Winter

 So in the same fashion as years past, I had to pick  a cool Christmas card location. This year I chose to do a local bridge that goes over the freeway. As you can  imagine, it was FREEZING cold with large gusts of wind whipping us around. But the view was cool, it had some nice trees, it was a long bridge so had tons of potential for awesome portraits. I was envisioning kids climbing up the cage, rusty gates to pose in front of... But I barely got a decent picture for our card. You know that feeling when it's so cold and windy your eyes start to water...I got a lot of those pictures. So needless to say, we will be recreating this scene in the summer. I have intentions of dressing all of us in the same digs and getting fabulous pictures to update my 16x20  photo wall.

 I love the look in Chastins eyes. And the sun on our faces.

 This picture describes our family perfectly! I think one day, and our kids will be sitting around talking about us &  they will say "remember all those times mom and dad threw their heads back and laughed at how goofy we were?!" True kept spinning in circles with his arms out, so all the kids copied him and you couldn't help but crack up! He then stood there looking at them like they had lost there mind!
Thanks to Monica for braving the chilly weather to snap a few shots for us.

 Speaking of Monica... 10 years ago I bought a house next door to a photographer and musician. I thought they would be so cool and creative.  Couldn't  wait to meet them! I remember when we first moved in and the power went out, I snuck over to the side window to peek at the neighbors..What were the couple with no kids doing? I peeked out the window to see a young married couple who had moved their dining room table to the big window in the living room, sitting with tall pillar candles lit and dinner on the table.. I knew then that they were my kind of people. Before I knew them too well they were remodeling their kitchen and I would peek out the side window to see what these two artsy people would choose to do in their kitchen. Soon I couldn't stand it any more and marched my self right over to see the cool kitchen in  the making. Needless to say, put two creative people in a room that's a blank canvas and your bound to see something great come out of it. They chose blue walls and green tile flooring, maple cabinets, metal lights and white counter tops. All things I like on there own, but would never have thought to put together.

 10 years later this woman and I are inseparable. We work out together every night. We text and talk all day long. She is the first person to know everything, and I am her go to woman for all things kids and cats. We balance each other nicely. We do photo shoots together, we eat together, our family even has game night once or twice a month together. We are different too~when I vacation I prefer to leave the state {or the country } when she travels she likes to go camping on the Oregon coast. She has one kid, I have multiple, we both drive suv's and like to keep it that way. She prefers fb, I only blog. We spend endless hours swimming at her parents house {where she swims and I dip my feet} and hours and hours at the beach.{taking countless pictures of each others kids} So different yet so similar at the same time. I count my blessings every time I drive by another house in the neighborhood that we looked at buying,  and am eternally grateful that we chose this one.

She will never know how lucky I feel to be her friend.