My Heart Melts Edition:

Shenzie had been waiting and waiting for her tutu shoot. We finally made it happen, and oh my heavens, I’m in love! We had such a fun time and the photos are just beautiful. Exactly what I had in my mind when we went out.

This is quite possibly my most favorite photo I’ve ever taken. I’m not sure why I love it so much, but it melts my heart to pieces. Normally Shenzie is such an energetic, fun, loud, silly, smiley character. I think I love it so much because it captured such a different, soft side of her. I’m planning on ordering a 20×24 canvas of this for her room. Stay tuned for the rest of our fun tutu shoot.

And as a side note if you’re wondering why you never see photos of Heaten Bear…well, lets just say he doesn’t like the camera….like, at all. But don’t worry, I have a super fun choo choo session planned for him. His very favorite thing in the world are trains, if those don’t get cooperation, then I don’t know what will!

Since this is my first summer in Bend I’m not quiet sure if all of the beauty blooming in our yard are flowers or weeds. I suspect a combination of both, and let me just say, the weeds here are beautiful!!! You don’t need a green thumb to grow beauty here, thats for sure. I have done nothing to the yard and it is blooming up new beauty every time I look (I swear one of these days I need to tackle the weeds and garden, but for now I love the wild growth).

Here are a few of our flower/weeds:

I was SO happy to discover we have tons of lillies growing out front. They are one of my favs.

When we moved here the Willow Tree looked barren and sad. I LOVE it now and will probably miss this the most when the leaves fall off and it turns sad again.

And a few other shots of the beauty of Bend (I was practicing with the rented Canon 16-35 f2.8 and as you can see, star sun). =)

The River at Sawyer Park

Ginormous trees at Shevlin Park

The River and fly fishers at Clyde McKay River Park

And some random (and awesome) clock I ran across while driving around aimlessly one night

Shenzie is turning into a little performer. The older that she gets the more intricate her moves become. Quite frequently I hear from her “Watch me Mama”, or “Look at me!!!”. She loves attention and loves to perform. Soon we are going to get her into “ballerina school”. As you can imagine she is beyond excited!!

The other day I was outside taking pictures of bees (go here to see these crazy little creatures). I had on my 100mm Macro Lens and wasn’t prepared for a show, but that is exactly what I got! She asked me to take her picture and immediately started posing. I was dying laughing over her “moves”.

Then she got even more into it and started with the leg kicks. Ha, that is until she fell over!!!

*Just ignore the crappy quality of photos. I’m not sure what settings I was on since I was shooting bees, but I was too lazy to fix them in PS.

I am certain my future holds many recitals of dance and music from Shenzie and I cannot wait!!!

Oh How I Love Those Eyes Edition:

::LOVE:: They melt me every time.

Oh how I am loving 3.9 year old Shenzie and Heaten. Jeff and I are constantly cracking up at the things they do and say. Like yesterday when Heaten was swinging on the monkey bars, just doing his own thing, and fell off. He landed on the ground and instantly, without thought said “God Dammit”. I about peed my pants laughing. Now I know he shouldn’t be cussing, but it is SO hilarious when it comes out of his mouth so matter of fact. Lately he has been on a God Dammit kick and I can’t help but laugh every time. And for the record, that one is totally Jeff’s doing. Today he called Shenzie a Dodo Ass. Ummmmm, maybe that one was me. =) A few other noteworthy phrases from Heaten “Oh my Dod”, “I lub it”, and every time we get in the car I hear “drive over the choochoo tracks?”.

They still have a love/fight relationship. It seems like mornings are full of fighting. The fighting has escalated to full blown battles complete with hair pulling, walloping each other with their little fists, and scratching. They constantly antagonize one another and the screaming and yelling is enough to make me want to poke my eardrums out. On the flip side of this when they play together nicely they are BFF’s. Shenzie will constantly ask Heaten “You my friend Eetnee, yeah?”. Most times he says yes, but after hearing it over and over and OVER 100x he gets fed up and yells at her, “NO, Leave me alone Nennee”. I love it. Most evenings we spend outside reading while they play on the play structure and in the sandbox. It is so awesome to see them make up games together and play.

I can’t even describe how fast they are learning and how much more they are understanding over these past few months. It is like suddenly they woke up and realized there was this entire world that they want to learn about. The questions are non stop. But why? How come? Why? Where we do-in (where are we going)? Hahahah, my Mom is just laughing over this one I’m sure.

One of the funniest things is Heaten yelling at random people. The other day when Jeff took them for a nature walk to feed the squirrels a man was on their same path. Heaten yelled at him “Get out of my way DUDE!” At the library today he was yelling to people that they are “just rude”. At least he is hearing me when I tell him certain behaviors or words are rude. =)

So yeah, life is indeed wonderful and I’m enjoying almost every minute with the twinzies and Daddy Bear.

So yeah, Las Vegas. My home for the last 23 or so years. Funnily enough (hahah, sisters you like that huh, it IS a word) it doesn’t feel like home anymore. When we moved I planned on flying back to Vegas every couple of months to work. I had my first trip last weekend and let me just say, I won’t be going back as often as planned.

I wasn’t all that excited to go to begin with. Leaving the twinzies and Jeff and leaving our beautiful weather for the 108+ temperatures of Vegas wasn’t all that appealing. On the plus side I got to see my sisters, brothers, Mom and Dad, and a few of my nieces which was really awesome.

So the flight to Vegas pretty much sucked and I almost barfed, which would have been a first for me. The plane descended so fast it left me dizzy and nauseous. The plus side was I met a really nice lady from Bend on her way to visit her grandchildren in Vegas.

I stepped out of the airport and was assaulted a dose of the heat, tons of smoke, and the stink of Vegas. I’ll be honest, living in Vegas I rarely noticed the stink, but after a few months of yummy air I am spoiled for life. This trip reinforced that I will NEVER live in Vegas again. So it was really, really hot. And how quickly I forgot just how hot 110+ feels. It feels like shit! I had 6 sessions booked, all outside, so for the majority of my trip I had sweat dripping down my back. Gross, I know.

I rented a car (more drama there) and hit the freeway. Ahahahah. I almost got hit right off the bat. Apparently going 35-45 miles an hour for the last few months took away my city driving edge. The road rage (which has been absent since we moved) came back with a vengeance and life was not good. When we first moved to Bend it took me awhile to get used to the slow driving (as in it drove me crazy), but now I love it. My sister Stacey was having anxiety over my going the speed limit (nobody goes the speed limit in Vegas, whereas most people follow it in Bend).

Friday night after my engagement session I met one of my oldest and best friends Denise along with my sisters for a yummy dinner. My sister Ang had just got back from Disneyland and made a surprise appearance which made me so happy. Thank you girls for a wonderful night!!! We sat up talking till way past my bedtime, but it was totally worth it. Saturday brought more sessions and more heat. Luckily I was able to escape the heat for a few hours in my sisters pool.

Saturday I made a pit stop to 7-11 and had to drag all of my equipment in with me since I’m too scared to leave it in the car. Once I was back in the car I put all of my gear in the passenger seat. Next thing you know a lady was opening up the passenger side door of my car and I immediately knew I was getting robbed. I was sitting there thinking what in the hell I was going to do when she grabbed all of my gear and ran. Ha, she looked at me with surprise on her face and hastily apologized for getting in the wrong car and ran away. Whew, that would have really sucked if it was a real car robbery.

Sunday brought even more sessions, but the highlight was definitely Sunday night dinner with my sissies followed by Eclipse. Due to my late session that night we had to meet for the late show so by the time I got home and into bed it was past 2am. I had to be up for my flight home at 4am. Needless to say I was TIRED.

So anyway, it is 4am and I’m driving to the airport in the dark when a car comes zooming up behind me. There were 2 other lanes open and only me on the road so I immediately thought about those stories you hear about people rear ending you on the freeway only to jack your car or hurt you when you pull over. I was pretty worried (scared) and had my cell phone ready to call the cops. I swear, our first night in Bend I had to make a 4am trip to 7-11 (one of the VERY few stores open all night here). The roads were pitch black, I had never driven anywhere in town and had no idea at all where I was going, and it was raining. I was not scared at all, once again reinforcing I am a small city girl at heart. Combine that to the fake car jacking and I was ready to be home!!

It was great to see my clients and even meet a few new ones. I got some awesome photos that I’ll be sharing on my photography blog in the next few weeks. So there you have it, Las Vegas sucks and I’m so, so very glad that we are not there anymore.

*So just a side note before I get all of Las Vegas hating me. There are some good things to Vegas, but I guess I’m just not a lover of big, crazy cities. When I was living there it wasn’t all horrid, but compared to Bend it seems so much worse.

Piggy Paint Edition:

Up until now I would only paint Shenzie’s toenails, and even then very rarely. Fingernail polish is toxic, stinky, and I don’t think a 3 year old needs to wear toxic crap on her nails (especially when she still sucks her thumb at night). Enter Piggy Paint. Oh how very happy we are to discover this (thank you Jamie)!!! It is non toxic, odorless, and kid friendly. We had ourselves a little paint party yesterday, and even Heaten got in on the fun. The only downside is it is fairly expensive ($9.00 a bottle on Amazon), but worth it to see my little girl (and boy) so happy!!!

My Monkey Boys Edition:

I just love my little [and big] monkeys!

*Photo taken with my iPhone.

What a fantastic day!!! We started our morning off at Drake Park (we intended to get there for the Pet Parade, but didn’t quite make it). We browsed the booths and the twinzies were VERY excited to have their first Rootbeer Floats. Yum!!

Just ignore the fact that my children look yellow. The old Point and Shoot has issues with white balance apparently.

After walking the bridge a few times, watching the ducks, and running around like loons we were headed back to our car when we saw a vintage cowgirl store. Not knowing what vintage cowgirl was I went in to investigate. When I walked in I saw this awesomely amazing vintage baby carriage. Of course I just had to have it. Imagine a teeny tiny newborn in that. Oh my heavens, I cannot wait to use it!!!!

So yeah, back to the parade. As we were leaving we heard a bunch of hootin and hollarin. Turns out there is a HUGE bike parade where hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of crazy people dress us and go on a little bike tour. I feel sorry for the many people that were stuck in their cars for probably over an hour while the bikers took control of the streets. It was AWESOME and I SO want to ride it next year. Here is a little video of the fun.

After we were able to make it back to our car we made a quick pitstop at home to grab our food and fireworks and then headed out to a 4th of July BBQ. Fun times were had, and by fun, I mean, FUN! So fun in fact I woke up with a bit of a hangover. =)

Heaten finally broke out of his shy shell and went nuts over the fireworks. He LOVED them and had such a good time with the other boys.

Poor Shenzie thought the fireworks were too loud and didn’t enjoy them as much, but still had a fantastic time.

*Just ignore the crappy quality of photos. I hate lugging my big camera around so I bring my Point and Shoot, which is way more convenient, but then when I see the photos I always wish I had brought my big camera. =(

I love libraries. More so, I love books. We were very frequent goers of our old libraries which were quite awesome. I was hopeful that our new library would be just as good and much to my delight, it is! We’ve taken the twinzies a few times and found it nice, clean, stocked with good books, and a pretty cool kids section. They have a Thomas Train Table which of course is a hit. The downside is Heaten doesn’t want to share the trains with the other kids and screams and cries when we leave.

Our new library is missing a few things, but these are not things I miss one bit!!! There are no security tags on the books or DVD’s. They go by the good old fashioned trust system. This makes me happy and very glad we are now a part of this town. They also do not have security guards. Our old library had at least 2 if not 3 security guards on duty at all times. Don’t ask me why since all of the books, cd’s, and dvd’s were all security tagged. So yay for our new library and yay for more books!!

Here are a few photos from our new library: