I Heart Faces - Soft & Sweet

This week's challenge on I{heart}Faces is "soft & sweet".

And the first thing that came to mind was my new twin cousins :)

They're both soft & especially sweet.

And I love this photo of my baby sister holding one of my baby cousins :)

Be sure to check out I{heart}Faces for more soft & sweet photos!

Ghetto Fabulous :)

D&I have invited people over to our house on numerous occasions - and when inviting people over it's traditional to give folks who have never been to your house directions.

And so, I have described my house in many ways.

"We're like the 5th or 6th house on the right."

"Big yellow forthysia bush in the front yard."

"We're the house that looks haunted."

"It looks really scary on the outside, but I promise its fabulous on the inside"

"Two-story, blue house with all the paint peeling off the cedar shingles."

But when giving directions this past week for a Mary-Kay party I had here, I came up with the best indicator of our house yet.

"We have a super ghetto mailbox - think: dirty mailbox, on a pole, in an orange bucket of cement, leaning against our house."

BINGO.

She found our house super easy :)

Seneca Lake, NY

Like I mentioned, D&I went away for our anniversary.

We traveled up to this amazing place we'd never been called Watkins Glen.

Which is at the base of Seneca Lake - one of New York's finger lakes.

We had a fabulous time and I'm going to blog more photos - but this is one of my favorites!

More to come :)

Got Dust Bunnies?

Today was a gorgeous day.

Think: upper 70's, sunshine, and warm breeze.

GORGEOUS.

So, what does a sensible girl do when she gets home from work?

Open all of her windows to air the house out of course!

Ahh, so I'm sitting out my dining room table, all relaxing and enjoying the nice breeze blowing through my house, when out of the corner of my eye, I see something dart across the floor.

Kara had a little 3-second-heart-attack if you know what I mean :)

My mind instantly sprung to assuming it had to be some sort of bug. I mean, with the warm weather they're all coming back to life it seems, and one of them must have followed me inside. 

How dare he.

[and of course it's a "he", a "she" would totally know better LOL]

As I was turning my head to look at this thing, I was planning his demise.

Should I allow him the quick and painless death of sudden squashing?

Or let him slowly suffer by giving him to my dog to play with & eventually eat?

Yuck.

And, as I turned to lay eyes on this nasty thing, this is what I saw:

What is THAT?!

Is that a DUST BUNNY in MY house?!

I was instantly planning worse fates for this mr. dust bunny than the bug was going to suffer.

Seriously folks, I'm a really good housekeeper. 

Ask Derrick. 

I get stressed out if our bed doesn't get made in the morning. 

Dishes cannot reside in the sink longer than a few minutes.

And if D dares to bring his precious "piles" of things out of his office, ohh boyy, watch out.

So, for something like this to accumulate and then casually roll across my floor is COMPLETELY unacceptable!

So, what's a girl to do?

Get down on the floor & photograph the thing - OF COURSE :D

One Year

Happy Resurrection Day to everyone -

and Happy Anniversary to me & D!

Sheesh, where does a year go? 

Because I totally don't believe that these photos were taken exactly one year ago today.

It totally feels like it was just yesterday.

I mean, we just got back from our cruise a few weeks ago, right? So, the wedding couldn't have been a whole year ago!

But, it has. And somehow, a whole year has gone by.

We saw some of D's extended family a few days ago, and they were wishing us a happy early anniversary, and they jokingly asked me, what the secret to living with D was.

And I replied, I have no idea.

Which is true. I have no idea what I'm doing as a wife.

But, we've made it through a whole year without killing each other - and so we must be doing something right.

And that's exactly it - something is right.

And it's not that we have this incredibly perfect life with a perfect house, perfect bank account, perfect jobs, and a perfect puppy, or that we were made for each other, or that we have warm & fuzzy feelings for each other all the time.

Nope, because things aren't perfect, and there are days when we aren't 100% crazy about the other, and moments where those warm & fuzzy feelings are absent.

That right thing though: is God and the amazing things He has done that we are all celebrating today.

It's kind of cool - our first anniversary is on Easter. 

The day we celebrate Jesus conquering sin, death, and hell. 

Because - it's the thing that is right in our marriage. 

Jesus.

So, one year down - a lifetime to go.

And I just have one thing to say to that:

Bring it :)

So, for our anniversary, we're going to church to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.

And then, we're going away for a small vacation to celebrate our marriage.

I love you D - forever.

I Heart Faces - Pet Week

I have wayy too many photos of Abby to pick a super favorite to enter into this week's i{heart}faces challenge. Why does my puppy have to be SO photogenic? haha :D

This is one of my favorites though. I love the lighting and the feel and how she's giving me her "innocent" face.

Children of the World

Last Thursday night we had a super special treat at our church - seriously, it really doesn't get much cuter than this :)

A group called the Children of the World - International Children's Choir came and talk about amazing.

These kids are all from third world countries and are on a 10-month traveling tour around the US, to sing and raise awareness of the great need for water back in their countries. And not just any water - but clean water. One of the things they said during their presentation, was that in America, we use more clean water simply by flushing our toilet than these kids would have in a whole day where they're from.

Ouch.

But they were incredibly amazing. They sang their little hearts out. And I don't think I would be alone to say that I wanted to gather them all up and squeeze them to death :P

Letter to Buster

Dear Buster,

I miss your stuck-up face.

None of my chew toys here are quite as fun to chew on - as I'd rather be chewing on your head.

And nothing soaks up my drool, quite like your furry little body does.

Plus, it's lonely here without you to torment and boss around.

Playing with humans is only so fun for so long. Every big dog needs a little dog to chase around, and I'm so glad you've fulfilled that need in my life.

Please come to see me soon.

Devotedly yours, 

Abby

New Twin Cousins :)

I finally got to meet my twin cousins Abby & Becca last weekend when D&I were home !!

Man are they cute :)

I mean, most babies are pretty cute, but when there are TWO babies - it's DOUBLE adorable-ness !!

What was really cool too: is that even though they are just a tad over one month old already? They're still the size of newborns !! They've both gained exactly 1.5lbs since being born, which lands them both right around 7.5lbs! Which is pretty much newborn size :) So, even though I was a little late in meeting them, they're both still so tiny I didn't feel like I missed too much :)

Ruby-kins and I spent pretty much all morning long over at my Aunt & Uncle's house, just sitting and holding the babies. Because, you gotta hold each of 'em individually and for equal amounts of time so they don't get to thinking that their big cousin Kara loves either of 'em more than the other :D

They're not 100% positive that they're identical, but it's pretty darn impossible to tell them apart.

Usually, they are dressed in different colors. And if all else fails, Abby's toes are painted red :)

But of course, the day I come to visit, they were both dressed in PINK. Just to confuse me.

It was pretty funny trying to guess which was which :) Poor girls :)

I'm pretty sure though that this one was Becca.

[because I took this picture while she was sitting on my lap & I was blindly shooting with my camera held out at arms length pointed down at her]

And I'm pretty sure this one is Abby.

[because I took this one a few hours later when everyone came over for Easter dinner - and someone else was holding her]

It's pretty fun though, because even though they're both still pretty tiny, they are a month old and so they're awake more and more alert. And they like to make faces :)

Seriously, it doesn't get much better than this:

By the end of the day though, they were pretty tuckered out at everyone holding them, talking to them, cooing over them, and cuddling with them.

What a life eh?

I Heart Faces - Wind

D&I just got back from a wonderful [but wayy too short] weekend with my family. We had a super fabulous time and miss everyone soo much already.

I took TONS of pictures - and will be showing those in the coming days [including photos of my baby twin cousins!!] but for tonight I wanted to post a photo to enter into the I Heart Faces contest.

I was looking for an opportunity to take a photo all weekend that would fit this week's theme of "wind" and as we were packing the car to leave, the perfect opportunity hit me :) It was SUPER windy this afternoon and a few of my siblings seeing it as brilliant opportunity, brought out their kites and went for a little fly :)

Thank you so much ! haha

So, I grabbed my camera and ran down to the bottom of the yard and I got so many cute photos - but this is probably my favorite :)

I {heart} my baby sister :)

Spring-time is HERE! :D

Spring has finally arrived !!

And I decided to run outside & document it really fast this afternoon.

I say really fast because it was kinda-sorta raining.

But I wanted some new pictures :)

Abby-girl was being impatient at the door, waiting for me to join her outside.

She had sleepies in her eyes.

And she has a really long tongue.

haha

So, clue number 1 that spring has arrived -

PUDDLES !

No more snow-drifts! YAY!

I'll never complain about puddles again :)

Anndd, clue number 2 that spring has arrived -

FLOWERS!

Since we moved into our house in October, I honestly assumed that I would have to plant every flower that grew in our yard this year. [the folks who lived here before weren't exactly the "flower-type" ya know?]

But, I was so surprised when I saw this little patch of purple goodness sprout and spring up in the corner of our yard! YAY for flowers!

I don't know what they are, or if they are even anything, but they make my yard at least a little bit happy :)

And everything else in my yard is in bloom too ! I can't WAIT for the lilac bushes to bloom--oohh myy soul--it's going to be fantastic!

Okay, and one more of Abby because she thinks she's a model :)

Update: Youth Group Room

Remember way back when - like January, way back when - when I blogged my crappy iPod touch photos of us beginning to re-do the youth group room in our church? [If you can't remember, you can get a free refresher here: 8 teens + paint = bad idea]

Want some updated - and equally crappy iPod touch photos of where the room is now?? :D

You won't really believe it, but here we go: a few before & after shots:

notice the FABULOUS two new windows !!!

and the day I snapped these, they were all set up to do a little shop/fundraiser thing in the room - thus the tables..

annddd, the other side of the room:

Pretty fantastic eh?

We're still not done. But we're well on our way !!

The next steps will be: 

Finding some tables we love & purchasing them. 

Getting a nice big new chalkboard/dry-erase board. 

Doing some decorating !!

And some day- I'll take some decent pictures with my big camera :)

Weekend Away

It seems like D&I's lives are soo busy all the time.

Maybe not "soo" busy, but at least every weekend it seems like there is something going on.

And we work all week.

And then several nights a week we have weekly commitments.

And when you add in inviting folks over for dinner here & there.

Well, we're busy folks.

And we don't mind it, but sometimes you just need to stop and relax?

So that's what we did last weekend.

We traveled up past Syracuse to visit Derrick's best friend [+wife & new baby on the way!] from college. They had just moved and live in the middle of nowhere.

Read: NO where.

Think: drive 20 minutes to get to WalMart.

Yes, no man's land :)

Haha, so it's really not that bad. They have a fabulous house and live on a road with all these big farms.

Notice the photo of the tractor?

Yes, the farmer driving the thing definitely got a kick out of me snapping his photo with my iPod :D

Anyways, we went up there and it was the perfect relaxing weekend.

Caleb & Steph didn't really have much planned - it was kind of a spur of the moment visit [planned about a week ahead of time] but it was WONDERFUL.

For example: I have never been to visit people where you don't wake up at the crack of dawn to get all your visiting in? Well, when we got there on Friday night, and then proceeded to stay up until after midnight visiting, they informed us that they would be sleeping in - so we might as well sleep in too.

Think: no alarm clocks !! YES.

So, we all slept in till like 9:30-10ish. It was sinfully amazing :)

We had a fabulous time catching up with them and hanging out as married folks.

We'll definitely be doing that again :)

oh & ps - notice the top right photo? Steph took me to this little Mennonite store that sold all sorts of homemade & fresh produce, & groceries! my question is: do we have anything like that around the Twin Tiers? maybe someone who has lived here for a while will know of somewhere like this :) :) please let me know !!

I Heart Faces - Best of March

So this week, the theme for the I Heart Faces photo challenge is - best in March.

Anndd - one of my favorite things that happened in March was Brad & Mandy's wedding !!

So I really wanted to choose a photo from that Saturday, but which to choose?

I have gone around and around trying to pick my favorite, and somehow I keep coming back to this one, so here we go :)

I think the thing that I love the most about this photo is that you can't see her whole face.

All you can tell is this peaceful bride, is putting on her wedding dress.

And I think every bride has this moment: where all the stress and excitement of your wedding day fade away, and you put on your wedding dress, and suddenly it's real. 

That wedding you've dreamed of since you were a little girl? It's today. And that moment where you're fiance becomes your husband? That's today!

And all the worries of the last few months and weeks and days of preparation fall away, and you soak in the realization that today is your day - and you feel like a princess.

I think that's why I love this photo - it's Mandy's princess moment :)