Miracles....

...are happening in our midst. Please check out some unexpected good news over at MckMama's blog. Her son Stellan is quite a fighter! Please pray for continued healing of Stellan's heart, and MckMama's own health as she tries to carry this baby to term.

Sadness....

It breaks my heart to relay that the news is not looking good from MckMama. Please continue to pray for peace for her, and a miracle for her baby.

Prayers needed....

If you are one to pray (heck, even if you don't usually pray, it's never too late to start!), your prayers are so desperately needed for my friend and her unborn baby. Blog readers are probably familiar with MckMama, who is not only an amazing, inspiring blogger, but a wonderful mother and a dear friend. Her baby, due in November, is having serious heart complications in utero. Please pray for a miraculous healing of MckMuffin, and please pray that peace be in MckMama's heart.

Recipe for disaster

1. Start with one messy toddler boy


2. Add in a box of packing peanuts


3. Allow toddler to mix with peanuts liberally


4. I think you know where this is going...


5. Give toddler a lesson in cleaning up after we make a mess. Then put him down for a nap while you REALLY clean up the mess left behind (out comes that handy vacuum cleaner again...).

Guie Family Updates

We had a great time at the Guie family picnic this year. You may remember it from 2007 and 2006, but this year it didn't occur to us to take any pictures of the four cousins that were born within two months of each other, I guess because we just had them all together at the cousins picnic. Well, they are about to be shown up by a new round of four MORE cousins, all due to be born within about two months of each other as well!

Cousin Kristen is due first, with her second baby! She already had a daughter, Maddy.
Next is Cousin Shane's wife, Tina, who is due with their first - a girl!
Then it is cousin Shawn's wife, Tiffany, due with their third boy!
Last is my cousin Stephanie, who is due with her second baby. She already has a son, Kyler.

We have to put the pressure on Tina, who doesn't yet have a blog ;)

Also, the pictures of the renovated office are up on my photography blog.

And yes, I'm slacking on pictures. I found a few on my point and shoot, I'll try to upload this week....

Jake Playing with his "Moe Hat"

Jake's great aunt Barbara asked if she could take Jake off my hands to go the the Bronx Zoo for an afternoon of fun. UmLemmieThinkYES! So I have an unexpected free moment on a tuesday evening - woo-hoo! I spent my free time vaccuming - boy did the house needed it! - And sipping on a nice cold Mike's Hard Light Lemonade and enjoying some toaster-oven Ellio's pizza. Sounds like a darn fine summer evening to me, no?

So enough about me and my freedom to drink wine coolers on a tuesday evening....mmmm...just had to savor that one more time... Here are some pictures of Jake from earlier in the afternoon as he was trying on his Moe Doodle (of Doodlebops fame) wig. Jake calls this his "Moe Hat." Too funny.


And playing with the bottom half of his motorized schoolbus....



And also, I am so proud to show off my green thumb:


Our old hydrangea bush barely produced a thing all last summer, as it was highly overgrown and terribly under-hydrated. I pruned it early in the spring and have been watering it regularly and she has rewarded me with dozens of showy heads of pink and purple. There are cut hydrangeas in the kitchen, my office, in the living room, and even one in my favorite bud vase in the powder room. There is nothing more relaxing to me than cut flowers in the house, your rambunctious non-napping two-year-old off at the zoo with someone else, a vaccummed carpet... and a Mike's Hard Lemonade! :) (Okay, the people at Mike's better start paying me for this!)

A Labor of Love....

UPDATE: The site is LIVE! Please check it out and tell me what you think! :)

I have spent hours and hours of my life working on my new photography portfolio site. I outsourced the design and the back-end, but the design elements, the art direction, the copywriting, and choosing & editing all of the images was up to me. It has been the most effort-intensive, costly, overwhelming project I have ever managed. Other than childbirth I guess.... Anyway, my "new baby" is days (hours?) away from being born and I could not be more proud! Please let me know what you think of the new site once it goes live... And also, of course, please send customers my way :)

Cousin's Picnic

Okay, so all of my cousins already posted this weeks ago (you know, when it happened), but I am known to always be a little late to the party. We'll call it fashionably late blogging ;)

Geedah Reads to Jake

Jake LOVES to be read to. When I get to the end pages of Hop on Pop he starts to cry because he knows it's the end of the story! He'll ask "One Time!" meaning 'one more time' but he really means, 'read it six or seven more times until I fall asleep'. Here is a picture of Jake and his Grandma (Geedah) reading a story.

Enter Sandman

Jake listening to his tunage in the sandbox at Geeda & Peepa's.

*Credit for snazzy title goes to Unka Danny. Five bonus points to the first commenter who can name the band and the album.

P.S. - I know, I know, I've heard the complaints. As a mommy blogger, I am the pits lately. I will try to do better in the future. Weddings will slow down significantly in July and August, but expect the blog to be spotty, at best, once fall rolls around :)