happy anniversary

celebrating six years of marriage to my amazing husband.

thank you for being committed to me, duckie, our future and most of all to God.

i would not be the person i am today without you by my side.

something blue

 oh i missed this little squirt this weekend!

look at that sweet little face admiring her blue raspberry tongue! haha!

it was her treat for going poo poo on the potty!
 can i get a “WOO WOO!!”

i was fortunate enough to attend a fabulous workshop with shannon phillips from imago vita photography.
it was so much fun and very informative!

my two favorite shots from the practice wedding shoot.

 both, straight from camera

earth to me...

Geez Louise... where in the world have I been??

I guess I’ve been gone awhile. So much has happened since my last post!
We took a family vacation to Sea World, the husband started back to school, Parenthood starts TONIGHT, I’m about to go to my next photography workshop this weekend!.... How am I going to cover all of this? Hmmm...

...I think I will close with a note to my sweet Duckie...

I know this sounds totally cliche but I cannot believe what a BIG GIRL you are!

You are constantly doing saying something new and I am constantly in awe of the natural gifts God has blessed you with. Daddy and I love to talk about all the amazing things you say and do. One of our favorite things is looking back at videos from a year ago and realizing how much you’ve changed.

You talk in complete sentences now. Even if the words are a little mixed up, you can hear something once and repeat it over and over. I love listening for what you will say next!

Playing with letters and spelling words is something you get really excited about.
Watching Word World and Super Why has you spelling too!
The first word I heard you spell was “b-o-x ... box!”
Next was “r-o-c-k-e-t ... rocket!”
This week, you said, “t-r-u-c-k ... truck!” And tonight you said, “h-o-u-s-e ... house!”
I know you know others like car and pig too but I haven’t seen you spell them out with your letters yet. 

You’re saying so many more things clearly now but there’s a few that are still perfectly imperfect:

Your cousin “Kim-bee” is now “Kim-buh-wee” - I gotta admit, I sorta like you saying it wrong.

op-ah-tus ... octopus

es-keh-woo kiss-eh ... eskimo kisses

poo-nahs ... pumas

Some of your recent hilarious expressions are:

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

High fi! ... Up high! ... Down low! ... Ah-sye! ... Too slow!

Look Mommy! I uh kay-ga-woo!

You love pinning your blankie around your neck and running around the house calling yourself “Soopa Ava!” and then you get me and Daddy in the mix and we become the Supers! “Soopa Mommy and Soopa Daddy! ... to the rescue!” This routine can literally take 30 minutes alone. :)

You are a precious little angel. Our remarkable gift from God.
Your life is a daily reminder of how much God has done in our lives and how much He loves.
We are blessed to have you as our daughter.

I love you more every single day.

Mommy

sick of being sick

so this past week was sick week. evil, nasty, disgusting sick week. blah!

monday evening

me: body aches and pains, then a nasty fever.
duckie: perfectly fine.

tuesday

me: worst. headache. ever. plus fever.
duckie: perfectly fine.

wednesday morning approx 2:13am

me: same.
duckie: puking her guts out all over herself, me and our bed.

thank you lord for hubby being home.

wednesday

me: same.
duckie: the big “D” firing out the rear. all day.

hubby leaves for drill until sunday. boo. boo hoo wahh.

thursday

same as wednesday

thursday night approx 11:36pm

me: fever 104.9 ... what? check it again 10 min later: 105.5. time to get nervous. called bro (the er doc) who talked me off the ledge and convinced me i was not dying.
duckie: sound asleep.

friday

me: fever back down to 101.7 - feels cool compared to the night before.
duckie: on the mend. no trace of big “D”

saturday

me: same.
duckie: singing + bouncing = feeling better.

sunday

me: first day without a fever. it’s a miracle. thank you lord for making me better.
please, please let me feel even better tomorrow!

duckie: see below

project 365: july 2011

i just love the project 365 app, don’t you?
i mean, journaling and scrapbooking are both awesome but sometimes it’ difficult to keep up with it all.
since i always have my iphone with me, it’s easy to capture a moment of our day on the go.
my favorite part is, at the end of the month, looking back and being reminded of little every day moments i may have already forgotten about.

my best friend’s guy

bryn and i have been friends since the seventh grade - no lie. we have seen it all together!
bangs, tight-rolled jeans, bangs, school dances, and more bangs
blue eye shadow (what the heck were we thinking?? - more importantly, why didn’t anyone stop us?!)
first loves and heart breaks

true love and marriage ... then came the babies in the baby carriage

we joke about these two getting married someday

if these two had babies together, they’d have a crazy-whack, awesome gene pool

american ... korean ... german ... latino ... american indian

couple other things i’m sure i’m missing

...for now, we’ll stick to play dates...

  ...clearly she was not as interested in my cool two dollar chalkboard thingy as he was...

little miss sweet p

so i can’t believe it’s almost been two weeks but last thursday, my friend lindsay started her morning at her 36 week doctor’s appointment and by that afternoon 3:18pm, she met her baby girl!
obviously a complete surprise to come that early but baby payton got a clean bill of health and is at home packing boxes with her mommy, getting ready to move in the 110 degree texas heat. yay, thanks payton!

i was lucky enough to meet and hold little sweet p (as i like to refer to her) that first day and then over the weekend, i brought duckie to meet “baby paayy-tinnn” as she says.

here are some of the pictures i took during our visit.
(yes, i am tearing up as i post these. just so thankful to share these moments)

•••••••••••••••

...what a precious family of three...

a little birdie told me sweet p already has daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger

 

...mommy and payton...

it’s like you can smell newborn right through the screen

...lindsay’s dad said, “it looks like she has a garden on the side of her head!”...
yes, her parents are as adorable as she is

...more family. my favorite is the second one...
when he stepped into frame, these were their natural expressions

pure love, just the kind i think God intended

 

...duckie with sweet p...

being so, so gentle, looking to linds for reassurance

 •••••••••••••••

this day was oh, so special.

not only because of how much lindsay and matt mean to me, but because of how much they also mean to ava.
she always remembers to say their names when we pray at night.
and right now, her most favorite thing to do in the world is bounce up and down while repeating this hilarious little chant that matt taught her while they kept her over my birthday weekend.

“where we gonna go?!?!...”