Today I was picking up the living room after the boys were off to school.  As I was cleaning, I noticed a few toys on the entertainment center shelves. Then I noticed that I had just walked into a sniper scene! Oh the things you find in a house full of boys.

Do you find funny things while cleaning?  Would love to hear from you in your comments!

Well back to work… enjoy your day everyone!

Jen

Check out our website / Contact Us / Become a Fan On Facebook

Last week I was so excited to head out of the Sacramento area and drive down to Sebastopol to see the Smith Family!! You may remember them from my visit back in September. I LOVE getting the opportunity to see families again and again.  So much changes every few months in a young family’s life.  And the Smiths are no exception.  I was shocked to see how big Dylan has gotten, and see how fun and full of energy Ani is (last time she was recovering from a cold).  Not to mention Dylan & Ani’s mom Mariah, is an awesomely talented photographer herself!!

Mariah & Arron, thank you so much for having me out!  I always feel so welcome and like a part of your family when I’m there.  Ani, thank you for entertaining me all morning, and Dylan, thank you for the awesome snuggles dude!!

Enjoy the photos!!!

ahhhhh who doesn’t love some adorable baby lashes????

Love this one of them… just being them!  Mariah playing with Dylan as he eats and Aaron Ani brushing Biscuit. **LOVE**

Ok mom, you can all relate to this photo of changing your squirmy, wormy baby’s diaper…

and then he arches his back and makes it nearly impossible… it’s like wrestling an alligator just to get the diaper changed! hahaha

I’m not exaggerating… I can feel the love they all have for each other, the whole time I’m with them.  I am truly blessed just to witness the love I get to on a regular basis!

haha Dylan is so fast crawling now, he kept going straight for my camera.

Ani is quite the fashionista, I think she had a dress on and 3 different capes on as she danced around her room. BEAUTIFUL!!!

She read me several stories while I was there.  I love that Biscuit is quite content sleeping under her bed as she reads aloud.

And while she was reading, Dylan was crawling around on the floor, checking stuff out, and trying to pet biscuit under the bed.

Mariah & Aaron, you two are so happy and in love, I smile every time I see one of the many photos I captured of you two snuggling up while you played with and watched the kids play.

Dylan LOVES his baths, and couldn’t wait for someone to get him in there!! haha

BUBBLE FACE!!!!

Ani was Dylan a kiss goodbye, he was about to take off with Daddy.

While Mariah prepared an DELICIOUS lunch for all of us, Ani entertained me by drawing beautiful pictures… she’s quite the artist!

Thank you again Mariah for having me out!!  I can’t wait to share the rest of the photos with you!!!!

Easter is always a great Holiday. Not only for the fun times with family, dying eggs, good food, but Easter is the day that God concured death and rose again. As some of you know us, God plays a BIG part in our lives, and everything we do. It’s so awesome to see what God has done for us in our family and businesses, and what he continues to do. Its really awesome.

The day before Easter, we dyed eggs as a family. This has always been a fun time for us and the kids dig it. The next day, on Easter morning the kids woke up and enjoyed their easter baskets and searching out back for the eggs that the “easter bunny” hid the night before.

After we went to church, we ventured up to our really good friend, and hairstylist, Lisa’s house to spend Easter with. Some of you might know her, and her amazing salon called Sacco Salon up in Newcastle. She invited us up to her family’s house for Easter, and it was so much fun. Her family is tons of fun, and really makes you feel comfortable, kind of like you are family. They put together a HUGE spread of food from stuffed mushrooms, Ham, Prime Rib, and that was just a taste of all the food! Also some great wine, good conversations, some laughs and watching all the kids playing together, it became one of our favorite Easter holidays ever. Thanks Lisa we had a great time!! It was such a great holiday that we didnt even get any photos from easter dinner, but thats a good thing, means we were too “in the moment” to even think about getting out the camera! Hope you all had a great Easter Holiday!! He has Risen!!!!

Bella diving in to dye her first egg.

Brian was writting on his egg before he dunked his.

Here is his final product. So funny!!

Bella being very patient and waiting her turn.

Even Jen got into it.

Here’s her masterpiece.

Shes a funny lady.

Love this.

Bella was blowing on the eggs when they got pulled out of the dye. She would say “ohhh dair hot!”

I LOVE THIS SHOT OF REGAN!!!

The next morning the kiddos went outside and found eggs. Regan was so good with Bella as he stayed with her and helped her find eggs. Such a good big brother.

Aiden is in da hood!

So I have blinked and Aiden has turned 5. “5″ Where in the world did the time go???? So this year we had asked Aiden how he wanted to celebrate it and he had told us that he wanted to go bowling. AWESOME!!! believe it or not I grew up playing bowling and actually was in a league for a few years. It was fun and at the time I thought I was totally the bomb cause I was in a bowling league. HAHAHAHAHA!!!! So we took the family and Aiden really wanted to bring his good friend Micah along. It was so much fun! They had a blast. We usually play Wii Bowling at home at night beofre the kids go to sleep so this was all new for Aiden and the rest of the boys including Bella. She loved it!!! Aiden had a great time for his birthday. He makes things so simple too. He woke up on his birthday and said he wanted to have pancakes, then bowling, and burger king for dinner. That’s my boy!!!

Aiden enjoying his cupcake.

and Micah enjoy it as well.

and Bella totally enjoyed the cupcake. Can you tell???

Regan had a blast.

and here was his reaction to his spare.

Bella enjoyed bowling so much that she would jump up and down till the ball would hit the pins.

Aiden looks like he is giving strategy to how to bowl to Micah. LOVE IT!

Aiden getting ready to bowl!

So Jen has many faces of bowling. Heres one.

and this is where she rubbed it in my face that she got a strike.

and once again rubbed it in my face…….but I love it cause I get to post her corniness on the blog for once. Love you babe.

This was Aiden happy face dance when he got a spare one time.

So funny. We are bowling at Micah is bowling on the iPhone. Classic.

Bella jumping when the ball hit the pins.

High Fiving Mommy.

Regan giving me a pep talk.

Love this.

This was Aiden’s spin on the ground, point at you and say” I’m the man”

and Regan always is so animated.

Almost 2 weeks ago we ventured out to Half Moon Bay, and went to Pillar Point, to go and hang out with Brian and Regan’s classmates from their school to go Tide Pooling. Man it totally brought me back to being a kid, and just finding so many things from shells, and all the sea creatures that hangout by the reef and beach area at low tide. I even saw a tiny octopus which I never was able to get a picture of. Bummer. It was so much fun and who doesn’t like the ocean. The whole family went out there and we had a ball. I really enjoy the times when we can escape the work life for a bit, and just enjoy family, and good times. Making memories with our kids, and just enjoying every minute of it.

Bella and her boots.

Love this.

Some of the coolest plants ever. I would love to live by the ocean.

Aiden checking out everything.

There were these really cool cave type areaas that the kids loved.

If you look close the rocket Brian shot is way up there. That gun he has is crazy cool!!

Does Regan have a six pack??????

Aiden is packing some heat. The gun is as big as he is.

One of my favorite family shots. Of course Aiden doesn’t look at the camera.

One of my favorite shots of Jen and I.

I love this woman.

As some of you may know abou me, I love to cook. Jen is spoiled rotten with good food, and she will be one of the first to tell you. I have always been around cooking. I grew up watching my mom cook and learning and helping her. I love to watch cooking shows and when I have time to, I love to entertain and bless people with good food. Because lets be honest, good food = for good times!!! Lately, Brian has been getting more and more interested in helping prepare dinner, so I have been teaching him how to cut correctly and slowly, don’t want to loose any digits!! I really get excite and a bit nervous, i Iwont lie, when he helps me out. Its a great way to bond, and creates memories for both of us. LOVE THAT!!!

Here I am showing him the correct way to cut AWAY from yourself.

Now his turn with me.

Love these that Jen took.

As the years go by, our kids are getting so big and Brian, is getting more and more interested in photography. In fact Jen and Brian made a paper, pinhole camera together which came out pretty cool. As they were putting it together Brian became curious how film and light work together to make photos, so Jen pulled out some of her old photos she took and developed back in high school and shared with Brian what it takes to produce a photo with the chemicals, and in a room with no light except for the red light, and so on. Its really cool to see her explain and still have that passion alive and well inside of her back from her film days to now, and speaking of film, Jen got me a HOLGA a few months ago for christmas and I have been having tons of fun with it. I just finished my first roll of 120 film and now just trying to find a place that develops that type of film. Jens put the film bug in me now!! Thats a good thing though.

check out the hot couple in this photo. Hmmmmmmm i know those two.

Jen showing Brian some old photos and exlaining to him the process.