It starts with the yellow of the mustard weed (terrible for allergies but so vibrant and pretty to look at) and moves quickly into the blooming of the blue bonnets (followed by the indian paintbrushes, coneflower, coreopsis, vervain, etc.  I could go on. And on. It truly is incredible).  Now if you live in Texas and are a parent, you pretty much are required to take at least one shot with the kiddos in the bluebonnets.  And if you grew up in Texas, I am sure you must remember with much fondness being drug into a thick mess of flowers at the side of the interstate.

It is a right of passage here.

We found a pretty spot away from the hustle of the freeway and I think the kids had a good time exploring and running through the wildflowers.

Why yes, now that you ask, I do think my husband had purchased tickets to the gun show. That’s my man. He was the least excited and cooperative of my subjects. Take one for the team Dustin. Dustin also grabbed some pictures of me but since this is my blog I get to decide who is featured.  Since I can’t seem to look non-weird I think I will treasure those images in private.

Hope you are enjoying your spring. Wherever you may be!

Adalay is a sweet wisp of a girl.   She is the epitome of the nursery rhyme, What are Little Girls Made of. She is sugar and spice and everything nice.  She enjoys sharing and caring for others.  She makes me smile every time she thanks me for making dinner.  She wants to wear a dress everyday. And a nightgown every night. She is all about pink and princesses, ruffles and ribbons.  She is pixie-cute and heaven help us because she knows it.  She loves to be close and snuggle.  She is a daddy’s girl 100%.  She leaves her Mama baffled by the ultra-girly girl that she so proudly is.

She is one amazing child and I am one blessed Mama.

I love you Adalicious and hope your birthday is full of all the pink  you could ever need!

He is everything I could have wanted in a firstborn and a son. What an awesome little boy he has become and what a great man he is becoming.

He loves to create with watercolors, pencils and legos.

He wants to learn to play the keyboard and violin as well as learn karate and boxing.

He loves superheros,  Michael Jackson and hip-hop. He can belt out Reliant K’s “Celebrate the Day” and “Glory to God” like no one’s business.

He loves to dance; especially breakdancin’, dubsteppin’, and doing the robot.

He is not quick with his affections but once you have gained his trust he is fiercely loyal.

He is a protective and responsible big brother. He adores Leighton and asks constantly to hold her and loves to make her smile.

He gets upset when people are rude to each other and hates to see animals get hurt.

He loves to help-out and detests being the center of attention

His relationship with Adalay is a constant see-saw of torment and devotion.

He is beginning to read and so proud of each word he sounds out.

He can go from this…. to this in seconds…

I treasure each hug, smirk, and laugh. I love his frequent use of the words “however” and “although”.  I cherish his seemingly endless stories and made up games with ten thousand rules.

He is worth the stretch marks and baby weight.

He is worth all the time I “lose” by answering his questions and exclaiming over his triumphs.

He is worth putting my business on hold.

He is worth putting my sanity on hold.

He is worth it all to me.

Happy 5th Birthday Gavin. You are worth far more than  I could have ever imagined.

I loved her projects from last year and even attempted one of her simpler projects on my own. This year I decided I am going to do each of the projects, no matter how intimidated or out of my element I feel.

Her first creation was some basic pants. She provides a detailed tutorial and pattern that really couldn’t make it any easier. I wanted to give the pattern a test run before cutting into my “real” fabric, so I used a discarded pair of Dustin’s work pants.  I ended up making some slight changes to the  provided pattern so that it would  fit a 4 year old (she explains how to do that here).

After my first attempt I felt prepared enough to use my real fabric. I shortened the length ans dropped the waist a bit and ended up with this…

They turned out great, although they kind of remind me of pajama pants but whatever. I made them,  so I can deem them acceptable for whatever use I like. I will admit that I used absolutely no creativity with these as I even used the same fabric as shown in the tutorial. This was my first time to use seersucker and I love how easy it is to work with and how light it is. Perfect for the upcoming summer. Best thing  was when I showed them to Gavin and he said, “Mommy, I love these!” and he did not want to take them off. Awww shucks.

Not to neglect Ada, here she is wearing a dress I made for her last year. It is made from the  Sweet Dress pattern that I purchased from Leila and Ben last year.

Now, head on over to Made and check out the boy fun!

I thought this weeks theme of “Warmth” was a perfect juxtaposition for the reality of the frigid tempertures outside.

I took a more figurative view on warmth with my two kids cuddled up together (and yes, bribes were offered).

I usually do not use many actions but I wanted to warm this picture up quite a bit and I used several actions from Peta Mazey’s Childs Play Actions set.

I am hopeful that the worst of the weather is over and spring will be here soon. I am booking up for March and April so if you would like to do a session get in touch with me soon to reserve a spot.

Now go check out Vikki’s blog to see her take on “warmth”…

If you have been to any photography blogs or forums, then no doubt you have seen a “Project 52″ post. This is when photographers purpose to shoot and post an image each week from a pre-decided theme or category. Well several photographers and I decided we didn’t want to be left out of the madness and are starting our Project 52 a bit late. The First theme was “Self Portrait”. Not fun. I think most photographers prefer to be behind the camera and I the most. The experience has made me a bit more empathetic and compassionate to my clients!

My initial concept was to balance a stack of books  on my head in a witty and quirky manner but alas, my balance is not that good and focus is HARD when you are not behind the camera!

I gave up on the balancing after one try and decided to balance my head on the book instead. Here is  the image I disliked the least…

The next was Dustin’s favorite and I will admit that it took all my self control to not liquefy the heck out of it…

Now go check out the ridiculously gorgeous Vikki’s images and feel free to join in the fun with some self-portraits of your own!

The main wonder being when and where we would be moving. We first thought we would be moving last July. The summer passed with us still in the Texas Panhandle so we figured January would be our inevitable move . I began packing in November and felt mentally prepared for the stress a move involves. In early December we received the surprising news that Dustin had been extended another year in the Yellow City.

We are now looking forward with great expectation to spending another wonder-filled year here.

Here are my little shirtless wonders to wish you A happy 2011

So long 2010.

Hello 2011. It is going to be a good year, full of wonder and surprises.

Instead I will just share this image of Adalay.

She had her 18 month well baby check last week and weighed in at 19.8 pounds! Gavin was this weight at his 6 month check up so we really don’t know what to think, except to think that she is going to be short like her Mom or even shorter like her Grandmas.

Speaking of Grandmas, I promise to have more pictures of your grand-babies posted soon! In the meantime you can send brownies and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies to Adalay.

So until I am back home …

The Justice of the Peace asked us if we had rings. Umm…no, those things are so over-rated! Right and it wasn’t like we were engaged! So no, no rings.

Okay, you can still get married he said. Do you have family or witnesses here?

Umm yeah, we kind of haven’t mentioned this to our families. His last question and the one I really, REALLY, wish we could have said yes to.

Do you have a camera so we can get a picture?

Camera? Yeah, left that back at the barracks. So ring less, witness-less, and camera-less  we said “I do” before rushing back to work.

After living in Germany for a year and a half we visited the states where my Mom, who is an incredible and giving person, surprised us with wedding pictures. She had a tux rented for Dustin and a dress, veil, and bouquet for me. We went to a local portrait studio and got this…

I refuse to get all sappy and wax poetics about what a marvelous and extraordinary man my husband is. I won’t mention, how being married to him has made me a far better person. How everyday he encourages me, cares for me and loves me. I won’t mention that, because that would seem so uncomfortably out of character and he may worry about my mental health.

We talked last night about our wedding day, If we could do things differently would we have?  We agreed, that Yes, we would have. We would have brought my camera and got a picture of us dressed in our BDU’s, my hair pulled back in a tight regulation approved bun, Dustin looking so nervous and pale that I thought he might pass out. Not sure if we should kiss because we were in uniform. We would have gotten a picture of that so that we could look back and laugh at how crazy-in-love, foolish and desperate  we were to stay together.

Twelve years later and I am still pretty crazy, foolish and desperate to be with him but we wont mention that.