Here's our Christmas picture! (We sure missed you.)
Rich's mom took about 15 successive shots with my camera, and yet the first one she took was the best. Guess we could've stopped there!
And for some reason, I just really love the before-the-shot shot.
Lastly, here's our little family. Thanks to Aunt Debbie for taking it!
Was a wonderful Saturday! (And not just because my big sister had a birthday either.)
Some last minute-sewing to get the girls shirts done.
Waiting for our turn to see Santa. We went to visit him at Peninsula Gardens which was a perfect choice. Only one family in line in front of us, and Daisy loved checking out all the fountains while we waited.
Meeting the big guy. (Look, they're both looking at the pro camera and Daisy even is smiling nicely! Had to spend a little money and buy the good shot.)
Dear Daisy,
We've been talking about Santa for several weeks now, ever since you decided you wanted a kitchen and were told the man with the big beard was your ticket. We practiced asking nicely and saying thank you. And one bright morning you were thrilled when we told you we were off to visit him "at his house".
We were a bit nervous after last year's freak-out, especially because you haven't shown any interest in costumed characters recently. The family in front of us in line told us to wait as they knew their son would cry, and we were hopeful that if you didn't see his meltdown it would be better for you. So you happily played with fountains until we told you it was your turn.
Low and behold, you turned the corner, walked right up to Santa, and asked so politley "please, Santa Claus, have a kitchen, please?" You willingly sat on his lap, played with a jingle bell, smiled for pictures, and let him read you a story. It was a wonderful visit and your Papa and I were smiling quietly to each other with pride.
Unfortunately, with all the prepping to see Mr. Claus, I didn't forsee the fact that once you had asked Santa nicely for the kitchen that you expected him to happily deliver right then and there. It was heartbreaking to watch you cry as we explained that Santa needed to deliver your wish to his elves who were busily working to make all the toys for the boys and girls around the world. And how he would be delivering the gifts to our house at Christmas.
It was further heartbreaking to watch you wake from your nap later that afternoon ready to run to the playroom and enjoy your new kitchen. Not yet, I had to explain again. Luckily, we were able to use the visual of your advent calendar and count how many days left until Christmas. You haven't cried about the lack of kitchen since, and in fact are talking about how "Santa's friends" are making it for you now.
Kid, you are so wonderful. We can't wait to see the joy on your face when Santa finally comes through for you.
Love,
Mama & Papa
Dear Dani Lou,
Thank you for being so easy-going and delightful. Your sister is a ball of energy, and you just are happy to hang out and watch the storm that is her. You're pretty serious in this shot because you are getting sleepy, but anytime someone talks or laughs with you, you reward them with the bestest and biggest grin.
Having a baby at Christmas brings a whole new meaning to the story of our Savior's birth. Thank you for teaching us this lesson and giving us some much needed perspective.
Happy First Christmas!
Love,
Mama & Papa
ps: Thanks for indulging Mama with the bow in your hair! It is adorable.
The day was beautiful so we decided to swing by the park on the way home. It's been a while since Darin and Daisy ran around together, and they had a lot of fun;
while I supervised our sleeping beauty.
Darin had to work a banquet that night, so I bundled up us girls and we headed the Gig Harbor Waterfront for the lighted boat parade where I really needed to have a tripod to get a decent shot of the boats;
Daisy was more interested in the dogs and the big tree;
and the dock was so crowded I almost sucked the feeling out of Daisy's hand I was clinging to it so hard.
Not our best night, but we tried. As a friend later put it, the parade would have been much more enjoyable at Anthony's sipping a glass of wine. (And kidless, too.)
Christmas decorations have begun to emerge and Daisy found my teeny-tiny nativity set. The story I explained went something like this:
"Mary and Joseph are Jesus' parents. When Jesus was born he didn't have a crib so they put him in a bed called a trough (where the animals got their food). The angels told the shepherds about baby Jesus so they came to visit them. And some other guys came to visit Jesus and bring him some presents."
Not too shabby for a two-year-old explanation.
My two favorites while she was playing:
I was feeling a bit nostalgic about how fast my baby is growing, so I attempted to freeze time a little with the help of my camera.
Darin helped Daisy hang the first ornament on the tree (the baby shoe she received her first Christmas in 2007), and she consequently lost interest in the project.
(ps: Most of our activities are happening in the evening, and the lighting in my house is terrible. Consequently, lots of these pictures are likely to be blurry and grainy. Oh well, still capturing memories.)
We setup my birthday present (a photo backdrop) for the first time on Thanksgiving. I have this crazy idea for a game for Daisy that involves pictures of each family member so I finagled them all into sitting for me and my camera for a few minutes. And now I'm re-learning how to install actions into photoshop (lost 'em all when the old computer died) and am editing like mad. (Well, at least in between loads of laundry and play time with two adorable kiddos.)
But the picture that I want to share today totally caught my eye. Here we all are getting into position. Darin's directing, Trevor's playing with Tiffany's hair, Skylar is warming up his smile, Caleb wants to nurse, Daisy's bossing him around, Madison's trying to figure out what is up with this crazy family, and me? I'm behind the camera of course capturing all this madness. The posed shots are nice, but this one is reality folks.
Here's another stellar example.
But we did finally all get arranged, most of us managed to smile and look at the camera, and with not too much work here's the lovely family. (Note: I didn't watermark this photo so if you're in it & you want a copy, go ahead and save one.)
Yup, we clean up nice.
Sometimes it is really fun to live in this place we call camp. Especially on a clear fall day after a good rain storm. There are puddles everywhere! (A good way to look at the potholes, dear hubby.)
Here's Miss Daisy, walking down the road in search of the first good jump.
Whoo-Hoo! We've found it.
Jump Jump!
Taking a pause in the middle of a puddle.
Another fun part of puddles? Throwing rocks into them!
Some of the puddles are big enough to be called ponds!
And our sweet Miss Dani was happy to watch the antics of her sister from the sidelines of the stroller.
And a couple videos of the puddle jumper/rock thrower.
Daisy was more than a little disappointed at the lack of snow in Leavenworth last weekend. Thankfully she has a great Papa who agreed to stop at the Snoqualmie Summit and let her play outside for a while.
A great Papa who isn't half bad with the camera himself.
A papa who will generously share his gloves with the poor girl who doesn't have any.
A papa who is kind enough to let his dear wife stay in the warmth of the car, and warn her that when he does get back in he plans on blasting the heat for a while.
A papa who loves his three girls to the moon and back,
and he never hesitates to tell us that.
Anne is one cool chick and we are so happy that she has found J-money (as the boys around camp started calling Justin when he began dating Anne).
We first met Anne in 2005 when she and Darin worked at Fircreek together. She had finished her degree in recreation and was getting away from home (Iowa, I think) to come work in our fair state. One of my favorite things about Anne that summer was her inability to understand the Washington concept of "layering". She was always so cold! We tried to teach her you wear warm clothes in the morning, strip them off mid-day, but save them for the evening when it gets chilly again.
Anne was the activities coordinator that summer and was full of life and creativity and fun. And I loved hanging out with her.
Anne moved home after summer and Darin went back to school. One of his fall courses required him to do some practicum visits so he made an appointment with Crista Camps to come tour Island Lake. During his tour he learned of an opening in their program department and called Anne that afternoon. Anne was soon hired and not-so-much-later given a promotion to Program Director at Island Lake.
Darin was oh-so-jealous, but being still in school was unavailable to apply for the job. He and Anne used to joke that he got her the job and she now owed him big time.
A while later, when Darin was all done with school and on the job hunt for months we signed up to attend the "super sectional" of the Christian Camps and Conference Association. We spent our own money to travel to Coeur d'Alene and register Darin for the conference, hoping it would lead to some great job opportunities.
During the conference Anne pulled Darin aside and asked for his resume. Turns out she had inside knowledge that her counterpart at Miracle Ranch would be leaving soon and she wanted to be sure that Darin's resume was the first one in the hiring committee's hands.
(A couple other serendipitous moments happened during that conference as well. One lunch Darin asked God to help him sit at a table with the "right" people and was frustrated when he ended up lunching with a bunch of maintenance guys. [Nothing against maintenance guys, Darin was just hoping to get a job in program at this conference.] Turns out one of the guys he sat with that day was on the interview team for the Miracle Ranch job. In addition, I left the conference early to go to Spokane and get my haircut and Darin ended up hitching a ride to Spokane with the Crista van. He was later told how much of a positive impression he had left on his soon-to-be-supervisor in that van ride.)
Long story short, Darin was hired and Anne made good on her debt. And Darin and Anne enjoyed working together for many months. I will never forget their program team characters of the Easter European Table Tennis Champions and how they practiced their routine for hours in their office!
Anne's friend set her up on a blind date with Justin and we were excited for her. But one night when she was hanging out with us after doing her camp-hosting gig, she revealed she was a little nervous about this guy. She had asked him their staff-meeting "question of the day" which involved which type of ice cream one would be and Justin had responded vanilla. Anne couldn't figure out what that said about him. Is he too boring? Or is he stable?
We teased her a long time about that.
Turns out vanilla was the right answer.
We are so happy for these two and can't wait to see how God continues to use them in our lives. (Or maybe we'll get a chance to be used in their story this time!)
get their pictures taken!
Thanks to Darin, for the shots of the princess, and the ones of the girls together. Thanks to Miss Karen Russell for the amazing photoshop file so I can round my photo edges. (Karen also taught the online photo class I took last year.) Thanks to Gran for the adorable penguin costume. And thanks to JoAnn fabrics, for putting your halloween costumes on sale two weeks before Halloween!
And one behind-the-scenes shot for your enjoyment.
I took the girls to get their pictures taken on Saturday for a MOPS fundraiser. I had a Children's Place coupon that had to be used in October, and since their holiday dresses are released this month, I snagged my first matching outfits for my girls and dressed them up for the photo.
I packed along my camera and tried to get my own cute shot while we were waiting for the professional. Let's just hope his turn out better than mine!
"Dani, you look awesome. Daisy, please smile for Mama."
"No, Daisy, not like that. Smile nicely. Don't squint your eye."
"Great kiddo. But Mama's over here. Look at me."
"Okay, fine. If you won't look at me I'll just focus on Dani."
"Whoops, that's not working so well either."
"Time to give Dani a pep talk."
"That's better, but gee Daisy, what is so interesting in that corner?"
"Uh, Daisy. I think your sister is falling over."
"Okay, that's better. But you don't really need to rub her face."
This, I believe, is the point where I busted out the fruit snacks bribe for one nice picture.
But she still couldn't manage to look at the camera.
Or smile nicely.
I think it's time to give up and go home.
Believe it or not, the first picture I took was the best of the bunch. Oi!
This baby of mine is just about the cutest thing I've laid my eyes on. (Of course, her sister holds that title too.) And it feels like she is already growing too fast.
The perpetual pain of parenthood: you love to watch your children grow and learn new things. But there is this ache of knowing someday they'll be on their own. This little baby won't be a baby for long.
So that's why I get out my camera. That's why I want to learn to shoot this little face better. To edit those images the best way I can. So that in some small way I can pause time a little. See the light in those eyes, remember her sweet giggle, and how on this day she just hung out at my feet while I tried to learn to sew.
And then I put my camera down, pick up this cutie pie, and do a little nuzzling. Did I mention she smells good too?
On Saturday morning of our vacation day (after a delicious breakfast including Dad's famous Huckleberry Pancakes) we headed into the town of Quincy for their annual Farmer Consumer Awareness Day celebration.
First was the parade with lots of big tractors! (Daisy was not a fan of ANYONE in costume, especially the large french fry that came strolling down the street in front of her.)
Note to self: CHECK THE WHITE BALANCE SETTINGS!
I could probably fix the parade photo in photoshop, but I'm too busy to figure it out so right now you get to enjoy a blue picture.
After the parade we headed over to the field to prepare for the main event. I opted out of playing volleyball this year, and instead got to hang out in the tents with the kiddos and lots of family (including my parents who stuck around for the day).
Cousin Quentin loved poking Dani in the nose. (Ah, isn't the lack of blue nicer?)
A mariachi band came by to serenade us.
It was really hot out that afternoon!
I was too hot to venture away from the shade in order to take volleyball pics. But Darin managed to capture a few of the championship match.
This one's my favorite.
At one point, as play was winding down, Daisy asked us to go for a walk. So Gran with Dani, Daisy with baby China (oh, that is a post in itself), and me with no baby took a walk around the field.
We tagged along with my parents to their "old" church in Ephrata and watched the "pass the baby" game that occured with Miss Dani and her adoring fans during the fellowship time.
We needed a new family photo for the Miracle Ranch page, so I asked Dad to take one outside church. I'm pretty happy how it turned out.
And one of the grandparents too.
After church we ventured to lunch with Mom, Dad, and some friends of theirs where we were all highly entertained.
Daisy & Dani fell asleep on the way back to Crescent bar, which was great because we were able to get back and get our stuff packed up while they were snoozing.
We had to take in one last swimming trip before heading home.
Daisy's been learning to swim by herself using a noodle. It's pretty impressive.
And that's it. Time to head home and back to work.
It really stinks when your two very best friends live on the other side of the state or in another state entirely. It also stinks that they are sisters and get the chance to see each other way more than you get to see either of them. But what makes it a little more bearable is the committment we made way back when a certain someone (ahem, cough, Jen, cough) moved to Idaho. We decided that we'd do our best to see each other at least twice a year. That meant I'd go there, and she'd come here once a year.
Most years I've been lucky enough to get to see my girls more than twice, usually 'cuz one of us is having a baby and we need to celebrate. (Although this year it was due to a scary illness we're all glad is over.)
Over the holiday weekend I was so excited to get to host these two girls and their brood of kiddos. They spent the first couple nights with their "Seattle Mom", Mercy, but since they were just up the road rather than hours away, we drove the 45 minutes to spend the day together.
And Sam, since your mom didn't get a chance to take too many pictures, I'll share mine here.
The first thing Miss Jen wanted to do was hold baby Dani. It was a great reminder to her that all the pain and suffering she is going through (poor poor girl with a body that doesn't like being pregnant) is worth it in the end.
Amy even got a chance at Dani, despite having three of her own kiddos to wrangle. Super-Mom indeed.
Don't you just love it when other people love your children? I sure do.
We got the chance to celebrate these two and the occasion of their birth. Ice cream cake was requested (and later regretted) by the pregnant one.
Noah and Daisy were given the chance to blow out the candles, although for Daisy that meant a lot of spitting.
This girl knows how to eat ice cream!
We brought some toys to Mercy's, but sharing is still difficult for our Daisy. She and Noah had to take turns with the popular pink bus, and even though she was reading, Daisy wasn't going to miss her turn.
We were thankful for Darin taking them outside for a while!
And he got some great pics of Mr Noah while outside too.
Classic Noah grin.
After his nap, Sam joined the fun outside too.
Lucky for me, I got to tag along with the twins to their special birthday dinner. Darin took Daisy home (who later ended up getting to spend the night with her Aunties) and Dani and I enjoyed a delicious dinner and wonderful conversation.
But before we got to go, we had to put Sam, Kate & Glory down for bed. And that, of course, required a bed time story. This picture perfectly captures the chaos of it all.
The other morning Dani and I went to get Daisy up and after laying Dani down on the bed, I had to run and grab the camera.
Daisy must really love her sister to share her special Nemo blanket with her! (Even I don't get to share Nemo.)
I took a few minutes to play with my depth of field and got this cute shot.
And one of my baby and her goofy grin.
And my favorite shot of the morning.
Alrighty, Mr. Gemmer, I've got a beef with you. We go to introduce our new daughter to her great-grandmother for the first time. You take one shot of the two of them together? And it's blurry?!
And then you take like 15 pictures of Daisy and great-grandma. And come up with gems like this one:
I love you, but you are so fired. (And I think your second-born may start getting a complex if we don't get better at this!)
Camp was pretty slow one week during my parent's stay. So slow in fact that the wranglers were organizing staff trail rides one afternoon. I asked Darin about the possibility of getting a ride for my parents, and they were welcomed to join the crew.
Daisy and I went up to the barn for orientation so we could take some pictures for my Dad and before they left we passed Daisy on up so she wouldn't be too sad for missing out on the trail ride. (Soon enough, kiddo, soon enough.)
They look like naturals.
And then a few days ago my Dad emailed me the picture below. Yup, that young good-looking guy is my dad, and the adorable girl in pink is me.
Two generations of girls on horseback.
Pretty cool.
Turn your subject towards the light source.
Luckily, I only took about 10 shots of our little one before I realized what I was doing, flipped her over, and got some better shots.
It's a wonder what a little natural light can do.
Too bad the kid has such a bad case of baby acne. Oh well, I'm sure it's bothering me more than it's bothering her.
And how about this one?!
This morning I woke up with the idea to take my best girls and my Mom on a little picnic playdate. One of my favorite parks around here is about 15 minutes up the road in a town called Home. They have an awesome play area and lots of shade.
Here's my Momma, cuddling the baby so I can play with Daisy.
And Miss Daisy, fearless on the big slides today.
We even brought CC along to guard our chairs.
Wish this one wasn't so blurry.
My picnic buddies.
And, lastly, my favorite shot of the day.
These were sent out on Monday, so hopefully all of you expecting to receive an announcement got one. (And these babies took a while to put together, so I've only got one extra that I'm keeping for Miss Dani.)
And here's the inside. (I made a 4x6 jpeg, uploaded it to Costco, and then trimmed to the 3.5x5 size. Nobody prints that size anymore!)
That is Darin's hand and yes, I did take the shot. I'm pretty proud of it, and my adorable daughter.
If anyone would like a copy of just the inside, let me know and I'll be happy to send one your way.
Last Thursday, on Darin's last day of leave, we took our new little family for an outing to the dizzy park in Port Orchard. Dani and I were happily sitting on the park bench nursing away under a lovely coverup (thanks Auntie Jen!) when a little girl walks up to me.
LG: "What's that?"
Me: "A baby."
LG: "Can I see?"
Me: "Not right now."
LG: "Why not?"
Me: "Because she's eating."
LG: "Oh. How?"
Me: "She's breastfeeding."
LG: thinking "How does that work?"
Me: thinking...how best to answer this..."She drinks milk from my breasts."
LG: "Oh...Can I see?"
Now, any good La Leche League mama would have whipped it out and given this little girl an anatomy lesson. Me, I was a bit freaked out about sharing with the rest of the park. I was desperately searching for a mother to come and save me, but no mother was to be found. So I told the little girl no, and sent her back out to play.
Darin told me later I should have told her to "go ask you mother" and seen what sort of reaction that garnered from said mother.
And here are some fun pictures Darin took from our afternoon outing.
And look at me. Officially the mom of two sweet little girls.
remember this photo?
well...we had some fun the other day playing with it again
Daisy asked if she was a "present". Yes, indeed she is.
