A Weekend of Reflection

This weekend we visited friends HERE:

What a view.
We sat by a fire,
we laughed with friends,
we ate peanuts and chips,
we skipped rocks,
we swung in swings,
we drank juice out of sippy cups...
What a weekend.

Little known fact: the rockstar is an amazing rock skipper.
He could be PRO status (if there was such a thing).
He may or may not have spent the entire afternoon skipping rocks.
And I may or may not have watched...the entire time.



and this little one...oooohh, this one. The apple of my eye, the smile of my heart...

...these days, breaking into wonderful renditions of the ABC's at a moments notice.

 ...also seen here swinging AND singing (with binky in mouth) the ABC's to the water.

She may or may not have made it all the way to the letter G, jumbled it a bit until P and wrapped it up nicely with a very proud, "Nex tine won you sing wi ME!"

...taking a moment to reflect.
She loves swinging.
And singing.
And singing while swinging.

It was a weekend full of reflection.
The water was too cold to play in.
What else is there to do....but reflect?


Bandit reflected this weekend:

These are her reflecting eyes.

These are also her:
-sitting around the house
-looking out the window
-laying on the couch
EYES.

I'm not kidding. She always looks like this (unless she's sleeping).
People say, "Man, your cat looks freaked out all the time!"
I respond with, "I know!"
But she's NOT freaked out.
On the contrary...she is the opposite of freaked out.
Bandit is the coolest, calmest, friendliest, loves-playing-with-babies-and-wrestling-with-dogs CAT I know.
She just has big eyes.
Really big, wide eyes.




The dog reflected:

WAIT - wrong image.
Sorry about that.

Like I said, the dog reflected:

That's better.



All in all, it was a great weekend.

Mostly because of this:

The End.

Cell Phone Sunday!

You MUST know by now that I like taking pictures with my iPhone.  

You remember this, right?

Proof, you say?

Yes of course I have proof!

...proof that the "grand finale" is my favorite part of the fireworks show.

 ...proof that I like to make Deviled Eggs in large quantities.

...proof that Buckley smokes cigars.

don't worry..it's not really a cigar.

...proof that we really DID plant a garden.

...proof that where I live, sometimes you can buy chicks from the local grocery store.

...proof that my girl was just as cute the day she was born.

I love that kid.

...proof that we get some pretty sweet rainbows over here.

...proof that I like taking pictures of the sky.

...I'm serious.

...proof that sometimes she wakes me up a liiiiiiiiiiiittle too early.

...proof that I am a nerd. I love this game.

...proof that where I live, sometimes you find interesting things up on the wall in the doctors office.

Sister, Sister

Once upon a time, my sister had twins.

  And I could just end the story right there.

I find it amazing that she had twins.
Identical twins.
Identical twin girls.
Identical twins don't even run in our family.
TWINS don't even run in our family!
But nevertheless, she had twins.

Seems like she had them a week ago, but soon they will be TWO. They are both very near and dear to my heart for many reasons. And she knows why.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of my sister:

Obviously, I didn't take it. That's her husband holding the camera.
Another thing that is super obvious about this photo is the fact that she is super pregnant.

I can't really specifically explain why this happens to be my favorite picture of her. I mean, of all the photos to chose from, I pick the one where she's in a hospital gown and 9 months pregnant??
I know, I'm strange.

I would totally hang this photo of my pregnant sister on a wall in my house, but I think it might look bizarre to guests. I can imagine questions like this:
Guest: "Oh is that you when you were pregnant?"
Me: "Oh no, that's my sister and her husband."
Guest: "Ohhh...that's...nice..of you...to put a picture of your pregnant sister on your wall...."
Or maybe that would make for a great conversation starter.
I'll think about it.

It might be my favorite picture because I never got to see her in person when she was pregnant. That's because she lives here:

 Arizona. And I can't take credit for this photo either.

By the way, this is not the sister that lives 1500 miles away. This is the sister that lives 800 miles away. I have multiple sisters. And a brother.

Maybe it's my favorite photo of her because I never got to talk to the twinsies when they were curled up cozy in her belly. Maybe it's because she's a champ for carrying twins. I love how big her belly was in that photo. In any case, it's my all time fav.

After the twins were born, my sister and her husband took tons of pictures.
I would say they took DOUBLE the number of pictures that you would normally take.
Get it?
Double??
Twins???
I'm hilarious.

Here are some of my favorites they captured from when the twins first saw the light of day.

And the way they slept always got to me...

Is anyone slightly teary...or is it just me??



On a side note...who looks this good after having TWINS?

It was hard for me to tell them apart at first. But then they started getting their own little personalities. And let me tell you, my own personal nicknames for each of them started surfacing.

My nicknames for them are cute, but my sister recently shared something with me that made my heart smile. She calls them by their names, of course, but each twin has special meaning to her, which I'm sure she'll explain to them when they are older.

Think of it this way. As they begin to grow and are known for being an identical twin, how would you be sure to let each one know they were special in their own individual way?

She does it like this...

This one, she refers to as her HEART...

...and this one, as her JOY.

I love this little family.

Birthdays and Babies

This is my beautiful pal Ashley.
She is one of my friends that I haven't yet given a nickname.
It will come in time though. I promise.

Can you guess how old she is?
Guess quickly though, because I am going to tell you in the next sentence or so.
(Don't be mad, Ashley).
She turned 30 the other day.
That makes me feel old.
I have friends that are 30 years old. Weird.
And the only reason that makes me feel old is because that means I am almost 30. I never thought I'd get to 30. Heck, I feel like I just graduated from high school.
I digress.



We had a little "it's your birthday" get-together.
These days, when you are approaching 30, 30 years old and 30+, get-togethers include the kiddies.

There were little babes and bottles.

And this little sir. Those blue eyes get me every time. He just stares at you. And if he smiles...? Consider your life OVER.

And if I ever decide to have another child and it happens to be a boy, can he have curls like this? Please? And I might not cut his hair. Ever.  Would you believe me if I told you this little stud is a triplet? Help me Ronda. Now.

She's such a pretty gal.
Of course, the rockstar gave an amazing operatic rendition of Happy Birthday To You before the candles were blown out.

This picture....oh, I was so close.
The rockstar doesn't really hold babies. Ever. Not because he doesn't like them, he just considers them to be very fragile, precious little things and he leaves the "holding" job to the actual parents.  My dearest Ashley decides to hand her four month old to the rockstar. He had no say in it.
"Here, hold my baby for a sec," she says.
"Ok," he says.
"He's holding a baby!!" I say.

I run like the wind and grab my camera.
There won't be much time.

I aim.
Almost have it.

I shoot.
And at that SAME exact second, this big giant hand (Ashley's husband, to be exact) flies right in front of the way as I'm attempting to capture this rare moment in history.

But before I know it, the baby has already been passed on to another person and the moment is over.
So close.

And no 30th birthday is complete without a brave friend removing a giant splinter from the birthday girl's foot. She's my good buddy ol' pal ol' buddy, but I don't know if I could have attempted a splinter removal.

Cook her dinner?
Sure.
Babysit her kids?
Absolutely.
Splinter removal??
I gotta work up to that one.
Some friends are just better, I guess.


Happy 30th, old lady.
And by OLD, I mean AWESOME.