresh snow


Packing up Sunday morning we had to make sure that Lilly got home with us, so Rorie volunteered to let her go piggy back.

Lilly's Bday Party

Today Rorie went to her very first Birthday party! Her friend Lilly from our play group turned one today and all of her little friends from the ward came over to help her celebrate. Her mom Melissa went all out with the decorations. She had streamers, balloons and party hats!(which the babies barely tolerated) All of the kids seemed to be a little confused by the commotion and picture taking but they managed to enjoy themselves in spite of us. After the party each of the kids received a kid friendly party favor: Chinese takeout boxes filled with gold fish and cheerios.


Lilly the Birthday Girl!


Rorie was just obsessed with this balloon. She spent almost the entire party chasing it around the room.


This is a picture of the "Happy Birthday" Banner and streamers that Melissa put up. The room looked great!


This is a pic of Lilly with her birthday balloon boquet... a present from her grandma



Lilly really didn't like her birthday hat


Rorie was so good! She kept her hat on the whole time...so cute!


It was such a fun day for both Rorie and I and I just can't wait for it to be Rorie's turn (just a month and a half to go!).

Dec to Present ( the Readers Digest edition)

Well once again it is time for blogging catch-up. The last few months have just flown by! We got to spend the Holidays in Marquette which meant lots of Rayhorn-style excitment. Rorie and I came about a week before Christmas which meant we were flying solo. While it was well worth it to see my family it is not an experience that I have any desire to repeat (although it seems inevitable) It was so fun to be able to catch up with everybody and to visit all of my favorite Marquette places. Christmas morning was pretty low key with all of us enjoying watching Ben Ben and Rorie opening presents (despite the fact that they could have cared less). We were back in Utah in time for New Years day which we spent down in Levan with Jakes family. His sister Carrie and her husband were in from California and it was a lot of fun to catch up with them and their two boys. We also got to spend some more time with Jakes sister Bethany and her new Fiance Tori. It is so much fun to watch another couple in that "twitterpation" phase and to see how much fun the two are having together.
Our biggest news of the New Year is that Jake has joined the US Navy. It was a decision that took a lot of thought and research but in the end it seemed like the best thing for our family. This will allow Jake to pay for the rest of school (plus they are paying for my schooling too!) and most importantly will provide the health coverage that is such a neccesity for our family. Jake has chosen a job in the Advanced Electrical/Computer Field (AECF) and has an official ship date of December 15th. However Jake is in line for the next available seat as soon as he is done with school so we may be leaving as soon as May! We are just so excited for this next step!
Rorie is an ever changing source of entertainment for both Jake and I. While she is just as small as ever (only 15lbs) her personality is always growing. She has recently started to say both "mama" and "dada" which she mainly uses to whine, but it is still a lot of fun to hear. She is going through a rather trying phase of wanting to be held constantly and has also developed an aversion to strange men (which unfortunantly includes her Grandpa Kenison) but she is still as friendly as ever with everyone else. Just this last week she got her very first tooth (finally!) and her now toothy smile is cuter than ever. While she isnt quite walking yet she is slowly making the transition. She loves to walk around the room (as long as she can hold your hand) and will stand all by herself for a few seconds (as long as she doesn't realize you are no longer holding her up) and she seems fascinated by her friends that are taking their first steps. We are torn between our anticipation for this new phase and our dread knowing that it will be just that much harder to keep tabs on her.

Here are some pics of the last few months, ENJOY!


" Look mom Grandpa gave me chocolate"

Downward Dog

Rorie enjoying some blackberries

Turkey Day!

I love this time of year! Great food, great friends and great family. It was Rories very first Thanksgiving and we went down to Levan to spend the day with Jakes family. Jakes younger sister (the one just down in line from him) recently got engaged (YAY!) so her fiance and his entire family joined us for dinner. We had such a large group that the only place big enough for us was the church cultural hall (only in Utah...).

This is a picture of Tory (Beth's Fiance), and Jake's sisters Andrea and Katie

Since Jake and I wanted to enjoy our meal without Rories grabby hands, we decided to strip her down to a onesie, give her some potatoes, and just let her go nuts. By the end of it she was covered from head to toe, but the pictures were priceless!

With potatoe in every conceivable crevice the only thing we could do was strip her down and stick her in the sink. It was her first experiance haveing a real situp bath and she LOVED it! It took her a few minutes to figure out that if she put her hands down really fast she could splash water all over but when she did I, and the counter were soon soaked. My cries of protest only seemed to egg her on and by the end there was more water outside of the sink than in.

We went back home that night because Jake had to work a half day on Friday, and I had some Black Friday shopping to do. It was my first experiance with Black Friday and I can safely assume that it is my last. I have never seen such a downright brutal and disgusting display in all my life. By the time I left they had already called in the Police and an ambulance...CRAZY. That evening we got to go to our friends the Petersons. All of the kids were home for the weekend and we had a great time visiting with everyone.

We hope that everyone had a great Holiday and we are so excited to see all of our Marquette friends and Family in just a couple of weeks!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!