Chicago!

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of attending Debbie's (aka Pixel Fairy Princess) workshop in Chicago. It was great!!! There were 10 of us in the workshop and we all had a great time. I got to meet some fabulous ladies -- Colleen (who was in my Feb 2005 DTC group), Steffie (whose blog I have followed for some time), Gail (whose blog I've been following for a few months) plus some new people (Kerry, Leslie, Sheri, Missi, Angie and Julie). Most have children from China which we bonded together in a big way Saturday evening but we also had photography in common. Thanks ladies for a wonderful first trip to Chicago!!

4 Years Ago

4 Years ago today we saw our beautiful Sophia's face for the first time. She had round chubby cheeks and lots of hair. Normally I take a picture of her holding her referral picture but with school and all time just got away from me. I will take some tomorrow though. In the meantime, I will post a picture of her from the beach this summer and one of her referral pictures.

Epcot

I have been hounded err I mean scolded for not putting up some Disney pics so here are a few from Epcot. I still have to edit my Magic Kingdom and beach pics.....

Oh wow.....

Has it really been over a month since I've posted? I probably don't have any readers left. Well, we have been very busy for the last month but I should be posting more soon. We had quite a busy July and so far in August. Missy came in town the week before we left for vacation and we all got together for dinner one evening. It was great to see Marla, Felicia and Missy. We also got to meet Missy's mom and her beautiful sister Paige. Larry (Leslie's husband) came to have dinner with us before heading back to the hospital to be with Leslie. I hope you are feeling stronger every day Leslie.

We went to Florida on vacation. We went to Epcot, Magic Kingdom, the beach, and visited with my dad while we were there. The girls loved going to Disney. Unfortunately we did not get to see all of Magic Kingdom as it started raining about 4:30 and did not stop. Oh well there is always next time. On the way down and back we stopped in to see Debbie and her family. Debbie fed us lunch on the way back and it was great. Thank you so much!!

Now for August -- Let's see....we had another bloggy dinner and this time it was Marla, Leslie, Gin, Felicia and Lisa as she was in town on business. It was great seeing everyone and their families. Gin had her beautiful new daughter Kerry Lu with her. Olivia and Adalyn bonded. Ava, Ella, Lily were as beautiful as ever. Dalton was being a great big brother and well Jake is quite a handsome young man. I think Ella might have a little competition on her hands if Olivia is around them too much. ;-)Sophia was being Sophia and pretty much keeping to herself. School also started this week. We are on day 2 and so far everything has been great. Olivia LOVES her new teacher -- well actually she has 2 this year and loves them both. They have a combined class and are co-teaching. Olivia made the switch from gymnastics to cheerleading this summer and loves it. She is going to try soccer next month. I hope she likes it.

Potato picking pics....

For your viewing pleasure, some potato picking pics. I did not do much editing on them as they are more snapshot and I wanted to "keep them real" as Lisa did a few weeks ago although hers were much better than mine. LOL

Wow!

Has it really been one month since I've blogged? I can't believe it! We have had a busy month here and we have less than 5 weeks before school starts. They started off with Chinese Culture Camp, 2 family reunions on the same weekend (one Sat and one Sun), Olivia had Vacation Bible School (loved it!), Father's Day, dentist appointments (yuck!) and my mom's birthday. For mom's birthday, I picked up my niece and we went shopping and out to dinner with the family minus David. I was supposed to have my photo workshop but it was moved to the fall. I was really looking forward to it since we gave up the agency picnic to go BUT the fall is going to be so much better weather wise plus we will be able to have some of the lovely fall foliage (and it is going to be moved to the 'Ville instead of Lexington). Since I wasn't going to the workshop, we had my family over to celebrate mom's birthday. We swam, cooked out and the guys played a few rounds of corn hole on the new corn hole boards we got David for Father's Day. All in all we had a great June.



Now that July is upon us, we had some really cool weather the last week. I actually had the air off and the windows open -- that just doesn't happen in July here in KY. Now we are back up in the 80s/90s and can use the pool again. We had an adult only night last Friday where we went to dinner with some friends and to their house for adult conversation. I love my kids but it was so nice to go out to dinner with friends and be able to carry on a conversation with out having to say "Sit down", "Eat your supper", "Use your indoor voice, please" a hundred times! We have a few more things lined up for the rest of the summer and can't wait to go on vacation to Florida. It will be the first time the girls have been to Florida and we will be seeing my dad. Our plan is to go to Disney 2 days while we are there and then go to the Gulf coast for a few days. It will be the first time we've been to Disney with the girls so wish us luck! Also, last night the girls went on their first ever potato picking event in my in-laws garden. They had so much fun but Olivia admitted it was hard work!

I will post some more pics of the potato picking and swimming soon. I have to "rescue them" from Lightroom! I am almost to my 200th post and I think I am going to do a giveaway so stay tuned.

Photo session at "the Doors"

When we had our Bloggy dinner in the 'Ville in April, Felicia took us to a place in Anchorage that was way cool. It had these wooden doors and neat rock walls and I have been itching to go back. I had hoped that we would go last week when Missy came back to town but sadly she couldn't make it. Olivia's last day of school was Wednesday and it rained all day Thursday so Friday came and we headed out for the day not really knowing where we were going to go but knew it was going to include a photo shoot. We ended up going to lunch with my mom (Hi Nini!) and we were in the area of "the doors" so we went. I have some photos edited but several more I need to work on. I would have loved to have taken more but someone needed to go to the restroom even though she had just gone at the restaurant. My mom has been asking me when she is going to get to see these photos so I will post a few. I hope Lisa comes to town again so she can do a photo shoot at the doors while you have some good light although she can rock it with a flash now!

My baby brother and his family....

I took some pictures for my baby brother and his family over the weekend. I spent all day Tuesday editing them. Of course no photo shoot is complete without a few with my girls in there too. My sister in law's sister wants me to take photos of her and her boyfriend. I hope to do them this weekend but we will have to find a different location as my favorite father in law actually CUT his hay today and they really wanted that background. Silly me thinking that the rain would stop him but sadly it didn't. I think I have a business name thanks to my wonderful mentor but I have to wait to actually talk to her before I announce it! Also my Canon Rebel XTi is still for sale.