Festival of Trees

I wanted to share all the tree's from the festival this year. Enjoy.
First off some friends at the next table over. I would share a picture of our table...but it wasn't a very flattering picture and I would like to remain friends with my table mates.

Mike's tree was a sports theme...and one of the Hits of the evening.

And here is my tree. I was secretly hoping it wasn't a hit so that I could afford to buy it back, because I loved it. But it went over my budget...which is a good thing.

Christmas Program

Ty & Em had their Christmas Program last week. It was pretty cute. Emery did very well singing with emotion. And even Ty sang along...he just never stopped moving.

Enjoy.

November Wrap-up

Okay, I have some catching up to do. Since I have already taken a bunch of "Christmasy" pictures I figured it would be best if I finished off my November post. So here we go:

We had some sicky days in November. I love this picture because even though both girls were running fevers they took the time to make a little bed for t-long.

Work was ridiculously busy, but I had an assistant to keep me company...although here he is pooped from all the filing. The amount of orders coming in from the lab provided some fun for the kinds in a form of a cardboard clubhouse of sorts.Meeting New Baby Cousin Micah.

This is how we found Kael when we visited his house. Sound asleep in his brothers swing. Tons of food and hungry little people!

The annual Thanksgiving craft for the table decorations.

I really am home...

...just no post due to my to-do list...and a little bit of a blog buzz that has shrunk. That is probably due to my list. But I will try to get a Thanksgiving post up soon. As well as the sneak peeks on my photo blog for those two of you who are not so patiently waiting ;).

Alright, I can now cross this blog update of my list. Yeah! Progress.

An Honest Post

Well, I've been meaning to do a big random post filling you all in on what's happening around here and any updates on our mysteries. My friend Michelle gave me an honest award on her blog HERE yesterday...so I thought I would start off with that and then move on to the update.

So here are 10 brutally honest things about me: (I'm kind of an open book, so these may not be surprising.)

1. I am very happy to have my friend Michelle in my life. We've gone through some crap together over the last few year, but there is a cool thing about both loving the same God. We have a clear view of what forgiveness and relationship should look like, so healing comes easier.

2. I am obsessed with vampires right now. No, don't freak out...I haven't gone Goth...i just cant put the Twilight Series down.

3. I'm really afraid my kids biggest memory of their mom is going to be half a face behind a laptop screen.

4. I'm very proud of myself for holding my ground and not taking on any sessions in December. I have a feeling there will be many blessings due to this decision.

5. Nothing makes me more angry then when someone interprets me wrong, or accuses me of something that just isn't true, same goes for when someone does this about my family.

6. Preface: this one makes me sound really harsh. I don't have much compassion for people who are really insecure, especially when it effects my relationships. I need to work on this.

And no this is not directed at anyone at all I promise so no one get all insecure about it.

7. I've been working out regularly at the gym for a month. I got stuck on the bench one morning...good thing I am there early enough that I was the only one there to laugh at my flailing body hanging off by one foot.

8. Facebook is fun.

9. I'm really bad at writing letters consistently to our sponsor child in Haiti. I have serious guilt about this.

10. I get the baby urge often. Then remind myself how good life is right now...and I'm over it.

And there you have the good, bad & ugly.

So...as you can guess by my lack of post life has been busy. I have concentrated hard on finishing up all orders from my fall sessions so that I can truly enjoy my month of December before sessions start up again and I start tackling some business overhaul stuff, (updating website, working on 09 Marketing, etc..) I'm so excited for a break this week in Seattle. I shot my last local session on Thursday for the year, and I have a few lined up in Seattle. Then I am done. Yeah!

Here's the update on the mysteries. No news on the knife except that my mom didn't steal it :). I did call Walmart yesterday. They had not heard of any other story similar to ours, but they said they would keep an eye out. Not sure if that makes me feel better or worse. I just know that my kids will stay close and I need to talk more about the danger from strangers to them. But I'm done dwelling on it more. I don't want to freak myself out.

Well, i need to go bath my kiddos and put them to bed. Finish up one last order and then stay up all night with my vampire books! Mike and I are off to the most depressing Apple Cup in the history of the game tomorrow.

Go Cougs & Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Mysteries...

We have a couple mysteries going on in our house right now. Neither one related to each other, but I thought I would share.

First, the mystery of the missing knife.

Not just any old knife, not a little butter knife. No, the biggest knife we have. Missing from it's place in our knife block. We hardly ever use it...it is no where else in the kitchen...where the heck would it be? And yes, we have grilled the children, their clean. So if anyone sees a missing Henkel knife in your drawer...it could be ours.


Second, the mystery of the $50.

On Saturday when my parents were here, Mom took the kids to walmart to get a birthday present for their cousin Kael. They had strict instructions to stay near...and not ask for toys for themselves. (not sure how the 2nd instruction went). However, the first went well. Emery did ask if she could go about 5 feet away on the next aisle (still in vision of grandma) to look at some dolls. In that short amount of time, a man walked up to her, and slipped her a $50 bill, told her Merry Christmas and then put his finger to his mouth and said shh.... Then quietly walked away. Emery waited until he was away and went to show grandma. They could not find the man to return the money.
A very strange and frightening yet interesting experience. I find it very sad that our first reaction is fear, but it is a legitimate reaction in this day and age. We have gone round and round on what this man's intentions were. Were they evil, or purely meant to bless. Emery was looking rather like a homeless child that morning, maybe he thought she needed some help.
We have also gone round and round on what we should do. Do we contact walmart or the police? If we did and it was just a sweet man trying to bless someone would he get in trouble? If we didn't and it was not a sweet man, are we letting a pedophile go? Man, I watch too many crime dramas.
What I am really praying is that we hear more stories of this around town and find out it is just a nice man helping us poor folk out ;).

By the way, Emery chose to use the money to buy all the gifts for Operation Christmas Child. Sweet girl.

Babies!

So apparently you all know me better than I know myself...because this little man is here to stay. As I type this he is attacking my fingers! He has got some mad Kung Fu moves so we named him Tia Long...He resembles him quite a bit too. (if you havent seen Kung Fu Panda...then rent it.) Ty calls him Tiawan.

We have another baby in our lives as well. Tonight my brother Mark welcomed a third boy into his family. Micah Parker "last name here". He was 8.3 and came in a hurry. My parents were here visiting for the weekend and when they called to check in with Stacy they said labor was progressing and they were heading to the hospital. We thought for sure my parents would make the 4 hr drive with plenty of time to spare. Nope...he was born about 2.5 hours later.

I can not wait to go see him next week. They think he looks alot like his brother Kael (who also had a birthday today). Grandma thinks he looks like Ty, which is funny to us because we think Ty looks just like his uncle Mark & cousin Kingsley. So he fits right in no matter what.

Okay, must go...the cat is eating my paper work.

Kitty Magnets

Seriously...they flock to us! Although I am 99% certain this is our neighbors. They just had a liter and I think it got loose somehow. I will make sure when they get home...for now the kids are content to take care of him. He's really sweet, tolerates the kids and is very playful. BUT WE ARE NOT KEEPING HIM!

Movie Weekend!

It's been a little bit of a blog hiatus, I'm digging out of a very busy season! Which really wont be over for about a month. But I am looking forward to slowing down a bit. This weekend wasn't any different, very packed full...but in the down time instead of working on the computer, I sat down with my family and watched several movies! I needed that.

It started out on Friday night. I took my girls to see High School Musical 3. And loved every minute of it. My girls are just an excuse for me to be able to see it! I think I was more excited then them.

Ty and Mike however would not have HSM3. (although I know Ty will enjoy in on dvd). They went and saw Madagascar 2.

After the movies we had dinner with friends. Woke up early on Saturday for breakfast at Roy & Venitas and then off to Pullman for a game with the W family. Good times (despite the outcome).

Yesterday, I had a couple photo shoots to make up for a previous Saturday full of shoots that were cancelled by the rain. I wanted to just come home and veg on the couch. So off to Hollywood video to stock up. I came home with:

And this one for Mike and I, it was disappointing. Do you really have to bring Aliens into everything?
The kids don't have school today or tomorrow. I'm thinking the movies may continue...this mama has lots of work to catch up to! Enjoy your short weeks everyone.

Prayer Works.

These two ladies, both turning one year older today! When I moved to both Las Vegas and the Town I am in now I prayed that God would bring into my life friendships that would stand the test of time and help me grow. Both of these women are God's direct answer to my prayer. So I am thankful for them. Happy Birthday Stacy & Michelle.

Halloween 08

Well, I know some of you are waiting to see what family costume scheme we pulled off this year. Sorry to disappoint, but we just didn't have it in us due to a combination of crazy schedules and kids that all wanted to do there own thing. I did however manage to pull off a last minute effort for myself. Yup, that's my dress and veil. It has been waiting 8.5 years to go to the cleaner and get packed...so I took it out one last time.

We kept some traditions. Of course the D family came over to celebrate Halloween as well as Darrin's b-day. The celebration was a little shorter since the guys went to the football game later in the evening. And no dinner in a pumpkin. I couldn't quite figure out how Taco Soup would taste inside one. But it was still a blast.

On top of that we had 3 other little events to attend during the day. Starting at 9:30 am.

Good times, and I am very thankful for a couple days of rest.

It was nice this year, because the weather was warm enough and the kids were old enough to sit on the porch and hand out the candy while us moms sat inside monitoring it all.