Easter 2011

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We sure did!

Decorating Easter Eggs
Caleb ate cookies and watched from his high chair. Next year, Caleb!

Celeste enjoyed it

The Hunt
Next year she'll have someone to race her to the eggs!

Looking through the baskets

Caleb loved shaking the eggs

But the grass was his favorite!

Easter Outfits

Three

It's hard to believe Celeste turns THREE today! Here's a walk down memory lane...

Newborn (wow, I looked tired!)

4 Months

7 Months

1 Year


2 Years
(Her 3 Year picture was just posted not too long ago.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CELESTE!
You bring so much joy into our lives and we are so blessed to have you in our family. We love you!

A First

I was asked to take pictures of a bride and groom at their wedding reception. It was the first time I've ever done wedding pictures. It makes me nervous and I hesitated committing myself to do it. However, I love taking pictures and I'm never going to get better or feel comfortable doing it if I don't get the experience. So I jumped in and did it. Here are a few pictures I got.

The Cake

Decorations

Bouquet

The Bride and Groom

Congratulations! Thanks for giving me the experience and hopefully you are pleased with the results.

First Hair Cut

On March 18th, Caleb got his first hair cut. It was much needed!

Before

I braved the job. It's not very even, but it works! During

And the handsome boy after

I'm Lovin' It!

It makes me so happy when I have a good photo shoot with my children. I LOVE IT!

And I love them!

Thanks for letting me share!

Year in Review

The Mikesell's 2011 Medical Year
(And it's only the beginning of March...)

Jan 5th (ish): Ryan had an MRI and x-rays on his back.
Ryan's deductible met.

Jan 19th: Celeste slammed her finger in a heavy door. Her whole finger was swollen and black and blue. Thought it might be broken so we had x-rays on it. Turns out it wasn't broken.
Celeste's deductible met, which means the family deductible is met.

MID-JANUARY AND OUR FAMILY DEDUCTIBLE IS MET! (how sad)

March 4th (Friday): Caleb has a horrible "junky" cough and fever so I took him to the doctor. I normally don't take my kids in but I was worried this time. Caleb got to have a chest x-ray. Results were bronchiolitis pretty bad and pneumonia starting in his left lung. The poor guy is on two antibiotics and nebulizer breathing treatments. Thankfully I listened to my gut feeling and took him in. I'm afraid he would have been one sick little guy by Monday.

A year for x-rays? I guess I'm the last one. Hopefully I won't need one! But since our family deductible has already been met, we're just working on meeting the out of pocket! With all this said, I really am grateful for my families health. We are truly blessed with great health most of the time. I am also thankful for modern medicine. It's amazing.

Hope everyone is staying healthy this winter!

Another One!

My family will soon have TWO missionaries out at the same time! A few weeks ago my parents, Caleb, and I surprised my little brother by driving down to Provo and taking him is mission call that had come in the mail. He was expecting us to just read it to him over the phone, but we decided it was a once in a life time chance and it was HIS call. So, we made a quick, but fun trip for it!

Here is his nervous face as he's opening the envelope

This is his excited face!

Everyone standing around with three phones on speaker to the rest of the siblings

And this is his pleased look.

Quinton is super excited to have been called to the Russia, Novosibirsk mission. He enters the Provo, UT MTC May 18, 2011.

Caleb was such a good traveler! We drove down (5 hours) on snowy roads and attempted to come back that night but only made it half way. We slept, got up in the morning, and made the rest of the journey home.
I'm glad Caleb and I could tag along with my parents to be there when he opened his call. We're excited for him and know he'll be a great missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.