5 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

1. Watching my boys make their space derby rockets with my husband.  My husband helped our boys make their space derby rockets for the big race this weekend, and watching them work together made me happy

2. The space derby race.  This weekend my boys raced the rockets that they made with their dad in the space derby race.  It was fun to see all of the rockets, and to see the boys excitment about racing their creations.  Both of my boys took 2nd in their first race (they didn’t race against eachother), and while they wished that they had taken 1st they still had fun.  After the big race we had hot dogs, and then the boys received the badges that they’ve earned.  Having a fun day with my family makes me happy

3. Report cards.  I feel so incredibly blessed that my kids are doing so well in school, and that their teachers greatly enjoy having them in their classes.   Reading their report cards, and hearing wonderful things about them at conferences might have been the highlight of my week.  Good kids, and good grades makes me incredibly happy  

4. 1/2 days.  This week my boys had 3 1/2 days.  It was fun to spend extra time with them.  Since my daughter had school 2 of those days it was just us, and that doesn’t seem to happen very often, so I treasured those days.  Extra time with my boys makes me happy

5. Having my husband home for the entire weekend.  This weekend my husband was home for the entire weekend, which was awesome because to be honest, I can’t even remember the last time that happened.  Even when he’s in town it seems like he is typically gone at least one day during the weekend.  But not this weekend!  Let me tell you, having him all to ourselves for the entire weekend made all of us very happy  

What made you happy this week?

To kick off the space derby my oldest son got to carry the flag to the front by the bleachers for us to say the Pledge of Allegiance. 

The picture of my boys together kind of cracks me up, because those were supposed to be their competitive game faces, LOL!

I hope that your Thanksgiving week is filled with sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love!

What started like this

Turned into this

And ended like this

And I am grateful that I was able to capture it.  Gosh I love what I do

I hope that your day is filled with sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love!

5 Things That Made Me Happy This Week

1. 3 hours straight of good music.  On Sunday it took us a little over 3 hours to get home from Avalanche Bay, and the whole way home we heard good music!  A commercial would come on, and I would change stations to avoid the commercials, and it never failed that I found another great song to listen to.  I never found a time that all of the stations were playing commercials, or that I had to keep skipping around because nothing good was on.  Good music on the radio for 3 hours straight made me happy

2. My niece’s first birthday.  This week my niece celebrated her first birthday, and we went to my sister’s house to celebrate with them.  I still can’t believe that it’s been a year since baby B. entered the world.  I guess it’s just one more thing to remind me of how fast life goes by…  Celebrating important moments with my family makes me happy

3. Visiting friends.  My daughter and I went to visit one of my dear friends from high school this week.  It was wonderful to have the chance to catch up, and to watch our girls play together.  Spending time with friends makes me happy

4. Boy Scouts.  On Saturday my husband took our boys to their boy scouts food collection drive.  I loved that not only were they all doing something good for the community, but that they were all doing it together.  With my husband spending so much time out of town lately, they haven’t had as much one on one time as they would like, and the food collection drive gave them an opportunity to do so.  They all came back with smiling faces, and my daughter and I got to have a little girl time while they were away.  Boy time for my husband, and our boys makes me happy.  Especially when it involves doing good deeds for others

5. Mother-Son bowling.  This weekend I had the opportunity to take my boys to a Mother-Son bowling outing through their school.  We had so much fun!  We bowled, we danced, we acted silly, we ate pizza, we drank pop, we cheered each other on, we won prizes, we hung out with friends, and we even earned some free games of bowling!  Having fun with my boys makes me happy

What made you happy this week?

I hope that your weekend has been filled with sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love!

My dear husband,

I am so glad to have you are back in Michigan this week.  I am glad to have your hand to hold, and your arms around me at night.

You should have heard the screaming blissful excitement coming from the backseat of our car when we pulled up, and you were there.  “Daddy!  Daddy!  Mommy, Daddy’s home!”  Those words were like music to my soul.  To hear the pure joy in our children’s voice as they raced out of the car, and up to the house to see you still rings in my ears today. 

Watching you walk back outside with smiling children to greet me with a hug warmed my heart.  Seeing you less stressed, and more willing to embrace the small blessings that life has to offer fills all of us with a sense of peace, and happiness.

Having someone to help put the kids to bed at night, or carry baskets of laundry upstairs makes my life a little easier, and for that I appreciate you. 

So, while we certainly miss you when you’re gone, I guess that one of the benefits of you going out of town is that it truly gives us a chance to miss you, and it gives you a chance to miss us.  Being away from us also gives you a renewed desire to be the best husband and father that you can be, and for that, I thank you. 

We are blessed.

I hope that everyone’s week as been filled with as much sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love as ours has!

Every year we go to Bronners http://www.bronners.com/ with my husband’s family, to pick out a Christmas ornament from the worlds largest Christmas store, but up until I photographed this lovely couple I had never gone all the way into town.  And now that I’ve been, I have to say, Frankenmuth is super cute!  Driving through that day made me wish that I had more time to check it all out. 

Oh, and you want to know what else I’ve never done in Frankenmuth?  Eaten their chicken, http://www.zehnders.com/new-site/restaurant/index.htm which I have heard time and time again is amazing. 

Hmm…  I think that one day I am going to venture to Frankenmuth to walk around for the day, and to eat some of their famous chicken

I hope that your day is filled with sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love!

It’s hard to believe that I haven’t blogged for an entire week! 

Between editing, a super fun weekend visiting Avalanche Bay- the waterpark at Boyne http://www.avalanchebay.com/index.html , birthday celebrations, sick kids, visits with friends, laundry, dishes, errands, dance classes, 3 kids, everyday life, and my husband finally coming home from Wyoming…   I feel like I have hardly even had time to shower or put on make-up this past week.  To be quite honest this one person hasn’t been able to completely stay on top of everything, and my house appears to have been hit by a small tornado.  Make that 3 small tornados…  

Luckily I got to look at these beautiful faces while spending hours and hours at my computer!

I hope that you have had a wonderful week full of sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love!

Last weekend I photographed a double 1st birthday party for some adorable cousins, and I have to say that these have got to be the most fabulous 1st birthday cakes that I have ever seen!  Heck, I’ve seen wedding cakes that could only dream of being so fabulous!

Oh, and their 1st birthday clothes were fabulous too

My oldest son thought that it was pretty neat that the little boy got to wear such a bright colorful outfit

I hope that your week continues to be filled with sunshine, lollipops, and happiness, and love!

Still wondering what to be for Halloween tomorrow?  You could always just paint your face!  The guy in this video has some serious talent

What is a vampire’s favorite fruit?

A neck-tarine!

I hope that everyone’s Halloween is filled with sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love

Last year for Christmas I wanted a point and shoot camera.  Being a photographer I of course wanted one that had some manual functions, but I most certainly had my heart set on a point and shoot! 

Some of you know exactly where I’m coming from, and other’s are thinking, “Why in the world would you want a little point and shoot with all of that expensive, amazing equipment in your camera bag?!”

So I’ll tell you why the point and shoot found its way into my camera bag, and a place in my heart.

1. It fits right into my purse, or pocket, which means that it’s always around when I need it.

2. I don’t have to take a big bag, or lug a heavy camera around on my aching shoulder on days where I may, or may not even use it.

3. Point and shoots don’t have the head collision rate that large cameras have when hanging from your shoulder, and holding hands with your little ones

4. It takes videos, which makes it a two for one deal, for when you want more than just a photo.

5. It’s easier for my kids to use, and yes I let them use it.

6. I never have to switch lenses.

If you don’t own a point and shoot, I bet you want one now, don’t you?

Sticking with the point and shoot theme, here are two of the most recent  photos that I have taken with it.  My lovely flower fairy on her way to her Halloween party at school.

What did the mother ghost say to her kids in the car?

Fasten your sheet belts!

When we buckle in, I say, “Apples peaches pumpkin pie, if you’re buckled holler I!”  to which my buckled in boys reply, “I!” But my buckled in little lady always replies, “Holler I!”  I giggle under my breath, and then we head out

I hope that your day has been filled with sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love!

In the brief time between school, getting ready for the following day of school, dinner, and hip hop class the kids and I made a Halloween project.

We got out a big roll of craft paper, measured it to our window, and then cut 2 pieces off of the roll.

Then we drew 2 eyes on one paper, and a mouth on the other.  Well, once we decided exactly what shape they were going to be.  That of course took a few minutes

After the shapes were drawn, we cut them out, and taped the paper to our front window.

My kids thought the project was fun, and neat, but they didn’t really get the whole picture until we got home from hip hop, and they got to see our house from the outside.  In the dark.  And then they realized that it was awesome

Here are your jokes for yesterday, and today;

1. What can’t you give the headless horseman?

2. Why does Dracula wear patent leather shoes?

(Photo taken with my point and shoot.)

1. A headache!

2. Sandals don’t look good with his tuxedo!

I hope that your day was filled with sunshine, lollipops, happiness, and love