its a jungle out there.

we went to our friends little girls 2nd birthday party last weekend, to a place called "jungleland" which happened to be the perfect place for our wild children. its an indoor playland, with jungle gyms, kitchen sets, bikes, roller coasters, and a giant jumper. they had cuppy cakes and face painting. the kids could be the little monkeys that they are, and us parents actually got to relax a little.... some of us actually started to play with the Thomas the Train playset...

thanks pres's mama & dada for a WILD time :)

the birthday girl

charise's little monkey

my oldest monkey

my youngest monkey

pres in her kitty cat face :)

and see? some of the parents got into it too...

preschool blues...

i am a little behind in posting this. part of the reason is i don't want to admit that my oldest baby is in preschool. i swear, it was just yesterday that I had her, watched her smile for the first time, take her first wobbly step, sleep in a crib.... and now, she is picking out her own clothes, telling me how to brush her hair, and wanting to walk into her classroom, by herself. i am proud that i raised such an independent kid, but gosh darn it, can't she NEED her mama??? i need her. i wish i could create a "stay young" machine. I would put Aubrey & Ava in it, to keep them my little girls forever.


here is my "little girl" on her first day of preschool....

***warning, CUTE-NESS OVERLOAD***

aubrey, i am so proud of you. i love you with all my "hwart"

you thought you knew...

i saw this when I was stalking...er... following scarlett lillian's blog. i thought it looked fun, and since i am still proofing pictures, i don't have any to offer up right now. so, here i am...

I AM … klutzy
I WANT… a new lens
I HAVE … a shoe addiction
I KEEP … plucking all the gray hairs out of my head (im soon going to be a bald 31 year old)
I WISH I COULD … be a stay at home mom
I HATE … freddy krueger
I FEAR … leaving my children too soon
I HEAR … my kids laughter... even when its quiet. its "my happy thought"
I DON’T THINK …. there is any problem that a bowl of ice cream and some hershey's syrup can't solve
I REGRET … not going to cosmetology school
I LOVE … my family
I AM NOT … a size 2, nor will EVER be
I DANCE … with my girls
I SING … pretty good actually
I NEVER … say the word "never"
I RARELY … eat healthy
I CRY WHEN I WATCH … everything. honestly, when i watch a disney movie, action movie, tv shows, soap operas heck, even commercials!
I AM NOT ALWAYS … in a happy mood
I HATE THAT … i have to work instead of being a stay at home mom
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … why our troops are still over seas. please bring them home soon
I NEED … nothing
I SHOULD … be going to sleep soon. 4 am comes awfully early

jimmy hearts melissa

i was lucky enough to be able to tag along with charise to shoot some engagement pics of a friend of ours. we have known jimmy for quite some time now, and couldn't have asked for a better person than melissa to be in his life. like most boys, jimmy wasn't sure he was up to all the "CHEESE" and smiling pretty for the camera. he quickly learned how much fun charise and I can be when we take pictures together :)


jimmy & melissa, i couldn't be happier for you two... thank you for allowing me to bogart your session!!

7 years ago...

7 years ago today, all of our lives were affected, whether directly or indirectly. the very core of our country was broken and defeated. but what came from this tragedy, what came from this horrible unfathomable tragedy, was a pride in our country. a pride in our flag. brother helped brother, neighbor helped neighbor, strangers held and cried with strangers.

i sit here, 7 years later thinking about how proud i am that i live in this wonderful country. so proud that my brother is standing up for our rights and our freedom on foreign land. i sit here and look out my kitchen window, and smile, because this is what i see. a blue star flag, hanging so all can see that i have a family member in the military during war time, and the American flag flying, so all can see and remember what they are fighting for.

God bless the USA ,God bless the victims and their families, and God bless our military.

i must help.

i’ve decided to take action against cancer by participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life event. Relay For Life® is about celebration, remembrance, and hope. by participating, i am honoring cancer survivors, paying tribute to the lives we've lost to the disease, and raising money to help fight it.

over the past couple of weeks, i have felt hopeless & helpless while my friends watched their son fight cancer. he fought a brave battle, but the cancer was too much for his sweet little body. i don't like to feel helpless. i have to do something. I MUST HELP!

whatever you can give will help - it all adds up! i greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress. even saying a small prayer is a lot of help!

to make a donation online, visit my personal page.

with hope.

this is hard.

i had hoped, i had prayed that this day would not come.

my friends precious son Gavin passed away last evening after a short but courageous battle with cancer.

i have so many conflicting emotions right now going on inside of me. i am sad. i am angry. i am hollow. i am doubting. i am hopeful.

i am sad because i know the love a parent has for their child. i am sad because i saw the unconditional love that Kelly & Jaimee had for Gavin. I am sad because people that mean so much to me, lost the one person who meant the world to them.

i am angry because God didn't listen to my prayers. i am angry that a innocent child passed away. i am angry because there was nothing i could do to help this situation. i am angry that in this day of modern medicine, medicine failed.

i am hollow because i ache for my friends. i ache for the loss they must be feeling.

i am doubting because i don't understand why God took Gavin. i don't understand why he would allow a hurt like this.

i am hopeful. if you would have asked me "hopeful?" last night, i would have laughed in your face. hope was the last thing in my mind last night when i heard the news. it wasn't until a caring person sent me the lyrics to this song today that the word "hopeful" popped into my head. i am hopeful that one day, all of our loved ones will be together again, in heaven.

With hope....by Steven Curtis Chapman

This is not at all how
We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...
We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again
And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and ...
We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so ..
So we can cry with hope
And say goodbye with hope
We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope



I grieve for you Gavin..... with hope

a family full of all stars...

chuck taylor all stars that is...

i was trying to find a cool way to describe our family. kind of a different family portrait. i ran across one of the many blogs i stalk...er.... visit and came across this photo: desiree hayes photography i love her work. i adore her work. just another person that i hope i can shoot like when i grow up :) so, here is my try...here are our crazy, dirty, silly shoes. aubrey's are bright pink, kenny's are black, mine are the white ones, and ava's are the light pink ones....

the family that chuck t's together, stays together :)