David & Sophia: DELIGHT (part 2)

Met up with little David and Sophia again this morning - the weather was not so good during our session a couple weeks ago, so we we've been holding out for a beautiful morning when we could get some pictures of them together. :) They were done with me (and the weather) before we go to their "brother/sister" pictures last time - today was all about them together.

David loves his sister - and she loves him too. Maybe with a little bit of the eye-rolling "yes he's squeezing me AGAIN" love, but still, she loves him. :) Here are a couple of pictures - they're really the funny out-takes but they made me laugh out loud when I saw them - so instead of immediately sharing the good ones with mom and dad, I'll share these to start. :) Nice to see you again Stephanie and I hope these make you laugh too! :)

Sheena: FLY

I spent this past weekend at the beach. My church had a women's retreat and I had just a WONDERFUL time. It was so relaxing, we had such wonderful fellowship together, good food, so many laughs - and I even swam in the ocean BY MYSELF. For those who don't know, I am afraid of a LOT of things. "Things I can't see in the water" is near the top of the list. But this past weekend I just really felt . . . free. Nobody else really stayed in, but I floated and swam, reminding myself that God had created this incredible ocean and all of the amazing creatures in it. (I also reminded myself that with so many people swimming in the SAME ocean, surely the odds were pretty good that I wouldn't be the first to get eaten.)

I have to admit, I did go running out of the water like a spazz three times as something touched my foot and sent me into hysterics . . . and then one time, nothing touched me but I just felt the fear rise up. Then, as I stood on the beach looking out towards the water, I managed to talk myself into getting back in, thanking the Lord once again for the ocean, the sand, sky, the beautiful day . . . and the ability to swim and relax. :)

OK enough of ME. A dear friend and I spent a few minutes together taking her pictures - we kinda attacked her (some other friends and I) and "did her up" . . . surprisingly, she let us! :) Then I took her out for a few minutes that evening so that she would have a permanent reminder of the day. :) She's not a senior in high school, so the "FLY" title doesn't really count . . . but it DOES count in the sense that I am praying she really will fly, not in her strength, but in the Lord's. Soar. Isaiah 40:31 - Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

Noah: CHERISH

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting little Noah. He's not so little, already in the 90th percentile for length and he's only 3 weeks old! I met his mom and dad back when they were still expecting Noah, and BOY did they do a great job with this little boy! He's just so beautiful!

Carissa and Loren, thank you for sharing Noah with me for a short time, I SO enjoyed spending the afternoon with you guys! I hope you like your sneak peek. :)

Rose's Girls

Tuesday I spent the evening with a FUN group of girls. :) These ladies are all in middle and high school, and the thing they have in common is Ms. Rose. Ms. Rose makes herself and her home available to kids in the area - if they need anything, even a place to be - she's available. She really has an incredible ministry with the locals kids in our area!

Anyways, my mom and some girls from our church meet up with Rose's Girls once a month or so - just to hang out and do GIRLY stuff. :) This time we thought it'd be fun to do some nice photographs of them - something they can have in their hands and see just how beautiful they are. And hopefully they'll realize that while they are beautiful on the outside, it is the INSIDE that God looks at, and the inside that really counts. Outer beauty fades . . . But their inner beauty can be used to bring glory to God.

Here's a picture of Ella - she cracks me up. She was certain it was her birthday party - ever since Micah's birthday she's been anxiously awaiting her own party. She followed all of the girls around, covered in chocolate ice cream, humming Happy Birthday to herself. :)

And here's a little peek at the girls - what a group, eh?? We had SUCH a nice time. The weather was beautiful, and I had a few minutes with each of them - hopefully they'll really see just a little bit of how amazing they are in their portraits.

Please pray for Levi . . .

***UPDATE: markusandsarah.blogspot.com/ ***

I'd like to ask you to please pray for Levi, my sweet nephew. He is about to turn 4 in September - isn't he beautiful? He lives in the Philippines with his parents, they are missionaries there with New Tribes Mission.

Levi has been sick for the last while with diarrhea and this weekend Sarah (my sister) took the bus down to Manila with Emma (2 yr old daughter) and Robbie, a Filipino nurse and friend. Levi was admitted into the hospital and was given an IV to help rehydrate him. (Sarah has also been sick as well but they are more concerned with Levi right now, as his stomach was very bloated and he was beginning to not act like himself.)

They discharged him from the hospital after seeing a specialist and their diagnosis was "he had a minor virus which caused a little bit of diarrhea but that turned into an infection which damaged his intestines and cauased the chronic diarrhea." Tonight we got an email saying that Levi was awake much of last night with a very high fever and that he had been having a really bad headache, making him cry and scream. Levi is normally VERY calm - even when he is ill.

Fortunately Markus is now with them (having come down to drive them back home) and they are taking Levi back to the hospital now. Emma is glad to have her daddy with them and Sarah and Robbie are sponge bathing Levi to keep his fever down.

PLEASE pray that the doctors there will find the cause of this and that they will treat it correctly. Please pray that Sarah and Markus will not be afraid. Please pray that Levi will be well soon and also that Emma will STAY well. Sarah is concerned that Levi may have picked something up after spending so long in the hospital room - they were surrounded by a lot of REALLY sick kids, you never know what you might catch. Especially when you are already sick and your immune system is compromised.

Thank you for praying - and please continue to bring them before the Lord!!

David & Sophia: DELIGHT

This morning I spent some time with David and Sophia - aren't they just so sweet??!! The weather did NOT cooperate, the sun did not want to come out and burn the clouds and fog off - and everything is just WET WET WET here in FL right now! :) It's a blessing but also a pain as far as scheduling in advance goes!

Here are some favorites after just browsing through - and we're going to have a second session together soon, hopefully on a day when the weather DOES work to our advantage a little more! :) Happy Sneak Peek, Stephanie & Dave! :) Slideshow view: http://enphotography.zenfolio.com/p344531103/?slideshow=1&photo=id#507736846

My Favorites - Victor

I realized this morning that I was never finished with sharing my favorite pictures from the Mom's Group Session last month! I've somehow neglected sweet little Victor and I must remedy that IMMEDIATELY! (Plus, his mom and dad are very good friends of mine and I'm a little afraid of retalliation!!) :)

So here is Victor, in all his grinning glory. He was SO funny! As I photographed each of the other babies, I'd hear a little giggle behind me and sure enough! It was Victor, having crawled over to get in on the session! He'd crawl RIGHT in front of the other baby, and then reach up to the camera and give me a HUUUUGE smile! That smile is my favorite part of Victor - and it is a perfect mix of both of his parents' smiles! The first picture (at the top of the blog) was taken during one of the other babies' session . . . I heard some tapping and some faint shrieking - turned around, and THERE he was! :)

Micah's Birthday Slideshow

This post is especially for the family who don't live here in FL - Auntie Sarah & Uncle Markus, Grampie and Grammie . . . so you can see how Micah's birthday went for yourselves!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QCS0_rVMa0

He had a great time - and this is just a little bit of that! :)

Have I no shame?

The answer to that question is obvious - no. Yesterday we celebrated Micah's 5th birthday with all of our family in the area, and added in some of Micah's friends as well. My mom was not in attendence which is probably why the following happened . . . Allow me to narrarate:

Alright. This is a good idea, let's shove these cupcakes

in our mouths - first one done wins. Yeah, this isn't

a dumb idea at all, what with all our family and

a video camera around!

Hee hee! We feel so silly, are we really going to do this?

Ready, Set, . . . . . . GO!!!!Elisabeth has an obvious lead, as she has completely

cleared the frosting and the rest are still trying

to shove the cupcake in sideways . . . . . . Deanna, Jessica & Heidi are all fighting for second

place - each trying to be as lady-like as possible

in this barbaric race.Elisabeth has the entire cupcake in! With NO mess!

It's incredible folks - she has pulled WAY ahead

in the lead - will the others even be able to come close?Deanna is struggling to keep her composure and

stay ahead in the race . . . Jessica is just now realizing

she has been schooled.Deanna continues to fight for breath and claw

her way into second place as Heidi realizes

what just happened and almost loses her cupcake.

That was a close one folks.Elisabeth has succeeded in completely throwing

off her competition - they may not be in the running

at all - Deanna is attempting to keep her cupcake and

Jessica has already begun to lose hers. Heidi

has stepped out of the picture because her face

is definately not lady-like. Elisabeth looks pleased.Did I forget to mention that the cupcake (ALL of it) lodged itself

in my throat and threatened my very life? All for the official title of

"The cupcake contest WINNER - Kick Butt Champion"

I'm not even the least bit concerned about my friends in those pictures coming after me for posting them on the internet - by FAR I out-did them in several ways. (1) - I completely annihilated them in the cupcake eating contest. Didn't even get a crumb on my face. (2) - because of #1, I made myself look like a pig. And (3) - my dad managed to keep me RIGHT in the center of each picture, making me look like the bigger fool of the 4, since they go in and out of the series as they're trying to quell the laughter that threatens to undo their slim chances of beating me.

Let's not forget the whole reason for yesterday's gathering - Micah's birthday. :) He told me today that it was his best birthday EVER. Awesome. :)

It just can't be! It's not possible!

My baby boy turns 5 today - about this time, 5 years ago, I was getting prepped for a c-section . . . and I was SO afraid. :) It's been an amazing 5 years though - but it's gone way too quickly. I can't believe he's not a baby, no toddler, no little boy anymore! He's a big boy! He's about 3/4 as tall as I am and he starts school this year! Those are not things that little boys do!! :(

So in order to celebrate this day I went down memory lane, these are pictures from Micah's first year. He was so stinking cute . . . and a big baby boy . . . I'm so happy that he's growing up into such a kind and funny little dude - but I'm so sad that I won't get these years back. SO, looking at these pictures is pretty much the next best thing! Happy 5th Birthday, Micah - you are truly a blessing to daddy and me and we are so glad that you are our big little boy. :)

I'm GOIN' to CANADA!

Title says it all - we're goin' to Canada!! Yippee!!! I am SUPER duper excited - we'll be visiting with my grandparents who I rarely get to see, aunts, uncles, cousins . . . and the COOLEST part is that we're crashing at Heather and Dave's place - YEAH baby!! :D They get to put up with me and my neurotic self for a week - ha!

Oh and do you want to know the B-E-S-T part?! We're going for 70 bucks. Nope, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Seventy dollars - American. Here's the story:

Two days ago Matthew and I decided that for real we needed a trip together, without the kids. Hard to do that without spending muchos dinero, si? Well, we remembered that he had a free flight with USAirways and we'd just have to find a muchos cheap-o one for me. Found one for me, it was "relatively cheap" considering we'd only have to buy one. Went to get Matthew's free voucher (fortunately before purchasing mine!) and realized......it is GONE. Looking back, we think we threw it away - not just his fault, not just mine (thank GOD)......but together, somehow, we managed to be dumb enough to throw it away. Talk about annoying and a major mood killer!

He went downstairs to play Mario Cart with Micah (Micah is getting really good at it - check it!) and I came back to the computer thinking that MAYBE I could fix this. (By the way, airlines are NOT interested in helping you out when you've misplaced - or chucked - a free flight voucher. You KNOW that they have record of it somewhere, how else would they verify your ability to actually use it? But they don't mind leaving you totally hanging.)

So back to my story - I remembered our Skymiles. We've been using this AmEx card for like, 7 years - surely by now we'd have a few miles, right?? Well, we did - enough to get BOTH of us to Canada and have some miles left over!! YIPPEE!!! I don't know if I've seen Matthew smile that big in a while - both of us jumped up and down for a minute or two, we're so excited! Time to ourselves - real time - for the first time in 5 years . . . and we also get to hang with some great friends who just happen to be family as well!I'm just excited, that's all. :)

A day I'd like to forget

A year ago today a plane crashed in my neighborhood, across the street. I don't have a whole lot more to say than that - but apparently I'm still not over it. I can't imagine how the family members must feel. There hasn't been much in the way of updates as to how the families are doing . . . at first the neighbors here all pulled together and we knew what was going on in their recovery - but time has passed, most people have moved on. I haven't quite moved on yet. I was one of the first people to run out of the house after hearing the explosions and stand in front of the house - absolutely shocked. Rooted to the spot - and yet desperately wishing there was something - ANYTHING - that I could do. I'm sure my incoherent 911 phone call is recorded somewhere for all of eternity - that's an embarassing thought.

Anyways, I don't have much else to say today, but I figure that here I can be as honest as I want, right? Well, it sucks. I wish I could drag the memories out of my head and stomp on them. But that just seems unfair. My memories don't compare in the least to the family that almost all made it out of the house - or to the father whose wife and baby didn't. Then the family members of those that were in the plane. All of them - their hearts must be so heavy - so please remember the families in your prayers today, I'm sure they need it.

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/7/10/sanford_plane_crash__one_year_later.html

The music you're listening to (Praise you in this storm, by Casting Crowns) is the first song I came across a few days after the crash - it meant a lot to me then, thinking about the families and what they were going through, and then even for myself, just having to learn to trust God with the future all over again - a lot of fear you know? Irrational or not, there was a lot of fear.

Another shout out - Happy Birthday Sarah!

My sister, Sarah, turns 25 tomorrow - July 9th. Isn't she lovely? For those of you who have been fooled into thinking that she actually IS older than me all these years - well, you're wrong. :) She and her husband live in the Philippines as missionaries so she's not exactly close enough for me to celebrate with her.

In order to make this festive, I've put together a little YouTube video and have some pictures to include in this blog. (She can't see the video until they get to a better internet connection, so the pictures are for now and the video later.) Here it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndvFsT4Elfw

Sarah, I absolutely miss you every single day, and I wish you were closer. I am so thankful to have you as my sister - you're the best #2 sister I could have gotten! I hope you have a very special day with your family and we're all praying that the "you know what" disease leaves you soon - maybe in time to celebrate?? :) haha

Oh and I'm not sorry at all if these pictures embarass you :) AND - I obviously didn't "take" these pictures, my watermark is only on them in the hopes that they might be at least a little protected from wierdos. :)

Happy birthday Sista - I hope it's a good one! :D