adorable

This little girl is SO adorable and sweet. Not only is she beautiful, she is a sweet lil girl and I just love talking with her!



I had a great time with these fun kids last night, it was a blast!

10 on Tuesday!

Tuesday again?
Here goes!

1. Macy now says Dada, baba, and aaaaaak (for Jake!) and dddja anytime she sees a puppy or kitty! It is cuuuuuute!

2. I'm helping coach volleyball this year again. I didn't coach last year because, well, I was great with child!, but I'm excited to be working it again. Practice was today at 6:00 and I'm SO tired because of it!

3. Photography things are going great! I love it. I can't wait to do this full-time! I have two more skill building/portfolio building sessions this week. If you know someone in my area who would be willing to let me torcher them (haha! j/k!) with my camera and sign a model release for my portfolio, send them my way! I'm not charging for these sessions.

4. School has started and things are great around here! I really love this time of year - warm weather + a schedule and routine = perfecto.

5. Head over to my sil's blog and check out lil love and her lil puppy! Too cute!

6. We still haven't decided about the cruise. I have such mixed feelings about it!

7. Have I mentioned I'm working on a website and new blog? I am. It's ALOT of work. And that is why I've been MIA around here. But when that gets all set up I'll back and it'll be bigger then ever =)

8. Anyone want to take a guess at how many times a day I say the following? Share. Be Nice. No, no! I'll give your two guesses! hahaha....

9. We moved our office (computer/desk/file cabinet/printer) into our bedroom. Something I was TOTALLY against for like forever. But it works. Not long term. But for now. I have a laptop and that mostly hangs out on the dining room table I'm still pining to move out! It's in the process.

10. I bought some amazing outdoor chairs from an auction for an unbelieveable low price of $9 each. I bought 4. I love them. I wasted almost a whole day at the ridiculously HOT auction. But it was worth it. I'm okay with how they look now, although in the future I'm thinking of redoing them. Put that at the bottom of my enormous to-do list!

sisters

Friday night I had the best time hanging out with three gorgeous and FUN sisters! Here's a slideshow of our time together =)

You can view it here
sisters

macy and brody

Believe it or not I have actually started my recap of your trip to Oregon last month. One of the biggest highlights was getting to hang out with one of my most bff's (haha) in the WHOLE world and her son, Brody (Macy's newest bff!!). We had a fun time and of course, it's NEVER long enough. You know when you have a fab friendship for LIFE when even though you haven't seen each other in several years, you pick up right where you left off, as no time spaned between you. Lid, I love you and lil B and it WILL NOT be three years until I see you again. xoxox

Enjoy the slideshow. PS: These are basically unedited straight out of camera shots, I don't have time to edit so many pictures! haha

sorry.

To all of my faithful followers and supporters - I'm sorry. Things have been ridiculously crazy and busy this entire week. So busy I haven't even hardly touched my camera this week! I do have a session this evening so be sure to at least check back to see how it went!
I have several posts drafted so maybe (but not promising anything!) I can get them published today or tomorrow.

It's Friday everyone!!!! Yeah, enjoy and have a rockin day!

thunder

it's 10am and it's thundering and couldy and I LOVE IT!!!
Grant it, if I had a full house and we needed the out door play time so I wouldn't end up in the looney barn, I wouldn't love it. But that's not the case today. It's quiet. Just a few lil kiddos. It's a movie, book, and coloring day! Such fun. I love thunderstorms. Love them.

10 on Tuesday

1. A recap of our trip to Oregon tomorrow!!
2. Busy getting the house together for my big, fall daycare enrollment. It's going to be CRAZY around here!
3. Anyone else itchin' for fall? I'm normally a summer sunfish but I'm starting to want autumn.
4. Is it just crazy that schools are starting THIS week?
5. We might not take our cruise. We are so wishy washy about it. And actually if I hadn't just paid the rest of it 2 weeks ago, I would cancel. I'm just not all that excited about it. Leaving Macy, the extra expenses. I just don't know. We would loose $500 if we get out now. Jeremy said if they only reason I'm thinking about canceling is because we have to leave Macy, we'll just take her with us. Oy. That kinda defeats the purpose. I don't know. It's not that big of deal to take her except on the islands we won't be able to snorkel which is what we LOVE to do. But we could still do the beach and walk the ports, so I don't know. Any opinions?
6. Lil love has her first tooth =) It broke through yesterday! And she is VERY selfish of that tooth, she will not share it. So, don't even try. She worked hard for that tooth and you do not get to touch it or look at it!
7. Have I mentioned I'm ready for school to start? I'm want my routine back!!
8. Random fact about me: I can touch my nose with my tongue. It's true.
9. It is so weird that I'm not 'getting ready for school' in the fact that I'm shopping for school supplies, decorating a classroom, organizing schedules or planners, interviewing students/parents, cirriculm testing, etc. For 21 years I've been 'getting ready for school'. Not this year. And I'm sad. Twenty-one years ago I got a rad, pink Minney Mouse backpack and lunch box, wore my red jumper with red and white striped shirt, white socks and gray loafers (I should go find a picture!) and headed out for my first day of Kindergarten, and I was rockin'! Thirteen years later I graduated highschool; packed up my 1993 Chevy Corsica and drove 240 miles to the BIG city for a life altering college experience. I pursued a degree in Education, graduated in 05 and came back home to accept a position as supervisor of grades K-2. This is my first year in alot of year NOT getting ready for school. And I'm sad.
10. I have a whiney crying lil love bug that needs me, so I'm off. Enjoy your day.

Happy 9 months

My lil sunshine,
This has been a very fun and eventful month and growing month for you my lil bean.
You have grown so much and are still the cutest thing ever!
I love your army crawl, it is the cutest thing. You push yourself up on all fours and will rock there, but then just get down on your tummy and army crawl ridiculously fast straight across the floor! You have also mastered the tummy to knees to sitting up position all by yourself. It is so cute and so big girl. The one thing that has made me sad this month is that Thursday morning I looked in your room and you were standing! You made pulled yourself up in your crib. It was so cute. Also, last Saturday, August 2nd, you said dada. You do alot of jabber but whenb we say say dada you get all shy and bashfull and sometimes will blurt it out, dada!
Another big thing this month is that you took your first airplane ride. You and I left Liberal on the itty bitty airplane landed in Denver then boarded a big airplane to Portland. We saw your great grandma and great great grandma. Along with lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles. You were a great guest and everyone just loved all over you. One thing in life you will never need to worry about is if people love you. You are loved alot and by many different people. You need wonderful on the airplane ride, mostly you just slept.
You are still trying to cut two bottom teeth, they are soclose to breaking through.
One thing that amazes people about you is your feet! You lay down on your back and use those feet for everything. You hold books with your feet, your bottle, your toys. You have even picked up things with your toes! Your feet are so little but you use them very well.
You play with all kinds of toys and LOVE long ribbons or cords or shoe laces. Anything long and dangley is what you want to play with!
You eat very well. You have started use your pincer crasp (which, oh.my.goodness, it is the CUTEST thing EVER! Your tiny little fingers picking up things is adorable!) to eat anything you can find. I have to watch you really close! You love to feed yourself green beans and bananas along with your snack cheetos.
You love animals. Any animals. And when you see them you make a loud squeal and point and smile. You have gotten to pet on Jake more and get so happy when you do.
Truly Macy Grace, I could go on and on. You are amazing. Daddy and I love you more than we could ever imagine. You are a priceless gift from God and we love you. You light up my life everyday. You are my sunshine.
I love you lady bug ~ xoxoxo.
With all my love forever,
Momma

everyday

I need to read this everyday. I need to memorize this. I'm printing this and putting somewhere that I can see it everyday. It's good.

Respond with purpose

What upsets you is not what happens.
What upsets you is your response to what happens.
Just as easily as you respond in a negative way, you can easily and naturally respond in a positive, empowering, uplifting way.
The biggest problems are often caused by what you choose to do about the smallest problems.
Most of those big, painful problems are so unnecessary.
Keep reminding yourself that you are in control of you.
You are in control and you can decide exactly how you wish to feel at any point.
Imagine the power of remaining calm and focused and resourceful when some totally unexpected, disappointing development interrupts your day.
Truly, you can make the disappointments not disappointing at all.
Respond on purpose, with purpose.
Feel the power and the joy as every moment gives you a way to move forward.

Ralph Marston

the reason I went

5 Generations.

There are 5 generations of women on my mother's side of the family. Every first born for 5 generations has been a woman. It's so fun!

We took several family pictures while we were there, but this one is my favorite. It actually makes me cry, I am THAT passionate about it. My great-grandma, my grandma, me, and Macy Grace. Nearly ninety-five years spans between us. Ninety-five.

Let not your eyes deceive you. There are only the four of us here. And it very painful for me, but my mother is not in the picture. She hasn't been in pictures for 10 years. She died in 1999 and it is hands down the most difficult thing I have ever experienced. But thanks be to God, I still have an amazing family that I love so much and we are very, very close to each other.

I have a picture of all the women in these five generations, but this one is my favorite. I will cherish it. I have no way of knowing if I will ever have another one again.

just a few favs

I have lots more to show of family and what not, but my grandparents live right on the river, so I took lil love down there for a mini-session.

I'm baaaaaaack!!!

I have lots to sort through and post, but I'm super glad I'm back! Had a great time! Here's a pic to tie you over =)