and the winner(s) are....

MELISSA & JAMIE!!
you were the only 2 that guessed correctly which pumpkin I carved so I'm giving you BOTH the prize... send me a photo to jazz up -- shandyvogt@hotmail.com
Just so you guys don't have to go back and look through all of the comments... I carved the pumpkin on the far right - of the witch stirring the cauldron :) It was my first attempt at such intricacies but quite doable if you follow a pattern ;)
Thanks for playing everyone!!
oh, the pumpkin that received the most votes was the 2nd (from left - the skinny lady in the fire) - my SIL actually carved that one... and no one thought I carved the witch flying over the rooftops - LOL (which my other SIL carved)... my 2 brothers carved the other ones....
so there ya have it!
Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN (from the cutest berries in the patch)

my *berry cute* little girls wanted to wish you a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! (the more gruesome ghouls - aka my boys - will be wishing you a happy halloween later on.... heheheh)

ps: if you want to get in on the contest below for a free photo edit you've got till tonight to leave your vote :)

ps: a little hint... the correct answer has already been posted... so that narrows it down ;)

Donuts down the drain & a fun contest

Fall is in the air and I love it!!!! So I endeavored to dive into some homemade goodness (to take to the gals I VT -- so if I VT you... please don't read this - hehehhe)... so here it is the end of the month... and I still have 2 sisters left to visit and so I thought I'd make homemade doughnuts for them! Maybe it was more for me - doughnuts are my weakness - LOL... but Melissa S. had posted on her incredible blog (I highly recommend you guys check her out! - we used to do carpool together to preschool before we each moved - miss ya Melissa!) anyway, she posted some step by step instructions on how to make these homemade donuts - simple, easy and YUMMY!!! So we make up like 80 PLUS the donut holes (we figured we'd take them to our neighbors too and the people John home teaches, etc...) so get them all made and put onto the plates and then (thinking I'm soooo very smart) I put saran wrap over them to help prevent little boys from sneaking into them (they had cooled a good 45 min. or so...) but sadly that wasn't enough... I went back to look at my beautiful creations about an hour later and noticed all of the powdered sugar was no longer visible... then I saw it. the condensation. I was sad. so my yummy, homemade treats became a soggy, rubbery dough mess... I took the wrap off to let them "dry back out" but now they're a re-dried rubbery donut... so any of you who I VT and are reading this... just know I was thinking of you the whole time I was making these and you'll just have to enjoy the photo! OK.. now onto the contest: I found this photo from a few years back -- my side of the family LOVES Halloween! it's a serious love affair! So I was fortunate to be able to celebrate this holiday with them when the boys and I were staying with them while John was in Iraq -- Myself and each of my siblings carved a pumpkin (yes.. we are very detailed! LOL) and here are our stash of carved vegetation -- pretty sweet, huh?
so the contest is...
GUESS WHICH PUMPKIN I CARVED...
post your guesses in the comment section and I'll radomly draw a "winner" from those that guess correctly for a free photo edit (I couldn't really think of a coolio prize - so I'll pretty up a picture for ya ;) I'll leave the *voting* open until Friday.... (and yes, I promise I did carve one of the pumpkins below :)

Swings at the Park

So a cool picture lots of twin moms try to get is the "swing pic"... I had thought my opportunity had passed with the weather turning cooler... but Saturday was really beautiful and quite pleasant (close to 70!) so I headed out to take the "swing pic"... ok.. I didn't realize how hard it would be to find a baby swing! I hit 6 - yes, SIX different parks before finding one! But it was worth it :) Aubrie and Lexi really loved it! I took all of the pictures first - so they wouldn't know that they were supposed to be moving in this thing - hehehe... There were actually 2 swings so after I got some of the pictures of them together I put them each in their own swing and gave them little pushes... awwww.. it was oh so sweet!!

oh, on another little fun side note: These little sweaters were the VERY FIRST thing I bought after we found out they were twin girls :) I've been waiting all year for them to fit!... don't they look adorable!?

Need your prayers

My best friend Bill's daughter, Becca, has bacterial meningitis. They rushed her to the emergency room tonight via ambulance. Their pediatrician misdiagnosed it the two times they took her in the past few days. We're hoping that it's early enough that she won't have any complications. Could use your prayers. She is 9.

- John

new pics of the girls

Yesterday I realized I hadn't taken any good pictures of the girls since the beginning of the month (and here we are at almost November!) so yesterday in between naps we had some fun together taking pics... of course I have to share my favorites here :)

we actually got our family portraits taken earlier this week - and I'm anxiously awaiting the results!! Sadly, nathan wanted nothing to do with it (and screamed, cried, threw a fit... and on and on) oh, and wouldn't even come into the camera frame! - John and I looked at each other and commented how we'd just have 5 children for this family picture - hehehe... so we'll see what the outcome is.....

Weekend Update... Tag.. and a Halloween Party

Yes, I realize the week has about hit its halfway mark and I am just now getting caught up on the weekend stuff! There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day (I think most of us feel that way, right?!) Anyway, it was a SUPER CRAZY busy weekend. It started off with Friday John heading down with his buddies for the BSU game. John's best friend, Sam (the one just to the left of him) lives in CT and John surprised him and flew him out for the game - so they really wanted to give him the whole "feel" of it so they went down around noon to tailgate and get all painted up. It was also our ward's Halloween party but I didn't feel like it would be wise to go solo with all 6 -- the boys were so bummed that I farmed them out to some of their friends family - so they got to go and I stayed home with the 3 younger ones. They were all in bed by 6pm so I had some nice quiet alone time!John's sister recently got engaged to an awesome guy and they asked me to take their engagement photos. They really liked the urban look that I did with the boys so we met up on Saturday afternoon and took T.O.N.S. of photos! They are both so cute and very photogenic! I told them that I was not a professional and if they had low expectations then they would be pleased with the outcome... but if they went into it with high expectatations then they would be disappointed - LOL... anyway, here are a few of the ones that I particularly liked. There were so many that turned out cuter than cute I don't know how they're going to decide... (but that is much better than only having 1 to choose from!) We shot photos until about 6:30pm when I figued I had plenty enough to "work with" and needed to get home and get ready for the Deeble's annual Halloween party (we're glad we're still invited even though we moved away! heeee). We had already told them we'd be late but it took John forever to get his Terminator costume all perfect -- of course I was done in about 10 min - LOL.... I think he looked pretty cool! Of course it was loads of fun and I was pretty much most excited because I got to see Alli's new house! it's soooo gorgeous and I'm so happy for them - I also got to tour Christy's new house right next door - and again - such a beautiful home and I'm so glad you both have such big, new homes for your families! So back to the party - we played some games, visited (loved it!) and of course partook of some sugary goodness - which in turn gave me a sugar headache - LOLok.. I've been tagged a few times for different things... this particular tag comes from my awesome cousin Amber! you guys know the drill -- 4th folder, 4th pic... well, I decided to head to my backed up photos to see what the 4th and 4th would produce and wow - another BSU pic! This was when John and his buddies (the same ones from the above photo) usually have "themes" for their face paint...as you can see from this photo - the theme was KISS. This was last Nov. at the BSU vs. ID game (and I was 3.5 months pregnant with the twins - but didn't know it yet - heheheh)... I think this is a fun tag (because I love seeing everyone's "hidden" photos they have on their computer!) so anyone reading this that wants to participate -- please do!
so that was our Friday and Saturday.... I need to update about the week so far but will have to do that next time... my pillow is calling me!

Six year olds and Michael Jackson

John here.

So I'm driving down the street with August, Seth, and Ben in my truck. Ben's riding shotgun with the other two in back. Ben asks to put on his playlist that he has built on my iPod. I'm more than happy to oblige but then I see the first song is Thriller by Michael Jackson. I quickly skip over it and move on to some Britney Spears.

He is digging on the tunes when he says, "Hey, the first song is pretty good, too." Now, I'm in no mood for Michael Jackson this afternoon nor am I ever in the mood for Michael Jackson (or Weird Al for that matter, do ya hear me Shandy?!?!?) so I state matter of factly, "Ben, I don't like Thriller and I don't like Michael Jackson so we will not be listening to him." This piques Ben's interest and he begins to pester me on why I don't like Michael. I have no desire to get into the whole discussion about how he's a freak and a molester so I finally tell him that Michael's not a very good person and he does things he shouldn't.

Ben's response, "Oh, I get it, he's had a brush with the law."

Where does he pick these things up?

oh boy!

ok... today gave me a glimpse of what (maybe??) is in store with the little girls.... I think the storyboard below explains it all!
so there ya have it... I thought it was ridiculously cute but am afraid I shant feel that way if this becomes a daily occurance!
Just to share a quick update on them (they are 5.5 months old)
Aubrie is now just a few ounces shy of 15 pounds and is 26.5 inches tall. She just barely (like this past week) started rolling over. She is easily startled and likes familiar people/faces and she always greets me with such huge smiles after naps. She loves to grab her toes and sway back and forth - and she loves to grasp at toys and eat them - LOL. She has such a pleasant disposition and I just love her so much!
Lexi is just a few ounces shy of 14 pounds and is 26.5 inches tall. She has finally (about 2 weeks ago) followed her sisters example and has been sleeping through the night! That means they are both down for the night by 6pm and sleep through until about 6:30am - woohoo! I'm so happy about that! She is very smiley and laughs a lot (especially if you kiss her on the cheek - it's so sweet!) She loves her bathtime and hearing music. Both her and Aubrie like playing in their jumperoo's and exersaucers.
So that about sums up their developments as of today :) I'm still so very thankful that Heavenly Father blessed with me with 2 SWEET, BEAUTIFUL TWINS! I love it!!!

We have LIFT OFF!

heheheh... ok, I thought the title fit with my posts theme today because my little side business of photo editing/custom designs is officially launched! This is the image I created for the header at the new site...
I decided to name it Photo Flattery and you can click THIS LINK to see it. After I had decided to pursue this (and more particularly decided upon the price of a basic enhancement for just $5/photo) I thought I'd google "photo enhancement" and see what came up... I was SHOCKED!!! holy cow people - 99% of the sites I looked at were a minimum of $30 for a basic touch up and went all the way up to almost $100!! yes, that's $100 for one photo! Anyway, I'm keeping my prices as I originally intended for several reasons - but the biggest being --

Most people are like myself - we have families to take care of, we have obligations and we're not professional photographers (and we don't have $100 to spend on one photo!) but we DO want our pictures to look their best and possibly even use our snapshots as art in our homes.

So yeah, I'm up and running and I want to thank ALL of you that sent me photos (if you don't see yours up on the site - please don't be sad... I got an overwhelming response and didn't end up needing all of them (so just consider it a nice little bonus freebie from me :)

I'll be back soon with an update on the family -- the little twincesses had their checkups this week and so I'll report on their stats :) Until then...

Vogt Boys go Urban!

This is going to very picture heavy (gotta let my mom see her grandkids :)
Anyway, lately I've REALLY REALLLY been wanting to try and Urban photo shoot with the boys but there never seems to be a good time (with football every night *except Wed - which is Scouts* and every Sat. full of games and BSU football, etc...) I haven't been able to do one. Well, yesterday the tides changed and were in my favor.... no football, Scouts was cancelled and John could come home early from work to stay with the younger 3. So.... after school (and quick haircuts!) we headed to downtown Boise (I hadn't scouted any locations out before hand because I didn't want to waste the gas) so I told the boys sort of what I was looking for and everyone kept their eyes peeled for good locations - and Boise is full of them!!!! We ran out of daylight before the boys were ready to go home (now that's a first! plus... I had to bribe them with going out to dinner afterwards if they cooperated - which was TOTALLY worth it for good attitudes and humoring me with posing for me)..... This is my first attempt at Urban and I think they turned out pretty sweet (it mostly has to do with the post processing to make the colors just POP off the photo). There might be a part 2 to this post - since I haven't finished processing all of the ones that I felt turned out....

Wanna help me out??

It's not like I'm not busy enough but I have such a love and passion for creating things digitally (whether it be scrapbook layouts, scrapbook elements, announcements or just plain having fun editing photos!)... So, I've decided to broaden my digital services to include Photo Enhancements! I'm currenltly working on getting up a site with all the details, information and of course samples (which currenly are shown mostly with my own kids - LOL) which brings me to this post....If any of you have a favorite (or not so favorite) photo(s) that you'd like for me to enhance just email them to me at shandyvogt@hotmail.com . Once I'm up and running - my services will be $5/photo but of course free for now in return for letting me use them in the sample gallery at the new website.... Obviously I can't use every single photo that is emailed to me at this time (as I'm only in need of a few more) but thought I'd open this opportunity up to my friends :)

I know that several of you have recently mentioned that you think I take great photos (and I always get a little happy twinge when I read those!) BUT the truth is... I'm not that great of a photographer - but I am great at photoshop! LOL... here are some examples below : (take note of how you can take a good photo and really make it a GREAT PORTRAIT!)

**UPDATE: I HAVE ALL THE PHOTOS I NEED. THANK YOU FOR THOSE THAT SENT ME YOUR FAVORITES :) ** oh, wait.. if any of you have a family picture I could use one of those.... just email me :)

BeforeAfterBefore (already a cute photo!After

Weekend Update

Isn't that a segment on SNL?? Regardless, it's fits for this posts title :)

Thursday Ben lost one of his top teeth - he's been "working on it" for about 3 weeks and finally John said "let me wiggle it and see how loose it is..." and that was the end of it... he pulled it out in one swoop! That kind of stuff gives me the heebie jeebies but am glad the tooth is out! Here's a pic of him with his new smile :) He got $2 from the tooth fairy and spent it promptly the next day at the Halloween store on some halloween makeup....

John stayed home part of the day on Friday. I had gotten an email from JC Penny's advertising their 50% off clearance sale that was starting that day - so I ran down to the mall and got some amazing deals! (I also had a coupon for an additional 30% off - so it was really a steal!) I got clothes for next season (summer) and also a few additional items for the boys' winter wardrobe. I also was able to get the girl's Halloween costumes -- they are going to be...... STRAWBERRIES! The costumes are too adorable and I am excited to dress them up and do their Halloween photo shoot! Friday afternoon, I took Ben, Nathan and the girls for a little playdate with our old neighbor (Shaina) in Nampa. While we were there, Grandpa showed up (he was showing a potential renter our old house) and asked afterwards if we wanted to see inside of it (he had done lots of work to it and replaced the carpets and did some molding work and repainted it all -- it really looked sharp!) BUT.. it really made me appreciate all of the space we have in our current home! The bedrooms and bathrooms and kitchen (ok.. basically the whole house!) seems soooo confining. I feel so blessed that we have the means to live in a house that accomodates our large family! Saturday was a football game for Seth - John took some time off of drill to take him there - they lost again :( but they had a fun time. They also got rained on. Today is conference (which I've been excited for to be spiritually rejuvenated!)... the boys and I played "Family Fun" by Cranium this morning waiting for conference to start (we got it last year for Christmas and we just played it for the first time today! it was actually really fun and just like the name suggests - VERY FAMILY FRIENDLY.... it was Ben and I against August and Seth - who do you think won??)

and then when conference started (and the Tabernacle was singing the opening hymn) Nathan got him little blankie and went and perched himself in front of the TV and watched so intently... it was very touching. Of course that only lasted for about 5 min. and by the half way mark he had made his way into the other room to watch some cartoons. I'm glad that we recorded it so I can go back and really be able to listen (when john gets home) as I don't feel like I got as much out of it as I could have!.... after the morning session August made us pancakes for lunch - he's a really good pancake maker :) I did like listening to the Prophet and will close with some of his thoughts that touched me.... He told us that we need to find joy in the journey, create good memories for the future, and remember that what is most important involves the relationships we develop within our families and with our friends.

update on school picture day...

so remember a while back when I posted that I completely forgot it was picture day?? well.. the results came back yesterday. They prooved to be just what I expected (see proof on the left). So.... to remedy it, I headed out in the backyard with camera in hand to find my unsuspecting target (aka: BEN - who was happily playing with his friends....) Actually it was quite painless, less than 5 min and here's the result I got.

When Seth got home with John (after the BSU game) I asked if he had his picture packet... alas, since John got him out of school early to get all painted up for the game (on a side note here: so john was already painted up when he went into the school to get Seth... he was quite the sight! I asked Seth if he was embarrassed by it and he said "No way! it was cool! and lots of people took his picture!" LOL), anyway, so he didn't get his pictures... so stay tuned to see how his school pics turned out... I'm quite curious - LOL

Everyone's home from school today and I have such high visions of 4 lovely boys scrubbing down walls and kitchen cabinets today... I'm feeling like the house really needs an overhaul! Better get to work while the girls are still napping :)