TWINS :D

soo, i have so many photos from over the weekend that i think it'd be crazy overwhelming to do them all in one post.

thus, i decided to break it down and do several posts.

and this post just happens to be all about my new twin cousins: abby & becca :)

okay, so these precious little girls are pretty much identical so it's really hard to tell them apart - especially  when they're wearing the same adorable outfits :) but that's okay because i'm pretty sure i remember which one is which.

first off, miss abby.

they both are such happy little munchkins but abby seemed happiest :) she was always smiling and in this particular case, it was due to my little sister ruby talking to her :)

but like i said, she's pretty much always pretty happy.

but has many other adorable facial expressions too - like this is her "shocked" look :D haha

i love it :)

i think the reason i picked abby out as the happier of the two, was because becca seemed to always be sleeping! which is totally not a bad thing at all.

doing her wake-up stretches :)

we were all laughing that this was her grumpy face :D

alright, here we go - see? i told you they were both happy babies!

and a close-up, because they gotta be equal :)

anndd - one for the road.

this is my sister ellen holding both girls.

they're so tiny and huggable and squeezable! :D

I Heart Faces - Best of May

wow - what a week.

my little sister was here all week long and we had amazing times :)
[and we did a photoshoot for last week's i[heart]faces theme, more of those later]

and then we had a tornado hit our little area thursday.
and a bunch of people lost a bunch of trees.
and a lot of people lost power for a long time.
and we lost all our internet.
boo.

but it was all good because we left friday to head down to the lake-house for an amazing memorial day weekend!

ahhhh - i am not even sure where to begin with those photos.
so, let's make it easy and start with this week's i[heart]faces challenge, which is simply, best of may.

i have soo many.
but i loove this photo of my hubby & my cousin, crammed onto the tiny tube, being pulled behind my dad's boat at about 45 mph.
okay, maybe not that fast, but it looks that fast right?

haha loove it :)

be sure to hop over to i[heart]faces for more amazing photos :)

I Heart Faces - Yellow

This week, I couldn't think of a single photo I had that would fit the i{heart}faces challenge for this week, which is simply: "yellow".

So, what's a photographer to do but go out and create one?

And lucky for me - I had a FABULOUS victim that so happened to be staying at my house for the week :D

UNfortunately, it's rained all day.

But then, after we had cleaned up from dinner, the sun peaked out just a bit and we took the grand opportunity to soak up some soft light.

Isn't my little sister beautiful?

Be sure to check out i{heart}faces for more amazing "yellow" photos!

PS - Mom: can you believe that I got Amy into a yellow shirt? :D

Abby & Her Prince

I was relaxing out on our back porch this afternoon, reading a great book, when I heard the puppy going after something.

After a few minutes of hearing her pawing the ground and letting little "ruffs" out, I got up to see what she was doing.

I couldn't see what she was after, but I could hear something rustling through the leaves.

Abby was bound & determined to get this thing, whatever it was.

And then, I saw it:

Poor little froggie, he was just minding his own business when he made the mistake of attracting my puppy's attention.

Well, Abby was convinced that this was her new play toy. And Abby doesn't exactly play nice. But before I butt in to save the froggie's life, I couldn't resist snapping a few photos :)

(by the way, Abby's nails aren't that long, she was stretching toward him and her claws came out like crazy!)

But then I realized what she was doing!

She was just trying to kiss him to turn him into a prince :)

Unfortunately, that didn't work out too well.

Anyways, I shooed the froggie back under our porch and told Abby not to play with him any more.

I went back to reading my book & Abby went back to tormenting the frog.

A few pages later, I fell asleep.

And woke up to see my puppy rolling in something.

Yeah. You probably just got the same picture in your head that I did:

Frog guts.

And then, as I watch, she jumps up and grabs whatever she was rolling in, up into her mouth and starts running around the yard with it.

Well, I was fully awake now and could not allow my puppy to eat a frog. SO I jumped up from my chair and yelled at her to drop it.

She must have a hearing problem because she didn't listen. Derrick heard me yelling and went to see what she had. She dropped it for him.

And much to my happiness - she had a stone.

PHEW.

Dirt & Blisters

This is what we looked like, after digging in the dirt all morning :)

And then we took a break & went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

And then we got back to it and dug in the dirt some more.

And we looked even MORE gorgeous after that round :)

My "little" sister is up visiting me for the week & I put her to work today -

We dug up and prepped two flower beds that were non-existent when we woke up this morning in front of my house and now they're all ready to be planted.

And then we raked and raked and raked the garden out back so it's ready to be planted too!

I think I'll have dirt under my fingernails forever :)

Especially since tomorrow we plan on planting all my seeds!

Catch the Birdie

I don't know.

I always thought I was pretty good with my camera. I mean, I'm still learning of course - I'll learn until the day I die.

But I thought I was pretty good.

Definitely good enough to take a photo of the bird that has built a nest in our gutter and flies past our bedroom window every five minutes to feed her babies.

Pfft - I can do that.

Well, Mrs. Bird decided to prove me wrong.

And give me a little swift kick in the ego :)

I sat on the corner of our bed for almost an hour, trying to catch her.

She's stinkin' FAST.

Sure I got a lot of crappy, blurry, and "is that black smear her?" photos, but I had something in mind and I refused to give up until I got it.

Taa - finally - I got it :)

It's not the most amazing photo ever taken - but I got it.

Take that Mrs. Bird - I win :)

I Heart Faces - May Flowers

This week, i{heart}faces is not doing a challenge, so no chance at winning a "winners" button.
Oh well.
Instead, they are allowing everyone to post their favorite flower photos :)

These are D's Mom's sunflowers. And I love this picture :)
I love it so much, that it is part of the collage of black & white photos hanging in our bedroom.

Be sure to check out all the other amazing flower photos on i{heart}faces!

Home Improvements

So, over the past few days, we've been working on our house again.

Derrick's Dad came over and put in some shelves for me in my laundry room .. [YES!]

Then he replaced a bunch of the bad boards in our back porch ..

Thenn Derrick pulled out the carpet in the guest room to reveal beautiful hard wood floor underneath ..

Annndd thennnn, I found frames for my photos and D&I hung them today !!

[shout-out to my reindeer pillow-pet that D bought me a few weeks ago :D]

So, little at a time we're making our house our home :)

It's so exciting ! It actually feels like we live here :D

My projects for the summer are going to be, both bathrooms and the laundry room.

Think: paint, accessorize, beautify :D

Nate the Great

I'm thinking this little man should have a daily feature on my blog :)

Too bad we don't live close enough to do that - maybe a monthly feature?

Haha - he's made quite a few appearances here, under a few aliases.

The last one was Mr. Rocky Canyon.

{and if you recall, he's quite the ladies man}

Well, he was up to all his usual cuteness today for our little family get-together.

Check out how far he can blow those dandelion seeds!

Ahhhh, don't you just wanna squeeze those pudgy cheeks & arms?
:D

Gardening 101

Have I mentioned my garden?

Well, it's not really a garden yet.

I haven't planted anything- yet.

[still a little worried about frost - it's supposed to be cool this next week]

But it's just about ready to be planted!

Meaning - all the crazy hard work of prepping the ground is just about done!

I mentioned D helping me.

And he's helped me in more ways than one.

He tore all the sod out of the area - I helped with that!

Then he loosened all the dirt - I helped with that!

Then he tilled the garden - I did not help with that.

Hey, I had a good excuse, I was deathly ill with a cold :)

Ahh so it's almost ready!

It needs a little more work, but we're so close!

I can't WAIT to plant things!!

Yumm - I can almost taste my fresh tomatoes and cucumbers now :)

Spring Time!

Today, I feel like I accomplished a lot.

And learned a lot.

For example:

Next time I lose something [today it was my clothespins], look for the item behind the washing machine.

And then pray that Derrick is coming home soon - because after 20 minutes of trying with various and asundery long stick-like items - I will never be able to get the thing out.

So, good thing Derrick was coming home soon - or else I wouldn't have been able to hang my laundry out :)

I learned something else too!

My lilacs are beautiful!

And smell soooo good.

But big ginormous bumble bees love my lilacs too.

So, don't get too close!

And another thing!

When starting a garden from scratch - it's helpful to have something - anything OTHER than a flat shovel to begin.

Yeah.

I apparently was not learned in the different types of shovels - I thought they were pretty much all the same?

Oh no.

Flat bottom shovels are impossible to dig into the ground with.

Meaning I had to wait until Derrick got home from worship practice & brought with him a pointy edged shovel to truly dig into my garden.

Boo.

I don't like waiting :)

But - he's so fantastic :) He brought a shovel & a pick and worked with me until we got all the grass out of the way & now the ground is all ready to be tilled!

Did I ever mention I love that guy?

And the last thing I learned:

I gave Abby a bath today [along with my car] - and she did NOT like being wet.

I have NEVER seen her go so crazy, out of her mind, fanatic - trying to get dry.

It was really quite humorous.

That's all.

I Heart Faces - Motherhood

This week photo challenge theme on i{heart}faces is Motherhood, in honor of Mother's Day, of course!

And I'm ashamed to say, I don't have many good photos of my Mom.
*gasp*
Mom - when you read this [because I know you will] we'll have to remedy that Memorial Day weekend - okay? :)

But I do have photos of another of my favorite Moms - but she isn't mine.
In fact, that would be really weird - considering it's my best friend and sister-in-law. haha.

Hard to believe that I became an auntie over a year & a half ago already. Little PJ is becoming such the little man.
But his Mama is still my best friend in the whole wide world and she's a wonderful Mom.

I had initially planned to post another photo of Naomi to enter into the contest, but when going through photos I found this one - and I just couldn't resist.
These are from a photoshoot I did of the little munchin & his Mama when he was just a few days old and still very "fresh" :D

Isn't he just a peach?
And his Mama is SO pretty :)

Be sure to visit i{heart}faces to see more Motherhood photos!

Sayre Highschool Prom 2011

Last Saturday afternoon - I had the extreme privilege of opening up my home, to allow two beautiful ladies the time & space to get ready for prom.

One of my good friends, Larissa came over to beautify these already beautiful ladies. She did their hair, makeup, and nails - and oh boy - I know who I want to make me pretty the next time I'm going out to something big :D She was fantastic - to say the least.

She was totally relaxed the whole time.

Me? I probably would have been slightly stressed out - two girls that need to be completely ready to go in just about 2 hours - that's a lot of stuff to do when you think about it.

But Larissa brought it off beautifully.

Abby sat and watched the whole thing - she wanted to know when it was her turn to get pampered :P

When they were finished, we ran outside for just a few quick photos - and then they were whisked away for a wonderful evening.

Meet Emmy.

Occasionally known as "Earthquake Emmy" for her ginormous burping skills.

Also known for her crazy attitude and outlook on life. She's insane.

Continuously bouncing off the walls - she brings life to our youth group.

She's definitely an encourager - just one minute around her and if you're down, her craziness will pick you up pretty darn fast :)

She's a fabulous young lady who has a huge heart for other people.

And she's incredibly gorgeous :)

Meet Amber.

Amber is a huge sweetheart and she balances out her best friend quite well.

While Emmy is bouncing off the walls, Amber is quiet and thoughtful.

She's super caring for other people and especially littler people.

Did I mention that she's a sweetheart? Because that word completely sums her up.

Amber doesn't actually go to Sayre Highschool, but goes to Freedom Lane Academy [the Christian school run by our church] but being best friends, Emmy wanted to bring Amber along with her.

She's a fabulous young lady who looked so mature and elegant Saturday night.

And she's incredibly gorgeous :)

Did I mention that they're best friends?

Girls, my house is open all the time - you are fabulous young ladies who are growing into such beautiful young women!