sayla vs. cake

we finally had a little party for our sweet baby girl. poor sayla, september is always so busy! granny and pops came up last weekend and we had a little family gathering...and yes, it is a store bought cake, which kills me...but again, september is crazy busy.

sayla loved the whole experience. she has never been the sole center of attention...and she didn't know what to do at first, but then she started hamming it up and loved it.

meet mr. frog:

sorry mr. frog...you didn't really stand a chance.

a good old fashion brainwash...

So- here in Lubbock there is a photographer named Lauren Clark. If you have ever browsed my side bar, you might have taken a stop at her website. She is amazing. I don't know her personally, but have been at some weddings she has shot and she was the one that originally inspired me to get into photography. Anyhow, she has these seminars called Brainwashes in which she basically tells her secrets of the trade. They are not open to people in Lubbock usually (for obvious reasons...) but she is holding one soon and even us Lubbockites can enter to win a free spot at the seminar...I feel a little silly putting a picture of myself on my blog, but I really want to win!

a beautiful day

My cousin's wedding was wonderful. I had such a fun time not being part of the wedding, or coordinating the wedding AND I only had Sayla with me (plus grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles all wanting to hold her...) so I felt free to roam and take pictures of fun detail stuff all day. SO much fun! I loved this wedding, I love my family, and I loved getting to be a part of it all! Congrats to Jake and Amy!







(yeah...there are a ton of pictures, I told you there would be. I just loved them all so I couldn't decide!)

mallory and jillian

I had such a fun time taking pics of these girls and am so honored that their mom waited for me to come to denver to take their pics. I am sure there are plenty of well able photographers in the state of colorado that could have done it, so it was a real compliment....and I love spending time with them so that was an added bonus. thanks for the fun time joy, mallory and jillian!

happy birthday mama

this time of year is full of birthdays! My dad, sayla, mom and brother-in-law all have their birthdays within a two week period. phew. I don't want to leave mom out though, since there are so many things I love about her so here it is.

things I love about my mom:

• the deer-in-headlights look she gets when someone cusses

• how gifted she is at drawing people out of their shell

• What a great hostess she is

• that for as long as I can remember she has always spent time with the Lord each morning

• how motivated and disciplined she is

• that she loves to be in crazy good shape...she is doing P90X right now.

• that she has always supported us in what we love to do. she probably wasn't that into cheerleading, but when I was into it- by golly- she was there 100%.

• the way she gives grace so freely...

• she refuses to let the bad things that happen in life be her crutch but instead looks to Christ for complete forgiveness and to allow her to forgive.

• how much she loves my dad

• her creativeness...I know she would tell you she is not creative, but she does have a creative spirit! It doesn't come out in making crafts, but instead in how she communicates, cares for her family and teaches.

• what a wonderful "lita" she is to her grand kids.

mom, I love you and am so thankful for another wonderful year! Happy happy birthday!

(also, I really love my brother-in-law but he doesn't read my blog...but happy birthday to you too, adam!)

sweet girls

Just a sneak peak of these adorable girls. I have known them since Mallory was 2 and Jillian was a new baby...and they just keep getting cuter! Get ready, it's gonna be good.

get ready...

for a picture overload of my cousin Jake's wedding!

LOTS more to come...

we're ready

...the grass is dying, the leaves are slowly turning, the wind is getting brisk and kead has her fabulous new boots. we are ready for the fall!

sweet sayla is one

Our precious baby girl turns one tomorrow. I know everyone says this, but man it goes by fast! here are some of my favorite things about her at one:

• her sweet demeanor.

• her wobbly walk

• the way she lays her head on anyone's shoulder

• her giggle when her and kead are rough housing

• she is one tough little girl

• ...but kind of emotionally fragile. want real tears? tell her no.

• how proud she is of herself when she does something Kead is doing

• her baby babble. only real words yet are mama and dada.
  

• her sweet two-tooth smile

• how easy she is with food! I have yet to find something she wont eat.

• what a joyful addition she is to our family! I often say she is God's gift of grace to us, because so far she has been so easy. I am so proud to be her mama.
  

happy birthday sweet la-la bug. We love you so much!

happy birthday dad

Some things I love about my dad:

• His love for cooking...and talking about how delicious the food he cooks is afterward. A funny quirk we share.
  

• His quirky, but brilliantly engineered contraptions.
  

• How in love he is with my mama.

• That he is a Godly man.

• How much he loves hanging out with his kids.

• That he has always thought of his family first.

• That he has always let us be who we are.

• How much he loves being a Papa. I will never forget his face the first time he held Keadryn.

• That he always pushes us to try new things.

• How involved in our lives he is.

• Did I mention what a great Papa he is?

• That I have countless memories of fishing, camping and hiking with him.
  

• His hugs.

• That I never ever ever wonder if he loves me. He tells us often.

Dad- you are a wonderful man and I am so thankful for you today on your birthday. Thanks for being you. Happy birthday!

collage posting

I know I explained this in a previous post, but I have had several people ask how I post pictures in collage style so I will try to explain how I do it. There might be another way, this is just how I figured it out.

I should also say that if you want the post section of your wall to be bigger, (not just in the center) you should choose a template that has "stretch" in the title from the template page. Those template seem to be better for posting pictures. Also, I only know how to do this for blogger, and I'm working from a PC. That being said, here we go.

Step 1- Click on the upload photo button at the top of your page.

Step 2- In the section "Choose a Layout", click on "none".

Step 3- Upload photos. I should also say that it makes it easier to upload photos first and add words later. If you write first the pictures will always upload above the text. You can move them, but if you want to avoid the confusion- just upload first, write second.

So, when I up load four pictures they look like this:






Step 6- Move the pictures to where you want them! Here are a couple tips:

• To move a photo, you can right click on it and then cut it and paste it where you want it, or you can try to drag it... that can be tricky sometimes with such a small posting window.
• To change the size of a photo, click on the photo and put your mouse over the corner, wait for the diagonal arrow to appear and the change it to the size you want:
  

Here is what that looks like:

Step 7- Check your post in the preview section to make sure it looks like you want it to- and post!

Hope that helps. I sent blogger a complaint on how non-intuitive there posting system is, but if you just play with it a bunch hopefully you can figure it out.

side-note: this isn't with pictures from photobucket, if you want to know how to do that- call me. (or even better ask lfh creative that told me how to do it! she's way better than me at this stuff.)

six

happy six years anniversary, drew. i love you.

raspberry picking

If you remember from this post, Buena Vista is my favorite place on earth. I love Mt. Princeton, my grandpa's house, the family nursery, the little streams, and of course, all the memories. One of my favorite things about going to B.V. in the summer is the raspberry picking. I am sure that it is mostly nostalgia of going out with all my aunts and uncles to pick raspberries by the gallons. We would take the buckets into grandma's kitchen and she would begin her magic of making the best jam and syrup I've ever tasted. We would also end just about every meal with a small bowl of raspberries covered in cream- heaven in a bowl.

Although there are not as many rows of bushes now as there were when grandma was able to use them, grandpa has kept a few rows which still yield buckets of plump red raspberries each day. I loved taking the little kids to enjoy picking them in the evenings and got a little teary eyed as I saw my cousin, Autumn, helping little Keadryn scout for the ripe ones. I love this tradition and that we get to pass it on to the next generation.

girl time

I love these girls. I love getting to know them better, I love watching them play with my kids, I love that they will be here- no matter what, I love that they are all women I learn from, I love their quirks, I love how they all fit together to form our family. I just love them.

yep....

still her bff