Surround yourself with beautiful people

I got to take pictures of my wonderful friend, Lee, and her family, over the weekend. And not only is she gorgeous, but she's just about the nicest person I know and she's talented! After I did her pictures, I gave her a quick tutorial on my camera and she took my family pictures. And let me tell you, they are amazing. Especially considering my kids were in anti-smile mode, and half-way through Nathan had a melt-down because he ran into a branch covered in thorns.

Here are my favorites of Lee and her family, followed by my favorites of my family!











This one is getting blown up huge for my house!

Reason number 572

for why a baby should not play with the computer.



Good thing Dave is smart about computers or else I'd probably still be looking at an upside down desktop.

PS...Like my ghetto monitor stand? lol.

Sneak peak

Here are a few of the almost 500 pictures I took for my Aunt and Uncle and their kids and grandkids. I have it scaled down to around 150, but it'll still take a while to get through all of those! I'll link from here when they're all up!

Engagements...

Remember Dave's song? I think he should sing it at my cousin's wedding. "Now that we're engaged, tell me, what's your name?" lol.

Just kidding! I believe their wedding is three months after they started dating. That's much better than the 7 weeks that elapsed from when I met Dave and when we got married.

Congratulations, Teresa!

There are just a few here, I'll put all the rest on a different site so you can choose the ones you want burnt to your disk. I'll email you when they're done. The rest are now up right here.

Traditions

Move over Thanksgiving, we've created a new holiday.

Every married couple that lives somewhat near both families is faced with a dilemma each year when the holidays roll around. Who do we visit? How long do we stay? When can we see the other family?

Our solution?

Christmathanks.

I informed my husband early in our marriage, that due to my aversion to cooking and cleaning, he should never expect me to cook a Thanksgiving dinner.

7 years later, I still havn't. We went to Utah one year, we went to Boston another year (I was 8 1/2 months pregnant for that one). I think we spent one with his family and one with mine...and then we had a brilliant idea.

We combined Christmas and Thanksgiving for my side of the family. We all meet at my parents house on Christmathanks Eve and stay up talking half the night. We set presents under the newly decorated Christmas tree, stuff each other's stockings (we don't expect Santa to show up...he's busy getting ready for Christmas) and get up early to open gifts. Mom (who loves to cook, much to my husbands relief...at least he gets occasional good meals) makes a big breakfast with Cinnamon rolls (that rival Cinnabon), muffins (shaped like roses), fresh fruit, homemade donuts, etc. We relax and enjoy each others company, then we have a late Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey and all the trimmings.

This way, we can visit Dave's family a few days before Christmas and be home for Christmas day.

We're making a slight change for Christmathanks 2007, though. No more Turkey dinner. Now before you gasp in disbelief, hear me out. Growing up we had a Christmas tradition of a Fondue dinner on Christmas Eve and then we'd eat leftovers and take and bake pizzas on Christmas day. We don't all come home for Christmas Eve fondue anymore, so my sister had the brilliant idea to just replace Thanksgiving dinner with Fondue. I can't wait til next year!

Thanksgiving, it's been nice knowin' ya...but you are officially phased out. Well, ok...we'll still teach the kids about the Pilgrims and we'll still remember to be Thankful. And when the wild Turkeys come look at us through the windows (Seriously. I took a picture, I'll post it when we get home), we'll just wave and they can live another year knowing that we're busy feasting on Beef, Chicken, Shimp, Crab, (we need to add Lobster), bread in cheese dips and a chocolate fountain for the fruit. And pie. I really don't think that portion of Thanksgiving dinner will ever go away.

And I will be able to hold to my guns and not cook a Thanksgiving dinner ever.

Christmathanks is the best.

Aria has a head start

on age 4. Nathan's fourth year was not my favorite.

But somehow, he turned 5 and morphed into a pleasant, mostly obediant, slightly sarcastic and very fun kid. The tantrums have all but disappeared...

But Aria turns 4 in a few weeks and let me tell you...

It.has.begun.

Hooray for a year of drama!

Your turn...still

Edited again...it's Tuesday now. Is there nothing I can do to encourage communication, here? lol. I went to stat counter figuring there would be 20-30 hits for yesterday. I figured 2 extra comments would be about that many hits. But no. 112. In one day. Whatever.

Um, hello! Since I posted this I've had 100 hits. ONE HUNDRED. And 3 of those 100 made a comment. So I'm getting bossy and giving you all one more chance.

ENTERTAIN ME! (PS...Sheri, Onica and Rach...You're the best. *smooch*)

ugh, I'm tired of talking (okay, typing). Seriously, I'm bored of myself.

So all you crazy blog stalkers come out of the shadows and tell me something about you that I don't already know.

Ready? Go.

Amusing myself with old home videos...

This is Dave. It's just very, very Dave. Clip one is him warming up for the hula hoop contest. Make a scene, make people laugh, make them think he isn't a threat...



Then he competes, and not only wins, but ends with a fancy trick.



As I looked through videos of the kids I realized I must like the 18 month-ish stage because I have a lot of both of them at that age. They say the funniest things at that age! Here's Nathan...(in case you can't tell he's saying "'sup dawg?")



and Aria. She used to sing everything to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. In this song she's singing that it's her spoon, not Nay-Nay's (Nathan's) or Daddy's spoon.

The Chandler dance

If you're familiar with Friends, then you've seen Chandler dance. I looked and looked on the web to try and find a clip, but alas...I couldn't find one. So if you havn't seen it, then too bad for you.

But Aria dances just like him. She always has and it always makes me laugh. Here's a short clip of her when she was about 18 months old and doing the Chandler.



So now she's taking a Tiny Tots dance class through Parks and Rec and she still does the Chandler.

See? Every time her teacher told them to just dance however they wanted, she'd bust out The Chandler.

Perfect moments

You know those moments that are perfect? The ones where you feel perfectly content and happy and full of love? Tonight I was laying next to Aria in her bed, singing her the lullaby that I used to sing her when she was a baby. She listened and said it was a pretty song then she asked me to sing it again, so I did.

When I finished she gave me a hug and said "I love you, Mommy." Then in all seriousnous she said "I even like how you look." (that part made me smile)

I'm so blessed to have her.

I'm easily amused

I find a lot of funny things around me. Like the yard sale sign I saw over the summer that said "Hugh Yard Sale" or the local garden hose emporium that's called "House of Hose: Your One Stop Hose Shop." I giggle everytime I drive by there.

But this...I saw this during a shoot over the weekend and had to shoot a few pictures that weren't of my client.

Internet, may I introduce you to.... Lord of the Ducks.

I was informed that you can't tell the duck is walking on water...it just looks like wet sand. So here's a wider picture so you can get the full effect. Click to make it bigger and see the ducks legs a little better.

More acrobatics from my Goober...

How did I get so lucky to have such hilarious kids? Or maybe all kids are hilarious. That way we spend so much time laughing, we don't have time to pull our hair out.

Product warning for moms!

This is most likely circulating the blogoshere, but I want to keep it moving because every mom needs to be aware!

I know I've let my kids use Mr. Clean Magic Erasers before. Apparently they can cause chemical burns with just skin contact and there is no warning about it on the label.

Read one Mom's story and see the pictures of her poor little boy's burns.

More Autumn pictures...

I looooove all the fall shoots I've been doing! They're the best!









Gabe and Aria were with me while I did my sister and her husband's pictures. Can you tell it was coooold outside? He's got his hands snuggled down in there cuz I didn't have his gloves in the car. If you know Gabe, you know he really isn't into holding still, so he must have really been cold to keep his hands under the blanket!
Look at my brother-in-law's feet. My sister is obviously jumping, Aria was obviously ignoring me telling her to jump, but my brother-in-law is levitating. Heh.