seven

This evening my boy alerted me to the fact that this year is going by really fast. For a kid to acknowledge that, well, think about how I feel kiddo.

My baby boy just turned seven.

Yes, time is going by really fast. Too fast.





His birthday day was very busy. My niece and sister were with us for a few days. We had swim in the morning and then that afternoon we had a Cub Scout outing at Angels Radio station.





Afterwards we headed down to celebrate at Farrell's in Brea. The kids (or Daniel) had no idea what it was about, but my sister and I had fond memories as a child and we were excited to go.







This is my very favorite picture of the day:




Ethan had a good time and asked if we can go back again next year for his birthday.

The jet pack helped.


And a couple days later we did a little more celebrating.





Such a fun birthday weekend!

I adore this little seven year old boy of mine.

to my kids...

Emma and Ethan,

What I really want to say on this day, Nov. 3, 2011, is that I'm sorry for not keeping up with our family photos. Yes, I take them, but beyond that they might as well be sitting in a box. I know this doesn't matter much to you now. Right now we are living a very full life with lots and lots to do. Mom and Dad are marveling in the growth of our children, wondering where the time has gone, still remembering you as babies. We are seeing long legs, no trace of diapers, awards being given, words being learned, big and small. Our life with you is very full and I hope I am adequately capturing as many moments as possible "on film".

But one day you will even more cherish the stories (photos + words) that I am presently not able to adequately record. For this I am sorry. And I hope I will be given the time to do more of that for you. It is very important to me that I am able to give you the gift of your family's story, to take with you as adults, to then share with your own families.

For now, I hope you feel loved - through the photos that you see me taking and the arms that lovingly reach out to you daily.

Love,
Mom

OC Fair 2010

Emma danced at the fair again this year which is always a little stressful, but fun too. I like that I can take pictures of her dancing in "my" kind of light. :) She did great and it was so much fun to hang out with family and friends afterwards. There is so much to do! It's a little overwhelming for Emma. We had to keep telling her that next year we would try different things because we couldn't possibly do it all in one shot.

Anyway, here you go, the Orange County Fair via the Lee Family!





Emma did this humongous slide ALL BY HERSELF. My girl is such a daredevil.

She never stopped smiling.




























[A special thank you to Michelle for taking our family photos... Don't know what I'd do without you!]

whole again

My family is in tact once again. Whew! Hubby was gone for almost a week on a business trip and came back yesterday. This photo makes my heart happy to share.



And now I'm off to get ready for a newborn session. Love!

for daddy

A special treat for daddy today because we love him oh so much.





XXOO

4th of July, come and gone.

What a busy day we had today. It started off early with a laundromat run and from there it was all go, go, go! We participated in a very cool bike parade at the home of our realtor who was also hosting a block party. She lives in the neighborhood of our school so Emma saw classmates and we got to hang out with our good friends, the Lopez Family. We spent a short time at home before taking off to the Gallagher's home for water-play and dinner. It was very busy, but a lot of fun. Honestly, I'm beat.

So happy to get such a nice family photo this year. Thanks Michelle!


Hope your day was just as fun!

Ten on Tuesday

Can you believe it! Ten on TUESDAY!

I think a lot about our various connections to the city of Orange... I'm in Orange A LOT. I drive through almost every day of the week for one thing or another, mainly taking Emma to and from preschool. I also have moving and buying a house on my brain and you will often hear me say that we just need to move to Orange. I thought I would title this post Ten Reasons Why We Need to Move to Orange, and I guess I could, but I don't know that these are exactly reasons so much as they are about our connections. But yes, life would be a bit easier if we just moved closer. I plan on using this list for a scrapbook layout sometime... Okay, here goes:

1. Our home church is in Orange, which is also where we were married.
2. The preschool is in Orange.
3. Emma takes dance in Orange.
4. The kids do VBS in Orange (at a friend's church).
5. Our hairdressers are in Orange (Emma's and mine).
6. We bank just outside of Orange.
7. My scrapbook nights are in Orange because that's where my CM consultant lives (actually she lives in Tustin/Santa Ana, but its borderline Orange.)
8. My closest girlfriend and family lives in Orange, whom we celebrate half our holidays with. (I'd love to live closer to them.)
9. All our doctors are in Orange (or again along the border of).
10. Both kids were born in Orange.

I could probably list a few more like both park parties we've had for the kids have been in Orange parks, our finanacial consultant is in Orange, I have quite a few other friends in Orange. Crazy how much we do there. We haven't started looking for houses yet, but we'll probably start our search in that general area and see where it takes us.

On another note, I'm dying to share recital photos with you, but I really REALLY need to get some client work done first... Here's just one until I can come back.


So proud of our little girl.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Apple-pickin'

My favorite time of the year is fall. I love the colors (at least for decorating since we don't see much in the way of outdoor colors changing around here) and I love that the weather starts to cool down. Although I find the holidays to be very stressful, I really love the string of holidays that fall brings on.



A few years ago our good friends introduced us to apple-picking. It is so much fun. And its all about the experience. Picking your own fruit, allowing the kids to participate in that process, seeing all the apple trees... I love thinking back on the years before, watching how the kids have grown, realizing how our experience is a little different every year because of their ages.



We skipped last year so the last time we went Ethan was only a few months old, being toted around in a carrier.



His experience this year was all about throwing apples. Yep, throwing them. Yanking them off the trees and chucking them. Thank goodness the people working there didn't see him because they would not have been happy. Ethan on the other hand was very happy with his apple throwing experience.




(My favorite pic of him, but whatever that back hand is doing really bugs me!) :)

Emma did pretty good. A little whiney, but at least she tried picking apples this year.




We even washed up a couple apples for the kids to eat right then and there...




Daniel brought a water bottle to keep the kids cool, especially Ethan. Here you see him spraying poor Ethan, and Emma was quite amused by it.


I love this shot of my big-little girl. Sigh....


And here is a shot of our $50 bag of apples, as Daniel calls it.

He was a little gripey about how much the "experience" cost us, especially with the price of gas to get us there. Okay, and the apples you pick may not be the best tasting apples ever. But seriously, its about the experience and spending time with good friends.

The day also involves having a picnic at a nearby park. This year we saw bear droppings on the way in (and bear tracks on the way out too). But really we are in a rather safe picnic area where there are a fair amount of other people.



What really struck me this year was how Ethan was finally a part of the kids' group.

On his own he wanted to sit with the kids and even ate with them as a group. The last time we were together was at 4th of July and I remember saying that I was looking forward to Ethan being part of the group and not so separated by age. Well, it finally happened this year. At least it was a start.

Our picnic was cut short by the thunder that continued to work its way toward us. We knew the comfortable weather we were experiencing was too good to be true. When the thunder got too close for comfort, we quickly snapped some shots, packed up and were out of there.



Our last stop was the Wood Shed.

The oldest, kindest couple owns this little spot where several kinds of apples are sold and they allow you to taste the apples. My favorite this year was the Pink Pearl. Tart, but I liked it.



And around the shed is this beautiful garden where we snapped some pics of the kids.

Look at these beautiful girls of ours:




And to end all these fun pics, here's a shot of my kids. How sad when this is the BEST shot I can get of my kids together.

We tried. Maybe next year will be the year for cooperation.

Oh, we had such a good time. I am so glad we went. What a great way to kick off the fall season!

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend too! Next up, first day of school pics. Yikes!