Meal Time

Meal time is always an adventure at our home!:)

And yes, Eli has his plate on his head in the last picture (it happened to be paper this day, but this is a pretty regular occurrence no matter what kind of plate it is)!

Most of the time he is a pretty good eater, but he often makes it quite entertaining and harrowing at the same time!

Little Loves

Little Loves...

Where once there was two now there are three...

I'm pregnant...

And our newest little love is due on Valentines Day (so very appropriate)!

Baby Animals

I'm a sucker for baby animals!

So a while back when we heard that there were some sweet newborn cows at the University farm we decided to head over again and spend some time with the babies (we took Joe this time too). Once again the kids loved them, but it's me that could have stayed for an hour just petting the sweet baby cows. I'm already dreaming about finding a bunch of sweet baby bunnies to photograph the kids with next spring... or maybe a litter of puppies, or chicks, or really any other baby animal. Do you know of any that my children could visit, pet, and love on (and I could photograph)? Let me know if you do...otherwise we might just have to head back to the cow farm again!:)

Staff Team!

One of the very best parts of our job is that we get to work with wonderful people that are among some of our closest friends. There have been a number of times in the last few years when ministry has just been flat our hard on campus, but somehow working with these people (our staff team and our friends) makes even the hard times seem a little more bearable! Our staff team has seen a lot of changes over the years (in fact I think we've had a different staff team- adding or losing somebody or multiple people- every year that we have been with Campus Crusade at U-Maine). That's pretty normal really, but I am quite thankful that we aren't loosing anybody for the upcoming year and we are, in fact, adding a couple (at some point during the year hopefully)!! In the meantime, these are pictures from our end of the year staff fun time. We spend the afternoon hiking in Acadia National Park and it was baby Jackson's first hike! As you can see Joe was trying to get a staff team picture (the last one) for me, but our children weren't exactly in the mood for more pictures (you win some and you loose some). But we had a great time just being together- as we usually do- and I am very much looking forward to our team all being back together in August! And you can pray that God would quickly bring in the rest of the financial support for our newest team members, Kristin & Kaleb, and that they would be able to join us as soon as possible!

Birthday Girls

Lily LOVES birthday parties!!

She loves going to real birthday parties and she loves throwing birthday parties for her "friends" (aka her stuffed animals) on just about a daily basis!:)

She has been able to help a few of her real girl friends celebrate their birthdays lately and she couldn't be happier! And yes, that is her friend Addie's dad dressed up as Prince Charming in the first few pictures (now that's a committed dad)!:)

Rock Your Camera: Final Week!

Yesterday I turned in this picture- my final assignment for my photography class!!!

Finishing the class is a little bittersweet. I LOVED the class and learned even more than I was expecting. I loved getting and giving feedback on a regular basis and I loved being a part of a photography community that was all women (and mostly moms)! I loved and appreciated the challenges of my weekly assignments because it really pushed me and I think that's really the only way I am going to learn and get better! But, I have to say, all of this took work- and now that it's over I am looking forward to having a bit more of a break for a bit! I am already dreaming of taking my next class with this group, but since this one was a gift (thank you, thank you, thank you to my Mom and Dad) I may have to wait until Christmas or my next birthday!! But, I think I have enough practicing to do until then...

And if you are wondering... we took the kids camping this week (Eli's first camping trip) in Acadia National Park. There will be more pictures to come, but I just adore this one I took for my class. This was right before going home- the kids are on top of Cadillac Mountain overlooking the Atlantic and some of the beautiful islands. Who can resist a little brother/sister love is such an incredible setting?!:)

Mother's Day: Part Two

After we left the gardens near Acadia National Park we stopped off at this little beach that we saw while driving. The kids loved running up and down the beach and getting their little toes wet and sandy! Afterwards we did a little hike and then headed into town for ice cream! And we topped it off with a stop to this cute this wooden shop in town. For Eli's birthday I bought him a bunch of beautiful unfinished toy wood blocks from there. So for this Mother's Day we started a new tradition at this little shop- each of us picked out one new wooden block (they have them in lots of different shapes and sizes) and we went back home to paint them. Now every time I see these blocks in our basket I will remember this lovely Mother's Day. And we're going to continue this tradition during other family outing to Bar Harbor and pretty soon we'll have a basket full of sweet family memories!

Weddings!!!

I'm finished editing the pictures from John & Tessa's wedding and I have plenty more to share, but I'll wait until they get to see them all first!

But here is another peek. Isn't Tessa amazingly beautiful? And, if you are wondering, the wind was just naturally blowing her veil like that! And the second picture is one of my very favorites of the whole wedding- it's John right as he is seeing Tessa come down the aisle for the first time and it makes me tear up nearly every time I see it. I was so thrilled that I caught this moment as I feel like it really captures his awe and love for his bride. Ahhhh...love.

And...I'm thrilled to share that I just booked two more weddings (both of them for August)!!! I am so excited (and still a wee bit nervous) to be trusted with such an important part of these special days!

Mother Day 2011: Part One

This year for Mother's Day Joe (and the kids) took me back to Bar Harbor. We had brunch at Two Cats (one of my very favorite restaurants) and went back to the same gardens we went to last year for Mother's Day. Actually, Joe has decided that this will be a tradition and that every Mother's Day we will go back here and he will take pictures of the kids and I in the same place! Isn't that the sweetest idea? He knows me so well.

So here are the kids and I this year- 2011

And once again we enjoyed these beautiful gardens just outside of Acadia National Park!

A beautiful day spent in a beautiful place with my beautiful little family- I'm one very blessed mama!