While at a birthday party yesterday in Woodland, my son decided it would be fun to play in the dirt. Most kids will get a little dirty and run around, but my son decided to cover himself from head to toe. Along with trying to eat the dirt, he decided it would be a good idea to ‘save a little dirt for later’ by stuffing some in his pockets. I literally held him by his ankles and shook him out. I probably should have just stripped him down and hosed him off, but he thought it was pretty funny having all the dirt fly out around his head. Notice the red lip from his run in with the ground yesterday (the ground won). He’s a tough little cookie. It’s so much fun having little boys after having a girly girl. Miss K likes to get dirty, don’t get me wrong, but it’s nothing like this…

My really cool friend, Kylie, painted this picture of Miss K. I took the photo a couple of months ago and Kylie asked if she could “paint” it. She did it using photoshop. It’s amazing what that program can do. I use it for all of my photo editing and after two years of using it, I’m still learning new things with it every day. I create all of my templates, storyboards, and collages using photoshop as well.

If you’re interested in having a photo painted, just let me know and we can work it out with Kylie.

Kylie’s website is http://www.phauntactions.com/blog/

She’s an amazing, talented gal.

Before being painted (taken by me)

After Kylie painted it:

and yes, I’m blowing this one big on canvas for the wall. It’s simply amazing!!

My babies are growing so fast!! I photograph them all the time and I still can’t believe how big they get in between sessions. Miss K just turned six this last week and will start the first grade in the fall. Baby D just turned six months. Where did the time go?

I took them outside for an unplanned session in my front yard. Thankfully they all cooperated and amazingly I got a photo of them all together looking at the camera! I didn’t even have to bribe them this time.

Course I DID tell Tinker that Mickey Mouse was inside my camera…

So watcha think… any of them look like their mom??

So most people assume that it’s easy for me to get good photos of my kids.

Let me be the first to tell you that it’s not.

I have literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of photos of “outtakes” of my kiddos. I can spend an hour with another child and get tons of smiles, and DAYS with my kids and get crazy reactions. Maybe it’s because they’ve been my test pilots over the years, or maybe it’s because I’m their mom.

Whatever it is, I’m not going to quit harassing them any time soon. They’ll just have to get used to it and I’ll just have to work even harder to get some good photos of them.

Here’s the latest of my efforts. I hope you enjoy 😉

Here’s my “Tinker.” We call him that because he’s a stinker (but it wouldn’t really be nice to call him stinker).

This is a very common reaction when mom pulls out the camera… “look mom, see what I can do?!”

You’d think being the baby, “Button” (as my hubby calls him), would be more cooperative… not so.

He’s already got that look.

And finally we have “Nuh Nuh” (yeah.. I don’t even know about that nick name… you’ll have to ask hubby)…

She’ll give a pretty face for maybe one out of ten photos. It usually takes bribery of all sorts to get her to work with me.

Here’s her being over-dramatic when telling me she doesn’t want any more pictures taken…

So yeah… there you have it. The truth behind all the lovely photos.

So don’t feel bad when you’re trying to take nice pics of your kids. It’s not just you.

Today Derrick and I will celebrate seven years of marriage together. I really can’t believe how time flies so quickly. Although at times it’s felt like a hundred years 😉

We’ve had our ups and downs over the years. We’ve been through the Army life, separations, moving, kids, and every other thing a couple goes through in marriage. There were times we didn’t think we would make it together, but God’s grace got us through.

I can honestly say that I married the best man. I’m not normally a mushy person, but when it comes to my husband, the father of my beautiful children; I can’t help but be mushy. I love him very much…

On July 14th, 2001 we got married in Carmel, California in a small ceremony on the beach. We had thirty five of our closest friends and family with us.

We ended up spending six years moving around the country and living in various different places. We moved an average of every six months. It was hard, but quite an exciting life! We had our daughter in San Angelo, Texas, our son in Honolulu, Hawaii, and our newest baby was born here in town. I am glad we got to have such an adventure in our first few years together.

Now we’re settled down In longview, Washington. I never thought I’d move back home, but after having kids, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at home near our family.

So here’s to many more years of marriage!!!

I love you, Derrick.

Here’s us on our wedding day… (we look SO young… course we WERE young…)

Here’s a family pic when it was just us and our daughter…

Here’s when we added our first son to the family…

We haven’t done a family picture since the baby was born, but here’s a pic of the three kiddos recently….