Nicole

Nicole! Babe-a-lish! What out world, here comes Coli, the 7-year-old bomb-shell. You look stunning.

Elise in Photoshop

Elise, Luke went nuts today when he came into the room and saw me editing your picture! I think you are one of his favorite. Love your spunk, kid! You look more like your mom all the time too. Just don't adopt her punching abilities ... I'll tell you about it sometime ... just not when she's around. I'll even show you some scars on my biceps to prove it.

Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn, you look older all the time. I guess that's redundant. I think you are going to pass me up height-wise any day now too.

Micah

Micah, you vixen, you! I could have edited a lot more pics, but I figured that this was enough. You look gorgeous. Love that red hair!

Tyler

Here's a look at Tyler. I added on extra of Mariah too. Who needs professional senior photos when you've got Aunt Keni?

Tyler was laughing so much that I had a hard time getting a picture of him with his eyes open.

Mariah

(my fav)

Time for the annual Bates Family grandkids photos. Here they are, listed from oldest (Mariah) to youngest (Ashlyn). I will post them over multiple posts. I tried to edit at least 3 photos for each child so that you have options to chose from (for those who want the files). Let me know what you think. Hope you like.

So without further comment, on with my nieces and nephews!!!

Last of the Cali pics

Like I said before, for the details on the trip, refer to our other blog. Gotta run.

More shots from Cali

Few Pics From Cali Trip

Just a few pics from our trip to California March 8-13th. All the details are on our other blog, and since I have neither the time or the sanity to type up all the details again, you will just have to refer to it if you want to know more about these shots. Let's just say we had a great time, came home exhausted, and are happy it so well. Love ya Cook. You made it all possible and worth it!

Luke has started imitating faces really well. This is an imitation of Jared's that he likes to do. Sometimes he'll hold it for several seconds, which is awesome!

The Black Kids

Koria

Kimball

Luke

Layne

One of the advantages of the digital age is that you can take as many pics of your kids as you want. My most-photographed subjects are always our children. When we returned home from Stake Conference today, I thought I'd take a couple pictures of each one and noticed how old they look. Time's going by too fast. Here's a look at the Black kids, as of today.

Same Area, Different Seasons

That's a good summary for both our lives right now, and also the look of land. We're still in Huntington, Utah, still trying to keep up with craziness.

I took the last three photos this past fall, but I just took the top one on Thursday. Same area, lots of change. I posted several other photos from the day on our other blog, but just thought that I'd hurry and post this one here for a comparison on how things look, depending on what time of the year it is.

Best Shot of the Season

Happy (late) Holidays from us.

The Next Great Movie Duo

I just might make this our scene saver.

The Big Night

Today is officially Halloween, but for us, we celebrated all things creepy last night. In the #2 spot as his favorite holiday (bested only by Christmas, and that's by a very small margin), Jared went all out in his attempts to make a spook alley for the kids in the back of the house. They helped by making their own pictures of ghosts, witched, jack-o-lanterns, and other various ghouls for the wall decor. We bought some pumpkins, but ran out of time to carve them. Koria got to dress up in her fifth costume of the week, and we all enjoyed the trunk-or-treat put on by our ward, which turned into a church foyer-or-treat as it started pouring rain just as the outside festivities were to begin. We dished out two gigantic bowls of Halloween goods, with only a few left to spare, and received the same amount back in what Koria and Kimball were given. Princess Leia and Darth Vader were the ultimate Halloween couple, although the Skunk Boy and Dragon Girl tied for first place. I got to drive in to Walmart and buy a new battery for the car (yeah!) and cold medicine (although I still can't breath), which was treat enough for me, and we all enjoyed driving to some neighbors and friends' homes for some traditional trick-or-treating adventures. One of our neighbors, the Thomsons, get really into Halloween. They have a whole array of mechanical people and horrors set up in their yard. Their latest addition this year was a moving redheaded girl that screams and moans. It was so lifelike that we thought she was real until we approached her (they happen to be redheads themselves). Ed asked if we "liked his new redhead." Awesome! One things for sure, ours DID NOT. The kids get so scared that Jared has to carry them to-and-from the door. Jared eats it all up. He's actually in awe of the Thomsons. Koria and Kimball have been telling me since last night that they are "never going to the creepy house again." We'll see next year. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, and include a few other pics from the night in another post.

Layne

The Loot

Leia and Vader

Luke