House Update

Things are moving right along, we've been given a tentative completion date. July 18th is when our house should be move-in ready. Of course, that date could change depending on how things go. Something could always delay it by a day or two. We'll be on vacation from July 12th through the 20th so we'll come home to a completed house, yay!! On the other hand, we love watching the progress so we'll miss getting pictures as it comes together in the final week.

Here is the latest picture, the stone has been added beside the garage as well as doors and a garage door. We expect the paint, cabinets and flooring to go in this week. I'm pretty sure they will add door knobs and lock it up so I may not get an inside picture unless someone meets me there or I visit while they are working.

Therapy

I was having some difficulty dealing with my latest Angel photo session and had the idea that if I photographed a live baby, then it might be like therapy. So I called my in-laws because they have a new arrival to the family. Yvaine was born last week and I've heard babies are easier to photograph within the first week of their new life. I had a nice time with the baby, she was adorable and the perfect subject. She slept through most of the photos, even while we changed her outfits.




It was like therapy, I felt much better after taking photos and editing them.

Jam Packed Weekend

This weekend started on Thursday for me, so much happened that it's hard to put into words so I've added lots of pictures. I met some of the most wonderful ladies at a cabin where we spent the night playing games, talking, and kicking back. I thought I was living on the wild side staying up until 2am until I learned some of the others were up much later. A few of us went to Seattle to be tourists, I met the scariest fish I've ever seen (straight out of my nightmare) and I picked a troll's nose. Can it get any better?




Actually, the weekend did get better. Larry graduated with his MBA on Saturday, we are all so proud of him. His sister and her kids, parents, and my parents joined our family in Seattle for the ceremony. We took the kids to the Pacific Science Center afterwards, they had more fun than they could handle. If they had any energy left, then they ran it out at the fountain before sleeping most of the way home.


We saw the Laser show at the PSC, it was amazing.



Have you ever seen a farmer's tan like this?



I thought the events of the weekend were over, but I got a call early this morning from a nurse at the hospital. Daniela, a newborn baby, passed away and the family requested my service. They were waiting for more family to arrive from a nearby town so I kept my cell phone with me at church, I did end up leaving early to do a photo session. I learned that this was a terrible shock for them; they were expecting a healthy baby and met tragedy instead. The mom did not want pictures with Daniela, but after seeing everyone else with her she became comfortable enough to allow photos with her angel. When I was finished, I went back to church to help David give his talk in Primary.

I am only including this one photo on my blog because this baby has passed away. If you'd like to see more (in black and white / sepia), then I have included them on my photo blog.


And as the whole weekend comes to a close, I'm ready to have a full nights sleep!

House Update

The house has a driveway and sidewalk now. There has been a lot of work done inside, it has been insulated and the sheet rock is up. I expect we'll get a good idea of when it will be completed within a week. Our best guess is the first week in August. We can see that the doors are in the garage, it is possible that those will go in next week too. If we want pictures of the inside after the doors go up, then we may have to sneak in through a window (hopefully they leave them unlocked).

Fathers Day - part two

Even though Larry isn't my dad, I want to recognize him as an awesome dad to our boys. I remember when we found out I was pregnant with our first child and he was excited, but at the same time, he was scared. When the time came to have the baby and Jared was almost out, he told me later that he was thinking, "Noooo, put him back, put him back! I'm not ready." He has really stepped up, the boys are his biggest fans so he must be doing something right. Every educational and professional move he has made has been for his family, he is such a good provider and we are lucky to have him.

Fathers Day

I have always been a daddy's girl. One of my fondest memories with my dad was of going rattlesnake hunting when I was 8-10 years old. I would take turns with my younger brother, but if we both woke up at the same time, then he'd take us both. When it was just Dad and I, I felt extra special. We lived in Arizona and he would load up his 4-wheeler at 5am and we'd head off into the desert. We'd ride around on the 4-wheeler and look for rattlesnakes. When we'd find one **stop reading now if you're into rattlesnake preservation** he'd kill it, bag it and freeze it. It didn't happen often, only twice that I could remember. I have an old picture somewhere of myself holding up a dead rattlesnake, I was pretty darn excited about it too. I even took a frozen one to show and tell with me once..... yeah, I was real popular with the other girls. I was obviously a tomboy and still am to a degree.

I am always fascinated with my dad's past because we have very few pictures to document it. His parents house burned down when he was in college and the only pictures we have now are the ones his relatives sent after the fire. I hear lots of stories, but it's hard to imagine the way things were. I'm a photo girl, I see a story in a picture. It's hard to see it the other way around.

Here is the earliest picture I have of my dad, he doesn't know exactly how old he was because he really loved this cowboy shirt and wore it for special occasions for 3 years.


Here's dad in his element. He loves hunting, target practicing at the range and is a gun enthusiast.


Dad was playing frisbee with us and actually caught about 6 inches of air in this picture while jumping to catch this frisbee.


I took this one for him because he needed it for work, I guess it's on a calender. I've never thought of my dad as a calender-guy. He's not even a firefighter. :)

5 Years Ago

David was born on a military base on Larry's birthday. I told Larry I'd give him a big birthday present and have the baby on his birthday. I don't think he was expecting me to follow through on it, though. Where does the time go?? On a funny note, David doesn't think he is officially 5 years old until he has had some birthday cake.

It seems like yesterday that he was this little......




And now he's ......




5 things I love about David

He scratches my back and gives me hugs and kisses when he wants something. I let him "convince" me all the time :)

He picks dandelion flowers for me almost every day

He says "mommy, you're pretty" because he knows it makes me smile

When I ask him how much he loves his family, he says, "As long as the road is." It just melts my heart

He is so forgiving. All it takes is a little gift/treat to win him over when I've been away for a few days or when he is upset about something.

33 Things you may not know about Larry

Today is Larry’s birthday and I wanted to do a list for him like I did with mine. It took some time to come up with this one, but he has many many interesting experiences, he could fill a book.

1. Interesting coincidences: He was born in the same hospital as I was, lived in the same trailer park as a newborn and blessed in the same church building.
2. Animals and children naturally like him – they go to him like magnets (even mean animals who normally hate humans like Larry).
3. He caught himself on fire on his mission while eating a cookie in front of the oven, he served in New Zealand. The fire burned his shirt and singed off some hair on the back of his head, but his skin was not burned.
4. He was in a train accident; it derailed in the middle of the night.
5. Shares a birthday with David
6. Had a 400 lb metal pallet fall on his back while in the Air Force, crushing him under its weight, he broke his foot in 3 places. He was lucky because it could have paralyzed or killed him.
7. While on Vicodin for this accident, he tried to put on his seatbelt..... while sitting in his recliner in the living room.
8. Exactly 1 year after that accident, he had corrective surgery on his ankle.
9. His high school choir teacher told him not to sing loud (so that anyone could hear him).
10. His high school councilor told him to go to trade school because he probably wouldn’t get through college.
11. He earned his Bachelors Degree before his Associates. He now has an MBA.
12. We sent an invitation for his graduation to his high school councilor.
13. Worked 40+ hours per week at McDonalds in high school (before they passed the child labor law)
14. He was employee of the year in 1993 at McDonalds.
15. On a whim, he decided to walk to Benton City from Richland in the middle of the night. The cops found him and told him to call his dad.
16. Averaged 1 bike wreck per week for the first 6 weeks of his mission.
17. Larry accidentally hit his drivers ed teacher in high school with his hand while driving in reverse.
18. When he was 9, he watched the Republican national convention for fun.
19. He once shaved his legs. He’ll never do that again.
20. Spilled gas on himself at the pump while gawking at a woman (long before we ever met, of course).
21. He was rear ended 3 times – Chiropractors love him!
22. Larry actually appreciates boot camp; he calls it a spiritual experience.
23. A prostitute once chased Larry while he was working as a delivery guy. He got away.
24. He eats the popcorn seeds.
25. His older sister used to call him “Oreo” when he was a baby (it’s hard for a 2-3 year old girl to pronounce “Larry”)
26. He doesn’t like peanut butter, pasta or anything with lots of cheese. He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy.
27. He has very narrow flat feet.
28. His first job was a paper route at the age of 10.
29. Ironically, he proposed to me on Independence Day.
30. Crazy things he has eaten: a piece of dog and sucked the eye balls out of a fish (both while on his mission).
31. His favorite movie of all time is ‘Memphis Belle’
32. If he could go anywhere in the world, he would visit Europe. Specifically, he’d want to visit Germany.
33. His dream job is to be a forest ranger.

Here is a little trip down memory lane.....

Field Trip & Camping

Jared had a field trip at school, he's been looking forward to it for awhile. His class and several others took an hour long bus ride to a park where they mostly played. If it weren't raining, they would have spent more time looking at the different species of birds in the park habitat. Jared had a lot of fun and it was a nice break from the daily school routine. They found a tree with a very long branch which was a neat photo opportunity for the class.




We also went camping overnight with families from church. Despite the cold rain and freezing my buns off for most of the night, I enjoyed myself. It stopped raining by morning and the kids enjoyed several hikes. No camping trip would be complete without dirty pants and shoes. These are a couple of my favorite photos...

Crazy Storm!

It's crazy weather, I tell ya! Yesterday, I watched a dark cloud move right over the house and I could hear David running toward the house from the neighbors yard. He was screaming, "The storm is coming!" Not just screaming, it was more like a terrified cry. His face was red and he looked as if he thought this storm had come to kill him. He threw himself over the small waist-high fence which separated this house from the neighbors. I yelled after him to come to me, my arms were out-stretched and ready to let him know everything would be okay. No way! He kept running. He ran right past my arms of comfort and into the house while crying. I followed him into the house to give him a hug, he was shaking from head to foot. How do you tell a child that the scary dark cloud in the sky with lightning and deafening thunder was just a normal part of the weather? I had him calmed down. Somehow Larry got him to accept it and actually enjoy it (I don't remember what he did/said, I was running for my camera - of course).

The lightning was awesome, I couldn't get a decent shot because I was more worried about my camera getting wet. I did get a shot of the waterfall coming off of the roof, it was a torrential downpour of rain and hail.