::Family Photos:: Paul, Naomi & PJ [Latrobe, PA]

Like I said before, while D&I were home for Thanksgiving weekend, we spent Friday evening with Derrick's brother Paul, my best friend Naomi, and our adorable nephew PJ !

If you've been around my blog any length of time, you know who these people are. But just in case you're new - I'll give you the shortened version:

Naomi was my bestest friend in high-school and during our senior year met this guy named Paul. They decided they liked each other a bit and got married in 2008 - and at their wedding, I met Paul's tall, dark, and handsome younger brother, Derrick :D The rest is of course, history. My best friend is now my sister-in-law and last year she gave me my very own nephew !! :D haha

And here she is ! My gorgeous and FAVORITE sister-in-law :D

Naomi wanted some cute family photos and some individuals of PJ so bad [because like she said: "everyone else has the most adorable pictures of their babies and I don't have any of PJ!" :D -- thus you give Auntie Kara a call !!] - but PJ decided he wasn't in the mood that night and so I only shot for a very short period of time.

Naomi was frustrated, Paul was tired, and PJ was bawling. They thought the photo-shoot was a bust.

I think they're going to be super surprised at what I got though - because unlike what they thought, I got some SUPER cute pictures !! :D

Enjoy !

I LOVE this series - SO cute !! :D

And, they were trying to bribe the PS3 controller out of PJ's hands - as you can see - sometimes it's just simpler to let him hold what he wants so he's pleasant :P

Mr. Mischievous :D

The thing is - PJ wasn't just unhappy to be unhappy - he's a very pleasant little guy. He's getting a whole bunch of teeth at the moment and, well, that's painful.

See those teeth ??

Orajel - oh yess - that helps !

He is so ready to play with his Daddy & Uncle Derrick - watch out boys, PJ's gonna beat ya'll !!

Haha and after about 20 minutes, PJ decided he was sick of wearing his shoes in the house :P

See? I think they turned out really cute !!

That just goes to prove that you can never underestimate my photo-taking skills ! :P

First & Last

She's the first one and the last one.

For the most part, she is the first one to come sprinting out to our car. No matter how cold, dark, or late it is - she's there. Usually squealing very loudly in sheer delight. With a big gi-normous smile on her face. Giggling the whole way. Ending with an amazing exclamation point of a huge hug.

Usually there is a brother and other sisters behind, but she's typically first.

And she's usually last.

The last one to give us a big hug and the ONLY one to clamp onto us for dear life, as if somehow holding on tighter will make us stay longer. Adding in loads of kisses. And more tight squeezes. And refusing to let go's. And big huge sad puppy-dog eyes that would make the president of the United States consider giving up his position to stay with her for a few more days.

I miss ya, Ruby-kins !! We'll be back home to visit soon !!

(and no, I'm not leaving out any of my other wonderful siblings - I miss you too Ellen, Amy, Emma, & Stephen !! Ruby was just so sad when we left on Sunday - I thought this would make her feel better :))

Things I'm Thankful For

D&I were forced to leave my wonderful family's house this afternoon & come home by evil & cruel jobs that require us to be present in the morning.

Okay, just kidding about the evil & cruel part - we both really love our jobs :P

But the part about my wonderful family's house is true. We had such a wonderful time visiting with my family and catching up with all of my siblings. We got to visit at length with both sets of my Grandparents, and Derrick's brother & sister-in-law & our nephew, and my Aunt & Uncle who live next door (who we found out this weekend are expecting TWINS in March of '11 !!! That makes number 7&8 for them !!)

The weekend went wayy too fast though. Seriously - I think time speeds up when you want it to slow down. It feels like we just got there and it was time to pack up and leave already. Boo.

But, we did have a fantastic time.

And I just realized that I never got to post the one "thankfulness" post I really wanted to write !!

I am super thankful for my husband :D

We celebrated our 7 month anniversary this past week (celebrated, meaning, it came & went, we didn't really do anything special, but who does anything super special for their 7 month anniversary anyway?) And it's like, wow - how have we been married for 7 months already ??

Like I said before: time flies !

Anyway, I am very thankful for the awesome man that I married 7 months ago. He surprises me with how thoughtful he is and all the little things he does for us. He works very hard and I can't thank him enough (he puts up with me and all my crazy ideas and dreams - what more can you ask?)

And - because no post is complete without a picture - here's one I took at Paul & Naomi's house this past weekend. I did a little photo-shoot Friday night at their house and Derrick was getting a little carried away with PJ's toys :P Photos from their shoot coming up soon !! They're cute, let me warn you :D

I love you Derrick !!

Happy Thanksgiving !

Today I'm super thankful for being home with my family !! We participated in all the usual traditions today - woke up and had pancakes for breakfast and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade :D Then, we decorated the house for Christmas !! Put up the tree and everything - which usually doesn't happen until tomorrow, but everyone wanted to do it, so why not?


And then we had a FANTASTIC dinner - turkey & all the fixings :D And now, we're about to indulge in some pumpkin pie & a movie or two.


My family is super awesome :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone !!

Our House [update]

Things I'm Thankful For:

This is Thanksgiving week - so what better way to celebrate than to publish some things that I'm thankful for?

And without further ado - another update on our house ! Which I'm SUPER-DUPER thankful for !!

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For the first time since we moved into our brand new house - I can sit in our living room without a hoodie on !! :D (and usually it was more than just a hoodie.. usually it was a hoodie and sweat pants and 2 or 3 blankets :P)

With oil heat, it's expensive to run the furnace period. So, Derrick & I have been keeping the temperature at a cozy 65*. Yeah, so it's a bit chilly in our house, especially if you are ME. I promise, I was born with blood meant for a warmer climate. And 65* just doesn't cut it. Thus, the hoodie & blankets :)

But no longer !! We now have a wood-burner !! :D

And it's like heaven when that thing cranks up and the temperature rises into the 70's !! :D I have never been so thankful for such a little thing :) But in my eyes, it's huge.

Santa Claus !

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas !!

See? When I told ya'll I had connections earlier in the week - you didn't believe me, did ya?

Yeah, believe it or not - the big man himself called me up and asked for some photos, you know, just to update his promotional stuff !!

This was DEFINITELY one of the highlights of my photo-snapping career this year :D

My favorite series we did? Definitely the cookie series:

But this is definitely my favorite shot from the whole shoot:

What can I say? He's a natural in front of the camera ! :D

Sneak Peak -

SO fun - that's what this afternoon was :D

And here's a sneak peak as to why:

I told you I had connections !! :D

More coming soon !! I can't wait to show the images from this session !!!

Light Up Night

Tonight was the world famous Light Up Night in my hometown of Irwin, PA.

And I wasn't there.

And that makes me really sad.

And what makes me even sadder - is that [to the best of my knowledge anyway] : my new town of Sayre, PA does not have a light up night ! Since when does a little town NOT have a light up night? I mean, com'on - I thought that was written in the handbook of running a little town - you've gotta have light up night!

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong - and I plan on asking the ladies at work tomorrow if they know of a light up night around here, because I am definitely missing it.

My siblings went though - back home in Irwin. I'm waiting on photos from them so I can pretend like I was there :)

It was fun looking back through my blog and seeing past year's posts about being at light up night though :D

(Not sure what happened to 2009's pictures?)

Light Up Night - 2008

[before I figured out how to enlarge my photos..]

Light Up Night - 2007

[while I was still running my blog under a 'pen name'..]

I'm ready to decorate my house now for Christmas - what do you think?

I think, since D&I won't be home for Thanksgiving, I totally have the go-ahead to decorate early :D Maybe I'll start tomorrow !! :D

A Visitor..

We have a house-guest tonight :D

When Derrick asked me about this.. uhh.. individual :) staying the night at our house - I said sure! And instantly followed it up with a loud squeal of "SLEEPOVER PARTY AT OUR HOUSE!"

So, we're going to get dressed up in our PJs, pop some popcorn, watch movies all night, and paint our toenails :D

Okay, not really :)

Because this is our visitor :

D's parents are out of town for the night, so we're watching the Sparky-Dog.

It's fun having a dog in the house *hint hint* hehe

the lights & old country songs

I'm not sure how it worked in your house.

But I know how it worked in my parent's house.

My siblings and I would habitually play from room to room and turn the lights on, and leave them on behind us.

My Mom was always too busy, usually cooking dinner at this specific time of the evening - to follow us around and turn them off.

Que my Dad coming home from work.

He would walk in the door, say hi to my Mom and then go back into their bedroom to change clothes.

And as he would exit the bedroom and walk back through the house, he would turn the lights off in all the empty rooms. And he would sing an old Trace Adkins song. And he would only sing a few lines, usually something to the effect of - "Every light in the house is on, the backyard's bright as the crack of dawn..." in his overly thick country accent.

And I remember always feeling guilty about leaving the lights on.

Well, now I have my own house, with my own electric bill.

And Derrick & I are really careful about leaving lights on?

But last night, when I ran upstairs to grab something out of our bedroom, I noticed that someone (must have been one of those elves that's been doing work on our house - yeah - must've been :D) left the light on in the office.

And one thing came to my mind:

"Every light in the house is on..."

Our House [update]

Just wanted to give ya'll (and my Mom - hi!) a little update on what's been going on at our house!

While Derrick&I have been away at work, some one (& I suspect it's Santa's elves) has been working on our house !! Wow, I know - it's fantastic to be so connected (yeah, me & Santa we're like this *crosses fingers* and I'll prove it to you this weekend, okay? just a little something to look forward to :D -- PS: when they're finished here, I'll send 'em your way, okay?) but what can I say? D&I? We're just that awesome :D

But no, in reality, D's Dad has been coming over to our house for a few hours whenever he can to help us out - and we're almost ready for our wood burner to be installed !!

If you've ever been to my house - you'll remember that fireplace used to look like this:

Yeah, well no longer!!

All of the brick has been torn out and nice new tile has been laid.

The duct tape & black board has been removed & tossed out.

And the brick, has been awesomely re-used as the backdrop to our fireplace :D

[and yes, these are taken with my ipod touch-]

So, we're super excited - because on Friday, D's Dad will be putting in the wood burner !! :D And then our house will be nice & warm & cozy and we won't freeze anymore because we can't seem to allow ourselves to turn the heat above 65 !! Hey, oil is expensive.

All I can say is: D's gonna be chopping wood for a lonngg lonngg time starting this weekend :)

The Christmas Extravaganza [Family Photos in Milan, PA]

Yesterday was the Christmas Extravaganza at church - and we had a marvelous day!

We (and I say we meaning, the vendors and folks who organized the day) had a fantastic turnout and raised over $1700 for the school !!

There was really great food & baked goods, handmade jewelry & crafts, and other unique gifts as well ! So, if you missed it, you really missed out - because it was awesome !

But, no worries: we're going to do it again next year :D

I ended up photographing 13 families (12 yesterday and 1 today after church) and had a BLAST doing it too :) So, I wanted to show ya'll just a little taste of what we did :)

We started out with a cute little Christmas scene:

And this is what we came up with when we added people :D

Anndd: one more of her because she is a doll :D

Like I said, we had a great time - I had a great time - and it turned out to be a huge blessing to the school !!