Birthday Party with Friends

Today, Evan and I hosted a (wadding) pool party with our friends and their kids. After all that I have been doing in the past month of busy-ness, I felt soooo behind in creating a birthday party for Cora. I could barely wrap my mind around it but wanted to make it happen since I had such a fun day for Evan on his first Birthday. The planning was flawed (like the fact that I didn't invited ANY girls - total accident) but we had the best time at the actual party! Whoo hoo! I invited a lot of the mom's from church that I talk to a lot so I could be entertained and it just so happens they have gorgeous sons of which my daughter could choose from to date 20 years from now. lol. ;) Evan was also happy about that cause he had someone to share his common interests of running, jumping, playing in water, picking up bugs and digging in dirt.  ha ha. Anyway... we had so much fun in the HEAT and SUN, splashing in water, running in sprinklers, eating snow cones and home made cake (it was fun!)...

We took a bath soon after cake. Can you blame us? :)

Date Night :)

Mike and I got to go to a friends wedding on Saturday night. Our friends Roxann and Spencer watched the kids, their trial run for watching them for 4 days when we go out of town for vacation this summer. As we rushed out the door to drop them off (literally), we realized this was a date! Whoo hoo! We really know we need to go out together more often (and want to) but we just don't ever go out without kids= we don't go out at all, lol. For me, I feel upset to leave them with a babysitter AGAIN after they already had a babysitter so I can work 2 days a week so this was... a treat. The wedding was at St. Paul's Episcopal church. I had never been to a wedding there since most of the weddings I'm invited to are Mormon. I have to say the church was very nice and the service was sweet. My friend Lauren used to work at Tangerine with me and thankfully we have continued to cross paths and stay friends. I am so happy for her. Her new husband has beat cancer in his young life and she came into it while he was in treatment, sticking by his side. A fairy tale you could say. She is a beautiful woman inside and out, I look forward to seeing and hearing how much more her dreams will come true. :) An added bonus to her wedding was the fact that my friend Loretta (also used to work at Tangerine) and her new husband I had yet to meet (they live in Virginia) would be her bridesmaid. I got a sneak meet at Target the night before but I got to have a great and more fulfilling visit with them at the wedding. Talk about being happy for someone.. that girl... I love you Loretta, I won't make you tear up with all the feelings I have about how happy I am for you again but you and Akim are definitely a match made in Heaven and I wish you all the happiness in your lives. Last but not least, as we were pulling up to the church we saw our friends Kyle and Amanda! Whoo Hoo! Now we knew it'd be a double date. ha ha ha. As most men I know, Mike was in no hurry to dress up and attend a wedding (even though he does love the bride as much as I do) but seeing Kyle was there changed the whole 'date' for me, I now know. :) So, thank you Kyle and Amanda for braving leaving your sweet baby at home to celebrate Lauren's wedding with us, it wouldn't have been near as fun. :)

I was able to enjoy Michael all to myself without having to change a diaper or kiss a boo boo but you know as soon as it was over I couldn't wait to get back to the babies. Thank you Olsen family for taking them on, we had a wonderful time and felt like 'us' again. I guess it is worth it to get another babysitter so we can spend some time alone or with other couples. :). I'll report back on whether that ever happens. ha ha ha.

Mr & Mrs



Loretta!



the "old" newlyweds: Loretta & Akim (married 6 months now!)

 

Kyle & Amanda

 

beautiful bride Lauren.

 

Mr & Mrs Jackson





VIDEO's

cicadas and kids

a little too eager for toys.

Smokey's neeeew Haircut

Meet our 'new' old 'puppy'!! Smokey adopted us in 2000 while we lived in California. We suspect he was abandoned at our church where my mom taught early morning seminary for our church. He was there at 5am when she got there to teach and when she left at 630 or 7am. We made fun of her when she brought him home, he was a stranger after all! :) Well after about 1 night of his lonely barking outside, the next night I persuaded Mike to let him in our guest house (on my parents property). He quickly pulled us into his love trance and he became our devoted puppy. It's possible he was about 6mo old back then and now, 11 years later, he is still our baby and just got his FIRST grooming!! Yes, FIRST grooming! Rediculous. Evan acted like he really was a whole different dog although he still called him Smokey, he wasn't so sure till we kept saying it was. Cora was a little scared of him and didn't want to touch him. She was probably accustomed to his dog stench and didn't know what to do with his soap smell. lol. ;) Anyway... We will never go back to his long hair. He's such an endearing dog with his scruff but it drives us insane! If it was acceptable to shave our cat, we would do that too. lol. Anyway, he looks great... see for yourself:

Here's our little fur ball: BEFORE

and... AFTER!!! He's a puppy again! :)

(my family will surely appreciate this since they did see him as a puppy)

We love you Smokey, You ARE 'the best ol' dog on the block'. ;) xoxo love mom and dad

Cora's Special Plate

This is the project I did at "The Pottery Place" here in town, where you paint pottery and they fire it to turn it into glazed magic. I made a tile for Evan when he was sealed to us in the Los Angeles Temple but that time I had my sister Ashley to help me. I was all 'alone' this time (the kids were with me in the stroller. there should have a been a camera to record the hilarity of me trying to be creative while babysitting my mildly cranky children. lol). I am proud to say I completely free handed the temple from a photo I took lately. I didn't even pencil it first (which burns off in the firing process) so you could say I'm impressed with myself! :). Anyway, this is the before and after for firing it in the kiln (all photos taken from my camera phone if they look weird:

 Front Before

After

Back Before

Back side After.

Evan, Mike's and my thumbprints below Cora's hand print. If I wasn't in such a hurry/kids weren't with me, I would have liked to embellish this and also to make the whole thing look more polished. Overall I am very pleased! It is a treasure that I hope Cora will love all her life. I am also planning to water color them each a picture of the temple they were sealed in, by itself, no writing on it. I have never used water colors before but they can't be harder than this pottery paint... right? ;) We shall see. he he he.

neeeeeew hair cut for michael

We are really proud of our daddy. This week he let me 'buzz' his head. It's the shortest I've ever cut it in almost 14 years of marriage. He is admittedly, very vain about his hair (and striking good looks. lol) so he really almost chickened out once I suggested it but he let me and HE LOVES IT! He's excited he doesn't have to put all his product in his hair. Many of you who know him as well as I do will know it's a big deal that he's allowed this moment to happen. :) He looks great and honestly, it is about 1 1/2 inches shorter but still looks very much the same, very handsome. he he he. Proud of you honey!

Cicadas

I prepared the coolest and best post for you about our local Cicada emergence and thanks to blogger going down on Wednesday, it erased my hard work and pictures. :( So... I'll give you the cliff notes version of my expounding. You can also go to Wikipedia to see a 'time sequence' of a hatching cicada (scroll down to the right side of the page once you enter 'cicada') in Ohio that looks just like the way our cicadas here do it (FASCINATING!!!) or for another Wiki reference and diagram of the more specific 13 year Tennessee cicada transformation we are currently living through.

We were living in Nashville and married less than a year the last time this crop of cicadas emerged. It was crazy!? I had never heard of such a thing in my life; bugs crawling out of the ground after 13 years of incubation, crawling up a tree, hatching an ugly white 'ghost' version of it's self with shrived up wings that dry out and become normal wings, dry out and turn black etc by morning then fly away to 'sing' and mate before planting eggs in a tree and dying. That's it! 13 years later, they repeat the process. I think they are lazy fliers which explains why they kinda fall onto you when you walk by their tree. EWE. My sister Katrina would D-I-E!!! Despite things like this they fascinated me then and still now. Michael patiently taught me how to hold them carefully by their wings so I could look at them better without hurting them (yes this was my idea, no one forced me. lol). I was in hair school at the time, Jon Nave University of Unisex Cosmetology (i know, LOL but it was the 'best' school at the time) on Charlotte Pike. I had to take 440 to get there. Point being, the drive home after 6 weeks of cicadas was so sad. The rain gutters along the side of the highway were covered with dead cicadas. :( So that is what I experienced before and what we have to 'look forward to' now for a few more weeks while the cicadas run their course. Here are some of our personal photos of what we've been watching this week and we love it! ;)

we seeeeee you little cicada dude.

the official cicada hunting uniform. i love it.

Baby "Ducky"

I had the extreme pleasure of taking pictures of baby "Ducky" for my friend Melissa. He shouldn't even be born yet but has fought to be healthy quickly. If you know me, you know I love photography! Melissa is a single mom trying to do the best for her son and I knew she didn't have the means to get something like this done. Combine this with my obsession with photography, I asked her if I could do a photo shoot as a gift. Whoo hoo, she said yes! :) here is our adventure in my back yard (yes all pictures were taken outside in the humidity on May 9th. It's the only place I have good lighting. lol)...



I made her a birth announcement out of the prop I made to try to look like a bark nest. I'm pretty sure I LOVE IT!



Probably my very favorite picture.



Story time anyone?? :)



This is very special because the blanket was crocheted by the mommy, Melissa but the hat was done by his grandmother Debbie. I also felt it was a 'nod' to Melissa's 3 brothers, all United States Marine's (camo).

This is his nick name Melissa gave him. It wasn't on purpose but it looks like the "duck" is in his 'nest'. :) lol

I just love this picture because her smile and face are saying so much. She loves, loves, loves her baby and I think she is fast becoming the woman she always wanted to be.



3 generations.



My lame attempt at something my friend Shannon Hairr (a REAL photographer) does for many of her clients. It turned out pretty cute but I was limited with some choices as I lack an editor besides picnik.com to give me more variety for back ground color for instance. Still, I like it.

I hope you all enjoyed these. I had a great time taking them!