take 2

Redid the photos of Lauren and siblings today. I was more satisfied after this morning - many more shots, more poses...just better. :) Definitely not professional yet...but having so much fun practicing!

At the world's fair park...one of my favorite places around here.

Ok, so I love how you can see the clouds in the water in this one!

Thanks for being patient with us, Josh. :) Did you know you're the first guy I've photographed? (Well, I've done little guys before...but not teenagers or older.) You were an easy one to start with. :)

BTW, he smiles the best when you ask him about his girlfriend... ;}

Beautiful girl.

Hey Abby, what do you think about this one?

One more pic to show you soon...but it fits in with another post I want to write so I'll wait.

Happy Sunday to you! :)

madman :)

So I spent the weekend with him...but I don't get to do all that much for him since his big sister is completely capable of doing everything herself! (she just doesn't like the waking up early thing...) ...but yesterday, I got him all to myself for the day. :) Well, I did have to share him with my three kiddos, who were beyond excited to have him and Reegan spend the day with us!

But towards the end of Mr. Happy's nap time, the girls wanted to go upstairs to play with Reegan in their room so Maddox and I got to hang out in the playroom for a bit.

He tried out Mr. Happy's rocket ship for quite a while, chattering to me most of the time.

Then he checked out the mirrors on our school cabinet. He kept looking at me in the mirror...and then turning around to look at the "real" me trying to figure out how there were two of me. :) That was in between talking to the other baby in the mirror. :)

Mr. Happy sleeps on the couch for his nap these days. The girls have a "quiet book time" on the couches during the first part of his nap and he has always known this and thinks it is waay cool to get to have his nap time on the couch now. He almost always goes right to sleep after reading a story with me. Anyways, it was time for him to wake up so I pulled Maddox up on my lap and started talking to Mr. Happy. He squinted his eyes open, saw Maddox sitting in front of him, and was immediately awake! (Sometimes it takes a little convincing to wake him up...he loves his nap. Always has.) I'm telling you, it's THE BEST way to wake up! With a baby right there. :) Maddox took some time pointing out Mr. H's nose and generally being cute as usual while Mr. H. was waking up. :)

Just hangin' out.

Then they had to explore the toys behind the couch. They discussed them for a while and Maddox patted on Mr. H's head...I think he likes him. :)

And I think the feeling is mutual. :)

where was the easy button??

This weekend I stayed with Lauren and siblings while Catrina and Steve got away to a bed and breakfast with another couple. Catrina had asked if I would do Christmas pics of all four kiddos while I was there. I said sure, why not? HA. I'll tell you why not! Because clueless me decided to go to two of my favorite photo spots downtown...at 11am on Saturday morning...just as the entire world was descending upon Neyland Stadium!!! :-p I'm a dork. :} I knew right away there was nooo way I was going to even attempt getting to my first spot. So we just went straight to the second spot.

Oh, and did I mention I made Josh drive? Well, actually, I didn't make him drive...he chose to drive since we were going to run around a bit after doing pictures and he just wanted to go back home. However, he is a relatively new (but very good!) driver. And I made him drive downtown. In Vol traffic. Poor guy. I don't really like driving downtown and I've been driving for forever! Sorry, Josh! :}

By the time we got to where I wanted to be, three of us were a little grumpy, and one of us was sound asleep. Only Reegan was her usual cheerful self! I was thinking...oooh great. This is going to turn out just fabulous. :-p But then I figured, eh, ok, I know a couple great spots and we'll just get over being grumpy and do it! Ahem. Except the first of those spots was crawling with people who were there for the farmers' market!! Ack! By that time I was thinking ok, can we just give up and go home??! That, and, oh man, Catrina's going to kill me! :}

Finally, I went to my second spot...and finally, there was no one around! Whew! So, I did not get NEARLY as many shots as I wanted and I wasn't entirely happy with all the ones I did get (some of them I do like).

Anyways, here is a sneak peak of some of them...

(And like I said...I can do more another day if you want, Catrina!)

The girls found that someone had drawn a game of hopscotch with chalk and tried it out. :)

I'll get the cd to you soon! :)

see

Last night I got to go spend a night with the Chapman's. :) I have always liked SCC's music, especially his last few albums. There are specific songs on them that I have turned to often in light of recent events in my life...both celebrations...and the hard stuff.

Before the actual concert, the Chapmans both came out for a Q&A time. They were so sweet to watch! They just recently celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary. Literally the ENTIRE time they were up there, at least one of them always had their hand on the other...either holding hands, or just resting their hand on the other one's knee. So sweet. I loved it. :)

They told some great stories...and let's just say that my 30th bday went a looot better than his did!!! LOL

Then, an hour later, when the concert started, Caleb's band (including both Caleb and Will Franklin, the Chapmans' two sons), were the opening act. This is Caleb. They were awesome. I didn't get one of his cd's. I wish I had! :-p

OOH. And the saddest part of last night??? Yeah. I didn't bring my camera. There was a note in red letters when you went to buy the tickets online that said "no video cameras please!" and somehow that translated in my crazy mind to "no cameras"!! I was verry sad! I could have gotten some cool shots sitting in the third row! :-p Thus, these pics are fairly terrible, taken on my cell phone. Sigh. Oh well.

Ok, this is really about how the stage looked sometimes because these crazy cool bright lights were shining directly in my eyes! :) Actually, I kinda like this picture for some reason. This was the last song in Caleb's set. His dad came out and sang with him part way through. Way cool. I need this song!!

Slightly clearer shot of father and son singing together.

After an awesome song set by Steven and an intermission, Mary Beth came out and spoke for a while. It made me glad that I had waited until now to go to a SCC concert. This is her first time speaking on his tour. She said there were three things she said she would NEVER do: 1) go rafting, 2) adopt, 3) speak in public. She has now done all three. :) She said she has now informed her husband she will NEVER go on a 6 month vacation to Hawaii... :}

She said so much more, including the "see" story (the title of this post), but I can't explain it all. However, you can go buy her new book here and you will be able to read about some of what she shared last night.

Sigh. Such a bad shot. Frustrating for this photography-loving girl! :-p

From L to R: guitarist, Will Franklin (drummer), SCC, pianist, Caleb Chapman (also guitarist)

Steven and Mary Beth ~ I know you will never actually read this. But I loved being able to get to know your sweet family just a tiny bit last night. You are so kind and caring, you are sweet to each other, and your passion for the orphan is contagious. Your music is always encouraging and I loved it, however, I was almost even more excited to hear the stories and pieces of your hearts that you shared. Thank you for using the platform (literally! :) God has provided to bring awareness and focus on adoption and the orphan. Thank you for choosing to cling to Him in the midst of the darkness of the past two and a half years since your beautiful Maria went home to be with Jesus and allowing Him to help you live out the words you've sung in so many of your songs. (But really, did you have to sing "Blessed Be Your Name" at the end last night?? I made it all the way through with no tears...until then! :} That was only the second time I've sung that song since my cousin's memorial service.... :) Oh, and thank you, Mary Beth for being one piece in the puzzle on Rebekah and Nathaniel's journey to their own little Caleb!! :)

Caleb ~ You are an amazing guy. I loved your music and smiled when I heard it on our local radio station today. :) I loved that you introduced your brother as your very best friend in the world.

Will Franklin ~ Ok, I have to ask. What are you thinking about when you are up on stage playing the drums with your whole heart? You have such intense eyes and every time you would watch the audience, I couldn't help but wonder what was going through your mind. :) Did you see the little boy on the front row who was trying to copy your every move? :)

There is more I could share about last night, but instead...go see if the Chapman's will be in your area anytime soon...and if they are...go see them!! It is very well worth it.

Hmm. I might have to write more later. More things are coming to mind that I want to share. But for now...to bed I go! :) I am keeping one of my favorite little almost-one-year-olds and I hear he sometimes has a rather early wake-up time! :)

fall pics

As much as I love photography and take bajillions of pictures of my kids all the time, every couple years I decide I want "real" studio pics. I have taken them to Portrait Innovations now three times and love it. A little while back, my best friend, Shannon, took her 3 year old, Jonathan, to have his pictures done and there was a certain prop they got to use that I couldn't get out of my head. I knew exactly what I wanted to do for this photo set! :) The kids had a blast and it was just fun! We did a clothes change also but I'll save those for another post at a later date. Here are some of my favorites...

At the very end, it was time for "the" prop. It had been sitting in a corner the whole time and I kept waiting for Mr. Happy to notice it, but even when the photographer walked over to pull it out, I had to tell him to look at what it was. Then his jaw hit the floor! :)

He said, "Oh my gosh!! But...it's not a REAL one, right Kiki?"

"Right. But it LOOKS like a real one!"

"YEAH!!! It looks real!! But it's not."

He had to take a minute and just look cool when he first climbed on.

Then came the BIG smiles!

Takin' it for a drive! (more like a push...around the floor. :)

Lookin' cool with his two pretty girls! :)

laughing out loud

***Disclaimer: I did not take the photos in my blog header! I had them done at Portrait Innovations. To read my thoughts about P.I., go here!***

Don't you just love those conversations that make you actually, really, literally laugh out loud?? They tend to not happen very often. You'll hear an amusing story and laugh just a little bit...but seriously laughing until tears are running down your cheeks? Those require a perfect combination of setting/mood/stories/and stress or exhaustion!

I have a friend...who happens to read this blog... ;)... from high school. We never knew each other all that well but hung out a little bit together as we did activities with mutual friends. You know...did crafty stuff...went canoeing...saw a mouse.......... high school stuff. Somehow, in the past year ish, we sort of reconnected on facebook and have chatted off and on since then and realized that we click really well together and are very much not sure how we were not better friends in high school! We share a similar sense of humor, we were both home schooled...and are homeschooling, have many of the same friends, etc.

We were chatting on fbook tonight and ended up having one of those laughing-so-hard-you're-crying conversations! The only thing that could have made it better was if we had been chatting in person!! Funny thing about us. We have been trying to get together for over a year now, just to have coffee and visit...and every time we have scheduled a date and time, something has always come up that made one or both of us have to cancel!! It's getting a little ridiculous now! lol

Anyways, she asked me what my hobbies were. (Refer to the "about me" section on the right of my blog...) She said she didn't have any. I told her we must remedy that situation and find her one. Then it hit me. She is hilarious. Laugh-out-loud hilarious. She is a natural born story teller! I informed her that she needs to be a stand up comedian! Or at least write a book. Although, she's even funnier if you can see and hear her when she tells stories. So, when she is either booking gigs at ladie's conferences, or when her first book titled Life Without a Hobby is published, I'll be sure to post it on here and be the first to let you know!! (Watch for my name on the dedication page! And fyi, the main characters in her stories will have their names changed to protect the not-necessarily-so innocent. So look forward to meeting Jimbob, Billyjoe and Marysue. Oh yeah. And Fred.) Heehee!

Ok, now, mostly for my own amusement and memory... some of our conversation from tonight. (I can see your face right now, J! lol)

We always check in on how school is going for each other and stressing that we both feel a bit behind. She mentioned other families who do school slightly different from us, such as doing a two week study on chocolate. (!!) She said, "How does someone spend two weeks studying chocolate?! Let me make it easy for ya...one bite = mmmmgood!!"

This next part of the conversation will only make sense to one person...sorry. Like I said...this is mostly just for me to remember... :}

J: strange, out of the blue question...

K: yes ma'am?

J: btw, I'm known for those questions!

K: it's ok, i like that kind of question. :)

J: I have a tendency to scare people with them.

K: eh, I'm pretty hard to scare.

J: no comment.

(Back story on that is the fact that SHE is one of the easiest people I know of to scare! And that is pretty much all she remembers of a certain friend of ours from high school - being scared numerous times at random moments. Heehee!)

J...as you can plainly see, I did NOT text this...!! You know...I just put it on my blog instead for the entire world to see....HA! Just kidding...only a handful of people read this blog anyways. :D

We discussed the fact that I have only met her husband one time when her oldest was not even a year old. (She is now in third grade? I forget...) She mentioned that he might possibly have not quite the same amount of hair now as he did then... :} Then she told me her two children recently informed her that she was old. This is the conversation as she told it:

"My children called me old the other day...

I said, "I'm not old! Whatever gives you that idea????"

[They said], "Well, you are married to a man who has grey hair so that makes you old!"

Guilty by association!"

Which reminded me that I just got a piece of mail from Senior Life yesterday. I said, "I know I just turned 30, but I'm not THAT old!!! Sheesh!!

To which she replied, "Oh, I know! I am tempted to send them a nice long letter on my feelings on the subject and that I was highly offended! And to please remove me from their mailing list because I have found the fountain of youth...DENIAL!"

Anyhoo...there wasn't much of a point to this rambly post except I just wanted to remember a fun conversation. Oh, and J, you said I never answered the question you wrote a couple posts back "One hand or two?"...here's the answer:

BECAUSE....

(make sure you can hear the tune in your head...)

Kapeesh?? :D

Maybe eventually we'll make it to SB!! Until then...I'll chat with you on fbook anytime! :)

just missing around... :}

Ever miss being little? What do you miss about it? What are your favorite memories of when you were growing up? The ones that make you smile when they come to mind.

This weekend a couple things made me flash back again to when I was little and made me sort of miss...

~ playing with homemade playdough

~ paper routes

(yup. i had one)

~ playing with the bunches of neighborhood kids

~ having one of my friends stay for dinner spur-of-the-moment

~ doing school with my best friend

(ok, not the actual school work part...lol)

~ playing in the snow

~ the big swing in my friends' yard

~ the time my friends' dog got her head stuck in a black pipe and walked around looking like odie from the garfield comic.

lol my dad helped get it off and she was fine...so it was ok to laugh. :)

~ all the pet rabbits I had

...and the time our rabbit kept escaping and running up to my friends' house. finally one morning their dad stuck our rabbit in with their rabbit and called from work to let us know. a few weeks later...we came outside one morning to discover bunnies in our cage!! my friends' dad was mortified...but we were delighted!! :)

~ going for a walk one night in the snow

~ exploring the woods

~ painting rocks lol...

~ the day we got a puppy

~ lying on my bed looking up out my window and only seeing pieces of sky through the tree branches and leaves

~ piano concerts

(quartets and duets were my favorites...i do not like being the center of attention...but add a friend or three and all of a sudden it's way fun!)

~ climbing trees

~ driving my best friend crazy copying the pictures he would draw

lol...wow, i hadn't thought about that in a long time! heehee...it would make him soo mad! i just thought he had the best ideas of things to draw! i can still see the birds he would draw...

~ playing with my dolls

~ playing in our tree fort or on the swing set

~ doing flips on the old swing set

dad took all the swings and screws, etc. off the top so it would be smooth and i had a perfect bar to do gymnastic flips on!

~ taking gymnastics :)

~ the way one of the girls would always cheat at "one potato" (to see who would be "it" in a game of hide and seek or tag) and always make Michael be it

...that made him mad too...poor kid :}...except I would usually side with him on that one.

~ the bunny man

seriously. he was cool. that's what we called him. he had bunches of rabbits. and knew so much about them!

~ a dog named mwuffy...and one named newwie (nellie)

~ the time my friend Billy and I made a little bench for his sister - my other friend - Jennifer, for her birthday.

we painted it pink so it would match her room. :)

~ as I got older...playing Phase 10 either at my house or the Brown's.

I specifically remember playing it with m's mom. I can see the way her hands would hold the cards...how she would carefully choose which ones to put down on the table.

~ being babysat by my favorite babysitter ever...meredith

she made us feel like we were the coolest kids in the entire world and that she just hadn't been able to wait to see us again!

I could just keep going! :) I think I had a pretty happy childhood... :} I'm glad I have a blog now to write these things down so I can remember them for a long time.

Hey, guess what?? I even have a picture for you! :)

This is me when I was in about 4th ish grade. I am holding my rabbit Chipper. I don't know why I named him that...when we went to pick him up, I had every intention of naming him Brownie...but then, on the ride back home, I changed my mind.

The rabbit in the cage was the first rabbit I ever had...I named him Salt and Pepper. What can I say...I was little! lol

Tell me some things you remember about your childhood. I would love to hear!! If you have a blog...consider yourself tagged. (Oooh, I just started my own blog tag game...go me! heehee!) If you don't have a blog...GET ONE! lol Just kidding...although that would be way cool if you did! If you don't have a blog...leave me a happy little bloggy comment! :)