Halloween and Christmas, all in one!

I totally forgot to post Halloween pics! Guess who Jason and I went as?

And I was so PROUD that Lawyer opted for a homemade mummy costume over a store-bought one! He was so cute and everyone commented on his costume!

And where does Christmas fit in? We got our tree put up last night! I love it!

5 Years in the Making

Last week, Jason and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. We've been together for 7 years and there hasn't been one day of regret on either side. In celebration of 5 years, I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from the beginning of us dating up until just a few weeks ago! Enjoy the walk through our history and please feel free to laugh at my hair in each and every one of them!



















Thank you Jason for being the love of my life, for always supporting me, for lifting me up and for loving me even when I haven't brushed my teeth or washed my pits in two days! Here is too many more years together! I love you!

Another play with lighting...

I'm in a light workshop for photography so the last post and this post are my homework for the assignments. I can't wait to see how much I grow from this! It's a good thing Jason is such a good sport...he only put on a suit just so I could complete my assignment.

Just playing with the light...

Some Practice

Jason let me do some test pics of him last night. I think it turned out alright (after much fretting that I wasn't getting anywhere with this photography thing!). I love photography so much since it is the most challenging hobby I have ever had. There are so many things to think about in order to get the shot that you want!

Oh and great news! I've got two practice sessions coming up! I'm so excited! If anybody wants to know how to get a FREE photography session from me, I'm gathering up additional details for exactly what you will get from me if you decide to help me get the practice I need!

Lawyer has two more weeks before he goes back to school and I'm ready to get things back to normal for all of us.

Have a wonderful Monday!

PS: Don't you like the watermarking on my pictures and the larger format? I'm working on a photography-only blog right now that will only have sneak-peaks of my practice sessions. This blog will go back to what it originally was, a blog about our life but mainly a way to share with our family and friends.

It Must Be Summer...

I kind of have no desire to do a lot of blogging, which is fine by me. Life calls daily from the moment I wake up to a quiet house to the moment my head hits the pillow at night.

Every once in a while, I get on a kick to try out self-portraits. It's more a way for me to work on getting skin tones more true, eyes that are in focus and the different natural light my house provides me with.

This is my favorite picture I have ever taken of Jason and I took it this morning. For some reason, door ways are the best places for great lighting and my back door way does magical things with lighting.

And of course, a blog post here would be nothing without a picture of my mischievous child. The ruby-red lips were courtesy of a popsicle he was eating when I took the picture.

And these were just interesting leaves in my yard that I did crazy things to.

Hope you have had a beautiful weekend!

The Beginning

Instead of driving the full 13 hours to the beach, we decided to make a pit stop somewhere in between just to change it up a bit. We were going to stop in New Orleans like we did last year but instead ended up in Mobile, AL. We stayed at the nicest hotel Mobile had to offer which was cool since it was super fancy but pretty cheap since, let's face it, we were only in Mobile.

When we got up the next morning, we stopped at the USS Alabama, a giant battleship that was in service during World War II. It's kind of a giant open-air museum of sorts since they have everything from different fighter jets, planes, subs, etc. It was pretty cool but I was NOT dressed appropriately and it was like 300% humidity there that morning.

I bet you saw this F16 and immediately started humming the theme song to Top Gun.

Speaking of Top Gun, Jason always gets mad since I like to call him Goose every once in a while. For some reason he thinks he should be Maverick or even Ice Man, but let's face it, he looks WAY more like Goose (plus I think Tom Cruise is a weirdo and WAY too short).

The class clown runs in the family too.

Lawyer, ironically, was dressed in a shirt that was all patriotic and said "Home of the Brave" on it.

Sitting at one of the big guns.

The dimple on the cheek gets me every time!

This just looked cool and graphic to me.

My sister- and brother-in-law let me take family photos of them and their new baby. This is a sneak peak and one of my favorites.

The beach is coming up next!

Just Us

Because I love "Before & Afters"...

Here's Jason's "before and after" after a fabulous trip to the dentist for some teeth whitening! He has the most beautifully shaped teeth and he finally went and did something to perk them up...I love them (and him)!

Oh and here is a picture of Jason's eyes...he has the most beautiful color of eyes. They remind me of sea glass. This is a straight out of camera shot so don't think I manipulated the color of his eyes.

Self-Portrait

Here's yet another Lawyer/Mom picture....I'm really starting to like the pics I'm getting with him - especially when they are silly.

The other day, I BEGGED Lawyer to let me take some "nice" pictures of him and after tears (not by me...but almost), resistance and lots of ignoring me, I thought the little photo shoot had been a waste on both of our parts...but after looking through my pictures, I liked this one a lot - despite the lack of focus (I can't decide if it is me or my camera - all my pictures lately seem REALLY out of focus...hmm).

Okay, that's it from me!

Days of Summer - Day 1

We got a new (new to us) diving board thanks to some friends that were throwing theirs out due to renovating their pool. It's 2 feet longer than what we did have, not broken (Jason cracked ours on the very last day that we swam in the pool last season) and it is EXTRA springy. Perfect for doing flips into the pool.

We chilled in the pool yesterday.

And I was determined that Lawyer was going to be rid of his annual fear of swimming in the deep end at the beginning of the swim season. He was three last year and we just tossed him in the deep end of the pool and said kick your legs. Worked like a charm.

And this year? I made Jason take away his swim noodle while they were in the deep end and made Lawyer swim to me. And guess what?

This kid didn't look back.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love summer?

The Devastation of Germ War-fare

Pre-Sickness: 2 hours before the mayhem started

One of the sad effects of this nasty virus Lawyer and I both got was that my already-on-the-verge-of-super-skinny son was pushed over the boundaries to just down-right sickly-skinny. In one week's time my child went from having a slight roundness to his cheeks to looking almost gaunt. His knees are wider than his thighs now. I'm really sad about this.

Pre-Sickness: 2 hours before the mayhem started

Luckily, Lawyer finally has an appetite and he has not let the thought of potentially puking up his guts get in his way of food today. I, on the other hand, still haven't managed to eat much more than two scoops of mashed potatoes, 5 bites of rice and a popsicle since Tuesday and I think I gained the weight that Lawyer lost. Haha...doesn't that just beat it all!

Post-Sickness

Anyhow, I'm hoping for a continued recovery this weekend and that we will be back to normal by next week. And I'm hoping Lawyer's thighs will become thicker than his knees.

And thank you to all that have been praying for his speedy recovery...it was a scary first part of the week to endure.

A Full Weekend (and it's not over yet!)

Sigh. I've had one of the best weekends in a very long time. It's not that I have bad weekends but this particular one just happens to stand out to me.

It didn't start out as great...I picked up Lawyer from school and he had a fever. He slept on the car ride home and slept in bed until 8:30 that night. Of course he was wound up by then since he had gotten rid of his fever and we were up for quite a while but I'll take a late night of hyper-activity over the doldrums any day.

Jason likes to include Lawyer (as do I) on our every day chores. Lawyer loves this, he feels like he's a contributing member to this family and that's important.

The weather has been awesome this weekend, we've been in the mid to upper 70's. Shorts weather! I've been making it a point to go for a daily walk to get rid of the excess pretzels I ingested this week. I promise my feet aren't this huge in person, although Jason would disagree.

A neighbor's cottonwood tree has been blowing all kinds of stuff into every one's yard this past week. It really does feel like cotton. I just liked the different textures in this picture.

Spring is peaking its head out...my Italian flat-leaf parsley is coming up and my rose bushes are getting some new leaves!

The days are getting just a bit longer and the later afternoon sunlight that filters into the house is getting more and more beautiful.

A long-time friend of mine called me yesterday to say they were having a birthday party for her daughter THAT DAY. No need to bring any presents, she says. We didn't have anything going on and Lawyer loves playing with her kids but I'm not going to show up to a birthday party empty-handed, so what to do? I made her girly-girl of a daughter a dress! Yes, I can't believe it myself, but I made a dress in about 2 hours...no pattern, no nothing. I just sewed away until I had made a suitable dress that can grown with her daughter for the next few years. It can be a long dress now, a short summer dress, a tunic and then a cute summer top. I think it turned out rather cute, if I do say so myself!

So a funny thing happened...we got a new TV back at Thanksgiving and our hand-me-down TV that my parents had given me (they kept saying...it's going to die any day now, if you took it, it probably wouldn't last the move, etc. - yeah well, it's survived two moves now and we've had it for about 3 years!!) was going to be retired. Getting rid of a 200 pound big screen TV is no easy feat so I decided that we should keep it in the garage and pull it out at night during the summer-time and have our own version of a "Movies in the Park". Well, last night was PERFECT weather so we drug out all of our pillows and blankets, made popcorn and watched two movies out back under the full moon. It will always be one of my most treasured memories.