4 years ago today...

...I was getting married to my wonderful husband!!! Our wedding day was such an amazing day. I am so blessed to have such a caring, supportive, and FUNNY husband. He is great. :)

Look how cute he is!!! However, he was allergic to his leigh, so he was DYING in these pictures!!! Gosh, that guy is allergic to EVERYTHING.

Such an amazing day...sometimes I wish that I could do a repeat because I loved that day sooooo much.

Thank you Richie for choosing me to be your wife:). I love you.

CRAZY!!!

OMG!!! I cannot believe this. One of my students told me about this and we started looking at it. If you click on it to make it bigger, you can see exactly everything she had done. What a waste of money. Personally, I think the "after" picture looks worse than the "before" picture. Can you even image living a life where you feel that much pressure to do something like that, or that you can justify spending money on something like that?!?! On a happier note...Lady Antibellum is on Ellen, who I love, and I can't wait for the their new album to come out!!

Crappy and His Girls

I just wanted to post these two pictures because I thought they were so cute. My Dad is the cutest Grandpa and I love that Sophs calls him Crappy:). It is so fun to watch him with all three of his grand kids, but especially the two girls, who pretty much have him wrapped around their finger.

Here is my Dad and Abby at the end of the night from her baptism...just snuggling. Catching this shot below almost made me cry. After mass, Sophia was kind of done with church. She did a great job, but church can be REALLY long for a three year old little girl. My Dad took her outside so that she could run around and play, but all she wanted to do was dance and twirl so that she could look at her dress:). Looking out the window, I caught the two of them dancing...love it!!

My Dad is so cute with his girls...they are blessed to have such a wonderful Grandpa.

Abby's Baptism

Last Saturday, my niece Abigail Kristine was Baptized. She was so good the whole day and didn't even cry when they poured the Holy water over her head. She is such a happy little girl!

Here she is sleeping before the big event:). Just exhausted... Kimberly and Zach asked Kyle and Amy to be Abby's Godparents. Kyle did such a great job holding her pretty much the whole time...however, he was DRIPPING in sweat by the end of mass!!! They are all laughing in this pic because Kyle jokingly told Kimberly that they were standing that way so they could crop Zach and Amy out of the pictures!!

Abby and her Godparents.I just loved this picture of Kyle and Abby.This is the whole family...well those that could be there. Richie and Michelle had to work, so they are missing.

There she is...I love how Kim and Zach are peeking over the shoulders:).

After mass, we all went back to Kim and Zach's for dinner and a little celebration. Amy has kind of become the official cake maker for all family events. She does an amazing job, not only are they visually appealing, but they taste GREAT!!!!

Kyle and Griffin...such a cute picture. Kyle always calls Griff "Big Boy Roy"...he is such a cute dad:).

I had to post this picture because I think it may be my first picture with Abby. I am usually the one taking all the pictures so I hardly ever get in them!!!

It was a great evening spent with family, all to celebrate beautiful Abigail becoming a member of the Catholic Church:).

My Cousin Sarah

On MLKJ Day (that is how I refer to Martin Luther King Jr. Day), I had the day off from work so I headed out to the barn where my cousin Sarah keeps her horse. She has been wanting some pictures of her and her horse, Sissy, and we finally got a sunny day. Here are some of my favorites from the shoot.

The barn that she goes too has so many beautiful places to take pictures...and the weather was PERFECT!! It felt like a Spring day. It was such a nice break from all of the rain and wind we have been having.

Sissy is such a sweet horse. At one point I was talking to her and rubbing her nose and she nuzzled her head toward me...too cute!!

Meno Kids

While Brandon and Kristie Meno were home for the holidays, they had me take pictures of their kids so that they could send out cards. I am ALMOST done editing the pictures (I will probably burn them, and send them out tomorrow) but I thought I would share some of my favorites with you all.

This picture of baby Jackson cracked me up...it kind of looks like he wants to tell me to "f" off and give me the finger...if only he had better control of his motor skills:)!!!! Such a beautiful baby boy!!!

As you can see, I am kind of into the old school toning right now:).

I love this picture. I really think I love it so much because Maggie Claire is just staring at her older sister Taylor, as though she is looking up to her to see what to do next. Being the fifth of six children, I completely remember that feeling of trying to be just like the older siblings. This picture is so sweet to me...there is nothing like the love of a sibling:).

All three of the kids. Brandon and Kristie seriously produce beautiful children!!

The Menos were celebrating Maggie's birthday the day that I took pictures and while I was taking this one below Taylor told her sister, "Happy Birthday" (with a big hug) and Maggie responded with "Happy Birthday." Taylor, very sweetly, reminded her, "It isn't my birthday Maggie." It was so cute!!

Kora--these two totally reminded me of you and I.

She is so adorable!!!

I have to give all the credit for this cute idea to Kristie!! She received a card this season where the family put all the heads together. Such a cute idea. Maggie wasn't rally understanding when we told her to put the top of her head with the other two, so we got as close as we could to having all three heads together:).

This girl cracked me up. When I took their pictures, this was the first time I had seen her since she was a baby. She is soooooo out going and is quite the character...I really feel like her and I are one of the same:).

Again, Maggie Claire. She kind of stole my heart:).

The Menos are such amazing friends and I felt so privileged that they wanted me to do their pictures while they were home. It was so much fun and a great excuse to visit with them!!

Menos and Husseys

My Mom has been best friends with Mary Beth Meno since they were young girls, well of course her last name has not always been Meno but you get what I mean:). Our families have grown up together and remain very close. Over Winter Break, Brandon (Mary Beth's son) and Kristie Meno were in Washington for the holidays with their three children. They had a son a month before Abby was born. When Mary Beth came to visit us she brought Jackson along, so the two got to meet for the first time. I had to take pictures because it was just too cute. In fact Geoff Meno and I have many pictures that look very similar to these ones...except that I was a HUGE baby, therefore, even though I was younger than Geoff, I always looked larger:) and in these pictures Abs is smaller than Jackson. These pictures prove that true friendship last a lifetime and sometimes spans longer than that...into future generations:).

I loved this one because it looks like Abby is getting pissed at Jackson. She is saying, "Keep your hand down there Boy!!!"

Me with baby Jackson. He was so cute and snuggly. I felt sad for him though because he was a little sick. It is always so sad to see a sick baby:(. He was quite the trooper though.

Fluke Family Pics

On Christmas Eve I went over to the Fluke's house to take some family pictures for them. Unfortunately, it was raining outside, so we were not able to take any pictures out there, therefore, we had to struggle with the light inside. I just ordered and received a new flash with a swivel head and diffuser, so hopefully that will help with the indoor pictures:).

Even with the lighting trouble, I was able to get a few good shots of their family. It always helps when you have a good looking group to work with:).

Here is one of the whole family... The three Fluke kids.

The original Fluke bunch:).

Little Chase man...he is such a cutie. He just had his two year birthday...such a big boy. I love the look on his face for this picture.

Three generations of Fluke men...basically, this picture is the definition of "trouble!!!"

Chase was loving his Papa that day. Every time Tom would hold him Chase would lay his cheek on Tom's...it was so cute.

Oh man, this picture cracked me up.

It was so much fun to take pictures of them. The Fluke's have been my second family since I was little and they all mean so much to me. They have been great people to grow up with and I am very blessed to have friends like them in my life.

Hussey Christmas

Around 10:30am on Christmas morning, Richie and I had finally had our fill of Faatoafe time. The girls had played with games, some people were taking naps, and others were starting to get restless. Richie and I were very tired from getting there so early, and we still needed to open Christmas presents from each other and our stockings!! Therefore, we headed home for a few hours before going over to my parents house for Christmas with the Husseys.

We arrived at my parents around noon and this is what we found on the dinning room table!! Joe and Dad were having a little Christmas morning Jack Daniels tasting:). Anyone who knows my Dad, knows that he loves his Jack, for this reason, people always get him gifts of different types of Jack (FYI: he prefers the single barrel). We though it was really funny to line them up, worst to best. It was brought to my attention that the "worst" is the least full...probably because my Dad saves the good stuff for himself:). Great way to start Christmas morning!!!
Kyle, Amy, Sophia, and Griffin, got there shortly after we did and Sophia was VERY excited to show off her fancy new dress from Santa. She literally came dancing in!! This girl is too funny. She danced for a good thirty minutes before we had to start opening gifts...between us...she also danced a little in between rounds of opening:).Look how cute Griff is in his Carhart hat...now he matches Uncle Joe!!! She is just so pretty!! This is her fancy new Barbie...it is porcelain...very exciting for a little girl:).

We all totally thought that Richie looked like Sarkesian in his outfit for Christmas day. He was so cute!! Here he is with his favorite gift...casino chips:).

My Dad was holding Abs and Sophia came over to talk with them...I think she was getting worried that Grampy (or Crappy, as she calls him) was going to forget about her because....

...the next thing she was saying was, "Can you hold me too?" It was so precious. Both these girls already have my Dad wrapped around their fingers:)! It is so great to watch him with my siblings kids.

This picture cracked me up!!! It is like she is saying, "My first Coach purse!! Yay!!"

And then, Abby summed up the feeling at the end of the day best..."pooped out!!!!!"

By the end of the day Richie and I were so exhausted!!! It was a LONG day, but a wonderful one. We thank God everyday that we have so many loving family members around us all the time.

Here is to a great Christmas in the year 2009! I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010 full of blessings:).