here’s the second part to our california vacation. there are still about 100 photos that didn’t make the cut so maybe i will post them at a later date.
caleb put stickers on everyone’s face. 
went to a forest to see some big trees.
the morning walking crew.
reading in the yellow submarine!
and puzzling…lots of puzzling always going on with us.
here is a generous amount of photos from our first few days on vacation. unfortunately, there is still so many more that i want to share. maybe at a later date.
we stayed in aptos again this year, but it was in another house. an even BETTER house. it was right across from the ocean. no flights of stairs or rough terrain. just a few feet from the sand!
my mother-in-law painted this yellow submarine for caleb! it was so much fun!
this is dane’s grandmama. she was reading a letter dane wrote to her for one of his home school assignments.
i love the way grandparents love everything their grandkids do.
the house was filled with ocean decor. we had to applaud the owner’s efforts of finding so many different, miscellaneous creatures and objects that represented beach, ocean, etc. but, some of the items were a bit crazy. this one was one of my favorites.
ok, see that white house just to the right of caleb’s head? the one with the white truck in front? THAT was our beach house! and now we’re on the beach! just a stone’s throw away!
LOVE LOVE luv luv
here’s one from 3 years ago…
love this photo because i LOVE to dance! we have a MILLION photos of our reception, but this one always sticks out to me. prolly ’cause we are both in our own little worlds dancing away and enjoying it.
here’s one from friday night before our celebratory dinner.
we have grown together so much! we have a LOT of learning to do and we are excited to see where God takes us! this year we decided on a leather journal (traditional gift is leather for the 3rd anniversary) where we can stash all of our love notes. yep, we still write a ton of love notes to each other. this way we can keep them all in the same place and even add photos or prayers if we want to. dane wrote me a letter each day this week! i LOVE the written word. there’s nothing like it.
we had a lovely weekend in dallas. it was my first night away from caleb so we didn’t want to go too far. my mom came up early on friday afternoon and dane and i had the entire afternoon/evening and then all day saturday to ourselves.
this is The Corinthian Bed and Breakfast in Dallas, TX. it was amazing! i took more photos of the inside, but i wish i could have taken photos of the welcome feeling and hospitality that surrounded the place.
on friday night i took dane to Texas de Brazil and then, after much driving and walking downtown, we ended up in Deep Ellum at a comedy bar. it was fun and just our kind of atmosphere.
on saturday morning, we joined the other guests at the B&B in the main house for a fancy breakfast. although, we did break one rule for our overnight getaway! i told dane that we could wake up at whatever time, but we had to stay in bed until 9. we had to get out of bed at 8:15 to get ready for breakfast at 9:00. i didn’t mind, though. afterwards we headed to a few antique stores and then the dallas world aquarium. this was when i started to miss caleb. i kept thinking about how he would LOVE to see everything!
you see that gray thing in the water? it’s a manatee! i don’t think i’ve ever seen one!
jellyfish! fact: i’ve been stung two different times by jellyfish. once in corpus christi and once in florida.
the underside of a gecko.
those were just a few of my favorites. we had such a great time and got a great report on caleb when we returned. i’m glad we didn’t have anything planned saturday night because i just cuddled with my baby and vegged on the couch!
these are my two feline roommates. i don’t have any photos of my human roommates since we stay pretty busy when we are together.
the first is scribble and then ninnymuggins is the scared one. ha! this is usually their response upon seeing caleb!
i sat down today in my office chair when i laid caleb down for his nap and i haven’t moved! since the damons are staying in here, i try not to spend too much time in their space so i’ve been using that as an excuse to stay away from my ‘work’. but alas, bills need to be paid, photos need to be edited, and pinterest needed to be updated.
i have a family session this week and thankfully i found some indoor places because it is BLAZING HOT out there!
the 411:
1. my sister-in-law and her husband moved in with us a few weeks ago so i’ve been spending as much time as possible hanging out with them. they will, eventually, be moving into their own place once they both find suitable jobs. 
i don’t know what i’m going to do without them.
2. i’ve been working on my branding and packaging a little bit. i think it’s finally coming all together now. i was able to deliver some BEAUTIFUL prints this morning set with my shiny, new business cards.
3. caleb is the best. today i started a 21-day prayer challenge over him. i love him so much and want to raise him right. i know that i will fail many times so all i’m left with is prayer. thankful for a God who listens when i call. if you are a mom of boys and are interested in praying Scripture over them then check out this book.
(gah! he’s such a doll!)
4. i have been reading A LOT. it may or may not have something to do with nicole moving in. her love affair with books has infected me…as if i didn’t have one already! ha! we’ve been going to the library weekly and i’ve been reading about 2 books a week! LOVE IT! reminds me of summertime in high school. i would eat dinner then shut myself in my room and read all night! #nerd a new favorite is The Same Kind of Different As Me. i think everyone should be required to read it. aaaaand there’s a lot of fort worth/dallas area history in there, too!
5. i’m a huge Dallas Mavericks fan so i absolutely love that they are in the finals! i’ve been watching them for 10 years (almost as long as Dirk has been there) and have some of the best memories from hanging out with my high school buddies while watching the game. i almost skipped my senior prom when the spurs played the mavs during the western conference finals in 2003. and i almost skipped out on going to china when the MAVS PLAYED THE HEAT in 2006 in the FINALS! ok, i’m just kidding about that last one. but, seriously, i love watching them and i love having at least two watching parties a week. i would love to see them win their first national title. and finally get a proper rematch.
6. been running quite a bit. nicole runs with me 3 days/week. we try to get 3 miles in, but i bet with the stroller we’re only getting 2.5 each time. and then we rotate between DVDs for our cross training on the other days. it’s been fun. and i’m sleeping reeeeeally well at night. 
7. *sigh* i don’t really want to talk about this one because it brings me down. the two girls i meet with for discipleship on a weekly basis, erin and traci, are moving! actually, traci is on her way to west texas as i type! i have known both of them for less than a year, but we dated pretty hardcore and they both just jump right in when it comes to the doctrine. i finally broke down last week as it had been eating away at me for several days. i fully trust the Lord is placing them exactly where they need to be, i just wish it was closer to me. now i gotta find a new friend to date and get to know.
welp, that’s pretty much it.
i blog A LOT over on my personal blog. i’m just a personal person.
but, i thought i would post a few personal photos here. these were all taken earlier today before caleb’s afternoon nap.
this is why i fell in love with photography in the first place. sometimes i look at dane and i am overwhelmed with all of the things i want to tell him. how much i love him. how thankful i am for his sacrifices. how much he teaches me on a daily basis. and what an amazing father he is turning out to be. i look at these photos of him holding and rocking caleb and it reminds of all of those things and more.
he is absolutely the love of my life. he puts his family first (and me before caleb) and serves us however he can. and it’s no surprise that caleb favors playing with him more than me, because he is such a rad dad!
he’s also a really great photographer. i love this one of my boy and me.
so that’s life. not much has changed.
we just have a bigger baby and bigger hearts for each other.
i just finished with a great family session this evening. the weather was out-of-this-world beautiful and i’m excited to get started sorting, editing, and blogging!
stay tuned.
my son, caleb, had his first birthday on april 23rd (his actual birthday is the 21st) and lots of family and friends came to celebrate! it was a windy, moody day and i was tempted to move the party from our favorite park to inside our small home. i’m so glad i didn’t. it was a bit too windy for me, but i so enjoyed having the space for everyone to eat, drink, and be merry.
this could not have happened without the help of my ENTIRE immediate family. i would list names, but i’m afraid the list would be too long and i would have to break this into several different blog posts.
let’s start with the invites….
here was my vision for the party:
i had my sister-in-law, nicole, take most of these photos since i was setting everything up and running the party. i love this one of my boy and me.
i made this birthday banner about a week before the party and i used elastic string because i didn’t know exactly where it would hang at the party and i wanted to make sure the string was long enough. here it is hanging in our office…
well, it was so windy that the elastic was going crazy once it was strung between the two trees! so i had our dads (my dad on the left and dane’s dad on the right) “re-string” the triangles on regular string. they did not hesitate for a second when i asked them if they would be willing to do it for me, but they did find it funny that it took two grown men to complete this dainty task.
his sign-in book was one of my favorite things. which reminds me, i still need to go back through and look at everyone’s creations! i bought a red artist’s drawing book for $3 at hobby lobby as well as a stamp pad and had guests use their thumbprints to ‘sign-in’ as a caricature. they drew in their own faces/bodies/accessories and then added scenes and sweet birthday notes.
back in march we did caleb’s photo shoot for his invitation. i took, oh, i don’t know, 80 photos?!!? i wanted to use every single one for his invite, but somehow narrowed it down to just one. sooooo what to do with the rest? why, print them and pin them to string tied around a tree, of course! here are our moms carefully placing each photo. there were just two ‘lines’ of string and they were using mini clothespins to secure them. (i didn’t get a photo of the finished product, but believe me it was super cute!)
here is the cake! this was the VERY first thing i had in my head. i wanted something simple and white. dane’s mom made this just for caleb! i loved the little garland on the sticks, but it soon broke after being in the wind a few minutes! oh well, it was still pretty cute. and i wrapped those books using christmas wrapping and turned it inside out since the backing was white.
red and blue candies! sharks are one of my faves.
punch!
refreshments: hawaiian punch and red velvet cake bites. my good friend, megan, made the cake bites!
here she is signing in! and that’s the favors board. each bag had a bag of candy worms (bookworms) and bookplates…should have taken a photo!
(here is the design of the sticker bookplate…)
dane’s mom painted quotes from books to be centerpieces for each table. this one was my favorite. you’ll also notice coloring books, mad libs, and crosswords and a basket of crayons to entertain guests.
there were also a few photos and frames as decor…
here’s levi, caleb’s best friend!
my step dad and dad getting ready to fly a kite! there definitely was enough wind for it!
dane’s mom reading with caleb and my little (16 year old!!!!) brother.
some snaps from the afternoon.
on to the presents and cake! i haven’t even had a chance to go through all of caleb’s books! i am sooo happy that everyone brought one and i loved to see new and old books all in one place! my dad even surprised me with MY favorite childhood book.
and kinsey helped caleb open all of his new toys and books…of course.
his first piece of cake. he loved it.
joel (brother-in-law) and dane dancing. there wasn’t any music…they were just dancing.
joel and nicole! love these two!
i had to narrow it down or else i would be here another 2 hours! thanks again to everyone who came out to celebrate with us. next year is gonna be even better.
wanna see what i really look like on a wednesday afternoon post workout and no makeup?
then go watch my submission video to become an editor for hop scout!
i love their site and they recently opened up positions for editors to stay at home moms! i couldn’t pass it up, but when i found out about it we were in the middle of one of the busiest weeks of the year! we have something going on every night so there wasn’t any time for me to shower or even put makeup on! i only did 4 takes for the video! it’s super dorky, but i had to give it a chance! i’ve got nothing to lose and i’ve never done anything like this so i thought it would be fun!
click right here to vote for my video! it’s only 1 minute!
(regular scheduled blog posts will commence next week. i’ve got one GREAT family session in the works right now!)
i am finally getting around to working on more of our california photos. they bring back such great memories for me and i wanted to document a little about each one.
everyone was sick! it started with dane’s mom and then it just spread! but, with the help of massive doses of vitamin C caleb and i missed it alltogether. i was so thankful and i have yet to be sick since caleb’s birth (*knocks on wood*).
this was a photo taken by request from dane’s mom. and i love it. she was right…just looking at all those shoes and sand by the door really tells a great story of our vacation.
there is a lot of musical talent out there these days. shoot, even i can play a few chords on the guitar after watching dane play the last 6 years. but, nothing quite compares to the way dane’s dad plays. he’s an amazing guitarist and it was so great to have all three of our guys playing together and worshiping.
little known fact: i lOVE jigsaw puzzles!!!! i think i buy a new one every time i go to a resale shop! they’re usually only a $1 and i like to do one on the weekends. so, i loved that there were 6 puzzles at the beach house and all of us mastered them pretty quickly. this is annie, dane’s cousin, who lives in san francisco. i’m so glad she made the trip down to see us for an evening.
we made a trip (as a family) to the beach one day. i, of course, forgot to pack a hat for caleb so grandma lisa picked out this VERY loud one at a nearby store. i loved it and it now hangs by our front door to remind me of caleb’s first time at the beach!
here he is feeling ocean water for the first time! his little feet were kicking with anticipation until he actually felt the icy cold water and then he started squirming away! ha! i think he liked sitting and eating the sand more than ‘swimming’.
here is dad getting some video of our family trip. man, i love taking photos on the beach! cliche, i know, but no matter what time of day it’s such a beautiful and fun place to be.
speaking of beautiful…
i posted a few black & whites of this little session, but i really like the color version so i’m posting it again! they were prolly really tired of me taking photos of them every 5 minutes, but i couldn’t resist. such a sweet, loving couple. not to mention pretty cute, too!
and a secksy pose just for fun.
then, back at the house it was time for a quick rinse in the ducky bath to rid of all the sand!
one of the days (i can’t remember now as it is becoming a blur…OH NO!) we drove up to san francisco and visited the usual places like ghirardelli square.
and ate ghirardelli ice cream
and coveted ghirardelli chocolates…
and cupcakes!
“hey babe, will you stand over here with me so i can get a cutesy picture of nicole and joel on the bench?” then, he scooted closer to them. ha! i should have known! sometimes, you just have to work with what you’re given.
i helped nicole decide on her attire for the day that morning, but really had no idea she was going to match perfectly with a red wall we found walking around the square. i love these frames so much. to me, they are exactly how i remember her. she has the BEST expressions of anyone i know. and that fish face? that one’s just for me.
this was just the first 10 minutes of our san fran trip so i have a billion more photos from this day alone! but, i wanted to at least get a few up here to share. i’ll slowly be leaking out more here and there, but have clients that are waiting patiently on their blogs to be posted.
the next time i post will be from my sexy, new 27′” iMac station!!!!!! right now it is currently in the ‘operating room’ that is our office while dane is slaving away at transferring all of my files from my old computer. i am writing from his work computer in the living room and already had these photos uploaded to the blog…just needed a little text.
my office and working station is a bit torn apart at the moment, but i’m not worried.
i married a computer genius. i’m in good hands.
i have been on the go the past few weeks.
i just got back from an extended weekend stay with my dad and little brother in brownfield, tx. i was able to catch up on some reading and just relax.
we have some news! no, we’re not pregnant! haha. but, dane did get a newish job. he will be working for the same company but with a different title. and a different location. we will probably be moving here in the next few months. he will commute for awhile since our lease isn’t up in our current house and then we will be looking at moving into an apartment in arlington, tx. we really love the house we live in right now. i thought we would live here for at least 5 years. we just bought some new decor and hung photos and now we will be moving! but, we are both excited and nervous to see where this newish job takes us! also, last year we were able to make HUGE payments towards our debt and we are ready to get even more serious by moving into a cheaper place even though dane will be receiving an increase in pay.
what does that mean for my business? nothing, really. well, except for the fact that i prolly won’t have this big, nice office space to work out of when we move. but, i’ll still be accepting and meeting up with clients and families all over the dallas/fort worth area!
welp, i have much editing and clothes washing to catch up on! see ya!
xoxo