Love

On this day of love,

I'll share of few of my own.

A few days ago we spent the morning with some friends we love,

The older girls spent the majority of the play date curled up in the climbing tunnel.

Reading each other books,

Imaginations soarking,

Ellie soakin' up the chat from Avery,

And Tristan crushin' on Miss Riley.

And then Sunday I had a day of cooking with some favorite recipes,

Packing them away in the freezer for future tired evenings .

It was a feat, but I did it all in an hour,

Cooked all the burger at once, while the chicken baked and between stirrings, I shredded cheese, chopped onion and measured garlic.

Then ziplocked the mixes to defrost when I need them most.

And I thought you might love if I shared...

From the Queen of EVOO:

And my favorite woman of the pioneers:

And a fav friend's postnatal dish:

And finally, my own tweaked rendition of enchiladas:

As a side note, put any hubbies on hand on clean up duty if you attempt such a cooking endeavor as a I did.

It tends to mess the kitchen.

And leave you quite exhausted.

And finally, ended the day with dinner date with my jammied girl, hubs and Pandora playlist.

Happy Hearts Day.

Hope you found plenty to love today.

Soon

Soon I'll have more to share.

Including recipes from a morning of baking.

Including two different enchilada mixes, a meatball pizza, roasted red pepper pasta and more...

Including some photography to share as my spring start to book up.

And the final portfolio of the December wedding we shot.

But most importantly, including pictures of my own sweethearts.

But for now, all I have is that one to share.

And a reminder that only two days are left before the big Valentine giveaway of a free shoot and pictures!

Details are found here.

Haircut

My hubby man and I wrestled our little strong man the other day.

And he is, in every sense of the word, a little strong man.

When I was pregnant, I used to wake up in the night motion sick with his antics.

And other times, still while I was pregnant, this little man would wake even his daddy with the jabs and round house kicks to the back.

This child?

A mover and a shaker.

With a crazy do.

Until Sunday.

When we wrestled him, two adults to one baby, to trim his Samsonite locks.

Now, he's just the handsomest little strong man you ever did see.

I guess not much has changed.

P.S. Don't forget about the giveaway. Learn more by clicking here.

Giveaway

So,

I'm running my own first little giveaway with my photography.

I figured with how much I love pics of my own growing family, along with the fact that I can't make it past any Target dollar spots without picking up something red, pink or otherwise Cupid-themed, and, February is next week...so...forget the two baskets of laundry needing folded downstairs...

it's giveaway time.

What I'm giving away?

Free photo shoot

and

Free pictures.

14 actually.

Get it?

14...Valentine's Day drawing...

So...

Here's the info I posted on my photography Facebook page

To summarize:

1. Make sure you "like" my Facebook page here.

2. Share the giveaway and/or links to my website on your own wall or blog or Twitter.

3. Leave a comment on the Facebook giveaway.

Done.

You're in.

Easy.

Hope you *love* it.

More

One more picture from Christmas Eve,

one that was a little extra joy filled

one for the memory books for sure...

More babies!

Completely surprise to even each other,

my baby sister expecting her first, saved her surprise news for a before dinner prayer poem.

And me, thinking I was pulling quite the fast one, made a big brother t-shirt for my baby boy,

he's not gonna be the baby for much longer...

Needless to say, tears were flowin'.

It was so good.

We are both due in August,

four days apart, actually.

And we are so, so thankful.

Already we had just a little bit of a scare yesterday,

this little nugget I'm cookin' decided to hide from the doctor...

and I found myself praying this verse just a little more fervently...

But my prayers were answered,

And truly, we could not be more thrilled.

Current

I tried to go a little more current this evening.

But as you can see, pictures are growing a little more difficult to snap by the day...

But when one has secured cuties like this...

You keep trying...

Even when they're squirmy,

And currently,

They're squirmy.

Busy

Well, January is almost over and I'm just now posting Christmas Part Two.

Our Christmas.

I'm still hoping to post from New Years before February...

But, we'll see...

I know I've said that we've been busy,

but,

can I say it again?

I mean,

I've got two People magazines sitting on my nightstand

completely unread.

That's how busy I've been.

But,

Christmas morning?

Not busy.

And it was lovely.

A whole day in jammers

started with pumpkin waffles, maple syrup and greasy bacon.

Followed by gifts and surprises and playing,

And gingerbread house makin'

Or actually, attempting, really.

Followed by a nap.

And a goodwill trip once we realized and got overwhelmed by just how much stuff we had.

Moral of the post?

Christmas 2011...

Success.

Eventually

Eventually we'll get caught up around here.

See, it's been a little nutty for us the past few weeks.

With travels and visiting family and a funeral and sickness and fevers,

we've made time for cuddling but not much more.

I've known I'd get around to posting about our Christmas eventually,

and so our red and green post part one is here.

It started with our last family pic of twenty-eleven,

And then the rest of Christmas Eve was spent with lots of cooks in the kitchen,

And Dad reading the Christmas story,

My sister on the piano,

With little El looking on,

trying her own little finger on the keys.

And Secret Santa gifts

With just one attempt for a family pic before we left for church,

Which included an emergency run to the grocery store for a much needed diaper and even more needed wipes.

Which is just pretty much our blessed life these days...

Diapers and wipes...

And that's really why I blog,

loving the messes and moments,

finding the miracles in the mundane,

knowing eventually, I'll look back and know

we are living the blessed days.

Pop

My pop is my grandpa. He's always been 'pop' to me.

I've written about him before. A few times actually. Even recently.

He's been the tractor driving, story writing, late night talkin', sleigh ride hill sledding patriarch my family has learned from and tried to live like.

He took butter in his oatmeal and drank coffee every morning.

He'd be the first to refill whatever your cup needed before you even knew the ice cubes were clinkin'.

Married 55 years.

Three children, fourteen grand-children, four great-grandchildren with four on the way.

Always the story teller in his years,

So much the listener in his later ones.

He cherished life. He soaked it in with wisdom and patience and humility.

Wrote stories of family and lessons and life.

He was such a great, great man.

He joined the Heavenly Hosts on Saturday.

More suddenly than we ever imagined.

In an instant he was with the Lord.

Oh the stories he'll have written when I see him again.

Finally

With a day at home for appointments and catch up,

I have to take a minute to start the new year with a blog post,

finally.

I've got so many memory shots to go through from Christmas and New Years,

and the celebrating isn't even over yet,

with more family arriving tomorrow for more loving and hugging and eating.

I've been a little caught up lately having shot my first wedding over the break.

I did their engagement pictures just a few months ago,

oh,

they're one of those really neat couples.

One of those couples who are going to be so much greater together than they ever dreamed of on their own.

The best is yet to come, precious people.

And now, with so many pictures to choose from of their happily ever after night,

Chris and I have been busy, busy bees working to make their memories just right,

but, oh, she was so, so beautiful.

And other than that, it's all been sweet around here,

With plenty of smushie lovin',

And at some point in time, I will catch up with everything

and finally really blog.

But, that finally won't happen today.