Caterpillar Friends

This boy loves creatures!  If it moves, crawls, flies, or runs he lights up like someone's given him the best present he could ever imagine.  His daddy brought these guys home from work one day and for the next week he was out a dozen or more times a day checking on them in his bug jar well supplied with fresh water and leaves.  I realized they are the first "pet" he had ever had...too bad one of the boys let them out before we got to see them transform!  I love his nurturing nature and the way he loves animals.

 

Summer Love

This is my picture I'm submitting for a photography contest at Rock My Photography. I love love love this sweet moment of my husband and our second son fishing together at one of our favorite White Mountains spots.

/http://www.rockmyphotography.com/hit-me-with-your-best-summer-shot-photo-contest/

A Park and Three Boys

We live in the desert.  It's dry, hot, and there isn't much that's green here unless you count all the cactus and native trees that pretty much look the same year round.  Don't get me wrong, I love it here.  It has it's own beauty when you know where to look.  We chose to stay here to be close to family, enjoy the gorgeous sunsets, be able to hike and be outside 9 months out of the year (the other three feel like you've stepped into an oven and are baking at 350 degrees), and soak in lots of sunshine.  But I have to admit, some of my favorite places here remind me more of some of the beautiful places I traveled to when I was young.  With that said, this is by far my favorite park here.  It has gorgeous green grass year round (something you almost never see where we are), a stunning view of the mountains, and trees surrounding the perimeter making it feel secluded and hidden away.  Final bonus: when I'm there my favorite people are always with me.  I will forever love this picture.

  

How Could He Be One Already?

He's one!  He loves to laugh and smile, copy his big brothers, open and close doors, drawers and boxes, play chase and peek-a-boo, and go on adventures outside.  He's just figured out how to stick his tongue out and will do it if we ask him to.  The funniest part is when he laughs at himself with his funny little chuckle because he's so pleased with himself.  His hair has a mind of it's own and has grown into a mohawk without any encouragement, but it fits his spunky personality so we've just gone with it.  He's learned a few signs and that has significantly reduced the frustration level for everyone.  We love knowing what he's thinking and wanting and so enjoy when he initiates "conversation".  This year has flown by...it's been an amazing, wonderful year.

 

 

Baby Abigail

I had the most wonderful time shooting this precious 7 day old baby girl! She belongs to an amazing family and is so loved by her parents and big brother. I was blessed they asked me to spend time with them and capture this fleeting newborn stage that will be gone in the blink of an eye. I loved spending the morning with this sweet girl and her mom and grandma!

Right Now...It's Definitely Summer!

It's definitely summer! We had a swimming/movie/baking day over at our house earlier with one of my girlfriends and her two little girls. Such a fun morning!

I have to say these are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted hands down! The best part is we froze half of the dough in big balls so we can have freshly baked cookies another time. Ok, so maybe that's not the best part because then I want fresh cookies all the time...that's where much self control is needed just about now. No, I'm not headed to pre-heat my oven because where I
live it's 107 degrees outside and I don't want my kitchen to feel like an inferno.

These pictures of the kids don't do them or their chocolate loving enjoyment justice. I think they were still tired from swimming and watching Curious George 2.
























The Right Now challenge is to capture what's going on in our lives, unstaged, unposed, totally in the moment. Check out the Right Now blog badge at the top right of this page to see Kelly's blog and the inspiration behind this post.

Father's Day Tribute

As a present to their daddy for Father's Day, our boys stayed still long enough for me to do a mini photo shoot of them (which translated to about 5 minutes of precious shooting time).

My boys have the most wonderful daddy I could ever dream of. He loves God immensely, serves us daily in working diligently at his job, comes home and is totally engaged with our family (which many nights includes dart gun fights or world cup soccer in the hallway), has incredible integrity, and on and on. I think about this amazing man and how he serves us and loves me and can't believe I get to share life with him! Thank you, sweet husband, for being a man our boys can look up to and follow into manhood.

Both my husband and I were raised by amazing dads. We frequently talk about how much this has influenced us as parents and gave us a foundation of love and respect from the time our hearts were little. I love watching Papi and Grandpa interact with our boys and see little lives be influenced and shaped by these men. Thank you Papi and Grandpa for continuing to love us and encourage us as you did when we were young. You both are invaluable to our family (this goes for Nana and Grandma too...but this is a Fathers Day tribute after all. Unfortunately over Mothers Day I wasn't blogging much but I think I'll go back and write about them soon!).

Here's to all the dads that we all love!