Thursday, July 29, 2010

Summer Rain

Sometimes living in Arizona in the summer can be trying. When it barely dips below 100 in the middle of the night and is back up to 105 by 10 am and 110+ by 4pm with a rare cloud sighting, it can feel stifiling and uncomfortable and unbearable. But then, the winds come which bring in the clouds, and create skies like this....
(oh how I love skies like this!!)



and then I can see the rain in the distance and as it comes closer and closer it creates skies like this...

and the temperature drops into the low 90's or maybe if we're really lucky the mid - high 80's
and the girls can run like crazy animals in the back yard like this without collapsing of heat exhaustion....




and I can watch them and laugh with them and find joy in their joy and look up into the setting sun and see how it creates skies like this,


and like this...

and then, I feel so much more alive and free... like I can handle a little more of this Arizona summer. Thank you Heavenly Father for the rain. I. LOVE. IT!!!!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Snowflake

This past week we had the chance to take a quick trip to Snowflake. We stayed at Tiff's in-laws home and visited with her and also visited with Katie, Christian's sister. The weather there was so nice and refreshing and the girls loved playing outside. Julia LOVED the trampoline.




Julia loves to pretend to be sleeping. Almost everytime I get her out of her carseat, she is pretending to be asleep. She likes to surprise me by saying wake up and then she laughs. It's really cute. Her and Becca started playing a sleeping game on the tramp.
Tiff took Eliana and Dean for a ride around the yard on the 4 wheeler. Of course they didn't go by themselves though; Tiff just got off for the picture.


We are into our monsoon season here which I love. It's been cloudy this week and we've even gotten a tiny bit of rain. The other morning it was cool enough to play in the sand and the girls got the hose out. It was a big mess but at least they had fun.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

More Looks....

This first picture is from the other day when I was playing with my self timer, ignore the quality of it, I just love the expression. I didn't tell her to pose this way or look at me in any certain way, but this is what she came up with. Guess she has been practicing in the mirror. lol


I was testing my light and needed a test subject. Eliana was not very happy about it. I just want to remember this look because even though she's mad, she's still cute.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

All Ready for Church

It just so happens that I created a little "studio" in our loft this past week. We couldn't figure out a way to affordably cool the one car garage that has become my studio so now it's in the house. It's okay because then at least maybe I will use it more for my own girls. This morning we were ready for church a little early... wow, can't really believe that, but we were, so I grabbed a couple of quick shots of the girls before we left. They never look the same after church, well, even after 20 minutes for that matter!!




Bedtime

Bedtime: Sometimes it's my favorite time of the day, other times, it's one of the worst times of the day. But lately it's been great. The girls are both in a good rhythm and go to bed fairly easily and then I have me time.... hooray for that!!
This is Julia with her blankie. She isn't as attached to it as she use to be but she still LOVES it. Gotta love her bruised forehead, such is the life of a toddler.

Eliana didn't have a particular blankie when she was little but loves this blanket now.

Our Summer Vacation

In June we headed to So Cal for a wedding and a vacation. I shot a close friend's wedding
(you can click on wedding to view). Then we headed to the Welk Resort in Escondido for a couple of days. It was lots of fun and nice and cool. A great break from scorching hot AZ. We were thinking of heading home or extending at the Welk when Christian and Ben chatted. Ben offered us their home as they were out of town. It was fabulous. They live in San Clemente just minutes from the beach. So we spent a lot of time there and at the pool too. It was so fun and relaxing. Just what we needed.


Christian got to play golf while at the Welk.




We were also there when they had a farmer's market and the girls got to have pony rides.




The beach, our favorite place.







My handsome man got to do some boogie boarding.




The girls just love the beach.








At Ben and Sheri's Pool. Our girls both LOVE to swim :)



Spring and Summer Happenings

On July 2nd we celebrated Christian's birthday. I made a very decadent, three layer, chocolate peanut butter cake. His very favorite combination. I think I had as much or more fun creating it as he had eating it.






Just some random shots from the front porch sometime in the early summer.




In May LaCee and her two adorable boys came to visit. Eliana and Braden were buddies when we lived in Utah. She used to call him prince Braden. They had fun playing and I had lots of fun reconnecting with LaCee!


The girls love to go on "Adventures" in the dirt field behind our house. One evening when we were out I spotted this beautiful little flower amongst the dried, cracked desert earth.





One of our adventures included the Newman kids. The kids went on a ladybug hunt and captured like 30 of them. They had so much fun.



I can ride my bike all by myself!!

At the end of May, Eliana learned to ride her bike with no training wheels after 5 days of trying.

May Portraits and Mother's Day

It has become a Mother's day tradition for us to do some portraits of the girls and I together. Christian can take the credit for the shots that I am in :). The end of this post also includes some shots I got on another day. I just love these palo verde trees.