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!

Tough Love

I feel like such an evil pet owner.

I mean, yes I love my puppy - sooo much.

But I keep reminding myself - this is so I can love her forever and not worry about her & a car meeting.

See, for the most part - she's pretty good.

But when she gets outside -

And she sees the little Pug playing in his yard across the street -

Or sees the neighbor kids riding their bikes up and down the sidewalks -

Caution and obedience are thrown to the wind -

And next thing we know, she's trotting out of the yard to pay visits.

We can't have that.

So, after work today, I stopped at the store and picked up one of these.

I feel so awful.

Youth Group Pizza Night

"There's no such thing as luck."

"But there is such thing as lucky charms!"

-youth kids' random quote of the day

Last Friday night, we had a pizza party for the youth group at our house.

And not just for the whole youth group - only for a select group.

See, we challenged the kids to read the book of John within a certain period of time.

And the kids who finished got to come to our house for a pizza party.

WOOT :)

And, all of our "regular" kids accomplished the goal!

So, we had them all over and we ate pizza and played games, laughed and had a fabulous time.

Here's a whole bunch of photos I took :)

Anniversary Holiday

Last weekend, after Easter dinner with D's folks, we headed out to Watkins Glen, NY for a little getaway time in celebration of our one-year anniversary.

We had never been there before, but heard lots of great things. So, we booked a fancy hotel room - 

[Mom: notice the floor - hard wood! no worrying about nasty carpets! haha]

[also notice the two beds, that's because we've adopted the Lucy & Ricky way of sleeping]

Just kidding :) But, for some strange reason, the only rooms that came with a jacuzzi tub had two beds.

So, we weren't going to rent the room with the jacuzzi tub.

Until D's parents upgraded our room for us and thus we got the jacuzzi tub!

[and two beds :)]

Being Easter, most everything in town was closed down.

Including the fancy restaurant inside the hotel.

So, we had a romantic dinner in our room - courtesy of the bar downstairs :P

I think we spent about 4 hours in the pool & hot tub in the hotel that afternoon.

And then spent another 2 hours in the jacuzzi tub that evening.

It was sooo relaxing.

After weeks and weeks of going and going nonstop, it was so wonderful to simply . do . nothing.

Monday morning we woke up [rather late - oops] and even though the weather was quite dreary, we were bound & determined to do a little hiking & sightseeing.

So of course, the main place to see at Watkins Glen, is, Watkins Glen :)

So, we got there. And realized the bottom entrance was closed due to some construction they were doing.
No problem. There's an upper entrance.
So, we drove up there.
Parked. Got out. Started hiking down the trail.
Got to the point of looking over the fence down into the gorge.
And it's really pretty.
And then we realize - see in the above picture where it looks like a waking path along the water?
Yeahhh - that's where we really wanted to go.
Unfortunately - it was also really closed.
Boo.

But there were several of "upper" trails to walk on, so we decided not to write it off as a complete failure yet.

From what we could see - this place is amazing.
And super gorgeous.
We just couldn't go too far without running into a dead end - with a fenced off area of the trail marked "due to hazardous winter conditions, this portion of the trail is closed".
Ugh.

We hiked everywhere we could, but honestly probably didn't even cover half of the trails through this park. It's huge. And, unfortunately, we were probably just a week or two ahead of opening season.
Oh well.
That just means a return trip sometime this summer is in order! :D

Oh, and definitely a highlight of the day - was getting close to this little guy who was singing his little heart out. Seriously. I could have sat & listening to him all day long.

One of the unique thing about the Watkins Glen area too are the waterfalls.
And not just any waterfalls.

I don't know about you, but most of the waterfalls I've ever seen, you have to hike a bit to get to them. They're buried in a park somewhere, right?

Not in Watkins Glen.
These things are literally, right on the road.

We were driving into the area and just kind of taking in the scenery, and next thing we know we're beside this huge waterfall - WOAH DERRICK! Did you just see THAT?! haha

It's incredible - right beside the road.
Beautiful.

And this one is just a little bit off the road - notice the small patch of green grass in front of it.

What was so relaxing about out trip though was that we had no agenda.
We didn't really have a timeline or a list of things to do.
So, we just roamed around the area and looked for cool things [with a little bit of help from our handy dandy tourist map of course!]

And one of the things I wanted to see while we were up there was the Belhurst Castle.
Which, when we got there, Derrick complained that he's seen houses bigger than this "castle".
I still thought it was pretty cool.
And, apparently it's pretty amazing on the inside, but we didn't venture in - maybe next time.

Did I mention it was super dreary?
Because it was super dreary.

Anndd I'll end with one of my favorite photos of the day - this tree.
Seriously, you can't tell me this tree is amazing!!

And, the moral of this tale is - we're going back to Watkins Glen.

Sometime when it's warmer, and sunnier, and more open :)