The Neighbor Kids.

I had so much fun last Saturday when I was able to take pictures of our neighbor's three kids. They are such beautiful children. I took some bubles with me to help them be more at ease with the idea of someone taking a lot of pictures of them and it worked like a charm for the girls. The son was a little tougher, but upon promises of a tractor ride and a visit from the neighbors' dog he became a lot more excited. They were so much fun to shoot and I can't wait to get an opportunity to take some more pictures of them.

Ashley & Dan's Wedding in Virginia

On August 8th Ashley and Dan were married at the Historic Kinloch in Supply, Virginia. What an honor it was to be able to photograph my cousin as she wed such a wonderful man. It was wonderful to watch the two of them over the few days that I got to spend with them. Their relationship is truly wonderful. I look forward to sharing all the photos with you. Here are a couple of my favorites.

"WOOOSAAAAAH!"

That is what I have to continue to repeat to myself as I lay in bed with my oldest daughter and try to get her to focus on reading. She loves books. She loves being read to. The problem comes in when she has to read. She knows how to do it but her personality just doesn't help her in this situation. Her mind wanders, her eyes wander, her feet twitch and there I am trying to get her to focus and pay attention long enough to read the first word. Did I say first? Yes, first word.

Last night she picked out a perfect book. It was a Level 1 Fancy Nancy book. I paged through it quickly to make sure that she wouldn't have too much trouble reading through it. After a quick glance I knew she would have no problem. We climbed up into her bed, tucked ourselves all in and I opened the pages, reading the author and illustrator to her. Then . . . the first page.

I tell her, "Ok, sweat pea. Your turn." She grabs a strand of her hair and looks at the page. I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Finally she says, "That word is too hard. Can you read it?"
I reply, "No! You can read this. I will give you a hint though. It is a silent e word. What happens to the vowels in a silent e word?"
She quickly tells me, "Oh, so I just say their name, right?" I quickly affirm her thought and tell her to give it a try.

Now, the word she is trying to say is Before. She says the sound for B and then waits. She says the sound for e and then waits. She says the sound for f and then waits. She says the sound for o and then waits. Finally she says the sound for r and then waits. And waits. Playing with her hair. Then she exclaims that she is just too hot and needs to get out from under the covers. So I get her out from under the covers, nicely ask her to take her hair out of her mouth and tell me what the word is. "I can't remember" she exclaims.

By this time I am starting to get a little frustrated. It has been over 10 minutes and all we have read is the title, author, illustrator and the letters B-e-f-o-r-e and one of those letters is silent. I tell her to try sounding it out again only to say the sounds a little closer together this time.

Her fingers go into her mouth and she is looking at the ceiling. Examining what, I am unsure of. I ask her to focus and read the word. "But mom, I don't know how to read." Oh my gracious I am going to explode. I exclaim to her that she does she is just choosing not to at this moment and she needs to pull herself together and read. Again we go through sounding out each letter.

Now if you haven't done so already I want you to sound out the word Before slowly making sure to say the vowel names in their place. This is what was happening. Then I would ask, "OK, now what word is that?" She would exclaim with an exhausted expression, "I don't know mom. I can't read." What, but she had just said it. Can't she hear the word? But then I got clever to her and realized it wasn't that she couldn't figure it out. . . oh no, it was that she didn't want to. She wanted to lay there and have me read to her.

After almost 25 minutes working on the word Before I decided that she was way to tired to continue and told her we were done for the evening and could read another night. I think really that was an excuse I used so that I could get out of the room before I totally exploded. My patience level was about at the end of a frayed rope.

I wonder if there is a way to skip past the "learning to read" and get right to the "able to read?" I am sure this will be some sort of great bonding experience for my girls and I, right?

Gonzales Ramseyer Wedding.

Wow! What an amazing last few days. I was given the fabulous opportunity to photograph the wedding weekend of my amazing and wonderful cousin Ashley and her fiance Daniel. They are an amazing couple. Up until this weekend I hadn't had the opportunity to meet Daniel yet, and now that I have I know just what a perfect couple the two of them are.

They were a blast to photograph and I can't wait to get the pictures up for you all to see.

Happy Birthday Olyvia Renae!

Turning 6 has to be pretty amazing. What a great age to be. There is playing, food, cake, friends family and presents. However, after the blessed event we have decided not to combine Olyvia's birthday party with our summer bar-b-que again because she tends to get a big head. Her comment to us the morning of July 11th was, "when are all my people going to be here." The task of teaching humility and graciousness is upon us.

She was extra excited though and it was such a delight to watch her in her excitement each time a new friend arrived. She would go running up to them and attack them with the biggest hug ever and then lead them to show them everything there was to show them.

Robb did a great job at being host and I tried to remain focused to make sure everything went off without a hitch and that I took pictures to capture the day. A task in itself with kids running every direction and adults everywhere. It was great fun however and everyone seemed to have a nice time. Weather was wonderful right up until the thunder clapped and the rain poured around 7pm. By then, however, most of the party had dispersed.

The Cakes

My wonderful husband stayed up late with me helping me to make the cakes. He made all the frosting and then was my assistant in getting them decorated.

Fourth of July Fun!

Another year has past and 4th of July is here again. The weather was amazing as we found ourselves spending the entire day on Friday out on the boat on Lake Cushman. Saturday we decided to hang out at Lake Kokanee so the girls could more easily get in and out of the water. We all had a blast.

Looking up the lake at sunset from the boat.

Ellie making a silly face at the camera while out on the lake in the boat.

Leilah Grace caught for a quick picture while she was sitting on the back of the boat watching all the stuff going on. She was being so observant.

Leilah and Ellie went with Robb in the tube behind the boat for a slow pull. It was so cute to watch them. When Leilah was done Olyvia got into the tube and the girls went with dad on a fast ride. It was so great watching them. They were soooo excited right up until the tube flipped over and into the lake they went. I was a little freaked out until I saw all heads bob above the water line. When they got in the boat they were wide eyed, but soon recovered and thought it was cool that they had had their first "wipe out." Ellie was quick to let us know that she didn't want to do that again for a little while.

Olyvia trying out her new birthday present, a brand new bike with no training wheels.

Our little fisher. She was very serious about trying to catch something, even though she didn't have a hook or bait on her line. :)

Shower Police.

Have you ever been in the shower and gone to turn off the water only you missed getting it completely shut off? All of a sudden ice cold water is shooting out at you from the shower head and you are simultaeously trying to jump out of the shower while also reaching through the ice cold water to get it shut off all the way. For some reason this happens to me a lot. I am unsure why. Maybe the shower police don't realize that I don't want my shower to give me the same reaction as if I jumped into a lake filled by glacial meltoff.