clearly i married him for his personality.

and his dashing good looks.

last week...

the boys and i drove up to everett to kick it with julie and her littles.
we went to the children's museum and had a blast.
all i can say is that place is rad.
they have a ton of cool things for the little's to do, plus to whole roof is a ginormous play place.
very cool.
i highly recommend it.
oh, just don't go on a holiday...it was insanely crowded!
thanks julie for hanging with us!

you name it.

(no. this is not my tummy. no. i am not pregnant.)

i was reading the "design mom" blog the other day and they got to talking about baby names, and where they came from.
so i wanna know too.
what are your kids names and why did you choose them?
or what names do you want to use for your future kids? (i promise i won't steal them...unless i do!)

Conner Dean: Conner is Evan's middle name, Marlena's mom maiden name, and happens to be a name i have always loved. dean is Evan's dad's middle name and his grandpa's first name.

Orion MacKay: we came up with Orion really randomly. we were joking around about initials and how it would be cool to have a kid with the initials BOM. so we started thinking about O names. we like Otto...but Otto Mann is terrible and everyone would call him ottoman! we like Oliver, but it was too popular. Owen and Oscar came up, but they just didn't click with us. then i said Orion. Orion has always been my favorite constellation because of the 3 stars in the belt, which is my favorite number. we both just paused for a minute...and there it was. we loved that name and knew it we would have an Orion in the family. Orion's due date was the same day as my brother Peter's birthday. Peter is the reason that Evan and i knew each other, so i thought it would be cool to honor him. his middle name is MacKay, which is also my mom's maiden name, and we wanted to honor that side of the family as well.

Merrick Evan: this is a funny one too. we both have our own ideas of where Merrick came from! i thought it would be funny to name a kid america. then just joking i said they could go by merica for short, or Merrick! and then Evan said that was the last name of a surfboard shaper that he liked. so we had our ah-ha moment with Merrick. and Evan of course is Evan's name!

we like having unique first names and family middle names. well, except for Conner...he got double family names!
our next boy (because i actually do want another boy) will have the middle name William, which is my dad's name and my grandpa's middle name.
and if we ever have a girl, her middle name will be Michelle. Both mine and my mom's middle name.
we have some more fun names floating around in our heads and we are excited to meet the new little people that will claim them.
all in good time of course!

mimi showed me this.

(make sure to watch it fullscreen...it's much cooler!)

and i mean...how could it be any more ME!
3 of my all time favorite things...
awesome dancing.
awesome costumes.
awesome music.

oh man...watching this really makes me miss dancing.
i have to do something about that!
i will be teaching myself this dance!

i want to do this.

ok.
i can't get over how cool improv everywhere is.
i submitted my application awhile ago to be a part of it...but haven't heard of anything happening locally.
i so would love to be a part of something like this musical!

or this one about lunch...

or this one where over 2,000 people walked “invisible dogs” down the streets of brooklyn on a sunday afternoon.

it's all just good fun stuff.
check out their website for tons of funny missions.

excited isn't quite the right word.

but maybe "uber-thrill-astic-exuber-velous-tactic beyond any recognizable amount" is a better description of how i feel about this movie.
3.5.10 is my new favorite day!

finally saw it.

and loved it.
you will too...i think.
question: why is it called "the brothers bloom"?
bloom is one of the brothers name, not their last name.
any ideas?
or are they blooming...like the flowers bloom? like growing and maturing?
just curious.

you thought twilight was good...wait till you see firelight...

oh by the way...

does anyone have an extra $499,000 they want to loan us.
i found the house i want to live in!!!

does anyone know how to slow down time?

my babies are growing up way too fast.

i am getting old way too fast.

the days, weeks, months, years are zooming by way too fast.

i have a whole lot to do and never enough time to do it all!

7 family sessions, 4 weddings, print orders, young women's invitations, put away halloween, get ready for christmas, finish sewing projects, plan and throw a baby shower, plan christmas ideas, clean the house, tackle the laundry, paint my toenails, take family christmas shots, get the boys immunizations, update my website, send out CD's and orders, catch up on photography blog, reply to emails, send thank you notes, call people back, organize the hallway closet and pantry, clean the back yard, clean the garage, schedule weddings, finish my blog books for the last 2 years, and more, more, more.

but here's the thing.

i like it all. ok, most of it!

i am so grateul to be busy.

i am so grateful that i have my awesome little family.

i am so grateful that my husband is so supportive and helps with everything.

i am so grateul that my kids are so cool and help me smile when i forget too.

i am so grateul that my clients are all so awesome and patient.

i am so grateul that i have such awesome friends.

i am so grateul that my husband and i have amazing families.

and most of all, i am gratful to be evan's wife and conner, orion, and merrick's mom.

project rudolph.

my sister-in-law brooke blogged about this awesome project that is happening at a local charity where she lives in germany. it is something i am going to take part in and thought you might want to help too.

it is super super super easy.

you just have to write a letter. that's all.

here is what brooke says..."This local charity is run by a girl I meet here in Germany. Project Rudolph.
Take a couple of minutes to write a letter to a deployed soldier. Send it here. And feel good. It's that easy.
DO IT NOW SO IT GETS TO HER IN TIME!:)"

here are some guidelines for your letters:

Letters CANNOT:
Be Dated
Ask any questions about war, injuries, killing, ect (Believe it or not 10% of all letters cannot be delivered because of this)
Be politically motivated or mention politicians or political affiliation
Be type written or a photocopy
Be in a sealed envelope (all letters have to reviewed before being handed out)

Letters CAN:
Express support and appreciation
include a drawing (if from a child)
Tell about the writer's family, life, likes, ect.
Share personal experiences that motivate
include a return address

so seriously take 10 minutes and write a letter or two to our soldiers.
i did.

we sure do like halloween.

this year for halloween we went as greek gods...well greek mythology really.
medusa isn't exactly a greek god...but you get the point.
it was pretty easy really.
i really wanted to sew some awesome costumes (for my 30 before 30) but i didn't think my sewing machine worked, so i didn't even bother trying.
then this morning i asked evan to take a look at it...and he said it worked just fine.
i am an idiot apparently!
anyway. i just got a big sheet for evan.
and i did big t-shirts for the boys, cut them down to size, stiched the sides, added some gold ribbon, made gold arm cuffs and head bands, and badda-bing-badda-boom...little greek gods!
evan was zeuss.
i bought him a wig and a beard...only to find out too late that it was really only a wig that i bought! oppsies. he still looks cool though!
conner was hercules.
but he wanted to use the space sword instead of the hercules sword we got him!
orion was orion!
but his belt with 3 stars fell off and so did his sandals with the laces.
merrick was apollo.
but i couldn't find any sun fabric, and now that i think about it, i should have gotten note fabric...apollo is the god of music!
i was medusa.
i was surprised at how many people at the pary had no idea who she was. come on people. really! i had awesome gree makeup...but you can't really tell in the pictures. and those are really my eyes. not photoshop. i was so excited to be medusa i bought snake red contact lenses. i loved them!

we had a fun time at the ward party and already have a few different brilliant ideas for next year!















(click to enlarge any image. and be sure to post your halloween pictures! we love to look at everyone's costumes!)

more surf trips pictures i borrowed from caprice's blog:

oregon coast surf trip 2009

click to enlarge. (an for some reason julie isn't in these pictures! but she was totally there!!!)

so this was our 7th annual oregon coast surf trip and it was awesome!
this year was a little different than usual.
generally we have anywhere from 30-60 people come on our surf trips! but since people have gotten married and started having kids, the number has gotten a lot smaller.
this year we only had 8 adults...and i think i like it better that way!
don't get me wrong...i LOVED the big group every year...but now that we have kids, it's just a lot easier with a smaller group.
it was just our little family, my brother eric and his family, and our good friends the crisenberry's and the walkers.
everyone had thier own room, the kids played wonderfully together, yummy food, long walks on the beach, everyone surfed (pretty much) and had a great time, the weather was warm and sunny, we went on a hike, we looked at the shops in seaside and canon beach, and played games. lots and lots of fabulously fun games. i think the games were my favorite part actually!
and evan caught the best wave of his life...and i missed it! he caugt an 11 foot double over-head wave and rode it all the way in.

and more pictures to come as soon as everyone else post them! i didn't take that many.

in other news...this is the awesomly adorable apron that my sis-in-law liz made for me. she rocks! i love it so much. thanks again lizmond!

i get to cross one off the list....and booyah to jason!!!

no. 5: learn to can jam. done and done!

the other week marlena, camila, and i canned pears, made pear butter, and pear jam.
the whole process wasn't nearly as hard as i thought it would be.
marlena (evan's momma) had a ton of pears from her pear tree in the back yard. so we just had jeff (evan's dad) pick those for us!!! thanks jeff!
basically you do a lot of cutting and boiling, and use a lot of sugar!
the pear jam was yummy! it was a recipe i found and you use pears, orange zest, pineapple and sugar. delicious!
i didn't get a chance to take pictures while we were doing it, or even of all the jars. oh well.
it was a blast and i hope we get a chance to do it again soon.
i am thinking something rasberryyish!

1 down, 29 to go on my list!

(and told you we would do it someday jason!!!)

and we're off...

to seaside, oregon for our 7th annual surf trip!

and in other awesome news...the mailman just knocked on the door and i got a little surprise.
this beyond awesome apron from my beyond awesome sister-in-law liz! and a hillarious card from both shaun and liz for my birthday! (pictures will be posted soon!) thanks so much liz and shaun!

(here's the funny thing...she made me this apron for the pay-it-forward post we did forever ago. i was going to make aprons too!!! great minds think alike! i got all the fabric for the aprons, was all ready to sew, and then my machine broke. and now that i got her apron, i can't make one for her because it would be awful (i have no sewing skills) compared to liz's fantastic apron!)

this is how we entertain ourselves while evan is away.

(click to enlarge of course)

and remember this post?
and this picture?

the above picture was taken last April and here is what my "mini bangs" look like now:

i might as well just cut actual bangs! it doesn't look too bad when my hair is down. except i have this one little sections of bangs that has a calic and sticks out. awesome.

he was just so proud of himself.

for crawling in a drawer and standing up.
when he knows he's not supposed to.
now he does it all the time.