Mike and Leah

Last weekend my sister's BFFAE got married. She and Kimberly have been besties since they were in 7th grade, which means that Leah has been another sisterly figure to me since I was six!!! She looked beautiful and the whole day was amazing!! The wedding was held at the Alderbrook resort on Hood Canal, which was the perfect setting.Sophia was a Dancing Queen!! She kept lifting her skirt...where did she learn that dance move?!? Here is the photographer, Shannon, who is always stuck behind the camera, so I wanted to make sure and get a few pictures of her. She not only is the photographer, but also a great friend to Kimberly and Leah, so I felt that she needed documentation that she was present at the wedding:).

Amy and Sophia checking out the canal.

MARRIED!!!

It was such a fun weekend. We were able to hang out with the bride and groom, who will soon be moving to Montana, the day after the wedding. It was such a perfect setting for a wedding and so fun to make a mini vacation out of it!! Congrats Leah and Mike!!!

First Photo Shoot

I have recently taken up the hobby of photography. My cousin Lindsey is also into takin' pics, however, she is MUCH more advanced than I am. Her pictures are amazing and she does a great job with her editing. She recently let me tag along while she was taking senior pictures for one of her cousins, who I used to baby-sit!! It was so fun to see the little girls that I used to take care of, all grown up, and now I am taking pictures of them:). These pictures were actually taken a few weeks ago, but I just recently got my editing program and so I am finally posting a few of the pics. Please, please let me know if you want me to practice with your children or family!!

Here is a cute picture of my cousin Lindsey takin' a picture of me, taking a picture of her!! It was fun to hang out and take pictures together...we are trying to come up with fun names for a photography company (let me know any ideas that you have). So far we have Hussey squared photography (the squared part would actually be the symbol, I just can't figure out how to do that on my key board), Hussey and Hussey Inc., Hussey Photos, Pictures by Hussey...etc...Even though we both have "lost" the last name of Hussey, due to marriage, we both still feel very connected to it:). However, Richie said that having the last name Hussey and having the business of pictures, might open up a different market than what we were thinking!!

The oldest Lawrence girl, Amanda. She will be graduating in 2010 and we were recruited to take her senior pics.Another picture of Lindsey taking pics!!

The two younger Lawrence girls, Alex and Jill. They were coming along to get a few pics and, also, so we could get a few pics of all three girls together.

All three of them.

Pretty Amanda.

Jill.

Alex is a figure skater, so the twirling part was very natural for her.

I had such a great time. I really do love taking pictures. I look forward to taking my cousin, Scott's, senior pictures pretty soon. I would love to get into photography as a side job / hobby and I feel like I have finally gotten started with that.

Keepin' cool

Richie decided to pull out the hose the other day when it was SUPER hot in order to water some trees and cool off the dogs. We have already set up the sprinkler for them to play in, but Baxter proceeded to bite at the streams of water until he had completely destroyed the sprinkler!! Therefore, Richie's next solution to hot weather was just a simple stream of water, which both the dogs LOVED, but Lady loved it a little bit more. I think we need to get them a kiddie pool to play around in while it is hot, but I am not sure if Baxter would just chew it to bits or actually play in it!!

Here is Baxter playing with the hose...He is so freakin' cute sometimes...however, right now, he is sitting next to me and whining because he wants to sit on my lap and is really annoying me...not so cute:)....J/K. He's like, "Dad, keep putting water on me!!! It feels soooooo good! I can't even keep my eyes open." Don't mind the big patch of dirt on his cheek...it is from hours of chewing on his Kong ball.

Lady could not stop playing with the water, however, Baxter soon grew bored and went back to his Kong ball.

My pretty Lady...I like to call her Lady Bug. She is so sweet, all the time, and absolutely loves the water!! To her, this was, like, best day ever!!!!!!!

I know that I am a total dork for doing a whole blog on my dogs, but sometimes they are just so cute that I want everyone else to see them too. They really do full fill me more than I ever thought a dog could. I was never even a dog person, but now I am hooked! They make me very happy:).

Parade pics

Okay...I was finally able to upload pictures...for some reason my computer was being super weird!! Here is Sophia in her Daddy's truck. She was so excited for the parade.This was in the parade...you can actually see a piece of candy that Sophia had just thrown out...if you look really close.

Here comes my big brother!!! Or as Joe used to say when he was little, my big broder.

My mom caught a piece of candy and was so excited. There is nothing like a good, small town, parade to bring the child out in all of us!!

We really did have a great time!

You know its a small town when...

...this is one of the entries in the "family" fun parade!!...the "Grand Finale" of the parade is a row of six log trucks!! The parade was actually really fun and cute...which was fitting since the name of the whole thing was The Napavine Funtime Festival. All of the floats threw out candy like a real old school parade. It was fun and my brother's truck matched Hampton's stuff perfectly because their colors are orange. Here are some pics of Kyle in the parade....okay, actually I am not being able to upload the pics right now so I will do it later...enjoy these for now:).

Playing With My New Camera...Again

This weekend a company that my Dad's company hauls for a lot asked him if he would be in the Napavine parade with one of their loads. My Dad thought that my brother, Kyle, had a much fancier truck than him, so it was decided that Kyle would be in the parade. I went down to watch the parade with some of my family members and had a great chance to play with my new camera, which I am LOVING!!! These were just a few pictures that I wanted to share with everyone from the day...they are more of me playing with my camera than of the actual parade.

You will notice that Sophia often ends up being my "subject" for photos...This puppy was just soooo cute that I had to put a picture of him on my blog too!!! He was an Old English Bulldog and I loved him:).

I wish I could have dinner with...

I wish I could have dinner with my Grandma Dorothy. This is my Dad's mom, who so many people, including my Grandpa, tell me that I look and act like. The picture below is hanging on the fridge at my parents house. My Grandma is probably only 16 in the picture, but the first time that Richie ever came to my parents house he saw the picture and asked who that lady was. I told him it was my Grandma and he stated, "Wow, this looks exactly like you, but with dark hair." (The same, but different...for those of you who get that joke!!) As I have gotten older, people, including my Dad and his sister, Linda, have told me that I act so much like my Grandma, right down to the way I flirt and like my nails painted. Therefore, if I could have dinner with anyone, I would not choose someone famous (as the question usually is "what famous person would you have dinner with?")...I would choose my Grandma. She died right before I turned nine years old and I think that I would have enjoyed her much more as an adult:).

Leah's Bachelorette Party

This weekend I went to Leah's bachelorette party on Whidbey Island. Leah has been my sister's BFF since the seventh grade and has been like another big sister to me for all those years as well. The cabin that we stayed in was so adorable and the setting was gorgeous. We all had a great time and were blessed with beautiful weather, which gave us a spectacular lightening show to watch at the end of the night. Here is the beautiful bride, coming in from the sun for a quick refreshment break:).

Oops...Kimberly fell asleep in this picture, but this was right when the sun was going down and the lighting was amazing so I had to share the picture. It was fun to be able to hang out with two of my sisters...we greatly missed Michelle, who was too sick to come up for the party.

As always, I had to dip my toes into the water. The beach was so pretty. I decided that someday I need to have a beach cabin where I could spend my summers!! Yeah right, in my dreams:).

Such a great time.

We sat around drinking, talking, and the most fun...watching Kimberly's cute belly grow. I had not seen Kimberly for a couple weeks and so I was absolutely shocked at how much her baby had grown. So exciting and fun to see my sister going through all of this...she has made me realize that there really is such thing as a "pregnancy glow."

The "little girls" being dorks.

It was a great night and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I can't wait for the wedding on July 24th at the Alderbrook Resort. Congrats to Mike and Leah.

Then and Now

This is the first picture that Richie and I ever took together. We were not quite together yet, but I think you can see that we already loved each other:). I was only 18 years old in this picture and my cute little husband was only 17!!! CRAZY!!! Look at his ugly little mustache...he thought it was soooooo cool. Hahaha. We finally started dating about 10 months after this picture was taken. It seems so long ago.... And here we are today. A few years older, a few pounds heavier, a few more wrinkles, and a lot more love (totes cheesy, I know). I am now 27 and he turns 27 on July 12th...gosh, these pictures are taken almost TEN years apart.

I guess we have switched who kisses who in the pictures now.

How time flies!!! It does not even seem like Richie and I are old enough to have been together for this long. Since it is summer time...the first summer Richie and I were together, we would buy Mickey's 22's at the local Chevron, right down the street from his parents house. We were not 21 yet so we could only buy beer at that specific place because they never carded Richie due to the fact that they thought he was his older brother, Chris. We would then proceed to sit around, usually with a friend or two, and drink them on the side of / the driveway at his parent's...so classy!!! But for some reason it was so fun...probably just because we were hanging out together:).

Good times!!!!!

Great time, great friends

Last weekend some of my greatest friends from childhood found time out of our busy schedules to get together. It is always such a great time when the four of us are together, as there is such a great comfort in being with old friends. Lauren recently moved to a cute little cottage style house right outside of downtown Gig Harbor. She has a beautiful view and the sun was shining the day we headed up there. We were able to go wine tasting, beer tasting, have a yummy lunch, and a fresh seafood dinner.

Here are the four of us, Lauren, Jessica, Me, and Beth, taking a time out from our beer tasting. It was such a pretty day!!We were able to do some great wine tasting at a couple places in downtown Gig Harbor.And one of the places was even offering a beer tasting...it was REALLY good. Usually I don't like any beer besides light beer, but this stuff was tasty!!Some of Lauren's friends had gone out in their boat for the day and brought back fresh crab and oysters. They were so good, but then again I love pretty much any seafood so it wasn't too hard to please me:).Here are Jessica and I hanging out at Lauren's after lunch. Wine in the middle of the day can really make a person tired so while we waited for dinner to get there we sat around "resting" up before the night festivities began.

Okay, so we didn't rest the whole time, we also paid tribute to Michael Jackson by having a dance / sing off to some of his greatest hits. Here is Jessica really gettin' down!! I have to admit, she was quite good at some of his moves!!

Beth and Jessica at lunch.

It was such a fabulous day, which made me wonder why we don't make time for days like that more often? They are so refreshing and, I think, they make each of us a little mentally stronger:). I love these ladies and I am blessed to have them in my life.