Monkey Smart

Heard outside the kitchen window one afternoon:

Ty: "Hey Dad look. Look how good I am at swinging on this bar!"

Eric: "Wow Ty, great job climbing up to that bar. That's really good."

Ty: "Yeah, I'm a smart kid in the land of monkeys."

Hear the Bells

Last weekend I remembered why I only shoot a handful of weddings each year. It's not that I don't love the shots I get when I am there at the event, but for a mother of three, the wedding world for photographers is one that would require much more time dedicated to working and the stress that is incurred on the day of shooting sometimes hits a level that I prefer to stay away from. Gratefully we never hit that level of stress this weekend, but we did indeed hit something that I'd rather not have to endure again. If you live here in Nor Cal, you too experienced this is you had an opportunity to step outside into a non air conditioned space. Yes, I am referring to the 110+ degree weather we were so blessed with last week. But why would that be a problem you ask? Don't most wedding take place inside, and often the reception too? Well, yes, sometimes this is the case, but not for this particular wedding. Oh no, this whole day of celebration was outside with the main event at 2 and the reception at 6. The poor bride and groom literally melted during a small ring ceremony they held just before the reception. I know this level of heat could not have been pre-determined by any means when this happy couple first set the date, but oh my oh my, it makes me so glad I got married in February.

But, once we all got over the heat, since it wasn't going anywhere, we got down to business. On with the show right? And I must say (as I pat myself on the back) the pictures turned out great!! I am putting together a slideshow online right now that I'll post the link to soon, but here are a few of my favorite shots.





Besides the weather and my ever underlying fear that I will either have major technical difficulties and botch the photos or once they have all been taken some how they all get erased, I had a great time. The bride and groom are so fun to take pictures of. In fact the bride and her family were one of my first clients when I started my business years ago. It's been fun to watch her grow up and now get married.

The other problem with shooting weddings is after the shoot is over, I am totally in wedding mode. I watch 'Whose Wedding is it Anyway' on the TV and look up some of the latest trends in decorations and of course I have to see what dresses I can find online that I love. Today I found this one that I think would fit my sister very nicely someday (sorry Dee, but I have three boys, who else am I going to plan for?)


But lastly, a friend posted this video on facebook today and I thought it was too funny. I love it when people don't take things too seriously and let their personalities shine! Enjoy.

Way Too much FUN!!

Oh my goodness, summer is almost half way over and I haven't even started blogging about all the fun stuff we have been up to. Yep, I'm the lame mom who can never get to her computer for an update.... I'm too busy having fun with the crew!!

So this weekend the kids and I packed up the car with my mom and cruised down the LA to visit my Grandma. It was my sister's b.day earlier that week, my Dad's b.day that day and Ty's b.day on Monday. Whew.

But we had so much fun together. Eric and my Dad met us down there and Saturday night we went to the Magic Castle. I guess it's become a b.day tradition in my family to go there. My dad went on his 40th, Eric and I went on my 21st and now Dee went on her 21st. Then the next day Eric and I took the kids to the ocean with my Mom, and a day at the beach is always great. The weather was cool, the sand was hot and the waves were big. Austin did eat A LOT of sand, but don't worry, I had physical proof the next day that it all came out just fine. It took three times before we had the all clear, but it came :)

But the best part of the trip was Ty's b.day! MY LITTLE ONE IS FIVE!!!!! I really wanted to do something special for him for his birthday. He has a hard time waiting for it because we have a big family clump of birthdays in May and then he is the last one is July and he hasn't yet figured out why everyone else gets one first. I really wanted to do Disneyland for his this year though not just for him, but for the family too. Eric has never been, and I haven't been since I was 13, so I know the whole family would have had a magical time. But Eric couldn't get work off, plus I knew it was going to be super hot in July and I didn't want to take the kids without Eric so I put that thought out of my mind. Then, at the beginning of this summer I had a friend mention to me that her mom always took the kids to Disneyland the summer before they started Kindergarten. I thought that was an awesome tradition and mentioned it to my mom. Everything just kind of fell into place with us already being down there for Dee's birthday, plus Ty could get in free cause it was his birthday, so......
Ty went to Disneyland and had an awesome time. It was just Ty and my mom, (yes I did cry a little cause I missed his first time, but I'm sure he'll enjoy if we go back with hi) and they stayed until the park closed at MIDNIGHT!! My mom was checking to make sure he was doing okay all day, and he was so enthused by the whole thing she let him stay. What a neat thing, thanks Mom.
Tanner and I did get to spend the day at the LA Zoo with my sister and Austin though which is Tanner's favorite place to be. He loved the animals, in fact he wanted to stay in front of each animal each time so long I literally had to pull him away to the next one each time. By the end he would say to the animals 'okay alligator, I'll be right back", and off he'd go to the next one. I am glad he got to have a fun day too.
So then we came home and I felt like I was hit by a Mac truck with reality. So much happens when you are gone for 5 days. Yikes. Oh, and Austin update: He took two steps, not together though on Friday morning but nothing else has happened yet and yesterday he finally finally started to have a little tooth pop up on the bottom. He's getting sooooo bug and is still as happy as ever.

Fish Food

Friday was a spontaneous day. I love those kinds of days. I knew if was going to be another hot one, so I wanted to get out and do something in the morning before it got too hot. Well morning turned into late morning and slowly turned into afternoon. But as we started walking out the door to take the kids bike down to a bike trail my friend called and asked if we wanted to meet her down at the fish hatchery. SURE!

We had never been there and we will so totally be going back. It was warm because there was no shade, but the kids had a blast. Rows and rows of fish, that you could feed and watch jump all over themselves, sometimes out of the water. Too fun. After the feeding we walked down by the river right outside the hatchery and saw all sorts of wildlife and a few people floating down the river on inter tubes. i don't know what the kids liked more, the birds and fish, or waving to the people and getting them to wave back. Either way, we had a great time.

Summer Foto Fun

My silly point and shoot camera is being dumb and wont upload almost a whole months worth of photos. I have all these fun things to post, and no pictures to back it up. I do not like that little camera. I know I have a few really nice cameras but I just don't like hauling those around with me in case they do break or hit a kid in the face or whatever.

So quick kid update too.
Ty has another loose tooth, in fact two loose teeth! If you remember about a year ago Ty lost one of his top front tooth due to two major bonks, with his brother's head. We were told the other top tooth was going to fall out soon too, but it's still holding on strong. But now, still toothless on top, his bottom front two are wiggling. Oh, I hate that feeling of wiggling a loose tooth.... ewwww. But it is, so any day know it's going to fall out.
Tanner is so funny. His speech has never been a concern of ours, but it's always been something we have had a hard time understanding. He talks soooo fast and puts so many words into each sentence sometimes it's hard to keep up. Well this summer the clarity has greatly improved and this kid is so funny. More than funny actually, he is witty. Sometimes the things he comes up with are so cleaver even if he's in trouble for something I can't help but laugh. I know that's the worse thing to do when you are trying to make a serious point, but I can't help it.
And Austin, my little angel is still wonderful. His head is 100% put back together, he is eating like a horse and he is on the very tip of walking. He stands on his own no problem for minutes on end. He will rock back and forth on his feet just testing the waters I guess and gaining more balance. Any day now we are waiting for that first step. It doesn't look like he'll be like Tanner and walk at 7 mo. but maybe he'll be right there with Ty at 8 mo. We'll see.

But the other night, after a very hot 105+ degree day the kids wanted to cool off and I grabbed one of the nice cameras to capture the fun.

WARNING... LOTS OF FUN FOTOS....LOTS
Oh, and excuse the underwear...there was no time to find a swimsuit that night, the fun was about to start!!