ADVICE

I want to enter one of my photographs in a contest being put on by one of my favorite photographers. The theme is "childhood joys"! So I took the kids for icecream after school Friday. Okay I know it is the weekend, so if ANYONE out there is reading my blog, please pick your favorite photograph (and comment below) to help me decide which one to use for the contest. THANKS!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6 - Okay this next one probably doesn't classify as "joy", but it is so cute!

#7

#8

Okay, so my favorites are 3, 4, 5, 7, 8....doesn't exactly narrow it down! Thanks for any advice! The deadline for me to enter is Sunday night.

Kinks

As usual, I am trying to work out the kinks of this blog, and improve my posting of photographs. I am trying to add my logo to my images but am not sure if I like it on the picture itself. Go ahead, what chy'all thinking? Besides, what is what chy'all?

Here is a beautiful bride from the beginning of the summer.

Here is my daughter Karah, helping daddy wash the car. As you can see, she loves when I take her picture. It is like I'm the paparazzi or something.

And I can see that this photo doesn't work unless it is on a black background, with the logo and all, oops! Oh well, why not share a cute one of my baby Rob!

First Days of School

WoooooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooooooo!
Sorry, did that slip out? So I am usually not the type, wishing my kids back to school. Summer is always a blast, sleeping in, no homework, playing endlessly, and not feeling guilty about that fact that my kids bedtime seems to be about 11pm on a regular basis.
But today (well I guess that would be yesterday) as I look at the clock and see how late it is already! Anyways, where was I? oh yeah, well the kids headed to school! Brock is in 2nd grade.

Gotta love those teeth!


Nate is in 1st grade.



With that face! They both had a great day seeing all their old friends. And I think their highlight is walking home with their cousins! Then I pick them up of course, it just helps me stay out of the school zone traffic jam! Anywhoot, so while at home, I had a fabulous day. It was everything I have been dreaming of for over a year. Oh no silly, not bubble baths, lunch dates with girlfriends, or shopping trips. I mean the kind of day where you play with, bathe, and feed you babies. And then at around 1pm you put them both, YES...BOTH down for a nap until almost 3pm! "oooohhhhh baby, do you know what that's worth, oooooohhhhhh Heaven is a place on Earth"
So it was about an hour and a half filled with loads of laundry, dishes, and emptying trash cans around the house, etc. But, oh, to do it all without being interrupted for need of another disasterous mess by my 2 year old in some other room of the house, well...it was amazing. I even cranked up the volume on NOTHING! That is right, no TVs, no IPODs, no kid fighting. Silence really is music to my ears. Now beware, I say this all with a grain of salt knowing full well, I just need some little breaks like that. But I wouldn't miss kissing booboos and scrubbing crayon filled walls, the crazy noise filled house of laughter (and fighting), for lack thereof. We have eachother, I am happy.

So the kids blabbed and blabbed about their day at school and then we got right back to having some family fun. The kids cracked me up. I found their NEW school clothes hanging on the tree swing (I guess they do care about their things, at least a little).



All the while they managed to strip down to their underwear, usual attire around our abode, and do one of our favorite activities. Put the sprinkler under the trampoline, and go to town!



Rob looked on in jealousy (I just didn't think he could handle it yet)



And Karah with glee in her eyes (watching her brothers' antics)



It was a great day. I love you family!
Happy 1st day of school Brock and Nate!

Last Days of Summer

So I am a little behind on posting...not that I usually keep up with it, but I am TRYING! This whole Facebook thing is suckin' up time, not to mention now people are twittering! I mean really, between 'blogging' and 'twittering'...do normal people even know what those words mean? I feel like I am stuck between these two generations. There are some, (ahem...who happen to be older than me) who are thinking this is a foreign language and those, (ahem...that might be slightly younger than me, if that is possible) who think I am such a nerd, don't you twitter??? AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So Friday afternoon, we met Jake at the beach, after he got off work. He got in a little surf session right before I showed up with the get-a-long gang. So we stayed a couple hours and enjoyed the sand and the crashing of waves, a nice day.















And of course Brock and Nate had to show off their mad skills, skateboarding down the hillside in front of Huntington Beach.





goodbye summer...back to school!

David and Jane

So I never posted photos from some of my weddings at the beginning of the summer. I finally decided to since I couldn't sleep tonight. Well Jane is my beautiful sister and they had a beautiful wedding down at Dana Point Harbor. The weather was perfect that day despite the forecast for thunderstorms and lightning! It was great to meet David's family, they are all sooooo sweet. And my extended family, well they got crazy on the dance floor but I think those pictures are a little too racy for a wedding album!

Thank you David and Jane for letting me preserve this beautiful day in your lives!

Mike and Ann

Mike and Ann are such a fun couple and their daughter is a doll. They both have bikes (Harley Davidson's) and I love that I got to take pictures of them on their motorcycles. It must have been 110 degrees outside that day but a good time was had by all!

Thanks guys for letting me capture your beautiful day!

Farrell Family Reunion

A big shout out to the Farrell Family for our first annual reunion! I had such a wonderful time and am certainly looking forward to this event in the future. The first day was a bit hectic, making sure tents were set up, food was organized, etc. The second day we all got fried at the beach, woohoo! And by the third day it all started to come together. We just kicked back, relaxed, played some good games of boggle, baseball, badminton, talked family history, and the kids climbed trees and roasted marshmallows. I realized that next year it is going to have to be a minimum of 5 days, it just isn't worth all the work, unless you get to enjoy it for a week. I really loved reminiscing about Grandma and Grandpa, chatting with my Aunts and Uncles, and watching my children bond with their 2nd cousins. Thanks for all the memories!

Photography

Though photography is one of my passions, my family is my other. It has been nice to put up the camera on the shelf and spend some time in the pool, at the beach, enjoying birthday parties and vacations. Hope you all are enjoying your summer, afterall, life is fleeting!

The Giant Sequoias!

On our way home from Sacramento we stayed in the Sequoias. The Sequoias officially have the biggest tree in the world. Not the tallest, but the biggest. It is just massive and brings wonder into the eyes of children, I love it!

Sacramento Vacation

We took a road trip up to Sacramento and had fun with the McGee family. Thanks for al the good memories. Enjoy the puzzle below, kinda tricky...