From Storms to Sunshine

Sad news, New baby, Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

2011-12-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

Since I originally started this blog so I could record different events of my family, I guess I should post a few recent things.

First of all, we found out my Mother in Love had Breast Cancer this past Fall. She had a suspicious lump that was discovered through a Mammogram last Spring that turned out to be benign. They discovered the Cancer during a follow up Mammogram this past Fall. Had she not had that lump last Spring, she would have waited another year to have a Mammogram and the Cancer could have been in a later stage. They caught it very early so it was at Stage 1. She opted to have a double mastectomy so she wouldn't have to worry about the Cancer returning. Her lymph nodes were clear and as for now, no other treatment is needed. Praise God she is doing well and has done well with her recovery. We were blessed to be able to drive out to Nebraska to be with her for her surgery and to help with the first few days of her being home recovering. It was sad news that she had Cancer, but God was faithful to see her through the surgery and to allow us to get through the crummy weather safely to be with her.

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We have a new addition to my extended family. My newest nephew, Jude Christian Eggenburger, was born on November 14, 2011. His Mommy is the middle child of my family, Leah (aka Lele). His daddy is Jason, not to be confused with MY Jason, and he is little brother to the only other girl in our family besides Emily, named Lucy. I call her Lu. I got to go up to NYC for a short visit around the first part of December. He is such a sweet, handsome and GOOD baby. I miss him, his big sister, his mommy and his daddy..... terribly. :(

Here are a few pics that I took while I was there.

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This month we also celebrated my Benjamin's 7th birthday. Time sure flies by quickly. We scheduled a party at a local play place called Out of This World Pizza and Play. The kids had a lot of fun, until 20 minutes into playing Ben came up to us complaining that his neck hurt. He was climbing in the inflatable maze thingy and fell on the back of his neck. Not exactly sure of the details. After he came up to us, he laid his head down on the table and then couldn't lift it off the table without complaining about the pain and crying (he doesn't really complain so we knew he was hurting). Anyway, we left my brother in charge of the few guests that we invited and then headed off to the emergency room. They had us in and out of there within 2 hours. They did a scan of his neck and nothing was broken. WHEW! They put a neck brace on him and told us to keep it on him until he was comfortable without it. His party was on Sat the 17th (his birthday)

and the neck brace was off by Tues the 20th. He's back to his normal self now. It just stunk that he missed his whole birthday party. We told him we'd make it up to him.

Here's how he spent his birthday (excuse the poor quality of the pics)

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Last but not least, we'd like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year to all. I know that there are so many who are hurting this Christmas season due to a loss of a close family member. Fathers, mothers, grandparents and way too many children. My heart breaks for each and every one of you. I will lift you up in prayer today and every other day.

Our Christmas Card this year

Social Networking.....

2011-08-15T12:27:00.001-07:00

Has made me blog lazy. *sigh*

50mm Friday ~ Hudson Ray

2011-06-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

My newest nephew, Hudson, was born May 10th. He was born a whole month early. Hudson belongs to my beautiful baby sister, Debbie (aka BoBo). He's extremely handsome, so very sweet and I can get completely high from his sweet baby smell. I'm already so very much in love with this little guy. I get to spend just a few more days with him and then I have to head home. I'm going to miss him so much!!!! I keep telling BoBo that I have an extra car seat....but for some reason she's not going for it. :P

I'm linking up with Hallie Westcott's 50mm Friday. You can join in on the fun too! :)

Meet Rocky

2011-03-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

Rocky is our new German Shepherd. He is 8 weeks old and almost as much work as a 2 year old child. Actually, he's pretty good and quite a bit of fun. He doesn't like to be in his crate at night, but he can't be left to roam the house. He likes to chew and poo. HA! He hasn't gone potty in the house in a few days so he's pretty good, really. :) He's a rare silver color with a black stripe going down his back. Very unique and very cute!

He's grown a lot so I'll have to post updated pics sometime. These pics are over a week old.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T06:24:00.000-08:00

From my family to yours........

2010-12-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

I hope that y'all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a very BLESSED New Year!

Happy 6th Birthday Christian

2010-11-11T23:25:00.000-08:00

I know he's having a happy birthday today. I just wish I could celebrate with him.... I'm sure Jesus and the angels know how to throw a party. :)

It was 6 years ago today that we were blessed with the birth of a beautiful, precious baby boy.....my nephew, Christian.

Happy Birthday, Christian!

Celebrating your birth and your life today. I miss and love you so very much!

Praying for you Marsha, David, Austin and Noah.

Catch Up

2010-11-01T23:46:00.001-07:00

1. We finally got moved into our new house. I can definitely say I loooooooove it! The inside is all freshly painted, new light fixtures hung and we're even starting to get some pictures/paintings put up too.

Here are a few "still in the unpacking and getting settled" stage pics .....

2. I did portraits for the preschool at my church. It was a lot of fun and has even brought some business my way. It kind of forced me to go ahead and launch my business, Photography by COCO. I'm doing it very part time with very limited sessions for now. I think my passion is more for photographing nature, but I do enjoy photographing children and families too. :)

3. Here are a few pics of the kids from Halloween. We went to our church Harvest Party and then did some trick or treating in the first neighborhood we lived in. After hitting up the old neighbors we came home and Jason took the kids around our new neighborhood while I passed out candy. I didn't buy a ton to pass out so it didn't last very long. Fine by me....especially since it started raining. Hee hee!

This is my favorite time of year (not because it's the rainy season) :P. My two favorite holidays are just around the corner. I think I just love the feeling of coziness and having family around. Unfortunately, this year I won't be spending either holiday with my parents or siblings. *sniff sniff*. However, we will be spending time with Jason's brother and his family around Christmas. It's only been about 8 months since we've seen them, but it's probably been close to 10 years since we've had Christmas with them. It should be a fun time. :)

Anyway, that's about it for now.

I have much to be thankful for.... God has really blessed me.

Just a couple of things

2010-10-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

#1 ~ We're moving! We finally bought a house. Good thing too.... the house we're renting now went into foreclosure and has been bought by Fannie Mae. That whole debacle is a long story. So moving on.....it was a VERY long process, but we found the house of our dreams. We got a great deal but had to drudge through a short sale process to get it. We made an offer on it back in June and just closed at the end of September. Our Realtor informed us that this transaction was actually a smooth one. Really? I'd hate to go through one that's not so smooth. :) Anyway, our patience paid off and God really blessed us. We moved to the Portland, OR area 2 years ago and decided to rent so we could make sure we liked it here (make sure I wasn't going to get depressed) and because we knew the housing prices would go down. I'm sorry to all of the people who have lost their homes due to this economy, but we actually benefited from the market the way it is. We are in the process of getting stuff in the house in good shape before we move in. In just 10 days we'll be in our new house and I can finally unpack everything and get pictures on the wall. In the 2 years we've been here, this is our third house. CRAZY! We're really excited though. SO, hopefully after we get moved in and settled down a bit I can get back to blogging some again and maybe there will still be people interested in reading it. :P

#2 ~ I've actually had some business the last couple of weeks. I haven't officially launched Photography by COCO yet, but I've already done a newborn shoot and preschool portraits. It's been a lot of fun. Overwhelming because of everything going on, but fun nonetheless. I'll be upgrading my website soon and then I'll be going into the photography business very part-time. I have a lot on my plate at the moment. Along with upgrading my website, I would also like to purchase a Canon speedlite. I can't afford to spend an arm and a leg on it (maybe just an arm OR a leg), so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. I've been looking at the Canon 430EXII Speedlite but recently found the Canon Speedlite 270EX. The 270EX is more in my budget, but I don't want to waste my money. Know what I mean jelly bean? Beans? Anyway, so if any of my Canon using friends on here (if I have any friends left. Hellooooo? Helloooooo?) could give me some input, I would greatly appreciate it. :)

So, that will be all for today. :) If I get permission to post any preschool pictures I'll try to share those sometime. I'll also try to post some pictures of our new house once we move in.

Thank you for your patience and I hope to see you around again sometime. Have a great weekend y'all!

Sweet Shot- Friends

2010-09-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today I met someone I've known online for around 6 years in person for the first time. :) It was so nice to sit and chat with someone who had so much in common with me and not feel awkward. We talked about homeschooling, God and our kids. It was a very nice time of fellowship.

We met on Babycenter's December 2004 Birth Club Board. These are our two December kids who brought us together. Natalie and Benjamin.

I was able to get a silly shot of the kids together. It's also my sweet shot for the week.

Check out some more sweet shots over at Darcy's blog.

Remembering

2010-09-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Today is a time to remember. A time to remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. We need to remember the passengers of United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93. We need to remember the citizens of many different countries who were killed in the two World Trade Center towers. We need to remember the military personnel that lost their lives in the Pentagon. We need to remember the many firefighters, police officers and military personnel who risked and lost their lives saving others. Today, we need to pray for our military who continue to fight and protect our country so we don't have to witness the same tragedy that we witnessed 9 years ago. There are very few things in life that you remember vivid details of. I remember that day as vividly as I remember the births of my children.

I want to share with y'all something a friend of mine messaged me on Facebook about because I know the majority of my blog readers are faithful Christians who pray. She asked me to pray for her family and her husband who is currently deployed. This deployment is one of MANY deployments that this family has had to go through. The most recent deployment is especially difficult because since combat operations have ceased in Iraq, our troops are in more danger than they previously were. My friend shared with me that her husband, who never admits his fear to her, has shared that he is very fearful. My friend has 5 children that she has to raise alone for the time being, and now her mind is consumed with the thought of "what if something happens to my husband?". I CAN NOT imagine what that feels like.

We need to be especially diligent to pray for our military troops and their families. My husband has an 8 to 5 job in downtown Portland. I can't imagine him being thousands of miles away from me, wondering if/when I'd be able to speak to him again and wondering if he would come home to see his children again.

I'm not someone who does well with writing posts that don't revolve around pictures, so please forgive me if this post is all over the place. I just want everyone to take a moment out of our busy lives to think of those who are still in danger....daily.... and their families who have constant pain and worry for their loved ones.

God bless our wonderful country, which wouldn't be what it is if it weren't for the sacrifice that our military men and women make each and every day.

He's growing up!

2010-08-31T13:29:00.000-07:00

Today was Ben's first day of Kindergarten. All I can say is *sniff sniff*. I'm happy that he's growing up, but a little sad too. :(

My plan was to homeschool Ben, but the planning, organizing and curriculum were very overwhelming for me. SO, we've decided to go with public school. Christian private school would actually be our first choice, but we can't really afford the tuition. Instead, we're doing virtual public school through Connections Academy. Instead of going to a brick and mortar public school, we're doing public school at home. He has a teacher (Mrs. Dillon, who happens to be a graduate of a Christian University) and I am his "learning coach". My biggest responsibility is making sure he understands his assignments and that he follows through and completes them. He gets a public school education in a homeschooling environment. I can add anything to it that I want and can teach it to him the way I want. As long as he gets the information they want him to have. I don't have to be overwhelmed, which seems to happen easily, and he doesn't have to have the public school influences. Is this an ideal situation? I guess I'll let you all know at the end of the year. :)

***I'm not claiming that all children who attend public school are bad influences.***

I Heart Faces: Fix-It Friday #68

2010-08-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

This photo is beautiful to begin with. Loved the composition and the way the breeze is blowing through her hair.

Take a peek at some more Fix-It Friday edits here!

Save A Place For Me

2010-08-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

It's so hard for me to believe it's been 2 years since Christian went to be with Jesus. I miss him every single day. Not like his mama and daddy does though, I'm sure.

Ever since Christian died, I've had a different perspective on life. An eternal perspective. Although I thought of Heaven before, it wasn't the same as after Christian died. His death really opened my eyes and made my heart long for Heaven more than it ever had before. I always thought to myself, "I'm sure Heaven is wonderful, and I know I'll be there one day, but I have a lot of living to do and I want to watch my children grow up!". Of course I still want to watch my kids grow up, but now my eyes are always looking to the sky. I'm waiting on the Lord. EVERYTHING is different. Praying for family members and friends who don't know Jesus is at the point of desperation! God please save my lost loved ones! I want to go, but not without them!

Today I pray for my dear sister Marsha, her husband David, and their boys.... Christian's big brothers... Austin and Noah. I know we'll all be together with Christian in Heaven one day. I KNOW where I'm spending eternity. Oh what a comfort!

Do you know where you're spending eternity? If not, today I pray for you too.

I Heart Faces ~ Fix It Friday #66

2010-08-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't participated in an "I Heart Faces ~ Fix It Friday" in a long time. This photo looked like fun to edit so I thought I'd jump in. Besides, I've been so overwhelmed with life, my blog has been neglected.

Anyway, here is my edit.....

Original

Edit

Here's what I did:

1. Cropped out his little friend and the tree trunk

2. Sharpened the whole picture

3. Removed the blue tint from his skin and warmed up the whole picture

4. Used the burn tool at 20% opacity to make his shirt red instead of the pinkish tone. Between the burn tool and warming up the pic.... his shirt is now red.

My edit was done with Photoshop CS4.

Click here to see how other photographers edited this photo.

Sweet shot.... sweet nephew

2010-08-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've had the pleasure of taking care of my sweet, almost 2 year old, nephew. He's had a rough time getting use to me since he really hasn't been around me much. However, I'm not bothered by the screaming and crying (not that much anyway) so he calms down pretty quickly.

I've had a chance to snap a pic or 2 of him. It's kind of hard since he's constantly moving.

Here's one that's not blurry. :P

I'm linking to Darcy's "Sweet Shot Tuesday". Check out some more or add your own. :)

Carter has left the building.

2010-07-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

And I'm very sad about it too. :( He's been here for just over 2 weeks and it's been a blast. He helped entertain the kids and keep them out of trouble. Still have to laugh at that last part. Let's just say....Carter was always a 'spirited' child. Today he is a very sweet, responsible, loving, caring, godly young man. I sure hope he comes to visit his Aunt again soon. :)

The first weekend he was here we went to the lake to fish and hang out. When we first got there we weren't too hopeful because there were a lot of people who had the same idea. Fortunately, we waited till later in the day before we decided to go, so most of the people were starting to pack up to leave as we were getting there. We lucked out and got a picnic table close to the water and a good spot for the kids to play in the water. Earlier in the fishing season it would have been a good spot to catch a few fish too. We didn't do so hot in that dept. It's a stocked pond so it's pretty much been fished out. Nonetheless, it was a very fun and memorable day.

Here is my 'Sweet Shot' for the week. It's one of my favorite pics that I took while Carter was here.

So serene and so peaceful.... not to mention, so beautiful!

Check out some more of this week's 'Sweet Shots' over at My 3 Boybarians, or add one of your own. ;)

Today is my birthday!

2010-07-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

And I don't feel a year older. Or maybe I do. See....my memory is failing me already.

Nephew and Nature- Sweet Shot

2010-07-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

Mt. St. Helens + Fog/Cloudiness = Pictures of other things besides Mt. St. Helens. :P

Our nephew, Carter, is visiting us for a couple of weeks. He lives in beautiful Hawaii. We thought we'd take him around and see OUR sites here. They're just a little different from where he lives. So, we decided to take him up to Mt. St. Helens. Although here at the house it was cloudy and just a tad cool, the weatherman said that at Mt. St. Helens it would clear up and get to 71 degrees. Sounds perfect! So we make the drive from the west side of Portland to Mt. St. Helens. And wouldn't you know it? It was cloudy and cold. Argh! It was still fun though. We have a National Park Pass so it didn't really cost us anything and we still got to look around the observatory. We've been there lots of times....this was for Carter. He said it was fine. So we hiked up the little trail they have there at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which allowed me to get some photos of stuff, and then headed on home. We have a couple of weeks with him so I'm sure we'll fit lots of stuff to do in that time. :D

Here's Carter. Carter was only about a year older than Benjamin is now when Jason and I got married. Now he's officially an adult at 18 years old! I think I'll stick with young adult for now. Young adult Carter takes a little getting use to. Seriously! Anyway, that big massive nothingness behind him is suppose to be Mt. St. Helens. Yep! Can you see it? HA!

After that picture was taken we did our very small hike up the hill. There are lots of pretty things to take pictures of up there. :) I could spend hours just taking pictures of little things most people don't really care about.

I love the bridges up here in the PNW. This is my sweet shot for the week. Hoffstadt Creek Bridge right before you get into the blast zone at Mt. St. Helens.

There are some pretty, interesting little flowers/plants I saw around the parking lot after I took the pic of the bridge. My sister, Marshy, said it looked like seeds or bugs on those flowers. Really? Would I take pictures of flowers like that will bugs all over them? *eye roll*. J/K! I love you Marshy! :)

Check out other sweet shots at My 3 Boybarians. I love the fact that there's no theme for the week so you get to see a wide variety of photographs.

My Family Is Fun!

2010-06-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Benjamin had an "official" bike ride with his daddy. It was so stinkin' cute to see him all ready to go and excited. The ride was 11 1/2 miles and they did it in about an hour. This is the t-shirt they got. Jason usually does these fundraiser rides alone. This particular ride offers a "family" ride so he thought it would be fun to do with his son. :)

And they're off!

So while they were riding, Emily and I hung out in the van. We were cracking each other up. This girl is seriously funny, y'all.

She's very pretty too! I love her little dollface look.

Then the van got a little warm so we decided to take the fun outside. More of her silliness. You can see Mt. Adams behind her. It wasn't the perfect time of day for pictures because the sunlight was very harsh! But memories, nonetheless. :)

And here come daddy and Benjamin! They did it!

The finish line! YAY! This is my sweet shot for this week for Sweet Shot Tuesday. It may not be the perfect photograph, technically speaking, but I'm proud of my 2 boys!

On the way home, crossing the bridge from Washington into Oregon, we saw all of these kite surfers out! I think they were having some sort of festival.

And of course our beautiful view of Mt. Hood while crossing the bridge!

Head over to My 3 Boybarians for more sweet shots!

Follower of a follower

2010-06-26T23:18:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I'm a follower of a follower. :P I got this from my sister, Marshy's, blog.

What color are your socks right now? No socks here. It's summer.....flip flop weather. :)

What are you listening to right now? Silence. Very late so only the sound of the clacking on my keyboard right now.

What was the last thing you ate? Pad Thai.

Can you drive a stick? I can. Not well, but I can if I need to.

Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mommy.

How old are you today? A few weeks shy of 37. Oi!

What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? College Football.

What is your favorite drink? You meant, "what is your favorite COFFEE drink?", right?

Have you ever dyed your hair? I think only once. It was one of those washes out in 6 weeks type of things.

Favorite food? Korean.

What is the last movie you watched? Extraordinary Measures

Favorite day of the year? My anniversary. :)

How do you vent anger? Slam doors, clean, yell, scream, cry, pitch a fit, etc.

What was your favorite toy as a child? I have no clue. My sister Marshy? :P

Favorite season? Fall.

Cherries or Blueberries? I like both about the same.

Living situation? It's about to change. Will always be with my 3 loves but searching for a new home. :)

When was the last time you cried? Thursday night at Benjamin's VBS social thingy. I was so proud of him and how much he loved learning about Jesus. He started singing on the way out and it brought tears to my eyes.

What is on the floor of your closet right now? shoes, boxes, clothes, shoes, shoes, shoes....

What are you most afraid of? My kids getting hurt. Physically scaring me? RATS!

Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Cheese with a little spice.

Favorite dog breed? German Shepherd

Favorite day of the week? Saturday

How many states have you lived in? 5. Colorado, Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon

Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds.

What is your favorite flower? Tulips

Did you get the H1N1 vaccine? No.

I guess if you want to be a follower of a follower of a follower, you can repost this and put your own answers. :)

Sweet shots of sweet people

2010-06-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of shooting a wedding vow renewal ceremony for my friend, Yvonne, on Saturday. She is such a beautiful person, inside and out.

Yvonne's parents live in Zimbabwe and were here visiting for a month, because Yvonne just had her second baby. This was their first visit to the United States. I could see where Yvonne gets her beauty and sweetness. Seriously the sweetest people ever. Her parents were unable to be here for her wedding a few years ago, so they decided to do a vow renewal so her dad could give her away. There was not a dry eye there. It was very touching and beautiful.

Here's a picture of the beautiful couple. Shane and Yvonne.

My sweet shot for this week though is of their daughter, Kayla. She is a very sweet and funny little 2 year old girl. I just loved the lighting in their hallway.

To see sweet shots that others have taken or to add your own, head on over to Life with My 3 Boybarians.

Summertime Fun

2010-06-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

Last summer Jason decided it might be kinda fun to take the kids fishing. We had NO clue where we'd take them fishing. Jason called the Ranger office at Mt. Hood to see if there were any nice places near the mountain that might be good. The Ranger suggested Trillium Lake because it had nice views and it was kid friendly. Boy was he right! We went later in the summer last year, but decided to go earlier this year. What a difference! Last year it was quite a bit cooler and Mt. Hood didn't have much snow on it. You can see a pics from last year here.

These are a couple of pictures I took over the weekend. We caught 10 salamanders and no fish. Turns out we've been using the wrong bait. Oh well, live and learn. :P

Check out some more sweet shots for this week at Life With My 3 Boybarians.

Do you like to do outdoors-y things in the summer? What are some of your favorite activities?

Color Inc vs Mpix Pro

2010-06-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

First I want to say that this post is NOT intended to be advertising for Color Inc. It's also not intended to sway you from ever using Mpix Pro. That being said, I'm writing this post because I've found the whole process of trying to find the right lab a little bit stressful and frustrating.

What if I order hundreds of dollars worth of pictures and they come out terrible? My reputation as a photographer will be out the window before my business ever has a chance to get off the ground. I know I'm not the only photographer out there that experiences this same frustration, so I thought I'd share my conclusions with you.

I ordered test prints through Mpix Pro a while back and was sorely disappointed. They were so dark and far from what I saw on my screen. I calibrated my monitor but it drove me crazy to have to have my screen so dark and besides, how bright will the pictures be that others see on their screen?

With a suggestion from my sister, Marsha, I decided to order test prints from Color Inc. I have to say, I didn't have very high hopes. Today I received my test prints from Color Inc., and I was pleasantly surprised. I don't like the flow of their site as well as Mpix Pro, but the test prints....they came out great. They are a smidge brighter than my original files, but are still good enough that I wouldn't hesitate giving the prints to my clients... no problem.

Anyway, so you don't have to just take my word for it, I did a comparison of the test prints from both labs and I've also included the originals. I scanned the test prints without color correction so it shows the differences honestly.

These may not be my best photos, but you can still tell the difference in the brightness. I did notice that in the black and white photo there's a difference, but not as much as the others.

So where do you get your photos printed?

Sweet Shot- Silly Family

2010-06-01T07:24:00.000-07:00

First of all, Happy 1st day of June. :) Hopefully it starts looking more like summer around here soon.

This past weekeend 2 of my sisters came to visit. My sister Marsha and her boys, Austin and Noah, and my sister Debbie and her husband Aubrey. We just hung out, relaxed, drank coffee, boys played LOTS of video games, boys went to the airplane museum while the girls had a fashion show, went on a muddy hike, went to church together, ate, ate, drank coffee, ate, played on the computer,ate, drank coffee and took pictures. Can't leave that one out. It was just so nice to even sit across the table on our laptops. Just being in the same room was fun. But alas, *sigh*, they all left yesterday and I woke up to a very quiet house this morning. I'm looking forward to seeing them again, hopefully soon. Maybe next time the parents, NYC sister and my brother can make it.

Anyway, we took a bazillion pictures, but the one I'm making my sweet shot for this week is of Emily and her Marshy eemo acting silly in the cul de sac. Silly, silly, silly. :)

Here's a pretty pic of Marsha, so you don't just see the silly side of her.

This is a cute pic I took of Debbie and Aubrey. They're so cute together. :)

And of course, this very sweet shot of Marsha, her boys and my boy. Then the goober in the back had to ruin it. Hee hee...just kidding. I like this pic. It just shows how well Aubrey really does fit in with my family.

To check out more of this week's Sweet Shots or to link up your own, hop on over to Life With My 3 Boybarians here.

Sweet Shot- Visit from the Duckies

2010-05-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at my computer this morning and Jason starts calling for Ben to come look out the window. I look over and there was a mama duck and her ducklings... trying to find a way out of our yard. It took her a bit but I knew she would find her way out.

It was a nice surprise to our rainy morning. :)

(Please excuse the weeds)

Check out more of this weeks sweet shots here.

Sweet Shots

2010-05-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

I feel a little guilty because I blog more about Emily than Benjamin. But Benjamin doesn't give me much to blog about. He's a lot more serious than Emily and just doesn't do much that's blog worthy. He'll be starting school in the Fall so maybe I'll have some material then. :P

So, this is another post about Emily. She had her 4 year well check today. She asked me last night as I was tucking her into bed, "mommy do I have to get shots?". I told her she did and she was fine with it because I told her these are the last set of shots she will have until she's 11.... other than a flu shot each year. We had a great check up. She's healthy and all legs, which definitely is not a trait she got from me or her daddy. She did get 5 shots, 3 in one arm and 2 in the other. She didn't cry, she didn't say ouch, she did nothing. The nurse and I were pretty impressed with her bravery. I hate shots! I definitely would have been weeping after the first one.

Anyway, when we got home she let me take a few pictures.

Showing some attitude.

Sweet reward from daddy for being so good.

I'm linking this post up for Sweet Shot Tuesdays at My 3 Boybarians.

Click the button to check out more of this weeks Sweet Shots.

It was a happy birthday :)

2010-05-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

Princess had a very happy birthday. We had a lot of fun hanging out, eating steak and the cake she picked out. We had a very full and blessed day. Next on the event list.... Chuck E Cheese. FUN! I even have fun there. :)

Here are some pics of the birthday girl ON her birthday.

Happy 4th Birthday, Princess

2010-05-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is 4 today. F-O-U-R! Where has the time gone? I ask this same question every year.

Last year I promised to come back and do an appropriate post for her birthday, but I failed.... with a capital F! So sorry Emily.

My princess went from a little girl who loved boy stuff..... cars, superheroes, blocks and trains to a big girl who still loves superheroes, but now you can add clothes (well, she's always loved clothes), dolls and make-up. When I'm putting my make up on in the mornings, she comes up and sweetly asks "mommy, can I have a little nake-up too?". We're still working on pronouncing it correctly.

In the years past, a thrown together cake by mommy was sufficient. This year she was very specific about what she wanted for her cake. We went to the store to get a gift for her friend and she saw the perfect cake at the bakery. I'm still not quite sure what kind of cake it is exactly.... I guess we'll find out when we cut into it.

We have 2 parties planned for this coming week. Chuck E Cheese with a couple of her closest friends and then a combined party with her gal pal, Gabriella, on Friday with our playgroup. Should be lots of fun....and LOTS of cake.

My beautiful baby girl is now a beautiful big girl.

But.....there are some things that never change. :)

Happy Birthday my sweet Emily. You mean the world to me. I love you with all my heart, and my life is complete and blessed with you in it.

MWAH!

Sweet Shot Tuesday

2010-05-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we went to our favorite beach. I don't know the name of it, I just know it's south of Tillamook. It's never crowded, you can park on the beach and did I mention.... it's never crowded? :P

Being Mother's Day weekend, I got to choose whatever I wanted to do. So naturally, I picked what the kids really wanted to do. :) I would have picked it anyway.

I'm participating in Sweet Shot Tuesday for the first time. You can check out some more sweet shots by clicking on the button on the top of this post.

We started out digging in the sand.

Then I guess the waves were calling so off they went. Into the f-f-f-freezing cold water. It's foot numbing.

So excited.

Lots of jumping and splashing.

Such a beautiful place. If it's this beautiful here, can you imagine how beautiful Heaven is?

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

Zion National Park- Utah

**I just wanted to add that I took this photo a couple of years ago with my Kodak Easyshare DX6490 point and shoot camera. It just goes to show, you don't have to have a fancy camera to get beautiful pictures.***

Happy Birthday Marshy

2010-04-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

Today is my sister, Marsha's, birthday. I don't have to say a lot about her because most of my blog readers started following me because they were friends with her first. So y'all know how sweet, smart, thoughtful, caring, loving and beautiful she is. We've always been close. I remember when we were little how much I hated being separated from her. Oh, we had our "mean to each other" moments. Quite a few. I would tell her she was an ugly baby and she would break out the claws. We laugh about it all now.

This photo was taken in 1979

Marshy, I hope you have a fabulous birthday. I love and miss you very much!

P.S. You weren't an ugly baby. :) I'm sorry I use to say you were.

Silly Morning

2010-04-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

My baby girl has been cracking me up today. She woke up with a huge smile, gave me a kiss and told me she wanted Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and pizza rolls for breakfast. So I told her to get dressed and we'd go downstairs to eat breakfast.

I tried to talk her out of her outfit of choice but she wasn't having it. I guess if she wants to look silly she can. (I secretly think it's cute when little kids throw their own outfits together)

The colors all match but the patterns? Not so much.

So after breakfast we go outside so I could snap a few pictures of her. We went through the whole what does a dog do, what does a cat do, what does a chicken do, etc. We get to what does mommy do, and this is what I got.

I asked her what that was suppose to mean and she told me I was a puppet. Mmmmmk. Funny girl. I love her with my whole heart though. She's cute....what can I say?

i heart faces: Fix It Friday #51

2010-04-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

This week kind of flew by huh? Yay for Friday! Yay for Fix It Friday! :)

Here are my edits done in CS4.

Original

Edit 1

Edit 2

Edit 3

You can see what others have done with this photo at i heart faces.

Earth Day

2010-04-22T20:25:00.001-07:00

We never do anything for earth day. However, since we've moved to Oregon, we do recycle (initially because we were required to). After recycling for almost 2 years, I realize that it's not that difficult and wish we would have done it all along. Unfortunately, in Oklahoma it's not free so people are less likely to do so.

I've always rolled my eyes and made smart comments about "tree huggers" in the past. There's a reason most "tree huggers" are from Oregon, Washington and California. It's beautiful here and there seems to be a lot more to take care of. Not that Oklahoma and Texas don't have their pretty areas. I just think the effect mankind has on the environment is a lot more noticeable up here in the Pacific Northwest. Don't misunderstand me, I haven't become a crazy "tree hugger" or anything, but I have learned how important it is to take care of God's creation.

My whole family has been sick all week so we couldn't really do much today, but Emily and I did manage to plant a few grow kits that I picked up at the One Spot at Target. It was so easy and fun. Once the plants get bigger (if they even grow), we'll transplant them into a garden.... somewhere in the backyard. :P

So, did you do anything for Earth Day?

i heart faces- Week 16 "Collages"

2010-04-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

This week's theme at i heart faces is "collages". I took these pictures of Emily last week while she was blowing bubbles, wearing her favorite coat. Thankfully, here in Portland, it can be nice out and still cool enough to wear a light coat or jacket.

Click here to see some more fabulous collages.

***For this collage, I used the Magic Blog It Board (free in the freebies section at MCP Actions).***

Wordless Wednesday (old place, 1 lb onion rings, American)

2010-04-07T06:18:00.000-07:00

*Edited to add: This place is not here in Oregon. It's in Hutchinson, KS. We went there with Jason's aunt and uncle when we were back to visit last month. :) It's been in business for 65 years. A couple owned it up until 1981 when their daughter and her husband bought it from them.

i Heart Faces- Fix It Friday #49

2010-04-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

I don't participate in fix it friday every week, but I do enjoy it every once in a while. It's amazing how photos can look with a little editing.

This week's photo is awesome already, so it didn't take much to make it look even better.

Original Edit 1
Edit 2

I sharpened and added a little PW Boost action using CS4. The second edit is just the first one but with Coffeeshop's Creamy Chocolate B &W with a little less creamy. :)
You can visit some other participants of today's fix it friday here.

Pacific Northwest and Mesquite Trees

2010-04-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

They don't mix. Or at least I don't think they do. Too bad. If Oregon could just be a state away from Texas and Oklahoma it would be PERFECT!

The kids and I left for a visit to Texas on the 13th and then Jason met up with us on the 19th for a couple of days before the 4 of us left for a visit to Oklahoma. It was such a nice visit. The kids and I spent a week with my family, which is always a blast. My brother was the only one who didn't make it. I wish he could have been there, especially since my nephew is growing like a weed. We didn't do a whole lot except hang out and catch up.... like we always do when we're together.

After we got to Oklahoma we spent half the week with Jason's mom and then the second half with his dad. While we were with his mom we went to Kansas to visit his 99 year old grandpa, his aunt and uncle and one of his cousins. Visiting his grandpa is always fun because his house is full of family history. The old pictures and the stories behind them are so interesting.

I got to spend a day with one of my best friends in whole world, Brandy. We started the day with a photoshoot of her family and then time at Chick-fil-A for the kids to play and for us to catch up. What a great day that was. The photoshoot was a lot of fun because I had a fun family to take photos of. :) Her husband took the day off of work and she pulled her kids out of school for this shoot. Talk about pressure. :P

The second part of the week we spent with Jason's dad and his dad's wife. They live in the country on about 5 acres so the kids had a lot of room to run and play. They really enjoyed that. Poor Emily just cried "I don't wanna go.... I'm having so much fun". It was quite sad. I think it's safe to say, none of us wanted to leave.

As much as we love Oregon, we really do miss our family and close friends back home. Texas and Oklahoma will always be "home" to us (Jason would argue that since he's a California boy), but we're trying to make our home here. It was hard getting back in the swing of things when we first got back but I think we're doing better.

I really would like my cake and eat it too. Since Oregon will never be a state away from Texas or Oklahoma, I'll settle for cheaper airline tickets. I know... it's a stretch.

So, that's my update. It's weird not doing a post around a picture. Ugh, I shouldn't be so dependent.

Speaking of pictures, I'm working on finalizing my website for my photography. I did 4 photoshoots while on vacation and had so much fun. I'm hoping to launch Photography by COCO by the beginning of summer, if not before. Please pray for me. :)

i Heart Faces- Dramatic B & W Photo Challenge

2010-03-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge on i Heart Faces is "Dramatic B & W".

We went to the Tillamook Air Museum and I got a few shots like this with Emily. I wish she would stop sucking her fingers but at the same time I think I would miss it if she stopped.

Want to see some more dramatic black and white photos? Visit i Heart Faces this week.

Sorry Marshy, I lied! :P

2010-03-23T19:35:00.001-07:00

Bwahahaha. Thought about making this a wordless wednesday pic, but then I decided not to. :) To see a normal pic of Marsha from this mini shoot I did with her, you can check out her profile pic at her blog.

She's beautiful even when she is being a big dork. I love you Marshy!

Wordless Wednesday (sort of)

2010-03-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

She wanted her hair curly like her friend Gabriella's hair. So after her bath I braided her hair in 4 french braids and the next morning this is what we got. She was a wild lookin' girl yesterday. :P

I Heart Faces "Jump For Joy" Photo Challenge

2010-03-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is "Jump For Joy". I have a few different pictures of the kids jumping but I really like this one. Emily looks like she's levitating and might not come back down. LOL. This picture was taken when we visited this big rock out in the middle of nowhere called "Glacier Rock". It's a huge boulder that was said to have traveled down from Canada along with some glaciers. I guess it's not a type of rock found in this area. Who knows. :P

Go on over to I Heart Faces and take a peek at some other joyous jumpers. :)

Ready for Spring

2010-02-27T11:18:00.001-08:00

I'm SO ready for spring. Everything is in bloom, the trees are coming back to life and the sun is out more. The only negative is that with everything blooming comes the allergies. Oh well, totally worth it.

This is what I see when I look out the window of the kids' playroom. It's on the 2nd story so we're eye level to the beautiful cherry blossoms on the trees. So very pretty...... ACHOO! :P

Cancer Awareness

2010-02-25T21:53:00.000-08:00

This morning I logged onto Facebook to see a status update from a former classmate of mine whose wife has been battling cancer for over 5 years. His status update was that his wife had lost her battle with cancer and passed away this morning. My heart just sank. They have 2 young kids and my heart just breaks to pieces for them. What's most comforting, besides the fact that she's no longer suffering and in pain, is that she knew the Lord. We have to rejoice for her, she's seeing the face of Jesus right this moment. I didn't know Julie, but I've been following her journey since I reconnected with Mark on Facebook. Please pray for this precious family as they start a new journey without their wife and mother.

I've always been aware of what a nasty disease cancer is and can be. My family has been affected by cancer, on both sides. Jason's family has been affected by cancer, on both sides. This past week my eyes have been opened to the sad reality of how many children are affected by this disease. It all started with a post on Facebook by my friend Kathi about a 2 year old little girl in Cypress, TX (Houston area) named Layla Grace. You can read her story at www.laylagrace.org. Following little Layla Grace on Twitter, I've come across some other little ones who are dealing with this awful disease. 15 month old McKenna at www.hopeforbabymckenna.com, 2 year old Sophie Atay at www.sophie-appeal.org, 9 month old Keegan at www.caringbridge.org/visit/SuperKeeganRay, 5 year old Kate McRae at www.prayforkate.com and 8 year old Ellie at www.caringbridge.org/visit/elliepotvin. These are just a few that have been so heavy on my heart this past week. They're only a few of many children who are suffering. Please join with me in praying for these sweet little children. God is in the business of working miracles. I believe it!

Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

I love where I live

2010-02-21T18:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday we went to the beach. It was beautiful! We lugged some sand toys and some chairs and just had some fun. Snotty noses, coughs and all. How could we waste a beautiful day? We just couldn't. I didn't take any pics of the kids playing. *gasp*... I know! I think they appreciated not having a camera in their face every minute. :) Their favorite activity when we go to the coast is running from the waves with daddy. They were soaked, sandy, cold.... but I didn't care. They had so much fun and I really enjoyed watching them.

I did manage to get some pictures of the awesome sunset. I just honestly DO NOT understand how someone doesn't believe in God, especially when you see His beautiful creation all around you. I'm sorry, but you just don't get this by accident.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-17T00:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I love you and sometimes I don't

2010-02-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

That's what my sweet little daughter said to me while we were playing with Perler Beads.

This was our conversation.....

Emily: Mommy, I love you but sometimes I don't love you.

Me: Why don't you love me sometimes?

Emily: Because I love daddy more sometimes.

Me: You know Emily, you can love mommy and daddy the same all of the time.

Emily: Well, that's just how it is. It's just how it has to be.

Niiiiiiiiiice. :P

Little stinker!

But she does really love me!

During our little conversation she was making me this.

I love her! Even if she only loves me some of the time. :)

I ♥ Faces- We ♥ Kisses

2010-02-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

I heart faces week 6 challenge is "We Heart Kisses". I have a few pictures of kisses but decided on this one. Benjamin is usually the one planting kisses on his baby sister, but this time Emily got him. I'd say she REALLY got him. I wonder how they're going to feel about this picture when they're older. Ha! I "think" he appreciated it, even if the look on his face doesn't show it.

If you want to check out some more "We Heart Kisses" photos, hop on over to I ♥ Faces.

Pants on the ground, pants on the ground.....

2010-02-05T00:02:00.000-08:00

Here.... let Emily tell you.

I have no idea why she is saying "gwound" instead of "ground". She does not have problems with her r's. I guess she's just being silly.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

I L♥VE LUCY!

2010-01-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful time in NYC this past weekend. The main purpose of my trip was to meet my new niece Lucy Grey. She is so beautiful!!! With all of her hair she reminds me some of my Benjamin at times. :) She looks just like her daddy. The more she fills out, the more you can catch glimpses of Leah in her too. I loved getting up with her during the night so her parents could sleep. I even loved changing diapers. Me and my sisters, Marshy and Debbie, played nanny for a few days and it was such a blessing. My mom is there now taking over for the rest of the week. I can't wait to see my family again in March! I know Lucy will change quite a bit between now and then. I am so thankful I got to see her while she's still tiny. :)

Here are a few pictures I took during my visit. The lighting in a small NYC apartment isn't the best, but we managed to capture some special moments. I'm sure my sister Marsha will post some of the ones she took soon.

The beautiful family

Sweet Lucy with her eyes wide open

I love this picture. She's so sweet.

She has long, narrow feet

Wordless Wednesday- Sea Lion Caves

2010-01-13T12:02:00.000-08:00

No New Years resolution for me.

2010-01-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

I never stick to them. Do you?

I've decided that this year I'm going to continue to strive to have a closer relationship with God and to try to be more like Jesus. I figure if I do that, then everything else will fall into place. I also feel like making a New Years resolution is kind of saying that I have control over what tomorrow will bring. Instead of a resolution, I'm giving it ALL to God.

My sister Marsha got me a devotional called "Springs in the Valley" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. I'm on day 4 and each day so far it's been EXACTLY what I've needed. Yesterday's read was Matthew 6:34 "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself...". I'm going to pray and strive to not worry about tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day, or the next. I know that God has a plan for my life and it doesn't matter how many promises I make to myself, the only promise that matters is the one He has made.

What are your goals for 2010?

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-30T06:52:00.000-08:00

Cutie patootie nephew. He's 1.

A visit with Santa Claus 2009

2009-12-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

We went and saw Santa today. I love Santa because he spends quite a bit of time talking with the kids, asking them what they would like, what their favorite things are, etc. The kids had fun but it was hard to calm Benjamin down (he was way excited) and hard to get Emily to smile because she said she's "shy". LOL. We got one of both of them smiling, even though Ben's is an obvious forced smile.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN

2009-12-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

My big boy is 5 today. It seems a little strange but at the same time not so much. He's a smart kid and acts older than his age (most of the time). :P Now, the thought that he'll be 6 next year is really weird to me.

Today we got up, got ready and met daddy at Chuck E Cheese. Jason got off work early today so he was able to join us for the fun. It was so nice to just have the time as a family having fun and playing games. We came home after that and I frosted Ben's cake. After opening presents we had cake and ice cream.

Here are a few pictures from today. Please excuse my cake decorating skills.... I have none. LOL. Oh, and only half of the cake is frosted because Ben doesn't like frosting.

Not a very clear picture, but he's hugging Emily because of the card she gave him. It was so sweet.

Cheesy forced smile. It's hard to get a real one from him. Oh well.

We've had a really good day. I love this boy so much!!! I remember every second of the day he was born. God has truly blessed me.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-16T10:24:00.000-08:00

Ok. So it's not going to be completely wordless. I need to explain a little. We made salt dough ornaments the other day and had some dough left over. I decided to make a little snowman and Emily decided to be like mommy. :) It was so sweet. She just kept saying "mommy, yours is perfect and mine is perfect!". And hers is!!!

I ♥ Faces- Fix It Friday #39

2009-12-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

This week's fix it friday photo is something a little different for me to work with because it's action packed. :P It's a great shot though so there wasn't much that I did to it.

I almost always crop, add black and mess with the brightness. I did sharpen the dirt that was kicked up into the air to make it pop a little. I don't really have step by step instructions about what I did because I just messed with a setting here and there. My edits were done in Lightroom 2 and PSE6.

(Original)

(Edit 1)

(Edit 2: Texture Added)

(Edit 3)

Go on over and visit I ♥ Faces for some more great fixes.

I ♥ Faces- Week 48 "Sweet Dreams" Photo Challenge

2009-12-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

This week's theme on I ♥ faces is "Sweet Dreams".

This is a picture I took of Emily about a week or 2 ago when she was feeling a bit puny. She was sleeping so peacefully. I love taking pictures of her no matter what she is doing. She is so beautiful. I feel so blessed.

Check out some other "Sweet Dream" pictures at I ♥ faces.

Christmas Pictures?

2009-12-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

Snow was in the forecast for the weekend (which we've had none of yet), and since the weather was nice yesterday I made the kids dress up so I could snap a few pictures. I need to get moving on our Christmas cards. I'm not sure yet if I'll use any of these but we'll see. I've posted these on Facebook but my Gma doesn't have Facebook so I thought I'd post them here. She is a faithful reader of my blog. Hi Gma! I love you!!!

Anyway, we'll see if any of these make it in our Christmas card this year.

I ♥ Faces - Fix It Friday #38

2009-12-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

(Original)

Fix#1

Fix #2

Fix #3

Fix #4

Fix #1: Brightened irises using the brush tool in Lightroom 2, slight crop to an angle and changed to B & W

Fix #2: Brightened irises using the brush tool in Lightroom 2, increased black, increased fill light, softened skin, and lastly added texture using Photoshop Elements 6.

Fix #3: Same as #2 except I didn't increase the black as much and didn't do as much skin softening. I also decreased the opacity of the texture.

Fix #4: Same as 2 and 3 except no increase in black.

Great Giveaway

2009-12-01T12:58:00.001-08:00

My friend Janet over at Dimples and Dots is having a really great giveaway. If you have a little girl you DEFINITELY need to enter. Even if you don't have a girl, this would be a great gift for a friend.

She's giving away a really cute Pixie tutu with a choice of up to 3 different colors. She really has some cute stuff over there y'all.

If you enter, could you please mention my name?

Thank you!

I ♥ Faces- We ♥ Tooshies

2009-11-29T20:29:00.000-08:00

This weeks photo challenge on I ♥ Faces is "We ♥ Tooshies".

Over the summer we went to Ruby Beach at Olympic National Park in Washington State. This beach is just covered with rocks and drift wood. VERY pretty. The day we went it was foggy and overcast.... perfect lighting for pictures.

Here is my entry for the We ♥ Tooshies challenge. Benjamin taking a break while rolling driftwood into the ocean.

Click here to check out more tooshies.

Not so Wordless Wednesday- What I'm thankful for.

2009-11-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

God has blessed me beyond anything I deserve.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband. I love you honey!

Thankful for my family.

Thankful for my sweet and handsome son.

Thankful for my sweet and beautiful daughter.

Thankful for the best parents a daughter could have.

Thankful for the close relationship I have with my siblings and their families.

Thankful for a roof over my head.

I'm thankful for my Gma, my in-laws, other family members, cherished friends God has put in my life and my church.

I'm thankful for the good times and thankful for God's grace to get through the bad times.

Most of all, I'm thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who suffered and died on the cross so I could have eternal life with Him in Heaven one day.

(Not all of these photographs were taken by me)

iHeart Faces Fix It Friday #37

2009-11-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

I've participated in several iHeart Faces challenges but this is my first Fix It Friday. Editing is one of my favorite things to do. :)

(Original)

(My First Edit)

(My second edit. I was able to come back and spend a little more time and I think it paid off)

I used Adobe Lightroom 2. I increased the exposure, brightness and black. I increased the fill light and recovery some too. Then I cropped and put it at an angle. I also used the brush tool to brighten the irises of her eyes and to decrease the exposure of the leaves at the bottom of the picture. Lastly I did a little softening of her skin.

A new creation

2009-11-19T22:51:00.000-08:00

Look here at what my sister Marsha and I pigged out on tonight. :) Can you say YUMMY? It was... very much so.

Yes... I know I cheated. :P

*Disclaimer: I understand how lazy it seems that I just linked to Marsha's blog. In my defense, I wrote this post only because she said (in a majorly snarky tone) "someone needs to update their blog".

Tillamook Air Museum

2009-11-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday we went to the Tillamook Air Museum. Before it was a museum, it housed blimps back during WWII. It was part of the Tillamook Naval Air Station. There is a small Naval Joint Reserve base there now. It was really neat to see this gigantic hangar that is almost all wood. It was so full of history. As a museum, it houses lots of old planes and some newer. They also offer rides in some of these old airplanes. I'm not questioning the abilities of the pilots, but I'm not sure I would want to ride in one of these. The idea is kind of neat though. :)

So, here are some pictures I took. There are quite a few. Some planes and lots of my kids. :)

Emily being Emily

2009-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Always has her fingers in her mouth. :P

I can't complain...

2009-11-12T09:18:00.001-08:00

I can't complain about all of the rain we've been having.
I hear lots of complaints about how much rain they get here in Oregon. I don't think it's all that bad. Besides, the rain is what gives us the beautiful green grass in the middle of winter, the rain brings us the fresh air that surrounds us here, the rain is what makes the flowers so pretty all year long. I remind myself that the very same God that brings us all of the stuff we love about nature also brings us the stuff that we often complain about.

It's been raining here for close to 2 weeks now. We have lots of sun breaks so it's not like it constantly rains every minute. Yesterday as the sun was going down for the day, I looked outside and saw how beautiful the sky was. How clean it was and how beautiful the flowers looked with drops of water covering them. Here are a couple of pictures I took.

Get Your Vote On! Homeschool Blog Awards 2009

2009-11-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

Wow! I'm completely speechless! Really. I have no idea who nominated me, but when I went to vote for my sister Marsha in the "Best Live What You Believe Blog", "Best Homeschool Mom Blog" and "Best Cyber Buddy Blogger" categories and started perusing the other categories, I saw my blog nominated for the "Best Photos and Artistic Content Blog". It's hard to imagine winning since the other nominees are pretty awesome. I am truly honored to be nominated though. So even if I don't win, I still feel like I won. :) Thank you for nominating me.....whoever you are.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

This has been our best friend this past week since we've been sick.

But don't worry... we haven't been sounding like this little guy. :)

A Friend's really cute giveaway

2009-11-09T07:40:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd do a post about a giveaway a friend of mine is doing. It's just too cute not to share. :)
All you need is to find your creativity and help name a bow that she's made for her new upcoming collection called "Cute as a Button".

So go on over and visit my friend Janet at Dimples and Dots and enter her really cute giveaway.

Winners of my earring giveaway

2009-11-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

I wish I could give all of you a pair of earrings. This was a lot of fun to do and I look forward to doing another giveaway in the near future. :) Thank you all for participating.

We came up with our 3 winners in a highly technical fashion. My kiddos drew the names out of a pimpalicious, fuzzy, green hat. LOL.

~Christine

Giveaway

2009-11-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

In lieu of Wordless Wednesday, I'm going to give away 3 pairs of earrings that my sister Leah made. I would link you to her blog but she doesn't have one *ahem*. :P These were from our Etsy Shop Days as lele + coco jewelry. :)

I'm also doing this giveaway in celebration of my new blog design (only a week late doing this).

Anyway, all you need to do is leave me a comment with your choice of earrings. The 3 winners will be announced on Friday, November 6th.

(A)

(B)

(C)

***These earrings measure approx. 2 1/2" from the top of the earhooks to the bottom of the drops.

Thanks for participating. :)

(Please leave your email address if you're not someone I have regular contact with or if you don't have a blog to link your name back to. Thanks.)

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun yesterday. We went out to eat with some friends of ours and then went to the Harvester Party at church. They had a ton of booths and things for the kids to do. We left there and went to a community where the houses are REALLY close together so there wasn't a lot of walking between houses. It was a place where our friends usually go and it was a GREAT idea, especially since our kids are young. The kids' buckets were completely full. Since I only allow 1 or 2 pieces of candy a day, it'll take us most of the year to get through it all. Actually, since I'll be "helping" it might not last that long. LOL.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my Supergirl and Venom. I managed to get a lot more pictures of Emily than Benjamin. It's how it always goes. :P

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-28T05:37:00.001-07:00

They must not care, or haven't noticed, because it was still like this the last time we ate there. :P

My new look!

2009-10-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, what do you think of my new look? Jo-Lynne over at DCR Design did a wonderful job. Thank you Jo-Lynne. She was really great working with me tweaking it till we got it exactly the way I liked it. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Now if I can get my rear in gear and blog more regularly. :P

Best Blog Award

2009-10-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

Although I find myself far from deserving of this award, I really appreciate the recognition from a new bloggy friend, Jennifer, at Keeping Up With The Bowens!

Now I'm going to pass this award on to 15 other fabulous blog friends. I read so many great blogs so this is going to be hard. I think the rules state I need to pass it on to some recently discovered blogs so I'll try to do that.

So, I'm going to pass this award on to:

Duct Tape Chronicles
Making Memories that Last
Heart on the Line
The Daily Planet
The M&M Show + H
A Small Peek Into My World
My Supplications
Mommy of Three Crazy As Can Be
These Are The Moments
Equilibrium
The Life of a Fulltime Working Mother to Two
The Abernathy Family
Passport Academy
Knowledge House Academy
Mom to Tate

The Best Blog Award rules are:

1) To accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have recently discovered and think are great! Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

i Heart Faces - Pink Week

2009-10-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this weeks i Heart Faces challenge theme is "Pink".
Pink is Emily's favorite color so it wasn't too difficult finding a picture of her wearing pink. In this picture she's laying on a hotel room bed flipping through a Gideon Bible. :) I think I've posted this picture somewhere on my blog before. It's one of my favorites.

Sooner Saturday

2009-10-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

BOOMER SOONER! :)

I won a blog redesign

2009-10-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

*UPDATE*
I decided to go with a scripture verse instead of a witty tagline. :P I've gotten some good ideas from y'all and I really appreciate the thoughts. :)

And I'm super excited about it! You can see how plain Jane my blog is. I was going for simple and clean but got b-o-r-i-n-g!

Anyway, Jennifer over at "Keeping Up with the Bowens" recently celebrated her 100th blog post with a great giveaway. I was blessed enough to win a blog redesign from Jo-Lynne at DCR Design. I can't wait to see what the final design will be. :)

I need your help though. I think I have a clever name for my blog that fits my life pretty well, but, I would like a tagline. Any ideas?

Thank you in advance my bloggy friends. :)

First Day of School

2009-10-12T10:35:00.001-07:00

We started school 1 week ago today. So far it's been fun. Started out good, got a little eh and then finished good. I realized I needed to do more planning for our school day than I was. It certainly made our day go a lot more smoothly. Over the weekend I also got an All in One Epson Printer, Fax, Copier, Scanner. On sale at Office Depot. I'm so happy.

The curriculum we're using is WinterPromise "I'm Ready to Learn" for 3 and 4 year old preschoolers. My sister was generous enough to send this curriculum to me. I was on the fence about homeschooling in the first place and this kind of gave me the nudge I needed to at least try. One thing I like about this curriculum is that it's easy to modify it to fit my kids. They can both count to 100 (mostly), know their letters, colors, animals, etc. I love that it fits a 4 day school week so we can take a day off in the middle. Very flexible. Each season is a different topic. Right now we're doing "At the Farm". The others are "In the Garden", "At the Pond" and "In the Zoo". Perfect for living in Oregon. :)

This past week we made a collage of similar things, we made a red barn out of paper plates, went on a Science/Creation Safari and did a numbers scavenger hunt. One of the things the kids are really excited about doing this week is making fossils out of some of the stuff we found on our safari. I'm kind of excited about it too. :)

Anyway, that's a little bit about what we've done our first week. I have to get use to the fact that school at this age only takes 1.5-2 hours. It's good though because at this age they sure do get a little restless. :P

Wordless Wednesday- Toothbrush anyone?

2009-10-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Blog slacker

2009-10-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

That's me. I've been slacking with posting AND reading. *sigh*. I do have a couple of different things I want to blog about within the next day or so. First day of school and our recent trip to Cashmere, Washington for Apple Days. :)

Tune in.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-30T10:01:00.001-07:00

Like mother like daughter. ;-)

2009-09-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

It's hard to control her when I can't even practice self control. :)

The Ministry Machine

2009-09-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

I went to a garage sale today that was benefiting a domestic violence organization at a local church today. In the gigantic garage where the sale was, I saw a vehicle we saw at a local park one day during the summer. Several churches in the area get together with the local school district for several weeks during the summer and pass out free lunches at parks to children 18 and under. It's also an opportunity for the churches to share the gospel with the community. Anyway, one day during the summer we went to one of our favorite parks and saw Sonrise Church passing out lunches and they had this really cool vehicle parked next to the picnic area. Someone donated an ambulance to the church and they painted it to look like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo but it's called the Ministry Machine. I'm posting a picture below. :)

Anyway, it was super cool and the kids loved it. I'd never seen anything like it and thought it was an awesome idea.

Yikes and Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-23T08:50:00.001-07:00

Ok... so this Wednesday isn't completely wordless. I have been in a super blogging funk lately. We've been really busy moving the past couple of weeks and just before that my mother in law was in town from Oklahoma visiting. We're moved in now and done with the old house, which is a major relief. God has really blessed us. There was nothing wrong with the other house, it was just a bit small for us and had a huge, beautiful yard that the kids couldn't fully enjoy. They've missed their sandbox so much!!! The landlord asked us not to put sand in it because it would make too much of a mess on the patio. It was seriously torture for my kids to see their beloved sandbox and not be able to use it the way it was intended. Anyway, no worries here at the new house. The owners have 3 girls and they are just as hard on things as my kids are. Plus the backyard here is.... well.... nothing. It's big, don't get me wrong, just a huge blank canvas. So no chance of messing up anything with sand. :P I don't want anyone to think we moved because my kids couldn't play with their sandbox. Our friends moved to California so they're renting their big beautiful house to us for a really good price. Just like a lot of people, they've been hit hard by the housing downturn and so it's not really an option to sell at this point. SO, for now, we get to enjoy living in our dream home.

So, I guess I'll post a couple of the favorite parts of this house as my wordless wednesday pictures. :)

Thanks for having patience with me. Hopefully as things settle down I can get back to posting regularly.

iHeart Faces- Contemplative

2009-09-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

This weeks theme at iHeart Faces is "Contemplative". I, of course, went straight to my folder of Benjamin pictures. :P He is such a fun and playful little boy, but he's often so deep in thought and serious too. I think he's been like this ever since he was born. I would often get comments about how he looks so serious.

I think in this picture he was thinking "mommy just got the camera out... should I make a run for it or stay?"

Wordless (Day After) Wednesday :P

2009-09-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Taken in the Sunrise Visitor Center at Mt. Rainier National Park.

Emily Singing

2009-09-06T22:53:00.000-07:00

Emily let me video tape her while she sang "It Is Well". Excuse the road noise.... we were on our way up to Washington for vacation. The reason why the video isn't very good is because I was turned around taping while the van was moving. Not an easy task. :P

This is one song I sing to my kids every night before bed. I guess she picked it up after a while. One night as I was singing it she joined in and sang with me. Brought tears to my eyes. It's such a big song for a little girl. I love my baby girl.

Enjoy!

***This one doesn't have road noise.***

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Round pegs in a square park.

2009-08-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

My sister Marshy challenged me to take pictures of circles yesterday. I took the kids to a new park, which we all LOVED, and started shooting. It's amazing what you can find when you're looking for something specific and so insignificant.

A different kind of anniversary

2009-08-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my 11th wedding anniversary this past Saturday. Tomorrow marks 1 year since Christian passed from his earthly home to his heavenly home. We miss him so very much! My heart aches often because of how much I miss him and my heart aches often because of how much I know his mommy, daddy and brothers miss him and how much they hurt.

Please say a prayer for our family tomorrow. Especially for Marsha, David, Austin and Noah.

You can also leave a message over at Marsha's blog if you would like.

I love you sooooooooo much Marsha, David, Austin and Noah. I pray for you every day.
Thank you Marsha for reminding me often about God's promises.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 (KJV)

¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Anniversary

2009-08-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, today is my 11th wedding anniversary. I didn't blog about it at the beginning of the day because.... well.... I just didn't feel like it. :P

I've been Mrs. Oliver for 11 years and it's been an AWESOME 11 years. We've faced lots of challenges together but have also had the greatest blessings of our lives during this time. We've got 2 gorgeous kids and we love them dearly. I don't really know what else to post. I know that the next 11 years will be just as awesome, if not more. I'm so blessed that God chose the man he did for me. :)

I don't have any wedding pictures on this computer so I'll just post a picture of us from his 10 year high school reunion 10 years ago.

Thank you to all of you who posted on my Facebook. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

White legs and goofy faces. LOL.

iHeart faces- Week 32 "Bubbles"

2009-08-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge on I <3 Faces is "Bubbles".

Last month the kids and I went on a bike ride/walk and Emily had a serious meltdown. When we got back to our backyard, Emily got the bubbles out and all of a sudden all was right with the world again. :)

Wordless Weekend....

2009-08-15T01:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah.... I just made that up so I could share a couple of pics of my babies. :P Not that I need to have an excuse. :)

Should I title these "Stone cold faces"?