Happy Thanksgiving!!

First...I'll ask Alissa.. "What are you thankful for?" Alissa said, "Cats. Pegasus unicorns. Unicorns hehe. And YOU. And my ABC's. And school, and home. And everything else. I love you. Thank you."

ok..same question for Jonathan.. "I'm thankful for my dinosaurs and thankful for my spidermans. I'm thankful for my badguys and my ships and all the other toys. And I love you and Alissa and I love dad, too."

There you have it. As for me? I'm thankful for my amazing, creative children.. my loving and supportive husband, our home and our ability to be together every day. I am thankful for photography and God's gifts to me so that I might make it a lucrative thing for our family. I am thankful for new friends and all the joy they have brought to my life.

This has been an interesting year for extended family. Some relationships have been strengthened which is a blessing. There have been disappointments with others exhibiting lack of character and morals who we sadly had to stop associating with to protect our children. Funny how life works and where roads take us.

Overall, this Thanksgiving brings so much joy. We are surrounded by people we love and who love us in return. Family, friends, neighbors.. What a year!

Looking forward to family pictures with an amazing photographer friend on November 28th. Will post them here! =)

Happy Turkey Day.

Happy Halloween!!

Has it really been almost a year? Wow. How about some quick updates:

Alissa has lost 4 teeth total..

We call this her jack-o-lantern smile. She is also doing amazing in first grade - reading chapter books and by far light years ahead of her class. She is creative in ways that amaze me every day. She is a 6 year old writer, poet, artist, singer, creator or robots, bug hunter extraordinaire. A child who's head is in the clouds imagining worlds and figuring out what adventure to go on next - and I LOVE IT. Alissa created her own halloween costume - a ballerina with wings.

Jonathan is an energetic, eager to learn 4 year old. He is full of spunk and has a tender heart. He likes things just so.. is very independent. He is very opinionated. Jonathan always makes me smile with his randomness.. driving home from grandma Adam's silly pumpkin party last night Jonathan out of the blue says quietly and with so much sincerity, "Your beautiful momma". My sweet charmer. He still likes pink, and I love that about him. He has a dinosaur and a ninja costume for halloween because he simply liked them both. His passion right now is for dinosaurs, not those cartoon silly ones.. but the real scary looking ones. He still sneaks into bed with us every night.. and I wouldn't miss those cuddles for anything.. too soon he will decide he is too big for all that cuddle stuff.

Matt is amazing.. he is such an awesome dad taking the kids on their pumpkin patch field trips, making pumpkin pie with Ali, BEING there.. making special memories with the kids. He is a husband any wife would be proud to brag about, slaying dragons to provide for his family. We has recently whipped himself into shape and looks amazing, he is soon trying for the SWAT team.. which he will excel at like everything else. I am very proud of him.

Myself - I am a photographer. Really.. wow. I somehow slipped from a picture taking person to a true photographer. I have clients, I make money. I have fun! Who would have thought? On Wednesday a picture will be entered into a gallery to be juried and possibly displayed for sale. I am excited!! I did Jonathan's school pictures this year for his whole school.. what a rewarding adventure.

I have so much more to write.. but for now I need to go make a scary breakfast for the kids.

Happy Halloween.

Today...

Today I woke up to a little man snuggled close by my side...

Today I watched my daughter walk sleepily from her room to mine.. crawl into bed.. I asked her if Santa came and I watched her face light up and her dash from the room.

Today I heard a squeal of joy and heard little feet running back to my room and heard a little voice say "He came! He came!"

Today I climbed out of bed and told my sweet children they could pick one present to open from Santa.

Today I feel sad because I don't have my incredible husband here to see the look on their faces.. to share the magic.. to see the way Ali's eyes danced when she saw the crumbs left on her note from Santa and the empty wrapper from the Oreo cookie sticks Santa ate.

Today I watch Jon to climb onto his too-big bike from Santa and struggle to reach the peddles.. and I smile.

Today I watch Alissa open her bug making oven and giggle with laughter.. and I grin.. for my daughter is so unique and wonderful.

Today we load into the car to give the gift of music to the nursing home where great-grandpa died.. and to teach the children the real meaning of Christmas.

Today we drive to Burger King and order a cheeseburger for Ali with no pickle and no mustard and a hamburger for Jon no pickle and frozen cokes all around.

Today I gaze at our Christmas tree that sits in our too small house where the couch normally is.. because there was no where else to put it.

Today I thank God for our too-small house that is overflowing with love.

Today we look forward to Daddy getting off work so we can have dinner at Grandma Davis house and open presents together as a family tonight.

Today my heart swells with love for my children and family.

Today is Christmas.

The Adventures of.... CATAWACK!

Once upon a time, a long long time ago.. There was a little girl named Alissa. Alissa loved all things creepy and vowed to some day be a bug scientist. Alissa was a dreamer... always thinking up new ways to play and new adventures to embark on. But Alissa wasn't content to just be Alissa.. you see, in her mind she was capable of so much more. So on that day long long ago (about a month ago, but who's counting) Alissa had an "AH-HA!" moment when she created her very own superhero identity... that's right.. that's the day that CATAWACK was born. Catawack runs as fast as lightning, and she can jump over big rivers (this is a quote from Alissa standing beside me).

STORY CONTINUED IN QUOTES FROM ALISSA WHO HAS DECIDED TO DICTATE:

"There's 101 and one cats (for the record there was 72 forever, guess this is growing). And she can break metal. And she's strong enough to break some wood. She's as fast as lighting and faster than lighting. She's fatser than anybody else. If anybody is in a race she'll always win.

ME: Tell me a story about Catawack and one of her adventures.

ALISSA: "Ok, but it's a long story. Ok. Catawack and her 72 cats were walking along and a skeleton bad guy saw them and he chased after them and a cat was biting on his buns. And then Catawack jumped over the lake and her 72 cats did and that skeleton stopped because he was trying to get the cat off his buns and he got a poky vine and he tried to whack the cat but the cat jumped off and he whacked himself on the buns with the pokey vine. And then the cat jumped over the lake with Catawack. And then there was just 1 bad guy that was bigger than them and the cats all jumped over the lake and the bad guy jumped over the lake and then ran out of oil. Mhm. Ready for the next story - It's Catawack on a safari and a great big monster and also all the cats bit his buns and then a cat was..some cats were nibbling on his feet and he said "AHHHHHH" and then he got a great great great big pokey pokey vine and he tried to whack the cats and he whacked his buns and then the cats on his feet jumped off of his feet and he whacked his feet. And then everything was saved.

The end."

"Ok Catawack was walking and her 72 cats. And also there was this GREAT big bad guy and some cats were in his hair and he didn't notice and so one bit him and he whacked his head with a pokey vine and pokey himself 101 times. And then everything was saved again. And then another bad guy showed up and then Catawack's cats bit him all over himself and he wacked himself with a lot of vines and then everything was saved."

TRASH MAN

Every week Jonathan listens intently for his favorite person - the TRASH MAN! If you ask Jonathan when the trash man comes he will quickly respond, "The trash man comes on Friiiiiday's." In fact if you ask him when Grandma Davis' trash man comes he responds, "Gramma Davis' trash man comes on Tursday's". Jonathan recently turned 3 years old and wanted a "Trash man and Digger Party"... and that is exactly what he got. So today, I brought out the camera to capture his weekly meeting with the Trash man and got a gem. Jonathan likes to show his trash man his newest trash trucks, and this week was no exception. This week the trash man stopped and told Jonathan that when he started working for the trash company 13 years ago the truck Jonathan was holding was the exact one he drove! In the end he thanked me for letting Jonathan say hi to him every week...said it made his day. I can't explain exactly why that was so touching to me.. but here I see one of the simple beauties of life - a three year old little boy who eagerly awaits seeing "his" trash man round the corner so he can smile and wave... and a grown man, a trash man, who eagerly awaits rounding that same corner to smile and wave at "his" special three year old boy. Just magical.

Leaf bugs and spiders..

I vowed to revive this thing. Shame on me. I shall revive it yet. See the problem is Facebook is evil. I find myself putting pics up on their and neglecting this poor blog.

So updates -

Matt first.. he is doing great. Excelling at the jail. There is much talk of promotion in his immediate future. This is good and bad. The bad is that he is FINALLY on day shift and a promotion would mean rotating shift about every 3 months I think. So graveyard AGAIN. Sigh. We will see where that goes.

Myself.. lovin life! Really getting into photography. Did my first maternity photo shoot end of June and it was a BLAST! Ended up making a leather bound book for the family. Going to go on a photo excursion August 14th for 3 days and two nights in Bend. The kiddos get to stay with Matt's mom. They are thrilled to say the least. Three days spoiled rotten? Sweeeeeeet. :)

Alissa.. big as ever! Alissa finally found her appetite. The girl can EAT! Making up for the last 5 years of self starvation I suppose. Yesterday Alissa got new pets.. leaf bugs. Four to be exact. They are the coolest things ever. Get to be up to 6 inches long and they sort of have personality..for a bug anyway. She is one happy kid with new creepy crawlies.. and I am a happy mommy because they are very low maintenance. Alissa is eager to start kindergarten at Rosedale Elementary (YAYAYAYA) September 9th... and I'm of course caught somewhere between excited and terrified. Alissa can read simple words and phrases.. knows all her letters and numbers to 100... she tends to learn things better if I don't push the issue so I try and let her ask the questions instead of forcing things on her. She is the most creative and imaginative kid I have ever met. Amazing.

Jonathan.. Mr. Bigshot as GG calls him. Jonathan is talking better than most 4 year olds. Very clear speech and an unreal vocabulary. He is still signing often and loves that too. He will be three years old Monday (IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?) and Sunday we are going to have a "Digger and Trashman" birthday party. Jonathan loves pink. Anything pink. I have to write this down or some day he may not believe me hehe. In toddler time class he fought with a little girl for the pink shakers. The boy is seriously obsessed with pink. It's cute. He knows his ABC's and know some letter sounds already. He can count to 20 and ride a tricycle. Last month Jonathan got his own room all to himself. We moved the computer out to the living room and got rid of the guest bed and VWALLA.. a bedroom. Soon to be transformed into a digger room.

Zena.. Getting very old. Seven years old and with her chronic allergies she is slowing down fast. Still a happy wonderful amazing dog.

Triton.. 16 months old and 160 pounds of snoring, farting, drooling, otherwise just foul and disgusting dog. And a big dork to top it off. Still trying to figure out why I like him so much. :)

Kisses.. Still scared of the dogs.. still sweet and adorable.

Sea Monkeys... still there. Still alive. Not sure how. Survived since Christmas so far.

Leaf bugs.. Just too cool. I'll take pics soon.

Giant spider.. can't forget Alissa's pet spider. It is my job to feed him every night. Joy.

Think that covers the whole family.

Until next time.

Boca..or Bokeh..or..Blog!!

I just realized something funny... I HAVE A BLOG!! haha.. ok seriously.. Facebook is evil. Thats the only place I put pics and updates.. until now!! :) I vow to re-discover my poor abused blog.

Starting with a story --

Ok, I lied.. some background first.. So I recently discovered a love of photography. I mean, I can't get enough of it!! I am learning all I can and having a blast. Recently my obsession has been to get BOCA! Or bokeh... not sure how that is spelled but seen it both ways. Boca is just a blurred background. Ok.. now on the the story..

So yesterday the kids and I were playing outside and I was armed with my camera and some new knowledge from my mom. I started snapping away. Now keep in mind I never once (on this day) mentioned I was looking for boca.. just taking pics of the kids is all. Well, I was sitting there flipping through my pics I had taken and found my money shot - I proceeded to exclaim "YES!!!!!" and then Jonathan looks at me.. grins real big.. and says proudly "Momma got some BOCA!!" .. I looked at him.. mouth agape.. and said.. "Yes, Jonny..momma got some boca!!" And he gave me a high five. Talk about a kid who pays attention!!! Sheesh.. I SWEAR the word boca did not leave my lips yesterday.. it was hilarious.

After that Jonathan watched me take photos and every time I got a good one and exclaimed happily he insisted on screaming "BOCA" and giving me a high five. It was fun.

Then put the camera away, made some lunch.. and we ate a picnic lunch on a blanket in the front yard. Fun times.

In other news, we have decided to wait to sell our house and are refinancing instead. We went in yesterday to sign papers. I am super nervous about the economy and the direction it is going so getting all of our ducks in a row now.

I'm sure I have a million more things to write about..hmmm.. oh yes Alissa got into Rosedale Elementary - the best (and smallest) school in town! I am so very excited for her.

Ok I'm off, I will try to remember that I have a blog now.. really.