Squeaky Clean

He's almost out grown bath time.  He prefers showers most of the time. 

This night he chose a bath, and when that sweet face was framed with swirling soap

 I had to grab my camera.  

Squeaky clean and oh so sweet.

I love this boy.

New family member

So for months and months I've been looking for a new pet.  

Cute and cuddly but low maintenance was the criteria.  

Then one day a friend posted on FB that three kittens had been abandoned on her property and she was

 looking for homes for them.  I pretty much knew as soon as I saw that sweet face I'd found our new pet. 

 Elijah named him Casey Jones, but basically calls him "meow meow" 99% of the time.  

He's been such a fun addition to the family.  

The kids love to play with him and he's a total snuggle bug when they've worn him out.  

I've never been a huge pet person.  I like animals, I just didn't grow up with them so unlike most of you I 

don't feel the need for a fur baby in my house.  This lil guy has won my heart though.  

I'm sure glad he's joined our funky bunch.

Practice makes perfect

He's filling the house with music.

Granted, it's Yankee Doodle and Rockin Robin.

I fell off the wagon. Hard.

It's been a super duper uber busy couple of weeks.  

I fell off the August Break wagon, HARD, but I am still smiling.

Getting to spend some time with my beautiful niece and sweet nephews who live out of state is worth it.

Here are some lovely wild flower photos to make up for it.  Yeah I said my own photos were lovely.  

That's allowed right?  Sometimes artists get a lil stoked off our own work, and that's ok.

We are wrapping up summer.  Summer is busy but I love it.  

I am sad to see it ending but I'm off now to make the most of what is left of it.  I hope you are doing the same!

A New Coast

After a week away with my party of 5 I am easing myself back into the daily grind.  We had a great trip up north to explore the Oregon Coast.  Such a gorgeous place full of lush forests and miles of sandy beaches. The little's couldn't get enough of the ice cold waves but we spent our evenings in a sweet yellow cozy beach house that warmed up their frozen fingers.  As is the case with most summer family vacations it's never long enough.  At least I have the hundreds of photos I took to browse through and re-live some of my favorite pieces of the trip.  I'm still picking through them to select which ones to share, here is the first round with more to come!

Growing girl

 I swear she grows another inch every time I get to see her.

She was very focused on building her lego house this weekend and with that window light filtering in I 

quickly grabbed my camera to snap a few photos of her.

A messy brand and dirty feet.  That's our Millie.

This girl has spirit.  She is determined.  She plays hard and loves big.

I do love that sweet face.

In-law Jackpot!

We planned a summer time get together with family for this weekend 

and I feel so blessed to have enjoyed some quality time with precious people we don't see enough of.  

I really hit the in-law jackpot.

This is Eden Rose, she is quite possibly the cutest girl on the planet.

I mean really.

I couldn't keep my camera off of her.

Millie made it out of the pool long enough to scarf down a hot dog.

Stealing another piece of my heart with every smile.

Papa Roger proudly looking at some of his son's work.

Cameron's half smirk.

My husband cheesing it up for the camera.

I didn't take near enough photos, sometimes I think that's a sign I am having too much fun.

I am so grateful for the miles traveled and yummy dishes shared.  It was all so wonderful.

I cherish each and every one of you.

Summer time scooter ride

The longer days of summer may just mean evening walks (or scoots) with my guys.  :)  I sure hope so.

Weekend Wrap Up

Succulent shopping, strawberry cake, a housewarming party, swimming, and x-box.  

That about sums up our weekend.  

The 107 + temps here have required all errands happen early and afternoons are spent in the house with the A/C blasting.  

That bill is going to be fun!

Finally Facebook

I have FINALLY, and I mean FINALLY started a facebook photography page.  The right motivation nudged me out of the procrastination and excuse chair and I put in the work to get it together.  I'm not sure what took me so long.  Part of it was I wasn't sure what to call myself.  I mean KJB Photography (initials) was first but I took my husbands name when we got married and KJS just doesn't roll of the tongue quite the same.  Am I wrong?  Anyway I decided to stick to my first and middle name, which is sort of hysterical because back in my youth I HATED my middle name with a fire breathing passion but it's grown on me and now I quite like it.  I posted some of the work I've done over the past year that I have been MIA on this blog so if you're interested in taking  peek please do so.  And if you really want to put me over the moon "like" it!  I would be giddy like a kid on Christmas.  :)

I haven't done many portrait sessions over the past year.  I started turning shoots down when I was up to my neck in wedding planning and getting settled into married life.  That was probably a sort of suicide for any start up business but I know how much I can handle at once and my limit was in the red.  Now I really miss it and I want to book more shoots.  I had an opportunity to shoot a soccer team a couple weeks ago which was nothing I'd ever done before.  It was a fun learning experience and I finally got to use my new speedlight although I learned quickly that the cheap stands I have do not withstand Sacramento wind and I was trying all kinds of hokey methods (tent spikes and rope) to try to get them to stay up.  Eventually I let them lie on the ground and worked with the mid day sun.  I will post some of those soon to share.

In the mean time the days are getting longer the temps are rising higher and I am sweating more.

Ooooo I do love me some Summer!

Girlfriends

Last weekend I attended our church ladies retreat.  It was the first one I've been able to go to and I was really looking forward to not only the time away from the routine but a chance to get to know some of the women in my church a little better.  I am not sure when it happened, but at some point along the way I sort of forgot how to make new friends.  It isn't that I haven't wanted to...I just felt...frozen.

I know some of the difficulty in maintaining friendships and developing new ones just comes with the territory of being a grown up and having a family.  What very little free time you have as a wife and mother is often spent passed out on the couch or catching up on the 12 episodes of Parenthood on the DVR. 

But my problem seems to go a bit deeper.  I feel and actual wall up sometimes when I am in a room full of women I don't know well. 

It's kind of funny because I used to really shine in social situations.

Now not everyone in that lovely little house on the hill was a stranger.  Some I have known and loved since I was a child and some I have grown to know and love over the past few years, but several were completely new faces or ladies I had wanted to get to know better but hadn't been able to step over that wall.

But something wonderful happend for me on this retreat.  I prayed about those walls and made and effort to leave them behind me as I made the drive, and I can honestly say for the first time a while I felt like I truly made some new friends.

An amazing thing can happen in a setting like this.  No tv, no laundry, phones off, no shopping lists calling your name.  When you have free time....

REAL FREE TIME

with nothing else do do but sit down with one or a group of ladies and chat.  You get to hear so much about who they are and where they come from and what is on their hearts.  And when you stay up till nearly 3am just being silly...I mean laughing from you gut, eyes watering because you are too sleepy to filter and everyone is saying whatever pops into thier head silly...you tend to bond.  It has been WAY too long since I've laughed that hard.  It was a time of growth for me.  A much needed reminder that I need girlfriends, I need FREE TIME, and every so often I need to stay up past my bedtime and be so silly my sides hurt.

To the ladies of Arden Church, thank you for filling my heart this past weekend.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's, grandma's, step-mom's, and mom-to-be's!

Honeymoon in heaven

Well since I'm still waiting for wedding photos (as patiently as possible I swear) we'll just skip to the honeymoon.  Devin and I left the morning after our wedding for the airport and headed to Maui.  He's never been and I haven't been back to this gorgeous island since my family went when I was about 10.  First off a big, giant, huge THANK YOU goes to my generous aunt and uncle that made this trip happen by letting us use their time share points.  We were thinking we might be able to afford a trip to San Diego or Santa Cruz but when my aunt and uncle told gave us this awesome gift we went straight for tropical island.

Maui did not disappoint in any way.  From the perfect weather to the friendly people and the delicious food we soaked up every moment and cherished it.  These were all taken on day one.  I had to catch up on some sleep and Devin went exploring with out me.  I missed out on Devin spotting a sea turtle trying to catch a crab just feet away from where he stood.  Why must I require sleep? We stayed at the Aston Maui Kaanapali Villa's and loved the gorgeous beach the resort sat on.  But we didn't spend a whole lot of time there during our week.  It was a great place to relax and catch our breath but with so much beauty to see and the freedom to explore we couldn't sit still for too long.  I'll share some photos from our explorations later.  Too much for one post.  Sigh. I heart Maui.