I love how Lucy's head just barely peeks out of the tall grasses.

I wonder what they're looking at.

Or maybe they're whispering to each other.

Or maybe big sister is helping out little sister.

Perhaps it's all of the above.

but to me it's magical.

Sharing a few glimpses...

364 days of sunshine. gorgeous sunsets. beach parties { by the pool } kids in brightly colored swimwear all sticky with sugar dripping down their chin in every color of the rainbow. Saguaro cacti. geckos on the walls. the smell of the desert after the rain! (it's amazing)

I LOVE YOU DESERT HOME.

except when you turn my car into an oven, and then i have to get in it and bake to death. But even then I still mostly love you :)


Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Sunday, February 7th
3:26pm


{ find beauty in the puddles of mud }

I don't know if I've ever shared this one thing that always sits in my mind as I photograph and look at other's photographs. It's one of the very reasons I adore photos so much.

it's a glimpse.

A split second is all it is, and yet all you need.

Have you ever really thought about it? it's a moment in time. Somewhere on earth someone captured something you weren't there to see for yourself. (or perhaps you were there and its now a fond memory)

Thanks to someone I get to see this one moment in my mothers life. I get to see just how she looked that one day. I get to see the old fashioned car she sat on. I get to see her pretty little dress. I get to see how she looks like shes singing as she folds her paper. I can see the light shining off the front fender.


and here, I get to see her little family all dressed up for church. I can see How the wind is blowing Grandma's hair all crazy. I can see those funny little ties the boys wore and how lovely my mom and her sister looked in those adorable hats! And that they wore hats at all! And I can see how there's one son missing from the picture, and I think I can see a bit of sadness in Grandma's face because of it. And boy didn't grandpa ever look snappy in a suit!

What a gift! True treasures these glimpses are!



here is a glimpse of a tree that probably means nothing to you and that you may never see except for this one little glimpse I have shared with you!

Never stop photoing. You never know who will be treasuring them 100 years down the road!

attempt #1...

Fell in love with this { Flowers by Zoe } dress.


Patiently waited for it to go on sale...

Waited even longer to get a chance to photograph Lu in it...

usually such a good little model for me, I died as she made strange face after strange face.

What is up with that?! It's just not the same if Lu doesn't look like Lu : )

Perhaps it was the icy winds.


but she did manage to squeak out a few faces I adore.

oh what am I saying. She doesn't have a face I DON'T adore!

I guess I should say, rather... here's a few I think YOU will adore.

( by few I of course mean exactly 2 )

Put on your comfy jeans... this is a longie but a goodie

Ahhhh... it's good to be back.

Feel like I haven't blogged in ages. Crossing my fingers big time that life will settle down promptly after Valentine's day!

... not because it's my birthday the next day (even though it really is) but because I NEED IT!

yesterday for example I got a package in the mail. I knew immediately what it was, beautiful fabrics I had ordered last week. Not till 1 Am did I get an opportunity to gaze adoringly at it in real life, and even then I was cut short by the hour... i have to sleep sometime!

You should see it though... it's darling. It's Anna Maria Horner's little folks dobby. I got the blue and the pink! Oh and i got some of this for the window!

now to find time...


Ah yes... here we are in Oceanside (as promised)

I told my dad to get the very cheapest place he could find, and this is what he found! A gorgeous beach house with amazing views! Something tells me he didn't look much farther. But you aren't gonna hear me complaining!


The man that made all this possible, my dad!


We didn't bring swimsuits with us. Even though you're headed to the beach, when the calendar say's January it just doesn't cross your mind! .... well my mind anyways. My kids were dying to soak in the icy salt water! who woulda thunk??


So we headed to targét (if you put that little swoopy thing over it you can say it more frenchi like :)

It's fun, give it a try.


anyhoo... we picked up some essentials... like bubbles and buckets


and swimwear of course! I couldn't believe Kassidy and Natalie agreed to get the same swimsuit! (so not like them!) but they were so dang cute walking around together slightly resembling the doublemint twins :) haha



I can't help but giggle as I look at this one. First you have to note the funny look on Dad's face, then picture the moment happening in slo-mo...

wwwwhhhhhaaaaaaaaa?

Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee gggrrrrrrrooooooooooooossssseeeeeee!

haha, did you like my slo-mo writing skills?

yeah, that was dad stepping in a big doogie poo. But on the bright side everyone else looks jolly eh?


Completely off subject: I am seriously downing this batch of amazing chocolate chip cookies! I added a link incase you wanted a taste of the evilness I call goodness.


Maybe you have, but then again maybe you haven't heard that yesterday I lost 8 gigs of photos. It's very mysterious...

an 8 gig SD card claims it hasn't been formatted? Wha? My computer can't read it... my camera can't either! I took it pretty hard but it wasn't till today that I realized how much I had actually lost :( It was the originals of this very trip to oceanside CA. Roughly 700 RAW files... gone.

I wasn't done editing them and I for sure hadn't backed them up yet. I always feel like they're so safe on the SD cards. Yah well I won't make that mistake again.

* Thanking lucky stars it wasn't photos of someone else's kids! *

And yet still sad to lose my own.


That's right... hug it out. Everything will be ok.







Kassidy left her shoes at the bonfire the night before... amazingly we recovered one in the morning. But not 2.


BTW the shakes at Ruby's Diner are really good!


Dad took us down to the end of the pier for a bite to eat.


They have this bird there they claim is famous Charlie is his name... this isn't him.



On the way back Lucy humored me but letting me take mucho photo of her :)


thankful


everyday


for


her


spUnKY


personality...

well except for yesterday when she drove me crazy in IKEA, a store that drives me nuts even if there were no kids to factor in. That place seriously makes me insane. The arrows! Windy maze of trails! Heaven forbid you try to find a short cut to get out of that place! No doubt after getting further lost you will go to plan B, which is finding the nearest arrows and faithfully following them till you can see the light of day, which is where you run (because you didn't get anything anyway) run like a crazy mad woman toward the door tripping over everything and not caring a bit.

is it just me?


Lucy's sand castle.


On our way home we stopped over at Uncle Stan and Aunt Lillie's home. There was much bliss to find there like Lillie's homemade muffins...



the kids had zero problems spotting the candy jars :)


Savannah especially loved them. What joy for a child to find candy freely within reach!


I call this one " The Stare Off" haha...I love it.


So Dad if you're reading this at all.... I love you, thank you so much for enabling the joys of that weekend! Mom thinks your co-dependent, but I think you're right... you're an enabler. She thinks I am co-dependent too, so maybe someday I can grow up to be an enabler like you. Whats wrong with that?

Incase yall's didn't know I have the best family ever.

sure, you can puke now if you like :)

How much do you love to pass through windmill territory whe you go the LA way to California? They're pretty dang awesome! Tried my best to capture their massiveness/vastness for all to see.

I almost want to apologize for such a long post. naa.

SNOW: throw. lick. frolic.

This is so confusing I know.

Beach... snow... Beach again.

Yep you heard me. Oceanside beach coming next { I promise ❤ }


I keep thinking life will settle down. So far it just keeps coming at me faster than I can keep up! Saturday we went to the NAU game to watch Natalie dance in the halftime show. Love to watch her dance. Don't tell the NAU cheerleaders, but they were just one upped by 5 year olds!!! haha. I know Natalie is 9 but there are 5 years old on her team too and wow these girls are really something to watch!

oh yeah and we figured we'd frolic in the snow whilst there.


one of my favorite images of the day! Natalie's time in the snow was extremely limited due to her rehearsal schedule so I was thankful to get this one picture of her I just adore :) ...love you Natty!!


We don't see snow around here all that often but I'm pretty sure we know what to do with it when we do!


pack it. aim it. chuck it.


Chad seems especially pleased with himself. The poor kids really had no chance.


"Doh"


aww now thats not nice Chad!

Note: snowball about to slide down into Lucy's shirt...


Way to go Lu... I think the pouty lip worked. Check out the size of the snowball he make for lucy to get him back with! NICE, eh?


Mostly we know about sand angles but every now and again we sneak in a snow angel.


My kids think you're supposed to eat the snow. Lucy ate the most. She tried all the flavors. the white, the brown, the...

haha you thought i was going to say yellow! No, but she did eat some of the dirty stuff :)

I think they must have learned that from Chad because when we got home he found a bottle of cotton candy shave ice flavoring and thought it a splendid idea to bring it along next time.


can someone please teach my family how to build a snowman? If your wondering what the little wad of snow is on the first one...

it's an ear.

haha! We're awesome!


we came


we froze


we photo'd


I call that sucess :)



{ this photo is from a week ago when Chad convinced me I wasn't hitting my snowboarding quota }

he was right... I could really use some practice!