Puppy Party

What a difference a year makes. Mr. Mav and his brother Sheriff turned 1 today. (as well as the other puppies, but we don't know where they are now.)

So I had to celebrate with a party of course. With a cake and biscuit decor.

Mavericks other family (both canine and human) came to celebrate as well. Saddie (the mama) on the far left and Bro Sheriff on the far right. Oh and small female humans mixed in there as well.

Here we are trying to get the adolescents to sit and obey before they got their delicious doggie safe cake with cottage cheese frosting and then opened their gifts.

Happy Birthday Maverick and Sheriff. Don't expect any more birthday parties...afterall...you are dogs ;).

The Return of the Wig

Remember this POST. Well...the wig has made another appearance. This time not so disturbing.


I think Ty looks so much like a Watkins in this picture.

Today

Not much to post about lately.

The weather has been Ick!

I thought we might have had to head to the basement we don't have last night because of the wind.

Today I am wrapped up in old jeans and a sweatshirt.

The kids are all snuggled napping. Yes all three, Yeah!

I'm busy being a computer geek and pimping out a shopping cart for my photo clients on my site.

Business has never been better. (ha...that sounds like i've been doing this for years ;)

The house is just a tad messy.

Laundry to be done, but not much.

New Art on my wall (pic above).

New Make-up on my face from Everyday Minerals. (thanks Michelle for the plug)

I have a sister to call because I missed her birthday. Dang it!

Nothing on the menu for dinner tonight.

Looking forward to Chicago Style Pizza tomorrow night at the folks house.

Looking forward to lunch with Chris & Les and girls on Thursday.

I have a newborn session this week. Love newborns!

I also have a looming session that I know will be the hardest thing I've ever done coming (more on that another time)

Life is wet and cold and windy...but great!

And there's my random update.

Summer Break is Finally Here!

That means...Popsicles!





Before....

And After...

A May Mix

Just wrapping up some of the many pictures taken this month. May was a very busy month for us. We are headed into our last week of school then on to an even busier summer.

So I'll start with some random pictures of our project last weekend to clean out our side flower beds and actually try our hand and planting some flower seeds. We already have a few sprouts.

And here is some proof that my dog thinks every time I sit or lay on the ground that he has to lay right on top of me. He doesn't do this to anyone else but me. He still thinks he's a little pup that can fit on my lap.

Not a flattering picture I know...but here he is giving kisses. The one thing I have not gotten used to about having a dog...as you can see from my face. Gross!

We had several field trips and celebrations this month for the schools. Unfortunately I only took a couple pictures and only for Emery's school. Poor Ty.

Here is the entire 1st and 2nd graders at the water park. Can we say Crazy!!! Half of them don't know how to swim. Emery included. I left grandma with two sick little kids so I could go the the pool with her. There was no way I would trust a handful of lifeguards to watch my daughter along with 100 other kids. Oh yeah...all the kids got sick last week. Good times!

Emery an her little friends on the bus ride to the children's museum. Yup, mama rode the bus with them too.

This weekend we had 5 parties in all. 2 graduations, 2 little girl parties and a baby shower. Here are a few pictures of the baby shower that was earlier this evening for our friend Amanda and her new baby girl Hope.

(Crystal's hiding behind the ginormous cupcakes.)

Her Chore

I decided to teach Emery how to do laundry the other day. Well she actually brought it up. She wants to help me all the time and too often I shoo her away because it's just easier to get it done myself. Bad, Lazy Mom...i know. But then I figured, if she is this interested in wanting to learn, may as well teach her. THEN I DON'T HAVE TO DO IT ANYMORE! ;).

She was so cute about it. Taking it very seriously and diligently separated the mound of laundry into the anal color piles I require. She carefully made sure the soap was evenly dispersed. When usually I just throw the whole cup in the wash with the clothes (keeps the cup clean).

The funniest part is I caught her folding the wet laundry and placing them every so neatly in organized piles in the dryer. I wonder if she thought she would save herself from having to fold them after the dryer. Now if she was just interested in the toilets.

Ruffle Bottoms

This picture makes me giggle for different reasons ;). But most of all I just love their round little ruffle bottoms. I didn't originally buy this suit for Emery because I thought it was rather "young" for her. But she saw it on Piper and insisted it she wasn't too old for it. And who is this mama to disagree...I'll keep her young and in modest suits as long as I can.

The Bus

The picture of me on the side of a bus has been mentioned before on this blog and I have been wanting to document it for a while. So last weekend when I was in Seattle I had a few minutes to spare and a willing friend to help me out. We snuck (although it wasn't locked or guarded in anyway) onto the bus yard and found the one remaining bus with this 15 year old advertisement adorning its side.

Man I look so old now!!!
And here I am in all my goggled eye glory! With absolutely no boobs I might add.

Seattle Recap

We had a busy 5 days in Seattle including:

-A day at the lake with daddy and Uncle Greg.

-2 photo shoots for mommy. (sad that one was cancelled due to fever.)

-A trip to the zoo with cousins.

-Totem fish & chips for mommy

-Full day of playing at "grandma's beach"

-Some summer clothes shopping

-A night away to Hood Canal for Mike and I.

-The aquarium for the Kids and Grandparents.

-Lunch at the Spaghetti Factory and then a drive home.

Cousins.

A little playtime with Claire at the zoo.

The kids got to feed the giraffes. Not something you do everyday!

They could play all day long on this beach. Even in the sprinkles.

Piper playing "deadliest catch" with the little crabs. I love that she can run free in her skivies on a private beach.

Cookies!

Im back and i have lots of pictures to share...but right now I have Cookies!!

Yet another fundraiser for the girls Cheer Gym. We are selling cookies...nummy ones!

Thing is I need to put the order & money in by Friday.

So here's the deal:

Selling 3 mound box of Place-N-Bake cookie dough contains 48 1 oz pre-formed cookies that go directly from the freezer to the oven. Keep frozen for up to on year or refrigerated up to 2 weeks.

$12 boxes

-Snickerdoodle Cookie

-Lemon Cooler Cookie

-Chocolate Chip Cookie

-Chocolate Chunk Cookie

-Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

-Sugar Cookie

-Peanut Butter Cookie

$14 boxes

-Candy Cookie w/m&m's

-Double Chocolate Brownie

-Peanut Butter Cup Cookie

-White Chunk Macadamia Nut

Orders & Money need to be to me by Friday! You can email me or put it in the comments here.

Eight Years

Here we are...on the balcony of our room at the Alderbrook Resort. Celebrating 8 "blissful" years. I just asked Mike if it was weird that I was posting this on our Anniversary from the hotel and he said..."Not if you're addicted to bloggin" Guilty.

road bloggin

Im blogging from the front seat of the mini. No i am not driving, but my driver has snuck in a few IMs to Cam. i think they both need to start a blackBerry® addiction group at church.
Anyway, we are on our way up to seattle for a few days. i have a few shoots and Mike had some vacation time to burn, so we are making the most of it. Plus its our anniversary in a couple days so we have the grandparents up there to spoil the kiddos while we have a night away. Yeah.
Maverick isnt with us on this trip. If he knew he was missing out on 5 days of beach time and a possible play date with his cousin Tosh he would be very mad at us. But he'll be in the loving care of our housesitter.
Well thats my post from the road. not sure if ill get a chance to blog while im away. but im sure i'll have lots to talk about when i return.

Never too old for Elmo.

Tonight I had a shoot and then a vbs meeting so on a whim Mike ended up with free tickets to Elmo Live.

We were a little afraid that the Ty and Emery wouldn't be into the show because they were too old. We were wrong...what do you think? (its a dark sorry)

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's a snap of the kids celebrating me by wearing my shirts to bed. Goofy kids!

My Cheer Bears

(that's what I call them ;)

Preface #1: Sorry for the picture quality. For some stupid reason I feel like I have to apologize for poor quality pictures, but Sven was not liking the light in the gym. I'll take Shoshana next time.

Preface #2: (and not sure of the psychology behind why I feel i have to preface this). But just so you don't think I am one of those moms that pressures my girls to do just what I did when I was little. Emery had the choice to play t-ball, run track, cheer or do art. She excitingly chose art & cheer. And Pip does what her sister loves, and its the only thing she's old enough to do. And dang it! Cheerleaders Rock!

The girls had a blast. I also had fun sporting some cheer poses in the back room with Melissa. Now that is what I needed a picture of. I'm a dork! What interesting flash backs I had looking through the cheer uniform catalogs. Oh how I remember those days. Not going to be so fun when I fork out the money for those oh so cute cheer skirts! Hence the Fund Raisers...beware ;).