Back!

Whew, we made it home. Why is it the car ride home is always twice as long?? We had a lovely trip to washington for thanksgiving - and I am currently ignoring the MOUNDS of laundry that are waiting for me in the laundry room entrance. I felt it was MUCH more important to post something for all of my devoted blog readers!

Not only was it a great time spent with family, but I was able to do a maternity session with my gorgeous cousin Sasha who is expecting a baby girl, little miss Ellie Grace due on Dec. 31st! We had the BEST time with the photo shoot - I wish I looked that good prego!!! I'll post some of those later after her approval ;) and I also got to do a maternity session with a good family friend of ours expecting a baby boy this next week!!! How amazing to be able to intertwine family and my photography passion all at once!

On to some fun pictures!

Matt, Aaron, Andrea and Uncle Tim sporting THE jersey of the day!! (seahawks, OF COURSE!)

Jake borrowing Uncle Tim's hat!!

The girls helping Uncle Matt make Waldorf Salad...mmm!

My baby girl all dressed up for Church.

Jake's early Christmas present from Nana, he is LOVING this and it is all he played with when we got home!! So cute, it has a spot to stack mega legos in the dump truck when it is lifted up.

An action shot from the rousing game of PIT!! SO fun!

Aunt Connie always has the greatest little gifts for the girls, this time it was stick on nails (that were lovely and ended up all over the house :) :) ) and a dress-up sticker book that kept them entertained for HOURS on end. Thank you Aunt Connie!!

Nanny and Emma working on Em's sticker book.

And how could I not include a picture of our feast? Mmm... all the traditional goodness.

Things are looking UP!

Oh, we are so grateful today. Aaron had his final interview with a company in Caldwell and was signed on today. There is SO MUCH relief and excitement in this house. I cannot even begin to tell you the weight that has been lifted after nine months of searching for a new job. I love and appreciate all of the effort, emotion and time my hubby has poured into providing for us. Thank you so much to each and every one of you that has been diligently praying for us. As most of you know the previous situation - we are a bit 'gun-shy' and Aaron says he will feel a lot better when he is there and working come next Monday morning. But for tonight, we are so very thankful and feel especially blessed.

(I will try to update on Mandy tomorrow. She is slowly healing and has woken up. As of yesterday she was moved out of ICU and into a recovery room, they are not sure how long she will stay there. more later - but I am headed to bed!!)

ohhh... and i'm not going to go back and proof read this, if there are typos too bad :) I'm too tired... tired and happy.

Coveting Your Prayers **UPDATED**and again**

A dear family friend of ours, Mandy Castanon, had an MRI a few weeks ago to discover she had several benign tumors in her brain. One was pushing on her optical nerve, another on her pituitary gland. They were removed through a 10 hour brain surgery on Monday. My understanding through talking with her family is that she was in a sedated state for 24 hrs following the surgery and now that they have taken her off the sedatives she has not yet awoken. They did a test to see what level of awareness she had, and she has scored lower than the doctors and family had hoped. She is still in need of the power of pray. Please take a moment to offer up Mandy and her Family in Prayer. Some of you may know her in relation to her brother Nathan Castanon that passed away in a car accident in 2002 near Walla Walla coming home from Mandy's game at the friendship tournament. She is also the beautiful girl that sang 'The Prayer' at our wedding.

I will update my blog when I know more.

**WEDNESDAY 1:20pm** breathing on her own and moving her extremities, but is still taking awhile to wake up after the surgery

**Wednesday 10pm** Great news!!! She is waking up!! I went to see her parents tonight and they were headed home for some much needed rest. Her mom was SO excited and with good reason - as they were leaving and saying good bye Mandy opened her eyes a crack and said "I love you Mama". YAY!!! The MRI today was good and she is breathing on her own now! Such wonderful news, thank you SO MUCH for your prayers. I know each one was heard.

Cinderella and her Prince

This evenings conversation with Emma went something like this...


Me: Emmy, time to put your dress up clothes

away and get ready for dinner!!

Emma: WHAT?? (hollering because she can't

hear me... poor babe has fluid in her

ears)

Me: EMMA! Put your dress up clothes away

PLEASE! Dinner is almost ready!

Emma: But I CAN'T take my dress off!

Me: Well come here, I'll help you.

Emma: But I C A N ' T take it off yet! My

prince isn't here to dance with me!

Me: Um, your prince? Honey, you can dance

later, it's time for dinner

Emma: NO! My Prince Daddy isn't home yet

and I can't take my dress off before

we dance!!! (pleading little eyes)

so there I am, trying not to laugh/cry/go grab my camera.

Me: Ok, you can wait for Daddy, one quick

dance, then dinner - ok?

Emma: YAY! MY PRINCE!!

***


I did hold back from grabbing the camera... at least until Aaron got home and they had their dance. She just absolutely adores her daddy and he can't ever refuse a dance with his girl :) I LOVE moment list this.


And now that dinner and dancing is long gone and bedtime is approaching, miss is back in her princess dress only this time Cinderella and Daddy are playing a car racing game on the XBox. Better go get my camera again...


- as for the Jake update - he's been in bed since 5:45pm, got him up to give him motrin, then back down. Poor baby :(
















OH! And two more small things, can you see Emma's black eye? Sweet girl has my same sense of coordination and grace *sigh*. AND I'm sitting here eating 'runts' candy from Emma's halloween bucket ;) since WHEN did runts have pineapple ones?? mmmm

I know it's that time of year... but we just can't seem to shake the sickies in this house! The kids both had colds a few weeks back, then I got it so good I lost my voice for a few days. Last week Em came home from preschool with a fever - twice and has since recovered. Saturday night after we took pictures Jake didn't look so great, sure enough 102.4 temp. So some Tylenol and off to bed. He slept most the day yesterday and last night his fever spiked to 102.9 and I told Aaron we were taking him in. By the time I got him to the ER it was 103.8, and by the time they put him in a room 104.2 - if he was closer to 2 I wouldn't have been AS concerned but knowing that under the age of two temps over 104 can cause seizures, I tried to keep my cool but I was so nervous. They checked him over and sent him home with another dose of medicine, but this morning it was back up to 103.8 - so back to the Dr. More meds and some tests which all came back ok. SO!! We are home, resting - Em is at preschool. We will update you later!

as promised!

So I just got back from work and I know the post is late, but I did a rush edit job on them before I went to work because I just couldn't stand it! :) So here are two... and I couldn't decide between b/w and color - help me decide? As always, click the pic to see it larger!

stay tuned...

check back tonight for a sneak peek at a photo session with MY OWN kids! haha. I know your amazed... I am too! Not sure if I got any decent ones of Jake, but I know there are some heart breakers of Em... going to edit one now just cause I just can't stand it :)

the Perfect Assistant

I have the perfect editing assistant when I am working away on a photography session. He watches intently, he loves my work, he has gorgeous big eyes, he provides quiet company... and every now and then he will bat at the screen...

Candle Oopsie

I love candles and if I'm home there is almost always a candle burning. I love the smell, the soft glow, the warmth. I just plain love them. I am partial to Pier One candles. And nothing bums me out more then when one comes to the end of it's little life, but I really hate is when they go out with a bang and get wax everywhere. Kinda like this... this is what I saw when I went to do dishes Thursday evening..

.

Diet Coke Cupcakes

Yup. You read it right.

One package of chocolate cake mix + one can of diet coke = lil' bit of heaven.

just the girls

Sunday just us girls (Andrea, Kylie, Mom, Emma and myself) went to see Disney on Ice. What a fun treat! I have always loved ice skating, and as a little girl I dreamed of skating! There is even some fabulous video's of me skating on my grandparents pond as a girl - I was good guys. Seriously. haha. Pretty sure there is even a clip of me singing AND skating.... aren't you impressed? And no, I will never post it for you to see ;-) ANYWAY back to the girls day out! Grandma spoiled the girls with Princess snow cones (in the cutest cups to take home), cotton candy and a crown that even had Mickey mouse ears. The girls LOVED it when the princesses skated with their princes, but when Cinderella came out, that was the big hit with our two princesses! Personally, I enjoyed the Lion King! THANKS GRANDMA for the super fun filled Disney on Ice adventure!

(some seriously blurry pictures - but had to give you a little feel of it)

{THANKS GRANDMA!!!}

Peppermint Mocha Goodness

{So
tHa-
nK-
FuL
fOr
You
!}

Just in case...

Just in case any of you were worried that I didn't have a silicone baking liner... my beloved Target heard my cry once again! Guess what I found in the DOLLAR section (ok, so it was 2.50 - which I still don't get...but whatever) the other day after Jake and I took Emmy to preschool? Oh yeah...

and not only do I *love* the color... they had these adorable little muffin-cake-snowflake-baker thingies too! Crazy enough I left feeling totally guilty that I spent $5 on non-necessities.... but don't you worry, I felt much better once I got home, opened up the liner and made brownie bites ;-p mmm.