making teacher "thank yous"

Linden and I made these adorable and yummy little treats for her swim instructor and some summer school teachers today- look how easy!
Tiny twists, hershey kisses and m&m's. Se oven to 275 for 2 minutes and wha-laa! Adorable little giftys!

let's see what's baking.....

(click to see larger)

the last joy ride

click to see image larger

aunt heidi and uncle john donated their trampoline to "The burning man" festival.
the trampoline has been there as long as i can remember. before i had kids, i loved loved loved trampolines, but now, everytime i get on them, i just wanna pee all over myself. so, uncle john told us that there was a crew coming to take the tramp away on sunday, so lu and i took one last bounce. it was a good thing that they donated it, cuz we peed all over it!

( just kidding)
sorta.

road trip to LA with LU

Linden and I took a "girls trip" to LA to see some of my family in Pasadena. We had a great weekend filled with awesome shopping, great food and fun times with the family. Including my ever growing cousins that are somehow in college and seeing them makes me feel old. how did that happen?? I remember when Sally and Thomson were toddlers and now, here I am with mine! We went to Descano Gardens near them and drove thru some awesome neighborhoods....wanna hear a secret?

((I kinda want to move to so cal))

Sally had a fundraiser to support an Afghanistan water polo team...yes, that's right there are pools in Afghanistan- 11 of them! She had a "teach you how to line dance" party at their local YMCA. It was so much fun and Linden was dancing around in her boots- it was too adorable. I hope Linden knows how important it is to "give back" and support someone when you can.

(videos to come)

the water sales were off the charts!

sally is the ultimate cowgirl!

Thomson looking like he's in the Wild Wild West

Dan posing like a real cowboy

look who's almost 5!

hotel beds = lots of sleep

on the train at Descano Gardens- I think Sally liked it more than Lu

my aunt and uncle are awesome- thanks for a great trip

Awesome weather

our newly painted pergola!

thatch in lu's shoes

can you see the feather in Lu's hair- shes a rock star!

we are so lucky to have such great weather here- it's zero humidity...my defrizzy hair is so thankful. after that hot muggy week in the midwest we are living it up outside. our lives are so fun! what do you do for fun??

Thatcher turned 2

Whoot to the hoo, Thatcher turned two!

Every Mom has her own way of mothering and + raising her own kids and I am constantly saying, "to each their own". And it's true, I think you should do what makes you happy. I know that for me, taking photos makes me happy. It gives me that warm fuzzy that people long for. In this day and age, our world is so instant and everything happens so fast. Instant messaging, facetime, texting.... I have to remind myself to SLOW DOWN and smell the roses. Somehow two years have passed right by us and pretty soon Thatch will be taking Brett's car and having a curfew....seriously! What? Where has my baby gone?
Moms always tell me they can't wait for there to be no more diapers in their house, and that sounds nice, don't get me wrong. But that means no more babies ( insert giant sob ). I wasn't to soak it all in and be so thankfull to my little kids.
On our way home from Chicago when our flight was cancelled and we were desperatly trying to get back home, the American airlines representitive looked at me and said, "Bless your bones!" I looked right at her and almost burst into tears. I thought, "I got this" -no need for a blessed flight home!

SO, I am going to do what makes me happy- take memorable photos and slow down to enjoy right now.

I would show you pictures......

...but I wont.

Chicago was amazing, and we had a great time in Lake Geneva with The Hamilton's. The wedding was beautiful and we had time with some friends and a 2 year old birthday party for Thatcher.

I would show you some amazing photos, but I won't.

Some "bad person" ( that's what I told Linden), ((or should I say GIANT ASSHOLE??)) stole my camera and all our photos from vacation. Gone. Just like that- someone broke into The Papedis's garage and stole everything. I don't even care about the actual camera and all my fancy lenses....I just want my memory cards allready! To think that someone just deleted all of them, makes me run to the bathroom and throw up. Makes me sick! ( Enter reason #1246 not to move back to Chicago)

On Sunday we went and met Tracy Petersen to shoot us and they are the only photos we have- of the entire trip. They are great pics- and I love them!!! Thank you Tracy!!!! They are GREAT shots, even though it was 100 degrees and sweat was dripping down my butt crack like a waterfall ( reason#1247) and Thatch was pissed. Who knew??? But Tracy rocked it!

i need to go here.