One More...

Because it just makes me laugh! Happy Friday!

Sneak Peak for Mandy's Family...

Last week I had the chance to meet up with my friend Mandy and her family to do a photoshoot. I was so excited when she agreed to take some photos at her home. Mandy has a great sense of style (do you hear the envy in my voice?) and her home reflects her style. It is just so comfortable and cute and quaint and colorful. I love it, and I love that we got to take some photos that feature her home in the background. To me, home is such an important part of family life. We walk through those doors to our loved ones every day. We sit on the porch and blow bubbles. Our kids chase lightening bugs through the yard and ride their bikes up the driveway. I hope that these photos are extra special to this family, because they were taken at their (super stylish!) home.













Mandy - I'm still editing but hope to be finished by the end of the week. I'll call you to make arrangements to drop off the CD. Of course, I plan to hold the CD hostage until you tell me the color of the yellow in your foyer and the store where I can buy those beautiful white flower prints in your living room. Sound like a fair deal?!?

Just One...for Mandy!

Here's just one quick sneak peak for Mandy...

Because I didn't want all her "blog checking" to be in vain...
Because I thought it would make her sweet girls smile...
Because I love this picture...
Because who wouldn't want to hang out with a goofy family like this?

There are more "Sneak Peaks" to come, as there are a million great pictures of this family! I'll get on the ball, Mandy, and get your real, live "Sneak Peak" up in a day or two!

Through the eyes of a child...

My assignment this week for KinderGardens was to hand the camera to my girls and tell them to take pictures of their favorite parts of our "farmstead." I took a few days to figure out how to handle this one, as I wasn't thrilled with the idea of handing my new Nikon D90 to a five-year-old. But in the end, I strapped the camera around her neck, made her promise to be extra, super dooper careful (I'm sure you can picture my stearnest, threatening look as I handed over the camera), and told her to go to it. Kate was thrilled, snapping pictures of her very favorite things (which is pretty much everything in our teenie, tiny garden). But as she snapped the pictures (and I kept my hand just inches from the D90), we had a chance to talk about what she liked most about each plant.

She loves the colorful strawberries (which are being eaten by the resident "mama bird" before I can pick them).

She is thrilled with the delicate yellow flowers on the melon plants.

She thinks that the carrot tops are "awesome and fluffy."

She loves the broccoli and wonders why it has holes all through it (bugs? birds? bunnies?).

She is excited that we finally have some small, green tomatos!

And she wanted the world to know that our sunflowers are making a comeback (thanks to my vigilant bird chasing).


This was a fun "assignment." I loved seeing the garden through Kate's eyes, and I was super impressed with her photography skills. She even turned the camera vertical to take a few pictures! Half of the adult population forgets that their camera can be turned!

Ellie also snapped a few pictures, but they were blurry (mostly because I kept grabbing the camera from her in an effort to protect it from becoming one with the garden)!

Mostly, we're just anxiously awaiting the arrival of some real, live veggies! Oh...and Steve wanted me to show you his masterpiece.

While none of it is from our garden, we are dreaming of the day when our kabobs feature our home-grown delicacies!

Don't forget to check out this week's KinderGarden post for super cute ideas and garden tours!

Everyday Miracles...

Just over six years ago I wrote this in my journal:

June 11, 2005 (8 a.m.) The day of third IVF egg retrieval.

Last June, I was undergoing my third IUI. At the time, I found a large, broken blue robin's egg in our backyard. I knew it was a bad sign...I just knew at the time that that cycle didn't work.

This year, a robin tried to build a nest on the wreath on our front door. We moved the nest several times and still, that robin kept coming back, trying again to build that nest. When we went to Mexico, she must have been relieved. She had an entire week to build her nest without interuption. It was complete and the day after we returned there was one perfect egg in there. The next day there were two and several days later, three eggs. Now...there are four.

These perfect eggs seem like good omens to me. I love seeing that robin sit on her eggs just as I am preparing mine. That's what mothers-to-be do, I guess...sit on their eggs, waiting, waiting. I'm anxious to see those baby birds. I pray for them and for me. I hope that with the hatching of those birds so, too, comes the good news of a baby for Steve and I.

It is spring.
Anything is possible.


Exactly six years ago today (around the same time that those baby birds were hatching) I found out that I was pregnant. After three years of infertility, three miscarriages, three unsuccessful rounds of IUI, and three rounds of IVF, my tiny miracle was just beginning.

Every year when I see the robins building a nest and I get my first peak at those perfect blue eggs, I am reminded, once again, that miracles happen every day. If you're still waiting...don't give up hope. Your miracle could be just around the corner.

2011...

Let the Year of the Boat begin!

To read more about our maiden voyage, please see a full recap by my bravest friend Sheila. Can I just tell you that Sheila called me a few months ago (long before we had a boat), to tell me that she was in a sporting goods store and the life jackets were buy one get one free, so she was buying four. The girl was pressuring me (or she was in some kind of conspiracy with Steve, trying to ensure that 2011 really did become the Year of the Boat). Looks like she got her way (and she has a super cute pink life jacket that I am going to steal borrow the next time we're on the boat together).

So here's to the Year of the Boat...may it bring wonderful memories to our family (and may it continue to stay afloat)!

The Farmer in the 'Hood...

For the past two weeks, I've been ogling the gardens of others. Like this one. Oh...and this one. I am trying hard not to be jealous of these beautiful and sprawling gardens (because bigger gardens = more weeds, right???). At least that's what I tell myself as I'm trying to slay the "green-eyed monster."

I have been hesistant to show you my whole garden, because I've wondered: Does a really, tiny plot of raised beds count as a garden?

The answer, of course, is YES! To us, spending time in our teenie, tiny garden has felt heavenly. I love to see what's growing, what has flowers on it, what will someday (hopefully) become a delicious part of some salsa or spaghetti sauce or zucchini bread or salad or strawberry pie. You see where my heart is people? It's all about the food!

I suspect that a lot of familes don't garden because they think that they don't have enough space. That's where I come in...the "Farmer in the 'Hood," here to prove that yes, you can have a garden smack dab in the middle of suburbia. As evidence, I present to you Exhibit A: The Farmstead, An Aerial View

Kind of smallish, right? But guess what? We stuffed it with nine tomato plants, seven pepper plants, three strawberry plants, three sweet potato plants, two zuchinni plants, a honeydew plant, a cantalope plant (my husband's idea...they're already getting so big that they'll be flowing out of the bed and into the middle of the yard by next week), beans (we planted 50 bean seeds. Fifty! And they all came up. I had to wipe away a tear as we said farewell and tore out more than half of them this week), carrots, onions, parsely, oregano, basil, and broccoli. All of that, stuffed into that teenie, tiny garden.

We live on a 1/3 acre lot. We have a homeowners association. We have neighbors who probably shake their heads and laugh at the crazy family that measures their tomato plants every night. That's okay, though. Because we're "Farmers in the 'Hood" (stay tuned for a facebook fan page, coming soon). Ha!

In real gardening news, we had to stake up the tomatos again. You all were laughing at me last week, weren't you? We seriously thought those 18" stakes would last all summer, but one week later, we have moved on to the big green monster stakes. Tell me that my tomato plants will not get any bigger than these stakes? If they do, I may not be able to see out my window in a few weeks!

Mostly, I am having a hard time keeping my girls involved in the garden. We watered, and we measured things, and we picked a few strawberries, and we thinned the beans. I think that the excitement of creating the garden and watching the seeds pop up is over and the excitement of picking the veggies hasn't arrived. We're kind of stuck in-between, and I could use some suggestions on how to keep my girls interested (books? craft projects? science experiments?). All ideas are welcome!

But we did have a few garden fairies visit this week, and that was fun. You just never know what will happen when you're farmin' in the 'hood!

Hop on over to The Inadvertent Farmer's KinderGarden post this week (and feel free to ogle the amazing gardens)!

Sneak Peak for Alison and Denise...

This week I had the opportunity to revisit some friends from my past and I had such a great time. I used to babysit Alison, who is now the mom to twin boys. I'm pretty sure that in my mind, she will always be five (and I will always be 17...even when I'm 80, I'll still "see" myself as a 17-year-old girl). Funny, how we never age in our minds, huh? In any case, Alison is all grown up now, married to a soldier who will be deploying in a few weeks, and the mother to two-year-old twin boys. She's gorgeous. Her family is gorgeous. She's definitely not five (and my creaky knees and gray hairs are reminding me that I'm no longer 17, either). Funny how time flies!

When I arrived to take the pictures, this is what I found...
Two sleepy boys, piled on top of their grandma. Don't you love that? I'm not sure that those sleepy boys were in love with the idea of being woken up to have their picture taken. We tried to bribe them with bubbles and cars and trains and finally, we broke out the rainbow lollipops. We played a game of "freeze" and I just tried to get my lens to focus as they zoomed by my camera. Photographing kids can be such a challenge, but I just love it. These sweet little guys have the biggest brown eyes and (on the rare occasion that I saw it), smiles that just light up their whole faces! They are just too cute. Seriously...check out the cuteness....












This last picture could possibly be one of my favorite "real life" family portraits ever. It just makes me smile every time I see it. It looks like the little guy in the blue shirt is doing that "cookoo" sign with his hand (remember that from grade school?). Love it!

Before I took these photos, I just hoped that I could capture some moments that this family would cherish over the next year as they are separated by a deployment. Please pray for Alison and her husband, Ben, in the coming weeks, as I can only imagine how difficult it must be for them to say good-bye for a year.

Alison and Denise...I'm hoping to finish the photos this weekend. I'll let you know as soon as the CD is ready! Thanks, again, for trusting me to take your photos. I hope you love them!

I hope you dance...

Magical

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.
~Elizabeth Lawrence

More to come from this photoshoot. It was truly magical!