kendall turns two!

i guess i'm kind of the unofficial neighborhood photographer. which i don't mind...not in the least. i just hope my neighbors don't mind either. :o) kendall's second birthday is actually today (happy birthday kendall!) but we celebrated it on sunday with lots of presents, a fun jump house for the kids and of course, yummy cake. i couldn't pick my favorite pictures very easily, so i just decided to post them all.

kendall and e chat over lunch.

she did pretty good not getting too messy...until the ice cream truck came around anyways (see last picture for evidence)

first ice cream truck of the season!

baby sister kymber is turning one in a couple weeks!

the aforementioned ice cream mess...

princess peyton.

remember peyton? goodness gracious, she's three months old already. and just the sweetest little girl ever! i had a great time hanging out with her on sunday...here's a sampling!

around 3pm, this starts sounding amazing...

my latest afternoon craving. hot chocolate anyone?

my new favorite picture...

just the three of us.
(four, if you count the motorcycle)

so. alex is graduating.

meet cousin alex.
alex is actually john's cousin's daughter. which would make her his second cousin. or something.
we just call her cousin alex.
anyways.
she's graduating this year!
wahoo!
here's some shots i grabbed of her the other day.
beauty, beauty, beauty!
she makes my job easy...

yes. my son made an appearance. she even brought the glasses just for him. sweet.

THE boots.

elijah has two buddies. well, he has more than that but these buddies are his BESTEST buddies. in the mornings, i'll usually give him a run-down of the plans for the day and most days he asks in a more-than-excited voice if going to conner and dylan's house is on the agenda. except he says their names as one word so it comes out: "go connerdylan house, mom?". super cute. anyways...both conner and dylan have a pair of these boots. conner's are yellow and dylan's are blue. they brought and wore these boots almost exclusively when we were in pismo a few weeks ago. so...when elijah saw an entire wall devoted to them at old navy, he, of course, had to have a pair too. never mind that it's april and that the central valley summer months are almost upon us. nevermind that mom. elijah insisted. and since they were on sale...i gave in. i got them two sizes too big so hopefully they'll still fit next winter when we actually have rain.

oh my little man, how i love your crazies!

elijah flew a kite.

lovelovelove his little smile...

playing catch up...

a sampling of my favorite shots from easter sunday:


love the bedhead.
of course, the first thing he grabbed out of his easter basket was the motorcycle, followed by the monster truck...would've been surprised if it was any other way.

sweet smiles melt my heart.

elijah's bestest buds came over to play for a bit.

chocolate face.

he's saying "look at ALL of 'em!" (referring to the bubbles he just proudly blew)

trying to encourage elijah to pick up the eggs with money in them...not just the candy filled ones.

the three of us...

the theme of the day.

we also enjoyed tacos, the first sunburns of the season and the sweet company of friends, family and neighbors. wouldn't want it any other way...

anthony and heather, sittin' in a tree...

i had the priviledge of shooting an engagement session last sunday afternoon. anthony and heather are getting married in september! here's a handful of my favorites. we're still on the lookout for a good graffiti-ed wall though...





e

a few favs from our time at the beach...

sand dollars everywhere.

sandy toes.

elijah rode the little four wheeler all by himself...and had a grand ol' time.

sand dollar season.

we went to pismo for a few days last week. we wanted a mini-vacation before the baby comes and while pismo wasn't really my first choice (little cabin in the woods maybe?), i knew the boys would have fun. and despite my reluctance to sleep in a trailer at eight months pregnant, it was well worth the trip. we pretty much had the beach to ourselves...amazing! the boys got to ride dirt bikes/four wheelers and get dirty while i got a ton of knitting done, got to hang out with some wonderful friends and really didn't worry too much about anything. i really appreciated that john got to relax too. it's not very often that he gets away like that...
apparently, it was sand dollar season while we were there. our first morning on the beach, we walked down to the shore break and found a few while we were puttering around out there. a few days later, i took a stroll (ALL BY MYSELF! unheard of opportunity!) down the beach and found hundreds. the beach was simply littered with them. thankfully, i took a bucket with me and brought about five pounds back up to the trailer. i told john when he questioned the necessity of the amount in my bucket, "i just couldn't stop picking them up!". i brought the best ones home with me and have since cleaned them up a bit. i think i'm going to paint a canvas and attach them to it somehow. i'll post pictures if/when i get it done...
all in all, it was an enjoyable trip...one that i'm sure we'll do again.

the pinata story.

this is one of those stories i don't want to forget...that i want to remember and retell when elijah is in high school.


we went over to john's uncle's house on a sunday afternoon for a birthday party. it was a last minute decision to go...it was right during elijah's naptime and both john and i were tired from staying up late the night before (at his birthday barbecue). but, we went anyways. mainly because elijah LOVES going over there. john's uncle has an acre lot (unheard of here) with lots of trees and places for a little boy to play like a little boy should. after we consumed plenty of yummy tacos, the pinata was brought out. elijah had never seen a pinata before but it was bright and colorful so, of course, he was interested. i explained to him the gist of what was going to go on and once it was safely up in a tree, he got to have a whack at it. he was a little shy about the whole thing, so i helped him with the stick, then handed the stick off to the next in line. e and i stepped back to watch from a place i thought was far enough away from the action but close enough to grab some candy once it fell. several kids had their turns, then it was time for the birthday boy (one of them, the party was for a set of twins). he dutifully donned his blindfold and gave the thing a few good whacks. while he didn't break a hole in it, he did succeed in knocking the pinata off the hook it was attached to. there was a mad scramble to put it back up and once it was back in the tree, one of the dad's grabbed the stick, stuck it up into the gut of the pinata and punched a hole in it. (he did this mainly because the pinata didn't look like it would stay put long enough for anyone to whack it open). candy spilled out, flying in every direction, even ours. i got a tootsie pop to the head so i instinctively put my hand over elijah's head to protect him from the same fate (note: tootsie pops coming down out of the sky from ten feet HURT). apparently, my hand wasn't big enough to cover his noggin and he too, had a piece of candy bounce off his head. needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled with that. he cried and cried in my arms, completely missing any and all of the mad candy dash. he was given a bag by a kind-hearted older cousin (who had too much anyways) so he didn't leave empty handed. but this was not the end of the pinata. all week long, he talked about the pinata, getting hit on the head with piece of candy and how much it hurt. so, when i mentioned to him that his cousin jackie's birthday was coming up (it was the following sunday), he insisted that she have a pinata too. i think he wanted to try the whole business again. i was completely out of gift ideas for jackie (what do you get a 17 year old that doesn't cost $300?) so i jokingly mentioned that maybe we should get one for her. of course, elijah loved that idea. that is how a 17 year old ended up with a tinker bell pinata at her birthday party. we let elijah whack it as long as he wanted to. there was no way he was going to break it open though (those things are tough!), especially since the only stick we could find small enough and light enough for him to swing was made out of bamboo. after he had his fill, jackie stepped up to the plate, armed with a bat, ready to do battle. just a few whacks and the pinata gave up its booty. elijah filled his pockets and ate entirely too much candy over the next couple hours. a happy end to his first pinata experience.