remember when i was a workin' girl??

my senior year of college jake and i invested in a 'starter' camera...i really wanted to learn enough to be able to take good photos when we started having babies:)  that year for my birthday my mom payed for me to take a photography class at a local school and i FELL IN LOVE!!  i started BEGGING people to let me take photos of their kids and families just so i could get more and more practice...then all of a sudden people wanted to PAY ME to take their photos...what?!?  it was all kinda taking off ahead of me...i wasn't ready for that...i was just having fun...BUT we were also trying to get out of debt at the time so i though what an amazing opportunity that has seemed to just fall in my lap to help us get out of debt faster!!!  so i went to photo seminars, i went to a small business class in our city, bought some nicer equipment and traveled 4 hours a way to have a photography business bootcamp with a photographer i really admired.  Jake and i then set up a super cute website and i was set!!!  I started getting quite a few shoots a month and even some weddings! I was still working full time on top of taking photos, but i kinda thought this might be the perfect part time career once we have babies!  Well about a year into my business, jake and i come home from a doing a wedding in Texas(where i felt 'off' the whole weekend) and i found out i was pregnant!!  Totally exciting!....but i immediately start getting sick!  So sick that i would come home every evening from work lay down on the couch and not move until bed! Good thing that wedding was for a very good friend because it took me about 2 months to get her wedding edited and out to her!  I had to start turning down jobs because i was so sick...and i finally decided to 'take a break' from jobs and focus on growing this baby so i did my last wedding 7 months before piper was born, with full intentions to get back into it:)   weeeeellll i didnt:(  i got busy with babies....babies that i love so very much!  anyway all that to say...a few months ago Jared(our lead pastor) asked me to do some family photos for a church mailer and for Frisco Fields Church website!!!! i was so nervous!!! but i think they turned out ok!!

THEN....a few weeks ago a couple in our church who needed new headshots for their business asked ME to do them!!!  i assured them that i was totally out of practice and they could completely throw them out if they didn't like them!  well i guess they did because they are up on their website!  www.freshstartfrisco.com 

Labor Day Party, no Snowman Party, no, BOTH...

My friend Marie and her family invited us over for a Labor day cookout, which also happened to be a few days after her youngest daughter turned 2, so we also celebrated sweet little Kiwi!!   Marie asked her what kind of party she wanted..and no joke...she said 'a snowman party!!" and Marie (being the awesome mommy that she is!) RAN WITH IT;)  I mean who doesn't want to think about snow in this heat!! She is the best host i have ever known! She even makes extra of the food JUST so everyone always has food to take home!  It was such a wonderful party!!  And as always, we left Marie's house with our hands full of food and screaming babies (no one EVER wants to leave their house:).

family project...

i use the term 'family project' pretty lightly...it's funny how most of our planned 'family projects' turn into...Jake doing it, and me trying to keep the girls out of his hair...oh well;)  So i got some good buys at an estate sale this weekend... first, a THOUSAND vintage fabric squares...

 and these gold frames...

I don't sew (maybe someday) so at first i didn't really know what to do with the fabric squares. I got a couple of great ideas from facebook friends...but i also had a can of spray paint that ive been waiting for over a year to use!! so we dug around for it and came up with this...

 while jake was taking apart the frames to spray paint one of the glass panels broke!... jake tried to convince me to just do 2, but i was pretty set on having 3 (i have a weird obsession with the number 3...but that's for another post;) so jake came up with the genius idea to lay the fabric squares on card stock then laminate them...ahhh he is so smart!

the end result!!  I LOVE IT!! what do ya think!??

now, what to do with the rest of the 973 other fabric squares?

a dream of ours...

"Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer"

I found this quote on pinterest months ago and i could not agree with it more!!  Jake has learned in our 7.5 year marriage is that i am not a possessions kinda girl, obviously i have to buy stuff to make our home a home, and i need clothes on my back (although 90% of mine are sissy-in-law hand me downs)...but i'm not into 'stuff'...so when it comes to gifts, Jake has learned that what i love is 'experiences'...tickets to a concert or theater production, a massage, a family trip to a museum, etc...aaaaaand we are just ITCHING to add traveling as an option someday!!!  Looking back on my childhood most all my most favorite memories were traveling with my family...my dad traveled with his job quite a bit...so my mom, brother and i would just tag along and do tons of sight seeing while he would be in meetings and then we would always stay a few days later so that he could join us.  I was SO blessed to basically travel all over the US with my family and because of those experiences i feel as though traveling needs to be placed high on the priority list!  Unfortunately we haven't gotten there yet:(  Jake and I got married young and poor;)  I was still in school and only working part time and jake was working as a land surveyor while searching for a ministry job. Then once i was done with school and working full time and finally making money, we put EVERYTHING into buying our first house, then we got this crazy idea to get completely out of debt, THEN we decided to have a baby and for me to stop working, THEN we decided to have a second baby and move to another town where the cost of living is cough just a little higher cough....so needless to say this dream to travel is still just that...a dream.  Thanks to my father-in-law we were at least able to go on a WONDERFUL honeymoon to Disney World, but that was the one and only 'real' vacation just jake and i have ever been on...I don't want to sound ungrateful...we have has some AMAZING vacations with our family's over the years (Vegas with my mom, Hawaii with jakes family, numerous lake trips with my family...and OF COURSE the YEARS jakes family has taken us to Destin, Fl!!) but jake and i a SO ready to be able to travel with our little family and be able to give our girls the experiences that it brings...and of course jake and i look forward to taking a trip again someday with out kiddos too;)  so here is our dream list...

Family Trips...

-Disney World (would love to be able to take the girls at different times in their lives too, like when they are little because its so magical, then when they are older and can ride everything, then maybe when they are teenagers and do more of Universal Studios)

-San Antonio (sea world, the Alamo, the riverwalk, etc)

-Washington DC/Colonial Williamsburg (the obvious sights... probably when they are pre-teens to teenagers)

-Boston (because i'm one of those nerdy moms who loves history;)

-San Francisco (would LOVE to go for the 4th of july, they have one of the BEST shows in the country and of course the trollies, golden gate bridge, Alcatraz and to teach them the history of 'full house' ;)

-Grand Canyon (and other Arizona sights)

-Branson (someplace that is near our family's that we both grew up going to...its kinda cheesy, but we like shows, silver dollar city, and good clean family fun;)

-K LOVE family cruise (yup i said it....but come on, think about it...you go on a CRUISE with concerts by your favorite christian artists all week!! yes please!)

-Seattle/Portland (i remember being on of my FAVORITE vacations as a kid!!!)

-Nashville (to go watch a live taping of the Dave Ramsey Show!, all the music museums, Graceland, National Civil Rights museum, etc)

-Family Camp (www.pinecove.com)

-Alaskan Cruise (i've just heard they are amazing and i think a good learning experience for the girls!)

and the big ones...

-London (never really thought i would care to go...but after this Olympic games and the fact that Pipers 2 favorite stories right now involve London (Peter Pan and Mary Poppins) I really want to take them!:)

-Australia (honesty jake and i really want to go to Hillsong Church...but im pretty sure there are one or two other things to do while we are there;)

-Holy Land (i've always seen this as a trip that i would want go on with my kids when they are like college age...it would be an AMAZING experience!)

Just for Jake and I...

-Vegas

-Caribbean type Cruise

-Los Angeles

-New York

-maybe a 2nd honeymoon to Disney ;)

Where do you dream to go!? or where do you remember going as a kid that was memorable to you?

16 months old...

my sweet sweet Violet, you turn 16 months old today....you are my teeny tiny little BALL OF FIRE:) you are the most opinionated & spirited little one!  And i mean 'little one' quite literally...you weigh all of 16lbs and although we have spend your entire first year of your life worried about your weight your daddy and i (and your doctor) have finally just decided that is just the way you are!  You have the sweetest most quite voice...but the loudest most passionate cry.  The words that we can clearly  hear from you is mommy, dada, pippa (piper), puppy, pa, no, ball, weeeee(for slide), shoes, bubbles (for actual bubbles and for bath), drink, nana(banana), caca (cracker), cookie, down, up, baby, cheese, and tonight for the first time you said BIBLE!  yeah, i may or may not have cried. And you still sign for all done, water, banana, milk, thank you, bird, eat, more and cheese. We have struggled with your seperation from me:(  that loud passionate cry comes out ANY and everytime you are left, for the entire durations...which up to this point no one can last with you more then 30 minutes...they all say that you are very cough strong cough.  Your favorite books are "SO big" (which was also your sisters at this age!), "Beautiful Oops" and your 'words' book.  It is so hard to believe that when your sister was this age i was 4 months pregnant with you!  I feel like you go most days eating only crackers and milk...you have had eating issues since your early reflux days and you are still incredibly picky. You are working pretty hard on your 'fang' teeth and it seems to be pretty painful...but inculding those you have 16 total teeth!  Your love for water has grown and you will finally take a long bath and play in the water with your sissy:)  Speaking of your sissy...you want to be just like her and copy every thing she does.  And you love Piper so much that you will randomly reach out to hug and kiss her all the time...which warms my mommy heart!  You still fight naps hard and even when you fall asleep in the car its never longer then 20 minutes....and NO MATTER what time you go to sleep you are awake by 6am.  You are the sweetest, most loving little girl who i think will challenge me our whole lives....i'm up for the challenge;)

should i do it!?

should i get back in to the swing of blogging?! I read my blog often...its my little family's life and yet the last year... basically our whole first year in Texas is no where to be seen:( it made me sad today as i was looking back at old memories and it made me wonder if it was time:) i could spend an un-Godly amount of time 'catching up'...but that is a bit overwhelming to me...so i'm going to do it...i'm just going to pick up like i never left...

 Today Piper started her fall semester swim class...she is a 'advanced aquatot' and we are beaming with pride! We started this summer taking classes at a swim school here is the Dallas area called Emlers Swim School and we have been overwhelmingly impressed with how they have turned our 'my NOT going underwater' 'clinging to us with death grip in the water' little girl to a fully SWIMMING 3 year old! My mom loves to tell the story of the 'my future family' book i made probably in jr.high complete with jcpenny catalog cut outs of models of my 4 children all whom where swimmers (and yes this was before the Phenom of Micheal Phelps!). It probably had something to do with the fact that my best friend at the time was a swimmer...but non the less i wanted my kids to be swimmers...and i'm not saying that Pipe will be our little Olympic winner (although i would not put it past her;) she is having a lot of fun in her very first 'away from mommy' class and she is learning a life long sport! here are some photos from last week on her last day of her summer session with Ms.Tami (which thankfully she also has Ms.Tami this semester too!)