absentee-ism

So, while I'm eager to get back here and blog some more, we've got so much going on that it's just not going to happen right away. Kev's gall bladder (and subsequent seizure) ordeal, neurologist appts, rescheduling surgery, 2 weddings back to back, family sessions, school starting and prepping Kev's classroom for kids -- the list goes on and on......

Hopefully life will return to normal soon -- sans gall bladder and all it's ridiculousness -- and I'll be back to highlight our summer.

Be back soon!

6.5 & 3 - portraits

This first one of Gennie is my absolute favorite of her for this round of portraits. . . with a nod to poetic irony, it was the last one I took of her after I had told them we were done and they could play on the swing set. . . she was climbing up the slide ladder and I screamed, "Stop!!!" and shot the picture. But it's the closest to her real smile that I got all day. And I LOVE this one of Josiah . . . even though it's farther away, it just really looks like him right now.This one was just a little too "posed" looking . . . and I'm not sure what she's looking at.

Who am I kidding -- I love them all. Every January and August I get so excited to shoot their next round of portraits. And it's getting a lot easier now that they can sit still for more than a minute . . . and can be bribed with candy. (We went through 3 sleeves of Pez candies and a baggie of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in this half-hour shoot. Good thing they're cheap!)

it's that time of year again!

Six and a half -- and 3 years old! More portraits to come!

my new crafting blog!

So, I decided to split up my blogging into two separate blogs: one for the family stuff and the happenings around these parts and one for my craftiness. The main reason for the split is that not everyone who wants to read about our family stuff wants to see/hear about my recent craftiness and on the other hand, not everyone who wants to see my craft stuff wants to hear about our family. You are all still more than welcomed to check them both and I LOVE to get comments on anything (but I only like the nice comments, neener neener neener) so I hope you stick around and check out what we're up to.

With that, I'd like to introduce Spicy Tuesday Crafts! Come on over and take a look around at www.spicytuesdaycrafts.blogspot.com .

anniversary

So, in all the excitement of Jo's birthday and family pictures I forgot to post about our anniversary. That's right, our 10th anniversary! Can't even believe it's been 10 years already. Kev had been in Las Vegas for a school district convention until the 21st so I had plenty of time to cook up something without him knowing. We began with breakfast in bed:
I made him french toast and sausage! Both are throw pillows for when he is laid up with his legs hurting and confined to the couch. He was using these old raggedy pillows from when we lived at the trailer but they weren't very fun and I decided he needed some comfort food for when he's not feeling good. Oh, and I posed them here next to the piano bench so you can get an idea of the size of the toast. . . it's 6 inches wide all the way around the dark brown part (the crust). And the sausage is actually a neck pillow so he doesn't have to wad up and smash down a regular pillow to use on the couch. He LOVED them, although it was a little off-putting when I said, "I'll be right back with your breakfast," and then returned with a huge black garbage bag.

Next, I got to open mine. He made me a pearl necklace in Vegas! There's this place in Hawaii (where we went on our honeymoon) called the Pearl Company where you get to pick your own oyster and they crack into it to see if it has a pearl. The same company has a branch in Vegas, in the very hotel he was staying, so he went down and tried his luck at picking a pearl. Turns out this is one of the best coloring (more white than yellow) and bigger than usual . . . too bad his luck didn't extend to the poker tables . . . so he had it set in this necklace setting for me. I LOVE IT!!! And little did he know (well, he knows now) when we were in Hawaii I had seen this place and wanted to try picking an oyster but we newlyweds had no extra money to do it then. :)

My wonderful parents came over to watch the kids so we could go to dinner and a show that night. We went to the Nine Iron Grill at the golf course for supper . . . we hadn't been there before and it was nice, for a special occasion:

Of course since it is a nicer place I didn't want to just whip out my camera and ask the waitress to take our photo so instead you get to see purse-pictures of us:After supper we scrambled back to Green River to see the movie Inception. Fabulous show, even if it did have a "Kevin Ending" -- no spoilers here but a Kevin Ending denotes a movie where not everything is wrapped up nicely at the end. . . .

Fantastic way to celebrate 10 years together! We thank God so much for these years so far and pray He will bless us with many, many more!

summer boy

McC-Ander-Brown Family portraits

So, here they are for your viewing pleasure!

And after we got all the ones of the whole family, we had to do the yearly sister pictures:And one bizarre one, just for fun, which succeeded in getting head shaking from our husbands:

Thanks again, Valerie! In October it's your turn!