A Servant's Heart....

I've said over and over that one of the things I really want to instill in my children is giving to others. It's something that was instilled in me by my mother...and I fully intend to pass it down.

I love it when I see little glimpses of this in my children...little hints that I am on the right path to teaching them this valuable lesson. While we were in Disney I was fortunate enough to catch just a little glimpse and - ohhhhh - how it warmed my heart.

When we would visit with characters or other Disney staff they would often give Eva and Jaden stickers. Jaden would peel his sticker off an put it right on his shirt, but I noticed that Eva wasn't following suit. After awhile (and many stickers) Matt and I finally asked her why she wasn't wearing her stickers. She told us that she wanted to bring something home from Disney for all of her classmates...and she thought the stickers that she was being given would be something that they would all enjoy.

Seriously....melt my heart.

On top of that, every evening our hotel would put chocolates on our pillows. Eva would never eat hers...just quickly tuck it away. When I asked her why she told me the exact same thing. She said that the children in her class would probably really enjoy those chocolates.

I love this girl...loooove her. What really touched me about this whole scenario is that Eva never asked Matt and I to purchase something for her classmates - in fact she never even said anything to Matt and I at all until we asked. She simply took matters into her own hands and used the means she had to ensure her classmates would have something special too.

Soooo, after much saving and counting we came home with more than enough stickers AND chocolates for every single person in Eva's classroom. I wish you could have seen her face when she walked in and started passing them out.....I wish you also could have seen the children's faces....priceless.

"It's nice to be important...but it's more important to be nice."

--Unknown

Disney World 2010

Our family just returned from a magical vacation! I will be the first to admit I'm not much of a "character" person. I rarely dress my children in character clothing and I don't have a lot of character stuff in our home....however....there IS something magical about Disney World.

This is the second time we've gone to Disney with our children....and it's a trip I'll never forget. Disney is so REAL to Eva and Jaden right now. The characters are REAL (One of my favorite comments from Eva was, "that is the REAL Snow White!"). Everything is real. We had such an amazing time and I could seriously write a book on everything that we did and saw...but I decided to just sum it up with a few pictures (well...ok...more than a few....but at least I didn't include the nearly 300 I took)!! Ha!!

The WONDERFUL WORLD of DISNEY!

The MAGIC is real at this special place...
My little pirates! I should also note here that Eva and Jaden looooved the rides! We took them on Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain and they loved it! Obviously they were both a bit smitten with the whole pirate thing too!!

Our resort was beautiful and we would stay there again in a heartbeat! This is the view from our room...

My little girl on the beach...

The resort had three pools, but this is the one we spent the most time at. There was a huge water slide that started at the top of the waterfall and ended just under the bridge. I think Eva and Jaden went down it 100 times...then again Matt and I joined them on it quite a bit too!!

We visited with the characters as often as we could! We had dinner with them one evening, and made sure we got to spend time with them at Disney World too. The little ones were just in complete awe...

We spent one afternoon at Epcot!

Matt, Eva, and Jaden inside Bruce the Shark!

We left the resort area one evening and got dinner at P.F. Changs (one of our favorites) and then enjoyed some miniature golfing!

We attended the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party which was DEFINITELY a highlight of the trip! Eva and Jaden got to dress us in their Halloween outfits, trick-or-treat, enjoy a parade, and mingle with the characters.

To make the evening even more magical, we were able to meet up with our neighbors for the Halloween Party! They just flew in that day and the kiddies were sooooo excited to spend time together so far away from home!

Our last day there we treated ourselves to something special...a poolside cabana!!! It was such a fun little treat! We played, ate lunch in it, and Eva and Jaden were even able to lay down in it during rest time and watch a cartoon on the TV! They thought that was pretty special!

Our last evening there we had dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the evil Step-mother, and her evil step-sisters. One of the step-sisters, Drizella, took a liking to our little guy. She asked him if he would marry her...and to our surprise he said YES!!! She gave him a BIG ol' kiss...

...which left a BIG ol' kiss mark on his face!

On the way home we always enjoy the view from the plane! Eva and Jaden are such good little travelers.

As I said before....there is just too much to write here! It was fun, exciting, and MAGICAL!!

Catching Up....

It's been awhile since I've really blogged about some things going on in our lives...so here is the catch up! Ha!

1. The count down is on! Well....it's been on for a looooong time now...

We are headed to Disney World and the kiddies are BEYOND excited. We've been planning this for months..and the countdown has gone on for months. Every day Eva diligently marks another day off the calender and counts how many more days we have left! I get sooo much joy out of their excitement. THEY make it special for ME!

2. My photography schedule is wrapping up. I do not do indoor photography (with the exception of a newborn I am photographing soon...he was just born TODAY). Since the weather is turning cooler I am finishing everything up. This past year my little "hobby" really took off....reeeeaaaalllly took off....a little more than I expected. My priority is - and always will be - my family so I need to make some choices about how I am going to handle next year. I know that some changes are going to have to be made to ensure this stays a hobby, and not a job. It will probably mean severely limiting the number of clients that I take on. I have a bit of a problem saying "no" to people! Ha! That being said, I am extremely grateful and humbly honored by all of the families that trusted me with their photographs.

3.I've considered taking my blog completely private. I've considered this in the past...but I'm seriously considering it now. To be honest, sometimes I want to write things to my children that I don't want the whole world to read (remember that I print my blog off into a book each year). The only part holding me back is that my blog is a great way for my far away friends and family to keep up with what is going on in our lives. Decisions...decisions....decisions. Any of you out there keep your blog private? Any advice?

4. Eva is loooving kindergarten...and I am looooving that she is looooving it. I really enjoy her teacher and I love to see the excitement in her eyes when she climbs in the car and shares with me what happened during the course of the morning. She is learning to read - which just makes me ecstatic! She has also made her first little "best friend" at school. Eva talks about Kelsey quite often and has even asked if she could have a playdate together. She then went on to tell me that they already discussed what they will do on the playdate...."paint our toenails, play kitchen, and ride bikes." Adorable.

5. I went back to school shopping recently (I always wait until the weather turns cooler). I was amazed at how much Eva had grown! Jaden had grown, but Eva skipped up to the next jean size over the summer. She is now in a size 7 and she is only 5 years old! Not sure where she gets that height from...it certainly isn't from her daddy or me! Ha! That being said, I had a blast clothing shopping with both of them! Eva definitely has some ideas about what she wants to wear and I love seeing her little personality shine through in her clothing choices.

6. I found it CRAZY hard this year to find Eva a pair of black Mary Jane shoes that did NOT have a heel on them!!!! I'm just not willing to let my 5 year old sport heels. Thank goodness for Striterite!

7. I love my mornings with Jaden while Eva is in school. It's nice to have some quality time with him and he seems to be loving the attention. He loves to play games (CandyLand and Zingo are favorites) during that time. He also loves to help me around the house, with laundry being his favorite household activity. But my very favorite part is that he loooooooves to snuggle!!

8. Not sure if I mentioned this before but this summer we gained a new member of our family!! We now have a fish named Basketball!!! He is a Beta fish and we love him. I wasn't real keen on the whole fish thing but the kiddies won a few fish at a carnival and they quickly died. Matt and I decided to purchase one fish for them to share...and that is how Basketball wormed his way into our family.

9. We enjoyed this past weekend to the FULLEST as we had some beautiful weather in this area. We had already closed our pool, but our neighbors hadn't. All of the families in our little corner of the neighborhood gathered together and had one last hurrah at the pool to end our summer. It was so nice to soak in the warm sun and watch the kiddies run, play, splash, and swim!

10. I purchased Dr. Dobson's book Bring Up Girls. Has anyone read it? I got Bringing Up Boys from the library years ago and I didn't enjoy it...in fact I didn't even finish reading it. My VERY FAVORITE book on raising a son is called That's My Son. Absolutely AMAZING. I will read it over and over while I am raising Jaden. Anyhooo...I'm hoping Bringing Up Girls is a little different than Bringing Up Boys but so far I don't see a difference.

That's it for now....you are allllllll caught up!!! Have a great day!

Love these Kiddos....

I've been meaning to have a photography session with my own kiddos all summer....and I finally got around to it! We had such a fun afternoon....so relaxeld and enjoyable. Eva has really shown an interest in photography and we talked a lot about what kind of lighting is good and things like that. Jaden, Eva and I took silly pictures and laughed and laughed. It was one of those afternoons that I'll probably always hold in my heart...simply because it was with 2 of my very favorite people in the whole wide world.

"A good snapshot stops a moment from running away."

--Eudora Welty