Dear Friends

We had a rare opportunity to get together with some very dear friends, that we made while we lived in Korea, last night. (The last time we all saw each other was clear back in 2003.) They were my family, my sanity, my joy while we were there. I seriously couldn't have made it through that 2 years without them. I am so grateful that Rod and Ali were able to take time during their visit to the states (they live in China now) to see us. It was a fun reunion!

Our Korea family, as I like to call it, has grown by leaps and bounds since 1997! Todd and Cecily were both born in Korea. Just look at our numbers now! All of the kids got along great and played the whole night. It was so much fun to see everyone again. We LOVE you guys so much! We're already looking forward to our next visit. Hopefully that will be in a year, not in 6 :) Until then, keep up the blogs and emails.

Little Ballerina Photo Shoot

I had the privilege of taking pictures of my nephew's baby girl (and wife). She's so stinkin' cute I could eat her up!! THANKS for asking me to do them, Lisa!

Morgan Camp Out 2009

As anticipated, we had another great Morgan camp out! We also had the two, unwelcome camping traditions: puking and rain. UGH! Emmy got sick the first night which means mommy got NO sleep because I was busy catching puke in the puke bucket. THANK HEAVEN it only lasted the first night!! We had great weather UNTIL saturday, when it rained and I couldn't decorate for Chris' birthday. I was sorely disappointed because I had lots of fun stuff to string/tack all around the camp ground. Oh well, what do you do, right? Besides, NOTHING will ever top the surprise I gave him last week :)

It's always fun to have Chelsea in town when we go camping! She's so goosey in the pitch dark blackness of the night and her cousins, of course all boys, really took advantage of that!! We had been telling scary stories around the campfire and all the younger kids - and Chelsea - were really spooked!! Jordan had been teasing Chelsea that he was going to scare the pants off of her, so when he got up to supposedly go to the bathroom, she immediately sat on my lap, looking for protection! Soon after, Spencer got up to go the bathroom as well (yea right)! Spence soon returned and tried to assure Chelsea that Jordan really was up at the bathroom, but she didn't buy it. She kept looking behind her, into the darkness, trying to find him hiding behind a tree or hoping he'd snap a twig as he walked toward her. Within a few minutes, he returned, not trying at all to hide. And that's where the video begins!! Once she saw Jordan and knew he wasn't going to scare her, she got off my lap and sat down in her own chair. So focused on Jordan and being relieved that he didn't scare her, she didn't notice Spencer get up out of his chair.......

BTW, Todd was just trying to capture how the little kids were spooked from the stories we were telling. He had NO IDEA what was about to happen :)

Here are the highlights of the weekend, the video being #1!!!






















This is how Chris preferred to celebrate his 40th birthday!! Not as the center of attention like I made him endure last week.

Chris' Surprise 40th Birthday Party!

My heart was racing and my adrenaline was pumping so hard today in anticipation of this surprise party!! I hadn't been so excited, giddy and nervous with anticipation like that since I was waiting for Chris to come pick me up for our first date in February of 1995!!

Thanks to Chris' boss, Linda, and his good buddy, Duane, I was able to pull off the BEST, most unsuspected surprise EVER!! I coordinated with Linda to make this look like an employee appreciation lunch, which they do quite often at L-3. She spread the word and got everyone on board to meet me, Chelsea, Landon and Chris' mom at Red Iguana for lunch, in celebration of Chris' 40th birthday. Which, isn't until July 11th, but I had to get him early so he wouldn't suspect me. Besides that, he's taking next week off so the surprise wouldn't have worked. Everyone but Chris knew what was going on. It was soooo much fun!!!!

I decorated the tables with balloons, candy and random pictures of Chris for his co-workers to enjoy. I think they got a kick out of the pictures. Despite what they may really think (or wonder), they got a small glimpse of the WONDERFUL, AWESOME, SILLY and FUN husband, father and family man that he is.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Linda for helping me orchestrate this PERFECT surprise....And to everyone else that was there! You helped me make it a special day for him. One I'm sure he'll never forget!!!! The best thing was that I managed to completely blind side him! He wasn't on to me at all!!! YAY!!!!!

Dylan's Baptism Announcement Photo Shoot

I took Dylan to Wheeler Farm last night to take pictures for his baptism announcement, which is soon to come, but until then, here are some of my favorites. He's a much better "GQ" poser than he is a smiler right now. He's at that age where the smile is so forced and not very natural, so I like the non-smiling ones...that's why there are so many of them. He was really upset when he found out he had to wear his Sunday clothes because he wanted to wear his cowboy boots, so we compromised and went "dressy cowboy". I have to toot my own horn and brag about what a HANDSOME boy he is!!!! A chip of the old block ;)

Rainbow cupcakes

Look at these fun, festive, RAINBOW cupcakes I made! Thanks for the idea, Rina!! I simply divided and added food coloring to white cake batter. Think of the possibilities: school/team colors, holiday colors for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, 4th of July, etc., country colors. The possibilities really are endless!!!