Right now

1) Older two girls in Vacation Bible School
2) Alyssa fills the room with her zzzzzz's - the girl can snore!
3) About to tackle the mountain of laundry
4) Wondering how in the world I can put #3 off longer, grin
5) Grateful to have gotten Mandy and Kevin's photo session blogged


(Click on image to view)

6) Procrastinating Strategizing about getting faux curtains up in the family room this week
7) Thinking about all the changes coming down the pike for our little family


8) Choosing peace over worry...


...and curiously enough, joy comes to surprise me!

Oh no, she's snapping!

Well, snapping a shot with a camera, that is. :) At least that's what it was yesterday anyway, heh heh.


(click on image to see more)

I'm glad to be back at the helm again.

Giver of strength

::On strength::

I admit - I don't feel much strength these days lugging my heavy body around during this last trimester of Little Peanut's life in utero. Couple this fact with a pretty whopping sinus infection and there you have my current life in a nutshell.

Except, this set of circumstances is not how I will choose to define myself. On this beautiful Mother's Day, as I reflect on the love and strength my own mother poured into me all these years, I identify with this fact:

A mother is a giver of strength.

One encouraging look across the school yard, and my Amanda lights up, excited to tell me about her day's events.

One grasp of the hand, and Abigail can endure the gaggle of dogs coming toward us (she's deathly afraid of dogs and cats).

One "How was you day", and my husband's heavy day falls off his shoulders one word at a time. Calm takes over his demeanor.

I cherish my role and marvel at the power I have been granted. May I proceed with wisdom.

Thank you, family, for the sweet card and pancake breakfast. The air is perfumed with the lovely scents from your efforts - bacon, batter, maple syrup. Never mind that Amanda accidentally poured two cups of maple syrup onto my pancakes. How'd you know I wanted my stack sickeningly sweet? :)


::How to catch up?::

I've stepped away from the blogging world for so long, with so much to report. I'll save the details for another time... I have some wonderful guests in town with us - more on that later too.

Until then, here's a photo of a precious friend and her daughters:



I'll be posting the rest of the photos from the session soon, Brenda!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the World Wide Web!

{happy}

Yes, you guessed correctly. I've never been so happy to be this ill. Amanda and Abigail eagerly await their new sibling, due to debut mid-2010. One would think that the third time around, it's all old hat. But when the little Peanut waved an arm at us and wriggled around during the first ultrasound, I was wiping tears from my eyes. S/he already has my heart. Now, to get through the grueling morning all-day sickness with some semblance of grace... if you saw me picking up Amanda from school, you'd think I had a shriveled up twin! :) {small price to pay for the great gift within me}

Hoping, praying to get back to being wife/mom at full capacity again.

I haven't been able to do much with photo sessions, but I have posted some more from a recent wedding - click on the photo if you'd like to see more:

And check out my gymnast Abigail. I know, she's totally going to the Olympics! Bwahahaha:

I'm still here!

How does a month glide by so fast? Family is doing well, all things considered. We have so many things to share that sometimes it's not a reality to cram them all into one little blog.

Amanda's a happy clam in second grade. One of her closest friends is in the same homeroom, and well, that just makes for a lot of merriment for a second grader. Mom's busily attempting to keep making nutritious, fun, and yummy lunches - a tall order at times. As promised, I'll share photos and ideas some day. ;) Mondays I spend volunteering at Amanda's school, and she seems to like running up to me at random times and wave a chicken wing at me, with a cheerful, "Hi Mommy!" I treasure that expression of love.

Abigail is talking a lot. So much, that it can be classified as too much, heh heh heh. Her ideas have now materialized into a deafening crescendo. At times very joyfully, but other times in a heap of mad all over the floor. She is a passionate child that emotes quite a bit. And if this mom can pick and choose the battles a bit better, I think she would have less going on in the tantrum department. Sigh. She is a happy-go-lucky and intelligent girl; I'm working on bringing these attributes out to the forefront more.

I haven't been able to scrapbook in a long time, but this one really tumbled out of me; therapy in artform:


(click for credits)

Since I've come back from a Bay Area business trip, I have had fun post-processing photos. There are new sessions up on my photo blog if you'd like to see what I've been up to:


(click image to be whisked away to the photo blog!)

Aww, look at the time! Get to bed, young lady! Okay, off I go... more later.

New beginnings

This woman has entrusted her wedding memories to me. {Insert wobbly legs here} I pray I can do justice. Click on the image to peek at a few of her bridal shots.

And, my sweet Amanda is off to school tomorrow.

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.
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Yes, time to embrace new beginnings.

Like mother, like daughters

(click image to enlarge - credits here)

This is one thing I'm glad I passed down to my girls. :) If you haven't noticed in the first photo, Abigail has adopted little binoculars as her "camwah".

Back from vacation

We had fun. The weather was wonderful. Tax-free shopping was glorious. Food was so good that I overate myself into a gluttonous stupor one afternoon. But oh, what a way to go down! :) I'll be pouring over two 8 gigs memory cards' worth of photos this week - I am eager to share my photos of early morning low tide on the beach with you.

Now that most of the laundry is done and our lives are unpacked and unleashed back into the daily grind, my next quest is to compile some great recipes and ideas for my Amanda's lunch box before she heads off to school.

One thing I had Amanda try was this insalata caprese (stacked style), since I have a wealth of basil and tomatoes in my garden:



I love it. But Amanda? Not so much. Though she loved the tomato-basil-olive oil-salt-pepper taste combo, she didn't care for the fresh mozzarella.

If you have some tried and true recipes or lunchbox ideas, will you share them with me? I want her to really love her lunches.

***

And happy birthday to two very special people in my life: my childhood friend Julianne, who is again celebrating her 21st birthday (ahem), and my beloved nephew Elias, who just blew out two candles.

What we've been up to

Some of you may visit my blog because of my digital and hybrid scrapbooking activities, and you're wondering where they've gone lately. I've put them aside for a while to focus on being with my little ones. One of them will be scooting off to second grade in a few weeks, and we're in a busy frenzy making some final summer memories together before ushering in the new school year.

Amanda was a Cloverbud this year in a local 4-H chapter. No, she didn't do any projects that involved livestock or farming, but she did get to enter her needlepoint projects and a cooking project.




I've been to the fair for several years, but until you have a child personally involved, it doesn't really come alive! The entire event was extremely impressive. Some of the greatest talents exhibited the fruits of their labor. One of our favorite exhibits was the rabbits! Look how absolutely adorable this one is:


Whenever I think of the fair, I think of extreme heat. This fair was no different with 100 degree temperatures the whole week. Amanda ran through the sprinklers courtesy of the local fire department:


I heard from a friend of mine that it was so hot that some of the rabbits died during the fair exhibition. Apparently, their owners didn't do enough to keep them cool. How sad.

We've been enjoying our vegetable garden's bounty, taking our snow peas, green beans, and zucchini and making drool-inducing stir fries with them. While we were harvesting our veggies the other day, a little friend dropped by:


The girls got tired of working, so they tumbled into a tickle fest in the grass. Of course the crazy photog mom grabbed the camera.


And thanks to friends who've shared their overflow, we have canned our own apricot jam for the first time ever (which was surprisingly easy), as well as make fresh cherry cobbler.




All in all, wonderful days spent well. I hope I can get back to some of the deferred hobbies soon, but most times, I really don't miss them so much. I guess it's because my favorite hobby I continue to nurture through my photography business.
Take a peek at my Photo Artistry blog if you get a chance:

Meet my nephew

Remember this little one? I want to share some photos of him - click on the photo below to view them on my Photo Artistry blog:



Since those photos were taken, his father (my brother, aka my BOTHER) tells me he's become a hulking lad with quite the good-sized noggin. Meh, don't worry. You grew into your gargantuan head eventually, right Bother?

A happy Tuesday

It's been a day filled with gymnastics, Caillou, post-processing of photos, and a warm summer breeze to cool us off. Later on, we'll be heading off to swim lessons. I love days like this.

Speaking of relaxing, my favorite scent of the moment is lavender. I am thinking of flanking our home with lavender bushes, after a photo session I had this past weekend. Click on the photo to be whisked away for a peek. ;)

And an extremely belated congrats to Amanda for participating in an art contest. You can see her entry on this screenshot:



So proud of you, Pancakes!

It's a photographer's paradise

Tap, tap, tap. Hi! We're back. The work reports are finally completed, we came back from a whirlwind visit to the Bay Area, and I have a gazillion photos to prove it. San Francisco was shrouded in its usual gray blanket of fog, but it didn't faze me. 6 days just flew by, and again, I didn't get a chance to touch base with everyone whom I intended to do so. Please forgive me!

Since I'm still in post-process phase with many of the photos, you can take a peek at a family session I did at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek, CA, in the meantime:



I am now based in the greater Boise area as well as the San Francisco Bay Area, so if you or someone you know is interested in portraiture in either areas, send them my way!

Class of 2009

All of a sudden the 2009 in the title reminds me of the anxiety-ridden world as we all awaited 2YK... I went and bought a ton of bottled water and duct tape to prepare for the impending cataclysmic events.

Bwahahaha! (I ended up drinking all of the water, and said duct tape rolls still live in the dark recesses of my parents' home)

We made it through 2000 okay. We are now half way through 2009, ladies and gentlemen!

Take a peek at my photography blog to see some photos from the latest photo shoot - two members of the Class of 2009.

I graduated in 1993. Wow, I won't even go there.

My first wedding shoot

The photos are finally in the possession of the couple, so now I can share a few of them. Take a peek on my photography blog.

The Art Princess

Our Amanda is a self-proclaimed "Art Princess". And you know what? I think she's right. I vow to stock this house up with art media galore so she can be the best Art Princess she is meant to be.

She came home from the Play Center with this rendition of us, the Family:

And the Art Princess' artillery: (don't you like her love note to Daddy?)

Totally absorbed in her work:

"Momma, could you take pictures of Abby instead? I'm busy."

This was taken shortly after Abigail got into her art material (funny Ferengi nose!):

But then, who can resist a plucky sister like Abby? Not Amanda:

(Click on photos for larger images)

I love, love, love these girls.

Sweet Abigail

(click for larger image)



Those pigtails . . . the ducky mouth . . . the effervescent, dazzle of a smile.

You are so loved.

Best of 2007 Photo Contest Results

Lauren at Ooh La La Photography announced the winning photo. And thanks to your vote, Amanda WON! It really is a beautiful photo. I'm excited that we'll have another opportunity to work with Lauren soon.

Here is the post about the photo contest.

Thanks for participating in our lives!

And birthday hellos to:
1. Cousin Nance (11th)
2. Brother David (11th)
3. Sister-by-marriage Betty (13th)
4. Pastor Samuel (13th)

A nice weekend

Abigail has a new nickname - she's Abby, the Crabby Crustacean. Funny thing about it though. Amanda thought I was calling her a "Crusty Asian". !!!!

Here's a photo of one of my cameras, the Sony Cyber-shot F717, which we got in 2003:

(Image from Digital Photography Review)

Fabulous camera, but I don't really use it to its full potential, as I am always on AUTO. Yes, I am just a point-and-shooter. But I hope to change that. One of my goals this year is to become chummy with the manual and eventually shoot in manual mode. THEN, we'll be ready to move onto a digital SLR camera.

This mosaic captures some of our happy moments from this past week:

(Click for larger image)

Abigail's hair is long enough for pigtails, so she is sporting a cute little hair pretty from Annie and Olive.

Amanda and I made some dinner mints - super easy, child-friendly recipe. If you'd like the recipe, let me know. They're impressive with little effort.

Amanda's typical breakfast is oatmeal. It's a great source of fiber and low in calories.

And Ron's steak and mushrooms dish - it is to die for!

Ron's Steak & Mushrooms

Ingredients:

A rib steak

10 to 12 white cap mushrooms

1 stalk of green onions

1 tblspn butter or extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Pack the steak with kosher salt on both sides for 15 to 30 minutes, letting it reach room temperature.

2. Wash the salt off the steak and pat dry.

3. Sear both sides of the steak in a pan until desired doneness is reached.
4. Melt the butter in the pan with the steak drippings, and throw in the mushrooms and green onions.

5. Splash some worcestershire sauce on the mixture. When mushrooms are done, pour over the steak. Serve immediately.

We usually make one 1-lb rib steak and share it amongst the family, pairing it with corn, and a stir-fry dish (bokchoy, green cabbage, spinach, napa cabbage). And of course, rice.

Ron was inspired by this blog post that explains how to make cheap cuts of meat taste like prime rib. Very interesting.

Playing with photo mosaics

Ah, so much to learn. Susan has kindly explained to me how to put together a mosaic after I saw her super cool one on her blog. I didn't have time to upload more than four photos, but it's a start, right? These are from November, when my brother Josh and sister-by-marriage Betty visited. Betty and Amanda spent three hours constructing the gingerbread house, and they deserve kudos!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Did it snow on Tuesday! In the last three and a half years we've lived in Nampa, we've never had such an onslaught. Some of you in Wisconsin or Illinois might be snickering, but to us, it was significant and glorious. I almost don't mind shoveling it. Almost.

While Abigail was napping, Amanda and I ventured out into the Wild White Yonder - right in our front and backyards - and here are some moments I was lucky to capture:

(click on photos for larger images)









"Mommy, the snowflakes land everywhere except on my tongue - my face is getting tired." (Nothing a little hot milk with marshmallows can't fix)
-Amanda