photos

Last night I had the privilege of photographing some of our friends' two darling children: a one-year old little boy and a three-year-old girlie. It just might have been the most fun photoshoot I've ever done. The parents were relaxed, and the evening's activities included paying with pets, swinging and sliding, finger painting, peach eating, flying up into the air, and being wild ponies. All the fun made for happy children, which in turn made for good photos. I had a very hard time narrowing it down, but the following shots are some of my favorites:

anniversary

four years before today

i married my very best friend

four years of everydays has a way

of turning fireworks to glowing hearth-fire

comfortable, familiar, but certainly not stale

here's to many more priceless

hearth-fire days

(with some fireworks days thrown in for good measure)

Happy Anniversary, my Love!

Brother's birthday party

Last weekend was a weekend of parties. On Saturday we had my parents' twenty-fifth anniversary party, and on Sunday we celebrated Brother's birthday. I had hoped to be able to host it at our house and show off my newly-remodeled kitchen, but our kitchen is not finished. Instead, we celebrated in the pavilion of a park right down the street from us. The weather was beautiful: clear and sunny and warm (not hot) with barely noticeable wind.

For Brother's birthday party, I chose a simple train train motif that I freehanded and primary colors for the theme. His cake was a spice cake decorated with sugarpaste frosting and accents. (The cakes are important to talk about; I spent all day Friday working on the cakes for the two parties.) ; )

See those two dots pressed firmly into the middle of the cake? I had just finished decorating the cake and had my back turned for two seconds while cleaning up when Little Man made them and quick-as-a-wink stuck them on the cake. He was so proud of his addition to his brother's cake that I didn't have the heart to remove them.
Little Man's dots ended up being a happy-accident perfect place for the candle.

Little Man also helped make train decorated treat bags our the young guests. I was pretty proud of them. Inside each bag was a few pieces of candy, two homemade bean bags, a tiny tub of play-doh, a bouncy ball, and a sheet of stickers.

Brother was very excited about his brightly colored cake. He actually was more fascinated by the frosting than by the flame on the candle. He had a little help from Daddy blowing it out.
My boys don't seem to hesitate in the least when it comes to cake. Brother dug right in and quickly devoured his treat.
When it came time to open presents, Brother enjoyed being the center of attention so that he could make eye contact with and smile at all the guests. We finally got him a little bit interested in opening his gifts.
All the friends were eager to help.
Happy Birthday, Brother. We've had a fabulous first year with you and look forward more.

25 years

On the tenth of this month my parents (pictured above) celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Twenty-five years of marriage is something special, so I decided to organize a celebratory open house on the 14th in their honor.

I was thankful that we were able to use the kitchen and large, open area of the church my dad pastors for the party. It was a simple, though lovely event.

I made my first two-tiered cake for the party. It was a chocolate cake with sugarpaste frosting and ganache glaze ornamented with rose petals and chocolate hearts.

We used real silverware, glass plates and cups, and cloth napkins and table cloths.

The decorations were simply elegant red roses in white bud vases on each table.

I am so thankful for my parents and am glad I was able to honor them and their extra-special anniversary.

Yesterday Brother turned one. We had a lovely little party in a park just down the road from us, and I will write about it soon enough. Today, though, what I wanted to share is a photo-journey through Brother's first year. Each month I took photos of Brother on (or near) his month-birthday. What follows is one of the best photos from each month.

just a few days old

one month

two months

three months

four months

five months

six months

seven months

eight months

nine months

ten months

eleven months

first birthday

moments and milestones

As we drove in the car one day, Brother was vocalizing. Little Man explained to us: "[Brother] is singing." Then after a pensive moment he added, "It's beu-ful." (beautiful)

I overheard Little Man instructing: "Sit still, [Brother] I am going to jump over you!" It's a good thing I was able to intervene because while Little Man's jumping skills are growing by leaps and bounds (quite literally in this case) these days, I don't think he is capable of jumping over his brother yet.

I was tucking Little Man in when he asked: "Will you snuggle with me? It might be special."

Brother has been saying "na-na-na" for banana and "Ka-kah" for cracker, waving and saying "bye," and calling Little Man "bwo-ver" (brother).

Brother seems to think the most exciting part of the day is when "Da!" walks through the door after work.

Brother has been trying to throw balls just like Little Man.

They both had hair cuts this week. It was Brother's first haircut ever.

Our kitchen is in upheaval, as you may imagine, with the kitchen remodel we've been doing. One of my temporary storage solutions is putting our most frequently used foods in a laundry basket. One day I came into the kitchen after being in the other room for just a couple of minutes and found Brother very happily raiding the raisins. When he realized I was looking at (and taking pictures of) him he looked slightly startled promptly tried to put the lid back on with a "who, me?" look.

to the heavens

Your steadfast love, O LORD,

extends to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds.

Your righteousness

is like the mountains of God;

your judgments are like the great deep;

man and beast you save, O LORD.

Psalm 36:4-6

Kitchen Work

Benjamin has been working hard to transform my kitchen into a place of convenience and beauty. As I type he is braving the horrible insulation in the ceiling, doing the prep work for installing the new recessed lighting. I'm more than a little proud of his beautiful and careful work. These photos are a little old, but I still wanted to show off the process!

seamless sheetrock repairs and new texture

Little Man is so eager to help.

Among other things, Benjamin let him help with some sanding.

priming

preparing to take out the sink

"This is a wrench thing!"

thrilling demolition

checking out the new wall and trim colors

Since these photos, Benjamin has done a lot of work moving outlets, removed the hideous old light fixtures, and done more painstaking repair on the ceiling. He has also painted our walls a fresh, pale yellow and all the trim and ceiling a crisp white. And of course, right now he's working on installing the new lights. I'm beyond eager to see it all finished, and you know I'll be showing it off here too!