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.

twenty seven is cool. right!

i admit i wasn't too excited about turning 27.
it sounds old to me.
i know it really isn't that bad...but i just didn't like the sound of it.
now that i am 27 though...it is fabulous! i would never go back to being 26!
i had a wonderful day, great party, delicious sushi, yummy cake with friends and family, awesome gifts and cards from loved ones, delightful phone calls and singing messages, facebook hello's, an awesome cake, cool decorations, hot pink everywhere, little kids everywhere, and a great game of "bang" at the end of the day!
thank you to everyone for making me feel so loved and special on my birthday! especially evan! you are the best friends and family a 27 year old girl could ever ask for!
i have big plans for making the next year awesome! i only have 3 more years until i am REALLY REALLY old!

a few fair pictures. finally.

and the older boys both got haircuts recently.
i am sad.
orion kept getting called a girl by stangers and evan didn't like that very much.
i didn't mind though...i thought he looked cute!

yes. as a matter of fact we did go to stocker farms.

yes. we were human gerbils. and yes julie...evan won!

yes. those are beauty queens all line up behind the boys.

yes. merrick does remind me of a turkey.

yes. as a matter of fact anna is lovely.

yes. that is corn instead of sand. and yes. it is genious.

yes. eric's head did get a littl stuck. and yes. we are both awesome.

yes. i do look homeless. don't make fun of me.

yes. his hair is a little mangy. it's cool.

yes. i did steal all these pictures from eric and julie's blog.
yes. we forgot our camera. again.
yes. it was a blast and we will go again next year for SURE!
thanks eric and julie for a fun time...can't wait till next weekend for REMLINGER FARMS!!!

this picture makes me smile.

that's all.

hey mann family.

just so you know you can look at claire and ryan's pictures online if you want to! just go to my website www.HeatherMannPhotography.com and click on the "client" link on the right. their event name is: ryan & claire and password is: mann.
(thanks so much to Blaire for shooting their wedding and being such an awesome associate photographer...and sister-in-law-law. i love that girl!)

it's october.

and i am super duper excited about it.
it's my favorite month by far!

you can do it in a trot...

you can do it in a gallop.
you can do it so your heart won't palpitate...
just don't be late.
do the puyallup! (i think that's how it goes!)

we went to the fair on monday...even though we were all sick, and had a blast!

we went at 11 and didn't get home till 9 and the boys were awesome.

we ate scones, elephant ears, crusty pups, carmel apples, and lots and lots of water.

we rode expensive kiddy rides (i loved the giant slide), pet animals, saw a little dog show, saw a draft horse show, looked at highschool art, stood in lines, looked at huge pumpkins, ran into friends, saw magic shows, listened to musical people, laughed, smiled, and had an all around fantastic time at the good ol' puyallup fair.

and every year we like to get the film strips and were laughing at how we probably won't be able to all fit next year. we'll have to get creative! and orion was super grumpy in these pictures...which made us laugh!

good memories. i'll post a few more pictures later!

(click to see it bigger. if you want to that is!)