Halloween and beyond!

Avila Barn Best Friends Photo Shoot

Every year since Darcy and Berkley turned 1 we have been going to the Avila Barn during the Fall for a photo shoot with the girls. Here are a few photos from this year's event.

A busy couple of months

We have not posted anything for quite a while. The Leishman Family has been very busy as of late. We went to Disneyland with the Sinner Family last week. This was Darcy's first time to Disneyland and she absolutely loved it. Having her best friend Berkley there was a major factor in her having a great time and not being afraid of everything. She did great. Darcy's birthday is coming up here as well, on November 1st. I can't believe that my baby girl is going to be 3 years old.

Quick update

It has been a while since I last posted any Leishman Family Happenings. Sephora will be 6 months old on the 21st of this month. We just got to welcome a new niece/cousin to the family, Darby Shannon Fernandez. Darcy is taking a bath right now and just offered Tara some "salsa" made of bubbles. She is such a cutie pie. I finally received my fancy schmancy certificate to frame for the CPA. Seth Leishman, CPA sounds so old and nerdy, but then again I am pretty nerdy. I like to think of myself as a cool nerd though. LOL. I'm still working on the master bathroom. It has been on hold the last couple of months though. I'm taking a day off this week and hitting it hard. I hope to have it done in the next few weeks. The month of August is a fun birthday month around here. We have 8 people to celebrate with this month. All starting today and ending by the 26th, which is Tara's birthday. She has been trying to get me to tell her what I got for her as a present, but I'm like a solid vault!! Fun happenings coming up include, my 50 mile hike with SinDog around the Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon, and a Disneyland trip as a family with the Sinner Family as well in October. It should be a blast!

Keeping my camera out

I've decided to keep my camera out on the table or desk or even the kitchen island. Having it "safe" in it's bag meant that I was missing shots. So, even with my fear that Darcy will somehow pull it down on to the floor, I'm keeping it out. I even bought an HD camcorder, but didn't have it out in the open either, so was also missing great video opportunities. If it breaks, I've still got my trusty Pentax 35mm manual focus that my Uncle Bret gave me.

Scout Camp Here We Go!

My first big event as Scoutmaster is going up to Scout Camp. This year they had already signed up for Rancho Alegre, which is our local camp. I'll head up there tomorrow and stay until Friday. I only have 2 boys going this year, so we teamed up with SM 1st ward's Troop to have strength in numbers. They have 5 boys going. It should be a great week! I'm already beginning to plan next year's Scout Camp. I think we will go to Chawanakee, up at Shaver Lake. I went there for multiple years as a Scout and loved it. I've also thought about taking the boys out to Cherry Valley, which is the Boy Scout Camp on Catalina Island. That would be a blast.

Family Pic

For the first time in quite a while the whole Leishman clan was together in one place. Sephora was blessed this past Sunday and it was great to have all the family in town. I am of course not really that much taller than everyone else, the ground is just sloped up towards me making me look like I'm a foot taller than everyone else.

Silly Face

I asked Darcy to show me her silly face and this is what I got!!

Quick Photo Update

Sephora started to smile back at us! What a cutie pie!! And look at those cheeks!!

A few moments on a quiet Sunday

As I type this Tara, Darcy, and Sephora are all taking a Sunday nap. I almost fell asleep as well, but thought I would get to work sorting through some recent photos to post online. So here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks including Easter.

Grandpa's birthday

Grandpa Leishman's birthday is tomorrow. Since I am a procrastinator I waited until now to take a picture of Darcy and Sephora for his office. So, the picture is just the two girls sitting on the couch. I'll do a fancy one later. But I thought I would post it here just for fun.

Just a quick couple of pictures for some updates on the girls. Darcy is growing like a weed. (Pun intended! ) Sephora is in the 90% for weight. It seems that both our girls are little chunks when they are babies. Sephora is already over 10 pounds at 1 month. She is doing better on sleeping as well. 4 hours straight. Not bad at all. Also, I've been gutting the master bath as well, of course in the middle of tax season. Gotta keep things interesting right?! The tile guy will be here sometime this coming week to tile the shower. I've got to redo the drywall, tile the floor, texture, paint and install all the stuff that goes in there. We are already $2K over budget, but that is to be expected. But I think it will be done in the next month. Then on to the summer projects like painting the outside of the house, filling in the pool, and re-doing the half bath and laundry room.

Quick Update

Just wanted to post a quick update here. Baby and Mother are doing great. Sephora has a little bit of a cold, so she isn't sleeping very well as she is all stuffed up. We gave Sephora her first bath the other day. She managed to stay calm, unlike her big sister who still hates to take a bath. Sleep deprivation has caused us to often forget what day it is. I only remember because I show up to the office and check the calendar to remind me. We went to Waller Park yesterday to feed the ducks. We took a huge bag of old rolls, left over from my Mom's 50th b-day party. Darcy loves to throw the bread to the ducks. Darcy loves her baby sister "Baby Fora." Darcy and I went to church alone today and as we were leaving the building, Darcy told me she wanted to go home and see Mommy and Baby Fora and give them kisses. Well, as for me I am knee-deep in tax returns. We are actually cruising along nicely. That is not to say we aren't insanely busy with taxes and financial planning, but at least I haven't been up til 2AM doing taxes, yet. We are already making plans for what we want to do after this busy time is over. My plans are: master bath re-model, paint the exterior of the house, fill in the pool, do some minor landscaping. That should keep my busy through the summer. Then this fall before it gets cold I want to re-do the duct work in the attic for our heating system. It heats up the bedrooms far more than the rest of the house so I'm going to reduce the size of duct work going to the bedrooms and send more heat to the common areas, kitchen and living rooms. Well, the update turned out to be much bigger than expected. Now to posting a few pictures.

Sephora's 2-week update

Late last night Sephora officially became 2 weeks old. She is doing very good. She grows everyday. Darcy is doing great with her as well. She loves to help with diaper changes and of course loves to give Sephora lots of hugs and kisses. Everyone is healthy, happy, and very tired. Here are a couple of photos. I'll be taking a bunch more this afternoon so I'll post those later!

The New Addition!

At 11:45PM February 21, 2009 the Leishman Family got officially bigger by 1 girl. Sephora Violet Leishman was born at Sierra Vista Hospital at 8lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. Mother and Baby are doing wonderful. We cut is pretty close again this time, getting to the hospital and having the baby born within an hour, just like Darcy. Tara and Sephora will be coming home tomorrow around lunch time. I'm posting a few pictures now. If the photo taking is anywhere near what I did with Darcy, there will be many thousands more to come. Sephora has near black hair, which was a major surprise after Darcy and her blond curly locks.

Just a thought

I heard this on Fox Business yesterday:

A government that embraces a policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul, can always be counted on to support Paul.

Experimental Photography

I don't usually take pictures of anything other than people, especially Darcy in particular. I think I'm up to around 4,000 of her alone. My goal is to take at least the same number of photos of Baby Girl #2, so she doesn't feel like Darcy got all the attention. Anyways, a few weeks back Dillon and I went out to shoot some experimental stuff, in particular an old beat up shack type building and an old abandoned house on a hill. Here are a few of the shots from that afternoon.

Potty Trained

Darcy started potty training about 4 weeks ago. The first week was absolutely HORRIBLE. But after that first week was over, Darcy had gotten the hang of going in the potty. We are so happy and excited that she has really grasped this potty thing, before her baby sister comes, which should be in the next week or two. Not to mention that fact that we don't have to buy all those diapers for Darcy.

Just a little fun

Darcy is such a wonderful photographic subject. I came home from work today and asked her if she would like to do a "Darcy Photo Shoot". She said, "Yeah!" So we took a few pictures just in the family room. Nothing formal or fantastic, but still fun!

Last weekend's home improvement project

Last month's gas bill was a big shock. It had jumped from $100 to $278. I know we had some cold spells, but that was about all I could take. I had already bought a fireplace insert a few weeks ago, but had not found the time to install it. After that bill came, I suddenly had plenty of time to install it. A fireplace insert is basically a large cast iron box that go into your existing fireplace. It has it's own metal chimney pipe that simply goes up the inside of the existing chimney. The fireplace insert has a door that seals and also a fan that turns on and blows the heat created from the fire in the insert out into the room. I bought this one from a guy in Atascadero. I sanded it down and re-painted it. Also polished the metal door. We fired it up and man the family room is nice and warm now. Hopefully our gas bill won't be so high next month!!

38 Weeks

38 weeks and only a couple more to go. The doctor is very mean and says that the baby could come any day, but we all know that she probably won't for at least 2 more weeks. Darcy came 3 days late. Darcy is VERY excited for her baby sister to come out of Mommy's tummy. She wants to hold her and give her hugs and kisses. The holding part might have to wait for a little bit though. We have been very busy around here lately. Working around the house, having fun with our friends John and Kari Sinner, and playing a lot.

The Leishman Family had a wonderful Christmas this year. Seth got a new lens for his camera. He has a Canon 40D and decided to buy the Canon 24-70 F/2.8 L lens for his Christmas present this year. Tara let Seth surprise her, sort of. With a big list of possible presents Seth had to find ones to purchase. He ended up getting her 2 new All-Clad pans, a Boos Block cutting board, and a Pepper Grinder. We are trying to outfit Tara's kitchen to the max!!

We have been working on the house lately. The next post I'll post the pictures from my project from last weekend.