~USA bound & the *sweetest thing*

This crew has made it to Alaska:
They are waiting for:
This curly haired super star & her mom (thats me)! We fly out tomorrow morning at 6:30 am (which means we have to be at the airport at 4:30- ugh ugh ugh!) Anyway, I will be MIA until I get back, I think! So have a great beginning of summer everyone!

Meet Ahava Raine & her mommy & daddy:

This sweet girl is less than 1 week old in these photos & I am so in love with her! She is such an amazing blessing to her parents who can't have babies of their own and were chosen by Ahava's tummy mommy & by God to be her mommy & daddy.

More than that I was choosen to take her very first prof. photos and I was in Heaven! I could take pics of babies 24/7! I love it!

Sweet Ahava is definatly from God! And she is loved by many! Welcome to the world Ahava and welcome to your wonderful family! Congrats C & T!!!!

~countdown to holidays

Holidays are right around the corner for me and I simply can hardly wait! It's going to be so much fun! In the mean time, I'm 2 kids down, yep thats right, count em, only 3 kids at home right now, and it seems so QUIET! I mean if I only had 3 kids and not 5 I'd be laughin! But nevertheless I love my full house, and am finding myself a little lost with out all the chaos! (don't get any ideas, I still love my down time, if having 3 kids is what you call down time!So

So, I have, if you haven't notcied, been keeping myself busy taking pics! I love this so much! I love the artistic part of taking the shots and of editing them! Like I said before, photoshop is a huge program and I am only beginning, BUT I LOVE THIS!

I was blessed again to take pictures of the K family! 3 boys who were perfectly behaved! I couldn't believe it! I think we got some awesome shots! I must say these boys are so lucky to have such fabulous parents. T & M are awesome and I think are some of the best kinds of parents out there!

I love to take all photo's but tomorrow morning is my first chance to get ahold of a newborn baby and I can't wait! I have a few props ready! So look for cute little girl pics coming soon!

~passion

pas-sion [pash - uh n]

-noun
1.
any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
2.
strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

- my new love, photography. I think I'm good at it, but I also think I have a long way to go before it becomes more than just a hobby of mine! I also need a few classes on photoshop, but boy o boy is it ever fun to play with! That said, meet 1 of the fabulous 2 families that I got to photograph today- The M's- aren't they beautiful?

This family is inspiring to me, simply talking to mom I knew that there have been a few trials lately in life, but their faith in God is so strong, and it gives me goosebumps to know whatever happens they never fall away from our Father in heaven, WOW!

And their kiddos, are simply adorable! S, who is going into kindergarden, happily educated me for the hour that he had my attention, and because of him I know so much more than I ever knew! And J was such a polite lil man, "um excuse me" came out of his mouth more than once today. What a gentleman, watch out mom and dad, he's gonna have the ladies like you would not believe! And then there is sweet lil A, she's my new friend! It simply warmed my heart that she wanted to hold my hand as we walked along the path! As we were wrapping up our session A hopped into my car and tried to buckle herself up because she was going to come home with me! Oh with a face like this I would have taken her home! She's A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!!

~I love this girl (and her crew)!

So, a while back I joined a ladies group (which I absolutely love!!!) and I met Dino, who right from the beginning I thought was 'DA BOMB DIGGITY." She noticed on facebook (add me peoples Alexa Sandru-Appell) that I was meddling in photography and asked me to do some family pics for her! I of course JUMPED at the chance and was more than honored to hook up with her family for a fun little jaunt. Anyway, I must say that she is the coolest mom, she let's her kids say 'poopie head' in order to get them to laugh! She is COOLLLLL and I'm sure we all wish she could be our mom! Anyway, here is a little sneak peek of the little bit of editing that I've been working on today! Check it out!
Her boys are so stinkin cute and I must say they are 'da bomb' too!!! And they can sat 'poopie head!'

~the 2 C'S

CRAFTING & CLOTHING!!!

It's been an absolute crazy few days and I thought I'd give a little peek as to what I've been up to for a bit!

Crafting.... I love to scrapbook, in fact that and photography (well my family too) is my passion in life! So needing to come up with a cute end of the year thank you teacher project I did this:

Paint cans that I scrapbooked and personalized and then filled with consumable summer goodies (I think teachers get enough teacher doo dads that if they're consumable it's better)! I filled them with sun screen, aloe vera gel, candy, gum, mints, nail polish- you know summer stuff! I made 2 for Connor's teachers, 2 for Jameson's teachers and 5 for Alyssa's teachers (ya my 3rd grader already has 5 teachers, WoW!!!). I now have 2 to go, one for the bus driver & 1 for Mason's teacher! Almost there!

CLOTHING!

I love a good deal on clothing, but I'm also a total lover of good quality and brand names... Thus the Pekkle brand from Costco- LOVE it! Each one of these sleepers cost me $8.50 and they are so stinking cute. I mean who's little girl would be too good to wear something so cheap? (and cute and made of GOOD quality!)




This one is my favorite! The owl in pink on the blue sleeper- she's gonna be stylin in this thing!

Karley has been wearing these sleepers since she was born and I would rate them right up there with Carters as far as quality and cuteness! I love em, so go get ya some! And price wise... WoW- the walmart brank for a sleeper is almost $12 for each one, so for $8.50- i'd say we're getting a steal!

On a personal note (wait this is my blog it's all personal and I can write whatever I want!) anyway, I have 3 photoshoots in the next week and I am so excited, so look for it, the cute sneak peeks that I will have!

And of course I end with a picture I took of the most beautiful blue eyed little princess, who I might add is the most spoiled lil thang you've ever met!!!

~Jon & Kate

Today I actually shed some tears watching Jon & Kate. How sad it was to actually come to the point in thwir marriage/life. I know it's been extreamly hard on this family raising mutiples, and some people I'm sure thought this was destined to happen, but still it's SAD!

Lots of people say it has so much to do with how Kate 'wore the pants in the family' but I disagree with this statement totally. Kate has done her absolute best in keeping her family together as one and also been in a high stress situation. I can't imagine having 8 young children. I have 5 yound children at home and sometimes feel like I'm the kate of the Jason and Alexa.

Anyway, my best wishes to this beautiful family in all they are in the future!

~weird stuff

Sometimes it's fun to be weird! Last night was one of those nights! Jason was pestering me beyond what you would believe, proceeded to follow me into the master bath and pester some more, I in return FIRED away with the shave cream.... This is what the result was:

IT WAS FUN!!! Now don't get me wrong I would NEVER allow my children to behave like this, but it was okay for me to act juvenile in order to get a point across to Jason...

But I must admit that I got exactly what was coming to me when I fired the shave cream at him- he retaliated by our muscling me & bulling me so that he had a turn with the shave cream. This was his result:

And after running around the house like children getting each other with the shave cream this is what we got:

And please notice that we're still smiling! Ha!

REALLY WEIRD STORY:

Here is OLD OLD Rusty our Dog:

Notice anything 'special' about him in this picture? Ummm, yes that is a remote control, and yes he has it in his mouth like it was a dog bone. That's because he thinks it is a dog bone! You see, I went for groceries today and thought I'd pick up a couple of treats for the dogs. Ruby (my Marley) really enjoyed the bones, in fact at one point she stole Rusty's! I let the dogs figure it out on their own. I went on about my chores (you know the ones that have to be done after a trip to the grocery store?) and as soon as I turned back to look at them there was rusty with the TV remote in his mouth! He thought it was a bone! In fact he kept it in there while Jason & I were laughing at him. It only came out when Jason grabbed it out of his mouth! Oh it was funny!

Ya, I think he is senile! He is losing it!!!!!

~an absolute honor

Please meet Mr. & Mrs. Schultz...

Don't they look fabulous? And do they look like they're having a good time? Well, I must tell you that I was honored to be asked to be Pam's maid of Honor and the day was so awesome! It was such a please to share in this beautiful memory with the newly weds!
Here is Brooke & I. Brooke is the other Bridesmaid. Can you believe that she is over 8 months pregnant? She was SUCH a trooper! I had so much fun sharing the day with her.
And.... to top of me sharing in this beautiful day, my beautiful Alyssa was a candle lighter & so handsome Connor was a ring bearer.

Does he look spiffy or what? He did awesome during the wedding. The only trip up we had with him is that he spotted one of his old buddies in the crowd during the ceremony and decided to play peek-a-boo with him while Pam & Curtis were saying their vows! Really it was no big deal, because he was quiet. In face, I should have had a camera in my hand cause I would have loved to have a picture of that!

Alyssa felt like an absolute princess. She was perfect at her job! Daddy took her to get her hair done in the morning and it looked wonderful. Alyssa, I could tell, was absolutely honored & felt privileged to be a part of Pam's big day! Thank you so much Pam for including her in your special day! It meant the world to her & to I!!

I had TONS of fun, can you tell? I danced until I couldn't dance anymore. I even got to share in a couple of romantic dances with my love... It was awesome!

The funnest part for me was dragging the kids on the dance floor (and then them dragging me) to kick up our heels & let lose! It was totally a blast!

I of course enjoyed dancing with my own princess & sharing in some special moments with her!

umm, ya by about 2:00am he WAS POOPED! He was passed right out on one of the benches in the hall... so adorable!

And finally by about 2:30am sleeping beauty fell peacefully asleep. I love this shot!

~Dear Pam, Thank you so much for including me in your special day. I don't think you realize what a privilege it was to share in the beginning of the rest of your lives together! I loved sharing the whole wedding planning process with you. It was so much fun shopping for dresses, designing invitations, making favors, and spending time with you planning your special day. I do not take being your maid of honor lightly, I take it as that I'm going to be in your lives forever! I'm going to help see you through the good times, the bad times, and the in between times. My prayer for Curtis and you is that on your wedding day it's the day you loved each other the least. That your love and your mutual respect of one and other continues to change & become stronger! That as we grow old as friends we can share in the many memories we are bound to make! Thank you so much for letting me share in this small moment in your lives! I'm completely blessed to have been there! Love, Alexa