another B family

Tis the season for family photos! I've been so busy lately! I met this B family on Saturday afternoon for a fun time. They have twin boys, can you pick 'em out? It helps that they're dressed alike :) This is what I spent my day doing...editing photos. And, I'm almost done! Hope you like, 'em Brenda! Your family is beau-ti-ful!








I love this one!






When I asked Brenda if she'd ever modeled, she just laughed at me, but isn't she just gorgeous?

the B family

I've been MIA lately. I think I'm in a bit of a "funk." I have a backlog of photos to post and blog about, but it just hasn't happened lately. I miss my blog. It's soft of like a friend to me. More, than that, though, it's a way to connect with the outside world, and make new friends too. Anyways, I digress.

So, the B family and I met up on Saturday morning. I won't lie to you, it was tough! The littlest B would not stay put for more than 10 seconds, and as a result it was nearly impossible to get a good photo with the entire family together. Anne, I hope you like these...because it's what the momma thinks that really matters :) For the record, I think your kids are adorable!

baby K

Sweet baby K turned one this week. She's just about the sweetest baby ever! She's my friend Lisa's baby girl. I love that Lisa had the coolest props to bring to our shoot. That yellow chair is part of her kitchenette set. So, so fun!

Happy Friday! Hope you have a good weekend :)

just keep swimming...

"What do we do? We swim, swim...just keep swimming." -Dory from Finding Nemo

Homeschooling has me pulling my hair out this week. But, I gotta keep on keepin' on. Even though it doesn't feel good, I want to persevere. I wish I were more fun and light-hearted like Dory (of course that would make me a bit air-headed too, which I am NOT!) Instead, I'm really more like Marlin, all tense and a bit stressed-out and uptight. Gotta relax. And, hang out more with the Dory's of this world.

my girls

Just a silly moment at our house. I was obsessing about taking some new self-portraits (have you noticed my new photo on the sidebar?) and the girls wanted "in" on the action. Maybe they were feeling left out? Of course, they kept popping into my photo too. The ONE time I do NOt want them in the photo, they want in. Go figure. Anyway, here they are in all their cuteness.

twins twins

Wow, these little guys gave us quite a time. Double the babies, double the fun! I think we made some memories together. Rather than fighting swarms of mosquitoes at RR tracks during our maternity shoot,we were contending with pee and poop in unexpected places. I hope you guys know who is who, Larry and Amanda, because I sure don't! :)








To me, the clear winner for this year's Christmas card. You guys look great! :)

tawnny and dan

I had so much fun shooting with Terry at Tawnny's wedding. All of the fun, and none of the pressure to get the "right" shots. I'll take second-shooting anytime :) Maybe after a little more practice, I'd be ok shooting a wedding, but I would not want to do it alone!

And, I'm excited that Tawnny and Dan are going to live in my neighborhood, so hopefully we can hang out a bit :) Here are a slew of favorites from their BIG day!







The bridesmaids all wore shawls from Afghanastan over their dresses. Tawnny has traveled the world!












Terry let me play with his fisheye lens. Ok, I NEED that lens now!!! How fun is this?!?



And, he coached me on getting this shot: stick camera on floor, tilt up, snap away. Love this fisheye!! What do you think of my retro-ish conversion?






Each table was named after a place that Tawnny or Dan have traveled to with the Jesus Film. I sat at Nigeria. Cool, huh?






More fishy fun on the cake. Did I mention that my birthday and Christmas are coming up next month? :)

our family {minus one}

Here are a few shots that my friend Emily took for us. You can see some more on her photography blog.


It's our family, minus one. No, I'm not pregnant. I'm "paper pregnant." We're in the process of adopting a baby girl from China. It has already been a long wait--one year. And, it seems that it will likely be another year for us to wait.

In the meantime, I'm using my love of photography as a way to continue to raise money for the remainder of our expenses. All of the income received from my photo shoots is going 100% towards our adoption costs. Fun for me, fun for you! :)


Can't you just picture another little Asian baby in our photo?

pumpkin seeds and homeschool

We carved a pumpkin this year, but I was just too lazy to wash my hands of the slime to document the process. But, it's one fine-looking pumpkin! To make toasted pumpkin seeds, we rinsed them off, then baked in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring once after 15 minutes. The recipe called for 500F, but I think that was too hot. They got a little brown. I'd shoot for 450F next time.



So you want to know about homeschool?? If you want the full story of how we decided to start, you can read it on our ministry blog at davidandkristina.org



The first week was really hard on everyone. Last week was much better. Today is the start of week 3. What do we do? I've tweaked it each week, but right now, we take 1 1/2 hours a day, broken up into two segments, one hour in the morning for focused work, and half an hour right after lunch when I read aloud to the girls.

It's a steep learning curve, and I'm on the front side for sure. The hardest part so far has been figuring out how to keep the house running and have a few "me" hours in the day. I decided that Monday would be "chore" morning. Each of us has a job to do. Last week the girls washed windows (ok, I never do this, but I thought it would be a "fun" chore for them) while I mopped the kitchen floor (it was disgusting after weeks of neglect.) And, we've also added a Saturday afternoon "family chore" hour when everyone has a job and we all do it at the same time. This week David vacuumed, A dusted, M directed everyone, and I sorted out fall clothes. It's helped me to keep my sanity a bit more this week.

So, that's it. If you want more details, just ask! I'm happy to share more, I just don't don't know what else to say at the moment. I'm just trying to keep my sanity at this point. Happy Monday!