the brand family blog

christmas from santa

2011-01-16T14:12:00.000-05:00

Although all of our Christmases have been special, this was truly the first year that both girls really understood who Santa is and counted down for weeks before he came! It was definitely the most special Christmas we've spent together.

Famous Chocolate Chip "Brookie's Cookies" made for Santa

And milk of course!

I know two girls that were very excited on Christmas Eve!
......And the next morning, Santa had left a LOAD of presents!!
...including this vanity, which was a favorite!
Santa left a guide for presents too!
And a note...
We loved looking at all of our Christmas cards! Thank you to all of you who sent them!
Every year when Santa comes, the elves come upstairs to leave an ornament on each child's door. One silly elf always have a hole in his candy bag, and spills Hershey kisses all the way! That same silly elf always came to mommy's house when I was growing up too!
...We all love that silly elf! :)
WOW! Lots of present opening!

Daddy used his new smiley face pancake pan to make us all breakfast! YUM!
The girls had fun pampering mommy at the vanity...
...and daddy too!!
Merry Christmas, Sammi & Natalie! Thank you, Santa, for a wonderful Christmas!

This year we were also able to adopt a family who needed some help under the tree through St. Mary's Children's Center. It was extremely rewarding and we plan on having each of our girls adopt a child through this program every year. It is a great way to teach our kids about giving to others, appreciating what we have, and also experiencing the true spirit of Christmas. If you are looking for a way to give back to the community in the Indianapolis area, I highly recommend going through this organization! (Click HERE.)

christmas with the shermans & grandma parker

2011-01-15T13:56:00.001-05:00

For the second year in a row, I was able to convince my Grandma Parker to come stay with us for Christmas! Mom and I drove to Cincinnati to pick her up and we had such a memorable time over the week she was visiting!!!

The next three photos sum up how much my girls love Grandma Parker!

Sammi and Grandma playing Sam's version of Battleship...

Grandma and I have a big joke about how much we both love junk food, so as a joke (but kind of not) I bought her tons and tons of boxes of Little Debbie snacks as a Christmas gift -- hilarious!

We bought our brothers these hilarious toasters for Christmas - Reds for Jordie and Cubs for Scott!

Ashley and Jordie

Samantha sporting her reindeer ears!

...And opening her prized pillow pet, which she LOVES!

Merry Christmas, Sherman Family and Grandma Parker! Grandma, thank you SO much for spending your Christmas with us!!! I plan on picking you up every year, so you can go ahead and put it on your calendar!!! :) xoxo

it's beginning to look a lot like....

2011-01-03T22:39:00.006-05:00

(a white) CHRISTMAS!

Okay, so we're already into the new year, and I'm just now getting back to personal blogging. I have to admit that although a large part of the reason I went "missing" over the last few months was because we were SO busy this fall with our studio (a very good thing), I also sort of went into a depression after we lost Dan's beloved uncle and I simultaneously was diagnosed with a medical condition (Interstitial Cystitis or IC - click HERE if you're interested in knowing what on earth that is) that threw me out of sorts emotionally for a while. After meeting with several doctors & a specialist, getting my diet under control, finding a mix of drugs and supplements to aid in treating my symptoms, I am finally feeling like I will make it - and with a smile on my face! :)

So... I'm back! :) And I am starting off 2011 with a few blog entries to catch us up on the last few wonderful weeks of Christmas!

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS 2010
Daddy putting up our new tree

Natalie loved helping!

We had just started pulling boxes of ornaments out of the attic...

I didn't get any photos of the stocking holders I placed on the fireplace holding our stockings - but they were HEAVY. And just as my curious Natalie started to pull her stocking down to look at it, I turned and saw it - all happening in slow motion through my eyes without me being able to do a darn thing about it because I was moving in slow motion too - that stocking holder glided off the mantle and hit her right in the face, on her forehead. (Thank GOD it she didn't lose an eye!!!) The next second, which felt like an eternity, was like someone had hit the pause button in the room as I, still moving in slow motion toward her wondered what would come next, as at that particular moment I was not sure where exactly or how hard it had hit her face. Then her scream and the blood came quickly. The room spun back into "fast motion" and blood was pouring down her face and all over the floor. I scooped her up, ran to the kitchen tackling her head with a mass of paper towels while trying to grab ice, frantically telling Sam to find my phone. Dan was in photo sessions so I called my parents. Her head was bleeding so much that I didn't think I could just throw her in the car to take her to the ER myself.

Long story shorter: by the time my parents arrived (10 minutes later), the bleeding and crying had mostly stopped. My parents immediately said she would not need stitches, but helped me clean her (and the floor) and love on the poor thing. Four weeks later, she still has a huge healing gash in her head and it makes me feel like a terrible mommy every time I look at it! I know, I know.... these things happen!! But I should have had the foresight to not use those holders. They have been safely put in storage for the next 10 years and I bought small clear command hooks in the meantime.

Not long after, she was happy again, eating cottage cheese!

After naps, we proceeded with our Christmas preparations and made Christmas cookies! We made the packaged cookies as directed, then homemade icing...

We sandwiched the cookies with the icing, and rolled them in Christmas sprinkles! Fun and delicious!

Finished cookies! Pretty good for 1 & 3 year-olds!

A special thanks to my friend Maggie for helping me fold, stuff, seal, and stamp our Christmas cards! Poor Maggie is on hospital bedrest (for 15 weeks), pregnant with her first child, and so I put her to work at something she could do in bed! :) I always love our hospital visits (although I of course wish they weren't in the hospital)!

Sammi enjoyed helping to pick out and stuff her teachers' Christmas presents!

Those were most of the early Christmas preparations we did! I will post more about our Christmas celebrations with family and from Santa soon! Thanks for checking in, friends! Much love to you! :)

brewing up a good halloween

2010-11-01T10:59:00.004-04:00

Having two little girls old enough to have opinions makes picking out Halloween costumes that much more fun... and that much more difficult!!! We spent hours in several different stores looking for the perfect costumes, and it wasn't until the girls spotted these purple sparkly brooms that they both agreed they'd like to be witches!

When we got home with our costumes Sam sprinted out into the backyard and immediately straddled the broom and stood still for a few minutes. I went out to see what she was doing, and she said "Mommy, it's not working!!! It's not flying me!" She was sadly disappointed when I explained to her, after having a good laugh, that the broom was just for pretending to fly.

We spent lots of time doing hair and makeup, which my girlie girls love!

We had our annual tradition of trick or treating with Joe, Lisa, and Reece!

Lisa and I walked door to door with the kids while Joe and Dan stayed behind to hand out candy. Normally we switch half way through, but it got SO cold that we called it a night!

annual brand halloween cookout

2010-10-28T11:32:00.001-04:00

We spent the weekend before Halloween at Aunt Vi's house. A bonfire with hot dogs and smores, a haunted forest, and parade of costumes has become an annual tradition, thanks to Ed and Vi throwing this party for many, many years. This was the first year without Uncle Ed there (he passed in a car accident in August), which made this particular visit somewhat sad and definitely made it different, but we still enjoyed being there very much.

A perfect Halloween drink for Sammi to stir!

The kids after the "Monster Mash Parade"...

I am so grateful for such a wonderful family!!

birthday trip to sarah b's

2010-10-15T11:26:00.001-04:00

I spent my 32nd birthday weekend taking the girls to visit my life-long friend, Sarah B in Dayton. We had SUCH a great, relaxing weekend! It was truly wonderful! Dan gave me an awesome new point-n-shoot camera for my birthday, but I had the settings all wrong this first time I was using it (imagine that - it's different than a professional camera! Ha ha!)... so the photos aren't great but the memories are!!!

We spent the first afternoon walking to the park with Sarah and her wonderful husband, Josh. Sarah and Josh are both teachers, so it goes without saying they are wonderful with kids and definitely two of my kids' favorite people to visit!!!

The park near their house has this amazing, huge slide! We brought wax paper with us (to make it even faster) and took turns going down... so fun!

We went out for pizza...

And Sarah baked a birthday cake for me & they sang! So sweet!!! Thanks, Sarah!

Bedtime stories...

Art projects in the morning...

And one last trip to the park for a Taco Bell picnic lunch before heading home! :)

Sarah and Josh, thank you so much for having us! Sarah, I am so glad we are still such close friends after over 25 years!!!! You always take my kids in as your own, and you are family to us!!! We love you!!!!

taff and sonkoi visit from africa

2010-09-30T11:57:00.001-04:00

My dad's sister is one of my favorite people on earth. She is so wise, has amazing street smarts, always the right thing to say, and mostly I have always admired her for not being afraid to go out into the world and do whatever it is she wants to accomplish without hesitation. (We call her Taff because she loved Taffy as a kid, and it's always stuck! And my dad's brother has always been "Malt" to us because he loved malts growing up! How funny! And I don't even think of that when they're around, they just are Taff and Malt!)

Until recently, when Kenya started getting very violent due to the droughts and lack of food, Taff and her husband, Sonkoi, have been living there in a house they built by hand, giving tours to visitors, raising cows, and building a rhino sanctuary.

Sonkoi is an elder in the Masai Tribe, and we sit for hours listening to his stories of lion-hunting, rituals, and ceremonies when they visit. I SO wish I could get past my fear of traveling and being away from US medical availability (sparked from my 4-year bought with kidney problems, infections, stones, and IC), because visiting them in Africa would be the trip of an absolute lifetime. Maybe someday.... with lots of Zanax!
The Sherman family got together for a cookout to visit!

We LOVE you, Taff and Sonkoi! Thanks for stopping to visit us while staying in the US for awhile!!! :)

sammi writes her letters

2010-09-28T22:50:00.004-04:00

Samantha has been learning to write her letters in school over the last few weeks and we are blown away by how fast she is picking them up! She can write almost any letter you tell her, and she is even starting to learn how to sound words out!

I am so thankful for her wonderful teachers!

Here is a close up of the letters from the video...

Here's a family portrait she drew of us at school. I love that she has brown hair, Natalie has blond, and mommy looks like a rocket and daddy looks like a jellyfish - what's that about?! :-)

They ask the kids at school to finish the sentence before drawing a picture. Since she has many friends at school, we thought it was sweet she said Natalie on this one!

They do so many really cool art projects at school, which both girls LOVE. Someday we'll photograph all of them and post some here. :-)

a spoon full of sugar

2010-09-26T23:28:00.007-04:00

My mom took Sam and me to see the musical Mary Poppins this week and it was a blast. Mary Poppins was a favorite movie of mine and it was very sweet to get to go with mom and Samantha to see the musical together!

The morning of the musical I was cleaning and washing dishes, and headed upstairs with just enough time to get us all ready. As I reached the top of the stairs I heard the hair dryer running (?????). I ran to my bathroom to see Sammi, who was sooooo excited to see Mary Poppins that she got "dressed up" and had painted her toenails to look pretty for the occasion. She was trying to dry them before she did her other foot. I was simultaneously filled with laughter and panic, as she had inadvertently painted the floor, my stool, and the counter too!

Sammi innocently "getting ready" for the show!

We made the show in plenty of time and our seats were fantastic!!! Thanks, mom!!!! All of these photos are taken with my phone, which I'm not thrilled with even on a phone-photo level, but oh well... it was the best I could do in the theatre!

Patiently awaiting the show...

Mommy and Sammi:

Grandma & Sammi:

Looking through the playbill... She really wanted to wear her (huge) ring! Love it!

These are some photos from the advertisements... It was an awesome show with an unbelievable amount of talent!!!

The two children in the musical were absolutely fabulous. I could not believe their amazing voices as well as their acting and dancing!

While we were enjoying the show, my dad took Dan and Natalie out to eat lunch and then Dan worked while Natalie spent the afternoon with her grandpa. I wasn't too sure how Sammi would do in the show considering that it was exactly during her usual nap time. I got a little worried when she started asking me if I would take her home to take a nap to her own room during the first act! But, she sat on my lap, mostly watched as they sang, danced, climbed on the ceiling of the stage, and more... The poor girl was so tired, but she did a really good job and I'm really proud of her! It was great fun taking her to a real show. I can't thank my mom enough!!!

After the show (and a quick nap in the car), we met the boys and Natalie out for dinner at Houlihans, which was such a treat!!!

Thanks again, mom and dad!!!!
The day was simply, SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALADOCIOUS!

our summer 2010

2010-09-19T21:48:00.011-04:00

We've had a busy summer! We've been through some tough times this summer but we have so much to be thankful for! Since I have gotten so far behind in blogging this summer, I just compiled photos snapped with my phone all summer to give you a taste of what we've been up to all in one post.

We've had lots of trips to the zoo, to different parks, to see friends, to play on the playground. We've had picnics. We've played in the pools and in the sprinklers. We've dressed up a lot. We've been to parties, hosted a carnival, traveled to Purdue, and ate lots of vegetables out of our parents' gardens. (Yeah, mine didn't quite make it!)

The girls have spent a lot of time with their grandparents, which I am so very thankful for on so many levels. Our parents have been the most supportive team, rooting for us - assisting us - stepping in to help whenever we need it - however we need it - as we grow our family and our business. I don't know if they know it, but we know they go waaaay above and beyond the normal scope of what parents do to help their children and grandchildren. We are so very lucky to have them all in our lives. The girls have spent lots of time with their wonderful aunts and uncles too. I could have never imagined how lucky I would be to gain amazing siblings through my marriage in addition to my husband.

This summer we've worked hard and played hard, and we've had lazy days too. We've laughed hard and cried hard. We've learned a lot. And we are so thankful for all that we have.

I'd be lying if I said I was ready for fall.... time seems to flash past me and as much as I try to slow it down it just seems to get faster each day. It's hard for me to believe I will have a four year old and two year old in just a few short months. But until then, we have lots of planning to do for pumpkin picking, halloween costume-finding, apple orchards, bon fires, and much more....

So... Cheers to wrapping up this summer and heading into fall! May you all have a wonderful season full of memories!!!

we'll be back soon

2010-09-06T23:51:00.003-04:00

About three weeks ago I was about to update the blog with about 5 fun overdue posts, and then something happened. A very close family member of Dan's passed away unexpectedly and it just seemed to put everything (everything - seeming the entire world at first) on hold for a while.

Ed's death definitely has and will change our lives forever, and I will do an entire tribute post to Ed when I'm ready.

For now I just wanted to say that we are all here --- we are all healthy --- we are all great. We've had many wonderful memories to share from this summer and I will be back soon (after our carnival at our photography studio this weekend is over!) and will be sharing those with you soon.

Thank you so much to all of you who have given us so much support through the tragedy. The entire Brand Family has been blessed with so many wonderful friends... and of course we realize how blessed we are to have each other.

Please continue to pray for Ed's wife and three daughters & their families as well as all of the siblings, grandchildren, friends, and family who miss him dearly...

We hope to see you all this weekend at the carnival - and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, click HERE!

Much love to you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll be back soon.

our first movie

2010-07-31T13:43:00.005-04:00

We have waited a long time to take our girls to their first movie ever, and although I was still a little nervous about chasing them around the theater and shhhhing them for two hours, to my delight they (mostly) stayed in their seats, quietly paid attention, and absolutely LOVED it!!! Every part of the experience was new and so much fun for them! We had a ball.

Seeing the entrance of the theater was like arriving at a carnival! They both literally ran up to the counter excited about all of the candy and food!

Sammi was adamant that she wanted popcorn, pizza, nachos with cheese, a pretzel, and about 5 different candy boxes. :) We settled for popcorn and nachos (which was our lunch - although super unhealthy, it was quite fun!)

Sammi got to put the butter on our popcorn...

They both loved the movie and loved the popcorn and nachos too! I couldn't believe how much popcorn they ate....as much as the adults!

At the very end of the movie Natalie got restless and we let her walk up and down the stairs next to us. She was great about staying quiet, and it really wasn't a problem since it was a weekday matinee and there weren't many people there. After we came out, I wanted a photo of them by the poster, but it was so bright after sitting in the dark theater that it was hard for them to open their eyes!

Thanks, Sammi and Natalie, for giving us such a memorable and fun first movie experience together!!!! XOXO

our dave ramsey canvas

2010-07-28T22:42:00.005-04:00

We got a new piece of artwork for our home, and I could not be more excited!!!! With the business and our studio keeping us busy, our home has been neglected for quite some time. Dan and I set some goals when we started Dave Ramsey, and when we hit a recent milestone, we bought this canvas for our home (we had cash for it, of course.) :) We still have a long way to go, a lot of goals to achieve, and still aren't making all of the payments we want to be right now, but once we sat down and crunched the numbers of how far we've come on the Dave Ramsey plan over the last 10 months, we couldn't help but to celebrate a little.

We ordered this 30X40 canvas gallery wrap to hang over our fireplace, and that's exactly what we did when it came in. After much contemplating, I decided it just didn't look perfect where it was so I made Dan move it down 3 inches, which meant visible holes in the wall to fix (sorry honey). With the canvas moved and two more holes in the wall, I still didn't think it looked just right, and we set it above the couch to see how it would look there. That was it! It looked perfect! Especially with our brainstorming and plans to add to it later! (See below)

Finally the huge wall of our living room had something interesting to look at! I rummaged through our closet and dug up the framed prints that Dan bought me during his photography internship in Italy in 2002, which fit perfectly over the fireplace.

We have two 11X14 canvases upstairs, so I brought them down just to see what it might look like to hang two of this size on either side of the big canvas, and we loved the look! We did a quick photo shoot of the girls a few nights ago because there is a perfect field of overgrown weeds near our house. I have a feeling those will be perfect 11X14 additions to our wall, but those will be coming in the future... hopefully sooner than later!

This is a rough idea of what we'll be doing, with two on the right too!

If you've been following our journey and been contemplating doing Dave Ramsey, DO IT. It has changed our life more than any other thing we've ever done and we are so grateful. Since October we've paid off about $30,000 of our debt (not including mortgage payments). I'm proud to say we are down one credit card, three store credit cards, we finally own our carpet, and we finally paid off the last of our $15,000 of hospital bills. I guess that means we can keep Natalie. :)

The only thing we changed was putting numbers on paper and sticking to a budget that we created based on what was important to us. (We didn't cut our cable and Dan didn't give up coffee...) It's not always easy. It's hard to stay motivated. It's awkward to say "no" sometimes. But in the end, it is so worth it. And I would venture to say you don't need to be in major debt to get a lot out of his teachings about insurance, investments, college, retirement, teaching children about money, etc, etc, etc. And if you are in debt? Well, if we can do it, you can do it. I promise. And then you can buy a big 30X40 canvas of your family from BRAND PHOTODESIGN to celebrate. ;)

the zoo with hailey (up close & personal)

2010-07-25T22:55:00.005-04:00

We had to squeeze in one last zoo trip before our membership expired last week! :) Shannon and Hailey joined us and we had a super day getting very close to many of the animals!!!

We felt the sharks...

Watched the penguins swim up close...

Fed the giraffes....

And got to feel the elephants! (Sam is in the purple flower shirt, and she is squeezing the trainer's hand for dear life with her left hand while petting the elephant with her right! :) Hilarious!

The goats in the petting zoo are a favorite stop!

Shannon and Hailey, thank you SO MUCH for meeting us at the zoo! We always love hanging out with you and had so much fun sharing special time together at the zoo!!!!

please vote for us :)

2010-07-25T22:25:00.003-04:00

Okay friends. This is the personal blog.... but I have to post this because if your friends and family won't vote for you... well.... then we're in serious trouble! :)

It takes just a minute. Last year we won SECOND. We need your votes more than ever this year - the competition is fierce!!!

The people reading this are the people that have always loved us and supported us unconditionally..... so for that we thank you, and we thank you for your votes that show us the love today as well!!!!! :)

To vote, click HERE!

(It should look like this...)

my childhood friend, diane

2010-07-19T21:47:00.005-04:00

This is Diane. I grew up with her as a little girl - camping, apple-picking, all sorts of family gatherings as kids. I haven't seen her in over 10 years and if it were not for Facebook, I may not have ever had the chance to connect with her again. Turns out that sometimes technology makes us more personal, not less. :)

Thanks to connecting on Facebook, Diane & her family invited us over to have dinner with them (10 minutes away!). It was awesome to see her & meet her husband and 1-year old daughter, Lainey! We had a GREAT time catching up & hope to do it much more often!

Our girls: Natalie, Samantha, Lainey

...And our girls not wanting to get another photo taken! :)

Thank you SO MUCH, Diane! Next time: cookout at our house! :)

the zoo with bree and kate

2010-07-18T23:19:00.009-04:00

Last week we met my friend Becky and her girls at the Indy Zoo! There was just enough chance of rain to keep the zoo from being busy but the weather was perfect! We loved it!!!!

Waiting to meet our friends at the gate...

We started the tour with the dolphin show - always a favorite!

Sammi could hardly wait to pet the sharks!!!

We always have to get measured "in hands" when we visit the zoo...

The petting zoo was my favorite part... the girls both had so much fun petting the animals!

Sammi got to take a ride on Sugar the Pony! She was so proud!

The giraffe is Sam's favorite animal!

They were all hot and tired by this time but we made it through the last few exhibits before lunch!

I had never seen an elephant take a swim, and he went all the way under water while we were there! It was really HOT that day - I don't blame him!
Our last stop was awesome! Even though the kids were all so hot, and so tired, and so hungry, they agreed to sit still to have their caricatures drawn before we went out to have our picnic lunch.

She drew Natalie first...

Then drew Sammi...

It turned out so cute!!! Someday I will frame it and find the perfect place for it! :)

We had so much fun walking around the zoo! Samantha and Natalie we so well behaved and I was so proud of them! We loved seeing all the animals and especially loved hanging out with our good friends!!! Thanks, Becky, Bree, and Kate for meeting us at the zoo!!!!!

july 4 traditions

2010-07-14T23:04:00.008-04:00

Hello, July 4 Fruit Pizza! How I love you so! Growing up it was a tradition for my BFF Jessie and I to make fruit pizza for July 4, and it's stuck with both of us through all the years! Our girls had a blast decorating the cookie! Now, if Jessie would just move home from Texas we could make it together again! (Hint, hint!)

Here is Cooper (Jessie's son) making his fruit pizza a thousand miles from us!

We started off July 4 weekend by attending the Primrose 4th of July parade! Natalie and I were guests of Sammi, as Natalie was still recovering from being sick so she did not participate. :( Sammi's class walked out dressed in their flag bags and sand a patriotic song. So cute!!!!

The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of outdoor play and family fun together!

Daddy and Sammi played baseball with Daddy's 2010 Father's Day gift (baseball, bat, and glove - in pink of course, just like daddy likes... hee hee...)

We did lots and lots (and lots!!) of bubbles! And Steve and Krystal came over for a cookout!!!

We all shared the fruit pizza...YUM!

And more bubbles...

We took a walk together to the neighborhood park!

Daddy picked up just a few silly fireworks for the girls... parachute men and snakes!

Sammi pretty much walked around the entire afternoon plugging her ears! It was pretty funny. We were tracking down the parachute man in this photo...

The girls were interested in the snakes but we were having trouble lighting them so we didn't do too many.

...But we did cool off with some watermelon!

...And more bubbles!!!

And of course, we watched the fireworks. Awesome.

Natalie didn't stay up for the big fireworks but Sam did. We all sat on the patio along with many other spectators in our neighborhood and enjoyed the show right in our own back yard. We have about 3-4 neighbors that do dueling fireworks and one of them owns a fireworks shop, so needless to say, they're pretty amazing.

We did have several idiots (probably the same people who burned half of our clubhouse to the ground last year - okay I'm exaggerating, but only a little) who lit fireworks toward homes or had MAJOR goof-ups. Within 10 minutes of each other we had TWO neighbors have HUGE fireworks (the REALLY BIG kind) explode on their patios where they were standing. After that, we went inside. Aside from the absolute terror of people running around on fire screaming and missing arms (okay - exaggerating again, but only a little bit), it was an amazing show!!! :)

And truly, no exaggerating.... it was a perfect weekend of spending time with my family!!!

Happy Independence Day!!!

poor sick baby

2010-07-12T17:12:00.007-04:00

Two weeks ago Natalie got sick. It's hard enough to see your kids have a cold, but this was even scarier because it was such a rare weird thing going on! :( Poor baby! The first day she was just grumpy and had just a few bumps on her legs. It looked like a mosquito slept with her. Nothing that snuggling with her bunny couldn't help...

But, by the following day, she had what looked like infected chicken pox all over her arms and legs, and a few around her mouth too!

I immediately took her to see the nurse practitioner (my doctor was out that day), whose jaw dropped when I dropped Natalie's pants. She quietly said, "Um, I'm just going to call in another doctor to look at this..." (That's certainly not what you want to hear!) They determined that she had developed a secondary bacterial skin infection that had something to do with her eczema (which until that moment we weren't totally sure was eczema) and they prescribed her an antibiotic.

But that night things got worse. She started throwing up, became lethargic, and was running a fever. And her bumps all started turning into blisters.....

I called the office again, and my doctor was in & wanted to see her. Her jaw also dropped when we dropped Natalie's pants. She asked me to tell her every disease that's been exposed to my family lately and I called school to ask them the same thing. They told me hand foot mouth had been going around the little kids' classes. "Oh my gosh!" the doctor said and started examining her closer.... "Oh my gosh!!! She has hand foot mouth! But I would have NEVER known that by looking at her because the rash has spread into her eczema and become infected!" Apparently, it doesn't usually look (or feel) that bad. Poor baby!

She had to stay on her antibiotic and also got a topical steroid cream along with ibuprofen for the pain and benadryl for the itching.

She came to work with us the next few days, which really made me appreciate the room we built in between our offices for the kids to play.

She missed a whole week of school and fun, but thankfully all she has left now is scars that I'm hoping will fade over time. At one point during the week I truly thought she might be dying. Leave it to me to be dramatic, but it's scary to see your child so sick! Now we also have treatment for her eczema too. :)

Meanwhile, Sammi kept her usual routine with my parents, school, and Krystal, and had a fabulous week of being "an only child"! :) This photo was of her waiting on Krystal to pick her up...

And Krystal sent me a text with this one while they were lounging at the Carmel pool & splash park...

I'm glad my baby is better! This was not a week I'd wish on any parents!!!!

photographing our girls

2010-07-01T00:28:00.005-04:00

I take unedited point-n-shoot and phone photos of our girls all the time just to document our lives together. But we don't take many professional photos of them. We really need to do a better job of scheduling time to do that. I'm positive one day I will look back and be sad I did not capture more photos of them professionally. Alas, the shoemakers kids have no shoes.

I'm totally convinced our girls will both follow in our shoes and be photographers (although I will certainly encourage them to do whatever it is on earth they want to do!)..... Dan and I like being on the other side of the camera because we don't like having photos of ourselves taken. (Okay, that's not the only reason, but...) Our girls are the same way. You point a camera and they go from sweet obedient angels to screaming, pouting, whining, crying, defiant crazies running in the opposite direction! No kidding. It's a little bizarre, and just doesn't make scheduling their photos sessions ever very appealing.

So... we took the girls out recently and to nobody's surprise, they went nuts. Worst clients ever! (That's supposed to be funny - you can laugh!) After a very short time we gave up, annoyed, and were on our way, empty handed. Or so I thought. Until Dan surprised me with this:

This was the photo that, in the middle of both of them crying and whining about the bugs around them, I, extremely frustrated, ran up behind Dan who was holding the camera, screamed an obnoxious roar, and pretended to karate chop him in the head. That was it. We got it. A burst of laughter. And this photo. Which will be proudly displayed in our house as a canvas gallery wrap soon.

Hey, you do what ya gotta do for the photo. Thank you Dan for capturing it. I love it, and I love you! You're amazing! To my surprise and delight, Dan also captured these:

Thank goodness for photos. Capturing my little ones in the most precious moments that go by so quickly. And thank goodness for karate chops.

sisters sharing laughs

2010-06-27T21:21:00.004-04:00

I got a new app on my phone that gives my mediocre phone photos a cute vintage polaroid look & I love it! I took these photos with the new app on my phone when Sammi decided to feed Natalie her mac n cheese, which both girls found to be hilarious!

I'm glad that despite all of the fighting between these two sisters, they still have lots of moments of giggling together! Gosh, they fight a LOT, but when they are sweet together, it melts a mama's heart!!!!

dinner conversation with the girls

2010-06-24T23:08:00.006-04:00

I took the girls to Pizza Hut last Friday after I picked them up from school. By the end of our one-hour dinner, I was sweating and scooting them out as fast as I could before someone nearby strangled one or all of us. :) The dinner conversation went something like this:

"Please use your indoor voice so we don't disturb the other visitors. No, you can't have that. Whoa----Don't touch!! Spicy!! So, what di-----aaaahh---Please don't lick the salt shaker. What did you do at school todaaa---Ew, ew, ew, don't touch that! Please take your shoe out of your mouth, Nata----Sam!!! Sam!!! Please put that down. Stop licking the window please! Shhh... we need to be a little quieterrrrrr----- No, no no......don't pat the lady's head sitting behind you. Sit down please. Do you want to leave without eating our pizza? No stompi---SAM! No stomping! Switch me seats. Don't worry, I'll get you a new fork.......

....Keep your straw in your cup please. No, no, no....please sit down. Please wipe your hands before you touch thaaa.... What?! How did you get your FINGER stuck in the straw hole? Okay, it's okay. Let me help. Yes, you can have another piece. I will get it for you. Please be patient. Please just wait a minute while I cut Natalie's piece! Okay. Here's your piece, Saaaa----Natalie! Pleeeeeaaasse don't pick up other people's old food from the floor and eat it! Ewwwwwww! Okay, let's go. Come on. Right now. Let's go. RIGHT NOW. Do you need to stand in the corner? Okay. Out to the car we go...... Wasn't that a fun dinner, girls?"

My Girls + Pizza + Me = Happy. But next time, I'm getting carryout. :)

close friends

2010-06-18T09:24:00.003-04:00

I love that Joe, Lisa and Reece are our close friends as in - we like them a lot and share a lot - but I'm even more glad that they literally live across the street! Lisa can call at 5:30 and say, "If you're not doing anything, come over & eat on the patio with us!" We all pitch in whatever random food we have laying around, call it a meal, and complete it with lots of conversation and laughs! And usually a football or soccer game too....

We love you, Joe, Lisa, and Reece!!! Thanks for inviting us over last night!

swimming with bree & kate

2010-06-15T21:48:00.010-04:00

Boy did we have fun at the pool yesterday! We always have fun playing with our friends Bree and Kate, and this trip to their neighborhood pool was such a fun day!!!

The princess buckets were definitely the favorite pool toy!

This pool is awesome! The baby pool is gated from the big pool and it's the perfect size for all the girls to splash and swim without floaties!

Becky brought snacks and juice for everyone so we spent as much time by the pool as we did in it!

Thanks, Becky, Bree, and Kate!!! We loved swimming, splashing, and jumping in the pool with you! Thanks for feeding us lunch at your house too!

And, last but definitely not least, thanks for ending the play date with a SUPER FUN dance party!!! After we ate Becky and I were chatting and the girls were in the next room whispering and up to something... All of the sudden we hear the voice of Tone-Loc bust out "Let's Do It!" followed by the Wild Thing song (which Bree had picked out of the CDs and put in the player herself), lots of giggling from four little ladies, and lots of dancing!!!

I tried to upload the video but I'm having problems, so maybe later! :)

new school, new summer schedule

2010-06-14T23:17:00.009-04:00

We have a new summer schedule!! And we couldn't be any happier! Two major things have happened: 1. We started both girls at Primrose School two days a week. Samantha is very excited to be back and Natalie is excited to have her first experience at Primrose! And 2. My AMAZING sister-in-law, Krystal, who is a teacher so she has summers off, asked if she could take the girls a day every week for us so that we could work and her nieces could spend time with her.

So, here is our new schedule:

Monday: Home with Mom usually, sometimes Dad (and lots of play dates with friends!)
Tuesday: Grandma and Grandpa Sherman
Wednesday: Primrose
Thursday: Aunt Krystal
Friday: Primrose
Special Weekends (Weddings, Trade Shows, Etc.): Grandma & Grandpa Brand

And here is their first day of school:

Sammi is welcomed by her teacher and makes friends with Evelyn!

Natalie is introduced to her class.
She made lots of friends in no time and loves her teachers!!!!

Then, around lunch time, I received these photos in my inbox from the Owner of Primrose, who we LOOOOVE and consider a friend!!!

(I've never understood how kids can sleep on cots at school, but they always do! And Mindy sent me a photo to prove it!)

Aunt Krystal came to our house and tested out our new swings. She takes them to the park, on errands, to the pool....they LOVE spending time with Aunt Krystal! We are SO lucky to have her!!!

I love our new schedule. I love that we all come home together and eat together instead of working in shifts. I feel like we actually spend more time together as a family rather than always juggling our schedules between work/home/work/home. Work is much less stressful too.

And I especially love that Sammi and Natalie are not only safe but with people that love them so much and give them wonderful experiences and memories to cherish forever growing up.

We are so lucky to have you all in our lives to take care of and help us to raise our children! We love you all so much!!!! XOXO

we love our swing set

2010-06-08T21:16:00.014-04:00

We built a swing set! Well, all of the dads built a swing set, and us girls watched and played while they did!

The dads get started in the garage... Although the girls like to "help"....

...we left them to build and we played in the sprinkler and baby pool in the back yard!

It's kind of goofy that the girls love this pool so much still because it's so tiny (we've had it since Sam was a baby)! They do love it though, so we get it out often!

Drying off so we can have a snack...
Our girls LOVE fresh berries, which makes mommy especially happy with a super picky eater to feed!

.....However, this was also the weekend we came to the conclusion of bad news on the berries. We are 99% sure that Natalie is allergic to at least one of them. She's been breaking out in rashes a lot lately but I figured it was just dry skin. We had a lot of berries the day before this day too, and by the end of the day, Natalie's rash was so bad is was near bleeding. And it was all over her body. :( My mom was the one that suggested it was berries, and after a couple of days of not feeding them to her, it cleared up completely. Now that she's clear, I'm going to feed them to her one type at a time and see what she reacts to (since it's not a dangerous reaction). I'm hoping it's only one of the four they were eating!!! I'm suspecting blackberries, but we'll see.

You can barely see the area to the right of her mouth is red and patchy - that's just a small sample of what happens when she eats them.
Meanwhile, the boys kept at work on the swingset!
...and worked
...and worked
...and finally came in for a quick lunch break!
My mom joined us all day to help me with the kids & lunch and ended up helping a lot with landscaping too!

It wasn't in the original plans, but our generous friends/neighbors decided it was time for us to also re-mulch our landscaping so they ordered twice what they needed! :) So, the girls and Dan laid all new mulch with Joe & Lisa's leftovers (thanks, Joe & Lisa!) while pulling weeds and trimming trees! The grandpas had to go out for more swing set parts so the timing was perfect!

The girls help after their naps... (Sam changes clothes about 100 times a day so she doesn't always match) :)

Dan "stealing" mulch from our friends!
Soon the swing set was ready to go in the back yard and be completed!

The monkey bars and last two-person swing still need to go up (missing pieces/need trimming first), but that hasn't stopped Sammi & Natalie from getting tons of use out of it just in the first week!
Climbing up is even better than climbing down!

We LOVE our swing set!!!!
Thanks so much to our families for putting it together for us!!!!

mexico

2010-06-07T18:27:00.020-04:00

We are back from Mexico where we had the unique and amazing opportunity to photograph a fabulous wedding! Now we're ready to catch up on the blog! :) If you followed my Facebook updates, you may already know how crazy our trip was! I'll try to do my best to capture it in photos here instead of writing a novel!

Our flight left at 6am so we called our friend, Jennifer, at Staybridge Suites near the airport to get a room the night before we left. We LOVE this hotel anyway (Dan's done photography for the hotels over the last couple of years), and we were blown away when we arrived!!! Jennifer had our room STOCKED with snacks, drinks, & magazines for the plane, and so many cute quotes about photography and photos of beaches all over the room!!! She also left us two movie passes and fresh baked cookies! She's AMAZING!!!! Thanks, Jennifer!!!

The trip seemed to get off to a fantastic start. We got up at 2:45, hopped on the shuttle to the airport only to find that our airline didn't even open until 45 minutes before our flight to Chicago left. That wouldn't have been an issue if, when I scanned my passport, I hadn't been shocked to see that my passport was still in my maiden name!!!!!! All the times we got them out to make sure they were valid months before we left we never even noticed my name. The guy frantically said "If you have your drivers license in your married name and it matches your boarding pass, I think you'll be fine."

When we landed in Chicago, where we would take the international flight, I was nervous so we asked a TSA Agent. She said "Nope. You won't be allowed in the country. Do you have a marriage license?" Well, yes, thank goodness I have one - but it's in Indianapolis and we are in Chicago!

Long story shorter: Woke my dad up at 6am, he drove to our house to dig the license out, drove to the studio fax machine, while we left the airport and walked a mile to the closest hotel to receive it by fax. Went back through security, got to the gate just in time to get on the plane, and was sternly told by person taking the tickets "Your boarding pass doesn't match your passport. You can't fly. Step out of line and move to the side. Next!" Just like that. After much arguing and calling over other agents, another agent frantically told me "I don't know but I think you'll be ok. Just get on the plane. Go, go!"

Sooo..... will I get into Mexico when we land??? Pop me another Xanax please because I am about to have a nervous breakdown!!!

We landed. We went through immigration. They only asked for the passport, stamped it, and quickly moved us through. We went through customs. They didn't even care about seeing an ID...scan your bags and move on through! OK. So we made it. (But would I get back into the US? Would they let me board the plane going back? And how will I explain my name when I don't speak Spanish?!?!)

But we made it. And that's all that mattered for the next 7 days!

This is the all-inclusive gorgeous resort and destination for the wedding we were photographing:

We checked into our room...

Checked out the hammock on our private patio...

Walked around the pools...

...And called it an early night, as neither of us were feeling well due to all of the stress of flying....

...Or, as I realized the next morning when I woke up to all of the horrible symptoms of strep throat... I had been tired because I was actually sick - very sick. High temp, achy, and all the strep symptoms in full force. (Are you kidding? In Mexico? What on earth do I do? Where do I go? How do I explain my symptoms to someone who speaks a different language? How much will this cost? How will I shoot a wedding, TOMORROW?!?!) Soooo... We went to the concierge who personally walked us to the doctor at the resort.

This is a photo of him explaining to me that instead of taking a pill that won't kick in for a few days, he will do four shots of antibiotics and anti-inflamatory over three days so that I can get better very quickly. What he is exactly saying in this photo is that the shots will have to go in my rear end because my arm will be too sore to shoot the wedding otherwise! Needless to say, he was awesome and spoke perfect English. And it only cost us $3,995. I about had a heart attack when he wrote the number - until I realized it was in pesos. :) That's about $315 American dollars. :)

Throughout the day we just relaxed and tried to gain energy for the wedding the next day.

We dropped in the rehearsal for a bit...

...And then the rain started. And it pretty much didn't stop. 5 days out of 7 it torrential down-poured.

...so we ordered in, a lot. This was the night before the wedding, right before Dan's symptoms of food poisoning or a stomach bug started.... Seriously?

But, a MIRACLE! Lots of prayers from friends and family and:

1. Dan and I both felt well enough to photograph the wedding!

2. The rain held off for the outdoor ceremony and reception! The only night it didn't rain! It was PERFECT!!!! It was so much fun and Jillian and Brian are just plain awesome.

You can see the photos on our professional blog here:

Jillian & Brian's Mexico Wedding!

Here's a sneak peek (click on the link above for more):

After the wedding it poured down rain for several days, and we still had some recovering to do from being sick, so we stayed in our room a lot. We tried to get out a little when we could.

Juan cooked me omelets every morning while teaching me a few Spanish words...

Dan tested his underwater camera for our upcoming "Trash The Dress" Session with Jillian. What better way than in the rain! :)

If you are wondering what "Trash The Dress" is, it's where the bride goes back out in her wedding dress after the wedding, willing to get dirty and wet for the sake of some cool shots. We had to reschedule three days in a row because of the storms, but we finally got a good morning!!!!

Click here to see the Trash The Dress session:

Jillian and Brian's Trash The Dress

Here's a sneak peek (Click on the link above to see more):

The day we finally got the Trash The Dress session in, we had a day and a half of vacation left - and it didn't rain - and we both felt better! At that point I was so glad we didn't go home early. Our last couple of days were super fun.

We went to the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, just 5 minutes down the road. That was really cool, amazing to see the ancient buildings, and there were iguanas everywhere! Crazy!

We ate at the cookout by the pool...

Drank espresso and iced chocolate decaf cappuccinos...

Dan won the resort Ping Pong Tournament! (Seriously. He got a t-shirt!)

We ate fruit on the beach...

Our view from our lounge chairs on the beach...

We watched the belly flop competition...

Enjoyed the sun...

Ate two fantastic dinners on the last two nights...

Walked around the resort on the last night, found the resort Caribbean party and bought two flutes for our girls, and..... It started POURING on our way back to our room!!! A perfect hilarious memory while ending this trip. :)

And I guess you can imagine it wasn't a problem to get back into the USA. :)

We had an absolute BLAST spending time with Jillian & Brian's friends and family, and photographing the wedding and trash the dress session, even with the chaos that surrounded those events! :)

p.s. Dan was upset that I didn't pick more photos of me for this post (because there were more) but for the record, I chose not to put many in just because I looked so pale & sickly! He was concerned people might think he is a jerk who doesn't take photos of me.....so I'm clarifying here! Love you, Danny!!!

we planted our first garden

2010-05-05T12:05:00.004-04:00

I'm very excited to report that we planted our first garden! We found this patio garden at Sam's Club last year and bought it on clearance at the end of the summer. I have been patiently & excitedly awaiting nice weather to plant our first garden! (I've never even been able to keep a fake plant alive in my life - so we'll see how this goes!) We thought it would be a fun project for the girls to help with and a nice way to grow some healthy foods that maybe my kids will even eat!

Thanks so much to my parents for going to Lowes with us to pick out our vegetables & get soil! We got them just before unexpected storms came in, so we had to wait to plant them! Today we planted two tomato plants, red bell peppers, sweet yellow peppers (all of those hang through the bottom upside down), and hot banana peppers, jalepenos, cilantro, and basil (on top). I couldn't find zucchini or squash at Lowes or Home Depot, so if I find them somewhere soon, I'll add them too! (Please ignore our patch of missing grass - we have lots of spots to fill in our yard still!)

Natalie was my little helper! She liked helping planting the flowers in our patio pots!

Sammi came out to join us for the flowers too!

Last steps....Water!
...and clean up!

We'll let you know if we have any success with our garden this year! Happy Summer!

the library

2010-05-05T11:59:00.002-04:00

We haven't been to the library in a long time so we thought it would be fun to go check out a few books and movies this week! Sam was allowed to pick three books and three movies - all of the ones she picked as her final choices were Disney - of course! :) Natalie isn't old enough to bring library books home yet, as she ripped page out of the last one she checked out. But she does always have fun looking with mommy!

We found a new secret spot at the library this trip! We headed back behind the children's section and there was an entire play room! So fun!

life together cookout

2010-04-29T09:42:00.006-04:00

Many churches have small groups that meet every week and chat. I don't know what kinds of things other groups do (because this is the first group I've ever been in), but the Life Together Groups through Crosspoint -well, we simply share life together. And it's amazing. It's NOT a bible study. It's NOT formal. And it's definitely NOT stuffy. It's just life. When someone in our group is sick or has a baby, we all take turns taking them food. We share secrets that need prayers and stories that deserve laughs. We trade off kids with each other, we do a secret santa for a family in need at Christmas, and we go to concerts together in the summer. And, when the weather calls for a cookout, cornhole, and a bonfire, well - that's just what we do!

Scott grills hamburgers and hot dogs!

We hang out and catch up on what's going on in each other's lives - selling homes, having babies, work stuggles and achievements...

We run around the back yard!

Sammi and Maggie sneak up on daddy after making smores together!

And we eat a smore -- or two, or three....

We share with our sister!

We play cornhole!

We LOVE our Life Together Group!!!

...And I must say, we love our church too. Last week we all we asked to reach under our seat and pull out the envelope taped underneath. Each person was given either $5, $10, or $25, and we were told to go bless somebody with it. "Do something that will make God smile. Anything you want." (Right now we are learning about how to achieve financial success and keep our financial priorities in line - complete with famous speakers in service and trained professional counselors for families. Dave Ramsey kind of stuff.)

If you're looking for a church that provides the nicest people on the planet, the best coffee in town, and the least-judgemental "We're still figuring it all out too" kind of mentality, check out Crosspoint by clicking HERE. (They aren't paying me - I'm just passionate because I've never seen a church move the way this one does.) :)

she's sleeping. really.

2010-04-29T09:20:00.004-04:00

Every Tuesday my parents generously watch our girls for us so that we can have a work day together. Saying they "watch" them isn't really accurate though - because they play, swing, run, laugh, fly kites, visit Panera, swim, climb, dance, do errands, create art projects, and oh, so much more! Needless to say all four of them are exhausted by the end of the day! Last Tuesday I picked the girls up, we drove the 5 minutes it takes to get home, and when we walked in the door Sammi literally walked over to the living room, collapsed on the floor, and fell asleep for an hour. In this position:

Mom and dad, thank you for wearing out our kids every Tuesday! We couldn't do it without you and the kids will have the most special memories with their grandparents that are absolutely priceless!!! We love you!

spring is here!!!

2010-04-18T20:13:00.005-04:00

Happy Spring!!!

The weather has been perfect & we've been enjoying the upcoming spring! We've been enjoying lots of time outside playing and grilling out!

Our friends, Sarah and Josh, came in from Dayton to visit us on their spring break! Our plans were to go to the zoo but apparently 8 million others thought the zoo was the perfect place to hang out that day too, so we decided to walk around Broad Ripple and get something to eat instead!
We love you, Sarah and Josh! Thanks so much for visiting! Please come back before our zoo membership expires so we can try to go again! :)
Spring also = SPRING CLEANING TIME!!! I can't believe I'm actually going to show this photo but here it goes.... We had some recent spills so instead of just spot cleaning them, I took every shelf out, washed and disinfected them all, and cleaned out the inside walls too.
And two hours later... It feels like I got a brand new refrigerator! If I could only conquer my laundry the same way........

..And the way we know my favorite time of year is really here... SPRINKLERS!!!! Last week is was almost 90 degrees out so we set up this "Summer Ball", as Sammi calls it, and had a blast!!!! The girls laughed and splashed and ran as I swept off our patio and put out all of the patio furniture!

Welcome, Spring! Oh, how we loooooove you!!!!!

happy hoppy easter

2010-04-16T17:10:00.021-04:00

Happy Easter!

We had a long Easter celebration with many days of Easter fun! This is a long post so I'll try to keep my rambling to a minimum! :)

Easter Day One
Surprise Easter packages arrive from Great Grandma Parker!

Lots of eggs with candy, books, and new "friends" (stuffed animals)!

Thanks, Grandma Parker!

Easter Day Two
Decorating eggs at home! First you put the coloring in the water...

Then you put the white eggs in...

Then you wait, only like a patient 3 year old can!

WOW!!! We have colored eggs!!!

Last touches - adding funny faces of course!

Tonight's new friends are tomorrow's deviled eggs...yum!

Easter Day Three
Word was the Easter Bunny was visiting Grandma & Grandpa Sherman's neighborhood - so we got dressed up to go see him and find the eggs he left behind!

The Easter Bunny really is here! Sammi was amazed and her face lit up with delight! She couldn't stop staring at him!

The Easter Bunny had already hidden 600 eggs early that morning for all of the neighborhood grandkids to find, so when it poured - and I mean POURED - down rain, we went out anyway!

We found lots of eggs and came in to get bundled up! We were SOAKED and we were FREEZING!

...but we got lots of goodies!!!

One more visit with the Bunny before heading back to Grandma & Grandpa's! Who knew he could pull eggs out of your ears!?

Back at Grandma & Grandpa's we found MORE eggs and presents hiding!

Natalie found a present here...

Then Jordie and Ashley joined us for Easter dinner! WOW!!! More Easter baskets FULL of toys and candy! These two little girls sure are LOVED by their families!

A whole loot of princess gear!

And another loot full of farm animals! (We've been working on animal sounds!)

Natalie tested out Sammi's new earrings. :-)

Easter dinner was delicious! The girls have their own special table to eat now that Natalie is old enough to sit & eat on her own.

Watching some cartoons with Uncle Jordie...

Easter Day Four
On our way to Fort Wayne we saw the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen. I grabbed my phone to snap this photo but it does it no justice - We could literally see the entire arc including the ends on both sides. It was radiant and beautiful and it made me smile thinking about the real reason we celebrate Easter!!!

We slept at Grandma & Grandpa Brands, to find that the Easter Bunny came to visit there too!!! We woke up to presents and baskets full of candy and toys!

All of the grandkids got these super cool sports chairs!

Then it was off to the extended family dinner and egg hunt! After eating a HUGE meal (how could you not with all of the many fabulous cooks and DeBrand family at these gatherings?!) Natalie fell right to sleep and missed the egg hunt. She didn't mind too much. She really needed to catch up on her sleep!

Sammi ran all over the grounds of Aunt Vi & Uncle Ed's property finding eggs, candy, toys, and stuffed animals!

Her favorite find may have been their cat, which she played with for hours!

Sammi's cousins are sooo good with both girls and they often take Sammi under their wings & make her feel welcome to tag along. It's so nice!!! They took a walk together to visit the neighbor's dog...

After the egg hunt the kids made Easter art projects!

Natalie woke up and had a late lunch with Grandma Brand since she fell asleep so early!

We always love seeing Great Grandma Brand too!!!

We are very blessed to have such wonderful families and we enjoyed seeing all of them to celebrate Easter this year!!! Thanks so much to all of our families for giving us such wonderful Easter celebrations!!! (And thanks, of course, to the Easter Bunny too!)

*love*

the neighborhood park

2010-04-07T21:07:00.004-04:00

The neighborhood has a park that we love to visit! We walk there to get exercise (I usually end up carrying one girl on my shoulders while pushing the other to get home, but I still like walking there!) The swingset is just big enough for the girls to enjoy without being overwhelmed. I'm a bit behind on my blogging because we've had so many record-high beautiful days since this one, but this was one of the first nice days in town!

Ready to go to the park!

Sam can do almost everything there herself. She needs a little boost when sliding down the "fireman bars" or definitely when on the monkey bars.

The swings were hands-down Natalie's favorite! (See video at end.) This was our first trip to the park this year and it's so fun to have Natalie at an age where she can enjoy it!

Love that little laugh!!!

homemade pizza

2010-04-07T21:00:00.003-04:00

We cook at home a lot, and pizza is one of our favorite things to make! We make fancy pizza, cheap pizza, healthy pizza, non-healthy pizza, dough from scratch in a three-day process, dough from a bag mixed with water, chicken queso pizza, taco pizza, pepperoni pizza, in the oven, on the grill - you name it, we've done it!

Sammi kneads the dough, then rolls it out...

Sometimes it's sticky and we add flour.

Sauce on next. Meijer Organics is our favorite. :)

This particular night we were making a turkey-pepperoni pizza.

Poor Natalie is still a little too young to help (she hates to be left out!), but she has certainly mastered the art of climbing the step stool!

we love arizona & our arizona family

2010-04-05T21:38:00.017-04:00

I have so many other photos on the professional camera that we haven't edited yet - but I decided to go ahead and post our point-n-shoot/phone photos in a post! (If I wait for them all I may never show you our trip!)

The following photo is of JoAnn & her family. JoAnn & I used to work together in Indiana (she did sales and I did graphic design and marketing for the corporate offices of a regional restaurant), but it was on our first trip to Arizona to visit her in her new home 5 years ago that she became a truly SPECIAL life-long friend. You know, one of those rare people that you feel actually become part of your soul! I love her so much and traveling to Arizona to visit her is one of our all-time favorite things to do. In October Dan had the opportunity to visit them and he took photos (including this one) for their Christmas cards.

In March we had the opportunity to go together and it was, as expected, an AWESOME trip. So, what did we do, you may ask? Well....

We ATE! (In-N-Out trip #1 on way home from airport with JoAnn)

...and we ATE. (One of the drawers in our guest room in JoAnn's house! She also always has a personal stocked fridge with anything you can imagine in it in our room too!)

... and we ATE. (In-N-Out #2)

...and ATE. (Famous cinnamon rolls at The Good Egg for breakfast, just before hiking up a mountain! Doesn't sound smart, does it? But it was GOOD!)

...and ATE some more. (Sushi - Oh my, YUM.)

..and guess what else we did. We ATE, more. (Mexican in Tuscon.)

...and ATE again. (In-N-Out trip #3)

Okay, so we did eat, A LOT. A lot more than these photos show actually. :) But, we also had the amazing opportunity to do some business while we were in Arizona. We had three families lined up to do photos while we were there, which was the entire reason we were able to do the trip in the first place. We are so blessed to have been able to work with these amazingly kind & fun families. We really bonded with them in the short times we spent with them. I feel weird even calling it "work"! You can see more on our business blog, brandphotodesign.com but here is a highlight of our family photo sessions....

Family #1 in their backyard...

Family #2 in their backyard...

Family #3 by an old saloon...

And speaking of "work", if you've never climbed a mountain, it's AMAZING!!! The photos are so deceiving as to how steep it was & how much effort every step took, but it was also such a rewarding, unique and fun experience! Dan and I hiked half way up Squaw Peak one day. We liked it so much that we went back the next day with JoAnn to do it again. My muscles and Dan's fear of heights both wimped out near the top but JoAnn made it all the way! 2.5 miles up, 2.5 miles all the way back down!

See Dan? Look close!

Beautiful views.

Stopping for water...AZ is hot - and we LOVE it!

About 2/3 the way up...

...and back down... Going back down was a lot easier on muscles but took a ton of balance.

Know what cures muscle pain? Um, a HOT TUB! This is JoAnn's back yard, complete with real rock waterfalls, pool, hot tub, outdoor fireplace, full outdoor kitchen, flat screen TV, and two-story patio. Oh, and one more thing: coyotes just beyond their fence! (Eek! :))

We decided that since we've never been to Tuscon we'd do an overnight trip there! In past Arizona visits we've always taken between 1-4 days of our trip to travel to nearby places. In the past 5 trips we've gone to Vegas, the Grand Canyon, San Diego, and Sedona. When we told locals we were going to Tuscon they all looked at us funny and asked simply, "Why?" Well, we did go, and we had a great time. But, we decided that leaving Phoenix to go to Tuscon is like someone leaving Indianapolis to vacation to Fort Wayne. "Why?" :)

JoAnn & her husband Kevin sent us to this amazing resort, JW Marriott Starr Pass Tucson Resort & Spa. I snapped this photo as we drove in.

Dan took this photo that evening from our room. We {heart} Arizona!

The one thing we did find in Tuscon in the short time we had to spend there was this cute little ever-so-famous Mexican joint, Mi Nidito. They are as known for having so many famous people visit as they are their greasy, traditional, Mexican, delicious food! We glanced over photos of stars such as Bill Clinton, Enrique Iglesias, and the Man vs Food guy while we waited in a tiny waiting area over an hour for a table. It was worth it. The food was great and the night was fun.

Sorry it's a blurry phone photo - Man vs Food guy!

Dan used his camera as a weight to try to work off some of the food in our hotel room the next day - HA!

One of our FAVORITE things to do in Arizona is just to hang out with the JoAnn & her family. Grilling out (there we go with the food again), renting movies, going on walks, Starbucks runs, staying up all hours of the night talking about life, and laughing, laughing, laughing all the time. JoAnn & Kevin's son, Tommy, is 10 and Dan always gets some good "father-son" time in with him when we visit. :) Playing basketball, throwing a football, and watching Tommy's football and baseball games are some of the favorite activities.

I had to snap some photos of their house because it is soooo beautiful and so comfortable and inviting, and we ALWAYS feel like family when we are there. We are so thankful to have such good friends.

JoAnn, Kevin, and Tommy, (Maryfrances wasn't home this trip - we missed you).... We cannot thank you enough for always taking us in as a part of your family.... You are some of the most kind and generous, wonderful, genuine, insightful, loving people and we are so thankful to have you in our lives!!!!

the zoo

2010-03-19T22:54:00.008-04:00

Two days before we left for a "workation" in Arizona, we had these two beautiful little girls...

And a bright, sunny, warm(er) day! So we went to the zoo...

...which wasn't crowded at all! Natalie walked almost the entire two hours we were there and she LOVED it!!!!!

Off to see the ducks and flamingos following the dolphin show, which they both loved! Sammi clapped and cheered even when no one else was cheering! It was adorable.

Hello, llama!

...Almost 11 hands tall!

...and Natalie just wanted to walk, walk, walk! Any time we tried to get her to stop walking for a photo she would cry!

...Just one elephant out today. (Okay, it's not that warm yet!)

Finally, a shoulder ride...but only for about 20 seconds before she wanted down again!

She even pushed Sammi around in the stroller by herself! Oh, too funny.

Ah, yes! The shark tank, full of sharks to touch!

Sammi liked playing the water but the sharks scared her a little.

Natalie was not scared at all and loved reaching for them!

Such a cool way to see the seals whip around and swim right past us!

We had such a fun time seeing the zoo, which seemed like it was opened just for us on this particular day. After the zoo we had a picnic outside - the perfect way to spend our last day with the girls before leaving them with Grandma and Grandpa Brand for our workation!

Sammi has been growing fast! Here is a photo of her at the zoo with our friend Megan in August 2009 and then the photo from last week! She's grown about 1 hand! :)

the shoemaker's kids have no shoes...

2010-03-07T20:04:00.005-05:00

As you all know, we are professional photographers (see our professional blog site by clicking HERE).... yet this blog is full of non-professional snapshots of our kids. Why??? Well, because just as "the shoemaker's kids have no shoes".... the photographer's kids have no pictures! I always laugh when people say "Oh, you have two kids---you must have sooo many photos of them!" Well, if you hadn't noticed by the blank walls in our 6-year old house, we don't get around to taking professional photos of our kids often! We are trying to work on it because we really do love having photos of them and really do want our walls filled, but... our clients always come first and there never seems to be enough time left over to prepare, photograph, edit, retouch, and order photos for ourselves.

So, we are going to work on it. In fact, we are going to "schedule" a 1-year photo session of our 14-month old daughter as soon as we get back from our trip! But, just for laughs, I included a few photos from my point-n-shoot of the other reason we don't get around to photographing our kids often. They are the "worst clients" ever! :) I say that with a laugh, as they always seem to be running in the opposite direction when we aim the camera toward them (professional or not). On this particular occasion they all cooperated to have a photo with daddy, and this is what we got...

Hope that made you laugh! :) Oh well, I am really glad that I gave up my pride of having perfect photos of my children shown 100% of the time and just got this cheap-o camera for this blog journal, which will be saved and printed in a book for my kids to have when they are grown. Otherwise, they might not have had ANY memories captured of their childhood! :)

Hold me to my word though..... professional photos coming of our family this spring..... :)

furniture

2010-02-26T17:51:00.005-05:00

Hallelujah! Yahoo! Yippee yee! Our furniture is here from Rustic Hutch (owned by Dan's sister's husband's parents) and WE LOVE IT! We've been living without furniture for so long that we almost forgot what it was like to have a place to sit! (We tossed our 14-year-old pieces of junk when we changed our paint and carpet because they were covered in hair and urine and ripped to shreds from our former dogs.) We figured no furniture was better than that furniture, but we are THRILLED to have these wonderful new pieces!

Our house had looked like this for months...

Bill arrived on Tuesday with a truck of goodies for us!

Thanks to our neighbor, Joe, for coming to help this SUPER HEAVY piece up the stairs!

And viola! Our downstairs looks so different! We were actually a little worried we wouldn't have any room for the girls to run around, but there is still plenty of room! The furniture isn't set up the most feng shui way, but it allows us to have room for all of the toys and play time during the day. Oh well! We are saving up for a side table, some artwork on the walls, and a huge canvas on the fireplace.

We ordered everything out of catalogs so we really didn't know if it would be comfortable... but oh, is it ever!!!

And our upstairs....well, let's just forget about the bland metal cheap ikea college dorm room furniture and let's just go all out!!! We still have to hide our TV cords and hang some artwork here, but I just love, love, love the way this totally changed our room!

THANK YOU, Rustic Hutch, for providing such quality amazing furniture and customer service to help us pick out exactly what we wanted!!!! I don't even think these photos do it justice. We will be back to order a few more pieces very soon - we just have to figure out what we want first!

shoulder rides

2010-02-26T17:48:00.002-05:00

We often put the girls on our shoulders... this night we were having fun helping them give each other shoulder rides! They both had an absolute ball! Fun times!

dressing up

2010-02-26T17:46:00.002-05:00

Just a typical day at home!

natalie can use a spoon

2010-02-26T17:36:00.005-05:00

Natalie is learning to use a spoon and fork! She usually gives up on the fork but with a spoon she does really well! She ate her entire cup of yogurt all by herself!

Good job, my little munchkin! You are growing up so fast!!!

snow, snow, and more snow...

2010-02-26T17:17:00.005-05:00

...and more snow, and more snow, and... wanna know how we all feel about it?

Okay, so a little snow is fun. Like, for a day. But we've had months of it now and this household is READY for some sunshine!!!! Especially Natalie. Samantha actually loves playing in the snow. She loves being outside year-round. But Natalie has not much cared for the snow any of the times we have taken the girls out. She just cries and cries when we stand her up in it.

Samantha thought it was funny to throw more snow at her...

...and at me!

Natalie tolerated being outside as long as she was held, while Sammi ran and ran around in it covering herself in snow!

After about 20 minutes, Dan came in with Natalie and they watched Sammi through the sliding glass door... She played by herself in the snow for another 30 minutes before Dan made her come inside to warm up!

So, I don't know about Sammi, but the rest of us are READY for some sunshine and warm days around here! I am SO GLAD we don't live on the east coast! I have my fingers crossed the warm long sunny days will be visiting us soon......

dan's superbowlthday party

2010-02-26T17:02:00.004-05:00

Happy 30th Birthday, Dan! Happy Superbowl! Well, okay, in the end it wasn't so happy - but going into it we thought it would be fun to host a superbowl/birthday party for Dan since they fell on the same day! (Above are all fraternity brothers of Dan's.)

We all watched (some of us in horror) the game on the big screen...

I was pretty proud of the cake I made... note the 30 yard lines marked for his 30th birthday! :)

We had a football cake too!!

I asked everyone to bring a dish to share and their own drinks (I mean, could I have possibly been a lazier host?) - BUT, everyone brought amazing dishes and we had so much incredible food! Thanks to everyone for chipping in to make the party fun and delicious!!!
So...the Colts lost. And Dan was a little sad about turning 30. Definitely more than he expected. But, at least we have tons of wonderful friends to share in all of life's good and bad times!!!!! :) Thank you so much to everyone who came and everyone who sent Dan well wishes! He started p90x recently & is already feeling stronger and younger... and we are already getting geared up for next year's COLTS BABY!!!!

sarah b visits

2010-02-26T16:53:00.004-05:00

Sarah B! About twice a year Sarah comes to stay with us for a few days and we loooooooove it when she comes!!!! Sammi is attached to her hip every time she comes, and it's easy to understand why!!!! Sarah (an art teacher, and a wonderful one) brought art projects to do together!

To celebrate Valentine's Day, they made clay hearts with faces and little legs and arms for them to stand up. They were adorable!

Snuggling on the couch showing Sarah her iPhone games...

Sarah, thank you so much for coming to visit!!! You are so busy and it means the world to all of us to have you come visit! We are excited to plan a visit to see you in Dayton soon too!!!! XOXO

visits with friends

2010-02-26T16:33:00.004-05:00

I am SO far behind blogging! We have been busy working on the business site and so I've gotten really lazy about updating the personal blog! Over the last month we have had so many wonderful visits with friends - many of which I forgot to take photos, but this blog has some highlights!

My oldest friend in the world, Jessie, (our friendship is old - she's not old) :) came to visit from Texas during the playoffs and her son Cooper and Sammi got to play a little!

Love you, Jessie!

My amazing friend, JoAnn, also came in for a last-minute visit to a Colts' playoff game! They only came in for the weekend so she arranged for all of her friends to meet at MCL for dinner together in the banquet room. (JoAnn & I met while working at MCL about 8 years ago -ahhh, the memories!) Dan and I are going on a workation to Arizona and are staying with JoAnn in about 2 weeks. I CAN'T WAIT!

Lucky for us - some of JoAnn's friends are ours too! Including Radka & her girls - we were SO excited to see them at dinner!!!!!

Sam absolutely LOVES Sierra, Radka's daughter. She admires her so much and follows her around everywhere! Sierra is sooo good with her! I think we have a future babysitter lined up.... :)
SO many people came to dinner and it was awesome to see everyone!

This is Keller, my dear friend, April's daughter! She and Sam love to play together! They especially loved dressing up together on this visit!

April is expecting her third in June!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! I am soo excited. Can't wait to meet Keller & Caleb's new little sibling!!!

And of course we ALWAYS love seeing Bree and Kate! Becky, thanks for coming over & having us to your house too! Love playdates with you!!!! (Next time we'll have furniture.....) :)

a princess birthday party

2010-02-10T23:17:00.012-05:00

Samantha is THREE! Natalie is ONE! Watch the slideshow to see the whole party and look below for photos and details! :)

Our little Natalie turned ONE and Samantha turned THREE in January! We had a princess party for our families and Sammi and Natalie's friends!

Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty all joined us... they were everywhere! :)

Preparation the night prior... our girls were in Fort Wayne with their grandparents while we worked on the party until about 2am!

Mixing chocolate cake batter for one layer and white for two layers...

Party favors...

Lots of balloons, streamers, noise makers, lipstick candy, candy necklaces, candy fingernail polish, confetti that spelled out the girls' names, princess confetti, and lots of pink filled the camera room of our studio and waiting area where we had the party!

We promised a special surprise for the kids... which was this huge princess bounce house for them to play in! Really shows how high our ceilings are!

We had pizza, of course, a favorite of both girls. :) We also had chocolate-covered caramel pretzels, pink M&Ms, fruit & veggie trays, and chips & dip.

The kids all enjoyed lots of time in the bounce house! Natalie wasn't so sure at first but she liked being in it with an adult to keep her from falling over!

The famous three-layer cake I dreamed about... and we actually did it! With the help & advice of Dan's parents and their cake & candy business, we pulled it off! YAY! (The right tools make a big difference!)

First cake!!!! Natalie got the top tier of our three-layer cake! She enjoyed playing in it much more than eating it, which is good by me!!!

A little bath in the sink before going out to play again! :)

We got so many, many presents... thank you so much to everyone. It was really unnecessary but very much appreciated!

After the guests left, the four of us played and played in the bounce house before they came to tear it down!

Natalie actually fell asleep half way through the party on her Grandpa Sherman!!! (I like to leave the photo last though because it summarizes how we all felt after the party!) In a GOOD way!!! :)
Happy, happy, happy birthday to our two beautiful, strong, smart, funny, sensitive, thoughtful girls!!!! We love you more than we could ever have imagined it would feel to be your parents! We are forever grateful to be given the opportunity to have you as our daughters.

We love you!

haircuts

2010-02-02T23:24:00.005-05:00

I have tried growing Sammi's hair out since she was born & the poor girl just does not have easy hair! I would always get it trimmed as she grew to get the ends off... I use good shampoo and conditioner, styling products, and even use a flat iron on it every time we go out. However, it is always a mess within about an hour again. So, I finally just decided that it would look better and be easier to give her a long bob cut! The photo above is her the day after....isn't it cute?!

We all went to Leslie's house (friend of a friend - and she's wonderful!) and got cuts together! Sammi went first & she was so good! She got to watch cartoons & she sat so patiently!

Then it was Natalie's turn for her FIRST trim! I asked Leslie to trim off the ends so it would grow evenly and not become a mullet... but I admit after the little curls got cut off the bottom I got a little sad and questioned if I should have done that! :) It would have come off sooner or later, so off it came and now she is officially trimmed! :) What a big girl!

Sammi got a candy necklace (her FAVORITE) for being so good while Natalie got a haircut.

Sweet Natalie! Her hair is finally long enough (kind of) to put in bows and ponies! How fun!

Sammi got her hair styled too before we left.

The back is SO CUTE and works much better for her fine hair.

Natalie seems to have a lot more hair despite the same crazy hair growth pattern (thanks, daddy)... Maybe it's because I started using adult shampoo on her early? Or maybe she's lucky?

So cute! Love it! So glad we did it!!!! (Oh, and I got mine trimmed too. Girls did wonderful! Thanks to Leslie they had lots of toys to play with and her kids to play with too!)

Thanks, Leslie!!!

doctor visits

2010-01-25T15:35:00.004-05:00

The girls are both strong, healthy, and growing, growing, growing! We had their one and three-year doctor visit last week and I thought I would write some of their stats and milestones in a post!

NATALIE

-Has been walking (running!) since November

-Doesn't say ANY words yet (not even mama and dada) but can nod her head "yes" and "no" and uses the signs "milk", "eat", "more", and "please" in the right context. Dr. Rupp isn't worried about her speech (yet) because she understands what we say to her.

-Is in the 60th percentile for weight (out of every 100 kids, 40 are bigger and 60 are smaller), and 75th for height

-Sleeps from about 7:30 pm to 8:00 am every night, but only naps about 20 minutes a day

-Has switched from bottles to sippy cups and drinks whole milk or formula, but isn't really getting enough since the bottles went bye bye... Dr Rupp says we might have to supplement (don't really know what that means) if she doesn't start drinking more. She's not a huge fan of the sippy cups, although she does use them.

SAMANTHA

-Is in the 55th percentile for weight and 50th for height

-Speaks extremely well, has an amazing vocabulary (maybe she speaks for her sister too much), and seems to be doing better with separation anxiety

-Has been potty training! She is having about a 95% success rate (while awake) with #1 and 5% success rate with #2. Dr Rupp said that's very common and to just keep it positive and keep working with her.

-Still doesn't pay much attention to Natalie unless she is taking things from her, pushing her, or yelling at her. Maybe someday they can be friends. {Sigh}

Overall, the girls are doing wonderful and we feel so blessed to have two bright, healthy, smiling, loving, fun kiddos!!! :)

nashville convention

2010-01-24T22:33:00.008-05:00

Every year there are two major conventions and trade shows for professional photographers. This year one of them was in Nashville, Tennessee, which was a perfect place for us to travel! (Above, Dan is standing inside the hotel/convention center, The Opryland Hotel. It was a very cool, very big place!)

Imaging USA includes a HUGE trade show (almost 1,000 booths) full of the latest greatest anything-you-can-think-of-that-relates-to-photographers-stuff! :) Frames, albums, labs, training, editing, equipment, jewelry, EVERYTHING. It can be overwhelming but we had a very specific plan of attack this year. :) And, we came home with the most adorable new framing options that we think will knock our clients socks off! Can't wait to launch the new line! :-)

There are also many classes to go to at the convention. We were {a lot} more excited about what we learned at this show two years ago when we attended in Florida, but since returning home this trip we've decided we picked up enough little things to make it worth the trip.

Ah....my favorite part of the trip! Our good friends Patricia and Thomas moved from Detroit to Nashville several years ago and we had yet to visit! They were gracious enough to invite us to move into their home for the week & we LOVED "living with" them!!

Their loft in Detroit was SO COOL that it was published in a magazine!!! So, it wasn't surprising that their huge new home was even better!!! (If that's possible!!!) I'm not sure these photos do it justice but I HAD to show it off!

Living Room

Kitchen

Their patios (yes, plural- which are on 2 of their 3 levels) overlook the city skyline. AMAZING! Like I said - these photos are terrible! I didn't even get all of their zen-like patio furniture!

Thomas is from England and is a vegetarian which meant two things.... 1. They cooked us all of these different foods and vegetables that we'd never tried before and LOVED, and 2. It gave Patricia an excuse to cook/eat/share meat! :) So....we were treated like royalty eating lamb, an amazing chicken dish, and going out for a fancy steak dinner!

Dining Room

Sitting Room

Dan lounging...reading from their collections of art books

A separate office for Thomas.....SO SWEET!

Thomas still flies to Detroit to work 4 days a week so he had to leave us on Monday. The three of us went out to eat at a FABULOUS place. We got appetizers, sides to share, steak, crab, salmon, and lamb, and get this...... Patricia had a super duper coupon that we stacked on top of the half-price bill for arriving after 9, and we paid a total of $40 (plus tip) FOR A $220 unbelievable dinner!!!! (Did I mention she is also one of the SMARTEST people I know?!)

After dinner we went on a tour of Nashville, which was absolutely beautiful.

Patricia and Thomas both are some of the most giving, unselfish, smartest, most fun people I know and it was so nice to see them and catch up on life. Although the actual conference was a little bit of a bummer (maybe we chose the wrong classes?), we had an amazing trip seeing them and also catching up with some of our photographer friends - also VERY fun!!!! Overall the trip was great and we are glad we went.

A special thank you, as always, to Dan's parents for watching our girls the entire week - which we know is a major sacrifice (even though we do know you love them) and we never take for granted all you do to help us with life & our business!!!

And thank you, Patricia & Thomas for hosting us & giving us a wonderful week away! :-)

birthday sledding

2010-01-23T16:55:00.005-05:00

We waited to celebrate the girls' birthdays until we got back from a business trip, but I wanted to do something fun on Sammi's birthday before we left, so I took the girls over to mom & dad's to sled on the hill behind their house. Daddy had to work, but he celebrated with us later...

Sammi ate up every minute of it and didn't want to come inside! Poor Natalie's shoes were way too big (she outgrew the ones Sam wore at this time so she has to wear the next size up which are too big) so she couldn't walk in the snow and kept falling on her face when we'd try to put her down! Sam sled on her bottom, on her back, forward, backward, and went stomping through the snow! We were all getting cold so grandpa pushed the three of us down one last time REALLY fast and we CRASHED! Sammi and mommy giggled and giggled but poor Natalie cried and cried!

We went inside for cake and special soft pretzels my dad makes from scratch (YUM!) It was a great way to spend a birthday together! :-) The official birthday party post will be coming soon.....

new year's eve

2010-01-23T16:20:00.005-05:00

Where do you go on New Year's Eve after you have children? To other people's homes that also have children! :) We had so much fun hanging out at Brian, Shannon, and Hailey's house on New Year's eve with many friends.

It wouldn't be a gathering at Shannon's home if she didn't make 800 bazillion delicious and incredible from-scratch foods!!!

Natalie hanging out with Stephanie

Our next house will not be purchased until we find one with an EXACT replica of their basement!!! HUGE living area, full bath, eating area, separate movie room, and this playroom separated with full glass doors to block sound but not vision! AWESOME BASEMENT!!!

What else would Natalie be doing but eating!?

Sam enlisted Tim and daddy to help her with princess puzzles. I'm sure their idea of a perfect New Year's party!!! :-)

The guys playing darts

Sammi and Hailey are such buddies! They enjoyed seeing each other so much that they kept sneaking out of bed to play together... so we finally told them they could just stay up.

Sammi goofing around with mommy

...and with Shannon

They made it to midnight....unbelievable! The late night hours included watching Disney movies on the big screen in the movie room!

Thank you so much, friends, for spending New Year's with us!!!

CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA!

2010-01-23T00:43:00.001-05:00

WOW - Did we have an awesome Christmas WEEK! I am so far behind in blogging that I thought doing one long (!!) post about our Christmas would be the best way to catch up!

Our Christmas Week...

MONDAY

We started with some fun in the first real snow of the year!

Snow Angels...

My grandma sent me an adorable Christmas letter and included a recipe for sugar cookies in it. She doesn't like to travel and we don't see her often enough, so when I read the part of her note that said "Make these cookies and maybe I can come try them in person..." I held her to her word, even though I knew she was joking! Sammi and I made those cookies on Monday and on Tuesday Dan and I drove to Cincinnati to pick up Grandma and bring her back to Indy to spend Christmas week with us! It was the best gift to us to have her with us!

TUESDAY

Dan and I spent the morning at IKEA and the afternoon driving Grandma back to Indy. Although I don't have photos, we had a marvelous time catching up!!

WEDNESDAY

We brought the sugar cookies to mom & dad's to decorate! (Unfortunately all the photos from Wednesday are my grandma's so she's not in any of the photos!) She definitely helped us decorate (and eat)!

As a gift to us, that night mom and dad took Dan and me and Jordie and Ashley to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and it was awesome!!!

THURSDAY

We were off to bake, bake, bake again all day! On the trip to Indy, grandma mentioned that her all-time favorite cookies were the ones from the recipe on the OLD box of Quaker Oatmeal, which she's never been able to find since they changed it. Thanks to our trusty friend, the internet, we were able to find that recipe for her, and of course we had to make the cookies for her too!

Thursday afternoon we headed to my parents' for our official Christmas and were greeted by this miniature snowman! :)

Sam walked in to see all of the presents...

But she was sad that she had to wait to open them until after dinner!

She enjoyed all of her presents...

And Natalie mostly just stood on hers!

Grandma's gift...

The only photo I have of her this Christmas! Love you, grandma!

Natalie was wiped before our night ended!

FRIDAY

Well, "Friday" technically started on Thursday eve when we prepared for Santa to come to our house!

All that cookie baking, and we TOTALLY forgot to leave some cookies at OUR house for Santa!!!! Whoops! No worries though, Sammi instead rummaged through the pantry and picked out all of her favorite snacks for him.

Santa came, and Santa liked the snacks! He left the girls a note and these presents on our child-proofly-decorated tree! (No ornaments lower than 3 feet!) *Note- we are also waiting on furniture to arrive for our downstairs....it's not always going to be so bare! Should be here any day!

The girls got candy canes on their doors and came down to find their presents...

Sammi's favorite... candy necklaces in her stocking!

Another favorite... her own pink chap-stick, just like she asked for!

A present for Sammi and Daddy who both LOVE Spongebob...

Natalie figured out how to open presents pretty quickly...

...but I think she still enjoyed climbing on them more than anything!

Our house was a colorful mess!

SATURDAY

On Friday night we drove to Fort Wayne to spend the weekend with the Brand family! Christmas was full of gifts and spending time together. It was relaxing and wonderful!

The kids did their gifts first and then took naps while the parents exchanged!

...And, once again, Natalie showed off her climbing skills to the Brands too.

Seeing (Great) Grandma Brand is always a treat!!!

Dan playing his new PS3...this was just the start of many late nights avoiding work and cleaning! I'm not sure I approve of this gift! :) (JK - he LOVES it though!)

SUNDAY

Sunday wrapped up our Christmas extravaganza by attending the extended Brand Family Christmas Exchange!

The kids draw names ahead of time and exchange...

And the adults buy a generic gift and do the "open a new gift or steal another until it's been stolen 3 times" game...

It was especially nice to see (Great) Uncle Joe, a favorite uncle of all the Brand Family, and especially was a favorite of our girls!!!

Uncle Steve playing...

Uncle Scott is also loved by all the kids!

Grandpa Brand found one last gift!

Oh my goodness! It's "Sammikins"!

One last visit with Uncle Joe before he goes back to Georgia. He thought it would be fun to take Sammi out in the snow...in her BARE FEET!

....and, RIGHT back in!!!

We had an amazing week with lots to feel thankful for, especially all of the family to share the holidays with. We've already started our new year off busy, busy, busy....and we are looking forward to seeing where the wind (and our goals and dreams) may take us this year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

cupcake camper

2009-12-10T00:35:00.004-05:00

We started a new family tradition recently... We decided that if we have money left in our dave food budget at the end of the month, we will treat our family out to lunch after church on the last Sunday of every month! Last month we went to Qdoba! (YUM!)

Outside of the shopping area was this hilarious "Cupcake Camper" selling gourmet cupcakes! Sam loved the huge spinning cupcake and she was SO excited to get an overpriced yet delicious cupcake to take home!!! (And one for us too of course!)

Strawberry for mommy & daddy and chocolate with peanut butter and reeces cups for Sammi!

She couldn't wait to get home to eat it!

And she finished every last bite!!!

I don't know if we'll get anymore cupcake camper cupcakes in the future, but I definitely hope we keep our tradition of eating out! What fun!!!!